Letagi

Did anyone here bid on this? http://ebay.com/itm/301630398694 I was going to, which is why I didn't post it earlier, but it got too expensive for me. -Letagi

*Hero Packs. -Letagi

Probably not a lot. I don't think they're that desirable an item, but I could be wrong. -Letagi

I figured you had probably gotten those numbers too. I was just thinking out loud. But I had forgotten that second place winners could choose their sets so I guess I assumed equal numbers of each set. Anyways, looks like it's been more or less sorted out. Hope you guys can strike a deal! -Letagi

Like you say, those are really tricky to put values on. Obviously they'd be worth more than their retail prices, but aside from that there's no point of reference to base a price off of. Based on the numbers you gave, there are 54 signed Toa sets, 54 signed Protector sets and 6 signed LoSS sets. That's quite a few, but most of them are locked up in people's collections and are unlikely to hit the market. Based on that, they're definitely rare. If I were buying them, I would probably offer twice their retail value. Some people might say that's too high and some might say it's too low. Ultimately, their value is equal to whatever they're worth to you. Sorry I can't be of more help. If you could find a sale of another signed set (not necessarily Bionicle 2015, just any signed LEGO set), that might help you figure out a value. But as you've noticed, they're not exactly common. -Letagi

SPIRIT - I prefer to call it the intentional disseminating of misinformation for humourous purposes. Presumed (and appreciated) sarcasm aside, Brickshelf is generally pretty good. It used to malfunction every once in a while but I don't remember that happening recently. -L

A friend found it lying on the ground in 2005 and traded it to me. That's why it's not in great condition and is missing the bag and card. And why my acquisition of that WMKK is quite possibly the most unlikely one to have ever occurred. -Letagi

Did I mention Bionicle's back too!? Wait a minute, that actually happened... -L

Majhost is working again! ... Kidding, I just uploaded all my BZP images to Brickshelf. In other news, I finally joined BioniLUG. Which is really cool, because I've been wishing there was a LUG in my area for like seven years and I'm finally in one. -Letagi

Is that really a WMKK? I never noticed a mold parting line like that. (pic) Mine has a similar line, but it's not as noticeable as in the picture. Granted, mine was kicking around in a gutter for as long as two years so the line may have been worn down. Or the flash from the camera may have reflected off the raised surface and exaggerated it. Either way, I'd say it's genuine. -Letagi

I'd be up for the gold Kanoka and whatever prototypes they may have as well. Didn't know you speak Russian, lessovikk. -Letagi

Most of those were either done via giveaway or distributed randomly among $8 sets. This Mask of Water would run you about $2200 apiece, not including travel expenses. Or it would, if you already signed up, because you can't anymore. If, in 2001, someone spent thousands of dollars on a trip to LEGOLAND and happened to pick up a trans-neon green Miru, could they reasonably say the mask was worth the cost of the trip and expect to be able to sell it for that much? No. You said yourself, people are paying for the tour, not for the mask. Granted, the TNGMs were much more common, but the principle is the same. The Kaukau will be worth whatever people are willing to pay for it. I'd wager they start out at around $100 and go down from there as more people decide to sell theirs. Does this help at all? Anyways. I'm wondering whether you're right about that last statement - that people would still be complaining were this any other mask. As NotS speculated, and as Bfa has specifically said, a lot of this is based on the fact that a trans-blue Kaukau has a lot of nostalgic value. Did people also complain about the clear and trans-orange Hau? If they did I seem to have missed it. -Letagi

Just added the yellow and white Hau prototypes, as well as the recently discovered trans-blue 2015 Kaukau. I also just saw this. According to The Bionicle Wiki (not to be confused with BS01), those are all prototypes. Hard to tell from such a small picture though. -L

That's definitely fair and I can totally relate. It would be awesome for there to be a trans-blue Kaukau that was widely accessible. Of course, if the Kaukau follows the trend of the other two transparent masks we've gotten so far (starting out rare and then becoming more common), it shouldn't be too difficult to get one, but of course that's just conjecture at this point. My point was really just that the idea of an exclusive piece is nothing new so I was a little surprised to see people react negatively. I feel like a better way of looking at it would be that we didn't think we'd be getting a trans-blue Kaukau at all, so it's great that they exist and are potentially obtainable. -L

Not too fair a comparison, at least with the solid gold Hau and metal Krana Kal. Those are legit expensive to produce and I'm sure people could understand the value based on the material it was made with. This exclusive Mask of Water is just a regular plastic component in a colour that's been used multiple times before. -NotS The gold Hau and metal Krana are more extreme examples, yes, but the principle is the same. LEGO does exclusive releases so that serious fans can have a chance to own cool pieces that most people don't have access to. The GPKK, however, is the perfect comparison; they're just plastic Krana. Presumably new molds didn't have to be made so they shouldn't be worth that much, and yet they sell for upwards of $300. When exclusive pieces are sold their prices are determined primarily by how much interest there is in the piece. WMKK sell for upwards of $200, but I can guarantee you that they didn't cost nearly that much to produce. -L

