Aanchir

Thanks for pointing that out! I had to trim the article down to fit it within the character limit for front-page news stories, and must have accidentally cut out part of the URL that it needed for the link to work correctly. I should have thought to test the link before publishing the story. Here's the correct link. Sorry for the inconvenience!

I entered the CHI Mungus raffle. Part of me wants to enter the CHI Cragger raffle because that set is such a great set with such great parts, but at the same time, my brother already won a copy of CHI Cragger in a previous BZPower raffle, so me entering would feel kind of unfair to other BZPower members who haven't had a chance to obtain one.

I like blended/co-injected pieces, but IMO it's no substitute for a printed pattern. They achieve very different tasks: a blended piece suggests a mottled material or a combination of two separate materials, while a printed piece adds sharper and more specific patterns. The Barraki heads and armor from G1 and the crystal masks, armor, and weapons of this year's Toa and Creatures strike me as good uses of blended pieces, while the scaly patterns of the Bohrok-Kal faceplates and the tribal runes and "war paint" of the G2 Toa chest plates strike me as a good use of printed pieces. In LEGO System sets, I feel like animals with highly specific patterns like parrots look much better printed than blended, flame or energy parts look much better blended than printed, and some parts like the LEGO Friends chameleon or LEGO City husky make great use of both! There's also another technique LEGO uses calls "2K" (for "2-komponent"), also known as overmolding. This is where one section of a part is molded in one material, and then another section of the mold is added on in a separate material, so that you have a two-colored part where the colors remain separate instead of blending together with a marbled pattern. This technique is often used for two-colored minifigure arms, legs, and headgear in LEGO System, the evil brains in LEGO Hero Factory, and for some of the head pieces from the LEGO Star Wars buildable figures, but has not yet been used in Bionicle. Overmolding shares the crispness and consistency of printing as well as co-injection's ability to have a color combination across several surfaces. Of course, like co-injection, overmolding lets you change the combination of colors on a piece but not their pattern, so putting different Nuva symbols on each of the Toa's torsos would require a different set of molds for each Toa's torso, as opposed to printed patterns where all you need is a printing machine set up for that one particular mold and new printing pads for each printed pattern. So for that kind of variety printing is a lot more efficient. It would be interesting to see if LEGO ever uses 2K for Bionicle parts like masks or armor in the future. But I don't think there's any point limiting multicolored Bionicle parts to one technique when you could use different techniques for different parts, depending on what's best for them.

I get the idea it's one of those cases where he still had stories he still wanted to tell in the Bionicle universe, and he thought that he could justify telling them as a way of softening the impact of Bionicle's cancellation… letting fans down easy, as it were. But then between the work he was still being paid for and events in his personal life, he didn't have the time to finish telling the new stories he'd started. In hindsight it probably would've been wiser for him to focus on wrapping up the loose ends that had already been established rather than starting new storylines, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20. I can totally understand how in his position he might have thought continuing the story would be the best thing for both him and the fans. But maybe lego could have hired someone to take over and finish the serials so they could GregF focused as lego magazine Editorial Director but he could act as as supervisor the replacement story team? LEGO wouldn't have paid someone to finish a story they weren't selling sets for anymore. GregF's original plan was to finish the serials on his own time just for the fans. Yeah, even Greg Farshtey himself wasn't being paid to continue the Bionicle serials at that point. He was doing that purely because he wanted to, and because it's what he thought the fans would want as well. The purpose of the Bionicle story, for LEGO, has always been to promote the sets and give fans more ways to engage with them. In the absence of new sets, there was no reason to be paying extra to tie up another author's loose ends. One of the only incentives of the story after 2010 was to try and foster good will with Bionicle fans so they wouldn't feel like LEGO simply abandoned them. But it's important to remember that by that point, the Bionicle fanbase was not even strong enough to justify Bionicle's continued existence. Many Bionicle fans had already moved on to other interests, and for many others it was only a matter of time before they did the same. So the success of post-Bionicle themes like Hero Factory and Ninjago would not depend on how much of the lingering Bionicle fanbase they could appeal to, but how many NEW fans they could entice. By the time the last serial update was posted (June 30th, 2011), it was probably safe to assume that any Bionicle fans who had not yet moved on to other LEGO themes on their own merits either would do so on their own time or never would, regardless of whether the serials continued. And as far as the LEGO Group was concerned, the theme had already gotten as happy an ending as they could give it. Meanwhile, by that point in 2011, Ninjago had already begun making an even bigger splash than Bionicle had in its first year. As of March the Ninjago TV specials had been the highest-rated programs among boys in their timeslot, and by late April it had been confirmed for a full 13-episode TV season in 2012. By the end of 2011 it was the LEGO Group's most successful launch for a new product line of all time. So there was little incentive for LEGO to focus their resources on an increasingly small demographic of disgruntled Bionicle fans when there were much bigger fish to fry.

