Aanchir

How easy is it to remove the hip piece from the torso? If it's anything like the six-shooters then I'm kinda bummed out by the lack of ease of customisation (assuming the hips and torsos come in different colours across the different Toa.

I think the hips and torsos are the same color across all six Toa and Umarak (Black torsos, Titanium Metallic hips). According to DeeVee, though, they CAN be separated more easily than the six-shooters.

I find it kind of funny that everyone in this topic is either "Onua is my favorite constraction set of all time!" or "Onua... what have they done to you?" (with a bit of hyperbole, of course) Unfortunately, I'm part of the latter.

 

Ever since the first leaks came out, I've thought Onua's proportions were ungainly, his shoulders gappy, his color scheme scattered, and he was in every way inferior to his 2015 form (which... admittedly, I didn't like much either). Actually seeing the review doesn't change my opinion much. I'm still trying to figure out just what Lego was thinking when they designed his mask.

 

...not that my disapproval matters much, because I'm going to buy him anyway for the trans-purple. Maybe I'll do my best to revamp him.

While I have a LOT of issues with the new Onua, the shoulders and mask are not among them. The mask very strongly echoes the 2015 Mask of Earth, much more than how the 2002 Pakari Nuva echoed the 2001 Pakari (which is to say, hardly at all). The vents adjacent to the eyes are still there, the vents in the forehead are still there, and even the shape and texture of the mouth are similar. And yet, at the same time, the new mask also brings in some traits of Onua's other masks over the years, like the 2002 Pakari Nuva's characteristic wideness and even the 2008 Pakari Nuva's angular contours and narrow triangular side-fins (very apparent in this picture).

As for the shoulders, like Lyi said, they're the part of the build that most strongly echoes Onua's 2015 design. They're very similar in shape and size to the 2015 Onua's shoulders, just with a more jagged, crystalline look.

 

The weapon seems a bit clumsy, and not as effective as Ekimu's hammer. Unlike a hammer, a drill has to spin in order to really function. Can it not do that without also firing studs back at Onua? Not very effective as a drill, then, is it?

I doubt it's a function that informs how it works in the story. If it was, then all the Protectors from last year would need to keep a hand free to spin the big gear on the back of their blasters. The Protectors of Fire and Earth would have extra trouble with it, too. Not to mention the drill functions from Power Miners, which, while pretty awesome, would amount to basically a battering ram if they were driven by the wheel speed like that.

 

In terms of play, personally, I'd just go with a "BRRRZZZZZKKKKHT" sound, which in this context is the sound of a drill. Don't necessarily need to spin it to pretend, and if I wanted to spin it I'd just remove the studs (or shoot them first).

 

I know its story function isn't the same as its set function, but even as a toy, I feel like a lot of the fun of drills in past sets has been the ability to actually spin them. Having to empty the ammo each time you do that in this set is a little inconvenient, in my eyes. I suppose Onua's ability to smash it into his enemies with his gear function helps make up for the lack of actual spinning, though. Still, between the lack of spinning and the lack of the crystal motif from the other Toa weapons, I don't like this one nearly as much.

Good review. Onua is generally a good-looking set, but I still can't bring myself to like many of the changes from the previous version. I wish his height and the width of his chest had been kept more similar to the previous version, and I'm not a fan of the new feet. I will say that the color scheme is executed brilliantly, the new mask is a great upgrade of the 2015 one (which somehow manages to also echo both forms of the Pakari Nuva), and the sheer size of the armor on his shoulders does give him some nice continuity with last year's Onua, even if the shoulder joints themselves are not quite as wide.

The weapon seems a bit clumsy, and not as effective as Ekimu's hammer. Unlike a hammer, a drill has to spin in order to really function. Can it not do that without also firing studs back at Onua? Not very effective as a drill, then, is it? I also think it's a shame the weapon doesn't really share the crystal motif from the other Toa's weapons. Some people are bound to gripe about so many of the Toa's weapons using the same piece, but most of them use it in different ways and I feel like it's very nice to have that crystal texture present on all the Toa's masks, armor, and weapons.

The new torso patterns are nice but I don't like them quite as much as the more painted-looking patterns on the 2015 Toa. I do, however, like the colors. Does the new torso shell fit on a regular 7x9, 9x9, or 9x11 CCBS torso beam? This would be useful to know for MOCing purposes.

Looking at this set and Terak, I'm not as bothered as I was at first by the crystal add-ons being warm gold and transparent instead of warm gold and tr. bright bluish violet, but it still strikes me as an odd choice. Maybe they're planning to use the same color combination on a future set where tr. bright bluish violet would not have fit.

