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Xarok

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Everything posted by Xarok

  1. My target has Tahu and Kopaka while Toys R Us seems to have all of them except Umarak. I picked up Tahu and Lewa today and I'm very satisfied with them.
  2. Bruh, I'm buff as heck jk to each his own. Although I agree with you on the Metru having boring color schemes. Especially considering they were the first to use the less vibrant darker shades you'd think they'd at least give some nicer secondary colors.
  3. I'd say the Piraka. In terms of the story they were really cool, but I hated how generic and same-y the sets were, maybe it was just that at that point I was tired of clone sets? After two or three waves of canister sets that were basically just palette swaps of each other with different masks and weapons and no real differences (at least there was a slight bit of variation in the Toa Metru, some were taller than others, some had longer necks, ect) Also the Bohrok never appealed much to me for the same reason of being clones. The Toa Mata all had similar builds but there had subtle differences, (Onua's hunchback, Pohatu being build upside-down, each one had a different type of weapon) while the Bohrok all had the same number of pieces and they all did the same, except a different shield mold. At least they had bright and vibrant color schemes unlike the Kal, but I can hardly call them overrated since they don't seem to be well liked around here.
  4. For me personally, yes. That being said, even as a child, I recognized Bionicle's story for what it was, something made in order to sell toys. I liked the toys and the fact that there was a crazy expanded universe to it was just icing on the cake. The basic story was fine, although I remember avoiding the serials to be honest. The story had more than its fair share of issues even as a kid I could see how silly some story arcs were done, but I always thought of it in relation to Transformers or other lines that were basically made for toys. I think it's just as good as I remember it, which is to say when it was happening I knew it was cheesy and silly at times, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it for what it was, it was never meant to be the grand scifi epic some people make it out to be, but it was a lot of fun, and it really opened my imagination for coming up with my own characters which in a way started my creative thinking which eventually made me a writer.
  5. I was thinking to myself that there's no way they could top the 2015 Toa, but somehow they did. Not only are the new Toa awesome but they actually combine the small sets with the big ones in a way that doesn't feel too tacked on. This is how you get us to buy all of your stuff. Even the creatures alone are worth buying for unique builds. I'd love to see full sized sets for the creatures like back in 01 but I'm just glad we're getting more non-humanoid builds.
  6. Oh wow I remember being Makuta for Halloween back in 04 that brings back all the good memories. Still don't know why they made the mask upside down.
  7. God, I love over-analyzing movies, here we go. It has its moments. I think I prefer LoMN, but Web of Shadows is alright for a direct to dvd movie based on toys. That being said, I can't help but feel there was a lot of missed opportunity. We finally got an antagonist that wasn't Makuta but we ended up just getting someone who wanted to bring him back. Still, I think Roodaka was a really cool villain and it was interesting to see a bad guy who wasn't Makuta. I wasn't too happy about Matau's attitude towards Vakama, and it still feels oddly hilarious to hear a Bionicle character complain about his looks. It's just surreal hearing Matau talking about wanting to be beautiful again. I have a whole rant about how the Vakama defecting thing could have been better in another topic so I won't go into that here. Another thing I really liked was how the characters transitioned from toys to movie form. I'm not crazy about the story in Web of Shadows but they made some really good visual choices. I liked how the Hordika only had one actual hand while the other had their tool fused to it. Even then they only had clawed hands which put more emphasis on their beastly forms. I really wish they toys were that cool, (and no I'm not a Hordika hater, I just think they had the coolest looking movie forms out of the Toa that were featured in the movies) The way the Hordika slouched and walked more like gorillas was also a great choice, I was a little confused when I first saw it, but now I can't imagine them walking upright. I'll also never forget the first time I saw the Visorak in B3, I loved how creepy the lead up to them was, all the green fog and then hearing their roar or screech, whatever that was, it was freaky for a kid's movie. The way they had mechanical teeth and seeing the green web drip from their mouth was just creepy stuff. This was probably the first time I ever felt scared from a bad guy in Bionicle. They looked creepy to me when I was a kid, but what they did always creeped me out most of all. I liked how Web of Shadows had the slightest hint of body-horror with the transformation, you don't see it happening but the book described it as "having one's mind ripped apart by force and crudely pieced back together" or something like that, just that passage made me shudder. I think had they put more effort into expressing that aspect, Matau's attitude might have felt a little more justified. Had they shown more of the fear of changing into something warped or unknown, I feel like it would add more gravity to the situation. I really wish they had been given more time in the Bionicle movies, they had so much plot they were forced to condense to just a little over an hour. Who could forget the part where Keetongu (who's seen as one of the good guys) crushes Sidorak to death. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this was the first time I remember a good guy actually killing someone, sure we'd seen deaths before but it was always a bad guy killing a supporting role or another bad guy, never a hero killing a villain. It also reminds us that while Keetongu is intelligent and powerful, he is still an animal, or rahi and it really emphasized what made the Toa different from him or other rahi. The fight with Vakama and Matau was intense. We know Vakama won't stay bad because he's there telling the story in present day to all his friends, but gosh it was disheartening to see two of my favorite characters fighting, and I mean that in a good way. They weren't throwing energy blasts at each other or playing a game, but they were actually throwing punches. I still think it's a little corny how easy Vakama came back buuut that fight scene and Matau's speech was nice and I was just happy to see them getting along again. I almost feel like it would make more sense for Matau to defect because he's the most afraid and childish of the bunch. Perhaps I'm reading too deep into a movie made for kids to sell toys, but Bionicle 3 is certainly the most interesting and ambitious of all the movies and it's got some really cool stuff in there. It's a little messy and the pacing isn't very good, but it's the little things that make it really neat.
