Aanchir

Someone shared this page from the new graphic novel. Big spoilers!

Wow!

The art is looking pretty impressive too. Exciting!

I'd almost forgotten that the new graphic novel was out today. I'm going to be going to Barnes and Noble sometime this week anyway (there was another book that I had gotten shipped to my local store that I have to pick up), so hopefully I can get this while I'm there.

Does anybody know the complete dimensions of a LEGO minifigure? I've tried looking it up but the only measurements that I can find are incomplete and don't specify units.

 

Thanks in advance!

Here you go! This is the original patent drawing. Units are millimeters except where specified otherwise. Some of the height measurements are in plates, with one plate equalling about 3.2mm. It's still not 100% complete (doesn't have complete dimensions for the arms), but it should be useful regardless.

G2 sucks   Seriously, CCBS is a bad system, it's so shallow like it's for babies      Play the real game, play G1.

Posts like this don't make the anti-CCBS perspective seem very smart or mature. Anybody can say "*thing I don't like* is bad and shallow and for babies." That's a schoolyard-level insult, though. It makes it sound like you're just being close-minded and judgmental, not like you have actually thought long and hard about what you're criticizing, why you don't like it, and why other people feel differently.

But in any case, this topic is about things you DO like about Bionicle G2, not about things you DON'T like. If you don't like CCBS, that's fine, but that's not the kind of thing this topic is asking about. It's the same as how you wouldn't post in a "Favorite Toa" topic about your least favorite Toa. It's not that your opinion on what's bad about G2 isn't valid, but it certainly isn't on-topic.

 

Teamwork being important in a story doesn't mean that individual characters can't ever have individual victories. Even in G1 there were plenty of instances where a Toa succeeded at getting a mask, solving a puzzle, or defeating an enemy without their teammates' help.

I don't know what to say about the rest of your post yet - I wish that you had not used a tone that was so bitter, so I could see things more clearly - but I have to say that this statement is absolutely correct.

 

Whoops.

 

I apologize about my tone. I really get frustrated with topics that criticize things by oversimplifying them, especially when it's coming from a person I ordinarily have a lot of respect for. I need to get better about not taking those kinds of things so personally, but especially when the thing being criticized is something I love, it's hard not to feel like I'm being told I have terrible taste. I suppose I was also upset because I had just read the blog entry about how you were leaving BZPower soon, and I felt like it was a terrible waste if this kind of thinking were the reason you felt like you no longer belonged here. I shouldn't have gotten so angry at you.

Still, I stand by the feeling that you're really holding G2 Bionicle to an impossible standard if you expect every event in its story to reinforce one singular theme. I can't think of any story, whether well-written or mediocre, that could pass that kind of test. A story that DID focus solely on reinforcing one theme would probably feel really preachy and redundant, and the lessons it teaches would not be very versatile.

You realize a story can have more than one theme, right? And that not everything in a story has to be dedicated to reinforcing one specific theme?

3) "Teamwork" is NOT a theme of Bionicle G2, and neither is overcoming adversity in spite of setbacks(which was Bionicle G1's main theme IMO)

It seems to me like the Toa do an awful lot of overcoming adversity in spite of setbacks, not to mention a lot of working together. The fact that they don't ALWAYS work together or ALWAYS succeed does not somehow undermine that. Both of these are perfectly valid themes for G2.

The teamwork theme in Bionicle G2 exists in isolated incidences, and is frequently contradicted by the actual story itself. Yes, the Toa have to band together as a team to beat LoSS. Yes, they must unify with their creatures. Yes, Lewa wanders off on his own and gets de-masked by Skull Slicer.

 

But this is contradicted by other parts of the story. All of the Toa get their Golden Masks on their own. Granted, they have the Protectors to help...but then all of them have to rescue their respective Protectors. (Unlike in G1 where they DID have to ask other members of their team for help.) Lewa swoops in knock off the shooting Skull Warriors single-handedly. Kopaka puts up a shield that isn't needed. Pohatu breaks down a door by himself. Lewa beats the Skull Scorpios alone. Onua rescues everyone from being crushed...by his own actions. And Lewa fights Umarak on his own without any sort of loss in the end.

