Bionicle 2015 Discussion

[Zenerius]

Considering all of the facts and evidence supporting the pictures, there is a very likely chance this is real. If it isn't, then whoever had managed to create over 7 convincing mocs, give them realistic poses, photograph them at good angles, and photoshop them all into one big set stand, then gosh, that guy has a lot of time on his hands. But, just to be safe, we'll keep our skeptic mindsets. Here I will list the facts suggesting the images real or fake.

Real

-Came from a reliable source. We usually receive information like this from the same person, and the info turns out true.

-Came from a multitude of sources.

-Original source could potentially lose job for leaking

-Images surfaced around the time of the "leak season"

-Images appear to be similar to previous set stands

-Asger Johansen mentioning a new 2015 theme on his LinkedIn page

-Lego attempting to take down sources of the images (namely Flickr and Tumblr)

-Lego removing the popular forum discussion regarding Bionicle not returning

-Greg Farshtey's post regarding new 2015 themes

Fake

-Images surfaced out of nowhere

-Not very difficult to fabricate

-No confidential watermark

At the moment, it seems that our speculation could be correct.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Zenerius

[Dorek]

I've been staring at this image for wayyy too much time, and even then, I've not only been able to find only a HF chest plate and the HF lightning bolt piece used on the new Chima Laval set as fire on his blade as recognizable pieces. I feel like MOCs or photoshopped previous sets would at least have something to easily identify them, you'd be like "look, a Metru thigh" or something. Also that is definitely not 2008 Takanuva, no way, no how, everything about it is the wrong proportion, design aesthetic, shape, etc. I'd rather it was an 08 Takanuva because then we could just be done with the whole thing, but it's not.

Honestly, if people can see Piraka, Takanuva isn't nearly out of the question (and I'm not saying it's a literal usage of whatever promotional image, just that the design is incredibly similar, which it totally is). I think I can vaguely see where people get the Piraka thing, but I interpret the shape in a completely different matter.

Either way, it's a bunch of fuzzy lines based on some plastic.

(Also lulz helix)

Edit: Also, people keep saying that it takes some monumental effort and I still disagree with this. Regardless of the veracity of the images, they themselves would not have taken long to fake. Some of the things surrounding the images would have taken some deft maneuvering, but a lot of that just has to do with timing.

As for the list, a lot of that can be used both ways; any time we get leaks is "leak season", and Greg's answers are always iffy at best. LEGO's official action, on the other hand (not that we can confirm the flickr thing, but assuming it was) is much more interesting.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Dorek

[exxtrooper]

Considering all of the facts and evidence supporting the pictures, there is a very likely chance this is real. If it isn't, then whoever had managed to create over 7 convincing mocs, give them realistic poses, photograph them at good angles, and photoshop them all into one big set stand, then gosh, that guy has a lot of time on his hands. But, just to be safe, we'll keep our skeptic mindsets. Here I will list the facts suggesting the images real or fake.

Real

-Came from a reliable source. We usually receive information like this from the same person, and the info turns out true.

-Came from a multitude of sources.

-Original source could potentially lose job for leaking

-Images surfaced around the time of the "leak season"

-Images appear to be similar to previous set stands

-Asger Johansen mentioning a new 2015 theme on his LinkedIn page

-Lego attempting to take down sources of the images (namely Flickr and Tumblr)

-Lego removing the popular forum discussion regarding Bionicle's revival

-Greg Farshtey's post regarding new 2015 themes

Fake

-Images surfaced out of nowhere

-Not very difficult to fabricate

-No confidential watermark

At the moment, it seems that our speculation could be correct.

Now we just have to wait.

I don't mean to be off-topic here or derail this thread in any shape or form, but I really thought I'd see Half Life 3 before I saw Bionicle returning.

Exciting times, though a bit letdown that TLG put another strike on my flickr stream, but it helped as conclusive evidence so there's that.

[Aanchir]

Honestly, if people can see Piraka, Takanuva isn't nearly out of the question (and I'm not saying it's a literal usage of whatever promotional image, just that the design is incredibly similar, which it totally is). I think I can vaguely see where people get the Piraka thing, but I interpret the shape in a completely different matter.

Either way, it's a bunch of fuzzy lines based on some plastic.

