Bionicle 2016 Sets Discussion

[DuckBricks]

Doesn't really tell anything new like I would had expected.

"Also, because the pieces were quite detailed they were prone to breaking"

I've got many, many broken pieces and I can easily say that this was not because of the details, but the connection being faulty/worn out.

Yeah, as I mentioned, I definitely don't agree with several points but it provides some discussion besides the doom and gloom Bionicle is ending talk that's been filling this topic...

Edited April 6, 2016 by legozebra

[Lyichir]

You know, I just realized, we only got one new weapon piece for the entire year.

Hm... maybe. The shadow trap piece arguably qualifies as a weapon, though, particularly the way it's used on some of the Beasts. And this year includes a lot more weapon recolors than last year, in which the Toa's axe and sword parts were the only weapons available in more than one color and were themselves only available in two colors each (the crystal blade piece, by contrast, comes in six colors across all of this year's sets). In fact, if I wanted more weapon variety this year I'd almost prefer to have more of those weapons from last year, many of which were nice and versatile and are sufficiently different from the crystal blade to avoid being superfluous.

Also, we've gotten a nice stable of useful structural and functional elements, including the new torsos, the gears from the Creatures, and the Unity Piece (and even more if you branch out to parts introduced in Star Wars like the torsos and back covers, the former of which will also be appearing in the summer Bionicle sets). Ultimately I prefer those sorts of parts to things like weapons which are often bulky and hard to use, while doing less to actually expand building possibilities.

[Takanuinuva]

(the crystal blade piece, by contrast, comes in six colors across all of this year's sets).

Six? I'm pretty sure the Crystal Blade piece only comes in 4 colors- Lime, Orange, Medium Azure and Bright Green. Lava Beast has a new recolor except the hilt is black.

Unless your talking about the crystal add on.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Takanuinuva

[TwistLaw]

But weapons are great to give a character identity and in general to make the set more appealing. That's something the Nuva and above all the Mata did excellently (the prototype names for the Toa Mata were actually the signature weapon they had, that is Lewa was going to be called Axe, Pohatu Kick and so on). After the Toa Nuva sadly BIONICLE didn't manage anymore to give the same strong identity to each weapon, relying on clone tools (Inika swords, zamor launcher etc), with the only true exception with the Bara Magna characters.

That is, until last year. BIONICLE 2015 did an amazing job in giving each Toa a (almost) exclusive weapon, and when shared they were used in clever ways. Even the protectors had different builds for their shooters. All of this, along with unique builds, managed to give to the good guys a different feel from each other. That came at a cost in LEGO's new policies towards constraction: introducing few new pieces that could help setting apart BIONICLE aesthetics from those of Hero Factory.

This year did the exact opposite: many new pieces that created a true BIONICLE 2.0 feel, but literally one new weapon (the Shadow Traps work much better as traps and armour, imho).

So, what's better, new weapons or new pieces in other areas? Hard to say. I actually dislike the new torso armour because leaves the back much more empty, but from the front looks pretty nice -except in silver, ugh- and I'm ok with the pistons. The crystal piece is ok, but the PoU is GORGEOUS. The new sword is trash for me, sorry, especially when compared to last year's weapons.

I'd say I like new weapons over pieces, at the end of the day. That way it's harder to furk things up (if I read one more time complaints about the overdesigned torso...) and you can actually give your characters... some character.

[MrHerofan]

To me weapons are weapons. In a fictional universe it is nice for characters to have unique weapons, but what really makes them memorable are the way they look. If you think back to someone like Gresh, his shield, air blade things were cool, but you'd more than likely remember his mask, and the way he looked. Think of characters like Daredevil or Punisher, you don't remember their weapons as much as they look. So to me pieces for the build, and look of a wave of sets should take priority to weapons.

So as I was seeing Google search trends on google.com/trends, seeing the comparison of Bionicle to Ninjago to Hero factory blew me away. The highest point of G2 is not close to the highest point of HF. Ninjago just triumphs over both of the themes. While it is tiresome seeing all of the doom and gloom posts about Bionicle's future and this is contributing to the problem, it is something to look at. G2 just is not doing that well right now, even with a Netflix show and such. Guess we just have to see what we get and then move on to the next thing.

Edited April 7, 2016 by MrHerofan

[Shakar]

While I value character's looks more, I think weapons are important too, because they're tied to the character's fighting style and in a way to their personalities/beliefs/powers. Would you ever give a sword to Pohatu or an hammer to Gali? Or a katana to Onua? Or a spinning blade shiled to Tah- wait, nevermind. You could also imagine Gimli with a bow, or Legolas with an axe. It all feels wrong, because weapons are part of the character too.

