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Darknut

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Year 15

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About Darknut

  • Birthday 06/08/1995

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    he/him/his
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    Massachusetts, USA
  • Interests
    This is really out of date haha
    Just trying to get back into the hobby these days

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  1. The lighting is weird and messing with it for sure, but in the first one out of the bag it looks to have some sparkles in it along with some markings that only show up on the Copper one, specifically the lines from the eyes to the top and the one line that is at the top of the right side vent. Those marks appear in all the flip/flop colors like gold, silver, and copper from early Bionicle, while the Brown Komau just has a solid color without those lines. Also, those bags look a lot like the bags that random Kanohi would appear in when found in Nesquik cereal in Europe when that promo was running in the the early years.
  2. I'm split. The Kaukau feel right since it's what we've seen them wearing for so long. Feels kind of like the Hafu/Taipu mask situation in some ways, but with less important characters. However, I do feel conflicted on Nuri specifically, since a matoran in the Bohrok-Kal animation "Theft of Fire" matching the new Nuri appears in it. These animations came out before MNOGII, and a lot of the matoran from them later appeared in the MNOGII (i.e. Damek, Kalama, etc.), so the Nuri with a Komau from the web animations appearing again with the Komau in MNOGII would make more sense than the Kaukau. So yeah, I guess I'm down for the change to Nuri, but I'm less convinced on Kivi. He does wear a Komau in his Metru-Nui promo CD iteration though, which is less convincing since I don't think it was made by Templar and a couple other matoran in those change masks from their MNOG/MNOGII appearances.
  3. Like Nato said, just keep reporting the posts. It will stop eventually when a number of the bot accounts are banned, but the best thing to do is to not engage and report the posts. Remember, topics can be set up to send email notifications to the account owner whenever someone replies to a topic, so if you engage in replying to the spam topics, you could be creating false "interaction" counts that the bot presumes is people wanting to buy/learn more about the product. This in turn might be encouraging the creation of more spam topics/accounts since the bot program thinks engagement is happening. Don't reply to these topics, just report them and move on. As others mentioned, it'll clear itself up in a few days probably.
  4. Not sure really what you have without pictures, but based on the descriptions it sounds like mostly gear. Bricklink has a gear section in their catalogue, but just by searching Bionicle Key Chain I was able to find a decent amount of things matching your descriptions. If you check the price guide on items that have had recent sales you can see sale data of what stuff was sold for in the last 6 months, might give you an idea of what price people are willing to pay.
  5. Wow I remember reading about the claims regarding this way back when, crazy to finally see photos of it! Makes you wonder how many people with no interest in Bionicle or Lego even may have had their hands on a Brown Komau at one point. Wish the image was clearer to make out the text on the card behind the mask, can only make out "wit__ Toys" myself. There were claims that they both came together in said pack, but looks like it may have only been one or the other.
  6. They kind of look like VMKK, which were given out to Proto-Squad members. They were hard gray plastic Krana-Kal that had a vaccum metal coating applied to them, the ones that never got coated were handed out as the GPKK. My guess it's they're more than likely that, but maybe someone who has more experience ID-ing them can weigh in. You can check the official promotional and rare collectibles topic for more info, posting in there may get some traction too.
  7. The second I read the not quite, I immediately thought "They have different neck heights actually don't they!" Can't believe I forgot about that part, but it's been ages since I've built them haha. Yeah it's neat how with such a limited number of parts we got 6 completely unique builds!
  8. I was really confused on how you knew about that since I usually keep my collection pretty private, but then remembered my Brickshelf handle is the same as this one, oops. But yeah the Medium Blue Kakama's final price is public knowledge, what the seller has listed is the correct amount. Wish it wasn't, I was pretty good about not using my Lego budget this year for anything other than the GWP until that auction. I'm out of the game for a while now. But yeah @Owls, I would agree with @David Skyroller on pretty much all points regarding the pieces. While what you have is mostly one of a kind, I think we may be hitting the peak of what people are willing to pay for a piece of plastic these days. If you're just looking for offers it will probably end up in the $2500 - $4000 range. I wish the pricing @Letagi mentioned was still a feasible amount, but it seems that isn't the case these days. If you want to try your luck with an auction you can too, but there's less power in vetting who you're selling to that way so you might just end up getting it into the hands of someone trying to flip it (if you care about that, that is). With the auction route I feel you'll still end up on the higher end of the prices mentioned here for sure, but it might take longer and you'll have to drum up the interest. As for the genuineness of the parts, I remember you mentioning trying to get some Lego designer's feedback on them (I think it was Prince Galidor), so if you have proof of that from them it'll gain you a lot more credibility.
