Best Line of All Time

[Keyblade Wielder]

What I mean is: What was the best Line of sets? (Such as Toa Inika, Bohrok, etc.)

I'd say the Inika. A flood of new parts, good bodies, etc. If they had tops for their Zamor Launchers, real heads, real masks, and if Kongu had more of a color scheme, they'd be perfect.

You?

-KW-

[Zaktan of the Shadows]

Bionicle's never have real masks. ;-)

I'd say the Phantoka... cause they're just so badass.

-ZotS

[LordGalewind]

What I mean is: What was the best Line of sets? (Such as Toa Inika, Bohrok, etc.)

I'd say the Inika. A flood of new parts, good bodies, etc. If they had tops for their Zamor Launchers, real heads, real masks, and if Kongu had more of a color scheme, they'd be perfect.

Uhhh..........Inika? Hell no...no true masks, first to have no gears, crappy zamor launchers, there...body design. Personally the Toa Mata will always be the best no matter what, their greatness speaks for itself, nuff said.

[InnerRayg]

The Barraki and Mahri will always win in terms of pure originality amongst canister sets. They had the distinct advantage of not being forced to be "like it or hate it" choices like clone sets, because even if one was absolutely terrible, there was always at least one that you could really enjoy and you thought was awesome.

[JINZONINGEN73]

Whoof. This is a tall question. I liked the electronics and complex builds of the 2001 Rahi, the great ground-floor potential of the 2001 Toa, the McDonalds premiums that actually had cool parts to use of 2001... but there's a superiority too in the later guys that had moving knees and elbows. As was said, having different body types amongst the Barraki and Mahri was most welcome.

Wait, 2001 had mask packs too.

Ok, 2001. *wub*

I'm thinking the next time I'll truly "love" a Bionicle line is when everybody's masks are available in an assload of different colors WITHOUT having to buy expensive sets just to get 1 exclusive color. Hell with that!

When people have coloring choices, it makes them WANT to moc. (buy more sets)

[BrotherDog]

I'd have to agree with the Barraki: light emphassis on the annoying launchers, no cloning, awesome design ( even the red one was worth getting), awesome Glow-in-the-dark parts.

But the Mahri sucked on so many levels: eye killingly bright red ammo and button, nothing aquatic about their look for an aquatic setting, there should been way more pearlescent colors and Transluscent parts. The only positve was the non-cloning issue. If Matoro is supposed to be male, why'd he have womanly hips, and such small feet?

The Phantoka are almost as awesome as the Barraki.

[hewkii9]

Oh definitely the Metru. Sure they were rather cloney, but they had a great design [don't say the legs are standard and dull, because they were the first of their kind], gear functions, and overall awesomeness. Plus, they had almost no focus on launchers. Only Vakama had one.

Or if not them, the Voyatoran. Super original and great parts.

[Lord Thrawn]

I'd go for Metru. They were great.

[jifel]

the metru. the only sets with both elbow/knee and gears, pluspacks for kanokas andnew heads plus a lot of new pieces. new feet, legs, knee guards, upper legs, leg thingy(connects legs to eachother) and new arms, shoulder pads, torsos, chestguards, masks, heads, eyepieces, and weapons. the only problem was arm poseability. oh yeah, and new colors! *wub*

jifel

[Dino_Bot]

The Toa Nuva and the Bohrok.

They were simply lovely.

Then, I'd go for the Inika. I know they have no masks or even heads, but that's my only complaint against them. I just love them.

I thought the Hordika blew.

I thought the Metru were cool, but the arm thing angered me.

I simply skipped the Mahri. No. Wait. I'm waiting for their price to be cut in half.

I have the 3 new Toa + Ignika. I think they bloody rule, but w/o the so called "Mistika", My set feels incomplete.

I don't know what's with all the hate against the Inika...They fixed all articulation problems.

[Zarkan]

The Barraki and Mahri will always win in terms of pure originality amongst canister sets. They had the distinct advantage of not being forced to be "like it or hate it" choices like clone sets, because even if one was absolutely terrible, there was always at least one that you could really enjoy and you thought was awesome.

