Aanchir

Amazing compilation of info. It's neat to get a sense of how many changes the plans for Bionicle went through. Early on in 2014/2015 a lot of people were critical of how many things in Bionicle G2 were not immediately clear or definite (such as where the Toa came from, how villagers were created and how mechanical/organic they were, what role the Mask of Time was meant to play, etc), but it's definitely enlightening to reflect on how long it took us to get definite answers to many of these sorts of questions even in G1, and how much different many of those answers were from how they were originally envisioned. As much as we admire Bionicle's creators, it's worth remembering that it was never some singular master plan followed to the letter… the creators changed details as they went along, sometimes quite rapidly (as evidenced by contradictions in the final confrontation with Makuta between different 2001 story media, for example). What we actually wound up seeing in the Bionicle story was just a glimmer of the amount of varied and sometimes contradictory ideas that went into creating it. The people who created it were not only leading the story, but also following it where it led them, and much of the learning of how best to tell a story like this came about through the very experience of telling it. That's part of what makes these kinds of behind-the-scenes glimpses so fascinating to me.

It's weird to me how many people have a hard time seeing the new shadow bats as bats? They're certainly no less bat-like than the classic LEGO bat from Fright Knights. You also managed to mispronounce Naida's name every time in the video, lol. I think Furi's name is probably meant to be pronounced like "fury" rather than "furry", but that much can be forgiven because we've never heard it spoken aloud. I think the smaller Friends and Elves boxes usually don't have the beveled edges, while the larger ones do. Naida's new outfit is pretty cool, and i like the subtle inclusion of a turtle motif near her shoulder. I also like her staff even if it's the simplest of the new Elves weapon designs. Together, the armor, boots, and weapons for the Elves this year make them look like they're really gearing up for a final battle. Calypso the sea turtle is also really cute! Turtles are one of the creature types from LEGO Friends that I'd really been hoping to see in LEGO Elves so it's cool to get two in one set. Cory's head turns side to side a bit better if you angle the neck upward, which is what I ordinarily do anyway because I think it looks better than having it stretched forward. She looks really good next to the other elemental creatures, and I like that she's not super small compared to them despite coming in a set at a much lower price point. Incidentally, I think her shell looks better if you angle the gold horn/tail pieces towards the front of her shell up a little higher so that they meet with the top edge of the shell. That eliminates some of the more conspicuous gaps. The landscaping in this set is nice, if simple, and it's cool to see a new way of using the disk shooter element. Also fun to see the return of the phantom stream keeper. I love the creative use of the new flower and flower stem pieces. The new flower stem is a big improvement on the old one in terms of versatility and stability, since the old one attached much more loosely to a stud than the new one does to any part with a 3.2mm hole. Thanks for the review!

These books are pretty nice! Worth noting that "Standing Small" was for the 30th anniversary of the minifigure, not the brick. A revised and expanded edition of "The LEGO Book" came out in 2012 (with info on newer themes like Ninjago, Friends, and Super Heroes), and there's an even newer edition coming out in October of this year, but there hasn't been a new edition of "Standing Small" as far as I know. Instead there's been a new minifigure reference guide called LEGO Minifigure Year-By-Year: A Visual History, written by Daniel Lipkowitz and a certain Gregory Farshtey.

She's really cute! I love her shoes! Her weapon and head also feel very creative. If there is one thing that bothers me, it's the silver shells on the shoulders. Most of the other silver parts of the model are more heavily textured so it's a little weird seeing such a big, smooth space in that color. If they were Earth Blue like the upper legs they'd probably feel like they belong more, although I know that 5 module shells don't come in Earth Blue yet.

