Master Inika

I voted for Kaukau. It's been 20 years, for Mata Nui's sake. Death of the author, I say. I just looked at the new pictures on BS01, and they just don't look like those characters to me.

This is beautiful.

Equal parts steampunk and weirdly adorable. I love it. Are the eye stalks supposed to imply that this is a type of living Rahi? Or are they just something cosmetic put on to imitate Ussal?

Lesovikk using dirty tactics to get close to a Makuta is a cool idea for a story, but as is this chapter/introduction is pretty short, and the spelling/punctuation errors are noticeable. With another proofread, this would be an intriguing introduction.

I've already given my preliminary thoughts on this book in a blog post, where I discuss the funny and ridiculous implications of the Citadel universe. Here, I'll dive more into what this book implies and represents for the Hero Factory franchise as a whole. The Hapaka in the room is Mirror World's similarity to the BIONICLE story serial Dark Mirror (they even have confusingly similar names). Since The One, Rick and Morty, and the MCU, alternate universes seem to be everywhere. They offer an interesting look at established characters in scenarios that the main storylines can't tackle. In that respect, the Multiverse allows for something almost like, paradoxically enough, canon fanfiction. Hero Factory, in my opinion, doesn't do enough to earn this distinction. I have seen every episode of the TV show and read most of the previous Hero Factory Secret Mission books, and HF doesn't rise to anywhere near the level deserving this kind of introspection. At this point in the books, I still feel as if I am getting to know Furno and the rest of Alpha Team as characters, so seeing what they would be like in another reality simply does not interest me that much. This brings me to another issue with the story I have. The Mirror World story is topical. As we learned in the last book, there exists a Galactic Conspiracy that wants to eliminate Hero Factory; this book shows us a world where Hero Factory indeed doesn't exist. However, it is noteworthy that the ruler of the Mirror World dystopia is Von Nebula--a former Hero. The Galactic Conspiracy has a point. If the books are to be believed, Hero Factory is the most powerful faction in the galaxy, and it's entirely a private enterprise seemingly controlled by one being. Von Nebula's choice to flee from his first mission is exclusively framed as a moral failing on his part, and I really don't think that's fair. Hero Factory creates sentient beings with personalities. One of them, Von Ness, didn't want to be a Hero, which is perfectly valid. The fact that he tried to flee and leave his leader to die (it would have been more impactful if Thresher actually did die, IMO) is obviously not ideal, but no one's asking the real questions of just why Von Ness, despite lacking any real desire or ability, was put in a real combat scenario anyway. Is this standard Hero Factory operating procedure? Did Hero Factory change its training or how it makes Heroes in any way in response to this? In Mirror World, the alternate Akiyama Makuro and Stormer both treat Von Nebula with unrestrained contempt, even though, I would say, Mr. Makuro is equally responsible for creating Von Ness and putting him in that situation. IIRC, Hero Factory began when Mr. Makuro "saw a need for heroes in the galaxy" or something like that. So little is actually given to explain exactly why he felt that way. (In fact, a big flaw with HF is that, unlike the Turaga from BIONICLE G1, Mr. Makuro seems to exist only to be a wise old mentor who spouts exposition. Sensei Wu and King Mathias, past LEGO mentor figures, were like Turaga Vakama in that I could fully believe they had their own equally exciting lives and adventures while young. Mr. Makuro is basically the LEGO equivalent of Elon Musk, and Hero Factory is basically what would happen if he set up his own private police force.) Mr. Makuro, were his character treated with more introspection, could have been much like Eldon Tyrell from Blade Runner. Does he regret making Von Ness? Just how bad was the galaxy before HF? The book's writing style is good in the same way the previous HF books and BIONICLE books were good. Greg Farshtey excels at describing settings and doing comic book-style banter. In this book in particular, I would not be surprised if Greg knew HF was on its way out and was simply having fun with this one. I LOVE the way the Galactic Conspiracy works. Greg makes you really feel Stormer's frustration at not knowing who they are. Among HF's many unresolved plot threads, this is the one that I really think had potential to become an interesting story. I am also interested in how the Galactic Conspiracy would interact with the unseen enemies behind the "Villain Factory" plot alluded to in Breakout. Despite thinking HF is definitely a step down in terms of quality from BIONICLE, I must say I am sad there are no further Secret Mission books to read, and I regret waiting so long to read them. If you have interest in HF, or if you are nostalgic for Greg's writing style with BIONICLE, you might enjoy them.

What is this?

I can believe Visorak were the best-selling single wave of BIONICLE sets. The Visorak are pretty great, none of them are noticeably worse than the others, they look awesome all in a row, and there were plenty of combiner models to incentivize collecting them all. Plus, they came out in a movie year, while the Bohrok didn't.

Wait till you hear about Skeletor, Shredder, Megatron, Voldemort, Palpatine, Mordred, Thanos, Darkseid, or Maleficent. (My point is that none of the traits you identified are unique to Makuta or even to LEGO. Megalomania, imposing height, black armor/clothing, and use of enslaved servants are all common tropes surrounding antagonists.)

