Darkness Falls

I think the build is more to show just how many connection points and places there are to build off of the skeletal pieces- I think it's a whole bunch of concepts wrapped into one.

Don't dis Waspix. That guy is a damned good attempt at creating a monstrous bug form. I love him. But I understand your sentiments. The villains have been very one-note despite their variation in armor, weapons, and heads. I would also like to see some more varied body structure, which is what made the first wave of villains so cool.

Wasn't Bionicle episodic in the first place...? If you hadn't followed the story for the entire run, the sets would pretty much seem like, "Episode 1: Heroes. Episode 2: Bug-things, then Smoother Heroes. Episode 3: Updated Bug-things, then Lizards. Episode 4: Roboticized-Heroes, then Lizards. Episode 5: Monsters, then Spiders. Episode 6: Thugs, then Organic-Heroes. Episode 7: Aquatic-creatures, then Aquatic-themed-Heroes-with-guns. Episode 8: Phantom-creatures, then Flying-Heroes. Episode 9: Gladiators and-that's-pretty-much-it. And there wasn't really an Episode 10." If anything, Bionicle started out relying on story heavily and then turned to a more themed, episodic nature with the sets- something Hero Factory is doing too. Hero Factory's new joint system allows for a lot of different set designs, though, and they will probably revisit some of the themes Bionicle had because the parts are now much more functional.

Love the color scheme- you have a great deal of lime parts. I would suggest using a more unique head for him though, perhaps using some of your leftover lime pieces. While I like the reptilian look with a horned crown, I think it could be further explored with a self-built head. I'd also do more with the limbs- they aren't as unique as I would have them, personally. Still, nice work with color mixing, that's a sign of a good eye. Keep it up!

While its perfectly fine to wait until you see better pictures, I can assure you the legs design has been somewhat altered on the Witch Doctor in order to give him pistons, which could potentially add bulk to the sides of his thighs. Now, we won't be jumping to any conclusions, but that is an interestign design choice and we'll see if that hasn't fixed the problem with the Titan legs. Rocka XL, on the other hand, has Fire lord legs, but I think they would just fine on the design, it's a little thuggish with the larger claws on the top. The red beastie (claw-jaw?) has quite an interesting design if what I'm seeing is what the body structure will be like. And yes, yes, YES Waspix has triple-jointed legs, which is something I have wanted to see from this line since the new joint system debuted (so, not that long ago.).

God damn it Lego. Everytime I think I'm done, you PULL ME BACK IN. Very cool stuff here- want to see that huge red beast in more detail. The Witch Doctor looks epic- I may get him based on the name alone, honestly. However, he seems to correct a lot of the design flaws the Fire Lord had (unlike Rocka XL... :()- his thighs have a decent amount of bulk to them. Also, dat staff. Some of those new heroes look... interesting. Like the more primal, gladiator theme of them. Rocka, Bulk, and Stringer look great- Furno just looks stupid. The new villains are awesome- Waspix shall be MINE, if only because he features four Ben10 claw hands and is YELLOW. Raw-Jaw, or whatever he is, looks like a giant red ape upon closer inspection, and if that's the case- awesome. Just awesome. If not, well, I'll have to get a better look at him. Fangz looks uninteresting... as of now. Yep. Already know which ones I'm getting. You rock, Lego.

Very impressed with how you've kept everything so compact at this scale. Really cool features, though I'm not a fan of the 2-axle double-y-cup design, though that's more of a pet peeve, considering it's dangerous to the y-cup. I like what you did with the hands and the torso, very complex and inventive. And of course, the awesome targeting device is very spiffy. I can't want to so see more from you, you've very good at adding detail and design at a small scale. Keep it up!

I was hoping Front could perhaps elaborate on this, but I wonder if the builders for the Hero Factory line had difficulty adapting to the new pieces, which resulted in the lackluster leg design on the Fire Lord. In any case, I hope their aptitude and design process improves and forms new ideas in regards to the construction of the Titans.

Perhaps we could see a picture of Breez with her original helmet, to facilitate a more feminine look?

We ain't substandard!

