Aanchir

Keep in mind that "seen before" is a consideration that generally only matters to people who have already been collecting a while. After all, LEGO City puts out a new police station or prison every year and it still tends to be a top seller, just because there's a new generation of kids lining up to buy it each time. Also, chances are these two locations will both appear prominently in the movie, so if they didn't release sets of the movie versions of them, a lot of kids and adults alike might be disappointed at having to pay inflated prices for the old ones online. I think the designers did a very good job making sure the new Batcave and Arkham Asylum don't just feel like rehashes of the versions we've seen before. I'm glad I'm not the only one excited about those new hand pieces! I've tried using the Chima gorilla fist pieces on articulated mechs but it's difficult. These should be much simpler to utilize. I hope they end up coming in more colors, particularly at least one neutral color.

Unfortunately, LEGO has tried including constraction parts on the online Pick-A-Brick in the past (they had quite a substantial selection from 2011–2014), and they didn't sell well enough to justify the floor space they took up in the warehouse where Pick-A-Brick orders are packed. The number of System builders who place orders through Pick-A-Brick simply dwarfs the number of constraction builders who do the same. LEGO even had a trial run of CCBS parts at in-store Pick-A-Brick walls back in 2011 (partly as a measure to promote the Hero Recon Team service), with similar results. Most buyers who visited the wall didn't really understand how to use them, because they were mostly familiar with System building. There might also be other problems with putting constraction parts on Pick-A-Brick today. Generally, Pick-A-Brick is limited to in-production parts, and so without a new constraction theme yet announced to replace Bionicle, the selection of CCBS parts available for that purpose might be very limited. EDIT: ninja'd

The solution to that is not to re-design the hand, but the weapon. From the start, Zamor launchers and their ilk were made to need the hand to hold them that way; but if, instead, the handle was positioned so that the hand could hold the weapon in the standard "broad side facing inward" position, it would look just fine. Same with "perpendicular to the plane of the hand" weapons--the weapon should be designed so that it can be held in the normal position, as with '08 Lewa's sword. So why couldn't you just as easily design new weapons similar to Ehlek's claws to work better with the existing fist piece? I don't understand blaming the hand piece for awkward weapon grip in some cases and blaming the weapon itself in others. It wouldn't really be any harder to "fix" Ehlek's claw than to do the same for the Nynrah Ghost Blaster: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8523/29441850743_706450bb9e_o.png A claw like this would arguably even look more realistic on either a Y-joint or a fist piece, since it'd wrap around the hand instead of just being sorta pasted onto the back. I've thought about the possibility of such a piece before; however, there's the issue of removing the weapon once you get it on. Looking at the design, I'd imagine you need an axle to attach the weapon to the hand. However, once it's on, wouldn't it be stuck on the hand, with no way to get it off? Since the connection points are just a half module thick and two modules apart, there should be no risk of an axle becoming stuck. Even the shortest axles (2M) would stick out by a half module, just enough to reach the built-in notch and pull them out. Same as with the shell pieces from Kalmah, Carapar, and Toa Mahri Matoro, or the Unity Piece from this year's Bionicle sets. Not sure if my explanation is clear, but here's an illustration in case it's too confusing:

The solution to that is not to re-design the hand, but the weapon. From the start, Zamor launchers and their ilk were made to need the hand to hold them that way; but if, instead, the handle was positioned so that the hand could hold the weapon in the standard "broad side facing inward" position, it would look just fine. Same with "perpendicular to the plane of the hand" weapons--the weapon should be designed so that it can be held in the normal position, as with '08 Lewa's sword. So why couldn't you just as easily design new weapons similar to Ehlek's claws to work better with the existing fist piece? I don't understand blaming the hand piece for awkward weapon grip in some cases and blaming the weapon itself in others. It wouldn't really be any harder to "fix" Ehlek's claw than to do the same for the Nynrah Ghost Blaster: A claw like this would arguably even look more realistic on either a Y-joint or a fist piece, since it'd wrap around the hand instead of just being sorta pasted onto the back. For the "Ehlek claw" use like you describe, the simplest I can figure would be on the back of the hand, opposite the thumb. It may need the shape of the fist to be changed somewhat so the back of the hand is flat rather than at an angle, but this is not impossible to imagine — Christoph Röttjer even conceptualized a similar-shaped hand as an early concept for the CCBS fists as seen here (bottom row, third from the left). Or you could even do something sort of like Rahkshi Lalonde's concept.

