Did Bionicle 2008 Fail?

[VBBN]

My pieces have never broken.... I keep hearing about this

That is because you don't have the Mistika or Phantoka. Or have you gotten them recently?

[Bundalings]

Hmm. I liked it.

Set Wise:

The Toa were mostly boring, pretty basic, but apart from Antroz and Bitil the Makuta are some of my favorite sets ever. Chirox and Krika especially.

And with a few little tweaks Gali is pretty awesome too. She's the only set that I ever modded and left modded.

Story Wise:

Some of my favorite characters here... the good guys had probably the most boring personalities out of any year ever, bar perhaps Onua, but the baddies reeked of win and awesome.

Well, besides Bitil, Vamprah, and to a lesser extent Antroz.

Bitil was boring in general.

Vamprah never said anything.

Antroz was like... meh.

Though still by far the most boring character is Tahu. Man... I never really found him interesting, but now he even lacks his anger. WTH? He's like the dullest thing ever.

But then there were some real gems.

Krika was an emo dude... but in a good way. I just loved his character. The only Makuta that exhibited any remorse and sadness at all the evil they'd done. And in the end he was murdered by a fellow Makuta, his polar opposite...

Gorast was sweet. She's like Dalu but evil.

Icarax was interesting for the time we had him.

Mutran was awesome... and I loved his feud with

Chirox was cool too. Mainly for the fact that he and Mutran loathed each other.

Vican was so cute. I was rooting for him the whole time. Seriously, if he had died I would have gone crazy.

And now I'm just rambling.

All in all 2008 was a much stronger year for the villains than for the heroes, but it was still pretty good all around. I enjoyed it.

~Bunda

[Wrinkledlion X]

You forgot Toa Ignika, Bunda. He was a good character.

[matanui911]

That is because you don't have the Mistika or Phantoka. Or have you gotten them recently?

I hear about mahri breakage, and I have those and they havnt broke yet.:.

[VBBN]

I hear about mahri breakage, and I have those and they havnt broke yet.:.

The main breakege problem with the mahri was Hahli and Lesovikk.

As for 2008, I thought it was okay. The story was okay, but not as epic as it could have been.

The sets were nice, but mainly the Phannys(phantoka). The Mistakes(Mistika) were bad, but Bitil was great! So was Taky. I think the problem was the colors(too much gray and silver), and the joints. Other than that, it was an okay year. But 2009 is definatly looking to beat it set and hopefully, story wise.

Edited December 17, 2008 by VBBN

[The Crazy One]

I thought that in 2008 ,Bionicle was digging itself a grave and getting the nails for its coffin but then suddenly , there was a light , and Bionicle lept out of the hole and sprang to life with the amazing story line for 2008, and with the exelent line up for 2009, i think they will soon be selling the coffin for scrap! So i think 2008 passed with an A- .

Edited December 17, 2008 by The crazy one

[matanui911]

I thought that in 2008 ,Bionicle was digging itself a grave and getting the nails for its coffin but then suddenly , there was a light , and Bionicle lept out of the hole and sprang to life with the amazing story line for 2008, and with the exelent line up for 2009, i think they will soon be selling the coffin for scrap! So i think 2008 passed with an A- .

Although my views have been chanced by the people who posted on this topic, I still agree with you. He only thing I didnt like about 08' was hat they did not keep the nuva's characteristics from the origional series(2001-03)

Btw nice sig.

Edited December 18, 2008 by matanui911

[The Crazy One]

Although my views have been chanced by the people who posted on this topic, I still agree with you. He only thing I didnt like about 08' was hat they did not keep the nuva's characteristics from the origional series(2001-03)

Btw nice sig.

Yeh, thats the reason that i almost gave up hope for it but as i said, the story was amazing.

[hollisbrick]

Well as most you know I'm not the biggest fan of this theme But IMO I think it was pretty good. Especially the four legged beasts

[matanui911]

Well as most you know I'm not the biggest fan of this theme But IMO I think it was pretty good. Especially the four legged beasts

I agree. If you are not really into bionicle, and you were not there during the beginning of the bionicle universe, that the 2008 year may seem very good to you.

[~Wrack'n'Ruin~]

Not really, fan's expectations were just too high.

They knew Lego was using Piraka and Inika bits, they knew Greg had to fight to get the Toa Nuva in as the heroes, and they were still disappointed that it wasn't perfect.

Hello, it's a low-cost toyline, not megablocking Masterpiece Optimus Prime, guys.

[JINZONINGEN73]

Maybe not, but most Transformers, any of them, made inside the same year don't usually have joints cracking.

There's cheaper toys made more cheaply with cheaper plastic that don't break this bad.

We're looking at poor design of the ball sockets combined with cost-cutting that's inexcusable.