  8. Oddly enough I don't have any dreams where I'm in the Bionicle universe, and I have at least two or three extremely vivid dreams a week. Although as a kid I used to dream that I found the new sets in store only to be disappointed when I woke up.
  9. I feel I addressed this in my later posts. There were things wrong with them other than that they were filler. I also disliked Vakama defecting, but more because it seems unbelievable that after the hero's journey he completed in the story up until then - maybe the most intense journey any Bionicle character had been through at that time - he'd suddenly throw it away and join evil (and then only to throw that away and rejoin good ). Very true. I think Bionicle 2 is my favorite of the movies because of Vakama's character arc, and how he learns to believe in himself and trust his teammates. Bionicle 3 threw that out the window. It would work better if he either did something bad enough that he had to redeem himself as I said before or if he planned it all along. If he planned on defecting just so he could act as a double agent and get on Roodaka's good side so he could betray her. That would have been a neat twist. But since we're on the topic of that, was anyone else really off-put by Matau in Bionicle 3? I get he was upset about being mutated as all the Toa were, but he was just unnecessarily harsh on Vakama and everyone else. Vakama and Matau were my favorite Toa Metru and because of that it really makes Web of Shadows hard to watch seeing one of my favorites constantly harassing and belittling the other.
  10. I thoroughly enjoy your reviews, especially the one on Bionicle video games. I liked your little speech about what Bionicle meant to you, because I relate to it so much, G1 basically defined my childhood, but G2 so far in amazing. While I feel like the pieces are less specialized, I think that's kind of a good thing considering these are Lego toys. It feels like there's less emphasis on the pieces themselves and more on the process of putting a bunch of seemingly normal parts into an impressive looking figure. I think that fits more with the overall style Lego should have and I welcome it. Just because the new sets don't have a bunch of quirks like pistons (which were honestly purely aesthetic and served no purpose other than showing where a character would bend their knee if the figure had bendable knees) doesn't make them bad. In some ways the new sets are more complex than G1, at least if you're comparing the Toa/villager sets of G1 to G2. I still wish we had gotten a proper titan this year, some of the Star Wars sets show CCBS is more than capable of larger complex figures, but this year shows Bionicle has a very bright future indeed. I'll admit the winter wave was a lot better than the summer wave, but the skull villains are still great figures and I'm looking forward to what 2016 has to offer.
  11. He was a decent writer. Not the best, but his work was usually inoffensive at worst. If I were to judge the writing based off writing in general, it's nothing to go crazy about. Solid world building as far as I remember and I enjoyed the character interactions, but there were some bizarre spelling errors in his earlier novels. I felt like some of the villains were a bit copy-paste later on, I always loved Teridax or Makuta, whatever you wanna call him, but some of the threats and dialogue from the villains felt very cringe-worthy. I would have liked the villains to be not so one-note. All things aside, when you look it for what it is, which is a story designed to sell toys, it's a very well-written thought out story for the most part and I think Greg did well with the material he was given. These books are written for kids who like the toys so of course it's not groundbreaking literature, but I have very fond memories of staying up late, sipping hot cocoa and reading the Adventures and Legends series. I remember when I read about the Toa Nuva losing to the Piraka, I couldn't believe what I was reading, my 11 year old mind was so shocked. After while I mostly stuck to the comic books because I still had my lego club subscription, but I liked the books when I was part of that target audience and hey they got me interested in reading in the first place so that's always a great thing.
  12. Ancient, maybe not. Terrifying, absolutely. I don't care how old you are - if you can sort through and destroy my mind and possibly drive me insane, you are scary. Especially if you look like a spiky gelatin with a monster face. An older version of that might be less scary, because they might have enough restraint or be convinced not to come near me. A little kid mind destroying tyrannical monster? I think I will elsewhere, thanks. Yeah, but it was playing off Lovecraftian tropes. In those stories, the horror always comes from encountering something far beyond your understanding, which typically is older than humankind. The gelatin and tentacles are mostly incidental. I thought I was the only one who picked up on that. Was it officially stated to be a nod to Lovecraft? If so that's pretty dang awesome.
