Lyichir

Like other people, I can't think of any retcons in Bionicle that made much of an improvement to the overall story.

Maybe it's just me, but I would buy the heck out of the original sets if they pulled a Nintendo and just re-released the same old things 15 years later.

Heck, last month I went on a huge nostalgia kick and bought a couple of Toa and Toa Nuva, all of the Turaga, 5 of the Bohrok, and a couple Rahkshi on eBay simply from wanting new/lightly used versions of my old childhood sets.

 

the joy of the old sets, particularly those made in 2001, 2002, and 2003 is that while primitive and basic in appearance, they were *VERSATILE* as all get-out. Sure the Turaga might look flat and skinny and have very little mobility, but I can show you 1001 uses for those L-shaped pieces that they use for their bodies, and most of their other parts were also very useful and versatile. same goes with the bulk of other 2001/2002 sets (and most of 2003). The later sets, while not bad by any means, feel more like action figures rather than building toys, and part of the joy of LEGO, at least to me, was being able to tear stuff apart and build new stuff from it. if I wanted my old stuff back I could just read the old instructions. a lot of the newer pieces just lack the versatility that the old ones had.

 

but that's just my opinion. maybe I'm alone in this, but I would absolutely buy the early sets if they were re-released exactly how they were 15-16 years ago.

The fact that you were able to buy the originals on eBay highlights a significant reason why straight rereleases would be a bad idea. With very few exceptions, used Bionicle sets are cheap and plentiful on the aftermarket. Lego would essentially be competing with other sellers selling the exact same products (most likely more authentic versions of the same products, since even some of the classic colors have been completely retired). Add in the cost of bringing back retired parts, the logistics of distributing sets globally, and it would be incredibly hard to turn a profit on those. Would a small percentage of people be interested? Sure. But unless the rereleases would sell BETTER than newly developed sets and themes, it'd be hard to justify devoting resources to the former instead of to the latter.

The REAL question is: "Is Waffle an Element"?

And the answer is yes.

"Is Mayonaisse an element?"

They were interesting, albeit flawed. The way they integrated System and Technic building was unique. On top of that, they were really the only manifestation of Bionicle's interesting and varied settings in set form.

I wish we ended up getting playsets in G2. The older figures were flawed, but I would have loved to see figures following the template of the much better "Invasion From Below" mini-heroes. And Okoto featured some interesting location designs that would have been wonderful to see in sets.

What about a collection of minifigures depicting characters from the show MASH, or a minifigure of the CWs Flash. Maybe a full line of MASH sets might happen, just picture the 4077 set,or the different Clinger minifigure variants.

The former seems like it'd run up against Lego's general avoidance of sets focused on modern military conflicts. The Korean War is still in recent memory, and while MASH mostly offers a lighthearted take on the day-to-day life of troops and only occasionally delves into the gravity of the actual conflict, it's still centered entirely on a U.S. military operation.

The Flash would make a lot more sense, as it fits into Lego's existing DC Super Heroes license and would have broad appeal for fans of that theme.

 

I do kind of wish there was commenting on these streams the way there is for the live builds. That'd allow us to potentially give you tips when you get stuck, and to discuss what's happening with our fellow watchers.

Twitch definitely has a chat feature, and people have used it before. Do you maybe have it disabled in your settings?

 

Oh dear, I seem to have never actually verified my email account. I'm hoping that'll fix it—I didn't see a specific setting to enable or disable chat.

I managed to tune in for the final episode! Love that ending, particularly the music. Actually, between this, the Lego Batman Movie, and the Lego Ninjago Movie, I'm starting to notice a trend of Lego media using plain English for its ominous background chanting.

I do kind of wish there was commenting on these streams the way there is for the live builds. That'd allow us to potentially give you tips when you get stuck, and to discuss what's happening with our fellow watchers.

What about small CCBS Star Wars sets - either chibi versions of characters, or sets depicting smaller characters like Wookies, Jawas, droids etc?

Droids I think would be the most feasible option—it'd probably be hard to swing anything that needed a unique mold (since gifts with purchase just don't have the budget for that), but a smaller droid like a Pit Droid could probably be done without any new parts.

So far all I've seen is a small display of the 2001 sets that was formerly housed in the non-public Lego Idea House. That said, Faber's description of what Lego expressed interest in makes me think one of the rotating exhibitions at the Lego House might look at Bionicle in greater depth in the future.