I get the idea it's one of those cases where he still had stories he still wanted to tell in the Bionicle universe, and he thought that he could justify telling them as a way of softening the impact of Bionicle's cancellation… letting fans down easy, as it were. But then between the work he was still being paid for and events in his personal life, he didn't have the time to finish telling the new stories he'd started. In hindsight it probably would've been wiser for him to focus on wrapping up the loose ends that had already been established rather than starting new storylines, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20. I can totally understand how in his position he might have thought continuing the story would be the best thing for both him and the fans.

I think I've gotta agree with this. Kopaka gets all kinds of funny moments, both due to his more physiological weaknesses like his clumsiness and poor sense of direction, and his prideful refusal to admit those weaknesses to anyone even when they couldn't be more obvious. Thematically, he's also a really cool character (no pun intended) — he's got a very guarded, defensive personality that's reflected in his design, though the emphasis is not as strong in this year's set portrayal. Compared to G1 Kopaka, who was just plain ornery until he learned to be less of a loner, G2 Kopaka is a lot easier for me to relate to as somebody who's confident but always afraid to be caught slipping up (okay, THAT time the pun was intentional). Design-wise, I'm partial to Gali, and I also think she's probably the character I'd get along with best. But the story has never really put her in a situation where her unique strengths and weaknesses are extremely evident. I hope she will get more chances to shine in the future.

I don't know about the Matoran universe but I do know in the Okoto universe Ekimu did cry. WHHAAAAAAAT?! Plz, can you source this? A gif, a picture, something?! Not to sound saddistic but I always have been curious as to see what it would look like for a BIONICLE to cry. Here you go! It's from the second graphic novel, and is honestly one of the most emotionally powerful Bionicle comic panels of all time, IMO. You can really feel Ekimu's inner conflict, both determined to stop his brother and heartbroken at allowing it to come to this. The only G1 comic panel I can think of that comes close is this panel from Ignition issue 11 when Matoro puts on the Mask of Life, and even it doesn't fully encapsulate what Matoro himself is feeling — rather, its emotional power comes from the viewer's sense of what is happening and what led up to it. Incidentally, one of the comments I saw about Ekimu's tears on Tumblr pointed out something about the G1 story: the riddle the Toa used to find Keetongu in 2005 mentioned "tears that reach the sky". So whether or not Matoran cry, it's implied that they know what tears are, though that might just be a contradiction.

