Infrared

I updated BS01's wiki software a few days ago and forgot to update HS01's database during that process. HS01's articles should be accessible now. Thanks for letting us know!

Edit: By the way, for future reference, if you have concerns about BS01 or HS01 in the future, the quickest ways to get a hold of the staff team are by posting on the BS01 Discord server or by posting on a staff member's BS01 talk page (staff members don't check HS01 nearly as often as BS01).

It looks like Brickshelf search queries need to be at least 4 characters long, so "Toa" doesn't pull up any results.

On 6/7/2020 at 8:46 PM, Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva) said:

Ooh, that's a pretty unique look!  I like it.

On 6/8/2020 at 10:04 AM, Laval- Master of Energy said:

She certainly looks like one would expect a Toa prototype to. Nice work!

Thank you! I was going for the slightly off, prototype look, glad it came through!

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My entry to TTV's BIONICLE Canon Contest 1: The First, in which participants build Helryx. As the first ever Toa, Helryx may lack polish, but she's built to get the job done.

I imagine early Toa, such as the Toa Mata, were designed with a particular fighting style in mind. Later Toa have more refined frames well suited to a variety of fighting styles. Going with this idea, I made Helryx asymmetrical to fit her equipment. Helryx's large weapon arm lets her deal strong blows with her mace. The shoulder and knee armor on her mace side protect her when she swings. Helryx's other side features lighter armor since her large shield covers it. Even her shield is asymmetrical for a reason; it tapers toward the bottom, exposing Helryx's leg so she can quickly advance with her shield up.

Feedback much appreciated!

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What the Toa Nala of Fire lacks in commanding presence he makes up for in cool. Can this engineer smolder his way to victory with thought and grit alone, or will destiny demand a blaze of glory?

I wasn't planning on making this character a Metru build. I tried the torso out of idle curiosity, and since it fit the character I stuck with it. One year late for Metru March.

The name Avongu was made using Tolkien's Matoran Language: [avongu "dusk" < avo-ngu, from avo "elemental light" and ngu "last, final; alone"]

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Waamehi-Nui are gorilla-like Rahi that reside in forests throughout the universe. These creatures are more physically imposing than their Lava Ape cousins, but they are also friendlier and more social. Rumor even has it that a troop on the Southern Continent accepted several Bo-Matoran into their ranks. Good-natured these Rahi may be, but provoke a Waamehi-Nui and it will use its strength and horns to wreak the sort of havoc that gives Skakdi nightmares.

The term Waamehi-Nui was made using Tolkien's Matoran Language: [wāmehi "(Rahi) possessing hands" < wai-amehi, from the possessive particle wai (originally denoting possession of the object) and amehi "hand"]

(Alternate backstory: Good Guy Hordika :P)

Thanks for taking a look. I'd appreciate your thoughts!

Looks like the site is back up now, but the games directory is gone. If you want to reach out to Templar (without tweeting) you can try sending a message to info at templar.com.

It looks like MNOG isn't accessible right now because templar.com as a whole is down, not because Templar removed the game.

Edit: Misread the original post, sorry. I haven't seen any indication that the company's closing, so I imagine this is  temporary. They may not even realize the site is offline--if you want to get their attention try tweeting @TemplarStudios.

Cool contest idea! Here are a few more resources that may be helpful:

• BS01's artbook gallery for easier browsing of the artbook concept art (courtesy of Dorek)
• BS01's main concept art gallery
• The BioMedia Project's image gallery, which has some concept art

Umbra and Melding Teridax probably could since they have no inner shadow.

 

Addressing your second question: If memory serves, the Toa Mangai were each sent out on missions that were actually traps where they were killed by Eliminator.

Then why does it say on BS01 that some left the island to go on their own adventures? The reinforcement Toa from the Toa/Dark Hunter War I understand, but the article specified the Toa Mangai, which I assume meant the ones who fought the Kanohi Dragon.

 

I think it's all self-consistent, although BS01's Toa Mangai article could afford a rewrite. As I understand it, the adventures that BS01 alludes to are different from the missions that Makuta sent the Toa Mangai on. If that's true, then the timeline goes like this:

The 11 Toa Mangai showed up to defeat the Kanohi Dragon ~3,500 years ago. Then 8 of the Toa Mangai left to go on their own adventures, which is why Tuyet, Nidhiki, and Lhikan were the only Toa around Metru Nui ~2,500 years ago during "The Many Deaths of Toa Tuyet." Tuyet was sent to the Pit then, leaving 10 total Toa Mangai and 2 on Metru Nui. Over the next 500 years, the 8 Toa Mangai who left came back. (We know that because all the Toa Mangai were on Metru Nui during the Toa-Dark Hunter War.) Nidhiki defected during the war, leaving 9 Toa Mangai, who were all on Metru Nui. By the time of the 2004 story, Eliminator had killed 8 of them, leaving just Lhikan.

There's a relevant discussion on BS01 here.

Antroz's claws fit the design fairly well.

I've never seen an artbook, so I can't speak to whether or not it's real. A (quite incomplete!) list of who won which artbook is available here. Unfortunately #65 is not accounted for on that list. That said, from the list it's clear that if your book is a legitimate copy, the seller didn't win it from BS01 or BZPower.

As far as I know all the purple Kaukaus are fanmade. Flintsmith is a BZP member known for making them.

Lots of good stuff in there. Thanks for putting it together!

One more quote you may find of interest is this exchange with Greg about Noble masks. It's a bit older than the one in the doc, so maybe Greg changed his mind after he wrote this (and maybe you saw this already), but it provides another explanation for why the Mata didn't use noble masks.

