Dorek
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Everything posted by Dorek
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Depends on what this hexagonal packaging is, assuming it's even final. If it's some kind of collapsible box/canister thing? Heck yes I like that. If not, then hopefully something else functional and space-efficient.
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That's certainly my impression, although enough people seem to be looking for signs that it's a continuation, so it's not a foregone conclusion necessarily.
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(for the record, I LIKE Onua, don't judge me) Relatively popular, since the Ask Greg chatroom on the LMB always seems to be pretty busy, and we do a fairly brisk business at BS01 as a result. But ultimately I don't think this line is meant to appeal to the people to who liked it back then, but rather a new audience (granted some of the sets look a bit more complex than the average one of yesteryear, but I think that has to do with the different divisions in set size more than anything else). It's been pointed out; some people theorize that these pics are from earlier in development, and that the name was just a placeholder.
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Do those pieces actually attach with an axle? Looks kinda like it uses a bar. Would be nice to see them, though I'm actually pretty satisfied with the amount of new molds we have. Them giant swords...
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Honestly, the blend of Technic/CCBS here is what excites me the most; it IS clearly BIONICLE, but incredibly new and interesting at the same time. Which implies that "Krata" might not be accurate either, but it's really too early to tell.
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Well, and they had to tweak the color and everything of the skull spiders, so I suppose I shouldn't have hyperbolized, but I guess that's why they used Lewa and Tahu as the only pictures with colored backgrounds? The golden mask/skull spider is more interesting to me; loving the level of detail in it.
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I was joking, yeesh. I was referring to the summer ones from the Toyfair catalog, but yeah, the lack of the background does make it look very preliminary. Totally unchanged from the display stand pic we got, though, despite what people are saying.
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So THIS is who listens to TTV... :U Yeah, I was a bit disappointed in him too. I'm hoping the body is complex enough to make up for the dopey face (although the fangs are pretty clever). Edit: Gata, you never saw the Inika prototypes, did you? =P. Or the Breakout prototypes, for that matter.
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Unlikely, since they are still present on Lewa, who would otherwise be considered an arbitrary choice (Tahu would get a pass, obviously). It's just part of the background design they didn't include for whatever reason. They'll be there. (also, still intrigued by the packaging... is collapsible canisters really too much to hope for?) People would have said that about Bruizer =P. Regardless, you could attach a ball joint to an axle to simulate both effects; it's pretty easy, actually.
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I know, right? Like... damn. No wonder he looks so chubby.
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I can dig it. Love how none of them have backgrounds yet =P. The hexagonal packaging interests me, though... perhaps something collapsible, but not quite plastic bags?
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We all want mask packs, but I doubt we'll see them coming back. The budget for that would be insane. That said, I kinda hope the Defenders have the same mask, because that means options. (although they totally'd need a gold version too!) Most old fans, but I doubt the new generation would make the immediate association. I'm down for canisters, but obviously the bags have been fantastic in terms of both usability and storage capability. But hey, maybe we'll get something entirely new that nobody has mentioned.
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We going back to the gender thing again? I'm okay with some gender swaps in the new continuity (again, assuming it is, but it totally is). Why not, y'know? I liked the Mata Nui reveal as much as the next guy, but repeating it isn't doing anybody any favors. Even the serials were pretty well liked, at least initially; the fixed bi-weekly schedule was a godsend in that regard. They did tend to ramble as they went on (and ultimately were left unfinished...), but I'd think a lot of the criticism also had to do with his occasionally haphazard answers in the OGD, as well =P.
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What, any worse than Sayger's random omission of pieces altogether? =P. Mhan drew fingers a few times, but D'Anda was really the best at it. Regardless, I still really liked the comic vibe Mhan gave the characters, and it would have been cool to see him tackle Hero Factory more.
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So, totally not 2014, but I recently stumbled upon this old cover Pop Mhan (BIONICLE comics artist 2009-2010) did for one of the HF comics (probably the 4th one). Man, why couldn't we have gotten that? Looks sick, dude.