So any story where people are remotely useful or competent on their own "contradicts" a theme of teamwork? That kind of twisted reasoning is beneath what I know you're capable of. Teamwork being important in a story doesn't mean that individual characters can't ever have individual victories. Even in G1 there were plenty of instances where a Toa succeeded at getting a mask, solving a puzzle, or defeating an enemy without their teammates' help.

The Skull Grinder battle: all the teamwork in the world didn't work. Screw teamwork - I have a hammer that can shoot lasers.

If you were paying any attention, Ekimu's victory over Skull Grinder was made possible by the Toa mobbing Skull Grinder to buy him time to reassemble the Hammer of Power. Sounds to me like both teamwork AND overcoming adversity in spite of setbacks... since, you know, all six Toa were maskless and largely powerless at that point, while Skull Grinder was still tapping into an incredible power source. Without the Toa's help, Skull Grinder could have destroyed the Mask of Creation before Ekimu had a chance to arm himself.

Finally, as I mentioned before, the Toa of G2 treat adversity as if it were a light snack. Enemies? Not really that hard. The amount of success they have is completely unexpected. It took the Toa of G1 eight years of story to accomplish what the G2 Toa do in 8 months, approximately. So that's definitely not a theme of the story.

What the G2 Toa accomplished in 8 months was not even close to the same task as what the G1 Toa did in eight years. Sure, they both woke someone up who was sleeping. One of those people was a highly important craftsman and the other the spiritual embodiment of a universe. You might as well be saying "big deal, the Toa Nuva awakened one sleeping person? The Toa Metru awakened a THOUSAND people, all at the same time!" That's the kind of false equivalence we're dealing with here.

And the Toa's enemies being "not really that hard" is your entirely subjective opinion, and not one reinforced by the actual story. Consider: over the course of 2015, there were as many instances of a Toa being stripped of their mask and powers by an enemy (nine total) as in the first five years of G1 (counting the two times Lewa lost his mask, the one time Tahu lost his mask, and the six Toa Metru becoming Toa Hordika). Am I supposed to believe that being stripped of your powers and your teammates having to care for you AND help you get your mask and powers back is some kind of cakewalk? Sure, with teamwork, strategy, and determination the Toa do eventually manage to trounce each of the Skull Creatures they face, but the G1 Toa likewise defeated individual enemies like Rahi and Bohrok all the time. G1 Gali even defeated a whole squad of Tahnok with one attack. Does that mean her previous and later struggles aren't valid?

Note also — the Toa getting their masks back so quickly after losing them is simply a matter of actually having their teammates there to help them shortly thereafter. The two times Lewa lost his mask and the one time Tahu lost his mask, they were alone and quickly mind-controlled.

Overall, your idea of a "theme" — a message that every single event in a story exists to reinforce — is needlessly simplistic. That's not how real storytelling works. If you don't enjoy Bionicle G2, that's your call, but don't lower yourself to try using warped logic to try and argue that there's nothing there for anybody to enjoy in the first place. All you're doing here is covering your eyes and trying to tell the rest of us that there's nothing to be seen. And after all the well-thought-out arguments I've seen from you in the past (some of which I've agreed with, others of which I haven't), I would have expected better from one of your final contributions to this site.

Gosh, there are so many great things to say about the reboot so far!
 

For starters, the first wave of sets was phenomenal all around. The Protectors were perhaps the best villager/sage characters we'd ever gotten, with complex builds, varied physiques, dynamic color schemes, creatively-built weapons (making use of some of the most versatile Bionicle shooter pieces to date), and eleven to thirteen points of articulation. The Toa have brought together some of the greatest aspects of all previous Toa sets: battle functions like the Toa Mata, dual-function weapons like the Toa Nuva, great proportions like the Toa Metru (in fact, arguably even better), full articulation and awesome "energized" color schemes like the Toa Inika, elaborate builds and varied physiques like the Toa Mahri, Phantoka, and Mistika, and nostalgic designs like the Stars.

