Clonie

That's a good point on flash animations, Jinzo, and I can't say I don't miss them.

I don't get what you're saying... is there something wrong with pleasing the masses? Are the masses of lesser intelligence just because they like something you don't? Are the things you don't like of lesser quality just because you don't like them? I never understood that.

I betting it means we'll have better music. 2006 had a 2001 feel because of the similar music, the 2006 music being from BIONICLE Heroes (as opposed to the Piraka Rap. Ouch.) and the 2001 music being from the Mata Nui Online Game. Even though the rest of BIONICLE Heroes is kind of childish, the music is good. But the game's plot isn't canon anyway. And yeah. I usually bag 2006. But I realized how much I liked it over the past few days. But really, has anyone even heard the BIONICLE Heroes music? I just found the music files from the game recently, maybe hearing them has improved my opinion of the year. I can send the mp3 files via MSN, just PM me for my address. *realizes no one cares*

Greg said if the vehicles sell well they'll start to make more complex sets in the future. Which would be cool.

I hope he doesn't have a Tridax pod... that wouldn't make sense story-wise.

And also Teridax's infected Hau in Dark Mirror, and the sundial and telescope/cliff from MNOG in the Nuva blog last year, etc. You know, a lot of people think that people with different opinions are of lesser intelligence, like there's something wrong with liking blasters. :-/ I mean it's not like if a kid buys a set with a blaster they spend all their time shooting stuff, they'd buy it for the figure/roleplaying as well, or else they'd buy some other toy that includes only a blaster. Judging by the common absence of Lewa Phantoka on toy shelves I've seen recently they seem to care which figure they buy, not just grab one with a blaster. So whatever, I think the common person's intelligence is underestimated. And for thinking people are wrong for liking the figures themselves, well, sure, they're flawed in proportions and basic construction. The difference is I could care less about proportions, and I like how they're working on perfecting the basic body construction. Does that make me wrong? Insert answer here: ___. See, there's also the issue of people thinking I like whatever LEGO throws at me automatically. I can't understand this, maybe someone could explain the motive for me to do so, because it's not true. I just happen to like basically every BIONICLE set. :-P There's a difference. I pretty much like every BIONICLE year equal, except maybe the Metru Nui saga which was a bit weak in my opinion. 2006 and 2007 might be worse than the first three years, but only just. 2008 looks very strong. I'll write something more detailed later.

Not really, we generally have one active topic for BIONICLE, and when something major comes up, we move on to the new one to discuss it. Yeah, I spell it with capital letters now. :-P

Visorak-Kal: Well Australia is getting #13, Greg said. I'm not sure what's with that, if the next issue's in July. We'll see... Still, I like how they're doing a lot of CGA. CGA rox my Boxors. X-D Shakar: Well, I wasn't able to get Time Trap here. The Adventures series wasn't available in Australia, apparently.

Although technically it doesn't make much sense as Teridax wasn't able to let go of the giant pillar thing and Chirox dropped Pohatu.

But Greg said Australia's getting it. :P Which I assume means the Australian LEGO Magazine. I'll scan it, yo.

I believe Australia is getting Issue #13. :-P

New comic scans (they're not mine): Front Cover Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Mutran & Vican bio Icarax bio Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Back Cover Not bad, not bad. Icarax looks cool.

Actually you're right. Okay, we both win. :-P

Yeah, they should go back to using Maori words. That's way more creative. Lol.

Don't go posting this on BZP, by the way. Still needs an okay from Greg. EDIT: I got a reply two seconds after I posted. XD It's allowed. Whatever.

Yeah, I just got it from that guy. I think it's cool. Don't hurt me. But I do. I'm so changing my name to that. X-D

"Too long; didn't read." :-P

TL;DR

Uh... What just happened?

A lot of people have already thought of this. :-P

I'm afraid any hint of titties will set BZP's immatureness off. I've never seen a discussion on feminine sets that didn't get awkward, and eventually closed. But of course, they don't need to make Gali look like Vezok. But then again, the mask is kinda growing on me... The chin looks less big there, and the way the eye looks with the eye hole looks feminine. I'll reserve judgement on the food strainer until I find out its story purpose, if it has one. I don't get why the wings needed to be there though. :-/ So yeah, it's an okay mask. For once I'm in the minority. Oh great, now people will think I automatically like every set for no reason. Damn.

I didn't really put a lot of effort into the above post. It just took a while to write what I thought in a comprehensible matter. I'm not trying to polish up something that kinda blows (and that is not a fact in any case), I just happen to like Bionicle the way it is. Sometimes I feel like you think I'm crazy for liking it. :-P And, I don't know that you could say they didn't put effort into the Phantoka Toa. They tried to make them look like the old sets. I don't think anyone's crazy for not liking them. And I don't think anything about the Phantoka wave has crossed any lines I might have drawn, but that's just me. I don't see what's so bad about the sets really. In fact I'm surprised no one seems to be praising the Toa Ignika, look at those parts, well, you can't see them, look at the instructions. :-P In my honest opinion, the Phantoka wave is the closest they've come to perfect. The only thing I would have changed, or rather, not have changed in the first place is the pin/rod colours, but I don't really care. None have been crossed, no. :-P No. :-P Yes. None have been crossed. :-P I'm talking about the Phantoka Toa at the moment... I personally get confounded when people can't find similarities in those three. :-P But I need to stress this, I'm talking about character similarity, not set similarity. Eh, confusing. The lime green box seemed to jump off the shelf more than the orange one, but that's just me. :-P