Honestly I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if some people in 2003 felt the same way about the Toa Nuva and Takanuva as you feel about the 2016 Toa and Ekimu. I'm not saying I disagree with you — I also preferred Ekimu as a shorter mentor-type character versus a big fighter like the Toa (though I'm interested to learn more about his transformation), and overall I prefer last year's Toa to this year's, with the possible exception of Lewa. But Bionicle has always had transformations like this, and they've always been controversial with certain fans either for the new versions being either too similar or too different from their predecessors. While I think it's far too early to be asking people their favorite year of Bionicle (since only one year of Bionicle has actually wrapped up), I did enjoy 2015's sets and story more overall than I've enjoyed this year's sets and story so far. With that said, I think the new versions of the Toa and Ekimu are some of the strongest character redesigns Bionicle has ever had from one year to the next. They have enough similarities to be easily recognizable, enough differences that they don't feel like a straight rehash, and certain specific changes like the elemental crystal motifs that help the new versions feel more powerful than their predecessors. But even with such a good balance between things that were changed and things that were kept the same, it's hard to say whether the new Toa are decidedly stronger toy designs. For comparison's sake, the Toa Nuva in 2002 had some interesting design changes from the 2001 Toa Mata that could be seen as positive or negative, like silver weapons, silver armor, and mutated-looking masks. But they also made decisive improvements in playability: dual-function weapons and the option to have two geared shoulders or one plus a locking mechanism. Nothing was really sacrificed to add those features. Playability-wise, the upgrade from 2015 to 2016 is less of an outright improvement and more of a give-and-take. The Toa gain a waist function, but lose their shoulder functions. They gain the ability to unite with their creatures, but lose the ability to knock each other's masks off in battle (instead of just popping them off manually). Several of them gain action features in their weapons, but lose the ability to switch between "battle mode" and "adrenaline mode". Ekimu gains a second action feature in his torso, but loses the action features in his weapons. You get the idea. If I'm being honest, though, part of the reason there was this give-and-take is that unlike the Toa Mata, which were pretty rudimentary, the 2015 Toa brought together a lot of the best design and play features of Bionicle sets over the years. It would've been hard to add so many new features without taking away others, and keeping all the same features at the expense of new ones would have started to feel repetitive. It's very difficult to keep a theme going year after year without this sort of give-and-take. Overall I feel like the designers of the 2016 sets did a good job with the challenge they were given.

It's kind of unusual that you think printed pieces are cheap or childish, because most AFOLs I've met absolutely love printed pieces and wish LEGO made more of them. For that matter, many AFOLs think Bionicle is childish in part due to its use of so many specially-molded pieces. I'm not saying I agree with either of those assertions, but it's weird that so many adults would feel that way if they thought printing was more childish than molded detail.

Kinda a weird thing to be sarcastic about… while I don't particularly expect EITHER theme to make a comeback, Hero Factory was not anywhere near as disastrous for LEGO as Galidor was. Hero Factory was successful enough to justify its existence for four years, while Galidor is generally considered one of the LEGO Group's biggest failures, if not THE biggest. So frankly the chances of Hero Factory coming back would be a lot stronger.

If they didn't affect sales in any way they wouldn't have existed in the first place. The purpose of the Bionicle story in general, including the books, comics, serials, and movies, was always to promote the sets. The books were certainly not the biggest or most essential factor in the sets' sales, but they were definitely a part of the overall equation. The more levels at which fans were able to engage with the brand, the more enthusiasm they tended to have for the sets, which is where the bulk of the theme's profitability came from. I don't exactly understand what this had to do with my post, though? I didn't mention the books prior to you bringing them up… sorry if I'm missing something obvious.

Bionicle hasn't been a part of Technic since at least 2003, and the packages haven't been branded as Technic since 2001. The change was never really more than a branding thing, though, and it's not like Bionicle sets became less Technic-based after the change in their branding. New parts and things are still developed under the LEGO Technic design umbrella even today, and many recent sets have been extremely Technic-intensive. The branding change simply means that Bionicle has for the past dozen years had its own clear identity as a unique LEGO theme rather than a category of a larger theme, same as how Ninjago and City are considered separate themes despite both ultimately being based on the same building system.

I think the "how" question is asking more about what sort of software was used, which I have to admit would be interesting to learn. Tohu's been the logo since well before I was here.

They did — they have their own collector-aimed figures with "bobblehead" proportions called Kubros. Even though there's little doubt that similar big-headed products played a role in the LEGO Group's decision to put figures like these to market in 2017, the LEGO Group did something similar with some of their previous event exclusive sets, in that case using the "CubeDude" character template by Angus MacLane. These new figures are instead based on the "Block Heads" of MOCist-turned-designer Austin Carlson.

