Bionicle 2015 Discussion

[Scarilian]

Anyway, the NYTF has just started, I expect that images won't take long to arrive now. More images is always a good thing

Does it start today? 'TheBrickFan' believes it starts Saturday?

"This Valentine’s Day weekend, the 2015 New York Toy Fair will be starting and members of the press will be able to get a close-up look at some of the upcoming toys you can expect to see later this year. On Saturday, select invited members to the LEGO booth will get an even earlier access to the booth before the show officially opens."

[Kalhiki]

NYTF is tomorrow. Though I don't know if there are any press conferences or pre-shows before then (maybe Saturday is that day?). Regardless, I'm excited.

Secondly, I love how one hand on flying Tahu is just the set's hand while the other is an open hand that looks nothing like the actual piece.

[TheOneVeyronian]

Does it start today? 'TheBrickFan' believes it starts Saturday?

"This Valentine’s Day weekend, the 2015 New York Toy Fair will be starting and members of the press will be able to get a close-up look at some of the upcoming toys you can expect to see later this year. On Saturday, select invited members to the LEGO booth will get an even earlier access to the booth before the show officially opens."

Sorry, I don't know why I thought it was Saturday today, yet I managed to get the EST time right. That happens a fair bit with me! Blame lack of routine and medication messing with my head

Needless to say, looking forward to seeing what comes out of it. I think I should retire back to my bricks until I can get my days right

[Scarilian]

Sorry, I don't know why I thought it was Saturday today, yet I managed to get the EST time right. That happens a fair bit with me! Blame lack of routine and medication messing with my head

Needless to say, looking forward to seeing what comes out of it. I think I should retire back to my bricks until I can get my days right

Tis fine, was just making sure :p

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Wait why is there a Bionicle Nickelodeon microsite? Is there a TV show or something I didn't hear of?

[AyliffeMakit]

In other news, TLG just uploaded episodes 6-9 in another language AGAIN to their YouTube channel.

Great work there TLG, great work...

[Dorek]

Haha, Turkish this time, I just saw. Good show, LEGO, good show.

[Timeline15]

So Pohatu and Tahu came today. They're really nice and consistent looking, and I'm loving the dual functionality. However, dear god those masks aren't half loose. I can barely move the head without them pulling off, without the aid of the brainstalk. Also, tahu is TINY for a titan. He's about a head shorter than furno XL.

Loving my trans orange hau too, though it is a bit funny to see the part number showing through XD.

[Shakar]

Also, tahu is TINY for a titan. He's about a head shorter than furno XL.

He's about as tall as Fangar and Fluminox, who were much shorter than sets like Black Phantom, who in turn was shorter than Brutaka from the old days. Inflation plus increasing cost of plastic equals to this unfortunately.

[ToaDraco]

Wait why is there a Bionicle Nickelodeon microsite? Is there a TV show or something I didn't hear of?

I was thinking the same thing. Seems a bit odd that Nickelodeon would have a Bionicle microsite.

[Dorek]

Nickelodeon usually has microsites for LEGO lines, but primarily in other regions. TV content differs from place to place, so for Russia, in this case, a BIONICLE microsite made sense for the network.

[Ikaatril]

I wouldn't really call Tahu/Onua/Kopaka titans these days, and even then I wouldn't judge a set by its height - height can vary wildly, especially with CCBS. Instead I'd probably class them as Canister sets, if we still had canisters. On the larger end of it, too. Titans these days are usually $25/£20 minimum, the $20/£15 price tag doesn't really allow for proper titans with CCBS.

Which is another thing that's fairly frustrating: there's a severe lack of complex CCBS titans. Titans should be complex, like Witch Doctor. But ever since 2013 we have things like the pitiful Combat Machine and Queen Beast, neither of which are really that good and rely on several CCBS pieces slapped together in a poor attempt to make something that could be called a titan. CCBS has so much potential, and... it's just so sad to see that potential squandered when the designers had such opportunities.

Then again, as somebody said, it did feel like the HF designers stopped putting effort into designing sets. Just look at the BA heroes compared to the BO heroes. Or the villains. Same thing with IFB, did that really interest anyone? The novelty of mechs wore off really fast and was clearly ripping off Pacific Rim, which didn't help. Not to mention the beasts had really terrible designs, especially Splitter Beast and Queen Beast. Fortunately looks like the designers are putting effort into BIONICLE, which is good, but I fear that they may get too comfortable and design bad sets by the third year. Nobody wants the Mistika v2.

[Mesonak]

Then again, as somebody said, it did feel like the HF designers stopped putting effort into designing sets. Just look at the BA heroes compared to the BO heroes. Or the villains. Same thing with IFB, did that really interest anyone? The novelty of mechs wore off really fast and was clearly ripping off Pacific Rim, which didn't help. Not to mention the beasts had really terrible designs, especially Splitter Beast and Queen Beast. Fortunately looks like the designers are putting effort into BIONICLE, which is good, but I fear that they may get too comfortable and design bad sets by the third year. Nobody wants the Mistika v2.

