TwistLaw

>my face when in a year or so it's confirmed that G1 and G2 are connected come on, it's obvious. The only single artifact that retains its name from G1 is the mask of time used to summon the Toa by evoking the power of past and future. This is BIONICLE's first reboot, it doesn't have to follow the same rules other reboots did, and as far as I know there are no laws in Denmark prohibiting the connection of two continuities in fictional stories. We have no concrete data in hand, but stating as a fact that the two timelines are not connected is just ridiculous. Being a sequel and sharing a connection are two completely different things.

THIS MY GOD YES So much truth in a single post.

You can't deny that CCBS is a lot more generic than G1, though. And while it's for sure a pro because of how many subthemes you can create with the system, unlike what BIONICLE could allow, at the same time is also a con because all of these themes tend to look similar to each other. You can work around colours and weapons, but if the array of pieces keeps being mostly the same across the years there's not much you can do.

This, so much. I never, NEVER understood why proportions were such a big deal for people when BIONICLE characters were neither human neither "well proportioned" since the beginning. Besides, while we got just two "hands" mold in G1 (well, actually one...), the variety and versatility of feet pieces is an undisputed advantage G1 has over CCBS. Now that I think about it, we had new feet pieces without interruptions from 2001 until 2007. My god.

Italy, while being a relatively small market compared to Germany and the US, is a very conservative one. Constraction in general has really never been popular here, being actually shunned and despised in a far harsher way than it happened (and happens) in the anglophone community. So if BIONICLE flopped here, I'm not surprised at all. Sadly I know that, living in LEGO's third world is a harsh reality but I said that for the sake of clarity.

About the whole "G2 is doomed" topic I have some interesting information to share. Last week I went to Italy's recently opened biggest mall, near Milan, that amongst other things contains the only official LEGO store in my country. So I went there and noticing the ridiculously small area dedicated to BIONICLE (in an already small shop) I asked a clerk about the state of the theme. Naive question, since of course she wasn't able to answer. But when I went to the Toys 'R Us store, I realized BIONICLE was nowhere to be found! The area dedicated to LEGO actually had more sets than in the official store, but BIONICLE literally wasn't there. CCBS Star Wars, last year's Technic, even a niche theme like Architecture had a place on the shelves. So I asked the guy whose job was being in contact with LEGO, and he flat out told me the line wasn't selling enough to earn a spot on there. To be more precise, it was a choice from Toys 'R Us and not from LEGO (of course) to forgo the purchase of BIONICLE sets. Take all of this with a grain of salt: we're talking about Italy, a secondary market for LEGO, but it's still something worth thinking about.

Of course it is. G1 has a soul, thanks to its aesthetics, that CCBS just doesn't have. It will amaze you noticing the differences year after year, at least until 2007, and the bigger sets are worth it almost every year. Pieces from 2006-2009 are more prone to breaking and sets in general are more same-y across the years, so watch out, but most canister sets from 2001-2004 are definetely worth buying, at least two-three of them (most were clones during their own year, something not necessarily bad in my opinion). Titans I suggest you without hesitating are Brutaka, Hydraxon, Lhikan, Exo-Toa, Makuta (2003), Takanuva (2003 and 2008), Roodaka. Canister sets that are must buy imho are the Mata, Metru, Inika, Barraki, Bohrok. So yeah, G1 is still worth it but be careful with prices and pieces.

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.

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?

Different strokes for different folks, that's completely fine. G1 and G2 are speaking two different languages, but I think both do a great job in expressing themselves. G1 was more steampunk and vaguely organic, G2 is smooth and generic enough to blend pretty well with the rest of the CCBS. And if we can say such things without troubles, it means they actually managed to do what they were designed for. Yet, I strongly disagree with the statement that G1 had few good sets, but that's your opinion and I respect it.

Questionable. The torso is the most glaring part. While in G1 most canister sets had torsos which looked "complete" by any angle (I'm thinking especially about the Mata and Metru torso), with CCBS we have a build that leaves the back empty, and solutions like shells are most of the times not satisfying. The only CCBS sets that managed to have a feasable look from the back (as feasable as it would be in a real robot) have been so far the Okoto and the newer SW sets. The Uniters are an example of how bad torso plate over torso bone looks bad and unnatural from the back. And I'm not saying unnatural as in bad proportions, but as something that looks incomplete and easy to be hit by an enemy. G1 had similar problems of incompleteness, but in other areas (I'm thinking about sets like Krekka). Besides arms and legs built in CCBS feel less "complete" imho. With a single piece like the Piraka leg you had an acceptable view from the back. But if you put a shell on a leg facing the front, the back looks just empty. This didn't happen very often in G1, if we gotta be honest.

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.

