Bionicle 2015 Discussion

[Aanchir]

Pridak was pretty top-heavy, and was deliberately required to pose hunched over anyway because of the way the fin blade was incorporated, so it's not surprising he ended up the way he did.

Honestly, I'd be perfectly okay if we started with just 180 degree waist movement before trying for a whole sphere of articulation.

It'd be a good start, but it could also be complex from a molding perspective, since instead of one simple two-section mold like the current HF torso beams each use, you'd need at least two new molds with at least three sections each just to make a single figure's torso. Not that using a ball joint would necessarily be any simpler — the parts with the ball would be fine, but whichever part you use for the ball cup would be considerably more complex unless you used an existing part like the Y-joint.

This is kind of getting off topic since we haven't really seen anything to indicate next year's sets might have waist articulation.

[TheGreatSpirit]

I think you guys are forgetting someone...

Back on topic, I highly doubt waist articulation being in any humanoid CCBS sets come next year, regardless of theme.

Edited July 12, 2014 by TheGreatSpirit

[Shakar]

Maxilos is a special case- it was a large scale set so designers could come up with a more complex torso system. I'm talking about full waist articulation to be directly integrated into the CCBS- with all the opportunities of modularity and resizability (think medium and large versions of the torso) that would bring.

But I agree, I doubt we're getting something this big next year. Since we were talking about poseable fingers, I simply added that those and waist articulation are the two last benchmarks in terms of articulation constraction figures have yet to reach. Other major benchmarks I recognize were head/neck and knee articulation (reached in 2003 by the Rahkshi), elbow ariculation (Nidhiki in 2004, I think), better arm/shoulder articulation (Piraka in 2006).

I'm not even sure if Lego plans to do that anyway. But then again, long before 2011, I thought the same about one absurd idea some MOCers proposed: a fully customizeable frame with special shell pieces to build a figure exactly how you want it to be? Really cool idea, but I'm not sure if Lego could ever bring themselves to completely drop BIONICLE's building system and produce such a huge plethora of parts...right? Right?

[CabooseBM]

He also had shoulder articulation! He could shrug!!

[Transparency for Effect]

I think you guys are forgetting someone...

Back on topic, I highly doubt waist articulation being in any humanoid CCBS wets come next year, regardless of theme.

I still have that actually! :3

He also had shoulder articulation! He could shrug!!

I know! How many sets were articulated like that?

[zg0]

i'll just leave this here.

[Lord-Vorahk]

I know! How many sets were articulated like that?

Getting a set to look like that wouldn't be hard. If you were to use a similar torso design to Kiina, in particular, two of these, then add balljoints to the outermost holes, then you can use either of the two smallest bones as articulated shoulders.

[VBBN]

I've never really found a purpose to waist articulation, if anything, articulation under the torso or an ab pivot would be far more practical and lead to a lot more posing possibilities.

[Aanchir]

I've never really found a purpose to waist articulation, if anything, articulation under the torso or an ab pivot would be far more practical and lead to a lot more posing possibilities.

What do you mean by that? To me, "articulation under the torso", "ab pivot", and "waist articulation" appear to mean more or less the same thing — a joint of some kind located towards the middle of the torso.

Personally, I like the idea of waist articulation because it can allow for more expressive poses. A figure will be able to slouch their upper body forward, rotate their upper body to face a different direction than their lower body, etc. The Toa Metru Nokama picture you just linked over in the Inika torso topic shows a good example of a pose that is not possible without some kind of waist articulation.

Another reason I've always been fond of the idea of waist articulation, though, is that the very first BIONICLE sets, the Toa Mata, had an implied waist joint. Like all of their other implied joints, like the ones in their arms and knees, it was made into an actual joint in CGI pictures and other media — even the instruction booklet art for the Toa Mata often had their upper and lower bodies at different angles (most obvious in Gali's and Pohatu's official art). Yet even as later years made things like knee, elbow, and neck joints standard, waist joints have never been anything but a rare novelty in constraction sets. It's not a huge deal, but if waist articulation didn't matter at all, the LEGO Group wouldn't have put an implied waist joint on the Toa Mata torso in the first place, let alone manipulate it in character art and animations.