For what it's worth, some of the serials WERE written to sell the sets. "Dreams of Destruction" focused on telling the story of store exclusive characters Lesovikk, Sarda, Idris, and Karzahni, who were mostly absent from the year's main story. Likewise, "Brothers in Arms" in 2008 existed to shine a spotlight on Vultraz and Mazeka. I do think it's nice that Greg did write some of the serials and short stories largely for the enjoyment of writing them, as it shows how much he cared about the franchise. Unfortunately, they are also part of why I would choose sets over story: the serials that didn't focus on characters from the current sets often felt aimless and disjointed, especially as the core story approached and eventually reached its conclusion. As side-stories they were satisfactory, but it was their connections with the set-driven core story that gave them a real sense of purpose, instead of just feeling like a bunch of errand-running interrupted by plot twists. The "big picture" in the core story tended to be planned out years in advance, whereas the serials helped fill in the gaps in that big picture. Having that spontaneous cliffhanger-heavy style of the serials without the more purposeful, set-driven main story backing it up is like having mortar with no bricks (no pun intended).

Sets, easily (for both G1 and G2). I feel like the Bionicle story has generally been pretty weak and directionless when it didn't have the sets as a backbone. The sets were the reason I got into Bionicle in the first place even if the story helped enrich my enjoyment of them. And of course, LEGO fans are fully capable of coming up with their own stories — prior to the mid-90s it was the status quo for LEGO themes to have a basic premise and otherwise be largely open-ended. So it's not as though a theme without a built-in story would have nothing for fans to enjoy. While I tend to prefer themes with more developed stories like Bionicle, Ninjago, Elves, and Nexo Knights over purely open-ended themes like City, Pirates, and Castle, I would probably never have taken an interest in Bionicle in the first place if it were just an overwrought book or comic series without any sort of colorful, buildable toy characters to fire up my imagination.

Using a rareish color like Earth Blue again is an entirely different beast than bringing back a discontinued color, especially since Earth Blue is actually fairly common outside of constraction and has been for years. LEGO generally keeps their color palette VERY tightly controlled these days. You can see their 2016 color palette here. Anything on that chart is fair game for future Bionicle sets, even if it's rarely or never been in constraction sets before. You're right that the possibility of LEGO introducing a new copper or bronze color can't be ruled out, but it's not a decision that would be made lightly, and the discontinuation of previous copper/bronze colors is definitely an obstacle.

Not to say you're wrong for wanting this, but there is a reason why bronze and/or copper armor doesn't appear in Bionicle sets: because LEGO no longer makes parts in bronze or copper plastic. I'm assuming that by "bronze" you mean the color like the original Takanuva and Lhikan sets used (officially, 147 Sand Yellow Metallic), which was discontinued between 2005 and 2006. It and other gold colors (like 127 Gold and 189 Reddish Gold) were all replaced with 297 Warm Gold, the color that is still used for golden masks in G2. LEGO has had lots of colors that could be considered "copper", and annoyingly BrickLink considers just about all versions of copper the same, but the only copper color that's still around is 334 Copper Ink. It is sometimes sprayed or lacquered on as a coating for pieces, so it's not impossible to get "copper" Bionicle pieces, just unlikely (no Bionicle parts have ever had a sprayed or lacquered coat and only one, the Kanohi Hau/Rua from the Power Pack in 2001, has ever had a chromed/metalized coat). Copper Ink HAS been used in G2 Bionicle once: as one of the colors printed on Skull Grinder's chest plate.

How do you know the reference wasn't just the creators poking fun at illuminati conspiracy theories? You know, a joke? Like cartoons have all the time? Googling for the reference, it seems like an obvious, intentional background gag, not the kind of thing a real super-secret society would put out there for anybody in the world to see. Beyond that, one easter egg in one scene in one episode of one show is hardly evidence that Disney has deep ties to a massive global conspiracy. Storyboard artists and animators stick easter eggs into things all the time. For that matter, so do LEGO designers. Usually all it means is "the person drawing that scene/designing that set thought it was funny or clever and none of their higher-ups vetoed it". EDIT: Didn't see your post, Black Six. Sorry.