  9. Yeah, hence the added context I included in the post about the seller being a bit ridiculous with their asking prices and their info on the rarity of their items. I don't know what the last one sold for, but they're nowhere near what Bionicle Universe is asking. I'm pretty sure he's had it listed for a while at that insane price, so you can try direct messaging him with an offer. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't go down though. Also, someone once did a calculation of how much the gold would cost alone for the piece, so if you can dig up that number and adjust for inflation of gold since, you probably can build a good case for a more reasonable asking price when you find someone willing to hear your offer. Good luck!
  10. Yeah I was a bit confused when I saw the options, every single 2001 Turaga has a unique build. Whenua, Vakama, and Matau all have the same leg and arm length, but varying neck positions. Nokama is identical to Vakama with the exception of her longer arms, while Nuju is identical to Nokama but with longer legs due to the single bushings added in. Onewa has the double bushings like you mentioned, but otherwise is identical to Vakama. I like them all for the variety, don't think I actually have a specific one that's my favorite.
  11. Bionicle Universe has one listed for sale on his Bricklink store. Price is a a bit more than steep, so I would message them and try to get a more reasonable offer in. Not sure how plugged into the community you are, but the seller has kind of developed a negative and questionable reputation over the years due to the prices and claims they make about certain rare pieces, so you may want to really ensure the authenticity of the piece. It looks real from a glance, but just make sure you do your research to ensure it's legit. Mask Collector should still own one, you can try reaching out to him if you want to learn about what to look for to ensure authenticity.
  12. What's up with people distrusting Bricklink so much nowadays? Yeah the correct part arriving issue is true, but the transactional part is logged by the payment method used (PayPal, bank transfer, etc.) and then reflected on the site as a record of sale. Could buyers buy way higher on platform and then have the seller send them some cash back off record? Sure, but that can happen with any online seller platform, not just Bricklink. Also, that White Huna was up for quite a while if I recall, so I'm sure their was a lot communication going on between seller and buyers. The 3000 USD is a bit extreme like Roger C-T mentioned, but they seem to have rarely sold for that before. They pretty much have the same origin story as the Brown Komaus, which seem to have sold for around 1000-1200 USD lately from what I've seen and heard. But there seems to be a way smaller supply of them entering the market than those. 1400 USD is a fair price for sure, but you can always ask around to see if there's someone out there who's willing to pay more. A bunch of people on here are looking for one, I'm sure they'll see your post and reach out soon enough.
  13. I wouldn't say Brown Komau are only decently rare, they haven't necessarily flooded the market. I just think Lego resellers and old fans getting rid of their collections are more aware of what they are now. Having watched them pop up over the last 5 years, it seems the flow of them is pretty stable. Even then if we are just counting all of them that have shown up and assuming none of them are being flipped, there still aren't even half as many documented ones as there are say G2 Translucent Blue Masks of Water, which have always fetched an equal or higher price than the Komaus have. The Official Rare Collectibles topic has had them listed in the hundreds since 2014, and it seems like they are selling for $1X00s USD these days. I don't feel like that's a huge price jump, it's really just the market following inflation with a little bit of a boost of nostalgia from people coming back into the hobby as adults. Just trying to say that it's not the worst offender of recent prices. I do agree on the the Copper Komaus though, and I would throw all the Euro Misprints (Kaukaus included) and special edition or rarer set masks like the movie Kraahkan and PGKs into that bucket. As @Letagi mentioned, there's probably hundreds of thousands of all of those masks out there, if not millions. The artificial inflation of them is insane. I remember the Kaukaus costing about $30-40 USD, and almost all of the Rurus and Matatus costing less than $20 USD each back in the mid 2010s. The supply has always been there for these, it was just harder to get a hold of them if you weren't in Europe was all. So yeah, none of those should be listed for what people are listing them these days. It is predatory, and it's sad that the same thing seems to be happening with some sets nowadays too. Almost all of the evidence from prior years goes against that being the case, but even if what you theorized could have happened, it's still incredibly disingenuous to advertise a