GregF

January 2008 sets and store exclusive are done, and summer sets are in prototype. Greg

Leaving for Denmark on Monday for a one-day story meeting on Wednesday, also a meeting on BIONICLE.com content -- you can continue to PM questions, as I can sometimes access BZPower from the computers in the hotel. Overall meeting is to finalize 2008 and start talking about 2009 and beyond. Latest word I heard is that there will be a BIONICLE book every three months starting with Bionicle Legends #8. Initial orders from stores for the Toa Mahri seem to be pretty high, so it looks like they are going to do well for us. About halfway done with Book 8 -- doing a Makuta-Hydraxon fight now -- See you when I am back end of next week, if not before! Greg

Just for a quick thing -- the plan right now is NOT to end BIONICLE when Mata Nui wakes up, but to continue the story on past that. Greg

No, the books are not written on LEGO's time or for LEGO money -- they are written under contract with Scholastic, who pretty much can use whoever they want to for their books (that's why Hapka did the first few). They aren't obligated to use someone who works at TLC. Essentially, the way the deal works is that Scholastic has licensed BIONICLE and EXO-FORCE from LEGO for books -- and for every book sold, they give LEGO a royalty. So it's a good deal for TLC, because other than the salaries of the people who have to approve the books in Denmark, they don't have to invest a lot of money and they get regular revenue in if the books sell well. It's the same sort of deal that TLC has with Lucasfilm for Star Wars. Lucas doesn't pay our designers to do the sets -- we pay them a royalty on whatever sets we sell. Greg

Understand that I am not trying to imply with my post that BZP is unimportant or irrelevant in the grand scheme of things -- only that it tends to represent a particular age group and taste, and in some things, it speaks for the majority of fans, in some things it doesn't. For example, BZP has close to 35,000 members, many of whom were into BIONICLE as far back as 2001. Well, we sold 7 million Toa canisters in 2001 -- so even if you assume everyone who bought one bought six, that still means well over a million BIONICLE purchasers even back then. That's a pretty big number. Over 1.4 million people get the comic book every other month. So you can see how 35,000 pretty much has to represent a small fraction of the fan base. Greg

CF - I used to listen to music when I wrote all the time -- I wrote my first novel back in '92 listening to soundtracks of old Clint Eastwood Westerns. Nowadays, I usually don't have anything playing because I am usually writing while my wife is asleep. (All my novel writing has to be done at home, because it's freelance, not part of my office work.) My own vote would be for 2009 to be a one-year story -- the advantage of a trilogy is that it would mean LEGO was committing to BIONICLE at least through 2011, which would be the 10 year anniversary. So if we do a trilogy, it needs to end on a really big note for that anniversary year. Greg

Just looking for a new challenge, SZ -- when you have written as many of these as I have, it's easy to get into a rut and just start churning them out automatically, and BIONICLE fans deserve better than that. Besides, I knew how it ended -- and how it started -- but not what happened in the middle. This way, by writing the end first, I am figuring out what must have happened in the middle to get to this point Greg

Just a random assortment of things today -- 1) Heading to Denmark in mid-March for a one-day story meeting -- going to lock down 2008 and decide whether 2009 will be a stand-alone story or part of a 2009-2011 trilogy, among other things. I am headed out a day early to meet with the BIONICLE web producer. 2) Working on BIONICLE Legends #8: Downfall. For the sake of variety, I am writing the book backwards -- epilogue is done, working on the last chapter now. 3) Much has been made on BZP of the proliferation of topics complaining about BIONICLE and its direction. Actually, what there is a proliferation of is people saying there is a proliferation -- as many veteran BZPers can tell you, this happens every year and has since 2003 or so, and it is not confined to BZP or BIONICLE fandom. Most fan bases react to anything new with initial suspicion/dislike, until they get used to it and find the positives. I got asked by the BIONICLE brand manager if she needed to be concerned about some of the topics here, and I told her no, not at this point -- sometimes, BZP angst does go hand in hand with lower sales for a line of sets, but most times it does not. 4) Making my first school appearances this spring -- a BZPer wrote me a letter as part of a school project, and it turned out his school is nearby to where I live and work. So I told him if the school was interested, I would come in and speak. I heard from them a month or so later, very nice people, and we arranged two engagements in April. Normally, I do book signings at stores or things like Comic-Con, but have not done a school before. Might be interesting. Back to work -- if I do my job right, Bionicle Legends #8 should be the most emotionally wrenching BIONICLE book I have ever done. I am purposely writing a vague description for Scholastic to use so they don't give away the major plot points on their site months ahead of time. Greg

You're not missing much -- it's not like I am doing a signing there. It's purely standing around asking people if I can help them find the LEGO sets they're looking for, etc. Basically, doing the same kind of stuff a store employee does at this time of year. Greg

