Iben

I just noticed that the Region of Ice area shows the picture of the Protector of Water and Gali as the main figures in that area

Personally, I'd love to see more elemental influences in the shells. Some of the add-ons like the ones of Bruizer looked quite cool and create a nice connection to the element. I always felt that the first Toa were described as almost "being" their element, and although this did translate a into their design, I only really felt this connection once the Glatorian came to the scene ( Strak's ice armour, Metus' schield used as shoulder armour, Malums fire claws, Raanu's helmet ) which was ironic because they actually weren't as close to the elements as the Toa were. I'm not saying those pieces were perfect because for instance Strak's armour is nice try but felt a bit unusable to me, but it really sparked me more than before.

I'm only talking about armour here, I do feel there was a stronger tie to the elements weapon-wise through various lines (Hordika for instance ), just wish they'd make (even) more elemental styled armour. I know they're probably not as versatile as more "general" types of armour, but still they look really cool.

-Iben

Sounds like something I'd love to enter !

Just one question to make sure my entry wouldn't be against the rules :
 

 

Use of any toy parts not produced by the LEGO Group will result in your villain being disqualified

What about fabric/cloth for wings ? They would be home made, but as they're not toy parts this might be a grey area.

-Iben

If that blue monstrosity is supposed to be a Spinosaurus I'm going to have an aneurysm. I'd praise them for at least being up to date on the newest research and making it quadrupedal.... except it's only quadrupedal because it appears to be a horribly mangled Dimetrodon. It is also puny compared to the oversized (naked, wrist-broken) raptors.

Honestly, the whole quadrupedal thing is a bit, well, shady atm. There are certain issues with the new centre of gravity, and even if you use that, you can still have a bipedal Spinosaurus using Andrea Cau's representation. The reason why quadrupedal gait on Spinosaurus is a bit unlikely is the lack of adaptations theropods have to support it. Especially the wrists and the shoulders, even if the weight estimate of 12 tonnes is correct, then his arms wouldn't even been able to support that massive weight. The best thing for now is to give it another year and wait for all the revisions and second studies to come in the future xD.

But yeah, you're right. I gave up on Lego and dinosaurs as well. At this point in time I can still forgive them for not going for a feathered Tyrannosaurus, as although it's quite accepted in modern science, I can see why the general public isn't ready for it. But featherless raptors, that's just a no-no ._.  And the horrible wrist breaking, ugh. It's a shame really.

-Iben

Sounds amazing ! I can't wait to read more of the best Bionicle story in ages !

There's one small thing "bugging" me though. It's not the right word, it's more like a part of my curiosity that constantly pokes my brain. This chapter mentions that there was also a Ba-Matoran among the Matoran who walked up to Piras... Now we never got to see that one or his Toa form. Was there a reason for that ? As I'm just in love with your Toa designs, I would just love to see how he or she would look like in Toa form

But anyway, I can't wait for the next parts, take your time and keep up the good work.

-Iben

"A Toa without weapons isn't a Toa".

This line put me at ease. Lets hope they keep this in mind and never go "dual blaster Kongu"-mode ever again

-Iben

 

 

 

It's a soft reboot. There have been hints at it being connected to the previous continuity via the Mask of Time in some fashion. 

Which is all from TTV, a source questionable in the reliability department.

 

May I ask why it's questionable ? The info comes from members of the actual podcast, and IIRC, they did have VIP passes so they attended the VIP panel. They asked question directly to Lego panel members, and gave their answers, so I genuinely wonder why they are considered to be a questionable source.

 

-Iben

 

 

It seems wise to take a source that once said BZPower was responsible for the end of Bionicle with a grain of salt.

 

I honestly don't understand how this would even matter in the slightest bit, as they were present during the VIP Panel. I'm sorry, I don't want to bother with this kind of childish rivalry between sites ( I had more than enough of that in the ZT community ).

I'm sorry, but what happened in the past ( and what should probably stay in the past ), doesn't undermine the fact that they were able to ask questions to the VIP Panel and that they got their info straight from the source. It's only reasonable to assume that that info is indeed correct.

https://twitter.com/TheJonathanJuan/status/520290594531586048

Here they mention asking the question.

-Iben.

 

It's a soft reboot. There have been hints at it being connected to the previous continuity via the Mask of Time in some fashion. 

Which is all from TTV, a source questionable in the reliability department.

 

May I ask why it's questionable ? The info comes from members of the actual podcast, and IIRC, they did have VIP passes so they attended the VIP panel. They asked question directly to Lego panel members, and gave their answers, so I genuinely wonder why they are considered to be a questionable source.

-Iben

I'm loving all these added bits onto the 2001 personalities, they make the Toa a lot more relatable. Especially Onua    (For some reason his name on the page is "Onya"... is this a typo?)

