Iruini Nuva

Part of it is age/life stage. Enough folks who grew up with Bionicle and maintained some interest in the hobby are now far enough along in their careers and lives to bring more $$ to bear against what's now a smaller pie. Obviously disposable incomes vary widely, but it's enough to move the market, which I think is smaller than it feels. Doesn't take all that many folks who are willing to pay $20 or $50 to resettle the market at the higher price.

Some of it is just...whatever zeitgeist is in the air like @freshbonkle mentioned. Seems to be hitting everything people collect.

That said, at least with some things, there's a knowledge gap where collectors (who recall/know what something is worth) may pay more than they prefer, but still avoid the heavy prices newbies face.

The typewriter market is like that now. If you don't know better you buy your first one for $400 on Etsy. If you do know what you're doing you're still able to find a $40 machine that old-hands will say should never be more than $20 because they made 30 million of it in 1955, but maybe you can tolerate that level of erosion.

Bionicle is tougher because it doesn't show up in downsizing/estate sales yet but it's getting rare in garage sales (i.e. anywhere not impacted by unrealistic internet prices). The good deals will return when our kids start auctioning off ours.

Edit: Or, for a more positive spin, if in fact there are folks buying up all the supply, there often comes a tipping point where a bubble pops and suddenly they're a bagholder with no buyers. Market cools, prices drop 90%; happens all the time.

Completed God of War I/II on PS2 earlier this year. Just recently picked up an Analogue Pocket and beat Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA). Very close to being able to beat Super Mario Land (GB) as well. Spoke a little too soon and was able to complete it.

Interestingly enough, I am reasonably confident that my first set was also Onewa. I believe that I received Onewa from a friend in the summer of '01 and Lewa was the first from family not long after.

My memory is pretty hazy on specific years. '02 was Pahrak for sure, however.

'04 was likely Krekka, which I know was a Legoland CA purchase, but I seem to recall getting in February. Not sure if that's actually possible per the link below, but I definitely remember it was not something I'd seen yet in the comics, catalogs, etc.

Link: https://www.bzpower.info/story.php?ID=1686

Maybe this article is assuming a wider US release--think I recall that in '05 the canister releases were swapped in the US/EU, for instance. Tufi did post it Feb 1 though...

Ruffle does seem like a promising solution for "modern" machines.

Tangentially, to those interested in the broader topic:

Don't forget that there's a whole stack of layers going on here. This applies to anything software. In the case of Flash, I still have old physical discs with the necessary software to create and run Flash files, but although they "work" on modern systems, they're increasingly finicky (don't understand high-dpi screens, etc.). In a few years they likely won't work on a new PC.

With modern web/subscription services, you don't even have that fallback.

Keep your old machines around! Many things are the product of weird, duct-taped hardware + software that are unique to their moment in time.

On 12/2/2020 at 10:17 PM, Bambi said:

I do miss the days where every Lego game was a different experience, instead of a different theme and the same gameplay over and over. But they're also not aimed at me, so I guess it's okay lol.

Same boat here. I prefer the old "Lego Media" era (Island/Racers/Alpha Team/Rock Raiders), but that puts me firmly in curmudgeon territory.

Definitely curious about this Darwin thing (I couldn't place those screenshots either). Excited to get one more glimpse of all of those early creative ventures.

1 hour ago, Lenny7092 said:

It’s would have been nice if there is a mini-game about that in a console or handheld game, or as an online game similar to the Mata Nui Online Games.

Ask and ye shall receive: https://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/8946-mnolg-the-bohrok-swarms/

Doesn't look like it was ever finished, but the link is up and I just got it to run successfully.

For the "complete package" Bionicle experience, Action/Adventure/RPG hybrids seem like a potential sweet spot (i.e. Quest for Mata Nui).

I do think there's also a vital role for other genres as micro-experiences that deep-dive into specific bits of the world. Old-school Koli matches, for instance. I think platformers fall into this "focused experience" niche too. Leverage/Build the world by adding detail in a focused area, rather than spanning the whole gamut. Also where fan games like The Insurgent intentionally tried to play.

I also had some napkin ideas for an RTS back in the day. Not sure that it would work overly well without feeling too contrived, but I always hoped there was something there with the Bohrok, etc.

TCGs were deeply under explored too, but the genre didn't really survive. :/

Didn't realize there was a brick perk back the day. Hm.

I loved working my way through the rank images (old system seems to have counted differently). Proto boost was nice. I also got it pre-blogs, and didn't really know what to do with them when they came out.

