Aanchir

I feel disappointed, but not betrayed. I had expected Bionicle to get at least one more wave of sets, and it seems like it was originally going to, but was cut short, so I can't help but feel a bit bummed about that. For me, the past two years of Bionicle have been absolutely worth it. Some of the sets are easily some of my favorite constraction sets of all time, and even if the story was held back in some ways by a limited budget, there was such a sense of awe and wonder in seeing these characters and concepts from my childhood freshly reimagined. The designers clearly poured their heart and soul into making the characters feel iconic, packed with personality, and respectful of their roots. The art directors did a great job making Okoto beautiful and mysterious. And the writers clearly worked hard to recreate that mythic tone of the early years of Bionicle without making it feel too stuffy or pretentious. Since the return of the line was announced in October 2014, I have made many valuable connections with both Bionicle designers and fellow Bionicle fans, and it's comforting to know that these connections will outlive the theme itself. I am left wondering what the future of the constraction category and of BZPower will be. Best case scenario, the new status quo will encourage BZPower members to either discuss other sorts of LEGO themes or express their love of Bionicle through creative works, though with how both the creative forums and non-Bionicle discussion here have stagnated over the years, that's probably not realistic. As far as the community is concerned, I'm happy that things have mellowed out a bit since yesterday when the announcement was made. There are fewer accusations of LEGO not trying or not caring floating around, and fewer people who hated G2 jumping down other fans' throats saying "I told you so". There's certainly a lot less chaos than when Bionicle G1 ended. And even in communities like Brickset that have sometimes been quite hostile to Bionicle fans in the past, I can't help but feel that the reactions there have been somewhat more compassionate than I'm accustomed to (Facebook's a bit of a different story — in one of my groups somebody commented something along the lines of "I hope Ninjago and Chima are next", evidently not realizing that Chima's been done for like a year now and Ninjago is evergreen). Overall, the feeling that something I love is ending is a feeling I'm more than used to by now. I've seen so many book series, LEGO themes, TV series, and movie series to their conclusion over the years, and while I won't say I'm numb or that I don't feel anything, I do feel it's emotionally prepared me for things like this. As important as LEGO and Bionicle are to me, as many of my friendships have sprung out of them, it's not like losing a friend or a family member. Particularly since so much of what I've gained from Bionicle lives on.

"Revive X Theme" projects (and projects for more than one set in general) are no longer allowed on Lego Ideas. Someone will definitely try, but it probably won't make it past moderation. Now, mind you, if somebody wanted to create a specific Bionicle model and pitch it to LEGO Ideas, it would be allowed under the LEGO Ideas terms and guidelines, same as with any other Ideas project based on a past LEGO theme. Whether it would pass review is another matter and would probably depend on the project, but it would at least make more of a statement to LEGO than a typical internet petition that doesn't offer any insights into what specifically people would be willing to purchase or how much they'd be willing to pay.

It does not appear that the CCBS will be discontinued, but its future is something LEGO has been thinking long and hard about. At around six minutes into this interview from earlier this year with LEGO CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp (who brought the company back from the brink of bankruptcy and credits Bionicle as "the toy that saved LEGO"), the interviewer asks with the LEGO Group doing so well in the present, what could be even better in the future? Jorgen's answer is as follows: "Well, I'm very happy with where we are at the moment, but I think that for any living brand, any living product, as always, there's some things you want to improve and change. You know, what do you want to do with the, what's the future of the Character and Creature Building System that we use for the Star Wars figures? What can we do as an extension of Nexo Knights? What's the next step after LEGO Dimensions? There are so many interesting things to continue to explore for us in the years ahead, so there's always something exciting to look into.…"

The Cordak Blasters' tendency to misfire actually is partly due to a minor design flaw LEGO quickly became aware of, and took steps to correct for in the final design of the Nynrah Ghost Blasters. Namely, too much friction between the "ribs" of the ammo piece and the walls of the chamber. Former LEGO designer David Bird mentioned it here. So while some people might be less prone to misfires than others, it's not strictly a matter of what care you take during and prior to firing.

