Bionicle 2015 Discussion

[Clone 01354 Productions]

It's not a printed disk, it's a molded disk. There's no way for it not to be the same. Skull Grinder does include the mystery mask; it's his face. (You seem to be implying something much more illogical: that the mask we've been shown this entire year won't be in ANY of this year's sets.) And, blurry as the images may be, I can say right now that none of them use Witch Doctor's face. Most (if not all) of them have their final faces, or at least close to them.

I'm not saying nothing will change, but I HIGHLY DOUBT any of these are in for any sort of significant overhaul.

1) It could be a placeholder disk.....

2) I was being sarcastic. Of course S. Grinder will have that mask; I was just making a point that the prelim doesn't show it.

3) Skull Scorpion's face is pretty close to Witch Doctor.

4) Go look up some other LEGO prelims. For example, 2012's Jabba's Palace. No new pieces were shown, no new colors: the entire image is made just to give an idea of what the set will look like. This is probably the same case.

Ha, no, you didn't read my post. Let's do some dissection on my post, shall we?

When did I ever say the prelims were finalized? Show me. Because what my post was actually implying was that the original prelims were very close to the final design. If I wanted my post to state that these designs wouldn't change, I would have written it so.

Okay.

[MakutaOfWar]

Thanks to arc and legozebra for providing pics!

My thoughts:

Skull Warrior: Love the bow and staff.

Skull Slicer: Four arms! And a mace with a gen 2 head?

Skull Basher: I thought he's be bulkier but we get a good look at the new add-on. And those horns are very creepy. XD

Skull Skorpio: A bit of "bleh" with potential.

Mask Maker vs Skull Grinder: Awesome. MoCR, Hammer, new mystery mask I believe and Grinder's awesome maniacal weapon. Side note: Skull Grinder does not have Lewa masks for knees, those are the new add-ons.

Overall Opinion: The new bones are neat but have barely any real potential and make me worry about the future use of these and Bionicle's budget calling for "half-made" sets. Which hopefully isn't the reason for these skeleton creatures(with the piece count made from small pieces like gears and pins.)

[GK733]

Well Im expecting for them to put a new mask on slicer. Some armor placement may change a little. (In prelimnary pics Gali's thigs were upside down). The new addon piece (also mistaken as Lewa's mask) will see a final version. The chest pieces get better printing.

Some minor color changes. Really the plastic looks cheap, but when it hasn't in prelimnary pics? These things are not even the CGI we will see in the boxes, just a quick photo of a model put together with old pieces and a 3d printer..

The hands towards masks certainly look interesting. It could actually be that the golden masks are included in the sets too. Which is downright cheap so I don't see it happening. It's for sure something they have stolen though.

[Grima]

1) It could be a placeholder disk.....

2) I was being sarcastic. Of course S. Grinder will have that mask; I was just making a point that the prelim doesn't show it.

3) Skull Scorpion's face is pretty close to Witch Doctor.

4) Go look up some other LEGO prelims. For example, 2012's Jabba's Palace. No new pieces were shown, no new colors: the entire image is made just to give an idea of what the set will look like. This is probably the same case.

1. Why does everyone say "it could be a placeholder" over any piece they possibly can? They said that about the Guurahk staff, and lo and behold, it was final. Considering this piece was likely chosen specifically for the design, I highly doubt it's a placeholder.
   
2. It does. It's on his face. Most people just aren't recognizing it because it's not at a head-on angle.
   
3. "close to"=/= same piece. Of course it looks close to it; they're both skull-like faces.
   
4. In the image I found, it was ridiculously close to the final product, with all the new pieces being filled in by white fillers in the same shape as the final piece. Also, it was a picture, not a render. These are renders, with a ton of new pieces represented in them, and one of them even has the final background in place. Everything points to these being about as close to final as the leaks we got of the winter wave. As I said, we're definitely not in for any kind of massive overhaul of any of these.
   

[mysteriouspi]

Oh, one more thing. Everyone's talking about BIONICLE's "low budget" (idk if this is true or not), but remember: they can't spend the whole budget on this year because they have 2016 and 2017 lines to develop as well. Might be why the sets appear so bare-bones. Might not be. It makes sense that they are, being skeletal and all.

[Jeordeon]

I wouldn't mind if the final Skull Slicer uses a Skull Spider mask, it would be nice to have that piece in white like an actual skull.

[Scarilian]

Some of the bone pieces are indeed kinda unuseful for experienced MOCing. But the the new longer ones... not sure about it but look at the white ones on Scorpio's tail... is that a pinhole?

The bones appear to be this, just with the normal attachments instead of the gears

Oh, one more thing. Everyone's talking about BIONICLE's "low budget" (idk if this is true or not), but remember: they can't spend the whole budget on this year because they have 2016 and 2017 lines to develop as well. Might be why the sets appear so bare-bones. Might not be. It makes sense that they are, being skeletal and all.

Normally the sets are budgetted annually. While the starting budget likely only allows for a few new pieces, the pieces they made speak volumes about what to expect in the future.

