Visorak-kal

Guy, I would disregard those Scholastic book postings, because Book 8 isn't even written yet, nor has Greg Farshtey given any description on the book. (According to his Blog, he intends to give a bland description of Book 8 to fuel suspense.) So this description is probably false. And I wouldn't pay much attention to Press Releases either, they tend to overdo it. Maybe they will sink Voya Nui, maybe they won't, but it seems pretty obvious that Voya Nui (even if it sinks) will NOT end up on its original continent, because the original continent is below the surface like Metru Nui. These Cordak Blasters a.k.a. Chain-guns are another story. Not too fond of chain-guns in BIONICLE, but then again, if people can be half-biological, half-mechanical, they should be able to invent chain-guns. DOesn't mean we have to like it, but it's not forbidden by the "laws of BIONICLE". Faith? I've got faith in BIONICLE, because I like the direction the story is going; complex, interesting. I wasn't 100% happy that Jaller & Co. became Toa, but that was basically a set decision. New heroes have to be releaesed every year, because they sell way better than villains, and stores won't re-order revamped Toa Nuva because the Nuva were just released 4 years ago, and that's not a lot in terms of retail time. Granted, a lot of the mystique is gone; it happens. I see it like this; BIONICLE is the best it can be right now. It will NEVER be the ideal story, because it lives for set sales, not story. Now, we can criticize all we like; maybe our ideas will be heard. I've still got faith in BIONICLE, because in my humble opinon, its the best it can be at this point, and the storyline and sets are still awesome. (Granted, not Bahrag or Exo-Toa level awesome, but still awesome.) P.S. Reserving judgement on the Toa Mahri for now. :-D And Ecto, not quite sure what you mean by that? I guess you're upset about the sky thing. :-/ VK

Lone BUffalo, sometimes criticizing BIONICLE with constructive criticism is what can help the line. It's not good to just 'wave away' anything you don't like. Granted, BIONICLE is doing better than ever, but for how long? Where do we draw the line on where designs like the Toa Mahri will stop working? My tastes on the Toa Mahri are similar to everyone else's here. The chaingun is growing on me, although I still don't get why it's so big. THey could have made a three-shot small little streamlined chaingun. This will weigh them down, I think. What we should be complaining about is the look of the chaingun. Just too big, IMO. What we can't really complain about is that the chaingun is not BIONICLE, because chainguns are not that far from biomechanical bodies such as the Toa Nuva possess. Dinobot, Greg Farshtey has nothing to do with set design. IF fact, if anyone suffers from poor set design, it's him, because he's got to work a STORY around that poor set. Inika; the blobs were not so good. How does Greg Farshtey explain in the story that he has to write, that the Inika have blobs for heads? The best way is to have the heads hidden in the story by blinding light. (THe blobs were supposed to glow in the dark, hence the light.) Now, Greg has to explain why Kongu has two Cordak blasters, why Nuparu has an underwater shield, why Hahli has wings, why Matoro has a large pump coming out of his back. The only year in which story dictated set was 2005, and we all know how that turned out. *coughHordikacough* Greg Farshtey wants mask packs back, he didn't want Vakama to go bad in Web of Shadows, and he wanted to put the Piraka's eventual fate in Bionicle Legends 7. The focus groups don't want mask packs, the head of story team wanted Vakama to go bad, and the Bionicle Legends 7 book got cut. A lot of the time, Greg Farshtey wants what we want, but you have to remember that in BIONICLE he is the freelance writer, and a minor part of the story team. His opinion is overruled by sets and higher up brand managers. So, yes, if you dislike the books (not the major storyline itself), then blame Greg. He writes them. But to blame him for covering up for the set's flaws or for having a part in set-making, that's wrong. He has no control over that. In fact, his ONLY connection with BIONICLE is the LEGO Magazine and the books, which places him as part of the story team. Hey, you know something interesting. I was on BZP the other day, and some member asked Greg what he thought of the Toa Mahri. Normally, he likes sets. He thought Piraka were the coolest villains ever, and the Barraki were excellent non-clone sets. His reply? "I work for LEGO--so you pretty much need to expect a positive answer here?" Heh. Maybe he shares our views on the Mahri? Hey, Lord Admiral, that picture from Deathmatch looks like a BIONICLE in itself. Coincidence? (Still thinking over whether he should get one of the other five Mahri. Jaller is a must-buy.) VK