In 2008 Quality of Plastic has been Worse. Sets were great but allmost all my 08 Bionicle sets have broken parts. And now Lego Don't send me new pieces because they think that I have get too many pieces from Them....

Ooh, that's bad.

I've reordered MANY replacement parts from them... and some of my replacement parts are broke. >__<

And most assuredly, there'll be replacement replacement parts breakage.

According to Bink, they "are aware of the problem" and quality will rise every year from this point forward.

Good news, if true.

NOW... I really hope they redesign the ball sockets back to the original functionality, when we could stick 1x1 circular bricks in them.

It's nice being able to "cover" the hole on the side so as to hide the color of the arm, to make the connection point's color solid.

[Wrinkledlion X]

Not really, fan's expectations were just too high.

They knew Lego was using Piraka and Inika bits, they knew Greg had to fight to get the Toa Nuva in as the heroes, and they were still disappointed that it wasn't perfect.

Hello, it's a low-cost toyline, not megablocking Masterpiece Optimus Prime, guys.

Agreed.

And with the amount of space allotted to Greg for the Nuva, I don't blame him for simplifying things a bit by making them more "mature." True, I would've liked for Kopaka and Tahu to have had a standoff, but that would be downright impossible. He had way too many sets to write into the story, and all things considered I think he did a good job. He kept Onua and Lewa's running jokes for us, and while Tahu may not have been quite so angry, nor Lewa quite so energetic, I think he maintained their personalities decently well. (Gali and Onua in particular.)

[matanui911]

Agreed.

And with the amount of space allotted to Greg for the Nuva, I don't blame him for simplifying things a bit by making them more "mature." True, I would've liked for Kopaka and Tahu to have had a standoff, but that would be downright impossible. He had way too many sets to write into the story, and all things considered I think he did a good job. He kept Onua and Lewa's running jokes for us, and while Tahu may not have been quite so angry, nor Lewa quite so energetic, I think he maintained their personalities decently well. (Gali and Onua in particular.)

Good point, with the time that he had (not event a year!!) He had to fit in 14+ characters! If I were him I would think that a challenge!

[Lepaka]

I reckon it rocked, if only for Teridax winning. The rest was meh, except for Krika and Icarax (<3)

[JINZONINGEN73]

I reckon it rocked, if only for Teridax winning.

Yeah, if everything had turned out alright, it would've have been as lame as a classic videogame ending where you just played 2 hours and get a screen saying, "Good job! Thanks for playing!".

THIS was memorable.

The whole thing has to be much more epic before they give a happy ending.

[Pencoin]

Bionicle is just cliche after cliche though. Can you say we didn't guess Terry was going to win? Or that MN was the MU? And this awful reliance of Macguffins (Is that right?) like Alt.D and the Toa always changing.

That said though I'd love a three year run of this:

Were the Toa, were awsome. We kick last years bad guy's megablocks.

Oh no, whats this? A new badguy that popped out of no-where but have great signifigance in are creation?

Arh he is to strong, we cannot hope to defeat him. All is lost.

Wait, a ally of ares that we seem to have known forever but never seen before know how to make us stronger? Alright!

Wow were stronger now but we looked nothing like what we used to! But we couldn't care less!

Yeah we owned the bad-guy!

Were the Toa, were awsome. We kick last years bad guy's megablocks.

Oh no, whats this? A new badguy that popped out of no-where but have great signifigance in are creation?

Arh he is to strong, we cannot hope to defeat him. All is lost.

Wait, a ally of ares that we seem to have known forever but never seen before know how to make us stronger? Alright!

Wow were stronger now but we looked nothing like what we used to! But we couldn't care less!

Yeah we owned the bad-guy!

Were the Toa, were awsome. We kick last years bad guy's megablocks.

Oh no, whats this? A new badguy that popped out of no-where but have great signifigance in are creation?

Arh he is to strong, we cannot hope to defeat him. All is lost.

Wait, a ally of ares that we seem to have known forever but never seen before know how to make us stronger? Alright!

Wow were stronger now but we looked nothing like what we used to! But we couldn't care less!

Yeah we owned the bad-guy!

That would make me happy, just to see BZP squirm.

[JINZONINGEN73]

I remember suggesting, wow, like YEARS ago... that it'd be cool for some end boss type dude to get defeated, followed by the Bionicle line concentrating on a time of "peace".

The argument against it was, "WHAT? NO WAR? That'd be BORING!!!"

But I disagree. You could still have "armed" character sets, as overlookers to sets that were more involved with daily life activities, or some sort of specific task... mining or something.

It wouldn't even have to STAY that way but a year or two. War can always be gone back to at any moment.

It'd take a leap of faith and a bit of bravery n Lego's part to turn a line of war toys backwards in direction.