Don't get me wrong, PERSONALLY I do prefer the first three years of HF to its last two, but I'm not sure I agree with the sentiment that the designers "stopped putting effort into designing sets." I mean, let's directly compare 2012 to 2013.

The heroes had about the same level of complexity. The Breakout wave had redesigned launchers and hero cuffs as their unique aspects, but other than that, they were fairly rudimentary in design. Stormer XL was the exception. In contrast, Brain Attack featured more complex heads, chest pieces, and some design aspects which helped to set them apart from the norm (Stormer, Surge, and Furno XL immediately come to mind). That's not to say Breakout didn't have subtle design variations in the heroes as well; Furno, Rocka, and Bulk all had some intricacies which helped spice up their builds, but it's not like those just went away the next year. Also, Furno XL is an immensely better set than Stormer XL design-wise so there's that.

As far as the villains are concerned, I'd argue they're about the same level of quality. Breakout definitely had more unique designs, such as Jawblade, Thornraxx, Toxic Reapa, and XT4, but Brain Attack featured a return to technic-based functions in Bruizer, Scarox, and Dragon Bolt. I'd argue that were it not for the experiments done in Brain Attack to test if such a thing was viable with CCBS we probably wouldn't have gotten any in BIONICLE 2015. The only thing which truly drags the 2013 villains down in terms of quality are those terrible Brains. Also, Dragon Bolt is better than any singular set from 2012 in terms of design so there's that.

Regarding 2014, I think Invasion from Below interested quite a lot of people. I'm sorry if the mechs didn't really grab your interest, but they were a fun, fresh new take on the CCBS formula and featured some interesting and unique sets, like Furno, Breez, and Bulk's machines. The Beasts were way more straightforward, but Tunneler Beast was definitely a stand-out and I don't really see anything "terrible" about Splitter and Queen Beast. Enlighten me, perhaps?

Ahh, it feels good to talk about HF again.

Edited February 13, 2015 by Mesonak

[Timeline15]

Brain attack was quite a let down, but I feel it picked back up during invasion from below. Certainly a lot of creativity on show, whatever your actual opinions of the sets.

I personally still believe that breakout was Hero factory's best line. All the heroes were there (seriously, why did they never repeat this? I got sick of some of the alpha team inexplicably vanishing) and they all had their own physiques and builds. So, basically the same strengths that the winter 2015 Bionicle wave has.

[Scarilian]

Personally i tend to view Gen 2 in terms of transformers scales

Deluxe Class - Protectors would be the small and the least complex

Voyager Class - Gali, Pohata, LoSS and Lewa would be slightly larger than the deluxe class and more complex

Ultra Class - Onua, Tahu and Kopaka would be slightly larger than voyager yet having the same complexity

Leader class we have'nt actually seen yet in new Bionicle, however they would likely be much larger and have the same or higher complexity

Skull Grinder does not count as a titan set, he is simply a Ultra Class set packaged with a Deluxe Class. While many view the Toa as titans, having to accept them as the most complex sets we will get would be incredibly depressing.

In essence, i feel either we have'nt seen the true Bionicle Gen 2 titan sets yet and probably wont until 2016's Summer wave at the earliest. Each generation has a way of measuring the sets and at the moment i dont feel we've seen enough variation to be sure that the large Toa are the titan sets

Certainly a lot of creativity on show

Not sure if you are just on about Invasion From Below or the entire show, but the Invasion From Below was just an extended commercial for the sets... and not even a good one at that as most the mech's got trashed in seconds.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Scarilian

[Timeline15]

Oh, the story was terrible, I'm talking about the sets.

[Quisoves Pugnat]

Titan sets had a good deal of variety in size. Nocturn and 2008's Takanvuva and Toa Mata Nui all fell under the same category, despite a difference of at least 99 parts between each of them. In terms of size and complexity, the only determinant was that they were larger than the canister sets. Since the new BIONICLE is taking a different approach in these matters, what with two tiers of size for the Toa (the upper tier being the current limit for BIONICLE figures,) I don't think it is appropriate to apply the Titan moniker right now.

[Kalhiki]

What are we considering the Skull Grinder vs Ekimu set? Not really a titan since Grinder is the same size as the larger Toa, and it's a two pack to begin with.

Are we determining the size class names by price or figure size?

[Mesonak]

I refer to it as a combo pack.

[Bigger Fish]

Hey Guys! I just found a leaked video of a TRU exclusive summer set!

[Mesonak]

12/10 would buy

[Archer]

Has there been any attempt to create Kaita with the new Toa, sorry Masters?

[dviddy]

I don't want more complex Titans because that's a dumb term that hasn't been used since 2009 and should stay there.

[Mandate]

other than that, they were fairly rudimentary in design. Stormer XL was the exception.

That may be so, but Stormer XL was one ugly set.

[Mesonak]

That may be so, but Stormer XL was one ugly set.

Oh, I'm with you! I'm no fan of Stormer XL at all. I'm just saying, to give him the benefit of the doubt, Stormer XL was a break from the norm. I was just making the point that future titan sets built upon that formula and, in hindsight, Stormer XL doesn't really hold up.