Bionicle 2015 Discussion

[Mandate]

Honestly, he's a shining example on how to do video reviews right, brief, informative, entertaining in that calm fashion of his. If you want an idea on what to aim for, he's the first guy to look at. Especially with having a text review to compliment it, you highlight the strengths of both approaches.

I agree with you on all points. The only thing I don't like about Jang is Mega Bloks. Eugh, but it's his money so he can do whatever he wants with it. I aint gonna stop him

[CabooseBM]

,

Alternatively, if not completely parallel, Vangelus's approach to reviews isn't quite as video-edit-intensive and formal, but still cuts a more brief and entertaining video. His

give you an idea of what you should edit down and script and what you can do "impromptu". It really shows what some elbow grease and showmanship can do for a review. Edited November 18, 2014 by CabooseBM

[Mr. Gundam]

I like Jang bricks cus he's one few that would review alternative forms and combiners

[Shakar]

Wow, I can't believe how much I'm loving Protector of Jungle. I wasn't sure about him (.. /her? but we know how that's going to end up) at first but now I like his design a lot. I like his relatively tall, slender build (fitting for a green character) and how well armoured he is. I know that's Protector of Stone's design too, but PoJ has a colour scheme I like more, back armour...and he has a freaking gun-bow (rant on it below).

I really like the bow as well, but I'm still not sure of what the flame pieces are supposed to represent: are they energy coming out of the sides (then it isn't even a bow!) or are they an actual part of the bow (then why are they transparent? Made of some crystal-like substance?). I know that the real answer is "because kids dig transparent pieces, and so do you", but I'd like if the weapons actually made sense without having to overanalyze them like I'm doing now. I complain, but that always happens with constraction bows- unless you add something that looks like a string, it's always going to look like a gun with a blade on each side. Which is ok, it still looks cool- Fluminox and PoJ actually give off the illusion (and sometimes with Lego that's the best you can do) they're showing some archery, Rocka's can be explained via "it's a sci-fi crossbow" (despite everything, BIONICLE is still closer to fantasy to me). But I think they could've used something less confusing than a flame piece.

That said, even if I don't pick him up, I like his overall design so much I want to build a replica of him with different colours (Kongu anyone? Anyone? Dark azure is pretty close to teal!). Arguably, that's something I might want to do with the other Protectors too.

I think they have merit as a supplement to a real review. But as the entire review, well, I'd rather not, and am only making them because Andrew insists and I'd like to keep getting preview sets to review and photograph. It's selfish but that's real life and I know it. It doesn't mean I'm not going to try my hardest to make them- this was my first one and several things went wrong with it after. I've got a new lighting setup and whatnot I'm going to try for the fire protector, and hopefully that helps.

I tried to approach my Tahu video review as a supplement to the review I spent much, much, much longer on, and it's a little frustrating to see reactions to nothing but the video. I know it's a bad video. I don't care for it either. I bought the camera the day before I made it. I felt super weird filming it. Talking to no one about the set just feels weird. But using the video as a supplement to point out the things that work better in video (like the gears, or the way Tahu's arms start to slide out when you use the gears too much, the mask function, etc) just got me a bunch of complaints about how I didn't build the set in the video or show off the parts. Of course I didn't- I did that in the written and photo review. As far as I was aware at the time, the three segments were meant to work with each other. Apparently this was wrong, and I'll do the PoFire review accordingly. But I'm still grumpy about it.

Sad to see it went this way, since I completely agree with you. Short videos are good to show functions and maybe the building process and/or a 360°perspective of the model, but for everything else? When it comes Lego sets, I think picture reviews are the best way to do it.

My opinion on set reviews would probably be different if they all were on the level of Jang's, but most seem to stem from "hey guys I got this set before everyone, look how cool it is!" or "let's make a funny video out of this lol" (which isn't a review :^) ). It seems to be a trend in line with the Web 2.0 era (and the rampant attention wh- ahem, seeking it's plagued by) to me, but that's just a personal theory. Alternatively, like in DV's (and therefore, BZP's) case, video reviews are done out of the belief they can reach a wider audience (given Youtube's immense potential): in this case, I can't exactly blame BZP for choosing this format, but I do think that each reviewer's ability should be made the most of (in DV's case, his mastery of photography).

