MakutaDreadscythe

I'm personally more of a fan of the technic approach with an emphasis on functionality. Granted System intergration would be more open, but I like sets that "do cool stuff". 2001 Rahi were the pinnacle of this idea IMO, though more refined. I personally hold functions in higher esteem than looks because that's how LEGO works and plays best; it's got it's own unique style. Once it tries too hard to be accurate (Star Wars) it loses it's charm and starts competing with more screen accurate figures/toys.

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if some sets were cancelled or given limited release considering the current state of constraction. We still have heard nothing of a new constraction IP with the sets generally shelf-warming wherever I go. I may be theorizing but part of my stance on why they sell poorly compared to regular LEGO is the pricing. After licensing costs, part production and whatnot we usually get sets that cost on average $30/£ (price over in the UK is outright extortionate) where an original counterpart would be sold at half the price. Looking at forum posts I tend to see a lot of "Wait for a price drop" regardless of the figure's quality. For me personally and especially when there is no LEGO charm or functionality it starts to compete with more accurate figures a la Black Series etc, where it is the same price (if not cheaper) to get a more accurate scalable figure.

Now that the artbook's out I can sorta explain. More shell variety and part detail could have really worked wonders if they had the budget for it. Some concepts I liked were those 2 piece shin armours with elemental flame add-ons. The base piece is somewhat detailed but in a cool way like the Wave 1 masks, while the flame doesn't have the colour issues of dual molding like the elemental crystal add-ons. The bark shells were also cool to look at. A comparison in utility would be to compare Vastus' silly snake shoulders to the bark shell which, while definitely meant to represent wood, can still be added to many characters or even utilised in system if designed well. I'm not saying we should return to the garish detail hell of G1's later years but I feel some more immediate explicitly defined details would help differentiate it from HF or the Star Wars sets to the average consumer.

It's a real shame that the level of detail and artistry in the concept art wasn't translated into the depth of the sets or the story. It looks really interesting and cool!

I still think my idea of the normal masks being a blend of their normal colour and the transparent colour would work best. Might diminish the value of the gold masks but they were diminished anyway due to their poor use in the story IMO.

Complete side-note, Makuta contest results delayed again, again. Wonder what's goin on behind the scenes.

In any case it really serves as a bit of a disconnect in terms of who cares about what. It's clear the designers put a lot of passion into the sets and worked with what they had, giving us some interesting sets and a glorious return to functionality, even if it did sacrifice aesthetics in some places (Skull Scorpio). Marketing and general management of the theme however did not seem to share the same level of passion. A lot of what the theme boiled down to was "too little too late" in regards aesthetic changes in the uniters, basic story elements revealed after nearly a year, etc. Again I have to repeat that the DVD is absurdly made, and completely contradicts the goodwill demonstrated by the Makuta contest, used to give a final hurrah to the series. It literally looks like it was made in 15 minutes and insults the intelligence of the fanbase. It uses different parts of Bionicle stock, like assets from the Phantoka background to entire characters from the Glatorian era, as if to say they couldn't find anything else. I'm aware this is long and sounds bitter but as is constantly reiterated the timing of these incidents is awful, especially considering G2's cancellation. Even the most forgiving of fans is bound to get cheesed off at some point.

Is it bad that I feel legitimately insulted because of this? I mean I know Bionicle's on the backburner for a while but in the name of all that is Mata Nui what is that? I'm not sure if it's a testament to the legacy of G1 or an analogy for the sheer lack of source material from G2. Or just laziness.

Very nice use of parts on the jaw. I like the added bulk, though the bohrok eyes seem a bit OU on the lower legs IMO. If I could improve anything it would be the torso. Maybe it's just personal preference but maybe slim the waist a little bit? He sorta looks like a nuclear samosa with that shape. Just my opinion though, nice job regardless!

Yeah that ending still gets me. Main issue I have is that the characters change personalities constantly (whatever little personality they have). It's a problem they've had since Hero Factory. Don't know if it's a problem with other themes, but I feel it makes it hard to get attached to the characters when it's never solid or set. Lewa, Tahu and Kopaka changed completely for instance.

Maybe he makes socks? Would explain why Makuta isn't too hot on mask making.

They look like swiss cheese. Really bad mouldy swiss cheese.