Beyond that, the Toa and their enemies so far have made revolutionary use of the CCBS, had higher piece counts than any previous Toa team, and generally been very well-rounded and packed with personality. Even the much-maligned Lord of Skull Spiders had a brilliantly creative Technic build and function and made a great "mid-boss" for the 2015 storyline. And with accessories like Skull Spiders, Shadow Traps, and golden masks of power, each set now has its own story to tell. There have been a great variety of masks to collect and build with. The packaging of the sets has been amazing, with beautiful background art and nice, collapsible boxes that make keeping the packages a whole lot easier than back in the days of plastic canisters.

The storyline has been very engaging, bringing together some of the most iconic elements of G1 Bionicle like an island world of myths and mysteries, a sibling rivalry as the story's impetus, a great cataclysm that upended a thriving society and brought an end to its golden age, and quests for legendary masks of power in mysterious and remote settings. The Toa each have unique, relatable, and sometimes humorous flaws, and for the first time each Toa gets an animal companion, something I've been longing to see in a constraction theme for years now. Some elements of the G1 storyline that were less charming, like its gender-locked elements and heavy use of technobabble, have been discarded.

2015 started the story off with some extremely striking animations that had strong characterization, a good sense of humor, and fed us the story in accessible, easily digestible portions. The chapter books and graphic novels have done a great job filling in the world and characters on a deeper level without making it a struggle to keep up with the main story. This year, The Journey to One, while not without its faults, is already getting the theme wider exposure and providing a more in-depth story than last year's much shorter webisodes could allow.

In terms of other ways the theme has been promoted, LEGO got off to a great start with an amazing booth, panel, and building event focused exclusively on announcing the Bionicle reboot at New York Comic Con 2014. Since that reveal, the Bionicle team has made great use of social media to bring us all kinds of amazing concept art and illustrations — the sort of behind-the-scenes content we'd often only see many years after the fact back in G1. Designer videos, LEGO Club Magazine features, and a designer seminar at BrickFair New Jersey have likewise offered amazing behind-the-scenes insights into the set design process. There have also already been three great official contests to boost fan engagement. Fans, too, have brought their A-game, creating all kinds of amazing artwork and MOCs based on the new world and its characters.

That's not to pretend there aren't areas where the theme has not made a huge impact. Umarak the Hunter and Umarak the Destroyer are the only two sets that can indisputably stand alongside classic titan sets in terms of sheer size and complexity. For that matter, there haven't been any kind of vehicle sets yet. Promotions-wise, there hasn't been much in the way of music for the Bionicle reboot, nor any video game or online game that's highly immersive.

Overall, though, the Bionicle reboot has managed to meet and even surpass my expectations in a lot of ways, and I'm extremely excited to see what happens next!

First of all, the Inika are not more detailed than the 2016 Uniters. The Inika-construction was nearly the same all around in 2006. But in 2016, Tahu's build is very different from Pohatu. Besides color, there is armor style, colors, weapons, accents, and more(As Lychir said).

 

Second of all, people really didn't like the Metru? I get the masks not looking quite right, but seriously? I think the Toa Metru are great even today.

I never said people didn't like the Metru. I wasn't a part of the online community back then so I really wouldn't know WHAT people thought of them. I was just observing that like the Inika or Phantoka/Mistika, you had to stretch your brain a bit to pin down any similarities with the established Turaga versions of the characters.

Metru were alright, though I'm surprised at the amount of praise they get since they basically started the whole absurdly-wide-shoulders-for-everyone thing that a lot of people complained about on Inika builds.

Happy birthday to the matriarch of MOCs, the queen of contests, the sultana of sass, the autocrat of awwww snap! 

I'd share some GIFs but all the best ones I can find are over 500kB. I hope these videos will suffice!

 

Although Tamaru seems completely fine with heights in the Bohrok animations. Maybe he was just freaking out on the inside, though.

I like the proposal that he actually has a different definition of 'heights'; as long as there's something beneath him, whether trees, platforms or ground, he's fine. It's being above the treeline away from vines and branches in the open space that terrifies him.