[Mandate]

You want the weapons to "make sense"? Hmm, sorry, I'm too busy looking over machine gun chests, facehugging spiders and "Ultimate Power" cliches.

[Rayskull]

Hey I'm not going to ever criticize the work done for me - for free. I do prefer pictures every time, but I'll watch a review of something I'm obsessed with.

Hopefully Lego is getting good feed back on what we liked about this line up, if it translates into high sales volume then we both win. I'm hoping for more complicated smaller sets and nicer masks, and more transparent / opaque combo shells.

Btw. My efforts at putting the gearbox on the back of a protector snagged. The prebuilt gear box forces you to use larger gears, and the custom gear boxes I found and modified severely limit chest shell placement. Let me know if someone has a even more compact solution :)

[VBBN]

For people who were asking for pictures of the first three I reviewed with their respective protector goodies.

The fire pictures aren't cooperating with me, but at this point It will be a while before I can get to retaking the photos due to weather/time issues

[SuperGeniusCreator]

inb4 JangBricks hate

Anyway, I've just noticed yet another odd thing (to do with the Vahi controversy, YAY ) with the slides. All of them display concept artwork relative to only itself. So, for instance, you're not going to see a picture of Okoto with Tahu concept work. The slide containing the Temple of Time (presumably "activated" too) also featured the arrival of the Toa, their landing, and... the massive volcano featured in another slide that also wasn't on the Facebook page?

The volcano throws this off a little, but I would assume it and the other unseen slide may have something to do with Tahu's arrival. It's still interesting that not only was there a comment regarding the Vahi, a Star Trek comparison, a slide never seen again after NYCC displaying the Temple of Time and the Toa's arrival, and a Vahi shaped cloud. That last one probably has nothing to do with anything, still weird though. What are your thought on this, DeeVee? I know about what you said earlier about the nature of Paxton's comment, but I'd like to know what you think about this/debunk it for us.

Also, little off-topic: My Vahi arrived today. Squashed in three places

I suddenly think I know where this is going... At the beginning of the first animated short or something, the Temple of Time activates, and then the Toa fall from the sky in their... um... whatever it is they arrive in. That's how the story will begin, but they'll never reference that again except in a mysterious way that leaves it a mystery... That might be Lego's way of keeping the story open to time travel connections but still treating it as a full hard reboot. Whatever the case, the Temple of Time has something to do with the Toa...

[InfurnallDragon]

I suddenly think I know where this is going... At the beginning of the first animated short or something, the Temple of Time activates, and then the Toa fall from the sky in their... um... whatever it is they arrive in. That's how the story will begin, but they'll never reference that again except in a mysterious way that leaves it a mystery... That might be Lego's way of keeping the story open to time travel connections but still treating it as a full hard reboot. Whatever the case, the Temple of Time has something to do with the Toa...

I already accepted this theory as headcanon when the Vahi theory was first mentioned. It does serve as a bridge while keeping the hard reboot feel for any newcomers.

I usually go to Jangbricks for reviews because he shows the entirety of the set. He shows the packaging, all the pieces sorted out to where we can see what we would want for MoCing, the finished form of the set, and then he provides his input of the sets. This provides a great way for the viewer of the review to judge the set for themselves.

was the first of his that I saw and it helped me pick my first CCBS set.

I did really like the text version of the Protector of Jungle review. The video review of him left me a little unimpressed at his design, but the pictures of him in all the different poses has made me reconsider.

Edited November 18, 2014 by InfurnallDragon

[Cagast]

For people who were asking for pictures of the first three I reviewed with their respective protector goodies.

The fire pictures aren't cooperating with me, but at this point It will be a while before I can get to retaking the photos due to weather/time issues

They look great together. I didn't thought they were that small when I first saw Protectors.