In retrospect I do find the lack of green short-eyestalks perplexing. The beasts all use green eyes, as does Ekimu, all of which have hindered head articulation to a degree, and some of the toa lose their individuality with them all having blue eyes. This is made more perplexing when you realise the only other colour was used once in Umarak the Hunter and NOT in Umarak the Destroyer. A green eyestalk would have been used more often, potentially anyhow.

This is kinda the point I was getting at. I'll be happy if Nexo Knights does get some constraction sets because constraction is a concept that I still love to this day.Thing is from a business standpoint it makes zero sense to carry on with constraction. Ever since the later years of G1 sales have been declining and missing targets. It's now incredibly difficult for LEGO to market to retailers a line of figures that shelf-warms to the degree of Transformers Energon. Yes, I know this is cynical, but what do you expect after having the plug pulled on so many attempts to revitalise constraction? In the words of JANGBRiCKS, I've been stung too many times. I have no doubt that they'll continue to utilise CCBS in SYSTEM sets, but it just doesn't sound profitable to keep making constraction IPs for the sake of a small passionate community who makes up a tiny percentage of the total profits.

Personally expected Ninjago to get the constraction spotlight seeing as it's the hottest thing since beanie babies but Nexo Knights will be a pleasant surprise. Hopefully some more medieval themed pieces.

Hate to beat a dead horse but the whole point of Hero Factory was to sorta dial things back a notch in terms of that stuff. Granted the neverending cliffhangers were an issue in my opinion which seem to have stemmed from LEGO's fear of any sizeable narrative since G1. Thing is Hero Factory's weakness in terms of story can also be seen as a strength where any character is canon seeing as sky's the limit.In terms of twists, something like that would just invalidate fan's purchases and foster bitterness and cynicism for future projects, kinda like another ending we know, but hey, that's that.

Finally got a head built for it, quite proud of my work. Now to work on the rest of it, good thing there's another 2 weeks to go.

I don't want to start something. I'm merely making a point that I don't really have much trust, and that a lot of constraction recently is clearly being downscaled. Besides the constantly diminishing waves of Hero Factory, Chima figures were Europe exclusive in their second year, Star Wars hasn't had any large figures since Grievous or Darth Vader. We may see more done with CCBS but I just don't see it in pure constraction, not for a long time.

Well for a start we heard that about G2 and look what happened.Thing is the waves for constraction as a whole are constantly getting smaller, even Star Wars is cut down to just three constraction sets. Granted that could be just a Ninjago situation again but it doesn't bode well IMO given the success of basic system in recent years. To be cynical I doubt we'll see constraction again now that system's popular. Think about it the only reason they kept to Bionicle for so long was because it made money, much more as compared to system at the time, but it came at a cost of constantly bringing out new molds. With system you can sorta get away with a lack of molds because of the sheer versatility of the brick, whereas with constraction new molds are expected, with only a marginal profit to be made after factoring in mold costs and apparently disappointing sales. It's more profitable to invest in system than carry on trying to please the constraction fanbase.

TBH I don't think any form of constraction is continuing next year.

It is quite concerning how this is a common theme. It would appear LEGO misunderstood the drop in G1's sales and attributed it to story, at least that's how it appears. They've dropped the ball with both HF and G2, biggest problem I had with HF is that they never expanded the story. They'd build up to cliffhangers then drop the plotline by next year rendering the line meaningless.To paraphrase IDS5621 from good ol' YouTube, the Bohrok sold much better than any villain as a whole wave, despite essentially being six of the exact same set save for colour and shield differences, because the story was compelling enough to warrent it. That and they were cheap, but that's besides the point. You couldn't do that with most other sets like that, so it's not unreasonable to say it's a testament to the strength of G1's early story. Apologies if this went slightly OT, but I feel it's something important to note down given recent events and information.