It's not my idea. At least, I don't think it is. I remember some official source stating it, but I can't for the life of me figure out what that was. It wasn't Tamaru's 2003 website bio or the 2006 Bionicle Encyclopedia. Somebody else referenced it in this topic from four years ago which proposed a very similar theory to the topic we're in right now.

Brutaka also had a royal blue and gold color scheme. Look what we got with him

Fair point. Brutaka had other design cues to help him stand out as evil, though, like a lot of sharp and aggressive contours and evil reddish-orange eyes. 2006 was actually the first year good and evil characters had their eyes strictly color-coded this way, something which happened again in 2008, 2010, and 2015. Needless to say, despite some superficial similarities between Ekimu and Brutaka, Ekimu's design is still coded as good, whereas Brutaka and Dume's designs were coded as evil.

Off-topic, glad you mentioned this because when I went to pull Brutaka down from my shelf I realized that said shelf was on the verge of collapsing. Much nicer to realize that now than when it falls on me in my sleep.

 

I sort of figured, given the context, that it would be clear that I'm talking about the massive disagreements and arguments that spawned from the Phantoka and Mistika being what they were.  I mean it was rather silly in its own way, but not much more so than any "ruined FOREVER" moment.

 

Dude, I joined in 2010. Were people here that disgruntled by the Phantoka/Mistika concept?

Yes. A lot of people were really incensed that the Toa Nuva's colors had changed so radically, that their masks had only extremely subtle similarities to their old ones, that Tahu didn't have a sword, that their builds were basically just Inika/Mahri/Piraka builds, that a lot of their equipment (airplane wings, jetpacks, helicopter rotors, etc) felt more sci-fi than fantasy, and so forth. Lots of people attempted (some more successfully than others) to draw or build how they felt the 2008 Toa should have been.

Of course, these kinds of changes were nothing new to Bionicle — after all, the Toa Metru looked hardly anything like the Turaga they were based on, the Toa Inika looked hardly anything like the Matoran they were based on, etc. I wasn't involved in the online community early enough to see if people got quite so upset about the Toa Metru designs, but there was certainly quite an uproar when the Toa Inika were revealed. It says a lot that the Bionicle Stars, which were themselves hated for various reasons, were some of the most faithful redesigns of existing characters and species that G1 Bionicle ever saw!

A possible Dr. Strange set? That sounds great!

 

I would hope they would do the Sanctum Sanctorum, but seeing what they've done for Ant-Man and Iron Man 3, it's probably just gonna be another vehicle set, which is really a shame.

According to people who saw the set at London Toy Fair, the set is a room with bookshelves, a portal, and a monster/demon. No vehicles.

The problem i guess is that how time goes Bionicle fans have been split like the gaming community some liking G2 and defending it with there lives and some liking G1 as they criticize G2 all the time this goes more to the realm of opinion but i think its true.

Bionicle fans have been really divided since long before G2, though. There have been a whole lot of disagreements over the years. There are some people who feel like everything went down the toilet as soon as the story left Mata Nui in 2004 and became more "sci-fi". There are others who feel like the attempts to make the story darker and edgier in 2006 and 2007 were fairly cringeworthy. There are still others who loved the story all the way through 2008 but then felt like the Bara Magna setting and characters just didn't measure up to the Matoran Universe and its inhabitants. And of course, there are some who felt like the story was strong all the way until the end and that everything would have been peachy keen if it had just kept going uninterrupted.

I honestly don't know if the disagreements we see from fans today are any worse than the disagreements this community has had for years. But the longer Bionicle goes on, the more disagreements are inevitably going to arise.

You can't really think Lego would make a story that complicated would you?

 

Based on Lego's track record, I highly doubt they'd make Ekimu the bad guy.

Hopefully you're right. I don't think having Ekimu's motivations be wildly different than what they appear to be would do it any favors. As I mentioned, an eleventh-hour twist like that doesn't work too well in a kid-oriented series unless you visibly build up to it from the get-go.