The asymmetry of Onua's arms is almost certainly to give the arm that's carrying more of the weapon's weight more stability, while letting the other move more freely so he's not locked into holding the drill at such a specific angle. It would've been nice if both arms had been fully Tr. Bright Bluish Violet (since that 5M "B" beam does exist in that color from last year's Onua and Protector of Earth), but LEGO generally tries to avoid including two parts that are so similar in size and shape in the same color.

The new eyestalk is a nice piece, but I think it's a shame that it's in Tr. Light Blue, an eye color I didn't particularly like from the 2015 sets. A fluorescent color like Tr. Flu. Green or Tr. Flu. Blue would have made the eyes glow a lot better. The new torso beam is nice too, but I wish it were smaller so the Toa wouldn't all have such long torsos.

The Onua and Terak "power up" mode looks quite nice, but doesn't really add any new functionality like Tahu, Gali, and Lewa's "power up" modes, which give them wings or shooters. All this one really does is bulk up his armor.

Overall, Onua is a nice set, but far from my favorite of the new Toa, and if I get him I'll probably want to revamp him to try and restore more of what I liked about the 2015 version.

Well, of course that piece doesn't fit CCBS' aesthetic. It wasn't designed to. It was made to look like that to appease the people who've spent all year complaining that CCBS isn't piston-y enough and pestering Lego to "bring back the REAL Bionicle" or whatever.

The idea of this piece coming out as some kind of "appeasement" seems sort of far-fetched. The designers would've already been working on these 2016 sets before the 2015 sets even came out, so there wouldn't have been that much time for them to listen and respond to criticisms, certainly not on such an integral piece.

It seems more likely to me that its difference from CCBS is partially practical in nature. It needs to use Technic connections to function as it does, since it needs to be able to connect the creatures to the Toa, and has to be more securely attached to the set it belongs to than to its counterpart on the other set. Can you imagine pulling the creature off the Toa and their chest plate stays attached to the Toa's back?

As for its aesthetics, again, that seems to be partly a practical consideration. It's hard to mold a perfectly smooth and clean piece when you have to mold connection points into it on multiple sides, because then between the inner and outer surface you could end up with solid chunks of plastic that wouldn't cool properly. So it needs cavities molded into it to keep the walls from being too thick while still bracing the sides (same as with this Technic piece, which is structurally very similar). And on top of that, the piece might as well have some decoration, since unlike the Protectors, the creatures won't have a separate add-on on top of them.

Afterman is a cool name, but I can't help but think kids hearing it would think of it like Superman, Spider-Man, etc. and expect "Afterman" to be the name of a character. Also, doesn't entirely fit with the direction the story ended up going, a universe entirely separate from the one humans live in.

"Bioknights" sounds cool, and would probably be less confusing to non-fans since it describes the characters instead of being just a poetic term for the story itself (if the theme were called Bioknights, you could probably identify the sets/characters as Bioknights and not be wrong), but I do prefer "Bionicle".

This has to be my favorite piece of art from Matt Betteker, yet; closely behind is this. I really like the level of activity the other Toa are performing and Kopaka's very suitable stance. Also, I feel that the colors within the environment flow together very, very smoothly. I can't wait to see how the Month of Ice creation goes when shown off later.

My brother got a signed copy of that Gali painting in the live charity auction at BrickFair Virginia this year! We've gotten it framed. Still need to hang it on the wall though.

I think another category that could be good to include is something that's meant to be like a real hypothetical set or theme. Like Nuju Metru's Dragon Lands. Otherwise, you risk giving people the impression that a measure of a MOC's quality is how unlike official sets it can be, whether that be in terms of size, level of detail, or functionality. When really there's a lot of beautiful things that can be done while creating something that still looks like it could be packaged and sold as a toy for kids.

Another good category to include would be "alternate builds". A lot of the most artistic, mechanically advanced, or NPU-intensive can give the impression that MOCing is limited to people who have oodles of highly specific parts at their disposal (or a lot of friends to collaborate with). But really, sometimes all it takes is one set to create something brilliant. Some stunning alternate builds I saw recently on Facebook are The Mystery Roadster and They Mystery Flying Machine by Peter Szabo, which were both built exclusively with parts from 75902 The Mystery Machine, a $30 set. If you included a category like this, you could arguably even exclude the previously mentioned category, because a model built with parts from actual sets is obviously limited to set-like parts constraints, and many of them are playable toys in their own right.