[VBBN]

Perhaps I'm seeing this as a different definition, but to my definition a waist is generally right about the things, and it's only purpose would be to rotate the legs and give a point of pivot below the abs. Wait i'm implying is i'd want to see the joint underneath where the shoulder blades would be, to allow the chest and shoulders to move. For example, with many iron man figures, the larger upper half of arms moves independently of all of the lower half of abs below it.

In other words I'm comparing a hip swivel to a chest swivel. If my definition of a waist swivel (which I would categorize closer to a hip swivel and less like an ab or chest swivel) is incorrect then yes I agree. I really don't know what to call..whatever pridak had just due to his very different body design. In theory the sets should have both, but of course that would be extremely difficult to armor. (It's almost as if they'd have to try something new )

[Aanchir]

Perhaps I'm seeing this as a different definition, but to my definition a waist is generally right about the things, and it's only purpose would be to rotate the legs and give a point of pivot below the abs. Wait i'm implying is i'd want to see the joint underneath where the shoulder blades would be, to allow the chest and shoulders to move. For example, with many iron man figures, the larger upper half of arms moves independently of all of the lower half of abs below it.

In other words I'm comparing a hip swivel to a chest swivel. If my definition of a waist swivel (which I would categorize closer to a hip swivel and less like an ab or chest swivel) is incorrect then yes I agree. I really don't know what to call..whatever pridak had just due to his very different body design. In theory the sets should have both, but of course that would be extremely difficult to armor. (It's almost as if they'd have to try something new )

Ah, so that explains it. Generally, I see "waist" used to refer to the area between the rib cage and the hips. The abs are the muscles that control the movement of the waist, so they're more or less right in front of it. On a real person, there is no singular joint for the waist — its movement is spread out all the way along the spine between the pelvis and ribcage. So for instance, the waist on this piece is that narrow section in the middle. On a figure with a regular 9x9 or 9x7 torso you'd want a "waist joint" to more or less line up with that.

[davidr]

This is getting slightly off topic, but oh well. Imagine if they would ever make a set with poseable spine. It would be the solution to any of these posability problems, but there would be problems, because the armor would have to be in several pieces and connected via some weird connection points... wow, that makes me want to try to create a MOC with some kind of spine...

[Leewan]

Have you seen this ? Chro, do you know if this picture legit or not ? I'd say it's a fake, the last set with a Piraka foot was Von Nebula, and it was four years ago, I think it's safe to say we'll never see this mold again. And it's not the only one "old part", there seems to be a Thornax fruit, which is no longer produced too, and Mata Nui's shield part. And that name... Gnuklear... I'd definitely say it's fake, but if anyone is able to confirm, I'd be glad.

EDIT : And the set number indicates that there would be at least 30 sets, which seems to be a tad much for just one wave.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Leewan

[Dorek]

Ahaha I saw that earlier. So incredibly fake. It's Hakann's face colored gold, and poorly at that.

[arc]

Definitely looks fake to me. But hey,if it were real I would buy it.

[Aanchir]

Ahaha I saw that earlier. So incredibly fake. It's Hakann's face colored gold, and poorly at that.

And it's a mind-blowingly stupid name, too. Even if BIONICLE were to start using Hero Factory style names, I doubt they'd do something with "gnu" in it unless it was... ya know... a gnu.

More importantly, you can tell it's fake because the LEGO logo doesn't appear anywhere on the front of the package. The old packages did the indignity of shoving the LEGO logo to the bottom of the front panel, but in this day and age, with the LEGO brand as amazingly strong as it is, I don't know if they'd do even that, and they certainly wouldn't go a step further by removing it from the front panel entirely.