Every year at this time, LEGO employees travel to Toys R Us stores all over NY, NJ, CT and MA, helping out store personnel and customers seeking LEGO sets. This year, staff writer Daniel Lipkowitz and I get the fun of working at the Toys R Us Times Square store in Manhattan. We expect it to be hectic, as we'll be there the 18th and 19th! This has been a fantastic year for LEGO sales, so I don't know how much will still be on the shelves --people are buying sets as fast as our manufacturing folks can make them! We'll see, though, if any place has the newest stuff, it will probably be the Times Square store. So I will be away from my computer Sunday through Tuesday - if you send PMs during that time, just be patient, I will get to them when I am back. Greg

I mean software sets as in 40 years of issues put on a CD in Acrobat PDF format. Greg

Yes, it was. There has been talk for some time about just dropping the brown characters entirely, but we decided to just try a new color scheme instead. Greg

Something cute that happened today ... I received in the mail this morning at work a copy of Archivaria, the Journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists (number 61, spring 2006). And who do you think is on the cover?? Tehutti! I had been in contact with the folks there for some time, and they were just thrilled that we made an action figure of an archivist. So we made arrangements to get them packaging art that they could put on the cover of their journal. So Tehutti lives on, in the hearts of Canadian archivists everywhere ... Greg

Chicken breasts wrapped in bacon, and a few things I did not recognize but which tasted good .. it was catered by a restaurant in Billund. Greg

Inika - Like any other line (from any company), BIONICLE is dependent on sales. If set sales were to drop to the point that it was no longer profitable for LEGO to do the line, it would get cancelled -- maybe for a few years, maybe forever. But the good news is that set sales are UP this year, so there are no plans or discussions about ending it. Greg

Utopia - It doesn't involve retrofitting. It involves adding events to the plot. Vahiki -- Since I can't discuss 2007 sets, I certainly can't discuss 2008 sets. Frogs - Decision on brown can get easily made -- did the brown Piraka sell well? If it didn't, add that to the stack of brown sets that didn't sell well. Sales makes the difference here, not what pieces people get nostalgic about. Were it up to me, I would bring online fans in on story panels -- and that is, in fact, something that has been seriously discussed. I am not sure on sets, simply because the online fan base is so much older than the mass of the set buyers -- a set that would seem like a really simple build to you guys might be really complex for an 8 year old. Greg

Yeah, I don't know what Copehagen is like that or that area, but northern and northwestern Denmark is really wide open -- lots of little towns, lots and lots of farmland, and all very flat ... and very quiet. Certainly someplace you can get away from it all. But if I had a vote, I would say Paris for the next Club meeting Greg

Hey TMD -- the EXO-FORCE site, like the BIONICLE site, is run by producers who are assigned just to that line. So that is separate from the LEGO Club site. I do know that the EXO producer is planning very frequent site updates next year. And no, no swimming Just tromping around on the beach and among the little thatched-roof houses that grow like mushrooms from the countryside, looking like something out of Tolkien. An interesting note is that you cannot legally buy one of those houses unless you already own another home -- the government doesn't want them lived in all year round, so there isn't pressure to build lots more roads, etc., and ruin the landscape. (Denmark has very strict land use rules.) Greg

Not easily done, but not impossible. You just have to be careful who you choose, make everyone involved sign confidentiality agreements, and make sure the parents understand the possible legal repercussions of leaking. Greg

As promised, more on my week -- after the BIONICLE meetings were through, the LEGO Club/Community team piled into a bus and drove 90 minutes to the very western coast of Jutland to a little seaside hotel. Instead of doing our quarterly meeting in Billund like we usually do, it had been decided we would get away for a little while from the stresses of the office. Almost the entire team was there, so it was quite a few people. The meeting was about planning our projects for next year and on through 2010. There is a lot on tap in terms of fan interaction and reaching out to fans to involve them in what LEGO does. (You know, LEGO is one of the few companies that actually puts any time and money toward working with and listening to their community of fans, adults and kids. Some companies don't want to, and some don't know how, but it is something LEGO considers a priority.) The main thing I will be working on, other than the magazines, is working with our new web producer, Sage, on the LEGO Club web site. The site used to be updated more frequently than it is now and have more on it, and that is something we want to get back to. So don't be surprised if you start seeing some BIONICLE content popping up there now and then. We also got a lot of free time this trip. We spent it down in the hotel's game room playing ping-pong and such, or walking the 300 yards to the beach. The beach there is still dotted with German bunkers left over from World War II, so it was quite something to walk around in them and feel you were seeing part of history. One bittersweet note is that Tormod, who is the man who has been overseeing LEGO Community for a few years now, has decided to move on to another role in the company. Management named an excellent replacement for him, who we are all looking forward to working with, but Tormod is a tough act to follow. I have met few people in my career who was as fair, as sharp, and who loved community as much as he does. Fortunately, in his new position, he will still be dealing with fans and finding ways to give them what they want -- but we will miss him on our team a lot. Greg