Yeah, lol. Blood is blood. The point being, LEGO can't really say its blood, can they? Therefore, in official storyline, it should be disregarded. In personal storyline, however... Pridak: I will feast on your flesh. Kongu Mahri: I will defend against your teeth! Oh wait, I only have two Cordak blasters, and no close-range waeapon. Bummer.

I voted no; it has not started badly. It has started out great! Hydruka and Matoran are good; although the two Matoran are clones and the two hydruka are clones, the two sides are very different, and they're just great sets. (I've got Dekar and Thulox.) Barraki. Some of the best canister sets in years. As a group, they're amazing. Different build, and although a lot of people complain they have no new pieces, let's take a look-- Piraka (Number of new pieces--remember that 2006 had the most new pieces since 2001): Leg armor--1 Leg-1 Feet-2 Head(Skull)-1 Body-1 Eyes-1 Rubber heads/arm armor-6 Arm-1 Weapons-6 Zamor-1 Zamor Sphere-1 So add that together and we have 22 new pieces for the Piraka Barraki (Number of new pieces) Leg armor-3 (Kalmah, Takadox, and Carapar leg armor) Arm Armor--None Feet-3 (Kalmah, Mantax, and Pridak) Heads-6 Mandibles-1 Eyes-1 Body Armor-1 Spines-1 Weapons-6 Squid Launcher-1 Squid-1 Total-23 Barraki have more new pieces. And they're great and awesome sets. I'm not crazy personally about Mantax, but that's me. I have Pridak and Kalmah, though my brothers have the other four. About the so-called blood, Greg Farshtey commented that it is actually his coloring in the story (that is how Greg is incorporating it, I believe), and the set designer is the one who told him that he had intended blood. So, LEGO didn't intend blood, and probably is not marketing it as blood. That is the set designer's intention. Me? I don't care if it's blood or not, it's red, and red is my favorite color, so there. Mahri: All those hating the Mahri should look at the new toy fair pictures from Wednesday's exhibition; the ones at the Collector's Party were way-prototypes. I know I changed my mind on Matoro and Hewkii's mask. Although the Mahri are somewhat a letdown from the Barraki, they are a hit-and-miss group, IMO. Jaller, Hahli, and Hewkii (Despite his spiky armor) are fantastic. Kongu is okay, I wish he didn't have two big guns. (Actually, the guns look smaller and are silver in Wednesday's pics.) Nuparu, not bad. Matoro, pretty good; at first I didn't like him, I still don't like some parts, like arm armor on thighs and one Toa Metru arm, but he's better. Titans: Perfection, once again. Playsets: I won't comment, I'm not a mega-playset fan, though the minifigs are so awesome. So, I don't think the boat is sinking, I think it's right on course. After all, 2006 and the Toa Inika were viewed as horrible to some, beginning BIONICLE's demise. BIONICLE became #1 again in 2006. By the way, that is good news, BIONICLE is back on top and once more a priority for the LEGO Group! Perhaps all you wishing for more scrutiny from LEGO's top management might get it now! Selling at #2 toy line for boys in the U.S., and making DOUBLE-DIGIT profit. Inika sold through the roof, according to Greg Farshtey, and Piraka sold great. Go Bionicle! :-D VK

Let's see... 1 Fire Vulture 1 Sonic Phantom 1 Striking Venom 1 Iron Condor 1 Shadow Crawler 1 Iron Drone 1 Iron Drone Carrier However, if you were to combine that with my brothers (I often use their's as well as mine.) 1 Fire Vulture 1 Thunder Fury 1 Sonic Phantom 1 Sentry 2 Shadow Crawlers 1 Iron Condor 1 Striking Venom Not nearly as impressive as Exo-Champ, but I find I can do Exo-Dice battles well enough.

