Logan McOwen

Will these be on Amazon on the release date?

Review: 8515 RoboRider Wheels Item number: 8515 Pieces: 4 Original RRP (2000): $1.99 In the year 2000, Lego's RoboRiders line was teetering on its last legs, but it wasn't ready to drive over a cliff with a brick on the gas pedal just yet. Not only was the penultimate The Boss set released, but Lego also started producing these mixed packs of RoboRider wheels, much like what was done with Slizers and of course, Bionicle. Each little box contained four, randomly selected RoboRider wheels, in not only colours included in the sets, but also two exclusive colours; trans. orange and black. Box As you can see, my copy of the box is in very poor shape. This here was a recent eBay win - £1, with £3 p&p. I was quite chuffed with that bargain, as you can likely imagine. The front of the box has a cool graphic, featuring the RoboRiders logo imposed over a grey RoboRider wheel. The glowing details within the center of the wheel are really eye-catching. A small graphic clarifies that the box contains four wheels. The sides of the box show the eight characters that can be found on the wheels. I really love the art style to these guys - they remind me of chibis, or SD Gundam figures. It's also worth noting that a couple of them have Lego-inspired detailing, which is nice. Also worth noting is the coloured hoops around the characters - these represent the possible colours of wheels available in the box. This brings back some memories. The top of the box provides the URL to the RoboRiders website, which is of course no longer online. I believe there was an online game available on the site back in the day, which one could use codes gained from the RoboRiders toys with. And finally, the back of the box. I shan't show you the bottom, as it's just boring legal information. Anywho, the back of the box shows us all six of the canister-sized RoboRiders, and demonstrates the wheel firing function with the Power RoboRider. On the left is an illustration pertaining to the vicious ice region of the RoboRider world, and on the right is what I assume to be the scene of a volcanic eruption. These illustrations are a nice little bonus, and help to set the scene for the wild world of the RoboRiders. The back of the box opens up as such to reveal the inner contents. Originally, one punch out the perforated tab to open the rear flap, but I wanted to be a little more careful... And failed miserably at doing so. But anyway, as you can see, the box is more that spacious. I'd expect some form of literature, like a small poster of pamphlet, to fill up all the empty space. But, I guess the boxes were made bigger so as to fill up more shelf space and seem more prominent. Contents While the contents of each box is different, I though it'd still be fun to take a look inside. As promised by the box contains four individual wheels, randomly selected. I got the Laser character on a yellow wheel, the Fuel character on a grey wheel, and the Dynamite and Flame characters on trans. orange wheels. What's interesting - and exciting - is that, as I mentioned earlier, the trans. orange wheel colour never appeared outside of these wheel packs. Just for kicks, here's those trans. orange wheels on the Power RoboRider. Overall If you were a kid, teen or adult who had been collecting the RoboRiders back then, these were certainly a fantastic bonus item. Before these packs were released, I assume the only way one would complete a collection of RoboRider wheels would be to buy multiple copies of the sets, so it makes sense that the boxsets were produced. The inclusion of two exclusive colours to the mix is a fantastic bonus too, and I'm glad that I personally got a pair of trans. orange wheels. However, I feel that one thing that could've improved these things would be the inclusion of something other than the wheels. Maybe a head piece, or a wheel shooter, or maybe just a small poser or pamphlet. As it stands though, these little things are pretty nifty, but I wouldn't actively go hunting for them on eBay though - RoboRider wheels are very easy to find on Bricklink for very little money. But, if you do find one cheap, I say to bite - you never know what you might get!

Boss RoboRider - Modern Version Built to keep my modern Dust RoboRider company, this 'bot takes cues from the original Boss RoboRider, while being very much its own entity. With working sets of treads with individual shock absorbers, guns which swivel together*, and a streamlined Tumbler-esque design, this is one of my favourite MOCs I've come up with this year. Enjoy! * Demonstration video here. Front 3/4, Guns Raised Front Side Back, 3/4 Back Back, Top, 3/4 Front, Top, 3/4 Chassis Yes, I am aware that this was photographed in my bathroom. Lighting is lighting, yo.

Same here. What a nice throwback.

I have doubles of all of the skellies sans Grinder. If this villain pack is offered up like the Hero Pack was, then I'll order a dupe of MMvsSG in order to get it.

I wouldn't know, as I've not read them.

Anyway... So I got Island of Lost Masks yesterday and read though it before I went to bed, and I must admit that my expectations were probably a little too high. Overall, I enjoyed it. It’s clear that it’s not really intended for somebody my age, as the writing style is very simplistic, but it was still quite fun. I just felt that it was a little rushed, although again that’s likely due to the intended audience of it. Definitely worth getting if you’re a G2 fan, but don’t expect anything akin to Rowling, Morpurgo or Pratchett.