Hey, guys. Haven't posted here in a while, but I wanted to share my brief thoughts. When I saw the Lego Ninjago trailer during the commercials for The Lego Batman Movie, I immediately knew it was a bad call. It was far too soon. People liked the first Lego movie because it was unique and had crossover characters, and people liked Lego Batman because of the fact that it's basically a Batman film. There are other reasons, of course, but these seem to be the main reasons. Making a Ninjago movie was a bad call because it took away the novelty of the first two movies. The theme of Lego characters goofing around in that neat animation began to feel overused.

 

Then there's the fact that the Ninjago movie was something of a reboot. I don't have to see the movie to know that it doesn't have the same depth, story, and character development that the original series had. Lloyd and Garmadon's comedic relationship just from the first trailer is a perfect example of this. It's like they're completely different characters now. From what I remember from the show, their relationship was a much bigger deal for the overall tone of the story. I'm not saying that the original series is perfect by any means, but it seems to handle things better than this movie. I get that these particular Lego movies are meant to be funny, but I don't think this goofy, over the top style really fits the series.

It's pretty clear that you haven't seen the movie, to be honest. The movie may not have been perfect, but your assessment of the areas where you think it fell short is pretty off-base.

The show did do a better job of developing the cast as an ensemble (partly by virtue of having more running time to work with), but Lloyd's relationship with his father is one aspect it handled significantly worse. In the show, Lloyd is woefully underdeveloped as a character compared to his fellow ninja, and his conflict with Garmadon in season two of the TV series was incredibly formulaic. Lloyd didn't want to fight Garmadon but had to do so 'cuz destiny said so, Garmadon didn't want to be evil but literally had it in his blood and was tempted by the generic doomsday villain the Overlord. When they finally did fight, Garmadon was not even in control of his own body—the father-son showdown we'd been promised got subverted by Garmadon literally being possessed by the Overlord, sidestepping any real emotional resolution.

The movie, by contrast, may not develop the other ninja much as characters, but Lloyd's relationship with Garmadon is much, much better handled. Instead of being whiny and getting strung along by destiny, Lloyd has complex emotions toward his absent father that manifest as anger and recklessness in battle. Garmadon is still evil, but harbors regret for his son being taken from him and had a real choice between being evil and being a father and chose the former. Yes, there's humor, but there's also much more authentic emotion as Lloyd and Garmadon get to know one another and try to resolve their differences for the sake of their family and their own emotional stability. All in all this emotional arc makes up one of the strongest aspects of the movie.

If anything, the movie's ambitious focus on that father-son relationship holds other parts of the movie back. While the emotional arc is solid, the plot that accompanies it is much more bare, even going so far as to eschew an action-packed finale in favor of a mostly emotional one. The only character development the other ninja get focuses on their collective relationship with Lloyd, and not any individual struggles or achievements. These are definitely areas the movie could have handled better, and as a fan it's unfortunate that it may not get another chance.

Pewku, because cute aminals.

Love is not canon.

Neither are you.

With Lego Dimensions, I kind of hope some of the creative energy shown in that theme gets channeled into polybag-sized versions of existing sets. The Ninjago Movie polybags are a great example of this sort of thing.

Anything with exclusive elements that can be used in MOCs is always a plus. When Bionicle was running, I would have recommended masks, but with that option off the table I'll go ahead and voice my love of exclusive minifigures.

Posters are cool and all, but I have a tendency to acquire posters and never use them, and I feel like they don't sway my personal purchasing decisions as much as other offers.

The exclusive VIP card for early buyers of the UCS Millennium Falcon intrigues me, even as someone who isn't as much of a fan of Lego Star Wars. We don't really know yet what sorts of exclusive offers those cardholders would be eligible for, but it would certainly be interesting to see that sort of thing experimented with for fans of other themes. It'd be neat to be able to better tailor offers to buyers depending on what sorts of themes are their favorites.

 

Well, I guess that settles it. There's no way we're getting another movie based on lego's own IPs. It's just parodies of licensed stuff from here on out... sigh.

 

I think what LEGO needs to do is make great IPs and stick with them for decades, even if said IPs, like that of BIONICLE, no longer have sets being made, they should still stick with them in some way or another. Though I am not suggesting continuing on from old stories, running them into the ground, but maybe interact with the fans more and promote said themes that way. For example, LEGO hasn't made a train set in a while, to my understanding, if they brought back trains and promoted it a lot and really well, than maybe that would boaster popularity for it and than they could make it really well known and loved. Just an idea though, of course it depends on the contents of a theme for said theme to really kick-off and skyrocket much to the extent BIONICLE did, and has overall done in the relative public eye. I say relative public eye because though I do often meet people who know what I am talking about when I bring up BIONICLE, most people I meet have no idea about it when it comes up in passing conversation, not to say that I actively interact with local folks about an old toyline, but the point I am trying to make is the example of overall popularity of a theme or product, and that it must be sustained in the public's eye in order to be popular.