I thought it was biological chronicle all this time as well, until this January, when I read a news article about a LEGO Employee. This is what he wrote:

To answer your question, oo7: They are, in a way, cyborgs. THe term BIONICLE means (affirmed by LEGO) Biomechanical. They are half-biological, half mechanical. In the BIonicle Movie Mask of Life it is easy to see that they have inner organs inside their biomechanical "shells," so to speak. The original BIONICLE figures were mostly robotic-looking, though BIONICLE has moved in a more biomechanical direction, with Toa Inika figures. The BIONICLE figures in the story mostly speak the Matoran tongue. In the books this is translated to English for our convenience, :-) Examples of Matoran words include: Inika-energies of a star vezon-a double Barraki-warlord piraka-thief/murderer/vandal The actual world in which BIONICLE characters live is undefined; it is not Earth, but it is like worlds such as Alagaesia in the Eragon books; the author does not exactly specify that Alagaesia is another planet. The BIONICLE races (including Matoran, Toa, and other species) originate from beneath the surface of their world, in a dome. CIties and plants are made of protodermis, a metallic-like substance from which all BIONICLE things are made. Protosteel, is for example ,the 'steel' version of protodermis. THe islands in this dome are all mechanical. The island above (the tropical one, Mata Nui) was not meant to be lived on by biomechanical beings, so it seems organic. So they are pretty much biomechanical beings that come from a mechanic world, but some of them ended up on a organic island.

I'd like to make a point here...(New to Eurobricks, as you can see. Some of you may recognize me from another fansite.) The Toa Nuva still are legendary, for a number of reasons. I wanted to clear this up, as follows: 1. According Greg Farshtey, the Toa Nuva are THE most powerful Toa in BIONICLE. 2. They are legendary. In BIONICLE Legends 2, it is revealed that ancient Matoran in an ancient land made the canisters for the destined ones (the ones destined to awaken Mata Nui), Tahu and Co. They are legendary Toa, and there are none other like them in existence. 3. The only reason they were defeated by Brutaka is because it's not every day that a member of the Order of Mata Nui goes bad. 4. The Toa Nuva's current mission (freeing the Bahrag) is, according to Greg Farshtey, "closely tied with their original mission" that is freeing Mata Nui. 5. The reason their are retrieving the Inika's Kanohi is that Toa Lhikan was a great hero, and Tahu Nuva wishes to honor him by reclaiming his Kanohi mask. And I do have some good news: according to a recent poll on BZPOwer, information was given that the LEGO Company has considered re-releasing the Toa Nuva eventually; they are considering not a transformation, but rather a finding of new tools/weapons. Re-releasing the Toa Nuva now is not an option, because store owners would not buy sets they just had on stores four years ago, that is too little time in the market. In addition, re-releasing the Toa Nuva as they look now is impossible, as that would be a downgrade from the mass poseability released since that time. In addition, IMO, the 3,000 Toa is no doubt an estimate, a maximum. This amount of Toa allows for a much more expanded universe, more story for fans to create themselves. IF the Toa Nuva were the ONLY Toa, there would not be much fan fiction, would there? Feel free to debate with me over this--I have no qualms. :-)