Summed up my thoughts pretty well. The differences in the Toa Mata were nothing compared to the uniqueness of each Barraki and Mahri when compared to each other. Plus, they had a ton of awesome parts, some cool faces and masks, and in the case of the Barraki, the coolest canisters since the original 2001 containers! *wub*

The only real cons I saw in the Barraki and the Mahri as a whole were the awful launchers and plastic half shells that were the Mahri containers. Individually, I hated Pridak's awful design, disliked the Banana peel color on Carapar, and hated Hewkii's new mask. But, they still were awesome. *sweet*

[Ecto]

Hell, 2001 will always be the best.

[Pate-keetongu]

Toa mata are classic, bohrok-kal are very cool, barraki are very nice. but best are MCtorans!!!

[Visorak-kal]

While there is really no BIONICLE set I have that I don't like, my favorite lines of all time would have to be the 2007 and Winter 2008 lines. Although many like the Metru for having gears and so making the more complex, I still didn't find their builds very complex and I will always prefer Titans to canisters.

As many have already said, 2007 had non-clone, very complex Barraki that, for the most part, were more custom than even the Toa Mata. Ehlek, Takadox, Mantax and Pridak were all custom-built and used no giant single body piece. Even Kalmah and Carapar still had unique designs, Kalmah moreso than Carapar.

The Toa Mahri, while they had some aspects I am not crazy about, were overall a very unique and diverse team of Toa. A lot of people on BZP didn't like the backwards Piraka bodies, but I thought that one some Mahri it worked well. For example, Hahli looked perfect with her backwards body, I have never seen Toa of Water as being too heavily armored. And Hewkii made up for his unarmored body with plenty of armor elsewhere.

And what the Toa Mahri lacked, the Phantoka Toa Nuva made up for. Although Kopaka and Lewa share the same Inika-frame and Inika-armor as previous years, they make up for it by looking like the Inika should have. They have superb masks, they are well-armored without seeming too thin, and they have their own unique legs, feet, and arms. Also, Pohatu adds some differentiation to the group, looking still like his original form barring the color change. In addition, the Phantoka Makuta are some of the best I've seen in teh last few years. Toa Ignika is also great, with an amazing technic board.

So, BIONICLE has really gone in a great style over the last two years; I have yet to see the remainder of 2008, and I hope that the Titans will live up to the great 2007 Titans such as Karzahni, Maxilos, and Gadunka. So far the Takanuva preliminary looks like he will. Not to say that the technic-style Bahrag and Rahi weren't great; they are also great sets. But I think BIONICLE is heading more and more towards the best of both worlds. 2001-2003 were clearly too technic-oriented for the target audience, and I found 2006 to be shying away from complexity far too much. 2007 and 2008 are bringing back complexity amongst the Titans, while also retaining plenty of poseability and simplicity to please the bulk of the consumers.

Hell, 2001 will always be the best.

Care to give a reason why?

And pig, why do you like the McToran the best? As far as I see, the have the least poseability of any set that isn't a vehicle.

VK

Edited January 24, 2008 by Visorak-kal

[Ecto]

Much of it has been stated, but okay....

The Mata were not clones but still managed to have a uniform look to them. They all had weapons that were able to be used in a multitude of ways--not all spiky silver swords taller than themselves.

The Rahi were creative and fun as hell--they all had innovations unique to them. Now all of the "MoCists" today build Toa Mods and the kids over at BZP lap them up.

The McToran had great peices and personality, whereas the Matoran of today are all clearly warriors that all fall into the same mold.

The Turaga were great unique builds and were obviusly frail old men--Dume was a Matoran with fatter limbs.

The mask packs were MoCing stimulants, and as Jinzo said, they make people want to buy more.

Now we have the SWAT Team and airplanes. Whoop-de-megablockin'-doo.

[TheFrisian]

I just love Rahi *wub* By far the best opponents the Toa ever had. As characters the Toa Mata are unsurpassed, although I prefer the more poseable design of the Toa Metru.

[Keyblade Wielder]

I don't get why everyone likes the Mata. They're shitty.

The legs were skinny, arms were different, and most of them didn't have movable hands.