Heh, thanks for posting these on TFW too, DV. Some of the Heroes, like Furno and perhaps Breez, look like they would benefit from the head-switch, but I think Stormer and Surge look fine.

I've suggested several times putting the original heroes' heads and helmets on these new sets. Think anyone could supply is with some pictures of this look?

Well, I think the theme of Hero Facotry being this "build your own hero" and them being strict robots means they should have a much more unified theme. Heads, limbs, etc should be similar and hopefully modular with all vehicle sets, because these ARE mass-produced robots that fight crime- they need to make use of the materials they have rather than spend time crafting individual weapons. The only problem I currently have with Hero factory is that it is so limited currently- there's no room for epic, large beasts in this universe unless the Heroes are sent to a dinosaur planet. That's upsetting.

Again, anybody tried this...?

I never realized that his claw is different than the one found on Stormer(?) and Breez. Anyone tried replacing the new heads with the old ones? I think Furno would look absolutely awesome with his original helmet.

I hope we see more reviews of the other heroes pop up here, I'd like to see more of their Headgear. I'm pleasantly surprised by the amount of variation in the sets- even though they all have a pretty "stock" looking skeleton, each Hero and villain seems to have a different element that distinguishes them from one another. I don't just mean the colors and the masks, the weapons and additional limbs give these guys a lot of individuality- and they intrigue me when I think about using these pieces for MoCs.

Jetbug and Nitroblast are now officially AWESOME. They are actually buys for me. I like the Fire Lord a lot more now, and of course, a few of the Heroes will be instant purchases for me.

I'm impressed with the new limbs. Seeing the multiple ways the armor can connect to the limbs means they must be very simplistic- they are probably he most customizable and useful pieces that have come out of this line so far- maybe even out of the last few years of Bionicle as well. I would like to see a "naked" Hero body without all the armor, I'm sure it looks very interesting.

Wow. Upon seeing that pic review, Corrodor looks to be the best villain, at least in my eyes...

...Incredibly positive as in, you can't believe how positive you were about it because it's an impulse set? Because it was a fairly balanced review, leaning a little on the negative side, but I could tell you're on the fence about the line in general, or at least the set. There was a pretty even number of pros and cons.

Really? Carapax wasn't a dumb brute?

Yeah, uh... Elemental controller of fire being a hothead, water being serene, earth being tough, air being carefree, ice being a loner... You tell me those aren't stereotypes? Even the Piraka were stereotypical BAMFs, Ackar was a stereotypical wizened warrior, and Kiina was a stereotypical, well... girl. The Barraki were all pretty one-note, but in all, the dialogue for every. Single. Character. Was boring and waaaaaay too predictable, as in "I say malicious creepy/hardcore/ancient line here and then you respond with heroic reply!"

The more I see of these sets, the more I like. Nebula looks better and better especially build-wise, and Rotor even looks very cool. However, my favorite is Thunder- I never really liked silver on a lot of the Bionicle sets but on this guy it just works, and he looks great! I also love Meltdown but that was a given!

