Bionicle 2015 Discussion

[Toa-Nuva]

Maybe it's just my imagination (because otherwise, I'd be surprised why no one brought this up yet), but I thought that the official release date is when the sets will be available outside of the official LEGO shops. The official LEGO shops (both online and actual stores) already have them one month earlier than that, though. That was the case for the winter sets, which were to be released in February, but the official shops already had them in January; and I vaguely remember that I also noticed this a few times during Generation 1. So I had expected that the summer sets would also be available (in LEGO stores!) in July all along.

[Destroz65]

Toa Ignika on Bionifigs has reviewed three of the skull villains: mask maker vs skull grinder, skull slicer and skull basher. The link: http://www.bionifigs.com/t8589-video-exclusivite-mondiale-construction-et-revue-des-bionicle-d-ete-2015

Edited June 17, 2015 by Destroz65

[GK733]

Toa Ignika on Bionifigs has reviewed three of the skull villains: mask maker vs skull grinder, skull slicer and skull basher. The link: http://www.bionifigs...icle-d-ete-2015

It's really blurry and the object is not all times even on the camera, It's cool to see Basher's back use a small tube as spring but it's better to check out this: http://www.bzpower.c...-skull-grinder/

Edited June 17, 2015 by GK733

[Aanchir]

It's cool to see Basher's back use a small tube as spring...

Yeah, I'm surprised how much different Basher's function is than I had expected. Using a 3.2mm aerial instead of a 5M axle with stop and a piece of corrugated pipe instead of rubber bands makes the function more wobbly than what I had envisioned, but that offers slightly more freedom as a result, so his arms aren't forced to swing forward in perfect unison. Whether this is truly advantageous I won't know until I have the set in hand. But it definitely makes the function more unique than I had considered.

[TheOneVeyronian]

Maybe it's just my imagination (because otherwise, I'd be surprised why no one brought this up yet), but I thought that the official release date is when the sets will be available outside of the official LEGO shops. The official LEGO shops (both online and actual stores) already have them one month earlier than that, though. That was the case for the winter sets, which were to be released in February, but the official shops already had them in January; and I vaguely remember that I also noticed this a few times during Generation 1. So I had expected that the summer sets would also be available (in LEGO stores!) in July all along.

I would be inclined to believe that this is the case. Last year, LEGO Stores in my country put out the new Star Wars sets nearly a month earlier than the release date, but didn't show up until that release date elsewhere. Pretty much the same story occurred with Elves in March this year (though only a couple of weeks early that time), and now Bionicle, amazingly over a month and a half before the official release date.

My guess is that because LEGO's own stores rarely discount stuff, they have to find other ways of pulling the buying public in I suppose.

Yeah, I'm surprised how much different Basher's function is than I had expected. Using a 3.2mm aerial instead of a 5M axle with stop and a piece of corrugated pipe instead of rubber bands makes the function more wobbly than what I had envisioned, but that offers slightly more freedom as a result, so his arms aren't forced to swing forward in perfect unison. Whether this is truly advantageous I won't know until I have the set in hand. But it definitely makes the function more unique than I had considered.

That surprised me about Basher as well, but one that's also really simple to fix (use a Technic 1/2 pin). I can't really tell whether the wobbliness of the mechanism was deliberately put in by the designers to allow more freedom of movement (i.e. making the arms move at different times to each other), or just happened to be a coincidence and the designers intended for the arms to move in unison. I assumed the latter, but after reading your post Aanchir, I'm not so sure now!

All in all, it really makes me intrigued to see some sort of designer video for the set to learn their true motives behind that mechanism, however unlikely that might be.

[GK733]

Yeah, I'm surprised how much different Basher's function is than I had expected. Using a 3.2mm aerial instead of a 5M axle with stop and a piece of corrugated pipe instead of rubber bands makes the function more wobbly than what I had envisioned, but that offers slightly more freedom as a result, so his arms aren't forced to swing forward in perfect unison. Whether this is truly advantageous I won't know until I have the set in hand. But it definitely makes the function more unique than I had considered.

Seems to be intended, yet I have no idea where he got these pics, maybe they are just scans. http://vk.com/wall-45089848_210425

Edited June 17, 2015 by GK733

[Scarilian]

Those gaps 0_0

http://i.imgur.com/ITpztRc.jpg

[Kalhiki]

Basher's function is... Pretty ingenious. And gives me faith in functions on Constraction sets outside of the gearbox.

Grinder's gaps on the other hand... Ugh. I figured them being skeletons would make gappy armor excusable, but man. That's pretty atrocious.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Kalhiki

[Mutant Orc]

Ewwww. I completely agree with you Kalhiki

[Scarilian]

Basher's function is... Pretty ingenious. And gives me faith in functions on Constraction sets outside of the gearbox.

I think the idea is that they will use stick to the gearbox for most the sets and occasionally experiment with non-gearbox methods such as the case with Basher. Hopefully we see more variation of the functions

[Nekchir]

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWw

[Lord-Vorahk]

I got no problem with the gaps. None of the full-size figures look fantastic from the side IMO, due to the gearbox distending backwards from the torso bone, so some ugliness on the rotting corpse character is fine with me.