(Also lulz helix)

I don't see Piraka any more than I see Tahu or a Fikou. All I'm saying is that the face is slightly Piraka-like as far as I can tell. I could be totally wrong and it could just be a very shiny piece with highlights that look like a big mouth, but it definitely doesn't look like Takanuva's mask, nor does the rest of the build look anything like Takanuva.

[Dorek]

The piece above what I think people are considering the "mouth" is what I see as Takanuva's mask. Again, totally subjective, since a lot of this is people seeing what they want to see.

[Zenerius]

Just a piece of info regarding their story direction for the reboot of Bionicle-

The story could very well be intended for a slightly older audience. Since the older children/teenagers will be interested in the theme, then the younger children will want to be a part of it. This means that instead of going the more childish approach that Hero Factory had, the new Bionicle could be more similar to the original in terms of maturity. However, it won't work the other way around.

Heard this from Farshtey himself.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Zenerius

[Transparency for Effect]

That seems an unsufficient reason to judge a set instead of by its qualities. Personally I was quite fond of Stars Gresh, it had a neat color scheme (I love lime green and the silver blades made a nice contrast) and those neat armor pieces only he had, I was only bugged by the helmet getting in the way of the head's movement and a bit by the enormous size of the blades. Skrall, not so much, that empty ball joint was a bit awful.

-Gata

Okay, sorry While Gresh lacks its blend of colours from the previous design, it works well enough for a minuscule variation, I suppose. And yeah with Skrall, you have the ball joint, the awkwardly-"outed" arm pieces and that unconfortabley long head...

But couldn't they put in others, since 2009 had just happened before and there were none from 2004-2005 at all?

What was the canonical explanation for Takua and Gresh shrinking, again?

At any rate, starting out with sets that are kind of reminiscent in the same way Stars was isn't necessarily a bad thing to me, especially as there was only one wave of Stars (if that's what we're seeing here, what with interpretations of Tahu, Fikou/Visorak, Kopaka, etc.).

Edited July 4, 2014 by Transparency for Effect

[TheGreatSpirit]

I cannot wait for the annual catalogue leaks; not only will we learn more about a revived Bionicle, but we also will learn the fate of HF.

Edited July 4, 2014 by TheGreatSpirit

[Gatanui]

Okay, sorry While Gresh lacks its blend of colours from the previous design, it works well enough for a minuscule variation, I suppose. And yeah with Skrall, you have the ball joint, the awkwardly-"outed" arm pieces and that unconfortabley long head...

But couldn't they put in others, since 2009 had just happened before and there were none from 2004-2005 at all?

What was the canonical explanation for Takua and Gresh shrinking, again?

At any rate, starting out with sets that are kind of reminiscent in the same way Stars was isn't necessarily a bad thing to me, especially as there was only one wave of Stars (if that's what we're seeing here, what with interpretations of Tahu, Fikou/Visorak, Kopaka, etc.).

It made sense to bring in characters from 2009 so the story could conclude in a way that made sense. There was no explanation for anyone shrinking because they simply did not, it's the same as why the Toa Mata were much smaller as the Toa Inika, although in the story they were roughly the same size.

-Gata

[Dorek]

Just a piece of info regarding their story direction for the reboot of Bionicle-

The story could very well be intended for a slightly older audience. Since the older children/teenagers will be interested in the theme, then the younger children will want to be a part of it. This means that instead of going the more childish approach that Hero Factory had, the new Bionicle could be more similar to the original in terms of maturity. However, it won't work the other way around.

Heard this from Farshtey himself.

It's not that I don't think that's a bad approach, I just hate the backpedaling on the subject. BIONICLE is too complex and mature (emphasis on the former, but still), so it's axed in favor a more kid-friendly line, suddenly the younger generation is more mature than they've been given credit for and it's trying to draw them up instead of down.

That said, since there's money on the bet of two different constraction lines, HF and whatever would be fun to see concurrently.

[Zenerius]

That said, since there's money on the bet of two different constraction lines, HF and whatever would be fun to see concurrently.

It would be interesting to see two different constraction themes run side by side, both focusing on a different demographic. Maybe Lego will run the new theme (presumably Bionicle) alongside with Hero Factory and see how they do, and if their sales don't cannibalize maybe they could keep both running together at the same time.