Edited November 18, 2014 by VBBN
No need to quote the images..

[Logan McOwen]

Onua's Powered Up mode is... Ehhhh...

[Mr. Gundam]

Thanks VBBN, These combiners look great.

I notice in the videos it seems you can keep the Protector model together just with less armor. This would be a nice placement for what avg. villagers look like

[Aanchir]

is the protector of jungle also protector of air ???

Well, its weapon is called the "Air Elemental Flame Bow". But we haven't gotten much in the way of story information for the Protectors — not even their genders.

I think they have merit as a supplement to a real review. But as the entire review, well, I'd rather not, and am only making them because Andrew insists and I'd like to keep getting preview sets to review and photograph. It's selfish but that's real life and I know it. It doesn't mean I'm not going to try my hardest to make them- this was my first one and several things went wrong with it after. I've got a new lighting setup and whatnot I'm going to try for the fire protector, and hopefully that helps.

I tried to approach my Tahu video review as a supplement to the review I spent much, much, much longer on, and it's a little frustrating to see reactions to nothing but the video. I know it's a bad video. I don't care for it either. I bought the camera the day before I made it. I felt super weird filming it. Talking to no one about the set just feels weird. But using the video as a supplement to point out the things that work better in video (like the gears, or the way Tahu's arms start to slide out when you use the gears too much, the mask function, etc) just got me a bunch of complaints about how I didn't build the set in the video or show off the parts. Of course I didn't- I did that in the written and photo review. As far as I was aware at the time, the three segments were meant to work with each other. Apparently this was wrong, and I'll do the PoFire review accordingly. But I'm still grumpy about it.

I think part of the reason the video review came under such scrutiny is just bad timing. The review got posted around the same time that BZPower went offline for maintenance, so at first a lot of people couldn't even access the main, text and photo review. Once that was accessible I no longer had any need to watch the video review, because as you say, you took some great photos and went into as much depth as anybody could possibly ask for.

Onua's Powered Up mode is... Ehhhh...

I actually think it's alright on an aesthetic level (I like it a lot better than Kopaka's, which involves awkwardly integrating the saw blade into his spear and completely ditching his shield/skis for some reason). But it is one of the least impressive in terms of its improvements on the original set, since all it adds is the Protector of Earth's shoulder armor and drill. Granted, there's no real way Onua could wield the Protector of Earth's blaster without dismembering his ally.

Gali's "Powered Up" mode is definitely still my favorite.

[TheDesuComplex]

Granted, there's no real way Onua could wield the Protector of Earth's blaster without dismembering his ally.

My original idea was that Onua, considering he's the strong one, would simply be able to pick up the Protector of Earth like a weapon. I'm probably gonna do that with mine because it sounds so silly and fun.

[The Kumquat Alchemist]

I've never been bothered by the quality of video reviews; only if we were given video reviews exclusively would I more harshly criticize. Where I look to text reviews for a close examination of an overall figure, its parts, and its build, a video review more clearly shows the reviewer's in-hand impressions of the figure, and better highlights any action features it might have. Though many of the BIO2015 reviews could be shortened, beyond that I found they served their purpose well, even if some are unprofessional in presentation.

On the topic of Powered Up modes, I prefer Kopaka's. Unless powering him up uses the pins which attach his skis to his feet, it seems absurd to criticize the lack of skis when they could still be easily attached. The use of the sawblade on a spear is indeed quite silly, but the sawblade looks neat, doubling as a smaller shield that hearkens back to 01' Kopaka.

I suppose I am not very critical of BIONICLE weapons, so long as they look cool. (Exploding boomerangs, anyone?)

Edited November 18, 2014 by The Kumquat Alchemist

[arc]

My original idea was that Onua, considering he's the strong one, would simply be able to pick up the Protector of Earth like a weapon. I'm probably gonna do that with mine because it sounds so silly and fun.

as ridiculous as that sounds, I kinda wanna do that.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

So like this?