- Armour becomes more detailed though the general build remains simplistic

- Gearbox introduced, will likely remain in future sets

- Transparent pieces likely becomming more of a thing

- A set such as Skull Scorpio or LoSS in each wave to determine whether fans desire non-humanoid sets

- Etc...

In addition if they wanted to have the sets look more covered then they would do so, they intentionally made the new bone pieces with the idea of being thin and skeletal without armour, as they want to show off the 'bones'. Essentially to give the sets a 'Skeleton warrior' sort of appearance

Edited January 24, 2015 by Scarilian

[CabooseBM]

Oh hey, are those black friction adders?

[dviddy]

Love the black friction extenders. Finally!

Not sure why people think the bones with no attachments are bad for MOCing, as long as the other style sticks around too, these will be a valuable part of a MOCing arsenal. I can think of several MOCs I already want to switch the old bones out for the new ones on.

[CabooseBM]

Agreed with Deevee, those new bones will work great for extra-skinny limbs, especially matching the show's animation style. Shame they won't come in lime because they'd be perfect for my Lewa: Rebuild.

[Dorek]

1. Why does everyone say "it could be a placeholder" over any piece they possibly can? They said that about the Guurahk staff, and lo and behold, it was final. Considering this piece was likely chosen specifically for the design, I highly doubt it's a placeholder.
   

Just a note on this, people said that it might be placeholder because the were surprised to see an old BIONICLE piece that hasn't been in use for five years. I'm sure there are other examples of people claiming preliminary for no reason, but there was enough strangeness about the Guurahk staff being included to give pause. To date I still don't understand why they chose that piece to just include a few random times, but obviously they did.

[Mesonak]

Not sure why people think the bones with no attachments are bad for MOCing, as long as the other style sticks around too, these will be a valuable part of a MOCing arsenal. I can think of several MOCs I already want to switch the old bones out for the new ones on.

Agreed; a part is only as useful as the MoCist allows it to be. I'm excited to get some of these new pieces as well.

On the topic of prototype sets and their differences, anybody who believes these sets will change drastically from their preliminary stages is probably kidding themselves; we rarely get leaks from incredibly early development cycles. What will change is how the sets are seen; obviously these aren't their best angles, and the prototype box imagery doesn't do anything for their appearance. I'm sure they'll all look fine when we see them at Toy Fair.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Mesonak

[Nekchir]

Agreed; a part is only as useful as the MoCist allows it to be. I'm excited to get some of these new pieces as well.

On the topic of prototype sets and their differences, anybody who believes these sets will change drastically from their preliminary stages is probably kidding themselves; we rarely get leaks from incredibly early development cycles. What will change is how the sets are seen; obviously these aren't their best angles, and the prototype box imagery doesn't do anything for their appearance. I'm sure they'll all look fine when we see them at Toy Fair.

I just hope they at least add another point of articulation to Skull Scorpio's legs for display purposes.

[Bigger Fish]

Here's my thoughts on the summer sets.

Skull warrior: Quite alright, I like the gatling gun bone bow.

Skull slicer: Also pretty neat, the orange/red hook looks cool.

Skull basher: Looks like a purple cow skull.

Skull scorpio: That tail looks really weird.

Mask maker vs. Skull Grinder: I really like this set. It looks really neato burrito.

Also, it seems that there is a new three ball joint bone that attaches to the body, nice to see a new torso build.

All in all, They all look good and appropriately skeletal enough, if a bit strange.

All in all, I rate it a 2spooky/10 doot doot still missing Skull trumpet.

I guess you could say they look a bit... BARE BONES! (YEEEEEEAAAAHHHH!)

Lastly, here's the official battle anthem for the summer sets that also got leaked.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Bigger Fish

[Clone 01354 Productions]

Lastly, here's the official battle anthem for the summer sets that also got leaked.

I also heard that the Skull Gang is going to march into the Ancient City with

to steal the MOCR!

1. Why does everyone say "it could be a placeholder" over any piece they possibly can? They said that about the Guurahk staff, and lo and behold, it was final. Considering this piece was likely chosen specifically for the design, I highly doubt it's a placeholder.
   
2. It does. It's on his face. Most people just aren't recognizing it because it's not at a head-on angle.
   
3. "close to"=/= same piece. Of course it looks close to it; they're both skull-like faces.
   
4. In the image I found, it was ridiculously close to the final product, with all the new pieces being filled in by white fillers in the same shape as the final piece. Also, it was a picture, not a render. These are renders, with a ton of new pieces represented in them, and one of them even has the final background in place. Everything points to these being about as close to final as the leaks we got of the winter wave. As I said, we're definitely not in for any kind of massive overhaul of any of these.
   

1) The Ignika on the package was a placeholder, and some of Onua's pieces were placeholders. Same with some of the Protectors. And also....S. Grinder has a green eyepiece in the prelim. Placeholder.....

2) EDIT: Nevermind, Darth Vader corrected me.

3) Okay, they're not the same.