Seeing as the line has been discontinued I think it would be interesting to look back on it and perhaps look at reasons as to why it may have failed to grab the attention it needed. I'm not here to harp on G2, I personally loved it, but I also think it wasn't perfect, it definitely had issues. Me personally, I think it had four main problems that contributed to it's cancellation. Warning, massive wall of text incoming. Will include TLDR at end. 1. Pricing. Inflation exists so having a higher price tag is inevitable, but for many the sets were out of impulse range, where a purchase is easily made without much thought. The 2015 wave was more expensive on an individual basis by UK terms, however the necessity to buy multiple sets in the 2016 wave didn't help. Considering the line is very team based it's not beneficial to a kid having to shell out around £80 for a team of heroes where the same amount probably gets a decent system playset with both heroes and villains, something not present in G1's lifetime. This comes into my next issue and one I feel is very significant. 2. Lackluster Villains. Don't get me wrong, the Skull villains have their charm, Kulta and Umarak are fairly standout for me, and I even like the beasts, but they very much pale in comparison to the Toa, exemplified even worse when they unite with their creatures. There's a reason the Autobots are generally smaller than the Decepticons, why the Rebels are a smaller force than the Empire. Having the odds stacked against the heroes makes for interesting conflict, not to mention had the roles been reversed where the Toa were smaller but cheaper and the villains were larger and more pricey I feel they could generate more interest. Also in terms of the villains whether you like them or not they are quite clunky and in some cases obviously unappealing. Skull Scorpio and Skull Slicer are examples. Point is they're an acquired taste, and not one I feel many kids are rushing to try. 3. Marketing. This issue is very polarising. I think it's spiteful to say that LEGO betrayed us or didn't care, they did put a lot of passion into the marketing, including contests, an entire Panel at SDCC 2014, some TV commercials and stands. I'm not really sure what to say regarding this because for whatever reason it didn't work. I have two younger brothers who didn't even realise it existed, and noone at their school did either. Taking that into perspective it isn't a good outlook if we assume it as an average. Money was spent but perhaps not in the right places. Again it's difficult to say why it didn't strike a chord but it's a possibility. 4. Story. The story of G1 was too complex. In the later years that is, I still have trouble wrapping my head around the whole "planet inside a robot" thing, among other things. In this regard I understand that a less complex story is more appealing to a new generation. Where I take issue is...numerous things. I will admit I haven't read the books or novels but as trivial a point it is, the first books and novels came out right as 2016 was around the corner, so we already knew what happened. Then with the other books Journey to One was out, so I didn't feel I missed anything, until I read the preview with Kulta. It felt like it had a lot more substance to it than the actual story. This to me is backwards as I feel books should expand on the current story, not take the spotlight to it. Inconsistencies are also an issue. Funny accents aside the personalities changed a fair bit between the 2015 animations and the 2016 JtO special. This is a similar issue to Hero Factory where it felt like characters who were already defined as various steriotypes suddenly changed into different steriotypes with conflicting personality traits. Nowhere did I feel this was more apparent than with the main character Tahu. He was fairly straightforward and argumentative in 2015 but he was at least consistent. In JtO he was such a box of nothingness it was almost amazing. Very disappointing. Also something about Skull Slicer's hook blades, past life and connection to LoSS, not to mention that golden Skull Spider mask, all left out in the animations. Not significant but they serve my point that the story was annoyingly and consistently...inconsistent. Biggest gripe with story is the complete lack of world building. In order to have complexity or simplicity there sorta needs to be a world. The main thing that interests kids is the numerous stories and worlds that franchises show off. Some may be simple as suburbia, like Yo-Kai Watch, others have sprawling forests and deserts like in Naruto. My point is people gravitate towards these two shows because the world complements the characters and is interesting in it's own right, particularly Naruto. Okoto isn't a world, it's a backdrop for the Toa to do cool things. I didn't feel immersed or invested, and it isn't just my age either. It's not like I don't find it cool or it's too kidlike, there's nothing there! Like the complexity or not the World and exploration was a KEY factor and part of G1, and why many got into the theme into the first place. Without it the sets are just generic robots to the average consumer, unlike say the Star Wars constraction sets, hence their popularity. TLDR. Due to pricing just out of impulse range, villains too small and alienating, marketing issues and a complete lack of story and worldbuilding, I feel G2 just didn't hit the mark with a majority of consumers. AFOLs who remember G1 or were into HF cannot sustain the line alone, so it's important to branch out to other consumers. This basically didn't work out very early on, hence the extremely sudden cancellation. I apologise if I came off as negative, as again I loved G2. For how I feel the Toa were too big, they were awesome and the villains I liked too, even if they needed extensive modding to coincide with my visions. JtO was actually really cool to see them back in action in an actual TV show, even if I didn't feel the story was too great. I feel they did G2 justice despite the discontinuation and I thank everyone involved for letting me have memories one more time with my childhood heroes. Let me know your thoughts below, I'm very interested in your opinions. Perhaps something I left out? Happy building.

I third that. A parts list would be excellent to make an order from Bricks and Pieces for pieces I need. I'd prefer to not butcher most of my current stock of sets.