Gatanui

MNOG. MNOG II took me an entire week of almost solid playing- and even then I didn't finish it, which isn't a good thing. Admittedly though, since broadband speeds are better now than when MNOG was first released, I've found that the Nui-Rama minigame is almost impossible- the Nui-Rama just move too fast for me to hit them.

The speed in which the game plays is entirely unrelated to the speed of your internet connection, it only depends on the frame rate your processor is capable of running the game in.

 

I voted MNOG because I consider it brilliant and almost a piece of art but I'm also a big fan of MNOG II. Its major shortcoming is the lack of story (and the strange ending) and that some of the villages don't feel as immersive as in MNOG but I really loved the crystal temples. I never found Kolhii that annoying - if anything, it's the wastelands.

 

VNOG is fine but never compelling enough for me to play it a second time. I may do it one day, though.

So, uh... What do Skull Spiders actually do? Apart from get beaten up by Tahu and the protectors, I mean?

 

We don't actually know why the villagers are afraid of them other than that they're, well, spiders. Do they eat villagers? Mind-control them like the Krana? Crash all their parties and dance really badly?

 

I know they want the story to be succinct, but I feel like we're missing out on some vital information here.

It's said (although somewhat hidden) on BIONICLE.com that the Skull Spiders can control the mind of the person whose face they attach on. Hopefully we'll see that in at least one episode.

I think it's safe to say the reference section part of BZPower is dead and won't return in any foreseeable future.

Huge, huge congratulations, Roa! It's so cool to have a BZPower member be the winner! I hope you'll show us plenty of pictures when you get your trophy.

 

 

He has no fire powers yet, no experience and no practical knowledge of anything. He is literally just a dude duding it up until he can figure things out on his first three hours of spontaneously existing.

made less erroneous.

 

 

No? The episodes are not being aired in real time.

 

It is being said in the beginning of the episode that the Toa and Protectors traveled for weeks.

I don't like it at all, as all previous episodes. Tahu doesn't look like a real leader, he looks like someone, who don't understand where is he and what he need to do. Also this annoying minigun shot sound, it remember me blasters from Star Wars. I don't think, that such details suit Bionicle atmosphere (even for 2015 year). Skull spiders movement look terrible, something like FPS 5. :/

I hope in future we will see something different from this one.

He doesn't look like a real leader because he isn't a leader at all yet. However, I'm sure we will see Tahu mature to fill in that role. Everyone starts out somewhere.

 

Really digging these animations.

 

Really not digging this narrator.

Agreed. The animations look gorgeous but the narrator is quite annoying and over the top sometimes.

 

 

Also, elemental characters don't really originate with Ninjago. For LEGO it probably started with BIONICLE, but there's also Avatar: The Last Airbender, Shao-Lin Showdown, a load of anime shows, not to mention mythology in general. This one just happens to take that trope and use it for a show geared toward girls. Nothing wrong with that. And since there are no Ninjas or signs of Asian influence in general I can't say I see a Ninjago connection beyond that use of elements.

Actually, I'd say elemental themes started out with Slizers for LEGO.

 

I wouldn't, just because ones like "Turbo" and "Jet" don't really represent discrete and fundamental elements the way that Bionicle's or Ninjago's elements did. Just because some characters have elemental powers or varied themes doesn't mean that the elements are a focus, or that they follow any discernable pattern or formula other than "fire and ice powers are cool".

 

Okay, let's agree they were a precursor to the elemental themes then. ^^

Also, elemental characters don't really originate with Ninjago. For LEGO it probably started with BIONICLE, but there's also Avatar: The Last Airbender, Shao-Lin Showdown, a load of anime shows, not to mention mythology in general. This one just happens to take that trope and use it for a show geared toward girls. Nothing wrong with that. And since there are no Ninjas or signs of Asian influence in general I can't say I see a Ninjago connection beyond that use of elements.

Actually, I'd say elemental themes started out with Slizers for LEGO.

 

 

Yeah but lego aren't quite the liers apple are.

So when is the last time Apple has blatantly lied about anything in a way that made them stood out from any other tech company?

 

 A documentary recently aired on BBC one showed they were lying about worker treatment and that that they were vastly overpricing the iphone.

 

Apple employs other companies to produce the devices they designed. I can't recall Apple explicitly lying about working conditions are their manufacturing partners besides restating the reassurances of those third parties regarding the treatment of their work forces. What they did do, apparently, is that they promised they'd take better care of worker conditions after the, at that point, latest reveals of bad working conditions and the documentary shows that Apple has failed to deliver on that promise. Of course I'm not trying to excuse deplorable working conditions but most major tech companies contract Foxconn or other factories for their products, so the problem isn't exclusive to Apple. Then again, not having actually watched the documentary, I can't judge the issue as well as I probably should. It is true that the iPhone has a very big profit margin but there is nothing wrong with that per se as long as people have a choice, which they have. As long as people are willing to pay the price Apple is in their right to demand high prices. If anyone doesn't agree with the prices Apple asks for their products, they are free to buy hardware from Samsung, HTC, Sony, LG, Microsoft or whoever else.