Not actual LEGO bricks (which is why I had been hesitant to report on this), but still a pretty swell marketing gimmick.

I haven't gotten it yet, but I'll look for it the next time I'm in a bookstore.

 

On the note of books:  Who else is excited for Revenge of the Skull Spiders and Gathering of the Toa?

I am! I really enjoyed the first chapter book, and the title of the second makes me think that it will probably be an all-original story bridging the gap between the 2015 and 2016 story arcs rather than an adaptation. Ryder Windham handled the world and characters very well, so I'm confident his foray into graphic novels will be interesting in its own right (though I'm not sure who's doing the illustrations). There are two more graphic novels and at least one more chapter book announced for next year, so even on top of the Netflix series we'll surely have a lot to look forward to.

What I've seen of the next wave of Ninjago looks pretty good! I don't know if it'll be quite as stunning as the summer 2015 wave was, but it's definitely got a lot of potential. Five words: evil djinn sky pirate captain!

The new ninja suits look cool and creative as well. It's neat that we're now seeing the ninja's animal symbols from side view for the first time. I look forward to learning more about next year's story!

I also forgot to mention this :

 

I wanted "evolution" or something to occur to offer some type of reproductive system . It's Important for two reasons : a vast majority of the population will be wiped out and parenting .

 

As far as parenting , It wont be too important , but some characters will have parents . For example , I'm gonna introduce this female character named Rekazi . She has a father that was abducted and stuff , but his existence is really important towards her story . I might just have this "father" be a guardian if he can not be biological .

 

But in general , I'd rather have characters be born than to be created by something , especially for the fact that Spherus Magna will need to be repopulated. I think it would cool if matoran and rahi were to age (but still live an incredibly long life) , maybe die from natural causes (diseases exist , I know) , and can create new life at thier own will .

 

Sorry , Greg .

Fair enough. Perhaps Mata Nui (inside the Mask of Life) could offer some kind of help. We know the Mask of Life can transform organisms and change their biological functions. Living on Spherus Magna with the Agori, Matoran would soon learn what "children" are, and I could see how a coalition of Matoran who wish to have children could appeal to Mata Nui hoping he might intervene on their behalf. With Mata Nui's blessing they could be granted the ability to procreate. Fast forward a few thousand years and you could have a population of Matoran that were all "born" rather than made.

But of course, adoptive parents are also always an option.

I definitely like the sound of your story so far. I consider the lack of families in the Bionicle canon one of its faults. Not all characters need families to be interesting and well-developed, but when NO characters have families you miss out on a whole lot of storytelling opportunities — sibling rivalries, the challenges of parenthood, familial loyalties, etc.

Awesomesauce! Great job on the colors! I also like the flame patterns on the armor and mask, and the scale-like pattern for the joints is very cool. The only thing that really bothers me is the angle of the fists... the right hand looks like it's bent away from the direction of the forearm rather uncomfortably. If the forearm were pointed in the same direction as the opposite forearm, it'd make more sense to be seeing the fist from the same angle.

On a side note, I think it's a cool idea to create Protectors who are different than the six the Toa met, since the title's been passed down for so many generations. So there have probably been SEVERAL Protectors of each element. Potentially with different genders, physiques, and armor designs.

Chima was a nice theme. The first three episodes of the show didn't speak to me enough to motivate me to keep watching. But I liked the sets, the characters, and the storybooks. Someday I'll catch up on what I missed, and maybe I'll regret not paying more attention or collecting more of the sets. The ones I did get were brilliant!

Overall, Chima never took off the way LEGO hoped it would, but it enjoyed a moderately successful run. I think it'll be remembered well in the long run.

I can't speak for the purpose of the spike-on-a-chain at the end of Gali's weapon. I agree that it is superfluous on a functional level, though I interpreted it as a harmless decoration, not as an actual danger to Gali or her opponents. However, as for the propellor, it may be useless for providing propulsion, but I didn't think of that as its purpose in the first place. Rather, I thought of it as an alternate mode of attack, allowing her to direct powerful water currents at her opponent.

And I think the blade on Gali's weapon suits her better than it does Pohatu. It feels like an evolution of her harpoon from this year, and is the "primary" element of her weapon. In Pohatu's case, I feel like his stone flail is the primary element of his weapon, and would have been plenty sufficient without the added blade. They could have maybe even blended the boulder element with Tr. Fluorescent Green so that it would have the same "energized elemental crystal" effect the blades on the other Toa's weapons have.