I'm surprised people think this is a "jerk move" by LEGO. It's not like this is a new idea. In 2001 we had the solid gold Hau, limited to around 30 copies. 2003 had the SSKK, with only 72 available to the public, and the WMKK at 3000 copies (granted, considerably more, but still a very limited release). In a more similar vein to the trans-blue 2015 Kaukau would be the VMKK and GPKK, given out only to the lucky few in the Bionicle Van Tour and the Proto Squad in 2003. The point is, LEGO has always done exclusive releases. This is just the latest one. It's unfortunate that only a few people will be able to get such a nice piece (unless, as previously mentioned, it's released later on a wider scale), but there will be more releases like this up for grabs in the future. In the meantime, looks like I've got another piece to add to the list. -Letagi

I find all modern physics fascinating, but my primary focus is in astrophysics and astronomy. My main areas of interest are exoplanets, dark matter and high-density astrophysics. I'm currently doing my undergrad in astrophysics and will probably specialize in one of those three areas afterwards. On the slightly more far-fetched side of things is warp theory, which is a legitimate branch of physics that NASA is researching. Designing a functional Alcubierre Drive, if it's even possible, would be my dream. -L

Did anyone here get the sealed Toa Mata tri-pack? It finally sold. Annoying, since I was actually going to buy it this time around. -Letagi

Thanks for posting this; I see a lot of really interesting items. However, I would make one suggestion regarding prices. Of course since these are your items you can price them however you see fit, but if you're looking to sell these, I would recommend bringing down your prices considerably. This applies to the sealed sets in particular; the prices for the opened sets seem pretty good. -Letagi

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on these. In the future, however, the Official Ebay Auctions Topic would be the place for this; eBay auctions don't generally need their own topics. -Letagi

I was in partial IB ("Certificate"), and now that I have two years of university under my belt I can tell you that, in hindsight, IB totally wasn't worth stressing out over nearly as much as my classmates in the full program thought it was (they agree). Trust me, exam season in university will make IB seem like an insignificant distant memory. And it comes twice a semester. And that's aside from the fact that you'll probably realize that IB was mostly a waste of time anyways, because everyone starts from the bottom in university. Taking slightly more difficult courses in high school really doesn't put you nearly as far ahead as your teachers are probably telling you. However, depending on what IB courses you're taking and what you intend to do in university, it may make your first year significantly less stressful; or, it may make no difference at all. My point, of course, is not that you shouldn't try to do well on your exams, but rather that if you don't, the consequences are unlikely to be nearly as dire as you probably think they are. But regardless, IB exams are definitely tough and I wish you the best of luck! -L

*First few, wasn't it? I thought it was the first release that had the pearl light grey Kraahkan. -Letagi

Rare masks? Time to dig out this pic I guess... (Click for larger image.) The interesting pieces are in the column on the right. Hau Nuva misprint, Strakk helmet prototype, Zamor prototype, WMKK, metallic purple Akaku (Flintsmith custom) and trans-orange Miru (also from Flintsmith). These aren't pictured, but I acquired the 2015 Hau in both clear and trans-orange at BricksCascade last month. Some other cool things might be on their way in the near future. I guess you could say building up my rares collection is an ongoing project for me. I'm always on the lookout for interesting pieces. -Letagi

I feel like there would be a number of issues with that. Firstly, gold is HEAVY—it wouldn't take a genius to pick up a heavier-than-usual Toa set and realize it had a valuable mask inside. Secondly, particularly with the less substantial boxes, I can't help but figure that putting valuable, one-of-a-kind masks in random sets would lead to a lot of boxes being ripped open in stores by careless thieves searching for the rare masks.Hmm your right about that I wonder how many BOHROK KAL sets still have an SSKK or WMKK in them I had a discussion with someone a little while ago about that. There very well could be some left over. It depends on the percentage of produced sets sold in North America (the only place where the promotion happened) that were actually opened; statistically speaking, that percentage would apply to the number of WMKK and SSKK still in sealed sets as well. Since there were only 72 SSKK in the first place the number that percentage yields would probably be less than one, but out of the 5000 WMKK there very well may still be some that haven't been found. Finding them now would be next to impossible though, and very expensive since sealed sets from that era sell for a fair bit. You'd be far better off just buying one next time there's an opportunity. Anyways, Flintsmith can be tough to get a hold of because last time I checked his settings made it so that new conversations couldn't be started with him. However, I know that someone bought a single metal mask from him for $80 a few months ago. $50 was offered but wasn't high enough. Also, although it hasn't happened with Bionicle, LEGO has done random 14K gold pieces inside random sets before - for the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, there were solid gold C-3PO minifigs inside certain sets (not to be confused with the 10,000 chrome gold ones randomly packaged inside the same line of sets that the solid gold ones were in). To answer the topic question, I'd love to get a hold of the copper Huna and Komau that Flintsmith made, as well as his metal Vahi and Krana. -Letagi