Also, I'd like to clarify my statement about Fire Lord having a wider array of pieces than UtH. While the latter has 68 individual pieces VS 46 used by Fire Lord, UtH has a more Technic-heavy build which translates in parts far from influencing the overall aspect of the set. Don't get me wrong, the two sets are obviously different from each other and UtH is by leaps and bounds better than Fire Lord (the first CCBS titan after all), but while Umarak is actually good at showing the evolution of what the designers are able to do with the system, it suffers in my opinion of the limited amount of pieces introduced each year. Torso and head aside, that can't be seen anyway, there are only seven notable pieces (mask, ribcage, feet, Chima horns, blaster, traps, sword) that differentiate it from FL, and all but one of them was introduced in prior years. And the example I'm making is the hardest one to support, since 2016 is the first year in which CCBS aesthetics changed considerably. Tahu 2015 would have made things way easier. And with a theme afflicted by strong limitations as CCBS is, a system that can be used to build mostly humanoid figures with some exceptions here and there (as opposed to bricks which can do everything), giving a unique feel each year is the first thing that should be made in order to make the system succesful. But then, again, this is a decision LEGO made, not the designers.

I actually used the word "licensed themes" in order to include the Superhero Ultrabuilds. Otherwise I would have just said "Star Wars".

I love how most of the times VVBN posts a warning the discussion dies instantly. He sure knows how to put us straight, but we should also be less timorous. On topic, as I've often said, I think CCBS lacks the personality BIONICLE had. The visual style in constraction between 2011-2016 hasn't changed much, with sets like Fire Lord (2011) actually having a wider array of pieces than Umarak the Hunter (2016). But try to compare Tahu (2001) and Toa Jaller (2006) and you sure have in front of you a clear evolution, let alone comparing bigger sets like Exo-Toa (2002) to Brutaka (2006). I guess the general stillness of CCBS is what it hurts it the most, preventing the system from expressing its true potential and moreover to be seriosuly appealing to the customers. So far the only CCBS themes we're 100% sure of their success are licensed ones, and this sure doesn't do justice to an otherwise brilliant building system.

Same here. I was 8-10 at the time, so part of the core target audience, and literally took me two years to understand that those weird guys on the DVD cover of the advertisement for BIONICLE 2 were the Toa Metru. That is, until I finally saw the movie. That's one thing I always disliked about the Miramax movies: they took far too much liberties from the toys. Thanks to YouTube I had the chance to see awesome fan made shorts extremely faithful to the sets, that made me wish movies with that style. Heck, the G1 commercials were exactly how I would have liked my BIONICLE movie.

We have many suggestions it may happen, but no concrete statement as for now. Even if it will be discontinued, most people will use the three years originally planned for BIONICLE as a way to demonstrate "it went all as it was supposed to do". But HF lasted five years, so there will be a lot of stuff to be discussed by September 2016. Of course, IF Bionicle will see an end. We have no data whatsoever about its state, and this alone should ring a bell.

I don't recall Hero Factory having such a situation in 2011, though.

Wonderful project and wonderful MOCs. I really like what you did, to the point of being inspiring for my own future MOCs. If I have to choose a favourite, I'd say it would be a tie between Udapu and Mamuk. Epolim is quite brilliant too!

As usual you deliver some of the best MOCs in the whole community. The colour scheme is brilliant, with the purple accents on the breast plate echoed by small details throughout the armour. Just one thing that puzzles me: why the wheels for shoulders?

I've always had a soft spot for brown sets, mostly because I knew since I was a kid they were those who sold the worst; it's kind of an underdog thing I guess. But some of the sets I like the most (Pohatu '01 and especially '02, Avak, Pahrak Kal aka my first set ever) are actually from that colour regardless of this. Seeing the colour back in town with G2 made me so happy, because it meant LEGO wanted to go against historical sales data in order to be faithful to the original line. Aside from that I have nothing to add to what Aanchir said: if colours like red, white and brown had a clear popularity history, shades like green, black and blue varied a lot through time. For instance I think Hahli and Takadox may have been the most popular sets from 2007, for obvious reasons. As a side not, I've always HATED the choice LEGO made when replacing brown with *ugh* yellow. Orange is an ok colour, but yellow (and I mean the yellow Hewkii Mahri used, not the vaguely golden Mata Nui had) feels just wrong in the BIONICLE universe. This is a real personal opinion, but I've always felt that way since I was a kiddo. I don't know, it feels.. toyish? I guess, in a universe where colours were strongly connected to elements. EDIT yay, my 500th post celebrates my favourite colour in BIONICLE :D this makes me happy.

wait what are you telling me your lego shop has alread THIS YEAR's stone sets on discount? oh boy and yeah, they've been discontinued, but they were also the cheaper sets, so it's understandable they're harder to find than the more expensive Masters.

One thing I noted is that Protectors are NOWHERE to be found. They literally disappeared, unlike the Masters that can still be found somewhere and the skull squad that is literally everwhere.

Ahah it's ok Aanchir, I never thought that. I have the very same problem, owning a sharp tongue to make things worse. And while it may be a ridicolous argument (lol) it's still something related to 2016 and very well in the "rumor" area. Besides there's literally nothing to talk about right now, and it seems to me we're keeping the discussion polite, though heated.

In fact I wrote "one of", which in the english language is used to express syntactic constructions known as nominal partitives.Those constructions convey a message of "part of a whole", and not of "part over a whole"; thus what I wrote didn't define the Skull Squad the worst thing to have ever happened to the BIONICLE franchise, but actually one of the things that are part of the list of the lower points of this LEGO theme. The Bohrok-Kal and other sets were very well implied by my wording. (don't hate me, you know I agree on many things you say) (but don't you dare ever agin to talk sheet about my beloved Toa Metru )