emily

I'm sure they wouldn't be so dismissive. He's probably been entombed like Ekimu, either alongside him or separately. Alternatively, I could see a 'Makuta mysteriously vanished without a trace' angle being used to give him more agency for when he returns - which, going by the press release, is going to happen this year, for better or worse.

I got into LEGO in early 2000 and started visiting the LEGO website frequently to play the online games. When MNOG launched in 2001 I tried it out, but I gave up after I wasn't able to figure out how to leave the beach, I didn't realize that it was simply impossible at that point. In March I got my first issue of LEGO Mania Magazine, which happened to be the one referred to by Aanchir, with the special offer for Tahu and Vakama on the back. I wasn't at all aware of BIONICLE's predecessors at the time, so to me it seemed a really weird diversion from proper LEGO. I figured it wouldn't be a popular theme, it was just too bizarre. The comic in the May/June issue of LEGO Mania was what really engaged me in the story and started me collecting.

Tohunga head. Sure it is designed specifically to inhibit all articulation, is massive and awkwardly shaped, and doesn't accommodate eye coloration, but it also gives the user incomparably radical sideburns. And I think that that is really the most we can ask of a BIONICLE head piece.

The three virtues were first introduced with the Toa Nuva in 2002, and as concepts they didn't see serious use until Mask of Light in the fall of 2003. People often assume that they were present from 2001 because Hapka's Tale of the Toa retroactively adds them to the mix. The philosophical and mystical aspects of the islander's culture were much more subtle and integrated in 2001, not spelled out in a blatant list. The new BIONICLE will have every chance to do this itself, once the story gets rolling.

Is this... sarcasm? Because it is a pretty tall order to swallow. Obviously the indications were there from the beginning regarding Mata Nui's true nature, but the truth really didn't get out until pretty close to the official reveal in 2008. And Hahli and Nuparu didn't even exist as characters in 2001.

I went for Kopaka first because he featured in that neato comic I had gotten in my LEGO magazine. Next were Pohatu and Tahu, with the former also featuring in the comic and the latter already making his place as an icon of the line. Then Lewa, then Gali, and finally, one day at the store, I screwed up the courage to ask my mom if we could get the last one, Onua. I'll tell you what, those sure were fun times.

I recall from the discussions about this on BS01 (which are unfortunately gone now) that the Brakas sprites are present in the game files. I've played the the game numerous times rather meticulously, including a few times with an eye toward looking specifically for the Brakas, and I haven't once encountered it.

It looks as if you are interested in documenting who owns the rarer collectibles? I have three prototype Tohunga (Jala, Kongu, and Matoro). I would be happy to take some pictures (in fact, I have been meaning to for quite some time), but unfortunately I'm at college right now and the Tohunga are in storage at home. I could take pictures when I'm there in a few months, if you still don't have any then.

All other Makutas, go home. It is over.

Oh, certainly. But what I am proposing here is that there was already a distinct plan in mind for the direction Makuta would go, and then later the decision was made to change that direction, retroactively leaving some anomalies in the story 2001-03. It's a little different from going through the creative process and then writing the story, because in this case the creative process alters the story.

So a while ago Lucina put up this excellent blog entry about a tantalizing piece of dialogue that we got from Makuta in Mask of Light, that never really went anywhere. It's a nice little piece of "what if" to consider, but ultimately the existence of the dialogue could be fairly well explained as another example of all of the weird nonsense that was going on at the end of Mask of Light. "We'll awaken Mata Nui, except we won't!" "All of the island's inhabitants must gather at the Kini-Nui and then come underground, except not really!" etc. Or at least, that's what I thought until Torsti put up the ISOs for the CDs in his BIONICLE Style Guide. There is an extremely interesting note made in the introduction: Now, try to rectify that with the "bwahaha I will put Mata Nui to sleep and take over the world because I'm evil" Makuta we got. It's impossible. There is simply no way to cover both with one character. So I'm going to put forth a theory: it would seem that up to and through 2003, Makuta had a legitimate and potentially very interesting motivation for plaguing the islanders. By the point Legends of Metru Nui came out in 2004, the story team had rewritten him to be a more "kid-friendly" villain fitting into a black-and-white paradigm. But that leaves us to wonder what Makuta's original motivation was. The line from MoL explains why he is doing what he is doing, at least (he believes that Mata Nui's reawakening will cause him pain, and so he does his best to prevent the people trying to awaken him from achieving their goal). But then why does he believe that Mata Nui's reawakening will be to his detriment? Why did he send him to sleep in the first place? Like, really, if you have an idea, let me know. Without seeing something like the 2001 story bible, which would contain the core plot as it was initially conceived., it may just be one of those things that is impossible to know.