G1 Bionicle generally did this very well. Just comparing 2015 with 2004, Turaga Dume was presented as shady and potentially sinister from his very first in-person appearance (the Kolhii tournament in Legends of Metru Nui). The set even had an eerie red and black color scheme and flew around on a spooky vulture monster! For all the Bionicle story's complications, neither the sets nor the story tried to be very subtle about which characters were good and which were evil.

Ekimu, on the other hand, has been a fairly reliable ally to the Toa, guiding them to his tomb and then helping them defeat Skull Grinder and making new masks for them. He also helps to teach them the value of unity. Both versions of him in the sets are presented in blue and gold "good guy" color coding and present him as an opponent to the Toa's toughest enemies.

The G1 story team never set a character up as a "good guy" only to reveal years later that they were evil all along, aside from the clumsy and out-of-nowhere Velika reveal (which technically never even made it into the final story, it just got revealed through a Greg answer). No reason for G2 to do that either.

 

Tamaru's colors are exactly the same as Kongu's, just switched around, so the color argument doesn't really hold water. I'm also not sure I've ever heard anything official about Bo-Matoran liking living on the ground or swimming. If neither of those things is true, then that would pull the rug out from under this theory entirely.Beyond that, I've gotta agree with Lyi: trying to rationalize the things that make Tamaru unique as a Le-Matoran by saying he's actually an incredibly ordinary example of a different type of Matoran would not be very good storytelling. His differences from other Le-Matoran are already perfectly justified as a phobia of heights— they shouldn't need any other justification. One final thing — Tamaru does not actually prefer to spend his time on the ground. He prefers to spend his time in the trees. He's afraid of heights, but "heights" by Le-Matoran standards are different than "heights" by the standards of other types of Matoran. Le-Matoran essentially think of tree level how other Matoran think of ground level, so "heights" to them means soaring ABOVE the treeline. In other words, he has no trouble living with the other Le-Matoran in the canopies of Le-Koro or swinging high above the ground on vines, only with flying in airships or on the backs of Gukko birds.

I give up. Whats the point in defending your case when everyone who once backed you now shoots you down over something so trivial and small? I've expressed my self time after time now that I don't mean any bias from this discussion, but I guess people only read what they want to read. All of this is simply speculatory discussion, but no, no you'll only play devils advocate and go against me. I don't mind a counter argument, but when it completely puts down any facts or morals on the stance of it the topic at hand being "ignorant" or "narrowminded" than I have a problem with in.

 

I am only showing my case, and presenting the evidence as to a fictional character bring an Element that isn't air. Geez, it's like it's a talk about race or something... Yeah, like Elements in a fictional toy line with a strong story presence based around it has to always be politically incorrect, or correct depending on what YOU want to hear. So I'm done. Call me out all you want, call me a big fat phony all you wish. I am just simply trying to supply evidence to a hypothetical possibility within a fictional circumstance, in which would not change the outcome of anything within it, unless if said Character were to become say a Toa say... Yet even then, would stat still change a thing? No, I bet you it wouldn't. Not about their character at least, just arbitrary powers and abilities.

 

Oh, and for reference to the color change, I mean the scene where Tamaru swings on the vine in MNOG and lands in the bush. Grant it, it may have just been overlooked, but even still, it's something to think about is all.

 

I'm not "playing devil's advocate". I'm stating how I feel about the matter, based on the evidence I've seen. You think I've never had a theory that's been disagreed with by people who feel differently than me or who know the facts better than I do? It's honestly your choice if you want to create a headcanon or fan fiction in which Tamaru is actually a Bo-Matoran. After all, you're right that it wouldn't contradict the official story outright or alter his personality. I just personally think him being a Le-Matoran with a personality trait that sets him apart from other Le-Matoran makes for a more interesting story than him being a Bo-Matoran who shares his most distinctive personality traits with most other Bo-Matoran. And when you present it as a theory, that's an invitation for other people to share their own evidence and opinions on the matter.