As an aside, those distended-backwards shoulders make me long for a better torso build than a gearbox attached to a torso bone next year. I know it's unlikely, but I'd like to see a new bone to fill that role. It would have a place for the gearbox to attach instead of the normal shoulder joints, and a neck that's ever so-slightly longer so that the characters can actually look down without putting their chins inside their chests.

[WARHEAD]

Man, I already wasn't really into this summer wave, but that Grinder pic is just eugh

[Vinyl Scratch]

Bleh that gap. And Skull Grinder was going to be the only set I was going to get.

Any idea how to fix it without making the set bulkier?

[TwistLaw]

I guess I'll take a look during the next 1-2 weeks, I'm currently swamped with exams. I know there are a few Italian BIONICLE fans here, maybe they can check?

Yeah man, gonna check a couple of stores in my town, one of them is closely tied with LEGO. If my search fails I'm still 30 km away from Milan: if I won't happen to find anything there it really means we have to wait 'til september

[MakutaOfWar]

Mmm, I like Basher's function.

Also, does the Scorpion/Grinder combo have the new bone bones as supports for the legs? My phone won't load large enough pictures. x_x

[Shakar]

Yeah man, gonna check a couple of stores in my town, one of them is closely tied with LEGO. If my search fails I'm still 30 km away from Milan: if I won't happen to find anything there it really means we have to wait 'til september

Went to the store I mentioned the other day, it appears BIONICLE is still expected for September as usual. :(

[TheOneVeyronian]

For those of you who find Grinder's gappiness a bit off-putting, maybe my modifications to Grinder will give some people ideas on how to remedy the gaps without altering the overall look of the set very much. The gap in the crotch (between the torso and the torso shell) on the original model was especially jarring to me personally.

Okay, plug over

[ToaVion143]

Hey Guys I called my nearest Lego Store here in Germany and guess what?

They have them

Seems most of the European States have them in the official Lego stores atleast. August is release date for all the other retailers.

Going to buy one or two sets now =)

[Logan McOwen]

Eh, that gap is repairable. I ain't too bumfuddled about it.

[Gatanui]

Hey Guys I called my nearest Lego Store here in Germany and guess what?

They have them

Seems most of the European States have them in the official Lego stores atleast. August is release date for all the other retailers.

Going to buy one or two sets now =)

Which store would that be?

[Aanchir]

I got no problem with the gaps. None of the full-size figures look fantastic from the side IMO, due to the gearbox distending backwards from the torso bone, so some ugliness on the rotting corpse character is fine with me.

As an aside, those distended-backwards shoulders make me long for a better torso build than a gearbox attached to a torso bone next year. I know it's unlikely, but I'd like to see a new bone to fill that role. It would have a place for the gearbox to attach instead of the normal shoulder joints, and a neck that's ever so-slightly longer so that the characters can actually look down without putting their chins inside their chests.

I'm actually not terribly bothered by the placement of the Toa's shoulders. It's not actually that unusual for a figure's shoulders to be set back from their hips, which is one of the things I really liked about this torso. I suppose the Toa would be more realistic if the shoulders were set back just one module from the hip and neck joints rather than two modules, as with that Hero Factory torso beam, but I'm not sure it's a huge enough issue to warrant a new gearbox design so soon after we got this current one.

From a practical standpoint, nesting the gearbox and the torso beam would have its own limitations anyway. The current gearbox setup is a lot more practical for sets like Lewa, Kopaka, or Onua who need their shoulders raised and/or need to make use of the torso beam's natural shoulder joints, for a character like Skull Slicer who needs an axle to pass all the way through the center of the gearbox, or for characters like Pohatu, Gali, and Kopaka who have one shoulder joint "locked". And armoring a character's lower back would add the same amount of thickness to the torso anyway unless you integrated a ball joint into the gearbox itself.

And as for increasing the length of the neck, LEGO generally doesn't do things "ever-so-slightly". The fact that the connection points of all the current CCBS beams can be mapped to a full-module grid does wonders for their versatility, and so if you wanted to increase the length of a torso's neck joint it would have to be by a full module, which I think would be overkill. The neck of the current head piece is already a half module longer than the neck of a Glatorian head or Brain Attack head anyway. Lengthen the neck any further and you'd pretty much NEED to raise the shoulders on every set that used that torso beam just to keep it from looking silly.

[ToaVion143]

Which store would that be?

My nearest Lego Store is in Essen, but I guess they all have them. =)

[Paleo]

I called the Mall of America store and they said that the second waves sets aren't in, and they have no indication of when they'll be arriving.

[TwistLaw]

So far we know that BIO2015 wave 2 is currently sold in

France ✓

Germany ✓

UK ✓

and currently we know they're not sold yet in

Italy ✗

USA ✗

Any news from Canada, Spain, Sweden, Poland etc. ?