Mana Leader -- It would not surprise me at all if at some point down the road, fans (other than just our small focus groups), get the chance to voice opinions on prototype sets in some way. We have talked about the idea for a while and how best to do it. It's a tricky thing, because the easiest way to do something like that is online -- but you also have to have a way to make sure that whatever you show is confidential, and that one of the "fans" looking at it is not really an employee for another toy company looking to steal ideas. But anyway, I think you will see LEGO moving closer and closer to this sort of thing going forward. And yes, 2008 prototypes are pretty far advanced. They have to be -- stuff coming out in January 2008 has to be manufactured months beforehand in order to reach the stores on time, so you can't wait until the end of the year before to complete them. In fact, we already have focus groups scheduled for 2008 stuff early in November. Greg

Hi TLH, No, it does not change the Mask of Life story to a four-year arc -- it remains a three-year arc, with some changes. What IS changing is how the arc is ending, which plays into what we want to do in 2009. Essentially, you are going to get "more bang for your buck" in 2007 and 2008 than we had originally planned. Greg

Back from Billund (with a sidetrip to a hotel on the west coast, about which more in a future entry), after a very successful BIONICLE story meeting. So I thought it would be a good time to answer some of the questions I get about how the story is put together and how the story meetings work. We went into this meeting with a very, very basic idea for 2008, which had been approved by top management. The whole team was there -- myself, representing the actual writing end; Leah, the web producer; Lena, head of the team and in charge of overseeing the franchise as a whole; Birgitte, who works closely with Lena and does things like maintain the names list, put together the story bible from disparate sources, and much, much more; Christoffer, long-time head of set design for BIONICLE; and Christian and Jeppe, both of whom work for Advance, a Danish creative/advertising agency that has been working on BIONICLE since day one. (Christian, by the way, is the one who designed those maps of Voya Nui, Metru Nui, and Mata Nui we show in the comic.) We started the meeting by going over the presentation that had been made to management last month, and then saw some prototype 2008 sets. Then I made a story proposal for 2007-2009 -- one which was in line with the concept for 2008, made the changes necessary to fit that concept, and also would hopefully set us up for some more exciting stories in the future. I was pretty nervous, because it was a proposal I believed in, and I would have felt bad if it had failed. Anyway, long story short, it went over well -- but as usual, there was more work to do. Questions were asked; plot holes were sought for and filled; some things stayed the same, some things changed radically; ways were found to loop in old mysteries; and a lot of things were debated because we were discussing major, major changes to the story. Sometimes, in the past, story team debates can turn into hours-long arguments, but this time everyone was shooting for the same goal -- finding a way to make the story work. And everyone contributed, either with a question, an answer, or both. The upshot was we did in four hours what we expected to need six or seven to do, and everyone came away feeling like we accomplished something. Assuming it gets the go-ahead from up top, I will be working on a story bible for 2008 before the end of this year. Then the 2009 concept will get discussed with management next year. After the meeting was over, we adjourned to Leah's house for dinner. Then the next day I was off to a town called Ulfborg on the west coast of Jutland, where we would be spending three days in LEGO Club/Community meetings. More later ... Greg

Sunday morning and hard at work on Bionicle Legends #7, which is due in a few weeks. Vezon just slammed Matoro headfirst into a wall (bet he will regret that before he gets much older). Writing to the absolute best music ever invented for writing -- the music of Ennio Morricone, who did the soundtracks for all those old Clint Eastwood "spaghetti Westerns" like A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. Boy, if you can't write a good action scene with that playing, you might as well pack up your keyboard. I wrote my first novel -- The River of God -- 100,000 words -- in six weeks playing that and the music from Hang 'Em High. (Since most sci-fi is just Westerns in space, it worked well.) For those of you who are BIONICLE nostalgia lovers, look for appearances by the Toa Nuva and the Bahrag in Book 7. It is looking right now like the Nuva might have a larger role in 2007-2008 than I had at first thought they would (originally, I did not think they would be in the story at all next year). We have another story meeting in September in Denmark, at which time we should be making firm decision about exactly where we're going and what we're doing in the story for the next three years. Anyway, here is the question for the day -- as I have already indicated on this board, the mystery of where krana come from will be answered next year. Of the other story "loose ends," which ones would you most like to see resolved? (Obviously, the answer is "all of them," but I am trying to find out which ones are MOST important to your story satisfaction. Greg

It is a difficult issue, and it's one that has split the Toa down the middle. But it's an important one, for a number of reasons -- 1) If a Toa chooses not to kill a villain -- as Batman has chosen not to kill The Joker -- are they then partially responsible for anyone that being kills? 2) At the same time, if a hero kills once, where does he/she stop? What gives them the right to judge who lives and who dies? If a bank robber is trying to escape and driving recklessly, would a cop have the right to kill him -- because after all, he might hit someone with his car? 3) What is the effect on Toa as a whole if they blur the line between themselves and those they fight? 4) And finally, think about the Bohrok -- the Bohrok were carrying out the will of Mata Nui, just at the wrong time. If the Toa had blown them all up, thinking they were evil, they would have caused all sorts of problems down the line -- simply because they were mistaken about the nature of their enemy. Once you kill someone, you can't take it back. So it is going to be an interesting issue, and I think it is coming up in the book in a very natural way, given their circumstances. Greg