Lyichir

Same! Another one I'm keen on is Cool Creation, since its imagery is sort of self-referential. Of course, one that is still absent and is sure to be popular if and when it is released physically is Rocketship (due to the use of the classic space logo).

Congrats! I had been anticipating this sort of statement from a whiny Bionicle fan since these packs were first announced, and it finally happened! For the record, it's worth noting that these packs are being released in Nexo Knights' second year, indicating that they're likely a response to the success of the Nexo Knights theme and app game. Perhaps we might've seen something like this for Bionicle G2 if it had been more successful in its first year. But it wasn't... and we didn't. I honestly was surprised when they didn't do collectible Nexo Power packs back in the first year, considering the theme was almost guaranteed to be a success and those little colorful shield things are just screaming "collectible" at you. I unfortunately missed out on it last year because budget, but hopefully I'll get my hands on some Nexo Knights this year around, in which case I'll be definitely buying shield packs too. I don't even have a single one yet, but I already really like the shape and feel of those pieces. Guaranteed is a strong word. The decision to release these sorts of packs now is most likely a response to the popularity of both the sets and the app game. The success of the app is a huge aspect—a digital medium like that can give Lego important usage information about not just how many people download the game, but also how many continue to play it and scan new powers as new sets come out and the app continues to be updated and expanded. But that success was not guaranteed at the outset of the theme. For instance, the Ultra Agents theme also featured a tie-in app, but the second-year sets that introduced a way to integrate the physical toys with the digital app were not even successful enough to merit a worldwide release. If the app game had been unsuccessful, then it would have been a huge mistake to have already released packs like these for which the main selling point is digital integration.

Seriously guys, there's nothing to confirm. The topic was a hoax with zero basis in fact—that's most likely the reason it was deleted, not to "cover anything up".

Yeah, I don't know how kindly Lego would take to you fundraising to create Bionicle MOCs, particularly if you continued using the names, logos, and other assorted trademarks associated with the theme. As a creative toy Lego does tend to be somewhat more lenient toward fanworks than some other brands, but they still have to protect their IP rights and avoid any chance of a fan-created model being confused for an official product. Even Lego Ideas forbids the use of the Lego logo in project images—I imagine the Bionicle logo would fall under similar scrutiny. That goes double for anything that you're earning money with, including crowdfunding or the sale of custom items. Beyond that, even with the advent of crowdfunding, I'm skeptical of any sort of fan-made continuation, simply because we went down this exact same road when G1 ended. And while a few continuations that limited their scope primarily to fiction did sustain themselves for a little while, I don't recall any of the more high-concept, full-blown continuations featuring both sets and story really getting anywhere. Given how many of those projects ended up aborted, I wouldn't be keen on putting down money for someone promising the exact same thing.

Congrats! I had been anticipating this sort of statement from a whiny Bionicle fan since these packs were first announced, and it finally happened! For the record, it's worth noting that these packs are being released in Nexo Knights' second year, indicating that they're likely a response to the success of the Nexo Knights theme and app game. Perhaps we might've seen something like this for Bionicle G2 if it had been more successful in its first year. But it wasn't... and we didn't.

I quite enjoyed it! I was happy that the longer running time for each book allowed the adaptations to be more loyal to the source material (including things that were expanded upon in supplementary works like the coded messages in Zombies in the Snow or Larry the waiter's involvement in VFD). At the same time, the changes that WERE made from the books generally helped make the plots more varied and less formulaic, along with better serving the larger mysteries. The casting was excellent, as was the realization of the books' anachronistic setting. I'm eager to see what they do with season 2 and 3!

That was definitely something that frustrated me, starting way back in 2004 with the decidedly organic Morbuzakh vines (or, if you go back even further, to the virus enemies from the Roboriders theme). One of the big appeals of any sort of action figure line is role play, and it's much harder to do that when you're given no way to effectively represent the villains your characters are meant to fight.

To be honest I had fewer memorable BZP-related experiences in 2016 than I did in the whirlwind of 2015. I suppose my best BZP experience was getting to meet up with other BZPers at BrickFair like usual.