Possibly, though I hope not. Maybe it's the tackiness or the insane popularity, but I have an innate irrational repulsion towards Ninjago. Eugh. I really hope that once G2 is over, Lego will roll out an entirely new and original CCBS theme that isn't licensed or based on another line. I also hope it is blatantly sci-fi. Like, space opera, power armor and aliens sci-fi. I also hope it isn't HF G2. I also hope it will have heavy technic integration. I have many unlikely hopes. You're not the only one. I too have a repulsion towards Ninjago. Whenever I'm at a toy store I try not to look at Ninjago sets because there is something that I don't like about them, something that causes me an annoyance - merely by looking at those things. It is similar to how I try to not look at turds on a sidewalk - simply ewwww The ironic thing about this is that this is how a lot of AFOLs (especially older AFOLs) seem to feel about Bionicle. To many AFOLs it'll always be that confusing, tacky, newfangled thing that only the young whippersnappers really like or understand. With more Bionicle fans growing up and joining the AFOL community it's not quite as toxic to Bionicle fans as it once was, but a lot of people from that community are still repulsed by the Bionicle sets or don't think they count as "real LEGO". Kinda good to keep that perspective in mind when thinking about other themes. Every popular theme means to somebody what Bionicle means to you, and conversely, when you think badly of other themes there's probably somebody out there who feels the same way about themes you like. I think a Ninjago constraction theme might have potential, although there'd have to be some creative liberties taken so that the characters don't feel too repetitive, since as minifigures they don't have very different physiques. Chima managed this alright since the characters were already animal-based, so the sets could give them traits more in line with those animals (a hunched posture and tail for Cragger, a giant muscular body and fists for Gorzan, etc). But with Ninjago, where the heroes are humans, you'd have to diversify them with armor and equipment or with much subtler differences in their proportions (like making some of the characters shorter or taller or giving them slightly wider or narrower shoulders). This sense of variety is something the Star Wars buildable figures also sort of struggle with, but they manage it because their appearances are based strictly on existing, iconic characters. People won't necessarily care that Captain Phasma looks mostly like a taller First Order Stormtrooper repaint, because that's what she's supposed to look like. But with Ninjago, the version of the characters people are familiar with are the minifigures! So that sense of familiarity or authenticity won't be there to offset the "sameness" of their builds. There's also the question of how their faces would look. Sticking close to the minifigure faces instead of adding more human-like shaping and features like ears and noses would probably be best, again, since the minifigure versions of the characters are the ones that are iconic. Chima didn't struggle with this so much because the characters already had molded faces (albeit without so many uniquely molded details), and Star Wars and Super Heroes didn't struggle with it because the human versions of the characters were already more iconic than their minifigure counterparts. These obstacles wouldn't be the deciding factor in whether LEGO makes Ninjago constraction sets, though. If they see a market for Ninjago constraction sets they'll figure out the answers to those questions at that time.

Some of it could just be creative liberties. But additionally, part of me feels like this version of Makuta is based on an upcoming set. There are some things about his construction and the construction of his hammer that wouldn't make a whole lot of sense if there weren't a set of him planned (since previous depictions of him show him mostly looking like an Ekimu palette swap, which would be a LOT easier for the character designers and animators to manage if they weren't basing this new portrayal on something specific). It's not unheard of for a character or object to appear one way before a finalized version is available for reference, and another way afterwards. Sometimes there will be a story reason for this discrepancy (like the Mask of Life's ability to shapeshift explaining the many), while other times the discrepancy will just be ignored.