And Pohatu.. yuck.

The Metru..bleh. Not enough Armor.

Hordika were pretty good, except for them being clones.

Inika OWNED. Great design, armor, etc. Hell, at least they had unique heads and masks! And a shitload of new parts!

Mahri..bleh. Not enough new parts.Good masks, Cordak Blasters=win, etc.

Phantnuva..Good. The Midak Skyblasters= Epic Win.

And Gears? Gears sucked. I'm glad they dissapeared when the Visorak were released.

[dviddy]

Hordika were pretty good, except for them being clones.

Inika OWNED. Great design, armor, etc. Hell, at least they had unique heads and masks! And a shitload of new parts!

Mahri..bleh. Not enough new parts.Good masks, Cordak Blasters=win, etc.

Phantnuva..Good. The Midak Skyblasters= Epic Win.

And Gears? Gears sucked. I'm glad they dissapeared when the Visorak were released.

It was at the Hordika comment that I stopped reading.

Then I started again, and regretted it.

This is why we have crappy launchers, and the Inika had rubber masks.

What do they teach you kids in schools these days?

Big weapons equal big fun?

Engineering is hard, so stay away from simple gear-box constructions?

I just don't get it. What makes gears 'too hard'? Has our society fallen so far that when we say we want a 'quick build', on a LEGO set, of all things, it has to be under four minutes? Because Heaven forbid the gears take an extra thirty seconds? So now we've sacrificed engineering for launchers, because this is 'more playable'.

I blame the educational system.

<<DV>>

[KMOI]

Whoof. This is a tall question. I liked the electronics and complex builds of the 2001 Rahi, the great ground-floor potential of the 2001 Toa, the McDonalds premiums that actually had cool parts to use of 2001... but there's a superiority too in the later guys that had moving knees and elbows. As was said, having different body types amongst the Barraki and Mahri was most welcome.

Wait, 2001 had mask packs too.

Ok, 2001. *wub*

I'm thinking the next time I'll truly "love" a Bionicle line is when everybody's masks are available in an assload of different colors WITHOUT having to buy expensive sets just to get 1 exclusive color. Hell with that!

When people have coloring choices, it makes them WANT to moc. (buy more sets)

I couldn't have said it any better myself. Though I find the Mahri to be somewhat bland in terms of body type (they all looked like they were on steriods), I totally agree about the Barraki. But still, as others have said, 2001 remains to be the strongest showing, thanks to the subtle (and often unappreciated) differences as well as a diverse line of box sets (the fact that they weren't all a bunch of Toa with more pieces) of the likes that will never be seen on the face of the planet again.

And I agree with Darth Vader. Also, why do you need to feel to use the word "shitty"? Do we really have to resort to immature, derogatory comments to explain that you simply dislike it? Quite frankly, I disagree with everything you said, but you didn't see me going around calling Cordak and Midak's shitty now, do you?

[hewkii9]

I don't get why everyone likes the Mata. They're shitty.

The legs were skinny, arms were different, and most of them didn't have movable hands.

And Pohatu.. yuck.

The Metru..bleh. Not enough Armor.

Hordika were pretty good, except for them being clones.

Inika OWNED. Great design, armor, etc. Hell, at least they had unique heads and masks! And a shitload of new parts!

Mahri..bleh. Not enough new parts.Good masks, Cordak Blasters=win, etc.

Phantnuva..Good. The Midak Skyblasters= Epic Win.

And Gears? Gears sucked. I'm glad they dissapeared when the Visorak were released.

Great design on the Inika? I will admit, the parts themselves looked very nice. But how they were put together, being bone-thin stick figures with odd proportions and overlarge weapons aren't good design. And have you ever tried shooting the Cordak? Or look at it this way- You are Hewkii Mahri, with upper arms the width of your mouth, and one forearm is almost as long as your legs, and the other one almost the same length but as thick as your Hey Arnold-ish head. First imagine what people will think of you, then imagine carrying a faulty cannon the width of and thicker than your torso in one hand. And, since there's no gearbox, imagine how ridiculously thin you will look in profile, about half as thick as your faulty gun. And you have live rockets strapped to your shoulders.

