Lyichir

I think there's a serious omission from your list:

Are you suggesting delaying the Bara Magna story for several years before bringing it back? Either way, I fail to really see how that alone would have made a difference in staving off Bionicle's gradual decline.

Also, regardless of its rushed nature, I appreciated the ending we got in 2010 for actually providing a resolution to the main conflict between the Toa and Makuta. Ending Bionicle G1 with Makuta victorious would have been terrible, since it'd basically render all of the Toa's victories up to that point meaningless at best and counterproductive at worst. The only reason that twist worked at all was the knowledge that it was just another stumbling block on the road to a final victory—it would have been an outrage if instead that was the last we got from Bionicle before a years-long hiatus.

You mean lacrosse?

More a mix of lacrosse and I guess... polo? Since it uses hammers on the other end of the sticks. Creating a balanced ruleset might take some time and experimentation—most sports don't just spring up fully formed overnight.

I prefer the newer ones with sockets. Not only are they the most compatible with CCBS, they tend to have a more realistic range of motion (the ball on the 2004 heads being directly behind the "mouth" could make it extremely hard for figures to look down). It's also much easier to incorporate a ball joint for the "neck" of a custom torso than it is to add a bulkier ball cup.

Dang. For me it was an incredibly SHORT week. Monday and Tuesday off work for the holiday and an employee appreciation day, and most of today (which like most Fridays where I work was a half day) was spent on an employee screening of the new Spider-Man. Guess I've gotta be thankful.

Medium.

#3

He's just so old and tired of Star Wars.

On the one hand, I sort of understand that. At the same time, at home I have tons of books on my bookshelf—some I liked, some I didn't, even some I got as gifts that I've never worked up the interest to actually read. One potential advantage I see in digital books is being able to cut down on some of that—reading a book digitally before committing to physical ownership, to allow shelves to function as even more of a sort of curated collection of favorites.

Speaking of "page feel", you didn't really mention this in your blog entry, but one thing I especially love is a book that feels designed. Of course, design work goes into all sorts of books, but often the formatting and style choices feel more or less interchangeable. What really appeals to me most is a book or book series where every aspect of the book, from the font choice to the binding to even the style of paper, feels like it was a deliberate decision. A Series of Unfortunate Events is a crowning example of that (to the point where I even re-bought the first three volumes in paperback when they briefly made an attempt at reformatting the paperback editions to resemble "penny dreadfuls" with new art and added serialized anthology stories). But other books engage in that as well—I'm quite impressed with what Lego and Ameet Studio have done with many of the Nexo Knights guidebooks, for instance.

A quick Google Search reveals that Barrakuta is a World of Warcraft player.  If Lego had used this name, it would have been disrespectful to the culture of native World of Warcraft players and could have resulted in a lot of negative press.  In order to be culturally sensitive to the World of Warcraft players, Lego opted to use the name Makuta Fish.

 

This is definitely what happened and not a case of "oh shoot, I forgot we already used the name 'Makuta' for that other guy.  Ehhh, maybe no one will notice and if they do we'll get Greg to contrive an explanation in about 3 years when everyone's already forgotten."

I was under the impression that they were named after the villain Makuta both in and out of canon? I'm pretty sure they were first mentioned in Bionicle Chronicles #4, which was written by Greg Farshtey in 2003 when Makuta was very much in the forefront of the story. I can't recall the exact context in which they were introduced, but I thought it was mentioned specifically that they were named after Makuta because of their ugly appearance and vicious nature.

why must we play god

See, this is the kind of connection theory I'm least fond of. I'd rather have both series stand on their own than have one metaphorically (or in this case, literally) subsumed by the other. I appreciated both universes and sets of characters too much to want either of them destroyed for the sake of an unnecessary connection between the two.

Do you mean in real life, or in Bionicle?

In real life, Unity is a 3D game engine first released in 2005.

In Bionicle, Unity is the 3D game engine used for the 2009 online game Glatorian Arena.

I really think it was an interesting move for them to use the fan-devised "human Bionicle" aesthetic for that latest movie, and to cast a Toa of Water as the main hero for the first time. On the other hand, I was a little surprised by their decision to have the Manas not only talk, but sing when Toa Moana confronted it in the Mangaia.

Personally I'm quite happy with both systems—the stamina gauge forces you to play smarter (such as looking for ledges you can rest on when climbing instead of just attempting to scale a giant peak in a single go, and hiding from enemy groups instead of merely trying to outrun them), while the weapons breaking encourages you to try out different weapons instead of relying solely on the default sword (since most of them perform quite differently in battle and the best way to get a good feel for all of them is to cycle through them regularly). It'd be a different story if, say, the stamina wheel put a hard limit on which points you could or could not reach, or weapons were rare and hard to come by. But neither is the case in this game and I feel like both systems have helped me to think harder about my actions instead of just making a beeline approach from place to place and button-mashing my way to victory in battles.

King Dorephan could swallow the Rito elder whole, therefore shark people are clearly superior.

This sort of reminds me of the size difference between the alien commanders and regular aliens in Mars Mission, only with the friendlier aesthetic of Life on Mars.

Of those Storm Beast is my favorite–he's got a great look and a unique function. Quake Beast would come second for having a neat asymmetrical look and nice color scheme even if his function is less unique or effective. Lava Beast is my least favorite of the Beasts since his color scheme is generally more mundane and his function is, for the most part, underwhelming. Vezok would probably rank lowest if only because the Piraka in general had very basic, simple builds with a very hollow unadorned aesthetic and no functions outside of the light-up eyes and Zamor launchers.

This airship is definitely great! I'm very excited to get it for myself—I'd been hoping for a larger airship ever since "Sira the Sky Captain" debuted last year, and while she doesn't get to claim this one a larger airship is still much appreciated. For that matter, the Goblin King's dragon also delivers on one of the wishes I had from last year (an evil dragon set) in a much more impressive way than I had personally envisioned. I also love features like Aira's boomerang—this year's story seems a bit heavier on weaponry than previous years, and it's neat to see the characters defending themselves with more than just their magic alone. But that's probably coming a bit close to defending the wave as a whole, isn't it?

Personally I like the "flying postbox" just for its zaniness. It's not a huge or complex part of the set but it has a decent color scheme and a quirky and cobbled-together look suitable for the goblins.

The functionality of this airship seems quite impressive and I can't wait to try it myself. All in all I much prefer the shape of this airship (with a distinct forecastle) to the earlier Ninjago version, despite the similarities in the envelope of both sets.

But in general I agree that this year's sets don't quite match up to last year's Elves sets, in much the same way that no other themes last year were as good as last year's Elves sets.

I preferred the Skull army myself—they were more diverse (admittedly, mostly due to there being more of them) and more consistent (with a more harmonious shared aesthetic and color scheme).

I can never get past the weirdo math geek, so unfortunately I don't know how it ends.

Based on the title, I think it probably ends with you.

I'm excited. I haven't been playing as regularly as I used to (in part due to being back at college, having responsibilities, the weather being colder, and not being within reasonable walking distance of many Pokéstops), but still pull it out every now and then.

Why stop there? The Super Heroes and Star Wars buildable figure heads could easily be made to resemble actual, real-life Pez dispensers.