Well then, I suppose I just think the idea of them living in a giant robot is silly and foolish. In fact, when you look at the entirety of the plot up until that point, there were no references to Mata Nui being a giant robot to begin with, except, of course, for the reference of his name. It was also abruptly handled in 2008, with the end of the year culminating into "Surprise! I'm a giant robot! Wait, no... nevermind. It's just me, Makuta." Let me just come out and say it now- I dislike 2008 immensely. The restoration of Mata Nui's spirit was just a way to draw out the "save Mata Nui" storyline considering there was no prior mentioning of a disconnection between body and spirit, the story itself was little more than twelve characters flying around an enclosed area with a multitude of serials with many different things occurring without a conclusion. Having a character like Makuta and introducing his Brotherhood has a dual effect, actually- when the other members turned out to be throwaway characters with little to no importance you also have to wonder why Makuta is so much better- and if there's an evil organization of beings equal to his power, why the hell were they such pushovers when the Toa could barely stand against the original Makuta? Inconsistent storytelling, that's why. Sure, Arthaka's Armor and Nyra Ghost Blasters and Midak Skyblasters and whatnot, but that doesn't fool me. I do, however, think Aanchir makes a good point with his view on 2008's premise- but it certainly didn't feel that way for me. Also, saying that Mata Nui would create a being with the curse of arrogance and an intellect far greater than his own is something that boggles me- the original idea that Mata Nui and Makuta were brothers suited me far better- in fact, it would explain why he has a brotherhood of underlings that are not nearly as powerful or clever as he is in the first place. We certainly have not experienced everything the way Bob Thompson and the story team had planned it to be, as things were rushed and major and minor changes were made. In fact, the majority of what we have experienced has been on the behalf of Greg, though I won't get into that. Perhaps the idea of Giant Robot Mata Nui may not upset me as much as the fact that they had a Giant Robot battle at the end of the story. It's just so... stereotypical. So stereotypical that shows and literature have even made satire of it. That is what I truly don't enjoy. I mean, the sets are really the core of what Bionicle was to me. All I needed to enjoy them was the brief description of the character provided by the Lego Catalog and the premise of the story and my mind was alight with possibilities, and the books, while interesting in their own right, limited that idea. I was an avid fan of the story for a long time but eventually it just lost me with its inconsistencies in the over exaggeration of certain characters and the loss of the core mysticism that made the first five years so successful.

I wish you would read a bit more carefully. I enjoyed the story up to 2007 and a small bit of 2008- I even enjoyed the first half of 2009 before Mata Nui showed up. Some of the things I enjoyed about the past years, however, were in concept only- Greg said the Barraki would be "creepier" villains than the "punk-megablocks" Piraka- which had garnered the title of pseudo-Toa for a long while before the books were released. However, when I finally read the books, I was disappointed in the portrayal of nearly every villain because they constantly drifted into Gregisms (much like Furmanisms but cheesier, which is sad) and never seemed to grow much. I really thought the idea of the Barraki being warlords and the original rulers of Mata Nui was a fantastic idea- did they explore it in enough detail? Not enough to satisfy me. You see, a great deal of what I enjoyed about Bionicle was actually the history. All that "20,000 years ago" stuff. Dark Destiny is my favorite book. But I never thought Bionicle had to answer every question, and I never wanted them to go into so much detail that it lost its mysticism and explained everything- like how the Matoran built a giant... robot... to live in, or all that boring and, in my opinion, senseless material about the Makuta and how they turned evil- it made absolutely no sense... and the whole Brotherhood of Makuta once again blew things terribly out of proportion. Every fan had a fangasm and said "Oh goodness! There is an entire race of Makuta-beings that are as strong as him?!" When you build a villain up as the darkest and most evil essence in the universe and then say "but there are 'x' amount of characters that are just as strong as him" he loses his presence. Makuta was the end-all badass in Bionicle from 2001-2007 and then they made him one out of many. Every "advancement" in the story since 2005 has been a step backwards in my eyes. The attempts to make things "more mature" ended up being ridiculously cheesy, the storyline became more and more of a mess with the Brotherhood of Makuta (who were around for a total of... one year) and culminated with Mata Nui being a giant robot, and all attempts to reestablish mysticism ended up either making things more complex or answering more questions that never needed to be answered. The first half of 2009 was fantastic because we were on a new planet with its own secrets, history, nature, and unexplained phenomena. With the arrival of Mata Nui nearly all of that was explained or thrown aside as a lead up to the giant robot fight- which killed me. Ending a story with a giant robot fight, no matter their purpose or mysticism, is just a corny way to end anything, especially since Bionicle had a great sense of mystery and lack of stereotypical sci-fi material up until about 2007. So no, I don't have an illusion that 2001 to 2003 was amazing. 2001-2007 was great. 2001-2003 had the more complex sets, and 2004-2007 had good set design. As a whole, the concept of the story throughout those years worked very well. I think that Matoro should have died saving Mata Nui and Makuta should have been foiled and had to escape to the Mainland to rethink his strategy. End of story. Mata Nui should have been the "spirit of the world" around the Matoran Universe and they should have left it at that- rather than make him a giant robot. Of course, my opinion.