The hilt guard on Gali's weapon may not be practical in real life, but it looks plenty elegant, which is generally what matters most in my book. Overall, Gali is my second favorite of the new Toa, after Lewa.

You wouldn't necessarily need Matoran to evolve biologically in order to introduce a range of different physiques. After all, it was established in 2003 that Matoran can rebuild themselves, and I imagine every thousand or so years, it might even be necessary for the sake of maintenance. So as long as you're creating a story set in the future, it's totally plausible for Matoran to look totally different than typical Matoran looked when the story left off.

As for the question of whether they could evolve, hard to say. The organic parts of their bodies could perhaps change, but for as many thousands of years as they've been around, if they were prone to random, spontaneous body changes I expect we'd have seen them by now. Matoran aren't like most real-life organisms that grow gradually throughout their entire lifespan or have a specific adolescent period when they transition from "childhood" to "adulthood". So I imagine any biological changes Matoran undergo would be more like the changes adult humans undergo once all of their "growth spurts" are done with: gaining or losing weight, gaining or losing muscle mass, etc.

Matoran don't reproduce (at least, not in the canon story), so generational evolution and adaptations like we see in real-life organisms wouldn't necessarily come into play.

For gen 2 I'd say the general matoran need sets.

I'll second this. Some regular villager sets would be quite nice. Also, G2 Makuta will obviously need a set eventually.

For G1, it's really hard to say who would "deserve" a set. There are some characters I'd have loved sets of back in the day, like Kotu, Tamaru, Kapura, Taipu, and Kopeke in 2001, or Kotu, Kongu, Tamaru, Kapura, Onepu, and Taipu in 2003. But they didn't "deserve" sets in the sense that I'd have rather had those characters than the characters that we actually got those years. And it wouldn't have made any sense to release sets of them after-the-fact once their builds were obsolete and their roles in the story became negligible.

Toa Nidhiki and Lariska could have made a decent co-pack in 2005 or so, ideally with a dagger-throwing function for Lariska. But again, post-2005, Nidhiki was completely irrelevant and Lariska was nothing but a bit-part character. Same goes for the rest of the Toa Hagah. The first two, while good sets, were only marginally relevant to the year they were released (only existing in those forms in a flashback within a flashback). The rest never became major characters even after they were restored to Toa form.

The Great Spirit robot would have been hard to make a decent set of (what with its decidedly non-set-like design language and utterly boring color scheme), but a set of it still would've been cool in 2009 or 2010. It was one of the most significant non-set characters, insofar as it was actually a major part of the core story, unlike characters such as Lariska who mostly just appeared in side-stories and serials.

I'd love a game like this! It's one of the main things that Bionicle G1 had starting out that G2 lacks. At the same time, I recognize that it could be tricky in this day and age. When Bionicle.com launched in 2001, it only had three languages: English, French, and German. Today, the LEGO Bionicle site exists in many more languages, which means a text-heavy game like MNOG would be a lot more work for translators.

Also, even in 2001 when developing the MNOG, Templar Studios struggled with meeting deadlines, and some planned content had to be cut. The game was fortunately still a masterpiece, but as we saw with the much glitchier Mata Nui Online Game II, there's no guarantee that a game that struggles to meet deadlines like that will end up offering such a solid gaming experience. I'm sure it's probably much easier to develop an action game that can appeal to kids than a more story-driven and immersive gaming experience.

There are also some marketing factors that can complicate things. One of the things that made the Mata Nui Online Game and even its sequel so endearing was the choice to focus on the perspective of the villager characters. However, other than the Protectors, Bionicle G2 doesn't yet have any villager sets to promote. A game that focuses on the Toa and their quest is probably a much safer bet in terms of its promotional merits.

However, all this doesn't mean that I don't think LEGO should try. Mata Nui Online Game was easily one of the best LEGO.com online games, and I'd love to see a new game that offers a similar immersive experience.

Why does BZPower have far fewer subscribers than The Three Virtues? Hasn't BZP been around far longer?

It has, but TTV's had a YouTube channel for nearly twice as long and post more videos per week, so they're a lot more embedded in that community. Also, TTV's YouTube channel is basically the core of their online presence, while their forums are supplemental. BZPower is the other way around — our forums are the core of our online presence, while our YouTube channel is supplemental.

Who is Finn?

Have you seen The LEGO Movie? If not it's a pretty major spoiler...

I've unfortunately never had a self-MOC or OC I totally liked.

One time when playing through Bionicle: Quest for the Toa for Game Boy Advance I designed my character as a Ga-Matoran with blue and purple armor, but that doesn't really count since I never made up any kind of backstory or personality for that character.

