ZeldaTheSwordsman

Now, to me the Technic functions were one of the draws of Bionicle (Even when "win condition" features like stud-attached masks were phased out it was good for having figures give each other a good solid smack) and I would have liked to see them become more refined. Like perhaps separately-geared shoulders as the Toa Kaita had becoming standard, and putting ball joints on the end of the axles so you could have it both ways.. I agree that the Metru designs are awkward due to some fails in execution. Worse to me than the pin attachment point is the fact that if you stick to the parts a set came with then you have no choice but to build them double-geared - unlike the Toa Nuva, they didn't come with alternate parts. The double gearing combined with the angle of the shoulder sockets does not play nice with the intended use pattern of some of their weapons... and Vakama having to thrust one arm backward to raise his disk launcher looks silly. The double gears also make them a bit awkward to build - I find it practical to go against the instructions and leave off putting on the chestplate until the shoulders have been attached, the better for making sure the shoulder gears are aligned juuuust right. Beyond the awkwardness of the double gearing, I think some of the color choices are awkward. Particularly Vakama and Matau - the dark red and dark green with only dark stone gray as a secondary color don't say "fire" or "air" to me as well as previous and successive (in IRL terms) color schemes. And then there's the fact that all of them except Whenua and perhaps Nuju have the wrong eye color... Lhikan is perhaps the best of the 2004 lot to me - he still has the awkwardness of double gearing but if attached in the right way his greatswords play nice with it, and his parts colors work better for fire to me. I think the best users of the Metru design are the Toa Hagah - only one geared arm, so no weapon collision issues. The other arm is free to turn on a pin-with-bushing piece.

Probably Ko-Koro or Ko-Metru. Somewhere nice and cool.

It really is Ehrye how much the Toa Inika masks look like mutated versions of the ones the comic says they were forced to abandon Sarda: Hey Idris! Where did you park Dekar? And here's one I wanna see people try and guess. What's Nokama's favorite canoeing song?

Same. He was SUPPOSED TO, that's what the story promised, but nooo.... Me, I thought that Makuta and Mata Nui were brothers. You know, because that's what all the lore said was the case and he even refers to Mata Nui as "brother" in MoL... And then Farshtey's retconning what Makuta's whole deal was (along with his name) never really addressed its compatibility-issues with this established premise... Another misconception I had: that Akamai Nuva would be formed at some point.

well, that's probably because by that point in th story, it was assumed roodaka had died to release teridax but, nope, gotta have that walking, talking, morally grey fem-fatale trope! (morally-grey fem-fatale trope is how she got so gosh-darn over-rated. :t) If she was actually written as a morally-gray fatale and that's not just certain fans seeing what they want to see, then shame on Greg. Reading the wiki pages about it, it just seems like she was simply a villain on a leash.

Ooh, a Crystal Spike would work nicely. I think it would be good as Bomonga's spearhead. As for a Climbing Claw, if I were to use that who would it best go with?

Petewa, sand blue wouldn't really fit considering that going by Norik and Iruini, the Hagah use the same main colors as the Metru. Aanchir, what this is for is for the sake of having the other four to go with my Norik and Iruini. You mentioned gunmetal - I'd thought of that too, using it for Gaaki and Pouks and dividing things up by elemental opposite. Of course, doing that would mean having to paint a pair of the Rhotuka-launching shields gunmetal (which only came in gold and silver), which I'm not sure I want to do (even though I'd paint a gold one a brighter gold in a heartbeat). As for using a black gearbox... I'm hesitant to do that because I already have a spare white gearbox set aside for Kualus. Assuming I went with silver for Kualus and stuck to just gold and silver, that leaves one more slot for silver armor and two slots for gold armor, and the question of which slot should be assigned to which of the remaining three Hagah. Still looking for input on what pieces to use for the spearheads, too. Also for what pieces to use as chest armor.

I plan on making customs of the other four Toa Hagah, but there are some things on which I'm having trouble deciding so I'm asking for suggestions. One of those things would be who gets what accent armor color. My normal inclination would be to divide it by traditional element groupings (Ice-Water-Air, Fire-Stone-Earth), but what's making me hesitate there is the fact that doing so would make Kualus white-and-gold like a Toa of Light. I'm also not certain what pieces to use for their spearheads. The only specific idea I have for one is to maybe use a Panrahk staff head for Gaaki's Tidal Spear, since it looks trident-like.

In-Universe: A tie between all the Great Beings the way the story turned out. By Greg: "Teridax" from 2007-onward, the Dark Hunters, and the OoMN By the fans: If what people are saying about the reaction to his death is true, Matoro. Otherwise I honestly have no idea. By Lego: Takanuva (alas, I'm quite fond of him) thanks to the 2006-onward storyline unnecessarily overriding what was supposed to be the point where Makuta got defeated and Mata Nui awakened (and that would be the point I stopped really following the story beyond what the Lego Catalog said). Regarding Roodaka, it didn't seem like she was redeemed so much as she wound up having to work for the heroes in exchange for protection because both villain factions were mad at her. Granted, I haven't read the actual story where it happened, just the relevant wiki pages.

I would love to see them repro the 2003 Matoran torso parts in black, gray, dark gray, and the various greens.

I would like to point out that just because "Every word had to be approved" doesn't mean it was given much inspection before receiving said approval. Regarding Greg's writing, he seems to have difficulty writing anything that isn't cloak-and-dagger, he tends to have conflicts between morally-ambiguous-but-allegedly-on-the-right-side characters and his evil characters sidelining the more solidly good characters in importance when not constrained from doing so, and he also has something of a hard time writing characters really, truly getting along except in the form of banter. I personally didn't witness the online blow-up over "Teridax", so I don't know how badly the fandom behaved there. But his refusing to reveal The Shadowed One's name in response to said blow-up still comes off as a bit bratty, and it feels like it doesn't account for the reason why the "Teridax" reveal upset people (which is that it was an obnoxious retcon of the mythos, one of multiple annoying retcons served up post-2005).