Oh, and to answer the original question, no. Pohatu will always be the Toa of Stone. We love him too much to allow that. Unless the Environments route is taken, then everyone changes, and I see no harm in that. Firstly, "environments" restrict the addition of more characters if Lego would decide to go that route at any point. There's only 6, maybe seven environments to go with. Second, just changing the elemental roster solves this problem with far less complication; if their powers are designed to all be different, there's nothing to question. Third, making Pohatu a Toa of Iron wouldn't do anything harmful to him, no more than making Lewa a Toa of "Jungle" harms him. Thought: There could be a lot of environments. Tunnels (the Maze, the Underworld), Sky, Jungle, Volcano, Desert, Undersea (the Depths), Glacier, City, Storm. These could tie to Earth, Air, the Green, Fire, Stone, Water, Ice, Iron, and Lightning, respectively. The idea that each Toa has the power of a certain environment is only as limited as one's imagination when coming up with said environments. Going this way of thinking, I would like to think Light and Shadow would be two different sides of a Star environment - the radiant Light of a supernova and the Shadows of a black hole. Maybe... but metal cities or an environment surrounded by constant storms (let alone space-based environments) would generally feel less grounded in the context of a primitive island culture than biomes like volcanoes, deserts, caves, or snow-covered mountains. So while those sorts of environments work in a more overt sci-fi theme like Throwbots/Slizers, they'd be harder to reconcile with the general tone that both Bionicle G1 and G2 have started with.

From an AFOL perspective the greatest potential I see in this product is to allow for programmable motorized functions in regular System-based displays. Mindstorms has been less than ideal for that as of late, not just because of how expensive the EV3 runs for but also because the Technic-based nature of the NXT and EV3 systems and the bulkiness of even their smallest motors makes integrating them into a System-based build a challenge (not impossible, but often far more trouble than it's worth). And while regular Power Functions provides a cheaper and more compact option that can be integrated more easily into System builds, it also isn't programmable (at least not without third-party hardware and software like the S-Brick), meaning that making functions that only activate or deactivate periodically requires complex Technic mechanisms. I still don't think Boost is necessarily the perfect solution to this issue, considering how massive the core brick alone is. But it's a good step in the right direction, at the very least.

All very good and valid points. The only thing I have to say is that I agree the box office is becoming more and more competitive, but as a reaction to that big block buster movies that studios know will do well are being moved to less crowded dates, such as Star Wars in December rather than taking part in the Summer Movie Season (which in itself keeps getting expanded) and BvS in March. Still, I agree with your point that competition is getting crazier, with studios getting bigger and producing more movies, and eventually when it gets too big to just create new movie seasons I'll be interested to see what happens. I don't think I'm short sighted for thinking Bionicle is the next best contender for a movie. I don't mean that it's the only contender, but I think it really is the strongest one. You say it isn't, but you haven't really named any other LEGO properties that would make a better choice. I'm not really into Friends, at all, but as an outsider I look at the theme and don't think it suits a movie adaptation for more than the stigma against girl-focused properties. I don't really see the appeal of girl focused properties in general, though I understand in practice they do attract large audiences. But LEGO Friends just isn't interesting as a whole. Looking at it, its aesthetic doesn't have strong contrasts. It has an excellent pallet, but aesthetically it's all very light. There's nothing about the theme as a whole that feels unique and nothing to its premise other than a bunch of young girls going out and doing stuff. Sure, there's stuff you can learn and discover on the way, but nothing really people don't understand for the most part. Friendship is good, but what is it about friendship that makes it worthwhile? Is friendship just another form of unity, or does the personal aspect to it make it more valuable to us as individuals? What about the more twisted side about friendships and relationships with others? Sometimes unity isn't good as associating ourselves with twisted groups and damage us as individuals and cause us to lose our way. I don't think the characters stretch into that realm either, and I can't imagine you doing anything really compromising to hammer in a lesson. Yes, Friends is well established, but it's not exactly worthwhile- to me at least. And sure, LEGO has other themes like Nexo Knights I guess, but who really wants that? Themes like that haven't been around long enough or gained the traction of something like Ninjago to really be relevant. And Bionicle has a HUGE library of characters, settings, stories, themes, aesthetics that you can cherry pick from. I'd LOVE a LEGO Space movie, because all the different factions and such could make for a really great universe/part of the LEGO universe to explore, but there's little to connect them together, few actual characters or settings. And sure, you can make a bunch up, that worked well with The LEGO Movie, but Bionicle just already has more there to work with, and already has an established feel and idea. Bionicle expresses ideas about Gods, heroism, power, unity, etc. and has a really unique way about it all that sticks out from most other brands. For most other brands with thin or no stories to come with them, you'd have to come up with new ideas entirely to tack onto them, but it could very easily end up feeling inappropriate, like the idea wasn't born with the property. It worked with The LEGO Movie because LEGO inherently has several aspects about creativity and expression that most other toys just don't have. Personally I see a lot of potential for a "Lego Friends movie" if only because the high-school coming of age comedy is a genre about as done-to-death as the "hero's journey" that formed the basis of The Lego Movie, and I think it'd offer a similar amount of promise for a well-written deconstruction/reconstruction of the trope. In your comment you yourself brought up a number of questions raised by that sort of cliché storyline, and in the hands of a competent writer each one of those could potentially be explored in a way that doesn't gloss over those issues but still manages to reaffirm for kids that, yes, having and maintaining friendships is a great thing that will generally make your life much better. Obviously the current media hasn't really examined those sorts of themes fully, but The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie seem to be starting a trend of taking time-worn tropes/characters and turning them into something fresh and new, and I'd love to continue seeing other themes getting that treatment. Bionicle also has a wealth of characters, settings, and storylines to draw from, definitely more than pretty much any other theme, as you say. But I just don't see a movie happening unless the theme and constraction as an overall category of Lego's portfolio experience a resurgence, and sadly we just aren't there yet. Warner Bros. would probably love to have their way with the theme, but then, they were the ones who made a big fuss about potentially picking up Hero Factory as a movie just because they thought it could be their answer to the wildly successful Transformers film franchise. But that was on the wane like Bionicle is now. Film studios can flock to Lego as much as they want, but unless Lego thinks both the story and the sales potential for sets have legs, they're not likely to take any of them up on that offer. The way I see it, outside of cameos I don't see Bionicle being brought back at least until another theme has replaced it for a few years so that the memory of G2 is less fresh and Lego is free to rework the concept from scratch. And I certainly don't see the theme relaunching with a new movie right out of the gate. Even if they could potentially tie it to a strong cinematic universe, I think relaunching a theme that has failed multiple times with such a large up-front investment might be too big of a gamble for Lego.

