Bfahome

I'm pretty okay with all the voice stuff.  The fact that their mouths don't actually move makes the reverb not seem as bad as if they did, and Umarak's voice doesn't bother me terribly.  He's a hunter, not a tank, so he's not going to have a deep booming voice; I suspect they're saving that for his "Destroyer" form, if anything.

Also I recently acquired Akida.  Decent set, not quite as exciting as I expected it would be, but still very swooshable.

 

Kylo Ren looks a bit too jacked if you ask me, but otherwise seems to capture the character pretty well.

No kidding, I bet he weighs thirty pounds soaking wet under that little black dress.

Hakann?

Maybe I'll get Ekimu, but none of these strike me as things I'd particularly want.  Maybe their reviews will change my opinion, but I kind of hope not because it means more money to spend on the Creatures and Star Wars constraction sets.

 

 

Posing and putting the sets together was as it seems a hard task for these folks...

The people putting most of these sets on display are PR people, not set designers or master builders. I suppose LEGO doesn't see the need to pull those latter people away from their busy schedules so some AFOLs don't complain about construction mistakes or poor posing.

Don't get me wrong, I wish they were posed better or that I had time to move things around before I took each picture, but that's not a possibility in the limited time we have access to the sets.

Being a PR person has nothing to do with putting a set properly together or posing it right, anyone can do that, I'm sure the instructions booklets were give for each display set.

Well they probably have other things to do as well.  There are a lot of sets to assemble and distribute.  They probably prioritize stuff like getting the giant $100+ sets together and ready over stuff like posing a handful of $10-$20 figures.

Time for more BIONICLE, and this time the recording program actually did its job and didn't produce terrible choppy video!

Ekimu may have his own symbol on his box that's analogous to the Nuva Symbols, like how Umarak has his own on his box.

So do the beasts use the Brain Attack heads? That's what it looks like to me.

[scrolls down]

wait

BUCKET WHEEL EXCAVATOR

OHHHHH WOW

From the one image, it looks to me like Umarak's Mask of Control is a different mold, as the horns are now the TECHNIC and tail assemblies attached to the side of his head instead of being part of the mask.

Also, I am really looking forward to these sets.  Now I just want to see more images.

This is a really cool video and it almost made me want to buy Lewa.  I'll settle for being more excited for the series.

"Elemental pie"

You can keep saying it, but that won't make it a good argument.

Like I said before, at least Okoto has a reason for being a mix of biomes.  Mata Nui's composition was sort of just "here it is, don't question it".

BIONICLE was never for adult collectors.  The fact that you're not in the target age group anymore doesn't mean they're suddenly trying to market to younger kids, it means that you aged out of it.

I mean, you haven't really made a point yet.  You've just been saying that the new generation is awful because reasons, most of the "reasons" either being things that G1 did as much or more, or attempts to compare one year of G2 with several years of G1.

That it was an island full of personality and characters and a large backstory and history, rather than "okay so we're on an elemental pie and skull spiders are attacking so let's call upon the heroes so they can collect 2 sets of golden masks and awaken the mask maker" Also, we actually know what mata nui looks like as we were able to fully explore it, and it actually had real names and everything Okoto is just "region of fire, region of earth, etc." And then "the ancient city" it's all just a cheap storyline to mimic the old storyline claiming that the series is "rebooted"

Mata Nui was a rather limited island with a basic backstory of "spirit brought us here, praise spirit".  You could only explore the parts they put into the game, which was very railroaded.

You keep calling Okoto an "elemental pie" as if that a term that couldn't also be applied to Mata Nui.  At least Okoto justifies its land variety with the islanders having elementally shaped the island over time, rather than having a jungle-tundra-desert transition on an island with no explanation.

Edit: at least you gotta catch all the differently colored masks which help you create characters and mocs or did we forget about that hmmm? Well this bionicle is a "gotta catch em all" of two different sets of golden masks and "elemental creatures" hmmmmmmmmmm....

2001: 72 masks to collect, random two per pack.  2002: 96 Krana to collect, random three per pack, 36 Nuva masks to collect, random two per pack.  2003: 252 Kraata to collect, random three per pack.  2004: 36 disks to collect, random two per pack.