Hello, I've been watching Eurobricks for some time as a guest, and upon reading this topic I decided to join in. I've been a fan of LEGO since 1995, and a fan of BIONICLE since December 2000 (the first views of the Toa Mata in a measly little catalog.) I've watched BIONICLE grow from Toa with little poseability to Toa will amazing poseability, and now we've reached the Toa Inika and a point in BIONICLE in which changes must be made; things must take a different turn. My family in total has all six Toa Inika, so I can give my own detailed opinon on these sets. I will refrain from taking storyline into consideration here (one of my own gripes is the transformation of Matoran captains and war leaders into Toa, I would have preferred Jaller and Co. stay as they were.) I must confess I do like SOME of the Toa Inika. Pro: The Toa Inika are the most poseable sets yet, with the exception of the Barraki, which allows for a variety of playability and poseability. (I like to sit around and pose my BIONICLE figures into battle poses, seeing what can be done with the sets in terms of how realistic their joints are.) The Piraka would have been the most poseability if not for the spine, which limited head movement. This is a bonus for me, as gears made it hard to pose sets, and in later years had less function, with the disappearance of removable masks. (Toa Metru/Hordika) Pro/Con: The Toa Inika feature a variety of new pieces, although I must agree that a lot of those pieces are large and bulky. I can see why tastes would differ. However, looking at the original Toa, I see bulky one-piece bodies, which the Inika have gotten rid of to an extent. What long lacked in BIONICLE with the Piraka and Hordika was a good armored body. Spines do not really count as armor, and the Hordika were completely hollow inside. The Toa Inika gave this; their bodies were very armored, and each Inika had two different types of armor and feet, in essence 'paving' the way for the end of cloning. Pro/Con: The legs were iffy- I wasn't really a fan of their design, but the knee-guards were interesting. The leg armor was excellent, and the arms hold no problems for me. Pro: The Toa Inika have excellent color schemes, with the exception of Nuparu. The transparent pieces were a bonus for me, and Hewkii was excellently colored after (IMO) the duller brown of Piraka Avak. I was never a brown fan. The Zamor launchers were excelent in their launchability, though their collectibility was flawed. Pro/Con: Faces. Some of the Inika have nice faces, some of them have ugh! faces. According to The Lego Company, courtesy of Mr. Greg Farshtey, the reason for faces as he was told was that the market was leaning more towards expressions on faces. I don't agree with it, but I'm far older than the target audience, in both actual age and maturity. (Image an eight-year-old buying Mindstorms Robotics Invention in 3rd great, much less building it, a fact I am proud of, :-D ) Toa Inika Jaller and Toa Inika Matoro have excellent faces, which is part of the reason I bought only them for myself. (The rest of my family culminates the other 4 Inika.) I like Hewkii's face, it seems very like a stone Toa. Kongu, Hahli, and Nuparu are iffy. Nuparu's face I DO NOT like, Hahli's face is not feminine enough. (Once, I made a movie with my LEGO Studios where I would use very slow animation to make realistic movement. I swear, Hahli looked like DIno-Woman in that mug.) Kongu looks like Two-Face from Batman. Con: Despite their moving upwards in terms of differentiation, the Toa Inika are still, in essence, clone sets. I despise clone sets, because that removes any point of buying multiples. There is no point in buying Kongu because he is practically the same as Hahli, just a different color, weapon, and ugly face. The Barraki have truly advanced in thes perspective. In addition, the collectibility of the Zamors is a flop. I used to buy a lot of mask packs, and a lot of Kanoka Disk packs, a lot of Krana, a few Kraata, less Rhotuka, and only one Zamor pack. This lack of collectibility is due, according to Greg Farshtey, to the focus groups, who want more weapon ammo and are not interested in collectibles. (Curse thee, focus groups, why!!!??) Blobs: The blob heads deserve their own category. I must express my distaste for them, i much prefer original Toa and even moreso Toa Metru heads. Luckily for us, the heads were continued this year with Axonn, Brutaka, and Umbra. My only consolation is that the blobs are hidden by the faces. There is no other excuse. The storyline cover-up was that their faces 'glowed with lightning power' (ooh, shiny!). While this is a poor excuse, I cannot blame Greg Farshtey for it (it isn't easy to cover up blob faces, poor guy.) I have no clue what I would have done to cover that up. Result: I approve of some of the Toa Inika sets. In essence they are clones, and I bought only two; Jaller and Matoro, for: Transparent Parts Limited Differentiation No One-Piece Bodies or Flawed Armor Great Articulation Nice Faces (Especially Matoro) That is my opinion. Good day to you as well. :-)