I wonder if such a concept has ever even been done in a toyline before?

But alas, this takes a kind of visionary skill that I don't feel Lego has at it's disposal to execute properly.

It would be pretty cool though. If done right, you could TOTALLY have "Town" type System sets that would sell better than the past Bionicle System sets sold.

It'd be a great segue-way to have System people take Bionicle sets home for the parts and Bionicle people take System more seriously. (cross-marketing!)

::sits Lewa on farm tractor to till the Thornax patch::

[Pencoin]

Didn't Eistien say something like that?

Anyway I agree TLG doesn't have the balls to do something like that. I think TLCs only non-violence is City. But then City is has Cops without guns and robbers with nothing to rob.

If TLG can balance Peace and War, insted of putting them two ends apart they would have something great on there hands.

[JINZONINGEN73]

f TLG can balance Peace and War, insted of putting them two ends apart they would have something great on there hands.

To say nothing of the positive media exposure that would possibly occur after it.

"Lego takes brave step forward... removes violence from popular, high-selling line of war toys".

Didn't Eistien say something like that?

I used to have it as a sig. Now that you mention it, it does apply lol.

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."

[Pencoin]

I'm not saying get rid of it completey. There two sides of the same coin. Say 2007, The Toa fought the Barrika. What the heck was happening with the Matoran? If they could focus evenly on the non-fighting people as well as the fighting, it could be truly great.

[matanui911]

I'm not saying get rid of it completey. There two sides of the same coin. Say 2007, The Toa fought the Barrika. What the heck was happening with the Matoran? If they could focus evenly on the non-fighting people as well as the fighting, it could be truly great.

It is a saga about the adventurs of the toa. They seem to be so caught in the storyline that they can not think of any diversity....

[Brickthing]

I would be great though if we had some more side stories based on non-war driven situations. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, the local Matoran were struggling to survive in difficult and interesting environments.

In 2007 especially, it still would've been super interesting and been able to provide good sets if the story had focused on the Matoran learning to survive in their new underwater environment, with a balance between encounters with the sea rahi and struggling to mantain order in the underwater cities. No enemies involved, just the natural hazards of the local wildlife. It could've had great Aqua-raider like playsets, with a Matoran trying to defend a patch of airweed from a giant sea-rahi trying to eat some Hydruka, or a scouting Matoran trying to get some treasure guarded by a territorial sea-monster. The Barraki or The Pit needn't have existed, and the Ignika could've appeared in the second half of the year, and choose some Rahi as guardians, that would then start becoming even more hazardous to the Matoran, and the Toa would arrive and struggle to defend the Matoran from the Rahi, whilst trying to get to the Ignika.

[Lepaka]

I would be great though if we had some more side stories based on non-war driven situations. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, the local Matoran were struggling to survive in difficult and interesting environments.

In 2007 especially, it still would've been super interesting and been able to provide good sets if the story had focused on the Matoran learning to survive in their new underwater environment, with a balance between encounters with the sea rahi and struggling to mantain order in the underwater cities. No enemies involved, just the natural hazards of the local wildlife. It could've had great Aqua-raider like playsets, with a Matoran trying to defend a patch of airweed from a giant sea-rahi trying to eat some Hydruka, or a scouting Matoran trying to get some treasure guarded by a territorial sea-monster. The Barraki or The Pit needn't have existed, and the Ignika could've appeared in the second half of the year, and choose some Rahi as guardians, that would then start becoming even more hazardous to the Matoran, and the Toa would arrive and struggle to defend the Matoran from the Rahi, whilst trying to get to the Ignika.

I agree: that would be super interesting.

[matanui911]

I would be great though if we had some more side stories based on non-war driven situations. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, the local Matoran were struggling to survive in difficult and interesting environments.

In 2007 especially, it still would've been super interesting and been able to provide good sets if the story had focused on the Matoran learning to survive in their new underwater environment, with a balance between encounters with the sea rahi and struggling to mantain order in the underwater cities. No enemies involved, just the natural hazards of the local wildlife. It could've had great Aqua-raider like playsets, with a Matoran trying to defend a patch of airweed from a giant sea-rahi trying to eat some Hydruka, or a scouting Matoran trying to get some treasure guarded by a territorial sea-monster. The Barraki or The Pit needn't have existed, and the Ignika could've appeared in the second half of the year, and choose some Rahi as guardians, that would then start becoming even more hazardous to the Matoran, and the Toa would arrive and struggle to defend the Matoran from the Rahi, whilst trying to get to the Ignika.

You pretty much made an alternate ending. Lots of fans have ideas of what could be, but it is over and we can only dream...

Anyhow, very nice idea. Very interesting. I would imagine it being a hit. Keep it up.