I haven't ever watched any of these streams but I'm sure I will at some point. I'm particularly looking forward to potentially watching you play through Lego City: Undercover following its multi-platform rerelease later this year, since it's my favorite of the Lego videogames by far.

I am LOVING the new art style for the Netflix series. I had been kind of worried that the hand-drawn art style of the episodes we'd had so far might be downgraded to some stiff, rigid CGI or something along those lines. But instead they've changed the depiction of the characters to be more in line with the mini-doll versions of them in the sets (helping to stave off complaints that the only "Lego" in the series is in the title) while somehow making the hand-drawn animation of the characters seem even MORE fluid and dynamic than before! The video doesn't show a lot but it does show what seem to be subjects from the summer sets. Obviously, the Goblin King's castle is front and center (which will probably be the largest set of the year if tradition is any indication). But the video also shows a new elf character (probably a water elf, based on her hair and outfit) along with a new dark blue dragon, both of whom are probably likely to show in the summer. I wonder if their inclusion in this teaser indicates that we'll be getting the full main story in the first half of the year (unlike Bionicle: The Journey to One, which started with two episodes focused exclusively on the winter wave and saved the two episodes based on the summer wave for later in the year).

Agreed, especially about LEGO not being willing to sell it. I'm *highly* doubtful that they would. LEGO doesn't strike me as a company that would ever sell their IPs (especially seeing how few they have). I could see them possibly being willing to sell some of their IPs if they were ever in a precarious financial situation and really needed the money. But at this point in time they're farther from that position than they've ever been. I also question how valuable Bionicle as a franchise would be to any company except a toy company. Bionicle had a decent story for a toyline, but the greatest profits and popularity of that brand have always come from the toys themselves. A media company might certainly be willing to buy or license the film rights to Bionicle from Lego, but a company like Disney that is not directly involved in the production and sale of toys would have little use for the franchise as a whole.

A couple points: I don't see a cinematic Bionicle movie happening (whether in the Lego Cinematic Universe or otherwise) until the brand has once again proven its staying power, and after the short-lived G2 it still has a lot to prove in that respect. I doubt Lego would be willing or able to relaunch the brand with a movie right off the bat.Lego has multiple other story themes that could be adapted into movies, including ones that are more currently relevant than Bionicle. Most significantly, Lego Friends remains one of Lego's top themes and has a well-established cast of characters. Do I see a Lego Friends movie as likely? Not really, considering the stigma against girl-focused properties in Hollywood. But to act like Bionicle is the single next-most-popular story theme after Ninjago is short-sighted.Bionicle memes are still far from mainstream, and if they didn't indicate a big enough audience to sustain G2 I certainly doubt they prove anything about a prospective audience for a Bionicle movie, let alone sets that tie in with such a movie. Keep in mind that even with Lego being more involved with media these days, they are still a toy company at their core and unless they see potential for a successful line of toys to tie in with a Bionicle movie, such a movie will not happen, regardless of how much potential a film studio sees in the franchise.