At least, the Uniters kept weapons suited to their characters. But the crysyal blade creates a sense of uniformity that IMO detracts from the sets/characters, no matter how much it can be justified in-story (Ekimu's box of crystal stuff, etc).

EDIT: Been a while since I posted here. Meanwhile, I got Pohatu, and I quite like him. Love the new mask and the mace/spear. I feel like I should post some of my revamped Toa, but I'm still behind with my purchases, and I stole Gali's torso to give it to Onua.

Edited April 7, 2016 by Shakar

[Kalhiki]

Speaking of weapons, am I the only one who'd love to see the Toa with their G1 weapons again? Did a good job in 2015, but I just want to see Gali with hooks one more time. I always thought those were a weird choice for weapons, but I grew quite fond of them.

[Junior Shark]

Speaking of weapons, am I the only one who'd love to see the Toa with their G1 weapons again? Did a good job in 2015, but I just want to see Gali with hooks one more time. I always thought those were a weird choice for weapons, but I grew quite fond of them.

There's a lot of G1 stuff I'd like to see make a comeback. Gali's hooks are at the top of my list.

[toatyger]

Mask packs would be at the top of my list.

[TheOneVeyronian]

So I've got a question about the 2016 Accessory Pack. Whilst making some semi-large Bionicle related orders, I noticed a couple of Russian sellers on Bricklink selling a few of the Accessory Pack (though the prices of them are quite something else... I'm not sure I want to spend £20 on it ). My question is: does anybody know how they may have got this polybag? And if there's any chance that this isn't just another Russia-exclusive polybag that will only be sold in Russia and will be nearly impossible for me to get? (looking at you HF villain polybag from 2014...)

I was semi-hoping that the Hungarian seller that supplied my Bionicle Villain Pack might have been able to get the accessory pack, but seems that's not the case yet.

[MakutaOfWar]

And here I am still waiting for that gold skull mask...

[Kalhiki]

I gots me a Lewa in the mail today.

And I gotta say, he's probably my favorite out of the 2016 Toa I have (Tahu, Kopaka, and Pohatu + their Creatures). The legs are a lot better in person. Knobbly knees don't look to bad. Overall, he's pretty cool.

But those gosh dang arms, man. Way too awkwardly short. That plus the weird shoulder setup just... No. And the weapons aren't that spectacular, either. So that's the only downside.

Unity Mode is also pretty snazzy, and probably my favorite out of them all. I mean, sure. It's pretty similar to Tahu's, but I just feel like Lewa's does more. Maybe I just like the green wings. Looks very... Energy-filled. Though Lewa's weapons always seem to have a habit of banging into them (another knock against the weapons, in my book).

So yeah, I'd recommend. Don't know if I'll spring on the others... Even though I'm already 2/3 of the way through the collection...

[xboxtravis7992]

All I have so far for 2016 is Umarak and Ikir. I hope to get Tahu, Kopaka, Gali, and Akida eventually and maybe Ekimu or one of the Beasts in summer; but I really don't find myself as attracted to this year as much as I was to 2015's sets. I think part of that is the fact Star Wars and Marvel Superheros are offering far more interesting sets IMO right now; plus I want money to find a way to get that GIANT Technic Mine Drill set in the summer (I'm not much of a traditional Technic fan, but that thing is so huge it looks like Minifig scale!). Also I have to pay for college, so knowing I will lose between $1500-$3000 per semester kind of dampens the desire to "buy all them Bionicles" although admittedly Tahu would be a lot cheaper than that Technic set I mentioned

[MrHerofan]

I don't have any sets, with life in general and then the recent negativity that has been surrounding the community recently has made me lose some interest. I want to get the sets, but my interest has certainly decreased. Perhaps taking some time away from the community for a while could be a good thing. That way I at least get some joy from thinking about Bionicle not just negativity.

[Darking]

It's funny because we're already in April and none of the new sets are in stores yet, here in Spain. Every other theme is, however, so this leads me to believe that Bionicle 2015 didn't sell very well in my country...

[TwistLaw]

I don't have any sets, with life in general and then the recent negativity that has been surrounding the community recently has made me lose some interest. I want to get the sets, but my interest has certainly decreased. Perhaps taking some time away from the community for a while could be a good thing. That way I at least get some joy from thinking about Bionicle not just negativity.

Wow. It's very... peculiar losing interest in something because of what people say on the internet. But if you're that kind of person leaving the forum may be a good option to have your passion back.

In other news Italy, a country far from being LEGO's #1 market, had the sets since early january even in my small town. Maybe in Spain the line sold even worse?