Not really, no. The older Y-joint hands were more versatile as connectors, and Y-joints still exist for that purpose. They are also still used for attaching weapons like claws that are meant to take the place of a more conventional hand — some of the new Bionicle "beast" sets use them in that way, as did some Hero Factory sets like Thornraxx. But as hands, Y-joints often looked awkward and unnatural when a weapon was held through the center cross axle hole rather than one of the side cross-axle holes. In many cases it would look like the weapon was coming out of the figure's fingertip, perpendicular to the plane of the hand, rather than the figure actually gripping the weapon. For example, look at how Mistika Toa Tahu set looks holding his Nynrah Ghost Blaster in this picture. Even without molded fingers to indicate a "proper" way that he should hold a weapon, the position his hand has to be in to hold that weapon looks awkward and uncomfortable. The sword-hand of Phantoka Toa Lewa in this picture doesn't seem quite so bent out of shape, but it still looks more like the weapon's projecting from the plane of an open hand than like a hand is wrapped around the weapon. Realistically, if the current hand were to be replaced, I'd rather it be replaced with something that still looks recognizably hand-like, but just with more connection points, or even with posable fingers. But making something as abstract as the Y-joint the default hand style just for the sake of one extra connection point feels like a step backwards. In the meantime, I'm fine with fists being used as the standard and Y-joints being used in cases where a fist would not be practical, as many previous Bionicle and Hero Factory sets have done.

It's been brought to my attention via Facebook that 14417 and 14704 might be available on Pick-A-Brick walls at LEGO stores due to being used in one of the latest "Pick-A-Model" sets, the Turtle. Getting a Pick-A-Brick cup with these pieces would be by far the cheapest way to obtain them in quantity! EDIT: Whoops, missed the earlier posts about this and about you not having a LEGO store nearby. Guess I need to pay better attention.

In a nutshell, while LEGO did want some connecting threads between the G1 and G2 stories (such as the names and designs of the Toa), they didn't want to simply retread old ground, nor to be shackled by people's expectations of how all the G1 characters should look and act, nor to create needless confusion. For instance, if the Elemental Beasts had been called Bohrok, people would have complained that they looked nothing like Bohrok and were not faithful to the Bohrok concept. If the Protectors had been called Turaga, it'd be easy for people who knew the G1 story or new fans who were searching online for story details to make the mistake of thinking that automatically meant they had once been Toa. The LEGO Group didn't want to invite those kinds of comparisons except in instances like the Toa where the G1 and G2 characters' similarities were direct and deliberate. There are also other instances where LEGO might have just wanted to avoid unnecessarily complicating things with G1 terminology. The only advantage to calling the Elemental Creatures "Rahi" or the Elemental Beasts "Bohrok" would have been to pander to nostalgia — it would not have made the story any clearer to its audience, and in fact might have confused old fans and new fans alike by implying a more direct connection than was actually there. Particularly with concepts like the Skull Spiders that were composites of several disparate G1 concepts (Visorak, Fikou, Infected Kanohi, Krana, etc), it would have been profoundly misleading to identify them with a singular G1 counterpart. Equally so with cases like Skull Basher, whose similarities to Kane-Ra are tenuous and might have even been pure coincidence. Emphasizing these indirect connections would have prioritized the things that made the characters feel familiar over the many things that made them new and different.

Not gonna judge you, but I should clarify that the headline from that article is super misleading. LEGO didn't want people to "stop buying its toys". They just didn't want to continue creating new demand that they couldn't fulfill. Or to put it more simply, it's not that they wanted the number of people buying sets to go down, it's that they didn't want it to go up faster than they could keep up with. So this year they put less money into marketing for the Americas, and put more money towards expanding their production line. It's not completely outrageous to think that Bionicle may have been cut short in order to give other, more popular themes more breathing room. Even if Bionicle G2 was popular enough to be profitable, it might not have been the most effective use of resources at a time when resources were already being spread thin. That said, even if that were a factor, that's not to say it was the only factor or even the main factor.

I don't mind the concept of Funko Pops and similar figurines. They're genuinely cute, and I understand the appeal of having figures from lots of different franchises with more or less the same scale and design language. However, on a personal level, I greatly prefer toys with more playability over vinyl figurines that just take up space on a shelf. Since I have not bought Funko Pop figures of other franchises I'm a fan of, the honest answer is that I probably wouldn't buy Bionicle ones. Now, the BrickHeadz that Banana Gunz mentions have a lot more to them than the Funko Pops do, IMO. They lack posability, but they're cute and actually buildable. So I would probably enjoy Bionicle BrickHeadz. If LEGO doesn't make any official ones I might try building my own (I've already dabbled in it on LEGO Digital Designer).

