JINZONINGEN73

No joke. I used to live in densely-populated New Jersey and drive LONG distances. There were no less than 5 Walmarts, Toys R Us or any dozen other Lego-carrying stores that I visited... often. I NEVER saw a Belville set at retail. Strictly a thing of the Shop@Home catalog, if my experience means anything. And given the literally 100's of miles covered, it probably does lol. Though now I wonder... perhaps they were merely not marketed in the Lego aisle... maybe shelved over in the "pink" Barbie toy sections where no man dares tread? Hmm. That never occured to me.

Some of the parts look okay, but in reality, they're MURDER on other Lego systems when you combine them. When you look at the end of a Z'Nap beam head-on, the top has a tooth on one side and the bottom has a tooth on the other. --= =-- I found out the hard way that you don't mix Z'Nap and the mushier Bionicle type weapon plastic. Because even though you can snap the end of a beam onto an axle rod (very helpful in mocs that are already built, where sliding it on is no longer an option), when doing so and especially in removing it, it's teeth CHEW the mushy plastic. >__< As long as you stick to JUST using the friction peg holes, Z'Nap can become an excellent source of filler to span wide areas inside a structure, as the pieces are so honkin' large.

As usual, not pretty enough to build the intended model, but the parts are pretty cool. Looks like the cape is black... so that means the (non-minifig) cape inventory is something close to this now: Darth Vader Technic - Black (GIANT cape) Vezon - Black King Mathias 1 - Dark gray King Mathias 2 - Light gray (well, blay) Good guy from upcoming Knights Kingdom - Blue Vladek from upcoming Knights Kingdom - Red Capes are good. :-D The new chain is long overdue. Not as fragile as the original and it just looks good. Not diggin' the Rahkshi legs (in any set, actually). They're too hollow, made all the more non-credible that they're supposed to be holding up a GIANT animal. Still, a pretty neat pile of parts, depending on how expensive it is.

I think that might be all this topic has to say. X D A new topic with a parts breakdown and proper review might be in order. This one however makes my head hurt and is closed. ; )

|-/ How are there 11 and 12 year olds on here when you agree to a thingy that says you're over 13 when you sign up?

I want something exploratory like Rock Raiders, but not. I hate "drill" machines in scifi. I think what I'm asking for is crystal caves, with a lightup feature. But not JUST a lightup feature, one where the bulbs used are those mini UV blacklight bulbs, like found in secret spy ink pen toys. Only, it'd be replacing the bulb in the 1x2 electric train brick. Why blacklight? Because the caverns could glow from the inside. The sets would use new baseplates, but on TOP of the bricks, not bricks atop a baseplate. It'd be a space theme, so funky different colored caves could be used. I know of at least 3 trans colors used in Bionicle glow MADLY under blacklight. Neon green, neon orange, neon blue, neon pink, neon red, and to a point, neon yellow. Not to mention the glow in the dark parts that glow even moreso near a UV source. Meh... I'm being too ambitious... too abstract to ever happen.

Expected Dr.Who reference/10

Well guess there's no use talking you out of it, but I can offer some advice... F them. F them too. :) Of course, maybe it was just criticism you didn't want to hear, but I don't know. Wasn't there. Moc how you wanna' moc, change when you wanna' change. It's what's fun and good for you that matters. :)

^^^ What blueandwhite said. Hating is when you think Lego has no business making them. Being indifferent is not hate. I'd never buy DUPLO (at least I don't THINK I would), but I 100% understand it's purpose and place inside that which is Lego. I don't "hate" it. Yeah, hearing a Lego rep say it wasn't made with mocers in mind... kinda' shot me down a few notches on hopes of where the line was going and who on earth was now in charge of it. Luckily, whether or not the Lego guy was relaying info correctly, the new line is ripe with mocing promise. Both big annoyances. I hate geared "play features", especially when it omits movement for poses. That's hardly a Bionicle-only scenario though. They have alot of thin, experimental parts. Couple that with mass-production due to the demand, ...it's going to happen. Remember that R2D2 set from a few years ago? The dark blue came in both solid dark blue, and this blatantly trans-dark blue. http://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=1333560 And that occured in every set of R2D2 I got, both different types simultaneously packaged with each other. >__< It's not hard to find color / quality anomalies in system parts if you search for it on Brickshelf. I know the system in my own parts bins have a few further examples.