Thank any higher being of your choice that you didn't call Pohatu shitty, but just yuck. But still....

Blasphemy!

Edited January 28, 2008 by hewkii9

[:Venomess:]

Bohrok. Clones they may be, but clones means parts in six different colors. And they have functions, unlike nearly anything 2006-onward. Roll 'em up into a ball, poke someone's eye out with them, send Krana flying behind the couch.

They were fun. Something that recent sets lack.

~D

[Zaktan of the Shadows]

I don't get why everyone likes the Mata. They're shitty.

The legs were skinny, arms were different, and most of them didn't have movable hands.

And Pohatu.. yuck.

The Metru..bleh. Not enough Armor.

Hordika were pretty good, except for them being clones.

Inika OWNED. Great design, armor, etc. Hell, at least they had unique heads and masks! And a shitload of new parts!

Mahri..bleh. Not enough new parts.Good masks, Cordak Blasters=win, etc.

Phantnuva..Good. The Midak Skyblasters= Epic Win.

And Gears? Gears sucked. I'm glad they dissapeared when the Visorak were released.

You really love the word "shit" don't you?

Seriously... this site has some kids on it... so I'd cut down on the profanity...

Also, I don't know how you can say the Mata were crappy! X-O I mean they started Bionicle, and so what if the limbs were different? There no problem with that... But yes... Gears suck.

Also, new parts aren't everything. I mean, a whole load of new parts are good, but Lego should stick with they've got and make something innovative out of them. Look at Pohatu for example - they took re used parts and added 12 new pieces. Thats what I want.

Also, the Inika parts weren't useful at all IMO.

-ZotS

[UFO]

(I'm so lame that I'll say) The Toa Mata.

[Visorak-kal]

As Jinzoningen said, this is indeed a tough question, as I wouldn't have bought BIONICLE sets from a line I did not like, and I have sets from every year. Overall, though, I would have to say 2007.

2007 I find was the best of both worlds. It featured the return of complex builds (Karzahni and Maxilos) which I felt had been too much discarded in 2006, it had a technic gear-like function (the trap), and the sets were even more diverse than the Toa Mata without giving me the feeling that the Toa Mahri did not belong as a single Toa team.

I am also looking forward to 2008, which so far seems to be the year most similar to 2001/2002 in terms of the Titans and the more complex looks of the summer vehicles. Now those should be fun builds. :'-)

don't get why everyone likes the Mata. They're shitty.

The legs were skinny, arms were different, and most of them didn't have movable hands.

And Pohatu.. yuck.

The Metru..bleh. Not enough Armor.

Hordika were pretty good, except for them being clones.

Inika OWNED. Great design, armor, etc. Hell, at least they had unique heads and masks! And a shitload of new parts!

Mahri..bleh. Not enough new parts.Good masks, Cordak Blasters=win, etc.

Phantnuva..Good. The Midak Skyblasters= Epic Win.

And Gears? Gears sucked. I'm glad they dissapeared when the Visorak were released.

In the time they came out, the Mata were the meaning of technic innovation. Of course, as the years have gone by the poseability of the Mata has been downgraded by newer functions. I do like the Mata and Nuva, but I must agree that I don't really see them as better than today's sets. Different, but neither better nor worse. I only find it fair to say IMO that the Metru were better than the Mata seeing as they had both better gears and poseability. And how did the Metru not have enough armor?

It was at the Hordika comment that I stopped reading.

While I thought they were too-cloney, too-villanous, and a little sub-par, I don't really see liking the Hordika as bad taste in any way. They had good legs (for villains) and a great gear-arm that I have seen used in a variety of ways since they came out. I do think that the Hordika were good sets of their own right, but I also think that compared to every other BIONICLE set released they are lacking far behind.

This is why we have crappy launchers, and the Inika had rubber masks.

What do they teach you kids in schools these days?

Big weapons equal big fun?

Engineering is hard, so stay away from simple gear-box constructions?

