Valendale

Besides Overwatch and I guess the most recent couple waves of Minecraft stuff, I wouldn't really count any of that as "lately". But I will say it's kinda funny that Sonic received an official Lego figure before Mario did. Says something about society, but i'm not sure what.

Lego has really been supporting gamers lately. The fig in series 19, the 2020 Ninjago stuff, and now this. I'll wait to see what we get before making a final judgement, but I will say I hope we get some more traditional figs in addition to the blocky Mario.

I would guess that it was just so that the models could be completed using only parts found in the component sets. Irnakk (before the rerelease) could be another example of this.

Man, I just have no need for knockoffs in my life. I've never really understood the Bionicle fandom's interest in them to be honest. Does it just come from people in areas where the real thing isn't as widely available?

The price raise to $5 just kills these. There's a ton of cool figs in series 20, but I just can't justify picking them up at that price. The Viking will probably be like the only one I get.

I think Ninjago will take every motif it can get its hands on. That's kinda the way it's been. Anyway, I do like the idea. And I love the fact that there is a set named "Gamer's Market".

It's weird how out of scale they are compared to normal minifigures, but I guess it would be hard to do them accurately. And that Gru figure is kinda... yeeesh... I may pick up the the large set if I can find it reasonably.

Neat little concept for my favorite duo in Bionicle. I imagine this could be Nidhiki's punishment if he ever were to defy The Shadowed One again.

I watched the movie as a kid when it came out. I remember vaguely liking it, more so than the Bionicle movies at least. I can still remember the line "Do you want a red thingy or a blue thingy?" While it obviously set up a trilogy and had a ton of unresolved plot points, I can totally understand why it never got a sequel. The Lego Movies did pretty much everything Clutch wanted to do, but better. And I have to disagree with you on the animation. The fact that the movies limited themselves to the general real physical limitations of minifigures and imitated stop motion was one of my favorite parts of the films and a cool homage to a part of the LEGO fanbase. The movie may be a relic of the past at this point, but I really love the Clutch Powers figure Ninjago gave us last year and just the fact that it exists. Definitely up there as one of my favorite figures of all time.

Gotta agree with this. Maybe I'm not looking that hard, but it seems like BZP is one of the few real forums left.

Man, I had forgotten all about these and the game in general for years. Cool that you found it, it think most of the models used in the game were part of some creator set or another at the time.

I don't know if I'll ever find the time to play any of these at this point, but it's really cool of you to post something like this. I love old parts of the community being dug up!

Really cool story about a small town. It's a amazing how a thing like a store closing there can be a big change even if one doesn't live there anymore.

I like the idea of spooky stories set in the Bionicle universe and I'm enjoying what you've posted so far. I like how the "unknown" danger is interspaced with more "known" dangers like rahi and how the actual source of the hauntings is left with multiple potential explanations.

This seems like a decent ccbs interpretation of the character. I'm not totally sure about the colors though. I like the inclusion of the flag, I was going to comment on it even before I read your text. But as you said, an actual flag piece on the end might serve you better.

All very good, congratulations to the winners. I don't remember what I voted for at this point honestly, they're all good and my opinions can change with the wind. I think I may have gone for the Tahu had it actually been there though.

Very interesting, beastly, monstrous design with horns and the rahkshi backs as mouth parts. Roborider wheels on the vhisorak pieces is a cool idea too.

It's cool that a well-known BZP member will be on the show.

They display separately, but I think that's about it.

Over the break from school I just had, I played a lot of an online RPG called DragonFable, a game I played much more when I was younger. It is kind of simple and juvenile to me now, but I still enjoy going back to it every now and then. I also started playing the King Knight campaign for Shovel Knight, crazy that that game has been out for 5 years at this point and is finally finished, although I haven't completed it yet. Back at school I've been playing Smash in the student center almost every day. I play Pokemon Masters on my phone while I'm not doing my. I'm looking to add friends on it. My friend code is 1067-2149-9457-7119.

The build does a really good job of showing the character's personality. I like the custom face, and I'm always a fan of mocs that look like they're wearing clothes.