 

I mean, Ninjago is a great IP that they've been sticking with and promoting the heck out of, and it didn't necessarily pay off for this movie... Continuing to promote a theme that isn't even produced anymore would be even less worthwhile, since it'd basically be a money sink with only a hypothetical return on investment in the future (as opposed to spending that money on promoting themes and IPs that ARE current and relevant).

As for trains, unfortunately train sets have been performing more and more poorly in recent years, even high-quality "D2C" trains like the Horizon Express. It doesn't help that a train layout basically requires a large upfront investment one way or another, with less opportunity for "impulse" purchases than other themes or subthemes (and for that matter, less obvious need for expansion once you DO have a full loop of track and a train to run on it). Add in the fact that model trains in general have been on a sort of a decline in popularity, and you're left with a situation where pouring money into promotion isn't necessarily a recipe for success.

 

What I watn to know is, why exactly is LEGO seemingly falling behind now a-days? The stuff they make is good, but for some reason people aren't very interested. I honestly have no clue why that could be, and I want to know why it is.

Yeah, I mean, there are so many Lego media and themes that are having problems lately. Not only this movie, but there are others during this decade, including Legends of Chima, Bionicle, Hero Factory, Constraction in general, Power Miners, Atlantis, Pharoh's Quest, Alien Conquest, Monster Fighters, Galaxy Squad, Ninjago TV show's Season 7, Nexo Knights, Mixels, and Lego Dimensions. I mean, what is going on here. These things are decreasing by value in many ways (not to mentions they get more expensive) during this decade. I'm still sad that the movie doesn't go up to the standard as the other two The Lego Movies. This is quite surprising.

 

This comment is super-confusing, mainly because it assumes problems in a huge number of cases where there's no evidence there were any? Like, Chima did okay despite failing to meet incredibly lofty expectations. Mixels lasted a full three years. Hero Factory lasted FIVE. Atlantis and Power Miners were both themes that were expected to last only one year and ended up lasting two because they were so successful, which is pretty much the opposite of a problem. And Nexo Knights, from all indications, is still going strong.

Lego has been subject to a few disappointments in the last month or so (a dip in profits, a disappointing opening to the Ninjago Movie, etc.), but all in all the past five years or so have been a time of unprecedented success for them. In particular, Ninjago and Friends have become "evergreen" themes that might as well be considered a permanent part of Lego's portfolio, and The Lego Movie was a massive success and led to Lego being taken much more seriously in the world of entertainment. You can't just put together a laundry list of things that didn't reach those levels of success and call them all failures. Not every theme is even intended to last forever, and even "failures" only occur because Lego continues to innovate and take measured risks (some of which don't pay off, but many of which do).

Honestly the only company that I expect that will realistically buy Bionicle, would be Dreamworks, and their reputation isn’t the best.

"Realistically", no company will buy Bionicle, because it's not for sale and Lego has very little to gain by ever selling it (particularly since the biggest interest would probably be from competing toy companies).

But for what it's worth Dreamworks has worked on some decent film and TV properties, including well-regarded Netflix series like Voltron: Legendary Defender and Trollhunters. I could think of worse companies to be in charge of Bionicle media in the future.

I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be a TRU exclusive.

They're labeled as "exclusive" on both the box and the BrickHeadz label tile, and so far have only been announced for Toys R Us, so make of that what you will.

These look great, and I've already mocked up ones for the rest of the ninja, Misako, and Garmadon based on these (which may still need tweaks depending on how the back of Lloyd's ninja head wrap is built).

One neat thing about BrickHeadz is that they're really easy to customize. Not only do they largely use basic sorts of parts, but if I wanted to get parts custom printed, many of the parts in question have fairly simple designs on flat surfaces that could be printed fairly easy by the many third-party customizers in the community.

I'll probably post my custom ones here at some point, but I might wait until the instructions for Lloyd are available online.

 

 

I highly doubt that the Star Wars CCBS had anything to do with G2's failure. Rather, it was the fault of poor marketing and lazy design (although, I did like Umarak the Destroyer).

Funny, since the set designs were generally superior than most of what we got in G1...

