The Kumquat Alchemist
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Everything posted by The Kumquat Alchemist
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Or perhaps everyone has been too busy combing their nearby toy and general stores to post here?
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Delightful! Though the narrator is fine for the first four videos, for each of the Toa animations I prefer them without the voice-over. That constantly repeated "I am here to defeat EVIL" monologue is so hammy I could make a small sandwich out of it. On the topic of lasers, the visual effects appear fine, but the rather generic pew-pew sounds do seem inappropriate, though it's not worth getting too worked up over.
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It was a Mask that contained the power of Time in the Matoran Universe. It couldn't let people travel through time, but it could locally speed up or slow down time, and any damage to the Mask would have disastrous consequences to Time itself. It was powerful enough to be counted among the three Legendary Kanohi, alongside the masks of Life and Creation. For more reading: http://biosector01.c.../index.php/Vahi
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Well, I suppose I ought to give my opinion on the animations. The animation style itself is beautiful, though I don't think it lends itself well to shorts. It makes me want to see the characters jumping around, exploring the landscapes, and having long, drawn out battles with enemies like LOSS, instead of being the constant subject of a narration; what little we get of it is wonderful, but I'm left wanting more of the animation to itself, with no narrators and their hammy monologues. On the topic of narration, I think it iffy. As some have mentioned earlier in the thread, it could be interpreted as a Protector telling the story to his villagers in some later era, but for me to fully accept that I'd need to see it actually shown as a framing device. That's not to say the voice acting is bad, it's just very hammy, and I think official recognition of the Protector Storyteller Theory might be an improvement on what right now feels like a dub with a single voice actor. Lastly, though there have been few story developments, I do find it neat that the Golden Masks for each toa are hidden very similarly to some Kanohi from 2001. I'll need to go find my old BIONICLE books to find some proper examples, so hopefully this will be edited to show them in the future.
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I don't recall having heard that. Was it in a Q&A that this was brought up?
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Judging by the variations between Solek's scope-less Noble Akaku and Kopaka's scoped Great one, I would say that the scope is not tied to the Akaku's powers in any way.
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If anything, even a "normal" spider in a role similar to LOSS could be easily justified as being feminine; the smaller spider-masks could be its brood, akin to Shelob of LOTR or Broodmother of DOTA. Come to think of it, until something comes out to contradict it, LOSS is going to be a BIONICLE Shelob in my headcanon.
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[REVIEW]: 70782 Protector of Ice
The Kumquat Alchemist replied to VBBN's topic in LEGO Action Figures
After having seen multiple reviews, the Protector of Ice and his counterpart, Kopaka, are some of my favorite figures yet. The POI's weapons are both interesting and provide a wealth of parts, and his color scheme, as VBBN mentioned, is one of the best examples of good transparent element use. Even his lack of elbows I can forgive, as his bulky upper body gives the impression that he's wearing such heavy garments that his elbows would hardly be visible, and the shorter arms make him more evenly-proportioned. As for his silver feet, though unfitting, they seem less inappropriate than black feet would have been; his otherwise light color scheme would be imbalanced without a light feet. -
I was referring to the Themes page in the LEGO Shop. For some minutes ago last night, the URL shop.lego.com/en-US/Bionicle-ByTheme did not redirect to Hero Factory, and instead showed a BIONICLE products page; now, it has again ceased to work. However, links to BIONICLE still exist in the Themes dropdown tab and in the Themes panel view, though both direct to the LEGO Shop home page.
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...And now the BIONICLE theme exists proper, and is linked to in the Themes tab. No longer does Hero Factory hold sway over us through the power of redirects! Edit: And suddenly the link stopped working again.
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I don't believe it's been mentioned here, but the pictures are now visible on the 2015 BIONICLE listings. How long until the Theme is listed, I wonder? Instead of redirecting to Hero Factory, the BIONICLE theme link now redirects to the LEGO Shop home page. However, when the Theme URL is manually typed, it still redirects to Hero Factory. Edit: Looks like BIONICLE is even visible in the Themes drop-down tab, though when clicked, it links back to the home page. Also, the 'Products' set pages on BIONICLE.com now have links to their corresponding LEGO Shop entries. Lastly, BIONICLE sets now appear under the 'New' category on the LEGO Shop.
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Perhaps the winning BFTGM entries can help prove the worthiness of Constraction to AFOLs. For such a unique and valuable prize, I imagine the contest results will get at least some attention in the wider LEGO community, beyond the Constraction fanbase.
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That picture of Okoto is a beauty. The distinctly separate Okoto regions harken back to the Slizer planet, an interesting turn of events. Admittedly, planet Slizer was more cleanly and evenly divided, but there is a similarity, in contrast to Mata-Nui's more naturally blended terrain. I prefer Mata-Nui, due to its more gradient blending of environments, but the clearly separate regions of Okoto have merit, if at least for Slizer nostaligia.