 

I can't wait to see these personalities fleshed out further, and I'd love to see what happens to the other '01 characters. I miss my Matoran.

It is, on every other source it says Onua, and the original title on his character page said Onya first, but now it says Onua.

-Iben

New head pieces !

-Iben

I was actually wondering, would you ever consider bundling this storyline into a single pdf file ? It would be amazing to be able to read this as if it was a real book

-Iben

Thanks ! I've switched the mask a lot really, I even used Rotors helmet at one point, but I guess this one was the best option.

-Iben

All of them load for me

-Iben

I really love it ! It almost has a crab-like feeling to it, I just love the use of the large torso shield and the white hero factory fist, you really gave those pieces a new and interesting purpose, very creative.

Can't wait to see what's next

-Iben

Thanks for all the positive remarks ! I'm surprised really, I didn't think most people would care about these. This really means a lot to me, I cannot stress that enough.

Anyway, a new update !

---

Enya (left) and Ilidrim (female), two Vo-Matoran. Both aren't finished yet, as they still require decent armour fittings ( but I haven't ordered those yet xD )

Crelt is a male Su-Matoran. Just like many others of his kind, Crelt is a mask-forger in the city of Su-Metru. Over the years, the clean white armour of the Su-Matoran slowly darkened by the never-ending smoke the great Plasma Furnaces create. The Su-Matoran never bothered with cleaning them, as they quickly got all dirty again.

---

Atasa, a female Ma-Matoran. I intend to swap her mask for a more "feminine" one later on, but this will do for now.

---

Tial, a great male Toa of Magma. He's the protector of Ma-Wahi, and has dual Magma Swords. The hooks can be de-attached. His powers over magma allow him to withstand the highest temperatures, to a point where he can swim in the magma surrounding Ma-Koro.

His legs and his overal torso needs tweaking, mostly the legs as they're just wips now. For the curious members, yes indeed, that actually is the Ben 10 Ultrabuild Torso

Now, what would a Bionicle island be without some Rahi ?

---

The massive Manutri are peaceful giants. They tower above most Matoran and are extremely strong. The males have sharp claws which they use to fight each-other when mating season arrives.

This is a WIP remake of the Manutri. The legs bother me a lot, and I want to remake those from scratch. I'm just not satisfied with their look.

  ----

The Aquava are a primitive but sapient race of Rahi. They have a small culture and spent mos of their time fishing near the entrance of the Underwater city of Ga-Koro. It's theorized their ancestors were members of a mighty swarm of robotic insects.

Credit to Archinto for coming up with the brilliant idea of using the squid as fishes.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this update, I hope to show more in the future.  As always, bigger pictures can be found on Flickr. Thanks for watching and thanks for the amazing comments !

-Iben

Thanks guys ! This really means a lot to me.

@Banan Gunz: Yes indeed, the goal is to make a story arc consisting of 2-3 story waves, and possibly a spin-off regarding the history of the Turaga. However, at this point I'm updating it once again, as some elements were too close to Nova Orbis, which is something I want to avoid.

Looks really good! I love your Matoran design. It's simple and effective, though the digger arms are a bit long. It's a great usage of HF limbs and reminds me of certain... images on the internet.

 

 

Haha, these were made before the first leaks arrived on the internet. My goal was to recreate the arm armour on the original Metru Nui Matoran and rebuilt Mata Nui Matoran as seen in MOL and LOMN, and the HF armour pieces were ideal for that. And from that I quickly went to searching for the ideal proportions for the legs and arms, which seem to be the proportions Lego used on their new sets.

Purple is one of those colors that's really hard to use in Bionicle, especially old purple, and you used it really well in Toa Batu. He's got some great bulk and some great shaping. What's the thing on his back though?

 

Just a kind of "enlarged" backpack kind of thingee xD The Matoran of Mehri Nui all have special Protodanium Backpacks, adjusted to their jobs and element type. The backpacks of the Onu-Matoran are much larger than those of most other Matoran, hence why her Toa form has a bigger back

Thanks for the kind words !

-Iben

Currently I'm working on several MOCS for my own fanfic (see link above). In this topic, I'll show all the characters featured in the storyline.

These are modern Matoran living on the island of Mehri Nui. The male Ga-Matoran Aque and Se-Se, and the female Onu-Matoran Batu.

http://board.ttvpodcast.com/uploads/db5640/1725/305f24a3b1ba638e.png

As you can see for yourself, these are still wips and were taken with my IPhone with no decent lightning. Some parts are still missing, as you've probably noticed. Batu is missing her second Digger Glove, and some more purple pieces, while Aque still needs a replacement for the "armour" holder on his chest.