possible production/release error as a feature of the product you're selling. If it happened a customer bought those packs and found a Protodermic Kanohi Nuva, people would chock it up as incredible luck or good fortune, not as the norm, so it shouldn't be advertised as such. So I opened a bunch of Kanohi packs back in the day, and a couple later in life after the end of Bionicle. With the exception of the Infected Hau, I've never gotten or heard of any Rahi exclusive masks (i.e. Translucent Blue Ruru, Teal Kakama, Yellow Komau, Light Blue Pakari, Black Huna) appearing in those polybags or boxes. I'm genuinely curious about the proof of this happening, cause that would totally blow my mind. Another point to bring up are the few instances where sellers who aren't aware of the rarity of their items sell them at great prices to collectors and re-sellers alike, only to feel like they got conned out of their items when they see their stuff re-listed by the predatory re-sellers. I feel like events like that only hurt the fandom, because it not only drives up prices like we've seen, but also ends up painting the private collectors who bought at low or "fair" prices as liars or cheats to the original seller. Events like that just make all of us on the buying side look bad, which I feel we can all agree really isn't a look we want for the fandom. To add to this, as @T.B.O.C mentioned, the fandom has hit it's nostalgia wave and the social media influencers creating videos about the rarity of certain items are absolutely affecting the market, and as many of us have mentioned there are definitely bad actors in the seller scene, and while some of them have always been predatory, others may have originally been enthusiastic fans who got caught up in the dollar chasing game. But having those videos and guides to pricing also help in protecting outside sellers from viewing the community in a negative light. And as @The Archivist mentioned, it sometimes can result in more product entering the market by setting an estimated value for said items. While I am in agreement with the majority that the market is a bit haywire these days, I don't think it's as a unbalanced as most, at least on the very rare side of things. When we're talking about pieces that have less than a hundred, or sometimes less than a dozen even in existence, shouldn't they be priced pretty exceptionally? Yeah maybe not in the thousands, but at least in the hundreds. I still feel like the prices Letagi has collected/documented in The Official Rare Collectibles topic are fair. However, at what point are we just being sticklers for low prices? Not trying to say I don't want better prices for collectibles, but there is a line between predatory sellers manipulating the market for some items, and other times where us as buyers are just being priced out. I wouldn't say it's random stuff, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. The prices in any collecting scene in general just go up until people don't want to collect anymore, and the reality is, we'll probably all be gone or too old to care by the time the prices are really competitive again for Bionicle. As for Lego as a whole, especially licensed theme stuff where the IPs are either still going or have inevitable reboots every few decades, I don't think a market collapse is ever going to happen, since interest in those fandoms is continuously being nurtured, thus injecting more life and staying power into the collecting scene.
  14. Keep in mind though that those parts are SLS printed (fusing Nylon powder with a laser), not FDM prints like tourmalinex mentioned. Not that Lego may have never used FDM for prototyping, but the parts we saw used for Toy Fair prototypes around that time were spray painted SLS prints usually. Also to add to this, I recall a more recent interview from the last couple years with someone involved with Bionicle around that time where they specifically mentioned they were using SLS or "powder" printing to prototype parts instead of milling machines, kit-bashes, and other methods like they used to. If I recall the interview I'll link it here. Just to add to this comment, I feel like we're forgetting how much 3D printing has advanced in the last 25 years, and how much more affordable it has become. I remember back then how rare and cool it was to have a high school drafting class with access to a 3D printer, it was not at all the norm, and they were way slower and clunkier than the ones we see today that are a couple hundred bucks. So yeah, of course your 25 years of tech advancement for the consumer market 3D printer is better than whatever was easily available and top of the line back then, I would be mad if it hadn't come this far! It's awesome the phenomenal stuff we can print on budget printers these days, but remember that the tech wasn't always this good or affordable. As for the leeches, I know Lego has done trade shows in Texas, and had had SLS printed stuff displayed at them, but no clue if they're real. If they can be proven to be SLS "Powder" printed, I would say they could be legit.
  15. Cool, good to know that it still popped up in the area all the others seem to have. Like The Archivist said, a lot of buyers these days aren't on BZPower so maybe visit some discord servers and other forums/groups to find more interest. You can also check out the signatures of some people who post regularly in this forum, they often mention they're on the hunt for stuff like this.
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