Probably not too much. If the G2 fanbase were big enough to generate a huge, monumental outcry, then it wouldn't be performing so badly that LEGO needs to discontinue it. Ninjago's near-cancellation DID generate a massive outcry, but that was a very different case: a theme that was still in the peak of its popularity, and that rather than being cut short was just being held to the original two and a half year plan it had at the outset. The outcry came about because that initial plan was shortsighted, and nobody had accounted for what an extraordinarily large fanbase it would be able to generate in just two years. As sad as I am to say it, nobody here on BZPower talks much at all about any theme that isn't constraction-based. Frankly, Chima discussion here on BZPower was stronger than Ninjago discussion by virtue of it having constraction sets. Ninjago is literally one of the most successful LEGO themes there's ever been, and yet the Ninjago Discussion subforum here can go weeks without a new post, and even some Ninjago news stories come and go without a single comment. As much as we at BZPower have tried to open ourselves up to other LEGO fans and the themes they cherish, the site's once-exclusive focus on Bionicle continues to shape what people come here to discuss. I've seen a lot of posts like this and I feel the need to point out that the distinction between fans and money as motivations for a company is unrealistic. That's not to say that companies just see fans as walking sacks of cash, but when we're talking about the difference between a successful theme and an unsuccessful theme, more fans equate to more money and fewer fans equate to less money. If Bionicle G2 had as many fans as LEGO City or LEGO Star Wars, then its sets would be selling as well as LEGO City or LEGO Star Wars, and it wouldn't be in this situation. The LEGO Group may be a successful business, but their resources aren't unlimited. If they keep every single unsuccessful theme going as a concession to however few fans they still have, they won't have the resources to grow their more popular brands, or to create new brands that could potentially develop strong fanbases of their own. If Legends of Chima hadn't ended, there might never have been a Nexo Knights. If Hero Factory hadn't ended, there might never have been a Bionicle G2. People often talk disparagingly of themes like Chima or Hero Factory being discontinued because they assume nobody cared about them in the first place, and whoever did must not have mattered. The money LEGO could spend on those fans would be better spent on themes that have more fans. But then, when their own favorite theme's time is up, it's as if no expense is too great to please even the smallest fanbase. I'm definitely sad that Bionicle G2 is ending. I don't, however, see it as any kind of betrayal. LEGO cares about their fans, but it goes without saying that the fewer fans there are, the less they can afford to prioritize those fans over the fans of their many other themes. It's just not reasonable to act as if the size and strength of the fanbase is no object.

I suppose by this argument anybody in the world who's homeless or impoverished doesn't care or try hard? It's impossible for mistakes or outside circumstances to affect somebody or something's chances of success? No, of course not. Pretending that how hard somebody cares or tries are the only things in the world that can affect their financial performance is downright irrational. A person can pour their heart and soul into a project and try their hardest to make it the best that it can be, and it can still fail if people don't like it or respond to the ways they try to promote it.

A few things. First of all, when LEGO was developing G1 Bionicle in 1999 and 2000, they did not have any clue that in three or four years they would be on the brink of bankruptcy. Obviously, they knew that the company's record of double-digit sales growth year to year had stopped in 1993, and that in 1998 the company had reported its first ever financial loss, which they wrongly blamed on kids having short attention spans and wanting instant gratification. But as early as 1999 they were back to being profitable. They had just launched the highly successful LEGO Star Wars theme and hired new management that successfully increased sales and promised to double them by 2005. The LEGO Group fully believed they were in the midst of a turnaround. Even as late as 2002, LEGO thought they were on the up-and-up. It's therefore difficult to argue that Bionicle G1's success from the outset was driven by financial desperation. It wasn't until 2003 that LEGO had any idea what a predicament their new innovation-driven corporate mindset had gotten them into. Second, with the kind of assumption you're making, you'd think no successful company could ever hope to create a successful toyline or IP. But even just looking at LEGO, there's plenty of evidence that isn't true. In 2008, when LEGO began developing Ninjago, they had already greatly recovered from their crisis years of 2003 and 2004 and managed to make a yearly profit of over two billion DKK (over 300 million USD in today's money). Not only did they have the continued success of LEGO Star Wars propping them up, but LEGO City was also carrying them higher and higher each year. And yet, when Ninjago launched in 2011 it sold better than any previous launch of a new LEGO product line — including Bionicle. By your argument, this should not have been possible, because a LEGO theme's success or failure hinges on how much they care about it, and how much they care on it hinges on how desperate they are financially. But clearly, it happened. And that's just ONE of the amazingly successful new IPs LEGO has launched in the past five years — you could throw LEGO Friends and The LEGO Movie in that same pot. For what it's worth, I've met several of the people involved with the Bionicle reboot. There's no denying that they cared profoundly about making it the best it could be. You might prefer to imagine that because you didn't like it, and it didn't sell as well as the earliest Bionicle sets, the people making it must not have cared or tried hard enough. You'd be wrong.