(Please read. :-P ) Well it seems we're going through this resemblance thing again so I might as well add my three cents. 1) The focus groups aren't evil. They're people. They're the target audience. Okay, so let's say they approve of everything Lego throws at them. But wait, why would they diss prototypes they don't like? Because they have opinions. Just like us. Imagine if Lego came here for set advice, and inevitably, we'd lessen the appeal to younger fans. Then the target audience would be like "Damn those EBers!" :-P 2) Lego cares. Why try and make closer Nuva resemblance if they didn't care? But in the end they have to listen to the majority. They have opinions too. Or else they'd just let us have the more Nuva-ish prototypes they made. I already made this point, but it's easier for you to remember. :-P 3) They have character resemblances. Look at Pohatu's mask, for example. Can't you see Pohatu in those eyes? The look the Vahi-ish mask shape gives them? The stature of his body? Granted, he's orange. But I noticed something, since they scrapped brown. Hewkii Inika - Yellow Carapar - Yellow Hewkii Mahri - Yellow Pohatu - Orange Bitil - Yellow Yellow, yellow, yellow, orange, yellow. They changed to orange just once, for Pohatu? That was nice of them. After all, Pohatu's old brown is (really really really) dark orange. Orange is the closest they can get to brown without, you know, failure of saleure. Then, look at the new Miru. It is Lewa. The eyes! He looks like a true warrior of the air, a Phantoka, which after his experiences as a Toa Nuva, he should, more than a joker guy. It's all about the eyes. Had the eyes been Inika blobs -- no, fail. And the main colour is different, now it's lime. But the old sets had lime as well, and, judging by the lack of Lewa on shelves, seems to be appealing. And goes better with grey than dark green or Mata green would, at least in my opinion. I'll get to the grey in a minute. Kopaka is the most obvious. Once again, the eyes. They looks less cold than he did all those years ago, but that suits the story... I think he's matured a bit by now. He basically has the same colours, and the scope. It's on the opposite side, but what if it looks better that way? At least it has the scope, and personally (and this doesn't mean anyone else has to, I'm just saying), I think it looks good on that side. To that you could say "It doesn't make a difference what side it's on," but that means there's no use worrying about it in the first place. :-P Oh and he has wings, yes. Some argue that Lewa should have had them. But let's look at it this way. There's three methods of flight in the Phantoka, yes? Wings, propellors, and boosters. Boosters and propellors are based around rapid movement. Wings are not. That is what cold is -- lack of particle movement. I win. :-P Pohatu should have the propellors because they're like his Climbing Claws, except they don't suck, and Lewa should have the boosters because they expel air. He's a Toa of Air, right? ;-) Their individual weapons are different to their old forms. Well, Pohatu's are similar. And Lewa has one sword instead of two. Kopaka has the bayonet. And really, I don't see what's so un-Kopaka-ish about it. Anyway, there's the Midak Skyblasters. They're seen as giant bazookaz, but they're not that big -- I have the sets. They're thinner than Cordak, and only slightly longer. But the old sets didn't have them. Actually, why would they pass them up? If you were going to go to battle against a Makuta, would you keep your sword and shield (which were only used to channel elemental power in the first place) or use an adaptive launcher? So there's a practicality thing involved, but that's not to say it's all about practicality -- I think the bayonet is the most artistic weapon of the three Air Toa's, and it's also unique, as a blaster attachment hasn't been done before. It's probably my favourite. Not that that matters, but hey, they appealed to at least one guy here. ;-) And finally there's the colours. I'll pretend I'm a set designer for a second. I'm gonna make a team of Toa, and do them in two groups. Okay. Got that. So I need to find a way to make the two groups look different, but still make them look like a team. What better than to use two similar and neutral colours? But which colours? Black doesn't look good with every colour on the team... White doesn't necessarily either... Silver would look nice and flashy with the darker colours of the team... And grey would be a nice contrast with the lighter ones. I'll use white, orange (because it's closer to Pohatu's old colour), and lime (because the target age seems to find it appealing) with the dark grey in the air team, and red, blue and black with silver. And incidentally, you'd want to have the two best leaders, Tahu and Kopaka, lead the seperate teams, have Gali and Onua in the swamp, and have Lewa in the air, and Pohatu along for the ride. :-P So really, I don't think they made any bad choices with the Phantoka Toa Nuva. I'd rather not make any comment on the Mist Toa yet because a) I'm lazy and b) too early to tell. And finally, I just feel like reposting this. X-D By the way, I'm not against complaining (unless the complaints are illogical), I just think we should look at it from Lego's point of view. Ya?

It shows that the set designers at least tried to appeal to the nostalgic fans. But in the end they need to go with the majority. We're just a handful of votes. But hey, I like the Phantoka Toa. Sue me. And Tahu's really good too. Yay. I wonder how many people that wanted complex sets are actually gonna buy the vehicles. I mean if enough people buy them they'll start making more complex stuff. Right? Well they at least struck a chord with me -- I didn't buy the playsets, but I'm buying these vehicles. Probably. I wouldn't mind a nice solid build once in a while.

The latest pics of Rockoh T3 and Axalara T9 show the spiked visors in the same colour as the Mahri visors, i.e. transparent. Rockoh might be the worst Bionicle name ever. Even Kaukau tops it. I think.