Tanu Toa of Earth

It never was what BIONICLE was, nor is it intended to be... But either way, this isn't an alphabet at all, just some funky symbols that aren't really worth extrapolating an actual alphabet out of. And that does disappoint me. It isn't the exact content that I miss. It's the concept of having a deeper story. More background for those who want it, and no need to study that background for those who don't want to. This Bionicle theme doesn't offer that second level, and feels generally brainless - moreso than even Chima or Hero Factory. Sometimes I wonder why people can't fix what's broken (too many plot threads to manage) without overcompensating or 'fixing' what is NOT broken as well.

Um, ew. The lava surfing was neat, but the rest of it felt horribly generic, and honestly more Hero Factory or Chima than BIONICLE. I mean... Pew! Pew! Pew! was never really a BIONICLE thing, and I was happy about that.

It's... just "Once more unto the breach" in Matoran letters.

I'm getting a really awful Hero Factory feel from those helm/masks, and the extremely top-heavy Marvel Constraction/HF torso designs look really silly, particularly on Kopaka, who looks pretty neat otherwise. I also wish they'd tone down the massive chunks of metallic technological... stuff - this is Bionicle, not LEGO Bayformers. ...However, the "Battle Arm"(?) gear functions look and sound neat, and hopefully the designs will improve from here. Also, hey look, Pohatu is actually brown. And he's... riding a cyclone? That's awesome.

This confirms... pretty much everything I was afraid of with the new reboot. It's a "hard reboot," which means completely disregarding the expansive, mature, deep universe of BIONICLE's first iteration... in this case, in favor of an extremely oversimplified, somewhat generic story... On the set side... well, those are really boring too; almost no new parts, and all huge smooth HERO FACTORY shells where there should be the little technological bits that made BIONICLE's detailing great... Instead, we get lots of bulky HERO FACTORY-style technological attachments tacked on, which make the new Toa versions look like bulky, generic, Bayformers-esque robots... Which, character-depth wise, is probably what we're getting, if the trend started by Chima continues over here. I'd love to be really optimistic about this line getting better and not being Chima-like, but unless they do a complete about-face with their design trends and method of appealing to audiences, there's really not much to be optimistic about.

I think the answer to this question lies in something we don't know yet - the nature of the new BIONICLE franchise. If it's a watered-down version, as I suspect it may be, we may end up with something like the HF message board on the LEGO official boards, but with the occasional group of old fans discussing Old!BIONICLE. If it's actually as good as the BIONICLE we all know and love, or at least at the caliber of pre-Rebooted Ninjago, which I doubt but hope for with all my heart, then the forums will just become a lot larger and a lot more active (About what they were before, perhaps a bit less), which would be great.

Having in-depth discussions about BIONICLE, other themes, and even other storylines... You don't meet people that are into that kind of thing much in real life, at least not where I live.

I can believe it's still here. Bionicle isn't dead, after all. XD

You aren't the only one by any means. I've been here since... uh, Voya Nui.

This thing's now going too fast to be a train... It's reached escape velocity... It's now officially a hype SPACESHIP. Thank goodness it's airtigh... wait, what's that hissing noise?

That would be amazing. As much as my feelings about HF are mostly just 'Mehh,' this would be great. Not sure if this counts, but I also want to see a new MMORPG centered around Ninjago... But not one with boring gameplay like LMO. Instead, I'd like to see a skill system like LU's (But with the addition of some innate character powers), and gameplay more like... er, LU. Not because LU was the end-all-be-all of MMOs, but because I believe it struck the right balance between simplicity and fun. It could've done with less linear worlds, though.

By Mata Nui, that's awesome... I'm considering buying it, but sadly I probably won't :|

Interesting. (Huh, the 'Breez Drill Machine' reminds me a lot of Power Miners.)

Unfortunately, that pretty much sums it up.

Normally I dislike cosplays for being extremely tacky (Often due to art styles not really translating into real life), but this is pretty awesome.