The Great Masks are much more powerful than the Noble Masks. And while the Toa did have to collect the Noble Masks, I still feel that the most important thing they did with them was provide them to the Turaga, so that they could use them to help defend the villages. While I certainly do not say MNOLG was wrong -- it wasn't -- its authors had different perspectives on some things than I do, and different goals in their storylines. You asked for my take on the issue, and that's what it is -- that while the Toa did use the Noble Masks (as evidenced in MNOLG), and did have to collect them, they were collecting them more with an eye toward supplying them to the Turaga.

One of the Glatorian Arena games was officially allowed to download by anyone. Sadly my old laptop hard drive died and I had not backed up the game.

If you're on Windows, you may still be able to download it here (can't verify that it still runs as I'm on Mac): http://bzpower.com/story.php?ID=4483

It's also worth noting that the Matoran Universe is often just called "the universe." The term comes up in Shadow Stealer's article in the Dark Hunters guide: "Some whisper that he was a hero long before the first Toa ever appeared in the universe, possibly a crusader of a completely different type." The book came out in June 2006, so a few months before the Greg quote mentioned earlier. I wouldn't be surprised if "the universe" was used before that.

To add on, I think the official MU map is not at all to scale. The islands are shown way bigger than they actually would be. That's because according to BS01's Metru Nui article, Metru Nui is ~40 miles long from north to south, but per lordofthesquids (language is nsfbzp) the MU is ~7,600 miles or ~3,300 miles tall depending on what you go by (~7,600 is the official number and ~3,300 is from Faber's concept art, which is supposedly more consistent with other media). Either way, based on that map, Metru Nui looks way way longer than 40 miles. Also, Mata Nui just about covers the Great Sprit Robot's face, but the map makes it look like the much smaller Metru Nui fills the robot's whole head. All of which is to say that the islands are way smaller than they appear on the map, so there's way more ocean to navigate, and MUans had a much smaller chance of happening on Artakha than the map would suggest.

Also I'm convinced that the map only shows major islands. There are several locations listed on BS01's Locations/Other Locations page that don't reasonably correspond to any islands on the map. Some that stick out are the "Island near Metru Nui" that Naho swam to, the "Island near Stelt," and the "Wooded Island." My bet is that the MU has a whole bunch of minor islands. Even if you made it into Artakha's dome, if there were other islands around you might be less likely to question Artakha on the horizon than if it were the only island around in supposedly empty waters.

tl;dr Don't trust the map.

A unique build, but the lack of articulation makes him feel pretty lackluster. His proportions also feel pretty weird. I do like the cattle head on the staff though, and the colour scheme is nice and bright.

Thanks for the feedback! Fair point about the arms—to be honest I wanted to use those pieces so they'd be out of the bin. As for proportions, do you think longer arms would improve things?

Legend tells us that Failure came to Nala Nui long ago. He swept across the Silver Sea and reached a fishing village. There he told stories of a distant Ring-Land and promised to bless the Matoran with a great gift. But Failure lied, for his gift was not great. He drained away their Water until all that remained was Sand.


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Zemahri was one of the mysterious Matoran of Sand who roam the wastes of Po-Wahi on Nala Nui. Transformed into a Toa, she now protects her tribe and the larger settlement of Po-Koro. Zemahri has found it difficult transitioning into Po-Koro's less nomadic life, and she spends no more time there than she needs to.
 
Zemahri wields a staff topped with a bleached Mahi skull she found in the dunes.

The name Zemahri was made using Tolkien's Matoran Language: [zemahri < ze-mahri, from ze "empty, drained out, drained" and mahri "ocean, depths; descent/ascent"]

Thanks for taking a look, and please let me know what you think! (And what's up with the backstory?)

Adding to that, if you want to write out the BBCode, do it like this:

[url=https://www.google.com]text[/url]

It'll turn into a link when you post. If you want to preview the effect, you can toggle into BBCode mode by hitting the light switch on the top left of the reply box. Then toggle out and it'll turn into the link.

And if you ever want to replicate a BBCode effect that you see in a post (for example colored text), you can always quote the post, switch to BBCode mode, and copy the relevant BBCode from inside the quote.

Searching for Ekimu's tomb, the Toa journey deep beneath the City of the Mask Makers. There they wind through ancient catacombs, battling Skull Scorpios at every turn. In time they push their way—or are they themselves pushed?—into a vast chamber. In its center swirls a vortex of debris, all that remains of the vanquished Lord of the Skull Spiders.

In the darkness, Onua can make out a lone figure. Have the Toa found their quarry at last? "Ekimu!" he calls. "We are here to rescue you!"

The six gasp as an islander steps out of the shadows…

 
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Here is my entry to The Legend Continues contest! Participants create entries reflecting things they would have liked to see in G2 Bionicle. I recreated the MNOG confrontation with Makuta in the style of the 2015 animations.

Please let me know what you think!

Any Latin enthusiasts here? I think I'm at the early intermediate level or so.

Any particular texts you've read that you've enjoyed?

Yep. I've enjoyed some of Catullus's poems because they seem pretty unfiltered, and they go against the stereotype that Latin's just a language of stuffy speeches and what have you. Also I only read a small excerpt, but Juvenal's Satires seem entertaining. How about you?

Hi BZPower. Talk here about the classics--ancient Greek and Latin, ancient Mediterranean culture, or what have you. I'm curious to see how many BZPers are interested in this sort of thing.

Discuss!

Fantastic. We'll work on implementing this on BS01. Thank you so much!

This is great, thank you!

Did anyone bother saving his responses from the Lego.com message boards? I wish I had.  

There are archive.org backups of the entire thread, but BS01 still needs to replace the old LEGO.com links with archive.org links.