 

Before anyone makes any assumptions, I don't use any Apple products but frankly, all major tech companies have done something that sucked at one point or another. And of course, criticizing tech companies for the wrong things they do is perfectly alright. But what I see all the time is that people who use and enjoy the products from a certain company (some people may refer to them as "fanboys") tend to unilaterally hate against competing tech giants and spread rumors and fallacies about them. I'm not accusing you of doing that but frankly the attitude I've just described and that I see all the time is quite annoying. It's hard to have a neutral and fair discussion that way.

 

 

 

What's wrong with Apple? Other than they suck at word processing compared to Microsoft and can't be bothered to design a keyboard with a Ctrl key and a Backspace?

I'm not sure what you are talking about with the keyboard

 

Look at the Windows keyboard that you're probably using right now. Two keys above Enter is a Backspace key, which allows you to delete the character before the cursor (i.e. what you just typed). On a Mac keyboard, that would be called Delete. The problem is, delete is commonly used to a key that deletes characters in front of the cursor, instead of behind. So your Mac has two Delete keys, and mixing them up is fun. Not.

 

The second thing is to look at the lower left hand corner, where you'll see Ctrl, Windows Logo, and Alt. On a Mac, that's Control, Option, and Command. You need to press the Command key to do most of the Ctrl + options that a Windows PC would normally allow, and it's two keys in and with the wrong name. I can't count the number of times that I've hit the "Control" key and expected it to behave like the Ctrl key.

 

Let's say, just for the purposes of analog, Hasbro/Mattel is Windows. If Lego were Apple in this analog, they would be producing products that are more confusing, harder to operate, and inefficient. You can argue that Lego requires more effort to play with with the building and stuff, but it's still effective for what it needs to be.

 

Apple, not so much.

 

My keyboard here has both a backspace and a delete key, as most Windows keyboards actually do (and I use both of them with no problem). Contrast that with the MacBook Air from my father that I'm holding here which only has a backspace key, as most if not all MacBooks and Mac keyboards actually do. Honestly I still don't know what you're talking about.

 

There is no "wrong name", Apple just chose to move some functions of the CTRL key under Windows to the CMD key for reasons I don't know. CTRL and CMD are still two different keys and not two keys with the wrong name or something. It's just different than on Windows but there is nothing wrong with that.

 

I don't want to argue about this but "more confusing" and "harder to operate" aren't things I've ever heard being said for Apple products. If anything that's something I hear about Windows and having used both Windows and OS X, I agree Windows probably requires more learning to master it than OS X - though from my experience Windows is also more powerful. Not universally, but at many things.

Yeah but lego aren't quite the liers apple are.

So when is the last time Apple has blatantly lied about anything in a way that made them stood out from any other tech company? 

 

Apple? Seems more like an insult to Lego than a compliment.

What's wrong with Apple? Other than they suck at word processing compared to Microsoft and can't be bothered to design a keyboard with a Ctrl key and a Backspace?

I'm not sure what you are talking about with the keyboard but to answer your question, some people choose to hate Apple because "applez are copycats and ios sucks and android is soo much better and cheaper" just as some people choose to hate Microsoft because "M$ is restrictive, expensive and Windoez and IE are the worst things in the world and tiles suck" or Google because "googlez steals all your data and sells is to the highest bidder, also android phonez are laggy and suck". But honestly, I think we should leave all the irrational fanboy hate against other tech companies out of BZPower, there is enough of it on other places on the Internet. Let's just agree all tech companies have done and do bad things and good, some are better at some things than others but they all have things they are good at. Let's talk about LEGO, which is what this topic and place is about after all.

I think the presentation went well, but unfortunately I couldn't recognize any fan reactions.

I went with Nuurakh in the end. Thanks for all your feedback!

Interesting. Hopefully we can reach 60K soon, seeing as Bionicle has officially returned.

Considering the step from 40k to 50k took almost seven years I doubt it's happening anytime soon.

Sounds like a plan. I'd personally recommend the scene where the Matoran find Tahu in the forest, since it's got some decent animation and stands fairly well on its own.

 

It might be worth your while to mention or feature Homestar Runner as well, it being one of the earliest and most successful Flash-based web cartoons.

Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

 

Lewa vs Onua is easily one of my favorite animations Templar has ever done but would someone unfamiliar with BIONICLE really know what's going on?

I guess I should have mentioned this; I don't really want to spend my time decompiling and recompiling Flash files so I would like to use one of the animations in its entirety and not just a short snippet of it. Thank you for your feedback, though!