  13. That's the specific reason why we disliked them. A moment I disliked was Jaller's death in Mask of Light. I felt like his death lost any meaning because they brought him back so soon after. It really cheapens the emotional impact. Maybe if they actually let him stay dead, it would have meant something. I also disliked Vakama defecting only to come back. I know he had to be back so he could be a Turaga, but I felt like they could have done more with him being bad. It was like they wanted to show that Vakama would fall from grace and would have to redeem himself, but they never had him do anything bad enough that he would need to redeem himself. I think that would have made for an interesting story arc, Vakama perhaps does something bad while working with Roodaka and he has to do some soul-searching after the Toa stop the Visorak. That would have been a neat story idea and I feel like it would have justified making Vakama evil for half of Bionicle 3.
  14. I really liked 2007. While the Mahri kind of began the trend of re-using older builds like the Inika or Piraka, I thought they were much better than the Inika overall. I thought it was ironic that the Inika looked more like the Toa I thought they would be after being transformed a second time, and I was happy to see the return of the Metru heads in canister sets. The Barraki were just what Bionicle needed after wave after wave of clone sets. While they mostly had simple builds, each one had his own unique build that made them stand out from the rest, to me it was very refreshing since every wave of villains before were clones, even the Piraka who each had their own personality were all clones. It was nice to see that the sets themselves were varied like the characters. The titans were fantastic as well, giving us the (sort of) return of Makuta. Maxilos to this day remains one of my favorite titans because of how unique and complex the build was, breaking from the standard Inika-build in favor of something far more interesting. Even Hydraxon who was very much the "play it safe" titan was still interesting enough despite being pretty simple as far as titans go. It makes me think the Piraka feet were probably designed with the piston system in mind. 2007 also saw the return of brighter colors which I personally really missed after years of the darker colors. I thought the "Metru red/green/blue" were pretty uninteresting colors to be honest, and the return of time green brought back the vibrant feel from the 01-03 sets. Sure Jaller was still dark red, but the combination of that with orange felt more interesting.
  15. I really liked the Mistika to be honest. They weren't fantastic or even great sets. Heck the Toa from that line were downright ugly, but I enjoyed them. Maybe it was just the nostalgia but I was happy to see Tahu make a comeback after all those years even if he looked nothing like the Tahu I remembered. I also thought Umbra was pretty neat, I thought the roller skates were great in a so bad it's good sort of way. I also really liked the Lego playsets even if they weren't that great, the novelty of having Bionicle characters in minifigure form was really cool, although the Barraki minifigs made me sad, but it would have been more trouble than it was worth to make unique molds just for minifigures.
  16. I agree that it's more Zelda-ish. Skull Spiders= Skulltullas Temple of Time= Temple of Time Skull Warriors= Stalfos or ReDeads The overall setting is more fantasy adventure like Zelda as opposed to dark fantasy action like Castlevania. All I can really see relating to Castlevania are the undead enemies but that's extremely common in fiction.
  17. I just sort of thought they were cyborgs at first, before reading the books I just assumed they were normal organic beings that were fused to mechanical parts like Darth Vader or something.
  18. I also remember spamming emoticons when I wrote comedies. Also looking back, I feel like those were pretty noobish.
  19. I always thought Teridax was a cool name. Both Makuta and Teridax seemed to fit him very well. There were very few names I actually disliked in G1 and I can't really think of any in particular.
  20. Now, it's been quite a while since I've read any of the books, (I was more into the comics myself) but I thought Greg Farshtey was alright, considering he was writing stories designed to sell toys he was pretty decent from what I remember. Nothing spectacular, nothing terrible. Am I missing something? Please enlighten me, not trying to start a fight with anyone, but I'm genuinely curious about the people saying Greg's writing should have been disliked. The gender ratio was pretty annoying too. The fact that most female characters were forced to play the mediator and "sweet" roles was always annoying to me. There were exceptions like Roodaka, (who was pretty cool, although I don't see why people dislike the set looking more feminine, I thought it was cool and really set her apart from a lot of other sets) but those were few and far between. I suppose it all boils down to the fact that it's a line of toys aimed at boys, but if you think guys can't like and relate to female characters, you've probably never seen Bob's Burgers. Sure it's a gamble having a female lead in a toy line aimed at young boys, but with a cast as huge as G1 Bionicle you'd think they could have a few more well-written female characters. I think whatever the upcoming wave is ends up being pretty heavily disliked by the fans. I remember almost every year, seeing the toyfair pictures and hearing people say "these are awful" or something like that. I remember one of my favorite waves The Toa Mahri, were ragged on for a while, and the Mistika were the butt of many jokes here back in 2008.
  21. They got them at my Target, got some weird looks from people and the lady at the checkout when I decided to pick up Skull Warrior. "What, never seen a grown man buy Bonkles?" I don't know if I'll get everything this wave, but I was for sure get Mask Maker vs Skull Grinder and Skull Basher.
  22. I used to put number signs in my posts to make it look like I was being edgy and saying dirty words but in reality I was just putting number signs.
  23. Picked up Skull Warrior last night.
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