How so? They had no attention to uniformity of color, or much else. They were structurally "wonky". In a sick way though, they were more mobile than the Bionicle combiners of the first few years. But we're talking my opinion here. You might see qualities in Throwbot combiners outside my perception.

No, I'm aware what the rest of the world percieves us as. BZ's not really "right wing". It's more... "thought controlled". To be called right wing, they'd have to have god references everywhere... but the fact is religion period is banned from the posting lexicon. But I know what he meant. Everything is over-safe to the point of stagnation... though it's hard to apply that to JUST the right or JUST the left wing. Anyway, I have a hard time looking at ANY lego medium and say it's "not Lego". You can be sure if there were a box of Duplo bricks dropped on my doorstep, that the next few humanoid mecha would SOMEHOW have them incorporated into it. What the "system" guys miss as being a big attraction to Bionicle is the joints. System doesn't let you build fully functional action figures. Not without a decent amount of being clever. The ball joints are all-important to having Lego step out of being just for non-moving sculptures. And that's ok. I'd say Lego's had a pretty decent run of sculptures over the decades. The funny thing is, they're Lego. Sculptures CAN have hidden mobility. Bionicle guys CAN be sculptures. Here's an excellent example of a Bionicle parts-based sculpture: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=153227 Granted, there is SOME mobility, but as a statue, it is at it's best. And alot of the parts used here are from Bionicle, not system sets. I dare say this wouldn't have even been possible using just system. Really, it's how you use it. Some people think better in a square, drafting plans type mindset, some people are better at a face in every cloud, jigsaw puzzle type mindset, and some can link the two (as I think the Thraxisjr moc up there shows) into some kind of incredible hybrid. Bionicle's parts aren't as bad when you're not looking at gaudy action figures with cheesy gimmicks dangling off of them. They still pretty much break down into tiny Lego elements that can lock with any other Lego elements, and look like something 100% not meant for it's intended purpose.

I can't believe they thought it was legally feasible to call their version of K'Nex, Z'Nap. I mean... that's so... blatant. And people complain about Megablocks confusing parents with something similar?

Before Bionicle, I NOTICED Throwbots, even going so far as to look at the packaging... but they were pretty lame-lookin' robots. A year later, they were these "Roboriders", but looked like the same things. When Bionicle came, I RAIDED the discount bins to get these old guys, because they had Bionicle pieces in many colors. Their combiner models shown in the instructions were horrendously illogical. Strictly good parts sources. : )

Nah, that was Galidor lol. I think they were even made in China (could be wrong). Well, I'm a Bionicle guy, and it's Bionicle that REALLY dragged me into Lego in 2001. But your critiques are somewhat valid, you brick guys. If you look at Bionicle mocs being made NOW as opposed to mocs from like 2 or 3 years ago, they have, for the most part, gone down in creativity. There is NO doubt in my mind that this is due to the adoptions of GIANT parts. But not just giant parts, ones that have a lack of connection points with which to connect to other pieces. Swords are a good example. Back in 2001, only one of the 6 Toa guys had a "real" weapon, a sword. He became wildly popular, no doubt due to the fact the character was a Clint Eastwood clone. A few years later, nearly every "canister" figure had GIANT silver weapons included. Nice, and welcome, but TOO MUCH. Now, it's hard to find mocs that aren't dripping with silver swords. They all look the same, and creativity has fallen over. Also, parts that are "bent" (usually leg pieces) which wrap around to the sides, to hide the fact they're hollow. "Bulking" these parts up is a hard thing to do indeed. So unfortunately, more often than not, they are used almost exclusively as leg pieces. I personally am bugged by this as much as say, the way system mech builders use CLICK-bricks as knee joints. X D Buuuuuut, I'm hopeful. The 2006 line looks a bit more "useful" than the past 2 or 3 years of Bionicle. They can do themselves well to have ALL these new parts from this new wave be available in other colors, just as the "mask packs" from 2001 got kids thinking creatively. So yeah, for now, Bionicle IS pretty much just there to make money (and it does). But a REAL moc'er can see past that, past themes and such. Heck, I'd sooner kick my kittens out into the middle of a highway than suggest Lego rerelease Galidor and Z'Nap, but I'm not quite ignorant enough to not employ choice pieces from their lines. The nice thing about Technic (which separates it from the above 2 monstrosities) is that you can effectively hide it inside system, while adding playability to it. I understand why they did. For the most part, "left wing" views scare parents and grannies more than right wing ones do, as far as what they want their kids seeing / reading when they're not there. My bugaboo with BZ is that ever since a Lego rep said to me that "Bionicle is not aimed at moc'ers" (or something close), now EVERY time I critique a new set in regards to mocing use, I get kids saying "Blah blah said Bionicle isn't done with moc'ers in mind, JINZO!" Yeah, so like... NO. Action figures are popular, then die off when kids get too old (usually). But approached from a mocer stanpoint, you might have a customer straight through into late adulthood.

