Bfahome

Eventually I'll need this, to go with my poster:

My guess is this is what you're talking about.

You can find it via the menu in the top right (the one that's your name) and selecting "Manage Friends", then the "Friends Pending Approval" tab at the top.

Yes.  Now that there is an alternative place to discuss BIONICLE online, there is no way that BZPower will be able to last for a decade and a half.  RIP

As I understand it Bionicle references have been common in MST3k in the past as well, but I might be mistaken.

 

Well the original series ended in 1999 so any BIONICLE reference would have to be something out of a more modern take like RiffTrax.

SIX

To me Hero Factory never really lived up to what it started as.  The first wave set it up as a fun, campy, tongue-in-cheek story about robotic superheroes.  The website had the user-generated news ticker, Hero Factory FM, notes about other teams' missions, and funny little lines in the character bios that made it clear that they were playing the clichés in a self-aware way.  It was a different flavor of theme than BIONICLE was, and I wish it had continued that way, rather than sliding back into a more generic heroes vs. villains story.

The sets were pretty great though, glad the CCBS got introduced and explored through the various waves.

ok it is time again for that game episode 5:

I have a Vohtarak minifigure with mandibles that aren't fully molded.

As for value?  Aside from whatever value one might find from having a mismolded part, a part might be useful if it's mismolded significantly enough to have a novel shape, such as a Vahi-sized chunk of a Hau.  Though anything like that would probably be caught by QA and not released.

It's fun.

Collectibles are a gamble and that's entirely fine because you have your consumer's unspoken consent that they won't get a full set of anything from the first attempt, but they can at least feel free to try. Getting them, however, to (knowingly or otherwise) consent to a huge surplus by design is pretty darn questionable.

Seems a bit contradictory.  Having "a huge surplus by design" is kind of the point of blind bag(/box) collectibles.  The justification is that you can trade them with other people, which is how anyone who doesn't want to sink tons of money into gambling on chance is going to achieve it.  You can "try" to get them all in one go, but you won't, and since it's almost all luck-based there's nothing to "try" that isn't probably illegal.

Also, don't the first two packs balance out better than that?  Given that they both have Krana you don't have to buy all of one, you can buy some of each.

Episode 4 up now:

Made a thing for Rebrick's Mini Building Madness competition, because why not:
 

Was initially reluctant because some of the parts I would've wanted I'd already covered with BrickLink and LUGBULK orders, but there are still some mighty fine pieces to get so I'm in.

However, another thing that confuses me is just how much difficulty you seem to have just figuring out what the controls are. Maybe you might want to consider looking through the game's manual, if you happen to have it. (That's what I would do if I wanted to figure out a game's controls.)

It's not that I can't figure them out, it's just that sometimes I forget which action I have bound to which button.  A consequence of only playing for half an hour every couple of weeks and being new to this style of game.

(Also it doesn't help that some of the controls are contextual and do different things in different places.  Why you do, game?)

I just wanted to see how well the CCBS fists' fingers would work as piano keys.

The answer appears to be "acceptably".

Hey look it's episode 3:

A couple of recording hiccups and stuttery portions but it seemed mostly fine.

Unikitty definitely.  And Kraata or Shadow Leech plushies would be fantastic, especially if the latter came in scaled-up Tridax Pods.  Or perhaps a Skull Spider plushie you could wear on your head, in the same vein as the various Headcrab or Facehugger wearables and products out there.

 

Well that's a little disappointing. Instead of any of those other ideas we get sexism in LEGO form.

In what universe is female representation "sexism"?

I'd really hoped he'd been joking before.

Much like I am in the game, I'm most intrigued by the Ocean Monument.  The Guardian and Elder Guardian are probably the best-build mobs of the theme, especially since it looks like they don't require any theme-specific molds.  The Witch Hut looks interesting mainly for the little slimes that come with it, may have to get some of those separately.

e: though that big Magma Cube's "jumping" mechanism is pretty spectacular too.

Looking at the instructions for The Three Brothers and it just now occurs to me that the pink brick was probably meant to represent the big guy's brain, like they are in the BrickHeadz sets.

I'm really enjoying all the little details and techniques that go into the Elves sets.  Things like the log-patterned round tiles and the end of the dragon's tail.  Also happy to see the continued use of the smaller wing piece, and in more colors.

 

Dear LEGO,

 

Please give Sabine her helmet in addition to her hair.

 

Love,

Bfa

She has had her helmet in one set: http://brickset.com/sets/75106-1/Imperial-Assault-Carrier But I agree she should have it in more of her appearances! It's a nice helmet with a lot of personality!

Yeah, that's why I'm miffed that it remains the only one of her now four set appearances to include it.  Still no Season 2 helmet.

(These are the things I've resigned myself to because she probably won't get another Black Series figure, and if she gets a CCBS figure it'll only be one of the styles.  Minifigs are the only real shot at portraying the full range she goes through.)

I'm not sure what happened that caused the recording lag last episode, possibly something I left running in the background, but I didn't see any this time around.

re: guides, I don't plan on looking at walkthroughs because I want the game experience to be real.

Anyway, here's the next episode.

No real outro because I'm splitting up episodes based on cutscene placement and there wasn't any indication that one was coming.

Dear LEGO,

Please give Sabine her helmet in addition to her hair.

Love,

Bfa

I highly doubt LEGO would cancel BIONICLE due to poor performance and then turn around and immediately revive it a year later.  From the looks of things it seems BIONICLE's lower-than-hoped-for popularity meant they had to prematurely shutter the theme, and so had no immediate replacement ready to go.  The licensed Star Wars constraction sets can ride the Star Wars boom for a while, which will give LEGO some time to do some market research and development while still having sets to fill that niche.  We don't know what, if anything, is coming after that.