Same! Some things I've seen suggest this album will be digital-only, unlike the first which was released on CD, but I'm glad we're getting it at all. It's a shame that at this pace, even if the new album sells well, it might be years before we get soundtracks for some of the more recent seasons of Ninjago. But Seasons 1 and 2 had lots of very iconic tracks so having official soundtrack releases for both of those seasons is definitely quite a treat!

This is pretty disappointing for me. I was expecting Bionicle to get at least one more wave of sets next year. But at the same time, it's been clear that constraction is not in the position of strength it once was. The in-house constraction IPs have experienced declining sales for over a decade. The designers, artists, and writers of Bionicle G2 all went to great lengths to recreate or re-imagine all the best aspects of Bionicle, especially its iconic early years, while still trying new things, and I applaud them for giving it their all. But nothing they did could make it 2002 again, and pouring money into marketing the theme as if it were still near the peak of its popularity would not have been a realistic or effective approach. It will be interesting to see where constraction goes from here, because Jorgen Vig Knudstorp has stated in an interview earlier this year that the future of the CCBS is a priority for the LEGO Group. Since it's still too early for LEGO to have another independent constraction IP in the pipeline, I think its immediate future will depend on constraction spin-offs of already popular series like Star Wars, Super Heroes, and possibly Ninjago or Nexo Knights. I have yet to watch the last two episodes of The Journey to One, so I hope they offer a satisfactory conclusion. I do not particularly mind series I love ending if they get a chance to appropriately finish telling the story they set out to tell at the outset. In any case, thank you to the creators of the Bionicle G2 sets and story for giving such an iconic franchise a second chance, and here's hoping that one day buildable figures might have their day in the sun once again!

Technic's status has been… interesting. Its biggest market is in Europe (specifically Germany), which is part of why all of its licensed vehicles like 8110, 42030, 42043, 42053, and 42056 have been European brands rather than American ones. In 2012 and 2013, Technic was a Toys 'R' Us exclusive line in North America, just like Bionicle is now. It was still available in LEGO Brand stores, because at that point all store exclusives were. It seems like that might be changing now, and if so it's a new change for this year, but it would make sense in the context of previous disagreements between LEGO Brand Retail and other stores that carry LEGO. In 2014, other stores like Target resumed carrying Technic sets, aside from specific ones that remained Toys 'R' Us exclusives. So I guess the lesson there for Bionicle fans is that a theme becoming a Toys R Us exclusive due to flagging sales is not something it can never walk back from.

Maybe I'm being cynical, but frankly I would still tend to think it's Gali's status as "The Girl" that has prevented her from getting a drained/corrupted mask. Not to avoid the damsel in distress trope, but because Lego is still stuck on the idea that "It has to be for boys so girl sets are inherently less valuable." I think a bigger part of it is that there were only villain sets in five colors, so one of the Toa's transparent colors (and corresponding mask) had to be omitted. I can definitely see why given that situation, LEGO would have opted to omit one of the two shades of blue. Of course, once it was narrowed down to two, that still would've given them a choice between Kopaka and Gali, so you could argue that Gali being a girl might've become a factor at that stage. Overall, though, I don't know if the story would have been a major factor in their decision at all. It could just be that they tested different masks and either the designers or focus groups thought the Mask of Ice looked cooler (no pun intended) in a two-color blend than the Mask of Water did. Or it could be that they wanted to push Kopaka due to him being a larger set (not too unlikely, since set size DOES seem to be the main factor in which Toa got corrupted masks in this year's sets). Or just that the availability of more Tr. Light Blue CCBS parts than Tr. Blue parts at the time pushed them to go with an ice character's mask instead of a water character's.

I don't exactly understand how it looks organic… to me, if anything, its overt use of System and basic Technic parts makes it feel more rectilinear, and consequently, more mechanical, than many other Bionicle characters and creatures do. When you look at G1 Bionicle creatures like the Fikou or the Gukko or the Visorak, or the Hydruka, or G2 creatures like the Lord of Skull Spiders and Elemental Creatures, they have quite a few organic looking curves. The only part of Ekimu's Falcon that has the same type of organic-looking curves are its beak and tail feathers. Otherwise, its torso is made of boxy Technic pieces, its head is of boxy System pieces, and its wings have very sharp, straight edges.

