Aanchir

70788 Kopaka - Master of Ice. But in this case, it wasn't strictly by choice. It was sent to me by LEGO as a review copy for New Elementary almost a year ago!

Some people on other sites discovered that thetoyinsider.com's report on the Nexo Knights reveal includes a box pic of Fortrex! The graphic design of these boxes looks awesome. It's also clear that there's a larger castle in the background of the Fortrex... wonder if it'll ever appear in a set.

Evidently, the main bad guy minifigure in this set is called an Ash Attacker, the little bad guys are called Scurriers, the magic book in this set is called the Book of Evil, and the chefbot seems to be named Chef Eclair. The set also apparently includes a round table. I imagine this is used for both strategy meetings and dining, hence the chefbot! That's one more mark in this set's favor compared to traditional Castle themes, which never include a banquet hall.

Also, the Knight Cycle and Aero-Striker V1 (the set's two smaller vehicles) both include places on the front to equip the knights' shields. They both look a lot better with the shields equipped, I think.

If Galidor was actually successful, then yes, I would consider it the best, but it failed and brought down The Lego Group.

Galidor is hardly to blame for (nearly) bringing down the LEGO Group. It was just one of many failures, and really most of those failures could be seen as symptoms of deeper problems in how the LEGO Group was conducting their business.

(pssst, everyone, read Brick by Brick if you want to know more)

 

 

Tiger Widow Island, sounds like a location. Wonder what the ninja do there.

Kill all the tigers' husbands?

 

 

the FIENDS!

 

i must say the only major dissapointemnt so far is seing a set titled "sky shark" and it turning out to just be the name of a vehicle. :0

 

But what if it's a shark vehicle?

 

I think calling 3D a gimmick is about as ridiculous as calling color film a gimmick.

 

That's a little different. That's the result of an evolution in camera technology. It's gotten so good that color has become the standard.

 

That's not the way it is with 3D. There are methods for shooting live-action 3D, but it's so much easier to just slap the final cut into a converter. If something is shot natively in 3D then I think it ought to be given more attention.

 

I imagine most directors shoot with the intention of letting third-party companies decide how the film will look in 3D, when they're paid to do the conversion process. It's not really the director's work.

 

Getting back to color film - do you or do you not approve of black-and-white films being "colorized" (you mentioned Citizen Kane wouldn't be a good fit)? Or how about "tints"? If you take a look at Raiders of the Lost Ark, you'll see it looks very yellow. Go back to your DVD and you'll see there are far more colors in the film that the Blu-ray would lead you to believe. Is it right to change a film for the sole sake of making it "look better" to today's audiences?

 

That's the dilemma with 3D. I like seeing the film the way the director wanted me to, or at least try my best. Which means that I'm only interested in 3D if the director or someone in a similar position had some input into how it can help the appearance of the film.

 

I'm a bit of a film geek, as you can see. 

Whether I approve of movies being colorized or tinted would probably vary on a case-by-case basis. I chose Citizen Kane as my example, for instance, because it's a movie widely acclaimed for its cinematography. It'd be a real gamble to attempt to use color to improve something that's already considered a masterpiece of black-and-white filmmaking. On the other hand, there are probably some black-and-white films that could be colorized really effectively, just as there are some 2D films that would translate really well to 3D.

The issue is that if a movie wasn't made with those changes in mind, there's little way of knowing how it will turn out until you've gone ahead and made those changes. That's my issue with this topic. The Bionicle movies weren't made with 3D viewing in mind. Maybe they'd translate well to 3D. Maybe they wouldn't. Maybe some parts would and others wouldn't. I can't really say "yes, I'd love to see these movies in 3D" or "no, they should be left in 2D" without being able to predict that outcome. However, I generally would have more faith in a movie that during filming is expected to get a 3D release, and filmed with that in mind, than an older film that's been converted to 3D.

The amount of care put into the conversion is another factor. The Bionicle movies aren't high art, and their cinematography was not groundbreaking even for their time, so I doubt they'd get as much care put into the 3D conversion as, say, a timeless Disney film like Aladdin or the original Star Wars trilogy. I can't imagine myself begging for those to get a 3D re-release, but if one was announced I'd at least be moderately enthusiastic about seeing how they turned out, because they're made by studios that know and appreciate the value of their product. However, if 3D re-releases of the Bionicle movies were announced in this day and age... I'd probably have some misgivings.