The comment about "completely custom upper arms and lower legs" was to illustrate that rather than being as formulaic as you seem to think, Toa builds are frankly less formulaic than ever at this point! The "beams+shells" building style for limbs has been the status quo for just about all Toa and Toa-sized figures since the Toa Metru (even though those beams and shells were more specialized and connected by pins). Before that, the status quo was single-piece limb beams without any kind of shells at all So in that respect, even typical CCBS limbs were not really that much more formulaic than the sets that had preceded them. But in this year's sets, Lewa, Pohatu, and Kopaka all have custom upper arms built from Vorox shells, joint pieces, and Technic connectors, and Lewa even has custom lower legs using similar pieces as well. That's basically a first for Toa. How many Toa can you name from any previous year that didn't just use dedicated limb beams and limb shells (plus one or two pins/axles) for their arms and legs? I guess Toa Mahri Hewkii and some of the Phantoka/Mistika added blade pieces to the equation but other than that I can't think of a lot of examples. I definitely do enjoy these varied and complex sorts of builds, but I do not feel like Bionicle G2 has been totally lacking in those. Not only have there been more build variations among Toa than in many previous years, but there have also been sets like Lord of Skull Spiders, Skull Scorpio, the elemental creatures, and both versions of Umarak that feature considerable innovations and use Technic extensively instead of just sticking to a generic humanoid skeleton. The main place these builds fall short of old-school Rahi and titans is that they're usually not as big, not that they're not as varied. Umarak the Destroyer stands out as one set that is bigger, more parts-intensive, and packed with more functions than many G1 titans, and it'd be interesting to see if there's any chances of getting more sets like that in the future — possibly even at the $30 or $35 price points like Takanuva from 2008, Witch Doctor from 2011, and General Grievous from 2015. I recognize you are disappointed. I can tell you expected more. I do not agree with you about Bionicle G2 not having any vision that wasn't borrowed from G1. It definitely takes a lot of its cues from G1, as it must lest it fall into the trap of being "Bionicle in name only". But it also refines many elements from G1 and explores them from a different direction. Case in point: In G1, Mata Nui and Makuta's relationship was distant, almost to the point of being non-existent: Makuta served the will of Mata Nui just like pretty much every other being in the universe, but his higher rank didn't come with any sort of special familiarity or any reason to rationally call him and Mata Nui "brothers". In G2, Makuta and Ekimu are literal brothers, which shapes their relationship: Makuta's jealousy is portrayed sympathetically, rather than as mere megalomania or delusions of grandeur, and it genuinely hurts Ekimu to find that his brother has gone down such a dangerous path and he is forced to strike him down. This culminates in what, for me, is one of the most emotionally powerful panels of ANY Bionicle comic. I've been accused of being arrogant before. There might be some truth to that, and I apologize if I ever sound insensitive. I do not think that there's anything wrong with you for not liking it — you have your reasons for disliking it, and you can't force yourself to like it any more than I can force myself NOT to. Nor should you be expected to. Bionicle G1 and G2 both have countless strengths and weaknesses, and which generation a person thinks is better usually boils down to the highly subjective matter of which strengths and/or weaknesses matter the most to them personally. I won't pretend there's nothing about G2 that I'm disappointed or underwhelmed by (like the lack of an immersive adventure game), but for me these things are largely outweighed by the many aspects of it I DO enjoy. Conversely, there might be things you like about G2, but they are outweighed by the many things about it that disappoint you. I will not call you an idiot if Bionicle does keep going, because as I said in one of the topics this one replaced, there's no reward for being right about a prediction, and anyhow I don't really think there's been enough evidence to make a firm call on how many years of Bionicle G2 to expect. On the one hand, it has not resulted in any sort of obvious spike in the popularity of constraction; on the other hand, it'd be unusual for LEGO to discontinue their core constraction theme without first taking at least two years to develop a new one to replace it. I do fully expect Bionicle to continue with at least one wave next year, but I would not be shocked or distraught if 2017 were its last year, just uncertain about what that would mean for constraction going forward. All that said: if you're worried about sounding like a bully that's something you should probably be mindful of. Because while nobody's entirely responsible for what other people think of them, people aren't entirely responsible for feeling hurt by the things other people say, either. If somebody says something that hurts you, or makes you feel attacked, it can be good to take a step back and try to explain what it is they said that was so hurtful and why it was hurtful, instead of throwing that anger right back at them. And if you ever find somebody who seems like they're crossing the line from mere argument/debate into bullying or harassment, definitely take it up with a BZPower staff member and you can explore your options together. I know I've said some harsh things before, and the BZPower staff tend to be very good at reminding me to dial it back a notch. And those times that a warning or reminder isn't enough and somebody really just wants to stir up trouble, the staff have other means of helping to make sure the community stays a safe place for you to share your opinions with the community. This goes for everyone in this topic, no matter what side of the current debate you're on. Arguments that escalate endlessly are no fun for anyone, and while it's OK for people to share opinions that make you angry, they shouldn't be attacking you, harassing you, or making you feel unsafe.

