Iruini Nuva

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.

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)?

May I just say, your Tumblr is amazing. Did not know you were still at it.

^ Pretty similar assessment on my end. Loved 01-05, thought Metru Nui was great. 06 was fascinating and still had me engaged, but it felt out of place. 07-09 I was more engaged with community projects than with deep lore. I liked the premise of an expanded universe (Barraki, etc.), but it diluted quickly and became hard to follow (Order, Hand, Brotherhood, etc.). Took a lot of wiki reading over the past few years to sort it out. 08 broke too many things. Yes shock value, but the payoff wasn't good enough. Mostly just made things (read: Makuta) awkward.

He's also got them on Soundcloud. And yes, I believe there was a nearly-successful attempt to release the soundtrack in the past that ran into a snag.

Interesting question. Haven't really thought about it before. Probably glasses. Only choose a pair every few years, but I'm pretty sure I spend more time on that than anything else. Hair/beard just need to be professional-enough for work. To your point--hair tends to be a natural point for judging character (somehow). I find myself suspicious and judgy of anyone with overly-perfect hair, ha.

Would love to see the level of abstraction return, especially on late G1 sets (Stars, etc.). The fists aren't terrible with the G2 aesthetic, which is already much less abstract, but I've never felt like fists enhanced Bionicle in a meaningful way.

Same thing happens with a house IRL.

INTPs would be running the world from the shadows. Why be on the receiving end of all the hate when you can totally snowball an ESx to just do your bidding for you.

Flipping trend?

Used to do agency work for CPG campaigns similar to this. 99% targeted promotion--these are the products they want to sell well, though their reasoning may or may not be very deep. Also some guidance from the manufacturer, i.e. Lego indicating which are core products they'd like to push as part of their strategy for the year. That said, I won't complain if Lego sells well.

Would you look at that. I totally missed it the first time around. Was thinking you'd dramatically overpaid for that mask at first, interesting catch.

All you young folks missed out on some good stuff. This was the second Bionicle TCG that Lego made (after Quest for the Masks). Card packs came with the short-lived Mighty Kids Meals at McDonald's, haha. So pretty. Really love little items like this from the early years. The art was so great. Would much rather have more of these as supporting media than an app, ha. Yeah, I think I only got 2 packs back in 2002. Found this batch on eBay, ha. And yeah, the card sleeves are great! These cards feel a bit thinner than other TCGs (granted, McD prize), so they show wear a bit faster. Definitely recommend sleeves to keep them shiny. That would be amazing. My understanding of the mechanics in this game are that it's pretty straightforward and since there are only 30 cards, deckbuilding is pretty limited. Mostly comes down to draw and your ability to play probabilities with your Toa. Would love to see a QftM tournament too. Way more cards there to play with.

-secretly wishes they'd announced the winners of the Makuta contest-

Don't have a lot of familiarity with Ninjago, but I mean, they both follow general Western storytelling patterns, yes? Good vs. evil, etc. Both use common elemental archetypes to represent different values and characters in a way that's viscerally relatable (i.e. shadow = evil). Did you have more direct examples in mind?

Click to zoom Cracked open 15 Bohrok Awake packs tonight, figured you all might enjoy a glimpse of the spoils. The cards in the sleeves are preexisting from back when I got them in 2002 (and have a bit more play wear to show for it). Between them all, looks like I have a full set except Tahu, Exo-Kopaka, and Lewa. Gonna have to find some more packs. I've also noticed some funny production bugs. One of the Pohatus and I believe Kopaka have a much darker stripe of foil ink running through the image. Looks like a printer thing.

Makes sense. There's definitely value in turning down "make ends meet" money for the opportunity to find a good gig. Money itself is pretty common, though money you'd necessarily like to earn is more difficult, ha. Recommend giving the middle of the country a try sometime. 1600 sq. ft. house, new construction, <$1k/mo easy, haha.

Loved the old Metru builds--pretty reliably my favorite there. Tohunga for Matoran. Have like...15 of them. Wasn't really sure on the other small builds. Voted Bohrok Va, but the Hydruka are probably better builds (just don't happen to own any).

Totally understand the conundrum. What's the nature of this other work? From what you've said, it seems purely worse: Lower payHarderMore hoursTrying to figure out what's making you consider it. Does it further your career in other ways? Does it pay higher in the end because there are that many more hours? And are you still living in the financial deathtrap that is NYC? Haha.

Appreciate that you wandered all the way down here from the blogosphere! Also appreciate the feedback. The trans-blue is definitely the key differentiator in the MOC. The pieces are 99% from some combination of various 2015-16 sets: MM v SG, Ekimu, Skull Warrior, Storm Beast. There's also a single eye from a Kohrak in there.

I assume we're classifying the Bahrag in with the Bohrok in all of this? At first glance I would have thought they were fairly independent beings, but a closer look leads me to believe the Kal actually had more free will. The reason I bring it up is that you call out the word set and that, at the time, the Bahrag were perceived as and presented to be plenty evil, even if the ultimate, revealed plan was for them to be more...confused and misunderstood.

Ah I see! Yeah, "dg" is the sound I'm going for.