How's this? Gets a lot of teeth packed in there really close together with the jaw mostly surrounding them. There are lots of ways you could modify this to make it sturdier and cover up the place they show through the front of the jaw as well, if you find that bothersome. Parts: 6636 x2 (but this can be replaced with a shorter or longer tile if you need)15208 x422385 x499780 x1Here's another option that's a bit bigger and uses the pointier teeth, a little more spread apart. But still no wider than your current lower jaw, and it could be made shorter or longer in length fairly easily: Parts: 3021 x23623 x111477 x115573 x150746 x8 (only four shown in the picture above so you can see the interior structure)53451 x1061252 x163864 x185861 x10

Here's some links to the Turaga, Tohunga, and Kanohi pages on the Wayback Machine if it's any help recovering those pages! Vakama Matau Nokama Whenua Onewa Nuju Jala Kongu (weirdly, this one says that KONGU is afraid of heights, which I hadn't heard before) Maku Onepu Huki (I can't get Matoro's page to load, sadly) Noble Kanohi Great Kanohi Infected Masks Masks chart

I think the long gap had more to do with the lack of new movies set in this universe between Deathly Hallows and Fantastic Beasts. Most licensed themes like Pirates of the Caribbean, Cars, Toy Story, Jurassic World, Indiana Jones, etc. tend to come and go according to the schedules of whatever mass media franchises they tie in with.

I'm excited for the Ninjago City Docks and the dragons as well! I've seen a video review of Firstbourne (not in English, unfortunately) that makes her look like she might be the best LEGO Ninjago dragon set of all time! She really brings together a lot of the coolest features of dragon sets of the past, sort of like what the 2015 Toa sets did for the features of past Toa. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to get the Dieselnaut. It's an amazingly brutal-looking vehicle, but at the same time it doesn't call out to me the way the dragons do. I might just get whatever unique figs it has (like on BrickLink. I will probably skip Destiny's Wing as well, though I may change my tune on that if it turns out that it can combine somehow with last year's Destiny's Bounty to make it feel more flightworthy! Oni Titan is such a fantastic rock monster design! It's very cool that Nya finally gets a version of the boomerang blade that was her signature weapon as Samurai X in season one, even if it's a bit large! That said, the figs have a lot of overlap with Throne Room Showdown. I'm not sure which of those two sets I should get, because I'm not sure I can justify getting both. It might be smarter to get the Oni Titan and then order Skylor (the only wholly unique character design between those two sets) and Nya's ninja mask from BrickLink. Since Throne Room Showdown is fairly low priced I doubt Skylor will be too expensive. Overall it's going to be an exciting second half of the year for LEGO Ninjago!

Tricky thing there is that Orient Expedition was a flop. In fact, practically none of the themes that year were profitable besides Bionicle and Star Wars. That's the whole reason Bionicle was able to save the company from bankruptcy. I also suspect that the name and concept of "Orient Expedition" might have some cultural baggage these days as people are becoming more aware of cultural appropriation and how easily stereotypes get reinforced by presenting non-western cultures through the perspective of western outsider protagonists. No idea whether that'd be a deal-breaker, but in any case it would be something I'd hope LEGO would handle with care if they were to attempt to revisit a similar theme.

For what it's worth, anime can refer to either a TV show or a movie. "Princess Mononoke" and "Ghost in the Shell" are some examples of anime movies, while "Little Witch Academia" and "Dragon Ball Z" are some examples of anime TV shows. Strictly speaking, anime is not a style but just a catchall term for Japanese-made animated movies and series, which can have extremely varied styles. However, some people use it loosely to refer to other series that share common anime design cues such as the American-produced, Korean-animated "Avatar: The Last Airbender", "The Legend of Korra", and "Voltron: Legendary Defender". A lot of the backlash against the Transformers movies is borne out of their militaristic themes (including grants from the US Armed Forces to portray the military in a favorable light), raunchy humor and innuendo, baffling and incongruous storylines, superficial edginess, and emphasis on poorly developed human characters over the actual stars of the franchise. Saying that a Transformers-style gritty live-action movie series would not suit Bionicle is not the same as saying movies in general would be a poor fit.

Weirdly, I've had people argue to me on other sites that its biggest problem was catering too much to adults. Generally, I think the media left a lot to be desired, but I feel like its quality issues were not target age related. After all, the series you mention as examples of ones all ages can enjoy (Avatar and Voltron) are still very definitely aimed at kids. And I don't think lackluster quality will make any series MORE popular with young kids than it would be if the quality were higher.