Only will tell.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Zenerius

[Aanchir]

It made sense to bring in characters from 2009 so the story could conclude in a way that made sense. There was no explanation for anyone shrinking because they simply did not, it's the same as why the Toa Mata were much smaller as the Toa Inika, although in the story they were roughly the same size.

-Gata

I don't think that's all there was to it. An "all stars" line would be incomplete without more recent characters because it would have only appealed to older fans by including characters they'd remember. Instead, they spread the characters out: one represented a set from 2001, two represented sets or series of sets from 2003, one represented a series of sets from 2006, and two represented sets or series of sets from 2009. This way, every fan would be treated to at least one character they were familiar with. The important thing for maximizing the sets' audience was that the characters would be familiar: some would be familiar because they were "classics", others because they were recent.

It's not that I don't think that's a bad approach, I just hate the backpedaling on the subject. BIONICLE is too complex and mature (emphasis on the former, but still), so it's axed in favor a more kid-friendly line, suddenly the younger generation is more mature than they've been given credit for and it's trying to draw them up instead of down.

That said, since there's money on the bet of two different constraction lines, HF and whatever would be fun to see concurrently.

Were there any official claims that BIONICLE was axed for being "too mature"? I don't remember anything of the sort. It just seems like something people assumed because Hero Factory lacked the same grim tone and complexity that BIONICLE had in its later years. The existence of a more kid-friendly theme isn't itself proof that more mature themes don't sell. It's just a different marketing strategy that has plenty of precedent.

But in any case, I hope the story direction is still plenty kid-friendly and not so grim and serious that it only appeals to adults and kids with pretensions of maturity. The BIONICLE fan community has too much of that already, judging from how many BIONICLE MOCs have ludicrously grimdark backstories. And Ninjago has proven that aiming things squarely at kids ages six to fourteen can still be wildly successful.

[Bfahome]

The thing is at that level of detail it's hard to call them "competent", because we really can't tell.

Yeah, what this guy said. It's exactly what I've been trying to say.

The picture quality is so terrible (as is the case with many past leaks, real or not) there are pretty much no details to be seen.

Like I said before, previous fakes have used terrible MOCs, but since some of the pictures were larger and of better quality, that fact was immediately obvious. Or they used already-well-known good MOCs, so anyone who'd seen them could easily tell. I think this may have had potential to spread if it wasn't made by such a prominent builder.

[Dorek]

That^

I don't recall what the official reason for BIONICLE's cancellation was, if indeed there was one. It seemed a "has run its course" kind of scenario, that and the lack of money being made on it (with the recalculation involving the cost of the molds, from what I remember?). It's not that those kinds of things don't sell, as you say, but they went hand-in-hand in this case; BIONICLE was dense, both in mythology and in storytelling, which made it inaccessible. I didn't quite mean "mature" in the sense of "macabre", just that it had a lot of nuances not necessarily grasped by the average toybuyer (a byproduct of its history, as it were).

[Zenerius]

The theme was cancelled at a high point. That way, if Lego were to ever bring it back, then retailers would remember the theme selling very well and want to have it sold in their stores. Very intelligent marketing decision on Lego's part.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Zenerius

[Aanchir]

Yeah, what this guy said. It's exactly what I've been trying to say.

The picture quality is so terrible (as is the case with many past leaks, real or not) there are pretty much no details to be seen.

Like I said before, previous fakes have used terrible MOCs, but since some of the pictures were larger and of better quality, that fact was immediately obvious. Or they used already-well-known good MOCs, so anyone who'd seen them could easily tell. I think this may have had potential to spread if it wasn't made by such a prominent builder.

More importantly, though, those fakes were trying to imitate preliminary images that were generally cruddy by nature. This is trying to imitate a product display stand where presentation has a much bigger impact. This is not a dynamic pose. It would never appear on the front of a product's packaging or on a product display. This is the closest any of those images had to a dynamic pose, and even it is a fairly bad angle for a display image since so many of the details are hidden.

The products from this new leaked image are all in dynamic poses, which is obvious even without any details of their builds being clear. They are also poses that would appear to show off the products in detail if the image were clearer. That alone demonstrates that the person who created this image put in more effort than the people who put together those low-effort fakes back in the day.