To my knowledge, none of those other companies have had ties with the illuminati. For all we know, Disney might even /be/ to illuminati, seeing how there isn't solid evidence of it in other companies. There isn't any solid evidence of it in ANY company. It's an obscure secret society that hasn't really existed on any organized level since the 18th century and was never a power player in world business or politics. There were some moral panics in the 19th and 20th centuries based on theories that they might still be operating covertly or have been behind events such as the French Revolution, but these rumors died down as people realized there really wasn't any substance to them. The only place that the Illuminati still exist and work towards a "New World Order" are in fiction and in the minds of conspiracy theorists. Several Illuminati conspiracy theories were popularized as a vehicle for anti-semitism, too, so while people are free to harmlessly joke about Illuminati conspiracy theories today, they do have a kiiiiinda sketchy past. On the other hand, if you want a laugh, some writers and animators will happily regale you with candid tales of the the role of secret societies in the television industry.

I don't see how you think the current sets are virtually identical, or how you think that makes a huge difference. Don't forget, the Bionicle theme's sales peaked in 2002, the year of the Bohrok-Va, Bohrok-Kal, and Toa Nuva. All three of those series were MUCH more repetitive than any series of sets we've seen since Bionicle was rebooted. Presently, all three of the beasts have entirely different functions, including some we've never seen in sets before. This year's Toa have the same chest plate, but otherwise their constructions are very different, including wholly custom lower leg and upper arm constructions for the first time on any Toa set (besides, of course, the 2008 version of Takanuva). And the Creatures have considerably different builds and functions than each other or previous sets. The issue with this is that $30+ sets like many of the sets you named tended to sell a lot less than Toa-sized sets or smaller titan sets. That's part of why there were always so few of them compared to other LEGO themes which routinely carry higher prices. I miss having a wider range of bigger sets too (what I wouldn't give to have a $50 CCBS titan set!), so don't think I'm saying that they weren't good or that you shouldn't miss them. But they weren't the core of what kept Bionicle successful. What's more, a lot of sets have gotten a lot more complex and varied than similar types of sets used to be, even though that's come with increases in price. This year's small $10 creature sets, have 74 to 120 pieces — for comparison's sake, 74 is the maximum piece count that was ever reached by a G1 canister set (Toa Kongu). This year's $15 and $20 Toa sets have 79 to 143 pieces, or 106 pieces average. The $15 elemental beasts have 102 to 114 pieces. The $20 Umarak the Hunter set has 172 pieces. The largest single-figure set, Umarak the Destroyer is 191 pieces, 14 more pieces than the average $20 or $25 set from G1 (I know of course that Umarak the Destroyer is $25; I include $20 sets in this comparison because the price of a $20 set from 2003 to 2009 is closer in today's money to $25). And most of these sets also have one or more action features, so it's not as though piece count is being inflated at the expense of functionality. So yeah, I'd love more sets on the bigger side of things, but I don't really feel like complexity is an area where G2 is tremendously lacking, and I don't think a lack of complexity will be the deciding factor in G2's staying power. If the $10–25 sets aren't selling well, then I don't know how additional $30+ sets could be expected to either sell better themselves or make the smaller sets sell better. I think the current use of transparent and metallic colors is really exciting, and for the most part I don't find it tacky, but you're right that in the end that aspect is pretty much just a matter of opinion. "Deep down"? I've openly acknowledged several times that Bionicle is nowhere near as successful as it was in 2002, that the Bionicle reboot has not been enough to reverse the steady decline in constraction's popularity that has been going on since its peak, and that its future is murky. That said, you and some others who dislike Bionicle G2 continue to insist that "not doing too great" is tantamount to imminent doom, which I do not necessarily agree on. You also continue to insist that the reason it's not doing too great is because LEGO doesn't care or isn't trying or that the people making it are just not good designers or storytellers, all of which I know to be untrue. Perhaps most annoyingly, you continue to disparage people who like the current state of the Bionicle sets or story, acting as if we're sheep who will worship anything that has the Bionicle brand name on it and only act as if Bionicle G2 is good because we're deluding ourselves, rather than because some of us genuinely see more to like than to dislike about it. For the record, there were threads like this as long ago as 2003, when Bionicle was still one of the LEGO Group's strongest themes. The entire reason Greg Farshtey joined BZPower forums in the first place was to reassure people that despite LEGO being in dire financial straits, Bionicle was not in fact on the brink of cancellation. Since then, just about every year there has been at least one person, generally a person who is not happy with the current state of things, who insists that Bionicle or Hero Factory is ending soon. And it's not just constraction themes either. I can't tell you how many times this year I've encountered Ninjago fans who think the theme is on the brink of ending, even after it was declared evergreen last year! Nobody is stopping you from having an opinion. That said, by choosing to voice your opinion, you invite other people to respond to it — either with their own opinions, or things that seem confusing or contradictory about yours, or facts that have influenced their opinions and might also influence yours. You are under no obligation to change your own opinion because others disagree with you, but don't make the mistake of thinking that people not agreeing with you and not changing their own opinions to be more like yours is some sort of suppression.