I like how Post Oreo-O's cereal has the named abbreviated above the UPC barcode. "12.oz POO"

Ugh here we go again. Just what is wrong with starwars being more complex? I think this is all coming out of people that want things like this to stay simple. Problem is, the longer a story goes one, the more complex it gets. I can answer that one! It's called "selling-out". It's a double sided coin though. For the company, it means alot more sales and longer life of the franchise. For the initial fans, it means that the thing got geeky and no longer credible. It happens alot in comics. You get fanboys of certain titles who grow up to become writers. Before you know it, EVERY character is (impossibly) connected to every other character and event. Sure, the universe gets expanded, but like with Star Wars, the main characters are all herded into a glass box in the middle of that universe. Which is silly. It's an expanding universe. Take Star Wars 3. Yoda knew CHEWBACCA before Empire Strikes Back? Han Solo (first draft of film, edited out) was a kid running around on Chewbacca's world?!? Obi Wan was there when Boba Fett's dad was killed? ...like, what happened to Star Wars being a whole universe? Sounds like it's just events going on in a town. Etc, etc... the problem people have is that these "giant" galaxies or stories are turned into teeny tiny "members-only" cocktail parties, even though MORE of the universe they're in has expanded. Once geek fanboy writers or executives with no soul realize household names = money... it's pretty much downhill from there. It's not "simplicity" people want, it's credibility. But like I said, it's profitable, and that's what the world runs on. Money. >__<

Yah, but it's size is such that I think it might be those teeny pins connected to studded plates. ...I think.

That red Bionicle sword... it was all-red in the preliminary photos... but is yours there red with system-injected black?

It's a strangely designed set, trippy almost. Looks like Bionicle, but with different themes boppin' around inside it. Lots of parts I want in there/ ;)

Indeed. Here's some of the things that excited me when Bionicle came out in 2001: --Mask packs with unknown contents. (masks in different colors for mocing, trans masks, the Vahi mask (which turned out to not actually be included though on the packaging) ). --All the UV blacklight-reactive trans neon elements. --Lewa's Japanese anime-lookin' Miru mask. --The MUTE, HUMOROUS and CLEVER little dudes that ran around in the online flash movies, having insect-like speed and reactions. It's not felt the same since the feel of the first Matoran (Tohunga) were all but gone from the story, replaced with the boring ones from the Mask of Light movie. But still... if Kongu is one of the new Toa, then I hope it also means a return to the Miru mask. It was perfection... rascally in design and insanely useful in mocs. I musta' bought 10 or more Lewa figures just to keep getting that mask... as well as dozens (hundreds?) of mask packs to get them in different colors.

Closing to decrease topic dupiness (though this was first). And here's their names! http://eurobricks.hosting.ipsyn.com/eurofo...=ST&f=19&t=3401

For that much money, I suggest a nice forsythia bush for your yard. They grow VERY quickly and produce HUNDREDS of yellow sabers for summer fun. And the bruised whelts they leave all over a person's body let the fun last long after you've stopped playing. ... ... What?

Nulled. And as usual, Deinonychus mirrors my thoughts to a T. Saves me the trouble of typing. :P

Same discussion goin' on here: http://eurobricks.hosting.ipsyn.com/eurofo...=ST&f=19&t=2351 Topic closed.

Well, there's already a discussion goin' on here: http://eurobricks.hosting.ipsyn.com/eurofo...=ST&f=19&t=2448 ...so I think this can be unstickied now that they're out.