Thanks for pointing out my mistake, everyone. It turns out I forgot to include an "http://" in the URL, which made it treat it as an internal link rather than an external link. It's a mistake I've made before, and in the future I should probably make a habit of testing all my links before I post a story to the front page.

The link is fixed now! I'm glad I can count on all of you to speak up if I make another mistake like that!

I've seen some good 3D movies over the years, and I think calling 3D a gimmick is about as ridiculous as calling color film a gimmick. Both can be used in gimmicky ways but that doesn't mean they can't also have artistic value. Among others, Hugo and The LEGO Movie both used 3D really artfully to create a sense of immersion, and not just for the shock value of things jumping at you like you'd see at a typical 3D or 4D theme park attraction.

With that said, I don't know which, if any, of the Bionicle movies would translate well to 3D, since they were not made with 3D viewing in mind. They might not be a natural fit for 3D post-processing any more than, say, Citizen Kane would be a natural fit for colorization. 3D isn't just a switch you can flip that makes any movie better. To be most effective, it usually has to be a conscious part of the filmmaking process.

The Toa aren't generally named after an island — the only two teams we know of that were named for the places they defended were the Toa Metru and the Toa Mahri. I believe the Toa Mata were officially named not for the island of Mata Nui, but rather for their destiny of reviving the Great Spirit. After all, when they were created, the island of Mata Nui didn't even exist, but the Great Spirit did.

I'm not all that into the new Bionicle, but I've got to say, I'm really refreshed by the fact that G2 characters are allowed to eat and drink and do normal people things. 

Yeah, I totally agree!

It's kind of a shame the actual story so far has been mostly just action without much of this type of slice-of-life appeal we see in the paintings that have been posted to Facebook. Part of me is still hoping we get a story where the Toa have to make camp for the night and help Pohatu overcome his fear of the dark. But then another part of me says I should quit hoping and try to write that story myself, since I can't get it out of my head.

In any case, the story next year seems to be getting bigger (four 30-minute episodes instead of eighteen 90-second episodes). Hopefully the bigger it gets, the more time there will be to focus on things other than fighting and destiny.

 

 

Is there anyone who has a sky blue Kaukau?

 

-

 

Is this a sky blue Kaukau, or the normal one? I really can't tell to be honest.

It seems lighter than the normal one I have, but not as light as the sky blue one.

Can anyone help?

I believe the kaukau you have came with HAHLI in her matoran set . its a lighter color than Gali's kaukau .

 

That needs more investigating either from someone who has a hahli set and the sky blue mask...it could be a good idea to ask Aanchir our resident color expert  if he can take a look at this he's literally a like a ta-metru mask maker, they know every kanohi mask they've ever produced

 

Edit: I've sent Aanchir a private message to ask him if he's willing a take look, i hope he agrees to it.

 

Ha, you flatter me.

Hahli's mask was molded in the same color as Gali's (Transparent Blue). Any difference is probably just run-of-the-mill inconsistency or discoloration. Here's a picture of it and other Transparent Blue parts on Brick Colorstream.

The Sky Blue Kaukau is a misprint that appeared in 2001 mask packs. Its official color name is Transparent Fluorescent Blue, and it's the same color as Toa Mata Kopaka's eyes, Toa Inika Matoro's ball cups, or the Toa Mahri visors. The photos in this topic look about how I'd expect it to look. You can easily tell it apart from Gali and Hahli's masks.

I have it and have read it. You're on Page 53 (even listed in the index as "Zarkan (BZPower user)".

"'Galidor is nothing more to me than a huge ink stain on Lego's history, and signaled the lowest point in their dark ages (which I define to be from 1997 to 2004). The line was based on a failed TV show that lasted only one year, and was basically an action figure line with the LEGO brand name slapped on. No studs, barely any Technic pins, and pieces that are basically useless in any creations. I don't even consider the line real lego [sic], and I'm extremely glad that TLC learned a lesson,' wrote the user Zarkan on the Bionicle fan Web site BZPower."

The original post being quoted seems to be lost to time, so I don't know how the author happened upon it. In fairness, when the book was written there weren't a lot of authoritative sources on Galidor. Today, it's a bit better understood that Galidor wasn't based on a TV show, but the other way around. (as described in Brick by Brick, pages 57–59). Not that that really changes the core message of your post, i.e, that Galidor was easily one of the LEGO Group's single biggest missteps.