I like how two of the set names are anagrams of each other. I don't think they've done that before.

It actually kind of bothers me. I was literally just talking with my brother about the creatures (he's trying to figure out how they're built on LEGO Digital Designer) and he referred to Terak, but I thought he was referring to the Creature of Stone (Ketar). I'm sure I'll get used to which is which eventually, but for now it's a bit confusing for me to keep track of!

 

Witch Doctor, a Hero Factory set from the CCBS's debut year, had 331 pieces, more than the vast majority of Bionicle titans and certainly more than any at or below its price point. Evo XL Machine from 2014, Hero Factory's last year, had 193 parts, just as many as Brutaka and more than Tuma, Umbra, Gadunka, Nidhiki, Hydraxon, or Icarax. Maybe you're not giving Hero Factory enough credit?

 

Also, while the 2015 and 2016 Bionicle sets have fewer pieces than a lot of older Bionicle titans, they have way more pieces than a typical Bionicle villager or Toa set. The most pieces a canister Toa ever had was 74 (Toa Mahri Kongu), while the 2015 Toa had 89 pieces average and the 2016 Toa have 106 pieces average (not counting Kopaka, since I don't know how many of his set's parts are used for him and how many are used for his creature). I certainly think that's impressive!

 

You took that far too literal .

 

My apologies. You brought up piece count so I assumed that was your measure of what made the G1 sets more complex than CCBS sets in your eyes. Could you maybe clarify what you actually meant?

 

CCBS is a building system. It's like asking Lego to replace the brick. Just as there are a bazillion things you can do with a brick, there is a bazillion things you can do with CCBS. Most of which Lego hasn't even tried yet.

 

Never said throw CCBS in the garbage . I'm asking to be impressed by CCBS , which LEGO has yet to do . I believe the Hero Factory era ruined my trust in CCBS , or perhaps It's simply because I believe the limbs , torsos , and armor pieces pail in comparision to the amazing sets G1 has sold . I miss the 1000000+ count sets they were actually challenging . Because of what I was previously exposed to , it's like now I'm playing with Duplo bricks .

 

Witch Doctor, a Hero Factory set from the CCBS's debut year, had 331 pieces, more than the vast majority of Bionicle titans and certainly more than any at or below its price point. Evo XL Machine from 2014, Hero Factory's last year, had 193 parts, just as many as Brutaka and more than Tuma, Umbra, Gadunka, Nidhiki, Hydraxon, or Icarax. Maybe you're not giving Hero Factory enough credit?

Also, while the 2015 and 2016 Bionicle sets have fewer pieces than a lot of older Bionicle titans, they have way more pieces than a typical Bionicle villager or Toa set. The most pieces a canister Toa ever had was 74 (Toa Mahri Kongu), while the 2015 Toa had 89 pieces average and the 2016 Toa have 106 pieces average (not counting Kopaka, since I don't know how many of his set's parts are used for him and how many are used for his creature). I certainly think that's impressive!

It's also a double standard with other Lego franchises too. Ninjago has books. Hero Factory has books too. Are we going to argue that those aren't part of the story? But all I have to do to catch up with Ninjago is watch the TV series, right?

The Ninjago books are supplementary stories, and from my understanding they are technically non-canon. Same goes for the video games.

The Hero Factory books, likewise, are supplementary stories. Enjoyable as they are, there is not a single thing that happens in them that is later followed up on in the main story.

And the movie stories, the online animations, and the movies aren't as important to the story of Bionicle as reading the books. Now it can be fairly argued that books are a less accessible medium than a TV series, and that made it hard to catch up on. I will agree to that. But the idea that I had to know every single piece of Bionicle media from every single year in order to understand the story is insane.

For the most part, I agree. There was absolutely no need to follow everything. I do not remember if I've ever actually watched the Toa Hordika webisodes I mentioned previously, I'm only aware of them via BS01 and the Bionicle Encyclopedias. That's where I felt like the comprehensiveness of the books started to unravel, but that doesn't mean that I think that this was some huge turning point where the supplementary material jumped straight from "non-essential" to "completely essential". Just that things started to slowly shift towards that direction.

As the years went on it became harder and harder to completely ignore this supplemental material. Never to the extent that you'd have no clue what was going on in the books without reading the serials or comics, but I can't see how you wouldn't start to feel confused when somewhere between "Swamp of Secrets" and "The Final Battle" Takanuva gains the ability to fly, which (unlike the draining of his inner light) is never explained in either book.