I still have no idea why they changed their website layout to such an ugly one. What is to be benefited from that? zIFBoards (the forum software Mask of Destiny used) was acquired by Tapatalk, which discontinued the old forum software and made their own Tapatalk Groups service the default option for those site owners to convert to. The same thing happened to another Bionicle site I used to use — it was bewildering when I first checked back there.

Why sell a kidney to buy the set when you could buy the set and exchange everything but the sticker sheet for a third kidney?

Counterpoint: Captain Underpants is hilarious. Which isn't to say that approach would work in any way whatsoever for Bionicle, though I'm sure plenty of people in the BZPower comedies forum back in the day gave it their best shot.

just fyi clicking the thumbnails to the leaflet just links to the thumbnails, not to the larger images! Wondering if you could come up with a more custom figure build that could use the Mata head pen beads as a head… Of course, the other possibility (since the stickers make these non-purist anyhow) could be to file down the neck stud of a blank minifigure torso.

So excited for Unikitty! Bionicle fans, take note that Puppycorn's tail is a Bionicle ball joint, adding blue and teal to the colors that part's available in… I still need to watch that TV show, though… it's hard to keep up with TV at college.

I think if LEGO were to bring Blacktron back, to really make it work they'd have to have a shared theme of Blacktron vs. Space Police. They're such iconic adversaries, and in this day and age most themes involving conflict tend to depict both sides of that conflict, so I can't think of any faction better suited to face off against Blacktron than Space Police. Plus, Space Police seems to be one of the Space themes that has managed to remain the most timeless, with three different incarnations to date. It probably helps that you can immediately understand the theme's concept upon hearing its name, whereas M:Tron's role as a rescue operation is poorly understood among AFOLs, and even I don't know what exactly Unitron was supposed to be all about besides having interchangeable cockpits. It's been nearly ten years since the last take on LEGO Space Police, so I think it would still feel fairly fresh to kids as well. All that said… I think it's going to be hard to get a space theme off the ground while new Star Wars movies are still coming out on a yearly basis. The toy industry is so heavily saturated with Star Wars toys that it'd be hard for an space action IP without that kind of saturation to establish a foothold. And with the Marvel movies getting more "spacey" thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy and Infinity War, that's even more stuff competing for sci-fi-loving kids' attention. One direction I could perhaps see LEGO Space taking is a girl-oriented space theme, like what LEGO Elves has been for castle. It's hard to predict what exactly that would entail, though, or even if the time is right for it, because there's not a lot of heavily girl-targeted sci-fi brands trending right now.

I feel like Mixels was probably just a three-year contract with Cartoon Network that ran its course. If anything were meant to "replace" it, it'd probably be this year's new Unikitty sets, since those are also based on a Cartoon Network co-production. And while I guess Bionicle is vaguely similar to BrickHeadz in terms of having lots of lower-priced sets instead of set prices ranging from low to high, I don't really think there's a 1:1 relationship between them as far as target audience is concerned. Plus, a new theme like BrickHeadz would have been in development well before the decision was made to cancel Bionicle.

Potentially! There have certainly been orchestra concerts with niche subjects in the past. And if it's a one-time thing in a single location with a high population, then it really only has to generate enough interest to fill seats at whatever venue they settle on.