One thing about LEGO Ninjago that a lot of people seem to be confused about is how Zane has the elemental power of ice when, as a Nindroid, he can't be biologically descended from an Elemental Master. Apparently a kid asked about it at the LEGO Ninjago panel at SDCC earlier, and the creators of Ninjago said even they hadn't firmly decided. I've had a theory/headcanon about this for a while and I figured I might as well pitch it in a topic of its own. Actually, this theory/headcanon rests on the fact that there are actually TWO major things nobody in the story seems to understand about Zane. One is how he got his elemental powers. The other is the nature of his power source. Zane's power source seems to be intricately connected with at least some of his ninja powers: when Zane gave Pixal a half of his power source in Season Three, he and she could synchronize to perform Spinjitzu. The fact that his elemental powers might also be tied to his power source is not far-fetched. And the idea that elemental powers can be contained in an OBJECT as easily as in a person was reinforced in Season Four, when Master Chen used a crystal from his island in his Staff of Elements to steal the elemental powers of the current Elemental Masters. The crystal was mined from his island, and later, used a cave full of the same crystals to steal elemental powers from Skylor. Here's my theory: The original Elemental Master of Ice did not have any descendants. Knowing that his elemental power would be lost if he perished without passing on his power, he used that same type of crystal to absorb his own elemental power before passing away. Later on, through some turn of events, the crystal passed into the ownership of Dr. Julien. Eventually recognizing its unique powers, he used it as a power source in the construction of his most unique creation: his Nindroid son, Zane. Of course, like all the other Ninja, Zane was not able to unlock his elemental ice Spinjitzu until after training with Sensei Wu, and was not able to tap into his elemental ice powers in other ways until he obtained the Shurikens of Ice. What do you guys think?

Pinching the two sides of the center section with some tweezers or something might work. That said, it's not my job to enforce this, but you're not supposed to post in topics this old.

I don't think he really planned years in advance for that sort of thing. He had several ideas he wanted to get to that he's talked about, but not necessarily as structured a game plan as the story team had used for previous story arcs (like the 2006–2008 "land-sea-sky" trifecta, which the story team began envisioning as early as 2004). For instance, the reason he decided to make the Red Star revive fallen Matoran was because he wanted to at some point tell a "zombies on a space station" type of story. After he stopped writing the serials he ended up instead using that concept for one of the LEGO Hero Factory Brain Attack chapter books. It wouldn't surprise me if other ideas he originally had for Bionicle might've worked their way into other things he wrote, like the LEGO Ninjago chapter books and graphic novels.

My favorite suit is the one to the left of the 'Glam Bat' that's just called 'Comic Con Exclusive'. I got a giggle out that, but I'm also fond of "St. Batrick" and "Mer-Bat" He really does have a costume for every occasion!

It could be that it snaps together in the back somehow. And of course, as the host of a fashion show like this I'm sure she had people to help her get ready.

I liked the Bohrok-Kal prints as a concept, but I did like the blended Bohrok faceplates better for the sets that used them, since the transparency let you see the Krana (which, as a bonus, closely resembled the Bohrok's eye colors). Not being able to see the Krana-Kal made the Bohrok-Kal color schemes less exciting. Still, I don't think that can be singled out as a fault of printing, since if the designers had wanted to they could have either kept the blended faceplates or made them entirely transparent and still added printed patterns. No, overmolding doesn't result in marbling or gradients. In co-injected/blended parts, two or more colors are simultaneously injected into the same mold from two points, and thus allowed to blend together for a marbled effect. In pre-assembled parts (like LEGO motors, minifigure torso assemblies, or larger animals like horses), separately molded parts are put together by hand or by machine. But in overmolded parts, one section of the part is molded, then inserted moved to another mold where the next section is molded on directly, resulting in two discrete colors with a crisp edge separating them. Some good examples of overmolding include minifigure arms with short sleeves (one color plastic for the top half, another color plastic for the bottom half), the Hero Factory evil brains (red plastic for the eyes, cross axle, and spikes, translucent rubber for the rest), the LEGO Games die (red plastic for the core and studs, black rubber for the rest). The Obi-Wan Kenobi buildable figure's head and beard are overmolded, so unlike a pre-assembled part there are no cracks between the hair/beard and the face, but unlike a blended part the hair color doesn't bleed into the face or vice-versa (though in that case, printing is also used to add the eyes and eyebrows). In a Bionicle context, I can see overmolding being used to give masks interesting effects. For instance, remember how in Bionicle 2: Legends of Metru Nui, Matau's Kanohi Mahiki used multiple shades of green and gold for the varying layers of detail on the mask Or how Dume's Kanohi Kiril used different colors for specific surfaces, instead of the colors blending from top to bottom? Overmolding could make that kind of thing possible on real masks in the sets without any need for painting or printing. Overmolding could also hypothetically be used for armor pieces like this one to make the pistons and accordion joint in the center a different color than the armor plating at the top and bottom. But overmolding can't take the place of painting or printing for everything. Neither co-injection nor overmolding really let you have very different specific patterns for a part, only different color combinations (and, in the case of co-injection, some random, non-specific variation in how the colors blend together). Whereas prints and stickers can allow for lots of different patterns on the same part design, like a CCBS chest plate, a CCBS shell, or a minifigure face. Conversely, there are things that overmolding can allow that printing cannot. Short-sleeved minifigures were not possible before LEGO started over-molding them, because their printing machines could only put patterns on one side of the arms, not patterns that wrapped all the way around from front to back. And of course, overmolding and co-injection alike let LEGO use multiple types of plastic for the same piece, which is great for parts like the LEGO die, Hero Factory brains, or Toa Hordika weapons that need one section to be hard and sturdy and another section to be soft and flexible.