LEGO: A Love Story is a pretty good book and I'd probably recommend it. It's perhaps not as great a reference source as Brick by Brick since it's basically written from the perspective of an AFOL rediscovering the brand and community, so it doesn't get as much of an inside look into the LEGO Group's operations. But it's still a really engaging story and a good exploration of the LEGO fan community, and in it the author describes meeting with plenty of LEGO employees, LEGOLAND employees, and fellow AFOLs.

You can't reboot it . Bionicle was rebooted to dig out the basic parts of the original story and create something more simple for younger ages to enjoy . plus it lasted for 11 years so the story is old . hero factory was already simple enough so a reboot would be strange , unless they added different characters or something OR did a more interesting story and make it less childish . theres not much you can do with hero factory that will please Bionicle fans .

Pleasing Bionicle fans probably wouldn't be the objective of a Hero Factory reboot in the first place. And plenty of incredibly simplistic franchises have been rebooted over the years (My Little Pony being one of the obvious ones, the original 80s cartoon having had much less depth and lore than the current generation). A toy line being simple is by no means reason not to reboot it if you think the core concept is still relevant to today's kids.

However, I do agree that if LEGO decided they really needed a new constraction theme other than Bionicle, they'd probably try to create a whole new franchise rather than bringing back one like Hero Factory or Slizer/Throwbots that never really took off the way Bionicle did.

What is a "Phase 2 Marvel movie"?

The movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are divided up into "phases". More info on Wikipedia.

I honestly don't think HF will be back, I always felt like Hero Factory was just a filler in the big gap that bionicle left behind in the construction figure line when it went on a break.

As much as I respect Hero Factory, I kind of have to agree with this. It was not really exceptional or outstanding in the way Bionicle was.

If it did come back, I'd say it'd certainly be a reboot. Not that there's no room for new adventures in the Hero Factory universe already established, but there's no reason a Hero Factory revival should be beholden to continuity, characterization, and lore that had plenty of problems in the first place. A direct continuation would be pointless, because by the time Hero Factory came back, the part of its audience that remembered or cared about the loose ends from where it left off would be fairly insignificant.

 

Also, why do people not want to support this?   As a BIONICLE Fan this discovery is incredible! But, the very fact that people don't want to support this makes me look down upon them, SMH. Why? Because it's """""Sacrilegious?""""" No. That's just stupid.    As someone who embraces science and loves space, in many way's I am offended that other fans wouldn't support this.

 

You could argue that "Oh, It would be unfair for just our Fandom to have something named after our obsession" But the fact of the matter is, if we get something named after the thing that brought us all together, why not other Fandoms? It would only be fair, if they got that privilege too. 

 

Now steady on there, pardner. I reckon you're gonna kick dust in a few faces with a rattlesnake like that in yer boot. If'n y'can hold yer horses and listen to the other cowpokes, I reckon this hostility'll simmer quicker'n a raindrop in a desert drought.

 

Now, seems t'me like what these fellers is sayin' is that this here nebula's already got a name, and has fer near 'pon a century now. Seems a bit rude t'just up and demand a new name based 'pon a small crowd's wishes. While I don't reckon I begrudge any one of ya for signin' this here petition, can't say I think much of it m'self.

 

I applaud you for staying in character for that entire post!

I understand a lot of the wariness that people have about signing this petition: If a guy just discovered a nebula, you should put his name on it, right? Not correct, actually, for three reasons.

 

Firstly, astronomers traditionally don't want to name something they discovered after themselves (unlike quite a few fictional scientists [ ]). Think of it: Mars, Pluto, Andromeda. All of them are named after mythological creatures or beings.

Second: Pk-200 (numbers here) is a placeholder name, until it becomes "important" enough to merit a true one. Astronomers discover a plethora of planets, systems, and others every day. You think they have time to give a snazzy name to them all? More importantly, do you think they wouldn't want other people to do so in their place?

Thirdly, for anyone worried about offending the memory of Mr. Menzel: the nebula doesn't actually have his name on it anyway. If Pk-whatever is a placeholder name, Mz2 is a placeholder name for the placeholder name. It's already been assigned a "coordinate" name by Nasa, so officially calling it after an astoundingly similar fictional galaxy isn't actually that harsh.