4) Right, like the holographic, digitally-represented Salacious Crumb (the monkey-type alien in the bottom right corner). Or Oola (green alien) built from pre-existing pieces. Here, check out this one: http://www.hothbrick...500-600x452.jpg. The Sith Troopers use knight helmets, the cockpit is a pre-existing one, and the Sith character has NONE of the new parts he featured.

All I'm trying to say is that they have a chance of changing. Some prelims change, some don't. I just happen to think that these will change.

Edited January 24, 2015 by LN-01354

[dviddy]

Sorry, the big guy in the Ekimu set is definitely wearing the mystery mask from the magazine. It is just a different angle.

[Clone 01354 Productions]

Sorry, the big guy in the Ekimu set is definitely wearing the mystery mask from the magazine. It is just a different angle.

Well, if you say so.....You're usually right anyway.

[Nekchir]

Well, if you say so.....You're usually right anyway.

Praise the lord DeeVee, for he is the the leak guru.

[Grima]

1) The Ignika on the package was a placeholder, and some of Onua's pieces were placeholders. Same with some of the Protectors. And also....S. Grinder has a green eyepiece in the prelim. Placeholder.....

2) It looks nothing like the mask. What they show in the image has a sharp jaw, and looks like the mouth is open. Placeholder.....

3) Okay, they're not the same.

4) Right, like the holographic, digitally-represented Salacious Crumb (the monkey-type alien in the bottom right corner). Or Oola (green alien) built from pre-existing pieces. Here, check out this one: http://www.hothbrick...500-600x452.jpg. The Sith Troopers use knight helmets, the cockpit is a pre-existing one, and the Sith character has NONE of the new parts he featured.

All I'm trying to say is that they have a chance of changing. Some prelims change, some don't. I just happen to think that these will change.

1. The Ignika was a logo placeholder. That is nothing like a piece placeholder. They did not have a finalized logo, or possibly even finalized MoCr. That did not impact any of the sets themselves. Onua had no placeholder pieces besides the Skull Spider legs,and neither did any of the Protectors besides their flame pieces and masks being single-colored instead of gradients. And how do you know the eye color is a placeholder? Like Vizinni, you keep using that word, and like Inigo, I really don't think it means what you think it means.
   
2. I am 100% sure it's the same mask. The sharp jaw isn't obvious in the magazine image because it's a head-on view, and the mouth looks open because it's got a bunch of slits in it, which aren't obvious in the magazine image because it's so silhouetted. It's not a placeholder.
   

There is nothing in these preliminary pictures that makes me think any of this is far enough removed from the final product to change drastically. At most, we might see some face tweaks and stickers/printing. (Right now, some of the chest prints almost look like LOSS's face, which, if that is the case, actually would be a placeholder.)

Edited January 24, 2015 by Grima

[GK733]

Teehee, the mask actually is a placeholder. It's not even black, of course it's the same mask. It's one of these things they print out to test the design. Final version will be made from better material and will be black. It would be nift if all of the skullguys didn't have red eyes. But I guess the teaser speaks for itself that the phosp green one on grinder is just a placeholder for red.

[TheRedGuy]

I'm pretty sure they'll look much better in real life. Surely someone that went to the Toy Fair would have complained about the sets if they looked like how they look in the pictures.

[Mr. Gundam]

THESE ARE PRELIMINARY

Thank you, everyone

these are coming out in August. Can we stop getting mad at betas please. We're getting two-tone NEW chest pieces, the sword and axe molds looked great, they are keeping gearboxes, and gold protector masks.

[Grima]

Teehee, the mask actually is a placeholder. It's not even black, of course it's the same mask. It's one of these things they print out to test the design. Final version will be made from better material and will be black. It would be nift if all of the skullguys didn't have red eyes. But I guess the teaser speaks for itself that the phosp green one on grinder is just a placeholder for red.

First with the Mask of Ultimate Power, now with this one? Why is everyone convinced a silhouetted mask means the mask is black?

I'm pretty sure they'll look much better in real life. Surely someone that went to the Toy Fair would have complained about the sets if they looked like how they look in the pictures.

I wouldn't be too sure; all the sources I've seen from Toy Fair seemed like people who ranged from indifferent to downright dismissive towards constraction.

[Nekchir]

I'm pretty sure they'll look much better in real life. Surely someone that went to the Toy Fair would have complained about the sets if they looked like how they look in the pictures.

Yeah, someone mentioned that that they looked 'really cool'-- I think said person was a AFOL. (Did I use that right? A person who's a fan of Lego products but not contraction?) Edited January 24, 2015 by MonkeyChud

[Clone 01354 Productions]

THESE ARE PRELIMINARY

Thank you, everyone

these are coming out in August. Can we stop getting mad at betas please. We're getting two-tone NEW chest pieces, the sword and axe molds looked great, they are keeping gearboxes, and gold protector masks.

Really. I'm tired of fighting about something like this, since we cannot prove anything now. Any of us could make an argument to go in our favor, someone else can oppose us....I'll just lay low, and wait until the dust settles.

BIONICLE fans, arguing about whether or not BIONICLE sets are good anymore. Feels a lot like '08 now......