I think G2 wrapped up pretty neatly, and while I would've loved for it to continue, I agree with Downfall that to really make it feel natural you'd probably have to change the end of the 2016 story instead of just leaving it the same and picking up AFTER Makuta's defeat. Just hypothetically, 2016's story could've gone mostly unchanged up until the portal to the shadow realm being opened and Umarak being destroyed The Toa realize they can unite their elements to close the portal and protect Okoto from invasion, but only from the inside. They and Ekimu resolve to enter the portal and take the fight to Makuta. The next story arc would then begin with the Toa either in hiding or on the run in the shadow realm. Makuta needs to capture them and strip them of their elemental energies to escape and wants revenge on his brother. Not sure where the story goes from that point. There are loads of possibilities: Maybe the Toa's energies are corrupted from being in the Shadow Realm and they transform into whatever their new forms for that year would be?Maybe their weapons are damaged beyond repair by the energy needed to close the portal and they need to scavenge new ones?Or maybe their armor and weapons simply no longer work in the shadow realm like they did in Okoto and Ekimu has to make them new masks, armor and weapons with a special shadow realm material?Maybe they discover a resistance movement of Okotans whose ancestors were trapped in the shadow realm during the Great Cataclysm but refused to bow down to Makuta's reign?Maybe the missing half of the Mask of Time is hidden somewhere in the shadow realm but Makuta has never been able to find it?And maybe Ekimu secretly brought Okoto's Mask of Time with him when he crossed over?What if the final confrontation with Makuta involves the present-day Makuta and Ekimu having to go BACK IN TIME to before the Great Cataclysm — with Ekimu trying to protect the Mask of Ultimate Power from being worn by anybody, and the present-day Makuta trying to make the Cataclysm shake out in his favor so that he can freely conquer Okoto?Maybe Makuta has recruited spooky new allies in the Shadow Realm? I know The Journey to One reused Elemental Beasts, Skull Warriors, etc. for his forces but this was probably more due to budget than anything.Maybe the new enemies have a vampiric theme like in 2008?Or maybe an eldritch/alien, "black fantasy" vibe sort of like this or these?Maybe the Toa's new armor could have sort of a stealthy ninja vibe for slipping through the shadows? Or a post-apoc vibe to tie in with their desperate plight?Design-wise, the Toa's default masks could be their primary colors blended with Titanium Metallic to signify corruption or loss of power, and they could be seeking out new masks that are warm gold blended with glow white that will allow them to fight back against the shadows!Wow, this topic really got me thinking. It's really fun feeling this inspired. Thanks for starting such a thought-provoking topic!

Huh, so I've had the Rahkshi since 2003, and I've never noticed that their colors were supposed to be somewhat metallic. I just presumed they were a slight deviation of the standard Toa colors. Did I miss something with those guys? Yup! Even though Bricklink doesn't list the colors differently (except for White Metallic, listed as Pearl White), all six Rahkshi used rare metallic colors for their heads, backs, and feet: 184 Bright Red Metallic 185 Bright Blue Metallic 186 Dark Green Metallic 187 Earth Orange Metallic 149 Black Metallic 183 White Metallic All of these were only used for their respective Rahkshi (and parts tubs that included Rahkshi parts), with the exception of Black Metallic, which was also used for 2003 Makuta's mask and a few Vorahk parts reused in the Kikanalo. Slight correction — Bright Blue Metallic was also used for the character Scrambler in a Duplo Bob the Builder set! But yeah, the color palette was getting kind of out of control around that time, with lots of colors that weren't being used widely across multiple sets and themes. Since then the color palette's been shrunk from over 150 colors to around 60.

G2 had a lot of great stuff going for it. Main things I'd like to see in the future that G2 lacked are more girl characters and a less myopically action-focused storyline. Show us what makes the Toa and villagers happy when they're NOT fighting evil. Show us more of what they're fighting FOR. Give the characters senses of humor and moments of emotional vulnerability. Teach them life lessons that aren't just about how to be better warriors. Ya know, stuff like LEGO Elves and LEGO Ninjago do so well. As sets go, I agree with Lyi that articulated fingers could be a nice new development. But generally the Bionicle G2 sets did a good job recreating and evolving a lot of the most important attributes of G1 sets like gear functions, masks, shooters, and energetic color schemes. Price-wise, I could see Bionicle doing best with either a $10–15 price for the main heroes like the later years of Hero Factory or a $15–20 price for the main heroes like G2 had. Needless to say, the former makes collecting the main characters cheaper, but potentially limits how much variety and complexity is possible with smaller villager and creature sets. And the latter allows you to get much more impressive builds for the main characters. Beyond all that my tastes aren't too particular. All in all, G2 managed to not only meet but exceed a lot of my expectations. So probably a lot of the particulars of what it needed beyond that have to do with meeting new fans' personal preferences, not my own.