I was pretty amazed when I saw this! It's the kind of creative use of bricks that I wish more LEGO fans would dabble in. It's also REALLY fashionable. You wouldn't necessarily think of a dress with a big character graphic on it, let alone one made of LEGO, as being quite so stylish! By comparison a lot of the other outfits demoed at this fashion show were either very cosplay-ish and inspired by characters' actual costumes, or more symbolic. One thing this article doesn't mention, though, is the sheer weight of the dress. From what I heard it's around 25 pounds, so it's probably a bit of a workout to wear and perhaps not very practical to wear for long stretches of time!

When the entry period opens (which I imagine will be sometime in the coming week), you will be able to find the contest page linked from the Rebrick contests page. Then you will be able to read the full terms of the contest and submit entries.

I want to read it but I haven't gone around to ordering it yet! I should really stop putting it off, but I have a bad habit of only buying books when I have Barnes & Noble coupons or when stuff on Amazon is discounted, even though kids' paperbacks like this are cheap enough that I wouldn't want to waste a coupon on them anyway and wouldn't need to wait for any sort of discount.

I actually quite like the tiny colorful bits like blue pins and red cross axles. Not only do they make building easier, but I also like the little splashes of color they add to sets, sort of like the little red spikes on Takadox, the dark red spikes on Umarak, the yellow spikes on Uxar, or the Dark Azur patterns on Tahu. Certainly, the sets don't NEED them, from a visual standpoint, but when used tastefully they spice things up and keep the sets from feeling too plain. Also, for characters like the ones in Hero Factory or Bionicle, I think little bits that contrast with the rest of the build help add to the mechanical feel. Usually I also don't care much how many neutral colors like silver, grey, and black a set has, as long as they're organized tastefully. In fact, when building a model, I often quite like alternating colors for different parts of the body, because it helps the different parts stand out from each other so you can clearly see where the lower leg meets the upper leg or where the upper leg meets the torso. Again, that variety and contrast just makes things more interesting to me than monochrome armor on a monochrome skeleton, as long as it doesn't feel completely random or arbitrary. One example of a color on a recent set that DOES sort of bug me is the Bright Orange crystal blades on this year's Tahu and Ikir. The other Toa's crystal blades don't bother me, since they're generally a close match for the transparent colors used on their crystal shells, but neither Tahu nor Ikir uses that shade of orange anywhere else in their build. They do use a lot of Tr. Fluorescent Reddish Orange, but it looks very different. In my opinion, Bright Red is a closer match to that color than Bright Orange is, which is part of why I loved the Skull Creatures using Bright Red patterns on their chest plates — it matched their accent colors. So with the knowledge in mind that the crystal blades couldn't really achieve true transparency in that soft plastic they use, I'd have preferred Tahu and Ikir's blades to be red instead of orange. I am not all that bothered by this year's Pohatu's colors, but I'm not a huge fan of how they're organized. In my opinion, he would have looked better with Silver Metallic shells on his forearms instead of Tr. Flu. Green, and Dark Orange shells on his thighs instead of Sand Yellow. As it is, his Sand Yellow parts overwhelm what little Dark Orange he has, and his forearms are blindingly bright. These changes would make his color blocking more consistent (Dark Orange upper arms and legs, Silver Metallic lower arms and legs, and a Sand Yellow torso), plus make it look like he's wearing gauntlets that match his greaves. On a more bizarre note, I have no idea why Ketar has a Sand Yellow Vorox shell on its tail. What purpose does it serve? Ketar doesn't use that color anywhere else on his build, and it's not used on any other sets. I'd have preferred if that shell were Silver Metallic, same as on Pohatu's shoulders, and if the budget freed up could be used instead on a recolor that actually adds more to one of the sets. There are other quirks that strike me about certain sets — like Onua and Terak in this year's sets having Transparent on their crystal shells instead of Tr. Bright Bluish Violet, or Gali in both this year's sets and last year's using bones in the same Tr. Light Blue as Kopaka instead of the regular Transparent Blue that otherwise tends to stand in for water sets. But even though these things are a little quirky I don't find them out-of-place, because Transparent is a neutral color that goes alright with just about anything, both versions of Gali look just fine with Transparent Light Blue (the layering of two transparent colors on this year's Gali actually makes for quite an interesting effect), and Gali and Kopaka's color schemes are different enough on the whole that they don't feel redundant when standing side-by-side.