Let it lapse at some point. Re-subbed to support the place. :)

I recall playing this back when it was live. Was into Mindstorms a lot at the time (and played plenty of Lego.com games too). Another similar one was Robohunter. Believe that while the cutscenes were flash, the game itself was 3D-ish (you drove a little Mindstorms rover around streets on spy missions). Took a solid hour to load the game on a 28K connection, though MNOG had a decent wait between every scene too, ha!

Not entirely sure how I missed this!

@Emzee I have a few assorted BZP games from ~2009 in various backups. Interestingly, KraataAttackV1 vs your V2 above.

I also still have everything from Biotech. The Insurgent (still online), Havoc, Bionicle: Duel Combat, etc. Have all the concepts and unreleased stuff too if I can get it into a presentable form.

1 hour ago, Peri said:

The download versions of all the flash games will still work regardless of this! the future of playing the games in-browser is less certain, but I know JrMasterModelBuilder has a couple potential options in mind.

Is there a downloadable version that supports local saves? Heck, even if it's just spinning up a local DB that mimics the main BMP infrastructure, just looking for something self-hostable.

This is utterly fascinating. I always had a soft spot for this game. Managed to beat it twice on borrowed GBAs (never actually owned one). Really appreciate the deep look into its inner workings--will be reading through every one of these.

Set waves, hm.

• Guardian Toa. Spear & shield made them feel mythic.
• Bohrok. I tried for [what felt like] months to figure out that picture on the back of comic #3. Everything about those sets was so carefully crafted (one of the best canisters, etc.).
• Honorable mention for the Toa Metru. Had some buddies who were very excited about how posable the new frame was.

To a degree I view the 2010s as a decline. Not necessarily in a business performance sense, but in a creative one. The 2000s was a bit of a perfect storm. Creative pressure to survive. Media that was mature enough to reinforce story and physical toys, but not ubiquitous enough to eclipse them (i.e. smartphones). I'll agree with @Darth Jaller above that Lego has/had a strength in giving you a framework, but not the fine detail, though I think themes like Rock Raiders and Alpha Team benefited from the extra lore their games provided.

For lack of a better term, their business matured (not a unique-to-Lego problem). They figured out a formula and expanded on it until the magic left. The 2010s were the era of licensing, which is great for the bottom line for a time, but eventually that spins down too.

You see the same thing in the tech industry. The 2000s were years of discovery after the 90s ironed out the technology. Transmedia storytelling (i.e. MNOLG), smartphones, social media. All new and engaging. The 2010s saw them all mature into...what we have now.

Since it's all in Flash, running it on a Mac/PC shouldn't make any difference. You're probably running it in...Quicktime, right?

I'm not too familiar with the patched version that's available these days, so I can't speak to whether any glitches still exist. Are you using the version on BioMedia?

Minor tangent. You have no idea how happy your choice of domain name makes me. Nice call.

Carry on.

Any chance of pinging the BS01 folks to remove the login requirement? Happy to participate, but not crazy about having to dredge up a Google account these days.

Lunchtime BZP

Easily one of the better sets of G2.

Along the lines of the CD question--anybody found a FLAC or other lossless version available for purchase yet?

Side note that customer service seems pretty good about applying this deal retroactively if you ask them. Made a big order the morning before the deal started and they were kind enough to give me double points when I sent them a note.

Told them I really liked the canister designs from 01-02, haha. Don't collapse well for storage, but they interlock and had significance beyond holding pieces.

No idea how to jive that with their push for sustainability, lol.

Side note, where is said Greg QA topic? Didn't realize we were still getting occasional bits of canon, now I'm curious.

Pretty sure those old sprite kits were lost in the Dataclysm. Anyway, that sounds like a great idea! ^^

Some are still running around on Brickshelf (here's a big Rayg one, and an incomplete Razor).

I'll poke at some of my old Biotech backups, might have sheets circa 07-09 in there.

I'm theorycrafting/over-reading a bit, but at the time, it was one of our earlier hints that he might have broader motive. Prior, he was simply evil, with jealously as his primary motivation. This line reads almost as self-justification. "It's easier this way." Merciful.

Pure evil is easier to identify than evil that argues it's actually doing a good thing. Similar arguments appear as justification for leading the Matoran elsewhere in Bionicle, iirc.

Could also be that Mata Nui would be pretty upset at the goings-on of the last thousand years. Better that he just stays asleep.

The "duty to the mask of shadows" line was always awkward. I guess it's another justification (mask made me do it)?