Algernon

HELL YES ALT MODELS ARE BACK!!!

This was awesome! I'd love to see you review some other space themes, like Blacktron or Ice Planet.

Interesting idea, but even more interesting theme. I love your minifigures and grungy, post-apocalyptic atmosphere. It's making me wanna come up with my own sci-fi theme.

The style fits Bionicle pretty well.

Nostalgia probably has something to do with it, but I maintain that it was 2001's relative simplicity that MADE it the best. Nowadays the storyline is a headache to follow. You can call it deep, I call it a jumbled mess. And granted, 2004 is probably the exception, but that's two years of 7- not very many.

2001 was THE year for Bionicle, but in order to really appreciate it I think you've got to have the right context. I was a big fan of Throwbots (no, not Slizers, I hate that name) and later, Roboriders back in the day. Throwbots were cool because they were such a weird idea, but they provided some neat parts, awesome combo models, and general collectability. Later, more Throwbots came out, and they were cool, but they didn't add anything to the series- just more of the same. In the end Throwbots were very shallow. Roboriders, the spiritual sequel to Throwbots, with similar strengths and weaknesses- cool idea, appropriately vague storyline, but nothing incredibly new. Then Bionicle came out. At first, the sets were only impressive because there were just SO MANY new parts- virtually every piece on the Toa olda were completely new, besides axles and such. (A worthwhile point to make- after the Bohrok we haven

Applied practically, 2009 is restarting Bionicle with some loose connections to past years in order to keep Bionicle fanboys from whining. In terms of what year is the best... anybody who refuses to admit that 2001 was not only the best but perhaps the only real year for Bionicle is, in my opinion, a fan of something else altogether. I will elaborate on this statement later.

Pft, the Toa wouldn't get their megablocks kicked so badly by the Rahkshi. Come on. The Toa of Light is on their side. I'm pretty excited for 2009 so we can bid this horribly mutilated plot goodbye and embrace this new, retro, refreshingly simplistic storyline.

How many "bones" did you find today?

Couldn't have said it better myself. :D

Bionicle Heroes was not a very good game, no, and I'm frankly doubtful that a good Bionicle game (besides MNOLG of course) will ever be made.

Agreed... and fewer bars would be good, too. The Hypersonic Operations Aircraft wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, and the capital ship of the new Space Patrol should be great if it wants to live up to the legendary Galactic Mediator.

Castle sets never seen to skimp on Minifigs. I'm sure the Troll Fortress will come with plenty. :D

No, no pictures yet. And what's this new mold you speak of?

Thursday Drilling? XD But seriously, December 15th? That's cutting it pretty close to Christmas. Will they be out across USA?

It's just sloppy building. It's never cool to leave your axles sticking out all over the place. I see no reason why the wheels can't be moved out a little bit to account for the extra space. Totally possible. In my experience, there's always a way to fix those kind of sloppy details if you just put enough time into building the model. It's a small thing, sure, but it bothers me. And yes, obviously they're technic, but it would have looked way better as system. Too simple looking as it is.

Do we know prices yet?

I hope we get pics soon, I'm stoked.

I see a long axle sticking out of the back wheel for no reason. Also, the arms are very lazily built.

Agreed, but I'll probably end up buying them no matter what they turn out like. :P

I will probably wind up getting that big drill thing, but the weird claw-frontloader truck, while cool at first glance, has some sloppy construction that I'm having trouble forgiving...

Sweet! The Command Rig sounds awesome.

I'll take what we can get, at this point.

Same way we know there's no Mars Mission... it's not showing up on any lists, and LEGO seems to have all of the notches full.

It looks like we'll have to big Mars Mission goodbye, and welcome in the new Space Patrol! Even though Space Patrol is more promising than MM, I'm going to miss this theme. It was underrated. Awesome designs, great parts too. Time to complete our collections and make way for Space Patrol!