Good afternoon everybody! Ah, Slizers. One of Bionicle's two predecessors from the late 90s. A gaggle of diminutive, poseable robots who could throw disks and combine with each-other, on a world separated into 8 elementally themed factions. Certainly an interesting line, but sadly very short lived - two waves of toys, and it was gone. One other sad fact is that not much is known of the Slizers story. Many older fans have theorised as to the true story, and I'm sure countless kids have figured out their own stories for their Throwbots to engage in... But otherwise, the presence of story material for Slizers is indubitably scant. Now, I'm a quite the fan of the Slizers in regards to their design and concept, and have always wondered what a fully fledged Slizers story could look like. I always liked the idea that the Slizers were planted on the planet in an act of experimental panspermia, and the asteroid that came later on was simply a freak of nature that corrupted said scientific endeavour. So, I wanted to tell that story, but from a 1st person perspective. And this is where Tremor comes in. This humble little 'bot was to be the main focus of an adventure on the world of Slizeron, meeting 'bots both familiar and fresh, trying to discover his identity and place on this new, mysterious world, after crash-landing in a most unfortunate manner. I began writing Tremor's story a couple of years ago on my phone, only to leave it abandoned for quite some time. Eventually, I transferred it to my computer, and it now sits in my Google Drive. Since then, I have added two short chapters, and I intend to in future add more. To start your adventure with Tremor, click here. I've set it up so that, if you have a Google account, you can leave comments on the document itself. If I make further updates to the story (which I intend to), I shall notify you all in this thread. Thank you for your interest. Enjoy!

Psst, hey, Frozen Assassin: If G2 isn't to your taste, there's only one thing you can do about it; Not fund it. If enough people of a similar mindset to yourself do the same, TLG will likely make a change. Otherwise, it's gonna be the same thing that you've rather prematurely deemed to be bad... f o r e v e r . . . Or you could just not participate in discussion on G2 if all you're going to be is negative. It can't be fun for you to be so negative, surely? I mean, it's certainly no fun for us.

A rather belated compliment, haha. Thank you! And yes, I do love the CCBS's aesthetic. To me, later G1 sets (2006 and onwards) feel awfully cluttered, so the CCBS is a wonderful evolution. Click the image in my siggy to see more of my MOCs. I feel I've become a lot more CCBS-savvy as of late :)

I saw that! Really interesting design.

The issue with detailed shells is they can't really be used for a lot other than their specific intended use, and often just sit around doing nought when in one's collection. When you have a basic design that you can build on, you can do a lot more with that. That's why we have armour addons as opposed to detailed shells. The only exceptions at the moment are of course torso shells, due to the nature of how torsos are built in current sets. But even then, the texture of these parts isn't too specialised - the Brain Attack shell's corrugated tummy is a very generic shape, as are the ribcage pieces from the Skull Creatures. If these were more detailed, they'd be much trickier to use creatively without making things messy - a ribcage piece littered with hydraulic rams and bolts would look most out of place on a more organic design, but as it is now it can be used to achieve all sorts of aesthetics. I mean, when was the last time you used those big detailed shells from the Ordeal of Fire? Also, with G1 parts, you had way too many different textures floating about the place, so when you mixed up parts which were originally from different sets, things looked way too jumbled up. For example, the Toa Inika have a very cohesive aesthetic in their build up until their lower arms, which possess entirely different textures and shaping to the rest of the figure - the blockiness of the Vahki leg and the striped aesthetic of the Metru leg do not "go" with the otherwise very bevelled, streamlined aesthetic across the rest of the figure. I fear that this too would be the case if TLG introduced detailed shells as opposed to using optional addons. And I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that I do not want patchwork quilt sets again. And anyway, G2 is G2. It has a mostly different aesthetic, and that's fine.

An irrelevant comment. He didn't specify an area of Lego products, just Lego in general. Anyway, let's not discuss that. Back on topic.

Good lord. Stunning.

Devolution is generally a bad design choice.

So, we have an action figure line consisting of mechanoid characters who wear magic masks and can control the elements. We have a line in which magical Elves help their newfound human friend return to Earth. We have replicas of beautiful sports cars. We have Ninjas with motorcycles fighting against legions of skeletons, snake people and cyborgs. We have anthropomorphic animals fighting to restore balance in their land. We have amazing technical replicas of real-world vehicles. We have famous superheroes and their worlds explored in unique and fun ways. We even have a feature length motion picture, following the zany adventures of an average Joe character flung head-first into worlds he never knew of. But nope, nothing original or interesting coming from Lego these days.

On your mark, get set! We're riding on the internet! For those who aren't aware, the RoboRiders was one of two predecessor lines to Bionicle, and was launched in 1999 as a successor to the previous (and my personal favourite) Bionicle precursor, Slizers (otherwise known as "Throwbots" in the USA). According to Brickipedia... In regards to build, the RoboRiders were Technic-based, using a range of specialist pieces to form some semblance of a universal system, with two main kinds chassis and a universal front axle assembly. But these days, Technic has largely done away with highly specialist parts, with only a handful of designs breaking that rule. As for action figure franchises, the CCBS has certainly taken the reigns, and likely won't be letting go ever again. So, if RoboRiders were to return (and I'm not implying that it will), how do you think it would be done? Or rather, how would you like it to be done?

I preordered a physical copy on Amazon, it should be with me in a few days... I hope.

That's quite interesting, but also a shame. I don't use PaB, so I don't really know how the system quite works. Are parts separated out into categories? If so, surely CCBS parts were in their own category?

Yeah. I wonder why they stopped selling CCBS parts in PaB? Poor sales? Expensive to produce? I'm not going to buy into the conspiracy that they were taken off PaB due to protest from System fans, mainly due to the source of said conspiracy...

:3c

This leak season is proving to be rather fernickety, huh? Lots of hoaxers running about. I wonder when we'll see something legit...