So I'm going to make a presentation about vector graphics and vector animation in university in a week. Naturally, I'd like to pay BIONICLE some tribute so I'm going to show off one of the Templar animations in the beginning (among other things). However, Templar has done so much awesome stuff that I cannot really decide! So I figured I should ask for your opinions. Keep in mind the animation should be reasonably short (so unfortunately the Bohrok or Bohrok-Kal episodes are out of the question) and it should show off what Flash animation can do. Also, since I'm going to stand around while presenting the animation should not involve much clicking or any at all if possible and of course, I need to keep in mind my listeners will in all likelihood know nothing about BIONICLE so I don't want to bore them with an animation that may be awesome to us fans but make no sense to someone who can't figure out what's going on.

 

I was considering, for example, the animation where Jaller finds Tahu in the Charred Forest or one of the Vahki animations. What do you think?

That looks horrible. Even Piraka Attack looks more fun than this.

 

It's not just this game; Lego's online Flash games have been deteriorating in quality as well. I mean, I know I'm not the target audience, but I can still tell that the online games from a decade ago were far more fun than this or almost anything I've seen on Lego's site right now.

I'm one of the last people to say everything was better in the past but I think I'm going to agree with you on that there. Of course, LEGO had bad and boring online games in the past, too, but I feel they had more interesting games in the past. Classics like the MNOGs, Junkbot, Beltz and Backlot come to mind or even later games like CrystAlien Conflict.

You now have an excuse to party for two days in a row. Happy birthday!

Did anyone realize that Ga-Koro has home and away NOT in the MU Language?

Actually, it's like that in Ko-Koro, too.

 

 

Remember when that one member did a random URL search to pull up that image of the Mask of Creation? The admins allowed it because it was within Lego's domain, therefore it wasn't put out there by some random third party.

I object. It wasn't random, I knew perfectly well what I was doing.

 

I thought so too, it definitely shares a similar rectangular shape and the same ridges as the Inika Sanok.

 

But that must be a coincidence right? It's not like I called "evil Toa Mahri" as possible future enemies months ago when I pointed out that the new Makuta could be Teridax in the body of the Golden Skinned Being, and remember the Being enslaved the Mahri with his powers of CONTROL (familiar?)...

 

I suppose we'll have to wait and see if there are going to be five villains in the Summer wave, rather than the usual six, seeing as the Toa Mahri had five members (RIP Matoro), whereas every other villain wave in the past had six main members...

I'm pretty sure any similarities in the masks and any correlations in the numbers are purely coincidential. Personally, I believe that if there is any connection to the old story at all, it's just the origin of the Toa, and even that is not going to affect the story in any way.

 

I was drawing a comparison of the URL manipulation used to get the image with the URL manipulation to get the unique search results for the summer sets. However, I understand that since the information to even get the pages is consideed leaked, it's not the same and is outside of boundaries to discuss. I believe the leaked content policy should elaborate on the difference between safe and unsafe URL dabbling on the Lego site, so other users don't get their links or posts deleted or edited when it could just be avoided all together.

 

Apologies for any confusion.

 

No need to apologize for anything. I just didn't want to seem like a freak who spent his time trying random URLs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I BET HE WON'T COME AROUND HERE TO READ OUR WISHES AND THAT MAKES ME ANGRY!

 

IS THIS TOPIC GOING TO BE ALL IN CAPS?

Did Lego use prototype models for the Protector page? The colors are all wrong on them.

I don't think so, but some colors (especially translucent ones) are slightly off in the CGI LEGO uses for the magazine sometimes. It's not the first time characters looked strange there.

Remember when that one member did a random URL search to pull up that image of the Mask of Creation? The admins allowed it because it was within Lego's domain, therefore it wasn't put out there by some random third party.

I object. It wasn't random, I knew perfectly well what I was doing.

 

I thought so too, it definitely shares a similar rectangular shape and the same ridges as the Inika Sanok.

 

But that must be a coincidence right? It's not like I called "evil Toa Mahri" as possible future enemies months ago when I pointed out that the new Makuta could be Teridax in the body of the Golden Skinned Being, and remember the Being enslaved the Mahri with his powers of CONTROL (familiar?)...

 

I suppose we'll have to wait and see if there are going to be five villains in the Summer wave, rather than the usual six, seeing as the Toa Mahri had five members (RIP Matoro), whereas every other villain wave in the past had six main members...

I'm pretty sure any similarities in the masks and any correlations in the numbers are purely coincidential. Personally, I believe that if there is any connection to the old story at all, it's just the origin of the Toa, and even that is not going to affect the story in any way.

Just concept art, I reckon.

I'm quite surprised how there is all this speculation about this being an unfinished brochure with placeholders released ahead of time or something. It's not like LEGO has never released concept art in media before.

 

I'm pretty sure this is not from the LEGO Magazine itself but from a small brochure accompanying it. You can actually read the magazine online, which contains two pages (10-11) with BIONICLE and guess what, there is concept art in there as well.

 

Personally I don't have the slightest doubt this is completely legit and not some weird leak by any means. If you are still subscribed to the LEGO Club Magazine I'm pretty sure you'll find this in your inbox soon - if you live in the US, that is.