I don't know whether that's really a very sound comparison. Ninjago made a huge splash when it was first introduced, but it was planned for two years and LEGO sort of expected it to burn out after that. Remember that running for two and a half to three years straight tends to be the best outcome a non-evergreen LEGO theme can expect, and while Ninjago is now considered evergreen, that wasn't the case prior to last year. It got a graphic novel series in its first year, even though the other two graphic novel series launched alongside it were for themes that were already massively successful (LEGO Ninjago and LEGO Friends). It had exclusives tied to it at NYCC 2014, SDCC 2015, and LEGO Inside Tour 2015, and was in fact the sole focus of the LEGO Group's NYCC presence in 2014. Bear in mind that Comic-Con exclusives for non-licensed themes are exceedingly rare. Bricklink lists 50 Comic Con exclusive sets 45 are based on licensed themes, one is based on The LEGO Movie, one was based on Bionicle G1, and the remaining three were based on Bionicle G2. The Bionicle reboot also got a four-episode Netflix exclusive series this year (with a longer total running length than any of the G1 Bionicle movies). Again, the only other theme to get a Netflix exclusive series was LEGO Friends, which is in its fifth year as an unmitigated success story. Bionicle is now getting a magazine published in several languages in Europe. No other themes except for evergreen and "big bang" themes have had magazines of this sort. If Bionicle G2 does, in fact, end after next year, it won't be because it wasn't given a fair shot. Some actual "big bang" themes in the past like Exo-Force, Power Miners, and Atlantis didn't get this level of upfront and ongoing investment! Back to the discussion of a post-cancellation revival — something that has to be considered is that Ninjago's situation, and the reaction to rumors of its cancellation, were pretty much unprecedented. That's not to say that no other theme has been cut short when it still had momentum. Slizer/Throwbots is one good example that was ended to make room for Roboriders, which underperformed. This was a big part of why Bionicle G1 was an ongoing theme to begin with — LEGO realized that their development process couldn't allow the same team of designers to introduce a successful, well-developed theme each year, or to respond to sales figures they didn't anticipate. But Ninjago's success was many orders of magnitude greater than Slizer's. In its first year, it was literally the most successful new product launch of all time for the LEGO Group. Monthly search interest for LEGO Ninjago routinely surpasses all of the LEGO Group's other strongest themes except during the month of December, when LEGO Star Wars usually surpasses it — but only slightly. The last time search interest for Bionicle came close to the level of search interest Ninjago had in late 2012 was… well, actually, it's impossible to know if it EVER did, because Google Trends only tracks search interest from January 2004 onward, and Ninjago's search interest in November or December 2012 was more than twice what Bionicle's search interest was in any month Google Trends even has a record of. Needless to say, the love fans had for LEGO Ninjago didn't just spontaneously spring up out of nowhere after rumors began to emerge that it might be ending in 2013. Rather, its popularity had been sharply rising since well before that point. I have seen no indications that Bionicle's popularity is on any similar sort of sharp, steady upswing that might make LEGO reverse course on any hypothetical plans to end it.