 

I totally understand if anyone is still averse to this, but for those who have doubts, you can set your mind at rest [] After all, Menzel might have been a fan of biomechanical beings, for all we know... []

The Solis Magna system isn't a galaxy and doesn't even look like this. Bara Magna and its satellites do (well... did), but they were not a galaxy, a nebula, or even a star system. They were a planet, two moons, and an accretion disk. They were a small part of a larger star system that we never even got to see in its entirety (because, let's be honest, the rest of the star system never especially mattered).

Calling it the "Bionicle Nebula" or the "Three Virtues Nebula" or something like that might at least make a bit of sense. Giving a nebula the name of a fictional star system because it resembles the former state of one of the planets within that fictional star system is a bit of a stretch to say the least. There are much better ways to commemorate Bionicle G1 than that.

I like both the books and serials he wrote. I find his style to be highly readable, and explored the various aspects of Bionicle that we didn't get to see otherwise quite well. That being said, I think he fits much better as the kind of writer he was in G1, then being on the planning/etc. side of things that he is for G2; he's more of an as-he-goes kind of writer.

He isn't really on the planning side of things in G2 at all. He was merely a consultant. So he's not really writing the G2 story in any capacity, just providing feedback and guidance to the new writers. Writing skills aside, he's probably one of the LEGO Group's top experts on the Bionicle fan community and what they liked or disliked about the story, so I'm sure he had plenty of insights to contribute in this role.

That makes sense to me. The naming also seems to follow a similar pattern to some later colors like Sand Yellow (Dark Tan) or Earth Orange (classic brown).

Great to have this sort of insight direct from the source!

Well, explained in that way I guess it makes some sense why the name originally came about. But given that there are, you know, Lego bricks, "Brick Yellow" in practice sounds like it's supposed to be the standard yellow of a Lego brick, which is clearly false.

 

Of course, I don't think I use a single official color name anyway; the BrickLink ones are much more sensible and concise, and the level of pedantry in insisting on official names is a bit strange to me.

 

~B~

Personally, I never insist on official names — I try to include multiple naming systems in any color-related post I make so that people know what I'm talking about — though I do tend to prefer official names to Bricklink names for several reasons.

Bricklink can have a problem with referring to multiple colors by the same name, or the same color by multiple names. This is especially a problem with metallic colors. If you use official names, then it's easy to identify that 315 Silver Metallic and 316 Titanium Metallic replaced 131 Silver and 147 Dark Grey Metallic between 2010 and 2011. If you use Bricklink names, then there WERE no new metallic colors between 2010 and 2011: they call Silver Metallic "Flat Silver", a color they semi-arbitrarily used for certain parts in 131 Silver from as early as 1998, and they call Titanium Metallic "Pearl Dark Gray", the same name they use for Dark Grey Metallic and Titanium Ink.

Bricklink names can also sometimes distort the actual relationships between colors. With official color names, it's obvious that Earth Orange (classic Brown) has the same relationship to Bright Orange (classic Orange) as Earth Blue (Dark Blue/Metru Blue) has to Bright Blue (classic Blue), or that Sand Yellow Metallic (Flat Dark Gold) is just a "pearl" version of Sand Yellow (Dark Tan), or that Transparent Light Bluish Green (Trans-Very Lt Blue) is just a transparent version of Light Bluish Green (Aqua), which is in turn just a light version of Bright Bluish Green (Dark Turquoise). Bricklink names don't express those relationships.

And of course, certain colors like Red Flip/Flop, Yellow Flip/Flop, and Silver Flip/Flop (the colors of the copper, gold, and silver masks from 2001–2002) do not have Bricklink names of their own at all. Neither do Metallic Bright Red, Metallic Bright Blue, Metallic Dark Green, and Metallic Earth Orange, some of the armor colors of the Rahkshi, or Transparent Fluorescent Red, Tahu's original eye color. All these colors are simply conflated with other colors, if they are inventoried at all (the silver and gold masks from the 2002 mask packs are not). Dark Nougat doesn't exist on Bricklink either, and Dark Nougat parts are arbitrarily called either Dark Orange or Earth Orange on Bricklink despite obviously not being either in a side-by-side comparison. Problematic to say the least. As a Bionicle fan, it's much more convenient to use a naming system where at least every Bionicle color actually HAS a name.

Speaking of Bricklink names, if anybody's interested, Brick Red's name on Bricklink is Fabuland Brown

Kopaka x Pohatu OTP

This one, yeah.

Also, the villager explaining the Prophecy of Heroes in episode one is Narmoto's spouse, and the young villager who bears a resemblance to Narmoto is their son.