There is an ambiance loop that plays while the CD is running. A drone with a few different sounds interspersed throughout, a bit like a simplified version of the telescope music in MNOG.

Torsti, you're my hero. The CD has the gosh darn PSD files that the BIONICLE promotional imagery 2001-03 was drawn from! That's so ridiculously awesome, I don't even know what to say. I never would have imagined we might be able to see this someday. Thanks again!

Thank you for your comments! I can see that. One of the rules that Templar seemed to generally follow in their animations was "have the characters' faces directed at the space between the character they are addressing and the camera," sort of in the spirit of what is done in theater. That's what I was trying to go for there. I actually did notice that it looked a little odd with them staring head-on at the camera, but I told myself, "it's the principle of it!". I get the too slow comment a lot - pacing these things is super tricky, especially considering different people read at different speeds. I tried to set things to a time that would allow not only reading the lines, but also fully absorbing them and their meaning.

Source: Another MNOLG-Style Animation

Hey folks! Perhaps some of you will recall my animation project. I'm still plugging away at it, and today I have a bit of new content to share. Basically, I was planning to have this be the beginning of part 4, but upon reflection I've decided it fits better as the end of part 3. For technical reasons I cannot retroactively add it to part 3, so here it is as a separate part 3.5: Link The preceding animations, should you wish to see them (fair warning, parts 1 and 2 aren't the greatest!), are in this Brickshelf folder.

Thank you, it's very nice to have this available to read again!

The walkthrough was an article in an issue of Nintendo Power magazine - LordNektann on BS01 got a hold of the magazine after I figured out it was where the Brakas was from, and posted scans, but they seem to have been taken offline now. Basically, there was a list of some of the Rahi in the game and the Brakas was in the list. It is one of several Rahi that were in prototype versions of the game but didn't make the final cut. I've never seen an actual, full prototype for Tales of the Tohunga, but there are some screenshots floating around, mostly from early copies given out to review sites. here's the one with the Brakas in it You'll notice that it is built slightly differently than the one from the walkthrough.

Oh, right, doy. There were substitution prizes, I had forgotten. I think this discussion cropped up earlier elsewhere - the "one-of-a-kind-object" is actually a solid gold Hau, so not a replacement but one of the original contents of the package. That topic you are thinking of was probably mine. That was years ago and I was probably a little to excited with my theory, but there was a LEGO Master Builders book planned for BIONICLE in 2001, to go with this series. When the book was cancelled, the concept was recycled into 2002's 10023 Master Builder Set. Regardless of whether the book would have had instructions or images or more Rahi than the 15 of 10023 can't be said for certain, but what I can be fairly sure of is that a lot of the Rahi LEGO designed for BIONICLE in 2001 only made their appearances in TLOMN, Tales of the Tohunga, and the Quest for the Masks TCG. It is quite plausible that some of these designs were the ones instructions were given for in the game. It may also have been the Ranama, Mukau, and Kirikori Nui - models that use elements from Throwbots, Roboriders, and 2001 BIONICLE sets, despite being published on the LEGO site in 2002. It seems plausible that LEGO might've recycled the instructions created for the game and put them to good use on the website. Here are the background Rahi that I've reverse-engineered, with varying degrees of certainty regarding their accuracy.

Simply enough, they didn't include it. Technically breaking the terms of the contest but that prize package was so massive anyway that I doubt any winners had a problem with it.

There is definitely no placeholder name for the Avohkii in the Official Guide, and I'm fairly certain there isn't one at all. I think it was for the Ignika.

The graphic is indeed unique to this book. It might be an early version of the more widely used blue-energy image, that someone accidentally used here.

Eugh, sorry, I can't remember that area specifically. My best advice is to look for chambers that you can't physically reach on the edge of the screen that have more blocks for Nuju to place on pads. Could be something else, though.

Use Matau. Stand on the island and jump across the rock spikes to the shore with the doorway. That should do the trick, I think.

The 2k2 show definitely didn't, but what I was trying to get at is, although we don't know much about the original show, it seems entirely possible that it did. It's impossible to say for certain, though.