I never once called you ignorant, or narrow-minded, or a phony. From what I can tell, neither did ANYBODY in this topic. Just because people disagree with you about a theory doesn't mean they think badly of you as a person. But for some reason you seem to be taking this very personally, and there's really no need for that. You asked us what we thought, we're just giving an honest answer. The value of your perspective doesn't change based on how many people agree or disagree with it.

Tamaru's body color does change between Mata Nui Online Game and Mata Nui Online Game 2, but the same goes for the Bright Bluish Green (teal) parts of all the other Le-Matoran, including Kongu's mask and feet. That's what I was referring to in my post. I interpreted that as the creators of the games and webisodes just correcting an inaccuracy, same as how they made the Kanohi Pakari more realistic on Matoran characters like Takua in the Mata Nui Online Game II. I'm not aware of Tamaru's body color changing from one MNOG scene to another except just due to different lighting, but I might have to re-watch that scene to know what you're talking about specifically.

EDIT: Okay, now I see what you mean abut his teal parts turning green. That just seems like an animation goof to me, and doesn't really pertain to what I mentioned in my post about Tamaru having the same colors (Bright Yellowish Green and Bright Bluish Green) as Kongu, just reversed.

Chances are that Tamaru's head, body, and foot colors would have been the same on Metru Nui as on Mata Nui, same as with other Matoran who weren't released as 2004 sets. That's not known for certain, though, because Tamaru wasn't in the Matau game from the Kanoka Club.

Tamaru's colors are exactly the same as Kongu's, just switched around, so the color argument doesn't really hold water. I'm also not sure I've ever heard anything official about Bo-Matoran liking living on the ground or swimming. If neither of those things is true, then that would pull the rug out from under this theory entirely.

Beyond that, I've gotta agree with Lyi: trying to rationalize the things that make Tamaru unique as a Le-Matoran by saying he's actually an incredibly ordinary example of a different type of Matoran would not be very good storytelling. His differences from other Le-Matoran are already perfectly justified as a phobia of heights— they shouldn't need any other justification.

One final thing — Tamaru does not actually prefer to spend his time on the ground. He prefers to spend his time in the trees. He's afraid of heights, but "heights" by Le-Matoran standards are different than "heights" by the standards of other types of Matoran. Le-Matoran essentially think of tree level how other Matoran think of ground level, so "heights" to them means soaring ABOVE the treeline. In other words, he has no trouble living with the other Le-Matoran in the canopies of Le-Koro or swinging high above the ground on vines, only with flying in airships or on the backs of Gukko birds.

I got the "A Problem" message from Black Six when I was invited to be staff as well. Freaked me out a bit! XD
 
I think the handcuffs the pilot has are supposed to be for the droids to handcuff him? Or something?
 
If you really need more stuff to do as blog staff, we could always get some people to start another fruit war. Kidding, of course.
 
It's surprising how much you're struggling with this set since you've got some of the most building experience of any of us... but of course having to carry on a conversation at the same time does complicate things!

Great video!

The piece that you were confused about at around 53 minutes is actually pretty old—it first appeared in 2004, in that very color, no less.

Not only is that specific piece from way back in 2004, but it's actually a slight redesign of an older piece from 1987. C'mon, girl! You've worked with LEGO as a career! You gotta know these things! I appreciate the shout-out though.

My first convention experiences were awkward too, but for different reasons. I didn't have any kind of sickness or jet lag to deal with but I also had an even harder time socializing with people since I didn't really have a name for myself at that time, and could hardly even keep track of people's names. They weren't bad experiences but they felt very impersonal — it was years before I really felt like I truly belonged with the BZPower crowd.

I feel like I should maybe get a job at LEGO at some point. I don't know how rewarding it would feel, but I have a lot of patience for tedious work, and I really, REALLY need to build up my qualifications if I want to get the job I really want, which is a LEGO designer in Billund. When I got to try out for a job in girls' play themes last year, one of the people from that workshop who DID get hired was Joel Baker, who's worked as a model builder at LEGOLAND California. So I think having that kind of "on-the-job" experience working with LEGO would be a valuable addition to my resume. I'm also not totally sure if going back to college and getting a more creative degree would be worthwhile, but that's getting off-topic.