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Perhaps you may not like the style, but I do not think it will look dated nonetheless, or, at least, not start to appear dated as quickly as 3D animation tends to become so. Since the 2D cartoon in question is to be stylized, it can get away with intentionally simple animation far more easily than many old pieces of 3D animation can. For example, MNOLG's 2D flash art holds up quite well due to it being intentionally simplistic and stylized, whereas the 3D films, which were attempting to portray the BIONICLE world is a less-stylized way, obviously appear dated. Is MNOLG simplistic? Quite, and it might not appeal to you because of that. But because of the art style used, it can not exactly be called 'dated' in the way that primitive 3D films can be.
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This too is my main issue with TLR and all the LEGO constraction-inspired films by TinselToons. The absurdity is increased when we consider that by word of Greg, Bara Magnians had a larger ratio of organic to inorganic materials in their bodies, and yet in TLR, Bara Magnians appear as being more robotic than those people from the Matoran Universe as shown in the the first three films. Though it has been argued by some that the sets ought to come first before the media portrayals, it is nonetheless annoying when that argument tries to justify the use of perfect copies of the sets with silly little spinning pins all over them. But that's my pet peeve, I suppose I ought to weigh in on the 2015 BIONICLE animations: Though I did like the designs used in the first three films, I will admit that the actual rendering was awful; a 2D cartoon will not look so dated 10 years from now, so I'd be quite happy if BIONICLE from hereon out were to use nothing but this or similar styles of 2D animation. It reminds me of the art used by cartoons from early 2000's Cartoon Network, and that is something I appreciate.
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I am particularly happy about the possibility of mixed-gender tribes. Though it never bothered me in BIONICLE 1.0 where gender didn't mean anything to reproduction, I have read quite a few well-written posts by people who found BIONICLE 1.0's arbitrary, element-based segregation of genders distasteful, and would be pleased to see that done away with, especially now that the potential for proper reproduction has been introduced; having gender-grouped tribes could have nasty implications, due to issues posted above. With some creative wrapping, it might be possible to use a single LEGO cape as a cloak, if tucked in around the neck and held with a rubber band.
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I could justify the issues when the site was but a preview, but for what looks to be the proper launch, I would have expected more polished delivery.
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Huh. Having read through everything, it feels like the site was released a bit too early. The descriptions are clunky and generic, and in the case of the Ice Region page, the pictures for the Protector and Toa of Ice are mismatched with those of Water. I do love the artwork for what appear to be upcoming videos, though. The Protector and villagers before Tahu is evocative of a similar scene in MNOLG.
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I've never been bothered by the quality of video reviews; only if we were given video reviews exclusively would I more harshly criticize. Where I look to text reviews for a close examination of an overall figure, its parts, and its build, a video review more clearly shows the reviewer's in-hand impressions of the figure, and better highlights any action features it might have. Though many of the BIO2015 reviews could be shortened, beyond that I found they served their purpose well, even if some are unprofessional in presentation. On the topic of Powered Up modes, I prefer Kopaka's. Unless powering him up uses the pins which attach his skis to his feet, it seems absurd to criticize the lack of skis when they could still be easily attached. The use of the sawblade on a spear is indeed quite silly, but the sawblade looks neat, doubling as a smaller shield that hearkens back to 01' Kopaka. I suppose I am not very critical of BIONICLE weapons, so long as they look cool. (Exploding boomerangs, anyone?)
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I've tried that. Unfortunately, it results in quite the long neck if using a standard CCBS body build, though with modified shoulders it does wonders.
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Now that quite a few reviewers have gotten the new sets, I would like to revisit the question, how well do the new masks work with older head types? I've been told they are incompatible with Glatorian heads due to their length, but have heard that the Brain Attack heads can -albeit a bit floppily- wear the new masks. Can this be confirmed? If so, how ineffective is the connection to the Brain Attack heads? Looking at all the extra masks these new sets have, it would be a shame if they did not have some backwards-compatibility.
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My impression is just that all of VBBN's pictures are nicely saturated, though I can see how that could also be interpreted as a difference in plastic type.
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[REVIEW] 70786 Gali: Master of Water
The Kumquat Alchemist replied to VBBN's topic in LEGO Action Figures
I love the gears in the chest; I imagine they help keep the chest shell in place as well, no? It's similar to how I always steady my constraction figure chestplates with a technic pin. -
It's certainly a good lure to convince me to buy LOSS. Having seen pictures of the golden Skull Spider up close, just the mask and LOSS's many technic components justify the purchase, even if LOSS is lackluster in my eyes.
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Those Protectors are downright sexy, both for their builds and wide selection of components. Also, though lacking in points of articulation, I'm starting to like the Fire and Ice Protector arms; they look better-proportioned and less apeish than the rest, though in Fire Protector's case, that is offset by the ridiculously wide shoulders..