The one I use most extensively in MOCs is easily Titanium Metallic (post-2010 gunmetal), but my favorites on a sentimental level are probably Reddish Gold (the color of the prototype Kanohi Avohkii I own) and Copper Metallic (still too rare to get much use out of, but a simply gorgeous color that I hope to see used more in the future).

Welcome the Dark Age or Great Depression or constraction. This decade, it ain’t in an age as golden as the 2000s, sadly. I think it would be best that if Lego would make constraction great again, probably in the 2020s (because Lego’s certain themes, like Mixels and Nexo Knights, are decreasing in some ways and then get cancelled), so we could get Bionicle back and have the golden age of constraction again. I think G2 came in the wrong time because Lego was focusing on a lot of themes often, like Ninjago, Nexo Knights, Mixels, and Lego Dimensions. I certainly wouldn't call the 2000s a "golden age" by any stretch of the imagination. The first half of that decade saw LEGO fall to the brink of bankruptcy, and while they began to recover around 2004/2005 and Bionicle served as a valuable lifeline during this time, the company as a whole didn't reach the soaring heights that they did in this decade with hits like Ninjago, Friends, and The LEGO Movie. The LEGO Group may be in a bit of a decline now, but that's after well over a decade of growth, hitting their peak sales and profits around 2015/2016. I've seen no indication that themes like Nexo Knights and Mixels were expected to last longer than they did, but even if they had been, plenty of themes in the 2000s were just as short-lived or more, including Knights' Kingdom, Exo-Force, Mars Mission, Vikings, Agents, Space Police, Power Miners, Life on Mars, Dinosaurs, Jack Stone, and LEGO Island Extreme Stunts. G2 definitely entered into a more competitive space than G1 did, but at the same time, the Elves theme launched at the same time with a similar amount of promotion and seems to have been a lot more successful. Part of this is probably from targeting a demographic that LEGO hasn't already tapped as thoroughly with their existing themes, but beyond that I think it calls into question whether the concept of magical tribal robot warriors, or even buildable action figures in general, resonates as strongly with kids as it used to. Themes coming and going at a rapid pace was pretty normal even during and prior to Bionicle G1. Bionicle was something of an anomaly in terms of how long it lasted compared to concurrent themes. Nowadays there are about as many long-running themes (City, Friends, Ninjago, Creator, Technic, etc) as there were back then. And it's not a bad thing for other themes to rotate on a frequent basis! It lets LEGO custom-tailor their products to current trends, keep the competition off guard, and maintain a strong sense of novelty. Furthermore, the issue of constraction having insufficient backing is often brought up, but the question remains: if LEGO can get a better return on investment from System themes than constraction ones, why invest more heavily in constraction? It's true that Bionicle might be able to be reasonably successful with a Ninjago-like TV show, but let's not forget that Ninjago started out with just a 44-minute special, not a full show, and still became the company's best-selling new product launch of all time. Elves, as mentioned, seemed to get a similar upfront investment to Bionicle G2, and yet has lasted twice as long. So when a theme like Bionicle or Hero Factory needs a much larger media presence than System themes to attain an equivalent level of success, that seems to be pretty compelling evidence against investing more heavily in constraction themes.

I'm fully on board with you on the S.S. Emzari lately. The otherwise superfluous bonding moment fifteen minutes into Episode 2 of Secrets of Elvendale opened my eyes to the possibility, while the latest webisode makes me a little more convinced that some of these little hints might be deliberate. Emily and Azari's bond seems to go beyond what you'd expect from Azari being the first elf that Emily met. I also ship Kopaka/Pohatu and a bunch of canon or might-as-well-be-canon ships like Jaller/Hahli, Hewkii/Macku, Jay/Nya, Zane/Pixal, etc.