The colour schemes are based on taste, as I loved Onepu as an Onu-Matoran, so I wanted a purple-black one as well. The colours of the Ga-Matoran however are explained in the storyline. Aque and Se-Se are both Protodanium miners, which they mine underwater, but Se-Se doesn't spend a lot of his time doing his actual job, hence why his armour is still completely blue. Aque however, is a local town hero as he's the strongest of the Koro, and he spent a lot of time underwater, which resulted in rust discolouring his armour and Kanohi.

https://flic.kr/p/p27MPd

This is Efren, he's a male Bo-Matoran and leader of the Rahi-Squad. The Rahi-Squad consists of a group of Matoran who accompany travellers through Bo-Wahi, protecting them along the way.

https://flic.kr/p/pikzW4

Another picture of the male Ga-Matoran, Se-Se.

https://flic.kr/p/p28omY

https://flic.kr/p/p28zQD

https://flic.kr/p/p28omY

Here you have the Ar-Matoran, the Matoran of Sand. Known to be a bit "primitive", they're still one of the wisest and gentle Matoran on Mehri Nui. From left to right :
 1. Sabbu : a male Ar-Matoran. He's an archaeologist and is famous for discovering the ruins of an ancient Ko-Matoran village.
 2. Sulh : a female Ar-Matoran, she's an amazing glass-sculptress and designed the giant Chandelier located in the city of Onu-Koro. She has a fear of heights and is quite shy.
3.Brald : a male Ar-Matoran. Brald is one of the strongest of all Ar-Matoran and works as a construction worker. He helped building the castle of Turaga Macku in Ga-Koro.

https://flic.kr/p/p27MQq

And here's an early WIP of Batu's Toa form.


My aim in moccing is to keep things both simple and detailed. I often use custom torsos, but keep legs and arms to the original pieces ( as I love the Inaka legs for instance. ) I hope you'll enjoy the mocs that will feature here in the future, and I hope to have some decent pictures up sooner or later.

Thanks for watching,
-
Iben
 

One of the things that annoys me is that every little detail is turned into a possible "it's this or it's going to be that"-theory.

The whole "Lewa Master of Jungle" doesn't necessarily mean that Lewa gets an element switch. Anyone who still remembers the original canisters and promo videos, knows that Lewa was a true master of the jungle. We saw him jumping from tree to tree, swinging on vines, etc. As a child I never even knew he was a Toa of Air.

The same goes for the "they'll probably get rid of Toa, Kanohi, Matoran..."-thing. It's based mostly on promotional stuff. Like they never said "Mask of ..." in the past ? I remember most promotional videos never even mentioned the word Kanohi. , the commercials never actively mentioned the word "Kanohi" or even "Ignika", when the Mahri - Phantoka - Mistika - videos were released. In 90% of the cases, they used the phrase "Mask of Life". So the fact that Lego uses "Mask of Creation" ( something they've been doing in the past as well ? ) doesn't indicate that they'll drop the word Kanohi. Neither does the catch-phrase "Master of". It's most likely just a promotional thing. A Toa is a master of his environment, and Lewas environment was a jungle.

In the past, many promotional names and phrases were used, most of them never became cannon anyway. There is such a thing as reading in too much, and with these kind of promotional things, you just have to be patient about it, without panicking.

-Iben

I'm actually surprised this didn't make it on here, but this sounds like a great source for fanfiction :

 

Nicholas749 wrote:

Here's a few things that I've given up trying to figure out myself: 

 

1. I think I already know the answer, but just in case, are the inhabitants of Spherus Magna born with their mechanical implants, or do they gain them later?

 

2. The Great Beings' plan was that two giant robots needed to put the planet back together. Why didn't they bother to reconstruct the prototype--or even build yet another robot--to ensure that this would be successful? Did they just stop caring? In other words, why did they leave only one functional robot when they knew they needed two?

 

3. What's the difference between solid protodermis and stone in the Matoran Universe? Is solid protodermis a metal or rock-like material? If the former, then is protosteel simply a much stronger (possibly the strongest) variant of solid protodermis?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

1) They are not born with implants, no

2) We don't know why they never finished the second robot -- or IF they never finished it. We simply know that Mata Nui, realizing he needed one, made us of what was there, which was the prototype. Remember, very little of this plan worked out the way the GBs had planned it. For all we know, the second robot exists somewhere and Mata Nui simply did not know that.

3) Stone in the MU is made of protodermis, so I am not sure how to answer this. Everything inside the robot is made of protodermis.

So actually, there might be a completely different robot out there.
 

 

People who never read The Hobbit could still enjoy LOTR

 

But that's only because Tolkien made sure to have the second chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring specifically explain all the plot elements of The Hobbit that are/will be relevant to the current story (namely the finding of the Ring and the encounter with Gollum). If he hadn't done that, reading The Hobbit would be necessary to understand The Lord of the Rings.