Composition of photos is a big deal, and it's something a lot of MOCists don't grasp. I was not very good at taking good MOC photos back in the day, and I still struggle with it compared to some of the community's elite MOCists. This is why I'm led to believe that if this is a hoax, it's a competent one. You don't need to see the details to know that. You just need to see the poses and the presentation.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Aanchir

[Master_Data]

Zenerius, I have another one for your list:

If this was a hoax using MOCs, someone also must have putt a lot of work into designing the packaging. There is so much detail all over the packaging and display! The packaging ribbon for each size group is identical, but the set backgrounds are all very different. The cap designs aren't reused anywhere else in the image.

Oh, I also spotted another few HF shells on the bottom one.

[VBBN]

I haven't seen this many viewing the Action Figure forum in years- This topic jumped from about 5,000 views to 41,000 in about 2 days. I sort of mentioned this on Flickr, but it goes to show what an impact Bionicle had on people. Regardless of if this is real or fake, this news has pulled in far more traffic than any news about Hero Factory has done, and I see so much more dedication and heartfelt posts in this thread. It's really quite astounding

The picture quality is so terrible (as is the case with many past leaks, real or not) there are pretty much no details to be seen.

I think this may have had potential to spread if it wasn't made by such a prominent builder.

And I will continue to never understand why everyone who takes photos of there things are apparently in the middle of a tornado.

[Zenerius]

Another updated evidence list. Looks like these images are real, guys! This could be all the evidence we have unless some new astonishing occurrence takes place.

Real

-Came from a reliable source. We usually receive information like this from the same person, and the info turns out true.

-Came from a multitude of sources.

-Original source could potentially lose job for leaking

-Images surfaced around the time of the "leak season"

-Images appear to be similar to previous set stands

-Asger Johansen mentioning a new 2015 theme on his LinkedIn page

-Lego attempting to take down sources of the images (namely Flickr and Tumblr)

-Lego removing the popular forum discussion regarding Bionicle not returning

-Greg Farshtey's post regarding new 2015 themes

-Sets contain standard HF parts as well as nonexistent parts

-Tremendous effort put into designing the packaging, posing, and set design

Fake

-Images surfaced out of nowhere

-Not very difficult to fabricate

-No confidential watermark

The plot just won't stop thickening!

Edited July 4, 2014 by Zenerius

[Dorek]

I'm still going to say a lot of the stuff on that list can be lumped together into fewer bullet points (or, conversely, expanded), but I guess objectivity isn't as much fun =P.

And yeah, echoing what VBBN (and a few others earlier) said, regardless of whether or not these are fake, it shows a certain passion of the community, which is always great to see, even if it gets way out of hand. It even got an old curmudgeon like me interested.

[the last chronicler]

Just wanted to say that I had known pretty early on that Bionicle was ending back in 2010. In 09 Greg stated he didn't want to make the Av-matoran masks the noble forms of the Mata-Nui era Great Kanohi due to their potential use in future sets. When he changed his mind, that told me there wasn't going to be any future sets, which was confirmed with the Stars release.

Anyways, this evidence is equal, and far more compelling proof for Bionicle's return then what I scooped together in 2009.

[krystalKING]

I haven't touched this form in years, but my god, if this is real, I will be amazed.

Am I the only one that sees Kopaka on the bottom? His pose is similar to one from him, and I can see an ice shield or the right of the box.

[Zenerius]

I haven't touched this form in years, but my god, if this is real, I will be amazed.

Am I the only one that sees Kopaka on the bottom? His pose is similar to one from him, and I can see an ice shield or the right of the box.

I thought I could see an Akaku, but considering the colors (white and gold) then it's likely supposed to be Takanuva.

[Master_Data]

Bionicle Story is offline now! When did that happen? I just checked within the past few months and it was there! It was never updated, but it still hinted that LEGO wasn't going to give up on Bionicle. Maybe Lego removed that blog post because they simply think most people have stopped consistently begging for it all the time. I mean, they don't have a "Jack Stone will not be returning" because no one actually begs for that to come back. Maybe LEGO doesn't see the need to acknowledge it anymore.

However, due to Zenerius' list, I hope this is not true.

[Zenerius]

Bionicle Story is offline now!

Bionicle Story became offline last year. It's old news. If you want to view the site, it has a backup at the BioMedia Project.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Zenerius