I just don't get it. What makes gears 'too hard'? Has our society fallen so far that when we say we want a 'quick build', on a LEGO set, of all things, it has to be under four minutes? Because Heaven forbid the gears take an extra thirty seconds? So now we've sacrificed engineering for launchers, because this is 'more playable'.

I blame the educational system.

Hey, it appears that most of the fan-base agrees with you on the Inika-masks, otherwise LEGO would not have switched back. Also, I like the Cordaks and Midaks not because of their size but because I find them very amusing and playable. The Midaks I like better as they seem more streamlined and less wide than the Cordaks.

Gear-wise, I love gears and always have. But I can see the frustration with the majority of the kids who buy canister sets. They want to build an action figure, and they don't want to have to deal with gears. It isn't just the extra time, it's the hassle that the majority doesn't want. So if you take away gears you have to put in some other function and the most obvious and popular way to do that is to put in launchers. Educational system it may be, but I honestly don't see the designers having any other choice. GregF said the other day that they want mask packs and gears, but they can't find a single shred of evidene that would persuade the head management to allow it. If they go up to them and say, "we're thinking of putting gears on this year's canister sets," management will say, "uh, no."

Also, new parts aren't everything. I mean, a whole load of new parts are good, but Lego should stick with they've got and make something innovative out of them. Look at Pohatu for example - they took re used parts and added 12 new pieces. Thats what I want.

Also, the Inika parts weren't useful at all IMO.

Good example on Pohatu Phantoka. New parts are good, but sometimes they can take away on innovativeness.

Thought I disagree on the usefulness of the Inika parts and with someone's opinion on the Inika. Barring the masks and the oversized swords (due clearly to the addition of the strobe light battery box) the Inika frames were pretty good. Their arms were not as oversized as the Mahri's; stick the straight down and you'll notice. They had arms that were shorter than their legs, which makes sense to me. And they had some pieces that I found useful. Their bodies can be used as a single body or as part of a body (Gadunka), their thigh and shoulder armor are great pieces, and their frontal armor has come out in a variety of great colors and looks good. So I don't find them useless. On the downside, I wish that frontal armor was flatter and didn't have those holsters sticking out of their sides which make it hard to put them on wider surfaces.

VK

[Zarkan]

It was at the Hordika comment that I stopped reading.

Then I started again, and regretted it.

This is why we have crappy launchers, and the Inika had rubber masks.

What do they teach you kids in schools these days?

Big weapons equal big fun?

Engineering is hard, so stay away from simple gear-box constructions?

I just don't get it. What makes gears 'too hard'? Has our society fallen so far that when we say we want a 'quick build', on a LEGO set, of all things, it has to be under four minutes? Because Heaven forbid the gears take an extra thirty seconds? So now we've sacrificed engineering for launchers, because this is 'more playable'.

I blame the educational system.

Nah, I think it's more that kids just don't look at enginers and computer programers as real life role models any more. These days, kids rely on movies, TV, and music as the prime sources of truth in life. Now all the guys want to be rappers and all the girls want to be Paris Hilton. Not to mention that mindless violence trumps all other things in enjoyment factor. :-/

However, I don't think Bionicle has gone that way yet. The storyline rarely emphasises all the new launchers as a major part. The entire 2007 storyline had, like, 3 references to cordaks in the books and serials. You never even see half the Mahri fire a shot except in a non-violent manor (destroying the tunnel connecting Voya Nui to mahri nui). Also, exploration and revalation still has a major part in the storyline. In BL 3 for example, much of the book is spent showing how the Inika adjust to their new, unusal forms, and their efforts to rescue the Voyatoran and Toa Nuva. There's several fights, yes, but it's not all spent shooting at each other. ;-)

And I agree with Darth Vader. Also, why do you need to feel to use the word "shitty"? Do we really have to resort to immature, derogatory comments to explain that you simply dislike it? Quite frankly, I disagree with everything you said, but you didn't see me going around calling Cordak and Midak's shitty now, do you?

Indeed. I know, I don't like swearing period, but I don't go around criticizing people for it, unless it's used in such a careless and downright immature way like this. If you want to swear, fine, but making it a huge part of your post doesn't necessarily show maturity at all. |-/