Knight Rider and The LEGO Batman Movie were both mentioned in the press release for LEGO Dimensions year two, but this is the first time we've gotten pictures and details about the actual packs. This story didn't include the pictures, but you can see them on Brickset here. Unfortunately there are no pics of the alternate builds yet, even though they're mentioned in the press release. Anyway, Excalibur Batman looks cool, as does his Bionic Steed mini-build. And putting Robin and Batgirl in the LEGO Batman Movie story pack makes sense since people who play the Story Pack presumably already have a Batman from the Starter Pack. It's interesting that this is the first Story Pack to have two characters and a mini-build instead of just one character and one mini-build. The Story Pack portal is cool but doesn't seem to have quite as much substance (nor nearly as many bricks) as the portals from the Starter Pack or the Fantastic Beasts and Ghostbusters 2016 Story Packs. KITT is… KITT. Very authentic looking but not too elaborate or surprising. Having a David Hasselhoff minifigure is cool, though. Still waiting to hear more about the LEGO City Undercover expansions…

Obviously there's no denying that BZPower is not the juggernaut it once was, but frankly I've been to LEGO sites (like http://classic-castle.com/forum/) that have MUCH less activity but still manage to avoid dying out entirely. How well BZPower can adapt to a changing userbase and a changing Internet landscape is something we're all still figuring out, but I don't think it's on the brink of disappearing entirely.

I believe both of these sets are Toys 'R' Us exclusive sets, so that's why TRU is pushing them and not the Rogue One sets (which will all be available from other retailers). I'm not sure how much of the Hot Toy list is actual predictions of what'll sell best at TRU and how much is just products TRU wants to promote, but I'm pretty sure it's a bit of both.

In the United States, the summer 2016 Bionicle sets are exclusive to Toys 'R' Us. As for why other stores' Bionicle sections are disappearing, I guess that the ones you've visited have simply sold out of all the Bionicle sets they had in stock and opted not to order more from LEGO.

I think in the Hero Factory universe, Hero Factory heroes are the only modern machines designed to be powered by Quaza. I don't think it was ever strictly established whether the nature of its power was electrical, nuclear, or some type of tech wizardry, just that it's a naturally occurring but exceedingly rare energy resource, that it granted Hero Factory heroes their strength and identities, and that heroes' Quaza cores need to be periodically recharged. Quaza was also used to power Witch Doctor's skull staff, and made up the spikes he used to control the wildlife of the planet Quatros (where Quaza was originally mined). But the Skull Staff was a mysterious ancient artifact, and I don't think even the top scientists at Hero Factory fully understood its powers. It's also probable that some elements of heroes' personalities might come from other aspects of their design and programming, or as a natural extension of their experiences. For instance, Breez was designed to be able to communicate with any species in the world, and her affinity with nature was an extension of that. What heroes gain from their Quaza cores is less about their mental faculties, and more about their soul or spirit. It's not established what exactly happened to the bodies and Quaza cores of the heroes who became Von Nebula and Core Hunter. For a while I kind of wanted to write a fanfic on the matter, about some black market mechanic in the outer reaches of space who helped Von Ness remove or bypass his Quaza core to give him a source of power that wasn't contingent on periodic recharging at the Hero Factory. I liked the idea of Von Ness effectively "selling his soul" to keep from having to return to Hero Factory and own up to his mistakes. In any case, assuming Von Nebula no longer had an active Quaza core, it's clear that a hero's memories are not inherently tied to their core, since Von Ness's resentment of Stormer is what fueled Von Nebula's vendetta against the Hero Factory. But does having the same experiences and memories necessarily mean being the same person in spirit? It's an interesting question, and one that might explain why heroes who leave the Hero Factory might feel that their old names and identities no longer suit them. If another machine were designed to be powered by Quaza, then maybe putting a hero core in it might grant it that hero's spirit. It's certainly amusing to imagine a fallen hero being reborn as a sentient hovercar, or something like that. And as for swapping characters' cores to swap their personalities, that also sounds like it could've made an interesting story. But it's hard to say for sure because those things never wound up happening in the story, and we didn't have anybody like Greg Farshtey answering random hypothetical questions that were never raised during the events of the story.