Well, complaining about this is unlikely to have a huge impact on the way they consider fan input for future themes, since this sort of post-mortem disappointment doesn't have any direct effect on actual sales. However, keep in mind that this sort of mass release of concept art is highly unprecedented—and if the main sentiment that Lego sees from the release of this is pent-up anger and frustration, it could well influence whether they consider releasing artbooks or other collections of concept art in the future. After all, this was presumably intended to help ease the pain of the theme's cancellation—if it does the exact opposite, then the obvious takeaway is that Lego should not have allowed this sort of thing to be released in the first place, and should avoid repeating that mistake in the future.

That's the thing, though—I'm a sucker for unique head prints. Apart from Batman, Robin, the Joker, and Batgirl, very few figs are repeated across multiple sets, and of those, many sets do still include unique variants. Beyond that, you just know that aftermarket sellers are going to charge through the nose for many of these figs. So forgoing a set like the one with Killer Croc might not end up saving you much money if you do want to have all the unique figs that set has to offer. We'll see. A big factor in how deep I get into this theme will be how much the movie resonates with me. And I'll probably put off buying any of these sets until we get more pictures and info about the summer sets at Toy Fair, so that I can avoid as much redundancy as possible. But if I do get the urge to collect absolutely everyone, it certainly will cost me a pretty penny.

The new weapons in the Ninjago sets are definitely some shade of copper. Not necessarily one of the same shades they used back in the day, but a metallic copper color nonetheless. There have been other parts with copper printing in the past few years, of course—in addition to the aforementioned Skull Grinder chest plate, both Tidus Stormsurfer and the appropriately named Sira Copperbranch from the Lego Elves theme featured copper details on their outfits, and if you looked you could probably find several other examples as well. Still, this is the first we've seen a molded plastic color like this in many years. While it's nice to be getting weapons in both minifig- and constraction-scale from these Ninjago sets, I do think it's a bit of a bummer that Lego didn't use the opportunity presented by this newly introduced color to finally add a giant copper penny to this year's Batcave.

It's certainly tempting, that's for sure. I'm still on the fence about just how much I'll let myself get invested in the Lego Batman Movie, since while I'd certainly love as complete a collection as possible, the huge number of sets and figures would make doing so exceptionally expensive.

See, the art of Okoto had me going in a different direction... namely, reigniting my desire for G2-based scenery (both smaller scenes scaled to the figures and larger scenes represented as minifig-scale "playsets"). I had a lot of similar feelings about G1—while constraction as a medium certainly allows for creative and diverse figures, the drawback is that so much of this amazing worldbuilding goes unrepresented by the toys.

Based on the latest teaser I expect it to be either a new iteration of Mindstorms or something related to the Power Functions 2.0 system introduced in the educational WeDo 2.0 sets (possibly both, if the next Mindstorms version transitions to Power Functions 2.0 rather than the Mindstorms-only system of motors and sensors used in the NXT and EV3). If it is a new version of Mindstorms, I'd be curious what advantages it will offer... EV3 is already fairly advanced technologically, but there could be advantages like something more compact that could be more easily integrated into smaller or more crowded builds. Whatever it is, I suppose we don't have long to wait!

Ditto. At least, I don't remember having had to buy it online...

I have the former but not the latter. Fun fact: fancy hardcover reference guides like Makuta's Guide to the Universe, while published by Scholastic in the U.S., are actually designed by a Polish studio called AMEET. They are the same company that is responsible for other fancy hardcover books like the Legends of Chima "Book of Chi", as well as the Nexo Knights books "The Book of Monsters" and "The Knights Code". They also are responsible for the cheaper paperback activity books that typically come packaged with a figure, small build, or other collectible, like the "Quest for the Masks of Power" book that included Ekimu's gold and blue Protector mask.

First pic of the artbook! Hope I can somehow get my hands on a copy... https://www.facebook.com/BZPBook/photos/pb.1386577044896267.-2207520000.1482610793./1721548871399081/?type=3&theater

Counterpoint: the Wet Bandits are fictional. If anything that makes it a standoff.