2015: 6 masks to "collect", guaranteed one per Toa set.  2016: 6 masks to "collect", guaranteed one per Toa set.

There is zero comparison to be made.  G1 started with a blatant collectible gimmick, because that's what was "in" at that time, which was also exploited by brands like Pokémon.

It's telling that you'll call the new generation "pokemon-bionicle" as a way of putting it down, but will then immediately jump to defending the most Pokémon-like aspect of G1.

What did 2001's story tell you about Mata Nui that 2015's story didn't tell you about Okoto?

e: Also, I just realized how funny it is that you call the new BIONICLE "pokemon-bionicle" when the founding story of G1 BIONICLE was literally a "gotta catch 'em all" quest.

Funny how everyone who wants to call the new BIONICLE "cheap" or "lazy" or "gimmicky" can only ever give the reason "I liked it better before".

Is LEGO cashing in on the name BIONICLE?  Yes.  Just like they did every year post-2001.  Once the brand took off they "cashed in" on it for 8-9 years.

Is the new BIONICLE a cash grab?  Yes.  If you want to be astoundingly cynical about it, that is.  LEGO's a business, so they do things to make money.

Is the new BIONICLE gimmicky?  Yes.  In fact it's using similar gimmicks as the 2001-2003 sets had, with geared motion and masks that can be knocked off.

Do the Protectors lack personality because they use the same mask mold?  No.  Their varied body types and tools give them far more personality than most G1 impulse sets.  I find it much easier to believe Korgot is stronger than Kivoda than that Taipu is stronger than Macku, because at least Korgot has wider shoulders and more bulk than Kivoda while Taipu and Macku look exactly the same below the neck.  Also, by not reusing six mask molds to give the Protectors a "unique" mask, we got an additional mask mold that we may not have gotten otherwise, and in seven different color combinations.

Did they cheapen the story this year as opposed to last year?  I have no idea.  More importantly, you don't either, because we're one month into the year.  Heck, even this far in we know we're getting a short series on Netflix.

So yeah.  You're older than you were in BIONICLE's initial run and nostalgia is a powerful thing.  The new story may not be as densely packed as the old one, yet, but saying it's bad is extremely short-sighted.  This new story goes back to the roots of what BIONICLE started as, and G1's early years have more in common with it than they have with G1's later years.

Racers number six.

There's nothing saying how the mask works, just that it "allows" the LoSS to control the spiders via telepathic link.  Could be literal puppetry, could be hivemind, could be subtle influence.

Nothing about it being required to command the spiders.  Nothing about it requiring conscious effort to use or maintain.  Nothing that would indicate it's not canon.  And certainly nothing to warrant any kind of "I told you so".

(Also, nowhere on Skull Warrior's bio did it actually state that Kopaka's mask got drained.  It just says that they're out to drain the Toa's masks.  And I'm pretty sure that's canon.)

It's almost as if they were just making stuff up to sell sets...

I mean you just described the entire BIONICLE story, but sure.

but it looks like Green Skull Spider is still nowhere to be found.

Welp, time to burn down the island.

It's a wiki.  You can label it non-canon yourself if you want.

… if you have any sources saying it's non-canon, that is.  Otherwise don't expect it to stay that way for long.

BS01's take on it is that he used the mask to establish the telepathic link, which makes sense to me.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, the background to bionicle.com is the Labyrinth of Control. I didn't realize how wacky those huge swinging blades are.   Towards the bottom you can see an actual labyrinth, hadn't noticed that before.

 

Haven't figured out how to get the raw image, unfortunately.

Here you go.

I'm irrationally excited for Rebel Nature so yeah, woo!

Actually, I noticed this over the summer.

When the skull villains came out, I got my first 2 sets at home, with no warning label.But I went to the lego store in the Mall of America and all of the sets had a warning label.

I noticed this on the Skull Warrior set I got there, while the ones in town have no label. So I'm thinking it's a location-based thing. Maybe the two sets you go were designed for a different location and somehow wound up in the same place.

Were any of the first two skull sets that you got Skull Scorpio, Skull Basher, or MMvSG?

Skull Scorpio and Skull Basher don't include the ball piece, while MMvSG is a larger set and it seems that larger sets don't have the warning, or at least don't have it on the front of the package.