Wanting to build a humanoid figure with those joints is well and good, but really which of those joint pieces you need may depend as much on the scale you have in mind as on the number of points of articulation. That would determine, for example, which of these three parts might be most useful to you and which might be too big or too small. It might be useful to first try building a figure on LDD to figure out exactly which parts you might need before you worry about how to purchase them most efficiently. Just in terms of sheer number of balls and ball cups per dollar, the retired Mixel Chilbo tops the list with 7 small balls and 7 small ball cups for $5. Close behind is Geoffrey & Friends (a Toys 'R' Us exclusive set), with 12 small balls and 12 small ball cups for just $10. The Mixels Glomp, Footi, Hoogi, Jinky and Kuffs each have 6 small balls and 6 small ball cups for $5. Cole's Dragon has ten small balls and ten small ball cups for $10. The Mixels Niksput, Snoof, Tungster, Dribbal Camillot, Trumpsy, and Sharx each have 5 small balls and 5 small ball cups for $5 (though one of Sharx's small ball pieces is a hook piece which might be tough to integrate into a typical humanoid build). Although some of those Mixels are retired, most of those that are can be bought online for at or below their original price. There are some useful parts that you won't find in any of those sets, though, like 15460. That part appears in just three sets, of which the Nya Fun Pack from LEGO Dimensions is the cheapest. If you're limited to buying sets in stores, people have reported seeing Dimensions Fun Packs at Five Below for $5 each, which is a great bargain.

According to the contest page, those results will be announced October 7th! Though the semi-finalists might be announced sooner. Anyway, congrats to NopFilms on his victory, and to all the runners-up! I regret to say I usually don't pay all that much attention to the BrickFilm side of the LEGO community, but it was great seeing such great skill and creativity on display, and so many different takes on the contest theme.

Kai was referred to as "The Master of Fire" on a few instances prior to 2015. For instance, the ninja handbooks published in Europe had a short story for each of the four ninja titled "The Master of (ninja's element)". Also, Wu addresses Kai as the master of fire (and the other ninja as masters of their respective elements) in the pilot episode "The Way of the Ninja"/"The Golden Weapon", immediately after he grants them their color-coded ninja costumes. However, that's just one of the various titles/descriptions he goes by over the course of the series — other media refers to him as the Ninja of Fire or just the Red Ninja.

"Master of Fire" is just a description, and one that could just as easily describe G1 Tahu as Kai or G2 Tahu. I'd file that under "coincidence". That's not to say G2 Bionicle can't have taken any cues from Ninjago, because LEGO themes take cues from each other all the time, particularly from each other's proven strengths. But many of the most obvious things G2 Bionicle had in common with Ninjago (elemental powers, magical golden artifacts, ancient temples, mysterious prophecies, a villain representing darkness and destruction, an origin story involving two feuding brothers, etc.) are things that Ninjago already had in common with G1 Bionicle. And for the most part, they are pretty common tropes, so I don't think it makes any sense to say either story "ripped off" the other by sharing them. The only especially Ninjago-ish trait of G2 Bionicle I can think of that wasn't present in some form in G1 Bionicle was the use of skeleton-themed villains, but even then, LEGO Castle used those before either Ninjago OR Bionicle did.

Rey's theme and the First Order/Kylo Ren theme are both really good. But the rest of the new music didn't quite match up, yeah. I felt like the theme when the X-Wings arrive on Takodana was also very strong hearing it during the film, but at the same time, not very catchy/memorable compared to old classics like the Imperial March.

It's hard to tell about whether they'd produce wax. The Nui-Rama hive in Mata Nui Online Game looked less like a beehive and more like a combination of a wasp nest (which would be made primarily of paper) and termite mound (which would be made primarily of dirt or digested plant materials). Nothing in Bionicle ever really describes what specifically Nui-Rama nests were made of. As for honey, in real life, it comes from regurgitated, partially-digested nectar from flowering plants. Nothing in Bionicle ever describes Nui-Rama as feeding on nectar. The closest thing to that is how on Metru Nui they fed on liquid protodermis from the chute system, specifically the impurities in it. On Mata Nui, both Nui-Rama and Nui-Kopen were chiefly predatory, and competed for the same prey species. Some species of predatory wasps in real life do produce honey, but most do not.

I think that one's extremely unlikely to happen. Mel Brooks only got George Lucas's blessing to parody Star Wars by agreeing not to produce any merchandise for Spaceballs. And while I don't know for sure whether that was a legally binding agreement, the fact that I've never seen any actual Spaceballs merchandise for sale to this day suggests to me that he still intends to honor it.