I appreciate when a LEGO builder actually bothers to put on the stickers. For me that's a big part of the building experience.

Your Wyldstyle cosplay definitely got a lot of people's attention! I think you're going to be remembered for that for a long time.

Why does this set even HAVE Obi-Wan? He wasn't a part of this scene! Guess they just thought it needed somebody with a lightsaber. They really need to come up with a new hair piece for Episode I Obi-Wan, though.

Great interview overall! Long, but enjoyable! If anyone reading this topic hasn't watched it yet you should make time to do so! And Nukaya, can't wait to hang out with you and DeeVee again at BrickFair this year! And yes, you too, Zatth.

 

Bought an Umarak. I like him. He's an interesting build (waist down, at least) and his bow makes perfect sense with the function. Of course, since I'm not getting the creatures, I see no reason for the connector at the back. Hello, TLG, he's a villain, he destroys the mystic power up dragon-animals, not befriends them.

 

Forcibly fusing with the creatures to harness their power/memories seems pretty villainous to me.

 

So this is what Homeworld thinks of fusion!  

 

I use copy & paste to duplicate connected sections of big models. The Clone tool only works for one piece at a time.

The clone tool works for multiple pieces. You just have to select them with the multiple selection tool before choosing the clone tool, just as you would with copy and paste.

 

Yep. The big difference with the clone tool is that you have to select everything just to make one copy, whereas with copy+paste you only have to select what you want to copy once to make multiple copies. So copy and paste can be more useful for models where you want to have large parts of the model repeated several times.

So, I was thinking about getting one of the new Uniter sets, and so which of our famed Toa friends wold you recommend getting? And I don't have a super huge budget, but hey.

Personally my favorite is Lewa. He has a really coherent look, and despite some changes from last year I still feel like he feels really true to the character. He's also got lots of creative building techniques, and probably the most elegant unity mode of any of the Toa, if you end up getting Uxar as well.

I reviewed Lewa and Gali here for New Elementary, so you can give that a read and see if that has any impact on your decision.

The possibility of Ekimu becoming an enemy to the Toa is not outrageous. Given the right circumstances, I could see him becoming a well-intentioned extremist or being corrupted in some fashion.

However, I'd need to see some supporting evidence to believe that he was "evil all along". So far, there hasn't really been any such supporting evidence, besides that he isn't telling the Toa everything right away... and let's be honest, since when have the Toa's mentors EVER told them everything right away?

With that in mind, the main reason people seem to be clinging to this theory is desperation for a better story. But the notion that an out-of-nowhere twist would somehow make the story better is frankly ludicrous. What made the G1 "Mata Nui is a giant robot" twist — and for that matter, smaller twists like "Turaga Dume is Makuta in disguise" — work is that the significant details established in the stories leading up to them made more sense in that context, not less. Without that kind of setup, a 180-degree twist isn't clever, it's cheap.

Also, as deep as people make G1 Bionicle out to be, it was pretty forthright about where its mysteries were. It didn't try to lie to us by telling us that Mata Nui's body was something OTHER than the Matoran Universe, or that Dume WASN'T Makuta in disguise, or that the seventh Toa WASN'T inside Takua all along. Instead, it left those mysteries open-ended until it came time for a reveal. In other words, as mysterious as it was at times, the G1 story generally didn't outright lie to us to make us think we already knew the answer to a mystery when in fact we didn't. If Ekimu was evil all along, that would mean that pretty much the entirety of "The Legend", our very first glimpse into the G2 story, was a fabrication. Again, that's not clever storytelling. It's cheap storytelling.

Overall, I'm open to all kinds of twists in the G2 Bionicle story, but I do not think there's real evidence supporting this one, nor that it would strengthen the story if it did happen without any real setup.