 

The aesthetic value of the sets improved; the creativity of the build did not. Other than gimmicks and some positive design tweaks, little was done to revitalize the standard 06' build. That, in my opinion, was lazy. 

 

I'm trying to figure out what sort of "revitalization" could be done to the builds that wasn't already that wouldn't just be bad. The sets already had much, much better proportions than the lanky builds of late G1, and used the sturdier, more modular CCBS system. What else is there to do? Custom torsos and limbs? 2016 attempted that with a large number of its sets, to a very mixed reception.

What frustrates me about this is that we were essentially given gold and nonetheless I constantly see complaints that it wasn't platinum. Designwise, Bionicle G2 was leaps and bounds ahead of Bionicle G1, or for that matter, Hero Factory, yet armchair critics don't hesitate to call the designers (many of whom I know personally) "lazy" from the comfort of their computers.

Frankly, it sometimes make me wonder whether the reason G2 failed is that it bothered trying to recapture the "glory" of an overrated theme with an overwrought story, instead of coming up with something that could achieve actual greatness without that baggage. That's probably not fair to Bionicle—I loved it as much as anyone. But it's hard not to get those kinds of thoughts when you're regularly being reminded of how toxic this fandom can be.

 

 

I highly doubt that the Star Wars CCBS had anything to do with G2's failure. Rather, it was the fault of poor marketing and lazy design (although, I did like Umarak the Destroyer).

Funny, since the set designs were generally superior than most of what we got in G1...

CCBS alone does not a superior design make.

 

I'll agree that the Toa's Gen2 designs were better than their Gen1 counterparts (execution left a little to be desired IMHO) - Pohatu with his boomerangs, Onua's hammer, Kopaka as an ice knight.  The villains, though... well.  With the exception of LoSS and Skull Scorpio, they're all stubbornly humanoid.  Nothing like, say, the Rahi, or spherical Bohrok, or transforming Vahki.

 

(sorry for getting off topic... just felt like I should say something.)

 

CCBS alone doesn't, I agree. I would argue that full articulation combined with exciting action features and well-armored, complex, and diverse builds does. G1 sets often relied on "clone sets", offered full articulation or action features but not both, and apart from the small number of larger "titans" and vehicles (a category that I'll grant that G2 mostly lacked), were decidedly less complex, interesting, or effective than anything G2 offered. In any case, "lazy design" is a pretty lazy insult considering the amount of thought and effort that clearly went into every individual G2 set design. But hey, maybe if we'd gotten two full six-figure waves of identical sphere monsters G2 would still be with us today.

I highly doubt that the Star Wars CCBS had anything to do with G2's failure. Rather, it was the fault of poor marketing and lazy design (although, I did like Umarak the Destroyer).

Funny, since the set designs were generally superior than most of what we got in G1...

Another fun live build! On the one hand, it's a shame we'll have to wait over a week for the next one, but on the other hand, next weekend is Parents Weekend at my college so I probably wouldn't get to watch if it had been then. Can't wait until we resume afterwards!

This live build was tons of fun! Can't wait for the next one—you still have plenty of sets yet to go!

 

I have an idea: The villains finally took over makuhero city and destroyed the Factory. But the hero recon real build an secret factory and are fighting to get their homeland back.

But that would be a, uh... bit too mature for modern lego, if we were talking about 2000s lego it's a possibility but today's lego is well, kid-friendly.

 

How is that not "kid-friendly" enough for Lego? It's practically the same exact plot as The Lego Movie (a small band of heroes rebelling against an oppressive regime), not to mention licensed themes like Rogue One. For that matter, the 2000s were not even any LESS kid-friendly—if you'll recall, it was a big deal when the 2006 story had Tahu fight Zaktan in a swordfight, simply because Lego had not allowed anything like that up to that point (including in the Knights' Kingdom theme, where literally every character was armed with a sword and yet had to fire "energy blasts" from them instead of actually physically attacking their enemies). That was also the first year the Toa's weapons were actually called weapons, instead of the increasingly dubiously named "Toa Tools". Compare Ninjago, which had characters fighting one another physically and use "weapons" from the get-go.

Mind you, relaunching a product aimed at young kids with that kind of plot would probably be a bad decision, not because it's less "kid-friendly" but rather because it would probably be less appealing to kids in general. Grimdark storylines tend to appeal more to older teens and adults than to Lego's target audience, and after several years of inactivity attracting new fans to Hero Factory would be more important than ever.

I remember it being in one of the first few bionicle books.

It may have been, though the chapter books weren't actually published until 2003, meaning that the legend's appearance in other media predates those books one way or another.