emily

Toy R Us has got the June wave on their site (except Quake Beast). - The new mask is the Beast Mask of Corruption - Mask of Creation is "powered-up" - Lava Beast's blade things are wings

Would you download a Kopaka?

Nah, but Faber posted a concept drawing he did for what a poster might've looked like.

Legends of Metru Nui, actually. The theatrical release was postponed and the story was adapted to be the DTV Bionicle 2, while Web of Shadows was written as the replacement before it too was silently demoted to DTV at some indeterminate point. No reasons given, but I'd guess it was because Bionicle was slumping noticeably at that point.

Whether or not the Mask of Time dealio is intended to indicate a far-flung connection to the old canon, G2 is still a reboot, at the very least in the sense that the creators themselves are using the term. That was the first thing they said when G2 was announced, you can watch the video if you want. "Continuation" and "reboot" aren't mutually exclusive terms, they can be mixed in a variety of ways that sometimes make trying to define a single, solid continuity through the whole thing very muddy. That is what I tend to believe is going on at this point with Bionicle, but of course, it ain't over 'til it's over. Transformers had Beast Wars, which succeeded the G1 continuity and was set in the far-flung future of it, but from what I understand had very, very little to do with the original as far as its core plot went. In fact, I remember reading that the G1 that Beast Wars alluded to was in fact a concocted mesh of two separate cartoon and comic continuities from G1 - if that's the case, I don't see why Bionicle G2 couldn't be adopting an "inaccurate" G1 as its ancestor. In any case, Beast Wars was effectively a reboot, and though I don't really know the Transformers fandom I'd assume they identify it as such.

Bears noting that in an interview Windham said he came up with multiple sets of names for the Protectors to suggest to LEGO. So the first set got approved, he burned through a second set on the ancient Protectors, and this is probably the third set. So I'd guess it is supposed to be older Protectors or something of that sort.

I'm not super confident about using Transformers as a measure for Bionicle's long-term film potential, either. In fact, unless I'm super mistaken, it didn't take 25 years for Transformers to hit theaters, it took only two. Bionicle was inches away from taking 3 years, but considering that didn't happen I'm not terribly optimistic that a feature could ever happen, period - especially considering Bionicle now isn't nearly as big as it was when it failed back then. And Transformers as a brand seems to have a lot more staying power in public consciousness than Bionicle ever did. Ask any person on the street and they'll know what a Transformer is; its a toss-up whether they recall Bionicle.

Kopaka art timelapse from Matt Betteker up on Facebook!

Someone shared this page from the new graphic novel. Big spoilers!

Saying that G1 was any more coherent in having a theme of 'unity' than G2 doesn't feel accurate to me. What about 2008? We had been told since the beginning that it was the duty of the 6 Toa united to awaken Mata Nui - we always knew that was the big endgame that we were inevitably moving toward. It was a narrative climax and probably the most natural place of all to reinforce the unity theme - I mean, unity is right there in the definition of what the event is. But then out of nowhere the whole thing we've been promised would happen for 7 years was dropped and Ignika awakens Mata Nui all by itself - no unity necessary. And that's far from the only example. In fact, a lot of arc conclusions opt for the lone hero narrative with a 'unity' element somewhat nonsensically added on. Vakama defeats Makuta, then the other Metru show up to finish off trapping him. Matoro goes off to save Mata Nui, while the others hold off the Barraki for him. Mata-Nui unites the tribes of Bara Magna, but it's mostly to the benefit of himself and his quest, from a narrative point of view. Takanuva defeats Makuta alone even though the resolution is reached through the two uniting (an idea that was too thematically ambitious for the movie to know what it was doing with it, honestly). So I mean, Ekimu getting things done himself at 2015's climax really isn't anything new. It's one story in a long tradition of similar ones.

Please do! It would be much appreciated.

Several changes on the Bionicle site: The Unity page in the Explore section has been updated with two new chapters, for Tahu and KopakaAnother totally new page has been added to Explore, The Mask of Control.There's a new gallery for Ice creatures.

Out of curiosity, what's the source for the resting place of Makuta? Now that I think of it, the videos only mention that the brothers fall into a sleep, and the Protectors bury Ekimu. Not sure where Fatorak heard his body is underground, but the establishing shot for his tomb in JTO looked like it was on the surface somewhere - you could see craggly trees.

Chapter book #3 is "Escape from the Underworld."

This isn't the first time I've messed around with this, but here's a much nicer and more complete reconstruction of the Advance/Ghost-animated Takanuva short that has footage inexplicably replaced with reused Rahkshi scenes in its published version on the Rahkshi CD-ROMs. The missing portions here are taken from 2003 commercials, and the absolutely bizarre conclusion is taken from the E3 BIONICLE video game trailer, also animated by Advance/Ghost.

Really neat how much his research was evident! You could even hear Christopher Gaze's intonation start to come out as he read some of those Vakama lines. His Makuta has a rough flavor that doesn't really fit the MNOG version to me, but it was still really cool to hear his interpretation - especially considering its the first time the line has been voiced in anything resembling an official capacity.

Looks like the webisodes are continuing this year, as abbreviated versions of Journey to One.

Bionicle is being featured on the LEGO minisite at Cartoon Network. The video is... really something.

I'd imagine that they must've used slightly different tones of grey paint across batches. interesting find!

I'm OK with clone builds because the resultant economy of parts usage within the wave meant that they could trot out a completely new and distinct design for each wave of sets. To me, that was cooler and more valuable than lots of individual characters with distinct appearances and elements that were ultimately built on practically the same skeleton. Though of course, that's only part of the reality. With piece counts increasing over time, sets with such distinct designs as the Bohrok or the Metru were outright impossible to produce for the right price. I feel like we kind of traded the ability to have more distinct, creative character designs for detail and complexity. And in the end, how you feel about that depends on what you come to BIONICLE looking for.

It can't be put on YouTube because it uses Indiana Jones music () and gets flagged, but you can download it from the BioMediaProject in their "Internal Concept Videos" package (though it isn't entirely a concept video, the reason it ended up being discovered was that Amazon put it up on a page/s for 2008 sets even though it was meant to be a "watch this cool thing, it will convince you to stock our products" thing.

Strickland would make a great Nidhiki! And his ad libs on Umarak's day to day life were fantastic - I can see them being put to good use in a stop motion short.

One of the key areas in LEGO Island, LEGO's first video game, was Brickolini's Pizzeria. None of these locations are pizzerias, but it would be awesome to see the family one named something like Brickolini's Restaurant.

Here you go!

Wallpapers have been added to the Bionicle site from the Volta scene!