 

 

He explained the relevant plot elements indeed. I didn't say Bionicle shouldn't do the same, did I ? You could easily do that in the new Bionicle line.

On the Doctor Who thing, sure that's true, I was merely implying that you could easily jump when a new Doctor arrives.

In the end, it's just too early to really know what they will be going for, a soft reboot, hard reboot, continuation, etc. All options are still on the table, some are just a little bit less likely ( right of the bat continuation for instance )

 

What is the evidence for it being a contiuation vs. It being a reboot, i think the set left off with tahu and the golden armor, and well i guess sence i can not talk about the leaks i can not continue that, but if you seen the leaks you probaly know where i was going with that.

Well, besides stuff that's leaked that we can't talk about, Greg Farshtey has said that he doesn't think a continuation would be effective because it would immediately put new fans at a disadvantage, and it would be immensely difficult for them to catch up with older story.

 

Although I don't really care if it's a reboot ( as in a restart of the story ) or a continuation, I honestly disagree with this. It all depends on how you do it. Sure "start where we left of" continuation won't work, but there surely are examples of "continuations" that were effective. People who never read The Hobbit could still enjoy LOTR, you don't need to watch all the Doctor Who series in order to jump in a new series (aka the current success of the Doctor ), etc. You'll always have to deal with some ground rules surely, but you don't need to know more if you don't want to, and if you do, then there's another great world to discover.

I believe the "continuation = difficult for new fans and reboot = only solution"-view is just a bit too black and white.

 

Ibentje wrote:

I had a general wonderment about the names in the Matoran Universe. Are they unique ? Or are they kinda like human names, with multiple Matoran having the same name ?

 

 

Good question. So far, we have never seen two Matoran with the same name, and we probably would not do that in story because it would get confusing. Doesn't mean it's impossible, but we would never do that.

Nice to hear actually, it's something I've been wondering this for ages now. -God ###### I need to change my name on the Lego site ._. -

https://community.lego.com/t5/LEGO-General/Chat-with-Greg-Farshtey/td-p/6605180/highlight/true/page/439

 

 

If they did do collectible Matoran, what would they be like?I'm imagining them using the 4-length bones for their limbs, maybe 3-length, and then using either the XT4 torso or the smaller hero torso. They'd have to at least have coloured limbs since they aren't going to be long enough for armour to attach.

Well, they might still be able to have armor on their arms and/or legs. It depends on what size they are (which in turn depends on the size of the Toa), as well as whether they have articulated knees and elbows.I expect collectible Matoran would be around 25 pieces total, counting weapons. This one I built as an experiment already uses 21 pieces — all he'd need are two weapons built with two pieces each to drive the piece count up to 25. Of course, that's all assuming a price point of around $5. Larger sets could allow higher piece counts (including the possibility of more varied builds and more elaborate weapons), but having randomized masks might frustrate people if the price point is too high.

I was thinking more of having at least two pieces per limb, to allow for elbow and knee articulation.

 

Sorry for going off topic, but I have to agree with the articulation points. I have my own design (excuse me for the low quality, my camera and other stuff are at home ) for a bunch of Matoran for my storyline, and if the torso piece gets turned into one single piece, you'd get full articulation and lots of custom-ability., with a low amount of pieces.

I do hope we get some form of collectibles, as the whole blind Kanohi/Krana/Kraata bags was something I missed during the first years and I still regret that. It's one of the things many MOCers would enjoy and in the end wouldn't cost Lego much to do.

Well, it's been a long long while since I've been here or even remotely active on the forum. However, throughout the years I never lost my passion for Bionicle and continued working on my own storyline ( which I've been working on since, IDK, the Piraka got released ? ). Today I think I'm finally ready to reveal what I've been working on, so there will be some mocs and epics coming up soon.
 
On the other hand, I wanted to something more than just writing and creating mocs, I wanted to recreate this new world I created in my mind ( more information will come sooner or later ). As I suck at drawing, I decided to go for something I actually can do quite well. So I decided to recreate the world and environments ( and only that ) in 3D. I've worked on it for a few days now, and I thought I could show you the first wip.
 
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22122801/madu%20tree_wip.png
 
Here you can see the WIP Madu Tree, based on the picture on Biosector01 ( credit for the text to them as well ). The textures aren't done yet, I'm currently using ones that I had lying around, but I plan on making specific textures for these trees. If you have any suggestions or criticism, don't be afraid to say so !

Next up will be the Bone Tree based on the drawings in Faber Files.
 
See you soon !
 
Iben

Edit: Please link to images over 750 kB in file size!

-Wind-