[MrHerofan]

With the recent negativity about how Bionicle is doing, the Netflix show, and how 2017 will be, there is no fun in coming onto the Bionicle forums. While yes the series has problems this whole "doom and gloom" feeling from the community just is not fun. It's one thing to have a small discussion about how the line is doing and facing its reality. Then it is another thing to go in and continuously be n"doom and gloom" about a toy line.Its pretty much beating a dead horse at this point, that will be beaten even further this summer and the coming months to follow.

[GK733]

With the recent negativity about how Bionicle is doing, the Netflix show, and how 2017 will be, there is no fun in coming onto the Bionicle forums. While yes the series has problems this whole "doom and gloom" feeling from the community just is not fun. It's one thing to have a small discussion about how the line is doing and facing its reality. Then it is another thing to go in and continuously be n"doom and gloom" about a toy line.Its pretty much beating a dead horse at this point, that will be beaten even further this summer and the coming months to follow.

Do what suits you best.

Nevertheless it's important to address the state of the line. Sometimes the discussion goes a bit too far, I do understand that.

[xboxtravis7992]

With the recent negativity about how Bionicle is doing, the Netflix show, and how 2017 will be, there is no fun in coming onto the Bionicle forums. While yes the series has problems this whole "doom and gloom" feeling from the community just is not fun. It's one thing to have a small discussion about how the line is doing and facing its reality. Then it is another thing to go in and continuously be n"doom and gloom" about a toy line.Its pretty much beating a dead horse at this point, that will be beaten even further this summer and the coming months to follow.

I totally understand that point of view. When I was 13 I stopped buying G1 Bionicle in part because of witnessing the "doomand gloom" and flame wars that were on BZpower at the time. I came back to the line in 2015 with a surge of nostalgia, unlike a lot of you I was out of the loop on Lego news so I had no idea Bionicle was back, until I entered a Lego Store a few days after returning from South America. It caught me by complete surprise!

But I will admit a part of my tepid response to the 2016 sets is 1) I honestly disliked Journey to One. 2) The negativy of the fan community is dragging me down. Sure I am a bit thicker skinned then I was back as a 13 year old, but my feelings about constant arguments and doom are the same. It's anoying. I've interacted with several communities here on Eurobricks, and also on Facebook; and the Bionicle fans are admittedly often the most ill-mannered and naysayers of the bunch, especially when compared to other Lego fans. The only other community I have seen act as bad is serious video game fans.

So yeah, I guess am asking that we tone down the heat a bit. I think it is okay to discuss the "state of the line" to an extent, as I said I was disappointed in Journey to One and I openly mention it again and again. But this attitude of "its the end of the world!" needs to stop.

Edited April 8, 2016 by xboxtravis7992

[Junior Shark]

Whether Bionicle lives or dies as a product, it will always live on in our hearts, the only place that matters.

[TwistLaw]

Whether Bionicle lives or dies as a product, it will always live on in our hearts, the only place that matters.

This.

I don't really care if 2017 is the last year ever for BIONICLE and the line was LEGO's biggest failure zOmG!!1!, we had at least two extra years with great sets and an acceptable story, and tons of pieces with whom we can MOC even more characters. So yeah, the whole community may go full Evangelion over the matter, but I have tastes strong enough not to be influenced by words of people I don't even know.

(sorry if I sound harsh myself, but I'm triggered by these kind of statements)

Besides, MrHeroFan, we were talking about weapons and all of sudden you mention Google Trend data showing little interest for BIONICLE. Don't be that guy, please.

[Junior Shark]

Besides, MrHeroFan, we were talking about weapons and all of sudden you mention Google Trend data showing little interest for BIONICLE. Don't be that guy, please.

Ironic that he complains about negativity- we were having a nice discussion in here when he complains about negativity, igniting the flame.

And here I am still waiting for that gold skull mask...

Was a gold skull mask ever officially released? Edit: Yes, there was. Holy cannoli it looks awesome!

Edited April 8, 2016 by Junior Shark

[MrHerofan]

Yes my interests are waning largely in part due to the amount of negativity in the community recently. It needs to die down and yes it was ironic that I contributed further into the problem, I even mentioned it in the post. This whole doom and gloom feel of Bionicle has really effected the enjoyment of the line in general. Now people like Twistlaw can say that I am weak for having my opinions influenced, but when the a huge chunk of the community is "doom and gloom" its hard to not get affected a bit.

I know that this is really ironic as I am contributing even further to the problem, so hopefully from here on the community won't be so damn "doom and gloom".

[Junior Shark]

"Be the change you want to see in the world"- erroneously attributed to Gandhi, but true. And very applicable here.

[CabooseBM]

As much as I have actively detested most of the sets released this year, I don't have any desire to see Bionicle do poorly. I want it to be successful and plentiful and to end with an improved CCBS and a path paved for the next Constraction line.

I do hope the set designers figure out what went horribly wrong this year and course correct.