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But there wasn't this huge divide between "people who like the story" and "people who bought the sets", at least, there wasn't supposed to be and there wasn't initially. BIONICLE was a story-driven line, like Ninjago or Chima; if Ninjago didn't have the massive TV viewership that it has, it wouldn't keep getting more episodes, but by the same token, would not have as much exposure. It's not a binary relationship, the transmedia is synergistic in nature. It needs to work together to contribute to the success of the line as a whole. Unfortunately, certain aspects of BIONICLE became less popular or accessible as the line went on; part of that is obviously just age, franchise fatigue, etc. But these are all reasons why the line very likely will (and in my personal opinion, should) reboot; the entirety of the property needs to reach a new audience, they can't split their focus between appeasing the non-set buying portion of the audience and the target consumer demographic. Well, in terms of the final year, there wasn't much to lose; it was gone, we were lucky to get these sets, etc. I'm not saying any of it is right (especially in terms of Hero Factory, which seems to go out of its way to disregard the canon =P), but comparatively, the story was pretty on-the-ball with keeping things consistent. Most of the names wouldn't have appeared if not for the books, so generally they were limited to the universe. And again, not everything about BIONICLE was meant to be so disconnected; the story supported the sets and expanded upon the universe, just as many franchises have. I'm just saying, everything can be simplistic when you reduce it to base elements, and to do so isn't a holistic look at the property, which does it a disservice when trying to compare things.
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On the latter, there were plenty of instances where the promotional/marketing talk did not match up with the story product (and Hero Factory was a major offender of that), so that's more just to do with poor communication between certain description authors. As for the books, the fact that they kept putting them out is evidence enough that they expected people to read them and that they had a decent enough following. Toward the end of the series, they started putting out less books (a canceled one in 2007, only two in 2009, etc) presumably due to declining sales, another sign that the series was losing steam. With the Hero Factory books, they managed a year and a half of the novels before the book series was unceremoniously cancelled due to poor sales. Also with BIONICLE, they had copious amounts of spare names (which cost a pretty penny to run through legal checks), many of which only appeared in the books; at some point that was worth the money spent, but I imagine as the series went on it became less so. I mean, anything can be reduced to a nice soundbite, really; the complexity is in its totality. Boneheads of voodoo island was element robots fighting evil animals; sounds pretty simple like that.
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I was more referring to the current 2014 one =P. I'm still holding out hope for HF 2015, man.
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Oh, sure, sets come before story, despite the overarching story bible (I'm never quite sure when the "land/sea/sky" idea was formalized, but anyway). It's the minutae that bogged the story down, and prevented it from being accessible to newer readers. The people paying attention to the story, statistically, were not the people buying the sets. So while plenty of money was being sunk into something that was ultimately non-profitable, there was little return investment on it. That obviously didn't make it less enjoyable, but it's one of the contributing factors to what happened to the line. Assuming they at least want to create some sort of entry-level story for prospective new buyers (and story-driven themes can and do succeed, i.e. Ninjago and Chima), revisiting a cumbersome, ten-years-in-the-making story is much more likely to alienate fans than attract them. And I've asked that question in this chat before, believe me =P. The issue is, from a marketing standpoint (as elaborated by Greg in that quote earlier) the previous audience is not in a prime demographic for purchasing the sets (and in terms of the story consumers, were not ones to buy sets anyway). So they obviously want fresh blood for the line, and adhering to something that can only limit them in the future seems a poor way to go about it.
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Does somebody want to get the product landing image(s) for Hero Factory now too? :U
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The problem is that it ALREADY became obsessed with its own continuity, which is why it was canceled. The story team has no need to weigh themselves down with what came before, because satisfying a group of people who previously represented a minute portion of the sales (and now will absolutely represent even LESS than that) is pretty pointless. As for your last statement, again, reboots are different from remakes; a reboot does not mean they're going to do literally the same thing over again, so they'll have a whole new "big story engine" (or perhaps not at all and just more episodic stories).
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The problem is that it doesn't allow them to take any liberties with the story; Tahu et al. would need the exact same personalities, history that any newcomers would not understand, etc. and any deviation from that renders adhering to the canon a moot point in the first place. It's certainly doable, but it's bound to collapse on itself sooner or later.
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Possibly the first alphabetically? Is there anything else that comes before it?
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Interesting how BIONICLE can turn into a debate on digital civil rights =P. Obviously there's nothing illegal in finding or disseminating the image, but that in itself is far from a tacit admission on LEGO's part about wanting the image out there. Regardless, it's out there now, and they'll have to deal with that. Also I say it looks like Vultraz's mask so this is totally The Melding alternate universe where he was kidnapped except now he killed all the Great Beings and is now the ruler of Spherus Magna. The good old days, neh? We miss you bro. Come back to us. Forever.
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That's hot, yo.