I will post a full review when I've finished the book, but so far, HFSM #5 is, intentionally or not, the funniest piece of HF media. One of the villains is punished because, in upside-down "evil is good" world, not robbing a bank when you have the chance to is a crime. The logical implications of this universe just make me laugh. The villain (I think it was Toxic Reapa) make it sound like an inconvenience, because he already robbed that bank twice that week and was tired. I'm not going to defend the Rise of the Rookies TV episodes as anything great, but Von Nebula had some gravitas to him. There's zero implication that, if he wins, the galaxy will turn into this Pythonesque bureaucratic state. It recasts a lot of Von Nebula's previous characterization to make him, if we take this premise seriously, ridiculously immature. Von Nebula doesn't really hate Stormer or anything, he hates an extremely abstract, watered-down idea of "heroism." It's funny to imagine how this universe function, like why banks even exist if robbing them is legally mandated. That being said, it's not a bad book. I was tempted to write, "Greg isn't even trying at this point," but that's not true. Some parts of the book, like describing Von Nebula's black-hole-corrupted body, are genuinely good and right up there with peak BIONICLE. It's more like, Greg is having fun. I feel like it was an open secret that HF wasn't going to be on shelves much longer, so no one was giving Greg much oversight on the Secret Mission books so Greg just pushed the envelope to see what Denmark would let him get away with. Stuff like this makes me wish the Secret Mission series did continue, just to see how surreal it would have gotten.

It basically comes down to money. Unlike a movie, which you only have to make once, even a short season of a TV show is a serious financial commitment. BIONICLE was an experiment, and I think the spectacular failure that was Galidor made LEGO afraid to put too much money in one property. By the time LEGO did feel confident enough to commit to a TV show, BIONICLE was old news. Trying to make a BIONICLE TV show in 2008 would have required a pretty serious reboot of the plot, which would have risked alienating old fans without enough of a chance of pulling new people in. I'm not surprised their TV budget went to Ninjago.

IMO, white and lime green is the hardest color combination to make work, but it looks fitting here, sterile and police-like. The brick-build head is very nice. The lower legs are my favorite part, they look like heavy-duty cold weather boots and I think the model would benefit from more of that aesthetic throughout, maybe with more tubing. The arms look a little wonky, I am so used to seeing that piece used as an arm that it feels a little weird seeing it used as a shoulder.

A very cute and well-made model, I especially like the yellow axles and use of the HF weapons. I also thought they looked like smaller versions of Vahki staffs.

This guy looks awesome. Is this one of the biomechanical dinosaurs on Bota Magna?

This looks awesome and terrifying. There are so many interesting parts used here, but specifically the canister lid being incorporated is excellent.

Hard to say. I think a lot of Vakama's visions don't necessarily make sense to him until after the fact. I am fairly certain that the Turaga and Makuta both believed that Takua was the Herald, subverting Jaller's feeling that they erroneously thought it was him and he was being dragged on an adventure for nothing. However, in a double subversion, Jaller really was the Herald, and Takua was the Seventh Toa he was heralding.

An excellent story. Ever since Mask of Life, I have found the relationship between Po-Koro and Onu-Koro interesting. Their elements are so similar, it would have been easy for LEGO to essentially treat them as interchangeable, but the film and MNOG both succeeded in giving each village its own unique identity, and you have as well. A few minor issues stuck out for me. The first one was Onewa referring to Po-Metru so casually. I could accept them talking about Metru Nui when they are alone in a private chamber, but as written I imagined the Matoran were still within earshot. I would find it most believable, however, to assume that the Turaga had some kind of rule against mentioning Metru Nui in any way unless it was absolutely necessary. I also found the way that the rules of Kolhii were incorporated, word-for-word from the BS01 page, a little unwieldly and unnatural. It also feels unrealistic to me that all of the major rules of Kolhii were determined in its very first game, with apparently zero new rules needing to be added after that. It would have been sufficient to maybe have one rule added during the game, with the implication being that more were added in future games. It is not that the story needed trimming (for it is already very short), but it would have allowed more time for more interactions between Onewa and Whenua, where are the story's highlight. Or, more time could have been given to the other Matoran characters. It seems a missed opportunity to me that Huki was the only Matoran mentioned by name. Were Hafu and Onepu playing? Was Taipu the Onu-Koro goalkeeper who could not react fast enough? (I also could not help but wonder, are Onu-Matoran players at a disadvantage since they are so sensitive to sunlight?) Additionally, there are two versions of Kolhii in canon: written texts (the encyclopedias and video game rules) say the game ends when one team reaches a predetermined score, but in MNOG II, the game lasts for a set amount of time and whoever has more points at the end wins. I feel that your story would have made more sense if the latter rule was used in stead of the former; as written, since the game seems to run longer than expected, this implies that both teams were not as good as the Turaga anticipated. Plus, if the game were by time, it would make Huki's headbutt more climactic, as a last-minute goal, or ending a tense overtime session. Admittedly, I have not read "The Referee," so perhaps some of my criticisms are not present in that story. There is much to like here, especially in your descriptions of character interactions. Your descriptions of the environments are also excellent, from the unpleasant brightness of the sun from the POV of the Onu-Matoran to the description of the (somewhat lackluster) first Kolhii field. It is just a small handful of minor nitpicks that I feel hold it back from greatness.

