Nukatha

Basically everything I love about Bionicle came from the fact that Greg was highly accessible on this site for the majority of its run.

In a sense, it would be like if Tolkien were alive today and available to answer all of the questions that fans had about the lore. Oh, you're asking about the Blue Wizards? Here's a short paragraph about what happened to them.

Greg was given an incredible amount of creative freedom, and kept the world incredibly coherent at all times, even working in several weird decisions by the set designers/execs as smoothly as possible.

Well, that and the first year, 2001, they managed to put together what was likely the most well-thought out and beautiful cross-platform multimedia campaign possible for the time. The Game Boy Advance game ends at the exact place that MNOLG begins. the comics drew you into the story, they had the McToran very close to launch, high quality CG animations, the pack-in mini-CDs, a full range of sets at varying pricepoints (with the absolute GENIUS decision to make the main heroes at the low end, with the Rahi being the more expensive, so that money wasn't the limiting factor to having the Toa). Hot dang that product development and marketing department deserves an astonishing amount of credit for a job well done.

The took everything that failed about Slizer/Throwbots and RoboRiders and threw it out, replacing it with near perfection.

Faber and Farshtey having such a limit amount of impact were both issues to me. 

I greatly enjoyed G2's takes on the Mata, and the return of gear functions, but 20-something me couldn't stay interested without such a solid story/universe as G1.

Cautious optimism as always.

This is probably the biggest BIONICLE-related developement of the past year.

 

Without Greg continuing the original story, I couldn't stay interested. I bought Onua, but that was it.

I've seen a lot of comments expressing wishes that it were a continuation of the old story, but even Greg himself said years ago that if he were in charge of Bionicle's return he wouldn't do it as a continuation due to what a burden ten years of backstory would be for new fans. It's kind of weird to me that so many people who think the Bionicle story was/would be strongest under his direction aren't prepared to take him at his word on that matter.

 

It kind of reminds me of how Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd both loved the idea of an all-female Ghostbusters movie and thought the women who were cast were extremely funny and talented, and yet hundreds of Internet dudebros still somehow managed to ramble on and on about how the new Ghostbusters would be lame, unfunny, and disrespectful to the comic genius of the original cast. "Yeah, such-and-such was a brilliant and irreplaceable part of this beloved franchise, but what do they know about what's best for it?"

 

I don't mean this to equate your ambivalence about Bionicle G2 to the nerd rage of a bunch of cynical whiners. But it's just interesting how often fans of a franchise think extremely highly of its creators, and ignore or dismiss when those creators would rather see a new and different take on it than a continuation of their own previous work.

 

After a little bit of soul-searching, let me revise that:

I miss Greg.

I miss having a story told to the fans directly by the storyteller. An author who on a daily basis answered EVERY piece of fanmail and story questions people sent to him.

I miss looking forward to online serials every month.

Greg could have very competently worked on the G2 story. It could have been a completely separate universe, built from scratch, but with Greg writing it it, the characters would have retained their personalities that I knew for over a decade.

Whether or not LEGO will ever admit it, Greg was THE reason for the staying power of G1.

The original team behind MNOLG, the canister CDs, and 3D animation were the hook, but the stories and characters are what we stayed for.

Without Greg continuing the original story, I couldn't stay interested. I bought Onua, but that was it.

$40 for ~200 parts remains a very poor cost/part ratio for any LEGO set.

Not to be too much of a downer, but as this new wave of Bionicle keeps coming, I'm realizing that I'm not so much a Bionicle fan as a Farshtey fan. I'm not sure if I can keep up with a new story without Greg.

As I posted earlier, the MoUP could be the top half of the *original* Kanohi Vahi.

 

The original Vahi seems pretty weak compared to the other Legendary masks (it lets you slow time a bit, and it *rusts*?).

On the other hand, the MoUP seems unstable and overly powerful (black flames, big crater etc.).

 

Perhaps this makes sense if the MoUP is the top half of the Vahi but contains almost all of the Vahi's true power.

 

Then the reason for the "no masks of more than one element rule" would be because Ekimu knew somehow that it would create the part of the Vahi that the Great Disks had not had the power to create, so would be horribly dangerous.

To be fair, it was the only one crafted by an MU inhabitant, and dones so under very stressful conditions. I'd say Vakama did as well as he could have.

My poor wallet!

Heroscape, Stargate and Bionicle all ended at about the same time.

I wonder if that's why Greg recently answered some questions on the lego forums.

Wait so, there's a Bionicle reference? What is it so I know what to look for?