Kopaka is clumsy in part because his hands and feet can form a slippery layer of ice without him being aware of it.

That's all I've got for right now. I'll come back with more if I think of any.

If white and gold for Kualus is a problem, try white and silver, or even introduce a third metallic color like gunmetal. It can be good to have a system but if the system is causing problems sometimes it's better to go with your gut instinct and improvise a bit more.

What is this even for, specifically? If it's for a purist MOC, then colors other than gold and silver might be risky due to there being fewer armor and weapon parts in those colors. But if it's for an art project or non-purist MOC you could even use colors like copper that rarely appear in Bionicle. I wouldn't recommend a different armor color for EVERY Toa Hagah, because then some might start to feel a bit random or forced. But three different colors for two Toa each might give you a bit more freedom than two different colors for three Toa each.

Also, don't forget — the Toa Hagah didn't just use their elemental color and metallic color. Norik had a black gearbox and Iruini had a black chest cover. Using a black gearbox on Kualus might be enough to help keep him from looking like a Toa of Light, depending on what armor piece you use over top of it. Still, I'd probably recommend a color other than gold for him in order to prevent confusion.

For all we know, it might have just been a test mold from back before they'd decided which Toa/Matoran/Rahi would use which masks. Same goes for the Transparent Fluorescent Blue Kaukau (the one that's a lighter blue than Gali's). Or the many other "misprint" masks like the noble masks in Toa colors.

I'm guessing LEGO used pad printing for those like they do for pretty much all of their printed parts. I don't know how feasible that would be to do at home, though.

 

Yeesh, get a load of all those textures on Tahu. Between four different kinds of armor that only appear twice, each with their own unique texture, not to mention the hideously over-greebled chestpiece, he's not lookin' too good.

This ain't Hero Factory anymore. 

Different than Hero Factory ≠ good. There are some things Hero Factory generally did do right. Avoiding needless clutter was one of them. Plus, that new torso shell (if it is, in fact, just one piece, as appears to be the case) looks more specialized than anything Hero Factory used from 2011 onward.

I actually think Tahu looks OK in this picture (the armor on his upper and lower legs at least looks somewhat consistent), but I'm not sure how he'll look from other angles, especially his arms.

Anyway, back on topic, I've started an entry for this contest. It's going pretty well but there's plenty of time yet to fine-tune it.

I just hope one of these days that Lego Worlds gets a PS4 or Wii U release. That'd be nice.

I just hope one of these days that Lego Worlds gets a PS4 or Wii U release. That'd be nice.

I was shown some videos of LEGO Worlds on the LEGO Inside Tour earlier this year, and got to ask a few questions. There are plans to port it to consoles once the PC version is in a more finished state.

Didn't they already make a Lego Avengers game? Lego Marvel Superheroes?

As I understand it, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes was an original story drawing from all kinds of different Marvel characters and stories, while LEGO Marvel's Avengers is a more traditional LEGO licensed game re-imagining the events of the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I could be wrong about that, though.

Re: The Great Gatsby, I definitely didn't enjoy it, but I read it at a time when I was struggling with depression so I don't know how authentic my reaction to it was. Gosh, eleventh grade English class was rough. The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, Of Mice and Men... so many miserable, unfortunate stories about miserable, unfortunate people. And understanding the point of those stories just made it worse, because it was usually a very bleak point at a point in time when I didn't need any more bleak thoughts in my head. Of Mice and Men was the worst because while I was trying to come to terms with my own disability and what it meant for my future, I was presented with this picture of a well-meaning disabled person who, by the end,

And I actually liked that ending at first until I had to explain its meaning to somebody else and realized what an awful statement that is when you apply it to the world at large.

These days, as far as literature is concerned, I've mostly retreated into kids' fantasy stories, which works out just fine for me as a LEGO fan since that's what most LEGO stories boil down to. Reading the latest My Little Pony, Bionicle, Ninjago, or Lemony Snicket book makes me feel a lot happier and safer than I would be reading "more serious" literature. The most adult stuff I read anymore tends to be stuff by Neil Gaiman, an author I've decided I can trust to tell me stories that even at their darkest moments convey positive messages about the world and the people in it.

I don't think the Bionicle story will ever be great literature. I don't expect it to be. And quite frankly, given some of my experiences with supposedly great literature, I'm happier knowing that it's not.