Well, probably one of the biggest things, at least for us here, was Bionicle's cancellation right at the beginning of the decade. Right at the time, the was a lot of sadness, and a growing schism between those who accepted it and those who were enraged. And then later it got brought back to a little bit of hype, only to end again shortly after. All this lead to the Bionicle community feeling a bit smaller and fractured. We were forced to adapt, but there's still plenty of people out there. Then, there was Bionicle's replacement as a constraction theme: Hero Factory. The first year had rather poor small sets if I say so, with the larger sets being basically Bionicle. After that though, we got the introduction of CCBS, which changed the face of constraction as we know it. Not everyone was happy with the change, but I think we can all agree it's lead to some interesting mocs at least. Now as for the story aspect of Bionicle, that role seems to have been filled more by Ninjago. The TV line has been going strong for almost as long as Bionicle at this point. As others have said, maybe having one definitive medium for the storytelling helps keep people into it. Ninjago has also turned out a lot of cool sets over its many years, although my personal favorite year is still the very first one. One recent notable thing in Ninjago I think is sets being released based on previous story years. This was always something I heard requests and rumors about online for Bionicle, but I think we can assume LEGO evaluated that the money just wasn't there for it. I guess the spread of the internet and past episodes of the Ninjago television show being easily accessible on streaming services means kids can see what was happening earlier that they missed. I just wish current season episodes were as accessible, as it feels like by the time I see them, the corresponding sets are out of stock. Oh well, I guess I'll just wait 7+ years for the legacy sets. And I think one other major thing of note over the last 10 years is the greater appeal to adults. We went from having a modular building, a Star Wars UCS set, and maybe one or two others. Now we have direct to consumer sets coming out constantly. And there's also ideas, where it feels like most of the products are made by and for adult collectors, although not necessarily just LEGO fans. (It feels like there's been more attempts to just mass market appeal to adults in general too.) We've also gotten a lot of interaction both online and at conventions. I think this has all been a big part of what has kept me a LEGO fan as I got older, despite my favorite line being cancelled. There was always a product for me, no matter my age. And the 2010s also saw LEGO make forays into having movies on the big screen. I think these were cool, beautifully animated, and overall I liked them, but I can understand why they're stopping. There's only so much of that you can take. I will miss the extremely unique sets though, which often included things that wouldn't be found together anywhere else.

Yeah, I can relate to these sentiments a lot. Pathfinder was also one of the better things to happen with me in 2019. Hopefully this next one is a bit better.

2019 in film for me was defined by going to see The Lego Movie 2 on my birthday and being told the showtime listed on the website wasn't an actual showtime. I actually did see 3 movies though Endgame, Alita, and Detective Pikachu. Not huge on movies, but all three were decent enough. Endgame was probably the best.

Well, I figured I would just write a little about some of the low and high points of the year. Well, at the beginning of the year, I was still recovering from my breakup in November of the previous year. I was passed the worst of it, but I was still distraught and would have bad periods lasting a few days at a time that would continue for several months. For some time, my ex had been a driving force in getting me out of the house and experience new things and just be social. I realized at this point how much I had really been forsaking other relationships in my life. In this period, I was rediscovering my friendships and trying. I started really playing magic again. I was spending any time at my friends' apartments that I could. I joined a pathfinder campaign. I even went to my first bar after my 21st birthday. And speaking of that birthday, it was actually one of the better ones I've had. This general mood and pace continued for a while with me becoming and rebecoming close with several people. I took classes over this summer for the first time. I had classes 3 days a week and worked the other 2. I enjoyed getting both education and work experience at the same time without getting burnt out on either. The stuff with my friends basically continued as well. We went to the lake and there were even a few parties where I was being rapidly introduced to new people. After the semester ended, I took some time and got back home. I can't stand the city sometimes, and I always enjoy spending a little time with my family. I also got in some building in this period. And then we get to Brickfair which was really the highlight of the year for me, but I already kind of wrote about that in depth. After returning home from Brickfair though, things took a turn for the worst. Something happened between my friends and I. (I don't want to get into it too much here due to BZPower rules, but I'll happily give more information privately.) It felt like almost everyone I knew turned on me overnight. And these are people I've been very close with for years, since middle school in some cases. I only had a couple people I could really trust. So as fall semester started up, I was feeling pretty down. For someone who had been spending most of the year trying to be more social, losing your main friends hits hard. So I started trying everything I could. I started playing magic at games stores instead of primarily kitchen table. And luckily my pathfinder group was still accepting of me. Lately I've been spending more and more time at the school's student center, just like playing games and hanging out. Over the Thanksgiving break, I was excited to be going to see my aunt for thanksgiving. I hadn't made it the previous year, and I was in dire need of anything going better this year than the last. Unfortunately, as I was on the road, disaster struck again. It was raining hard, and I hydroplaned off the road. Luckily I was unharmed, but my car was totaled. Still, I made it to thanksgiving a little worse for the wear. The semester quickly wrapped up, which was good for me since I had no car and was relying on my friends at the student center to get to and from campus. My grades this time around were a little worse than they have been, but I passed all my classes. Now I'm home again, feeling somewhere between trapped and dreading school starting again. One other thing I did this year was start keeping a journal. I've always really like record keeping for some reason, and this year I finally found the resolve to start keeping one like I've always wanted too. I helped me get down my thoughts when I had no one to talk to and kept my mental health up. I'm very proud to have kept it the whole year, and I'll probably continue do so in the future. Overall, this is the roughest year I've had in a long time, maybe ever. But I got through it. And honestly when I write it out like this, there were a lot of positives, even if some of them were tainted by negatives later on.