I've been binging the series again, introducing it to my friend for the first time. He's heavily into anime like Sailor Moon so it feels so natural for him to watch MLP, I was always surprised he didn't get into it when it was on the air. He loves it and agrees he should have gotten into it sooner, it's so weird but also refreshing enjoying the show with someone. I still have absolutely no idea of anything G5-related except that (apparently) it is now canceled. I still have three full seasons of FiM to catch up on, then perhaps I'll check it out.

Hello, I have recently completed the third and fourth books in the Hero Factory Secret Mission series, Collision Course and Robot Rampage. Being Greg Farshtey's most notable contribution to Hero Factory, they bring to Hero Factory much of what made his BIONICLE writing so good. The characters feel more real and fleshed-out than they ever do in the TV show or comics, and the concepts and locations the books deal with just feel more mature. At the same time, it feels like Greg had little oversight in writing them. The books only tangentially tie into the main story, and there was only one part (when Furno's sword and shield were mentioned) that I was actually reminded of their toy forms. Aside from basic things like color, Greg doesn't describe the actual characters who exist as sets very deeply. He is more interested in describing the non-set characters or environments, which are described very well. Really, if I were reading them without knowing what the toys looked like, I would image much more human-looking or cyborg entities. It is strange to think that these books took much of the energy from Greg that would have gone to BIONICLE had that series continued. It feels like a last hurray of sorts for Greg's gift for action-adventure. The characters brood much like Vakama Hordika or Sahmad. Greg's writing almost chafes against the more kid-friendly direction HF as a whole went in, and I can find most of the books online for cheap, so it seems like the target demographic did not gobble these up the way that we consumed BIONICLE. It is unfortunate, because they really are interesting and well-written books. I am awaiting the arrival of #5, even though I already know it ends on a cliffhanger and the Galactic Conspiracy storyline goes unresolved. Based on 3 and 4, I would recommend buying these books. Especially now that Greg is no longer with LEGO, they offer a historic glimpse into a time period I would say began in earnest in 2004, when lines like Alpha Team Mission: Deep Freeze and Knights' Kingdom II were introduced alongside BIONICLE as LEGO's color-coded heroes fighting ultimate evil. If you grew up around that time, you will find the Secret Mission stories rewarding to read and nostalgia-inducing for the end of an age.

I would love to but I seriously don't have the space. Someday I might construct a proper display case for my masks, right now most of them are in a large ziploc bag.

I had to google Cycladic art, but these are quite beautiful in their own quirky way. They look so smooth, barely even LEGO. I like them.

It's pretty horrible. Theoretically, they are in a tower in my room I have constructed out of storage drawers, in descending order with 2001 on the top and 2009/2010 on the bottom, with heavy sets at the bottom of each drawer and smaller sets near the top. Small bits like 2001 Kanohi, Kanoka, and Rhotuka are kept in plastic ziploc bags in a separate compartment of the tower to keep them easily accessible. However, having moved several times, the tower spent a significant length of time in storage units or other random locations. It is currently in my bedroom, but not in a way I can easily get to. (G2 stuff is in its own separate box in my closet, even less accessible.) This is to say nothing of all my non-BIONICLE LEGO stuff, which is strewn randomly across my bedroom. Hopefully I will somehow have a permanent place to live and keep it all properly displayed.

(I don't think you're supposed to copy-paste the same text in two different topics.) I don't think any of this is realistic. I guess it would be cool to see some more shout-outs in other sets, like the BIONICLE mention in the new DreamZZZ/Ninjago crossover.

Well there’s my daily dose of depression for today. I understand what you mean. Sometimes it is something I have to remind myself to do, but once I get started, it comes back naturally to me. Getting to commit hours to my passions like MLP is the peak of life, that is the end goal everything else is for.

I personally loved Matoro's first "death" in the books and thought it was one of the best scenes. I personally read it as not a true death/resurrection but rather an illusion by the chamber.

Recently, I have been obtaining and reading the Hero Factory Secret Mission series. Not because I think they are particularly good, but because I think they are the final time Greg was really able to shine writing full-length stories featuring LEGO characters. Having seen the TV show, I find the Secret Mission books superior on every level. So far, I have only two of them: The Doom Box (which I have completed) and Collision Course (which I am in the process of reading now). It looks like buying Robot Rampage and Mirror World will not be a problem; there are numerous copies of both available on eBay for cheap. Legion of Darkness, however, is available for $20 total at minimum on eBay, and Bricklink is better but still noticeable: there is only one seller, in Canada, who is offering it for one dollar higher than the other books he is selling. This is just bizarre to me, especially for a series that (as far as I can tell) people considered just fine but not that great as a whole. The one I have heard the best things about is Mirror World, so I would expect, if any, that to be the most difficult to find for sale. Anybody know why Legion of Darkness seem rarer/more expensive?