Edited November 18, 2014 by Toa of Gallifrey

[Ventum]

I find it kind of a disappointment that the Protectors and Masters don't fuse more parts with one another. It's literally just the Masters holding the weapons of the Protectors, and nothing more. I'm sure Lego could have done more in that department, seems disappointing that they didn't. Oh well, to each their own. I must say though, Kopaka probably has the best fusion, and Tahu has the worst, of the 3 larger sets anyways.

[Agent Fusion]

Wait, shouldn't PoE have trans. purple studs?

[TheBrickPal]

Wait, shouldn't PoE have trans. purple studs?

It SHOULD, but it's possible that those weren't in the budget.

[Cagast]

I find it kind of a disappointment that the Protectors and Masters don't fuse more parts with one another. It's literally just the Masters holding the weapons of the Protectors, and nothing more. I'm sure Lego could have done more in that department, seems disappointing that they didn't. Oh well, to each their own. I must say though, Kopaka probably has the best fusion, and Tahu has the worst, of the 3 larger sets anyways.

I agree, but they probably wanted to make the Protectors and Masters look different.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Cagast

[Agent Fusion]

SHOULD, but it's possible that those weren't in the budget.

But they look trans. on the box...

[Aanchir]

I find it kind of a disappointment that the Protectors and Masters don't fuse more parts with one another. It's literally just the Masters holding the weapons of the Protectors, and nothing more. I'm sure Lego could have done more in that department, seems disappointing that they didn't. Oh well, to each their own. I must say though, Kopaka probably has the best fusion, and Tahu has the worst, of the 3 larger sets anyways.

The thing is, the "powered up" forms of the Toa are not supposed to be fusions. They literally just represent the Protectors granting the Toa some of their equipment for their quest. Now, I agree, they're not very elaborate or creative as far as combi models are concerned. I definitely hope that there are more complex combi models in store that involve more rebuilding. But for what these "powered up" models are supposed to represent, it would be ridiculous if they required you to completely disassemble both characters.

Kopaka's "Powered Up" form is my least favorite of all six. Despite involving more rebuilding the others, it just looks piecemeal with the saw blade randomly attached to his spear. And it almost seems like more of a downgrade than an upgrade, since his shield completely disappears. It seems to me like it would have made much more sense to attach the saw blade to his shield and attach the blaster to his spear.

My favorite of the "Powered Up" forms is definitely Gali's, which doesn't require her to discard much of her own equipment and combines her shark fins with the Protector of Water's elemental torpedo blaster to great effect.

But they look trans. on the box...

Not really. They look shiny, as with all the other parts, but they clearly don't resemble the transparent 1x1 round plates from the other boxes, which have more complex highlights and shadows since light passes through them instead of just reflecting off of them.

In the image of the blaster on the back of the box, the fact that the other protectors' studs are transparent and the Protector of Earth's studs are not is especially obvious.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Aanchir

[Agent Fusion]

Well, that's a shame. Still, that's just one con on an otherwise beautiful looking set.

[Shakar]

Onua's Powered Up mode is... Ehhhh...

His is my favourite actually, because his appearance is a bit altered at least. The others are just using their Protector counterparts' weapons. That said, I still think these are all pretty lazy (I can understand why they made them like this, doesn't mean I have to like it), I hope we get real combo models sooner or later.

Hey I'm not going to ever criticize the work done for me - for free. I do prefer pictures every time, but I'll watch a review of something I'm obsessed with.

Btw. My efforts at putting the gearbox on the back of a protector snagged. The prebuilt gear box forces you to use larger gears, and the custom gear boxes I found and modified severely limit chest shell placement. Let me know if someone has a even more compact solution :)

I wasn't criticizing video reviews done by websites for the sake of information (most of those made by BZP are actually pretty good, DV's just came out wrong because photos are where he and his professional equipment excel at), mainly those people do on YT for the sake of showing off (which aren't very useful). That said, I still think picture reviews are the best format for Lego.

Interesting. I can't wait to get my hands on the sets so I can try this out.