It's hard for me to boil it down to any one thing. I guess a big part of it is the colorful, diverse characters, though, since those are a trait Bionicle has in common with a lot of the other creative properties I enjoy. Over the years, LEGO designers have gotten really good at giving the Toa, their allies, and their enemies designs that really exemplify their personalities, powers, and background. I don't really do a lot of role-play or storytelling with the sets, but I love to line the characters up, put them in poses that reflect their personalities, play with their functions, and just admire what makes each one special. There's a collecting component to that too, I guess, since the more characters I get the more I can compare and contrast them and enjoy the experience of putting together a team, but the "collect-them-all" aspect of the blind-packaged masks and disks and Krana and Kraata and so forth never really held my attention for all that long. What I like most about collecting the masks isn't the idea of owning them all but rather, again, the idea of lining them up and admiring their bright colors and distinctive shapes. Even if the Bionicle story were more conventional superhero/"monster-of-the-week" fare like Hero Factory instead of mythic fantasy adventure, even if it had a vague premise and underdeveloped setting like Throwbots or RoboRiders, or even if the Toa characters were cutesy little figures like the heroes of LEGO Ninjago or LEGO Nexo Knights (or for that matter, the Matoran) instead of big buff action figures, I think the colorful designs and the diverse personalities of the characters would still strongly appeal to me.

Doubtful. If they were going to make a set based on the winning entry, they'd have to mention that in the terms, and if that were one of the prizes for winning they'd probably mention it in this video as well. Also, sets tend to take one and a half to two years to get from concept to store shelves, and I figure that if LEGO intends to have a Makuta set on shelves at all, it would be sooner than 2018. Some of the recolors in this video are interesting but I wouldn't read too much into them, since not only is LEGO able to paint parts, they can also mold small test runs of parts that never wind up in sets (like the various prototype Bionicle parts BZPower was gifted back in 2010 or so). This wouldn't be the first time parts have been seen in designer MOCs that have yet to be seen in sets. For example, John Ho (who appears in this video) also built this MOC which appeared on the LEGO Bionicle Facebook page back in 2014 as inspiration in the "Battle for the Gold Mask" competition. It includes Tr. Flu. Reddish Orange 7M lower limb beams and 6M upper limb beams on its legs, and Tr. Flu. Reddish Orange 5M upper limb beams on its arms. None of those parts have appeared in sets in that color. Of course, that doesn't mean that recolors like that won't appear in sets in the future — just that appearing in set designers' MOCs isn't necessarily a hint that they will.

The cloth pieces and printed shield probably wouldn't be too hard for LEGO designers to make custom even without them ever going into production — it's not uncommon for them to do that kind of thing during the prototyping phase, or even just for MOCs they make in their spare time. I still think there's a strong chance of getting a Makuta set in the future, but the way the designers showed the Makuta models in this video off actually makes me think that it's not going to be one of these versions. If any of them were a set, I imagine that either they wouldn't be revealing them this early, or they'd be dropping hints and building hype that one of these Makutas would be a future set, instead of describing them like MOCs or personal projects. But of course, I could be wrong.