This looks like a fantastic set, but the price per piece is a little bit surprising and discouraging. I'd expect a 1600-piece set to go for $150 to $170, not $200. I understand the many large plates used in the foundation probably add to the price, but I would have expected the amount of repetition in the rest of the building elements to help balance that out. If it were a $150 or $160 set I could see many LEGO fans, not just Minecraft fans, getting this set as a landscaping parts pack. As it is, though, I imagine even some Minecraft fans might be hesitant to pay $200 for this, which is a shame since it really is a very well rounded design inside and out.

The other thing that's unusual about this set is its age range. I don't think I've ever seen a $200 set with an age range as low as 8+, except of course for motorized trains. The age range is probably kept low by the use of fairly simple building techniques for a build that's divisible into many separate modules, much like 60097 (1683 pieces, $190, ages 6–12). Perhaps this wide age range might help make up for the somewhat prohibitive pricing.

I'm not a Minecraft fan so I can't really speak to whether the figure selection makes sense for this location or not. But it looks like it's more than enough for some really great and varied play potential.

I'm not sure where all this talk about copying and pasting a model into a new version is coming from... honestly, there's a much easier way to switch the version a model is in without creating a new file. Just click View>New Themes>LDD Extended (or whatever mode you want to open your model in).

I heared Bionicle sales have been slowly raising in the last two months, and is producing more money than hero factory.

 

Just like to put this information here.

Where did you hear that? I'm not doubting you, it'd just be nice to have a little more information/context.

I think LEGO has evolved beyond clone sets. Clone builds are still acceptable for weak drone enemies like the Shadow Traps and Skull Spiders, but if there is room to add a bit more variety to a figure's build, it's a waste not to take advantage of that.

As a kid, clone builds didn't totally bother me, in part because I have two siblings and we'd split the sets between the three of us. Buying and building two sets in a series with the same build isn't nearly as frustrating as buying six in a series with the same build. With that said, I'd be much more excited to get a new set if it had a different build than the ones I already had, and I'd feel a lot more inclined to keep a set together longer or put a set back together if I didn't already have another set together with more or less the same build. Non-cloned sets also inspired my creativity more than clone sets. I never really felt inspired to make up my own Bohrok, Rahkshi, or Vahki because there were de facto rules about what a Bohrok or Rahkshi or Vahki was supposed to look like. But less cloned characters like Toa, Rahi, Dark Hunters, and Glatorian offered a lot more creative liberty. They didn't have to match such a rigid template to feel like they could fit in with the official characters. I felt a rush of relief when the Visorak broke away from the generic "Metru" color schemes used for all the small sets and canister sets from the beginning of 2004 to mid-2005, and when the Barraki offered the first truly unique canister set builds.

I will admit non-cloned canister sets could be a bit awkward in the later years of G2. For instance, other than their hoses and Cordak Blasters, the Toa Mahri didn't have a lot of unifying motifs at all. And in many cases, more of the variety came from using parts and motifs the other sets didn't than from using the same parts and motifs in different ways. For instance, Toa Mahri Nuparu introduced not one but two new armor molds for his upper limbs, which only ever appeared again in two later sets. Likewise, Toa Mahri Jaller only shared his chest plate with two later vehicle sets. Not only is that wasteful, but dedicating molds like that to one or two specific characters means that even if the team as a whole has a lot of new molds, there will be fewer new molds on each individual character. It can also result in characters feeling like less of a team. In my drawings, I quickly learned to distort certain elements of sets' armor in order to emphasize their similarities with their teammates and with previous versions of the same characters, establishing the kinds of connections the sets in those years denied me.

Many of today's sets strike a good balance between the variety of the later G1 sets and the consistency of the earlier ones. I feel like designers have gotten much better at using the same parts across multiple sets in different ways. This applies not just to new molds but also to existing molds. In 2009, Vorox and Skrall used their new armor shell in more or less the same way — attached to 7M limb beams with two pins. This year's Lewa, Pohatu, Gali, Kopaka, Uxar, and Ketar sets use the same part in lots and lots of different ways. Likewise, last year's Toa all used the new piston and accordion joint add-on, but on different parts of their body. Using the same parts in various ways like this makes it easier for sets to have very different builds while still making efficient use of molds and creating a sense that the sets in a given team belong together.