Other flaws abound: the use of discontinued foot pieces, the badly shopped Hakann face, the lazy backdrop, the nonsensical inclusion of both a Thornax Launcher AND a Zamor Launcher... even what looks like an outdated LEGO Club blurb. On the whole, not impressed with this effort.

At least they used the CCBS, which demonstrates some level of awareness of reality. Though it's possible they might have included that just to elicit cringes from old-school BIONICLE fans who are still opposed to this building system.

[Bfahome]

That dynamic pose though.

[Ikkad555]

i'll just leave this here.

Ha, badly-translated BIONICLE J-Pop! That's definitely something we need more of.

Hey, so Hero Factory got half-hour specials, books, comics, and an immersive media presence when it debuted: a very detailed website (the view of the factory changed in real time!), a 12-episode-long podcast, fictional newspapers, and even a functioning emergency hotline. Ninjago also had books and comics, introduced a toy-based game with collectible cards, managed to get theme-based content onto TLG's giant of an MMO LEGO Universe, and took those half-hour TV specials and gave us LEGO's first second TV series, with three complete seasons and an ongoing fourth. Then Legends of Chima rolled onto the scene, with its own books, a new toy-based game with more collectible cards, another TV series that manages to run alongside Ninjago, an MMO all to itself, and a worldwide LEGOLAND expansion.

What will TLG put out in terms of multimedia presence when (or if) BIONICLE -- the first multimedia IP LEGO had ever put together -- makes its return?

[TheGreatSpirit]

IMO, waist articulation is unnecessary. Just look at all constraction themes; I believe the number of sets with waist articulation is a single digit!

[Transparency for Effect]

And it's a mind-blowingly stupid name, too. Even if BIONICLE were to start using Hero Factory style names, I doubt they'd do something with "gnu" in it unless it was... ya know... a gnu.

More importantly, you can tell it's fake because the LEGO logo doesn't appear anywhere on the front of the package. The old packages did the indignity of shoving the LEGO logo to the bottom of the front panel, but in this day and age, with the LEGO brand as amazingly strong as it is, I don't know if they'd do even that, and they certainly wouldn't go a step further by removing it from the front panel entirely.

Other flaws abound: the use of discontinued foot pieces, the badly shopped Hakann face, the lazy backdrop, the nonsensical inclusion of both a Thornax Launcher AND a Zamor Launcher... even what looks like an outdated LEGO Club blurb. On the whole, not impressed with this effort.

At least they used the CCBS, which demonstrates some level of awareness of reality. Though it's possible they might have included that just to elicit cringes from old-school BIONICLE fans who are still opposed to this building system.

Speaking of, if the moulds really are discarded, can they be "recreated" like the Hau mask of BIONICLE Stars?

[MakutaNocturn]

I've got bad feelings that all sets will look like that Skakdi. It doesn't look like a fake either lol.

[WARHEAD]

Have you seen this ?

This is obviously a crude shop of Hakann and Meltdown, with some extra bits added on.

[Agent Fusion]

The gang is on the loose indeed.

[Transparency for Effect]

In a hypothetical way, how many new parts could come from the theme?

It's funny that Bionicle cameo'd in The LEGO Movie because

The twist included the live action of the movie that we knew was discussed but possibly overlooked when the movie came out seeming completely animated, so we finally got, at the very least a mention of Bionicle in a theatrical film, and it coincidentally had to be one where there were also live-action humans.

Also, how there was no Hero Factory reference, maybe because it may still be getting its own film? (Though, Ninjago had cameos, but maybe that's the whole point...)

[Aanchir]

Speaking of, if the moulds really are discarded, can they be "recreated" like the Hau mask of BIONICLE Stars?

Sure, a redesign is always possible. Also, sometimes an out-of-use mold can be reintroduced without a redesign if the mold is not completely worn out (example: the 2x4x2 windscreen used for a fishtank in the Pet Shop). But that doesn't happen terribly often.

In a hypothetical way, how many new parts could come from the theme?

No real way to know for sure. It depends on how much of a new parts budget the sets get.