Fiction is full of villains who ultimately have good intentions, or at least, believe that they do. I think even if Makuta had good intentions, his methods even in the early years were probably more than enough to safely call him a villain. I mean, he was repeatedly sending dangerous monsters to terrorize innocent villagers. While there was no established death toll, there were many established instances that Matoran could have died and nothing to indicate that Makuta would've dialed back his efforts in those circumstances. He knew that his actions put Matoran in mortal peril and was seemingly OK with that. Now, it's possible that the Makuta of the early years might've been more redeemable than his characterization made him out to be later on, so that at some point he might've been able to realize the error of his ways and give up being a villain. But it's hard to tell, since his motivations in those early years were not elaborated on at that time. And given the direction the story ended up taking, despite the continued involvement of many of the same people from those early years, I kind of doubt the story would have gone in the direction of truly redeeming Makuta even if it could have. Faber, Farshtey, etc. seemed to prefer keeping him a villain.

Considering that those are three categories of sets that proved to be less successful even during G1, I have to question whether they would've made much of a difference for G2. G2's direction, for better or for worse, was shaped in large part by what had been proven to work (or proven not to work) in the past. Beasts/Rahi might be more of a niche than the bipedal figures, but I don't think they were unsuccessful—if they were unsuccessful, they wouldn't have continued to release animal figures all the way to the end of G1. Still, they never released a lot of big (as in, bigger than a Toa) non-humanoid creatures any year besides 2001. There were six Rahi sets in 2001, the Bahrag set in 2002, the Gukko and Pewku in 2003, Nivawk and the Kikanalo in 2004, Fenrakk in 2006, Gadunka in 2007, and Skirmix in 2009. Even counting the 2001 Rahi that's an average of 1.4 big creature sets per year. From 2002 to 2009 they only managed one big creature set per year. I'm not denying that the big Rahi and creature sets were cool, and I'd love more sets like that in the future! But 2001 is they only year they felt like a really major component of Bionicle's recipe for success.

It's possible. But there's another factor that might be at play. Part of the reason for lowered North American profits is that Lego could not meet demand for their most popular sets—Lego even decreased their marketing for those themes to try to compensate. And meanwhile, you have Bionicle, which despite Lego's best efforts is not selling as well as those top themes, occupying shelf space that retailers would much prefer go to those high-demand products. So yes, Lego may have chosen to refocus on their most profitable sets, but less because of any desperation to maintain sales numbers and more because other themes were outperforming them by that much more. I think these are both strong points as to why Gen 2 wasn't given the finances and marketing it needed to succeed. I also believe that Gen 3 is very likely since it is the most recognizable unlicensed LEGO product, but its revival will be far into the future in a time in which the licensed products aren't as big of a money making opportunity and much less of a distraction for the comapny. I think that eventually we will see the end of the major Marvel movie scene and a decline in Star Wars Lego products as the movies run their course. With that there will be consequently a decline in sales of the LEGO licensed products as interest declines. However, while it is difficult to forecast such failure, the real point I'm trying to get at is that LEGO will likely not focus on a Bionicle Gen 3 unless they find little profit in their licensed products or they need to pull it out as a last ditch effort to save the company (much like they did the first time). On a side note, it is also likely that when we do get another generation of Bionicle it will be very different than any of the prior generations and will probably stray from the "remembering our roots" course. But that's just my prediction... I'm not sure I'd agree that Bionicle is "the most recognizable unlicensed LEGO product". If we're talking about what's recognizable for kids, I'd say it's more likely something like LEGO Ninjago, and in terms of what's recognizable for adults, I think it'd be one of the classic lines like LEGO Castle or LEGO Space. A lot of the older adults in my life could hardly tell a Bionicle from any other brand of buildable robot figure. As I've mentioned before, I also don't think it's realistic to blame licensed products for Bionicle G2 not taking off. Licensed themes like Star Wars and Harry Potter were just as much (if not more) of a fixture in the LEGO portfolio during the early years of G1 as Star Wars and Super Heroes have been during G2. If anything's changed, it's that non-licensed themes like City, Friends, and Ninjago sell far better today than any non-licensed themes other than Bionicle did in G1's early years.

I never really thought about this, but to be honest the idea doesn't really appeal to me. Even though it might make it easier for me to understand and being understood by others, I'm a strong believer in the concept of "neurodiversity". That means acknowledging every neurological condition comes with strengths and weaknesses. I think real acceptance would come not just from everybody having similar strengths and weaknesses, but from people learning to accept each other's differences instead of judging those who diverge from some neurological standard.