Dorek
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Everything posted by Dorek
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I don't understand how any of those imply a continuation; explicit lack of using any previous gen associated terms (barring the Toa names), generic environments that can be from anywhere, and motifs that aren't from any particular era of the story, but serve as recognizable hallmarks regardless.
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Some of that had to do with a confusing rollout (and probably just some surplus stock), but yeah, we might not see these. Would be a shame; I'll hope for a holiday season promotion. This lil' beast is so cute!
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Maybe he isn't involved in the next series in any way, and so has no idea whether or not they're doing a reboot? He's always avoided touching those topics in one form or another. Maybe the reboot is an alternate universe and the old one is still canon, and that's part of the plot. Maybe it isn't actually a reboot. Maybe they haven't fully mapped things about the year yet at all. Maybe he doesn't want to open a can of worms so close to a new series. Speaking extremely cynically, maybe Greg just doesn't remember what the story team said about those particular mysteries and is avoiding answering the question. There's plenty of possibilities, and the only change from his cagey answers back in the day and now is the fact that there appears to be a new series on the way. Is it weird if I like that? I mean, at a certain point it's going to get unwieldy, but I like that they aren't beholden to certain parts of their "canon" (loose as it is anyway), and it enables the reboots to always feel really fresh.
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He's said that ever since BIONICLE was canceled; about the Great Beings, about where Matoran come from, etc. It has no particular bearing on the apparent return of BIONICLE, because it's something he's always done.
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It does play out slightly differently in the books, for Lhikan. As for Botar, the understanding is that you basically need the head to be intact for revival; the extent of Botar's crushing was not made completely clear, since the mention was offhand. Makuta, conversely, have their consciousness AS Antidermis, so once that's gone, they can't come back.
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System and Technic (constraction, etc) are very different beasts in that regard. Chima has an enormous multimedia push, but that couldn't save the constraction sets (which have a very direct tie-in to the system line itself!) from not being released in NA. It's not that the appetite isn't there, necessarily, it's just that the multimedia aspects don't correlate (or causate) very well with sales; one thing Greg always mentioned (and continues to do so) is that people invested in the BIONICLE story were not the ones buying the sets, and if the failed attempts of Hero Factory reaching at grander story and mythos are anything to go by, that hasn't changed too much. It's a different market at a different time; as you say, BIONICLE would no longer be a trailblazer in any respect, and the desires for story-driven themes can already be satisfied. There's easily room for BIONICLE, and there's no way we won't see any multimedia push, but for a new line to have any kind of staying power, it is going to need to try something new, since a lot of the old methods either don't work or are used to better effect in different lines. Personally, I'd like to see a TV series/specials/movie in more 2D animation, like with what Mixels is doing, as opposed to the "standard" 3D we see from most of their other lines; that could be a cool way to distinguish it.
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It's this in particular that doesn't leave me hopeful for much in terms of multimedia. Hero Factory proved that the appetite for the sets is there, but not a lot of the extraneous efforts. The books were a bust, the comic series fizzled out almost as quickly as it started, and the only reason we have a TV special this year is because ADVANCE got jazzed about the mech aspect. If they're synergizing any past lessons, we likely won't see much. The sets have always filled the right niche, and I'm sure will see bits and pieces of transmedia for support, but one of the (several) contributing factors to BIONICLE getting the axe in the past was the lack of commercial support from the target audience, because the story was inaccessible. I guess a lot of it boils down to: why BIONICLE? Why this name, as opposed to a new theme? Clearly they must be going for some amount of brand-recognition, but that will only carry them so far. Just repeating their past methods is a recipe for a quick cancellation. (that is, assuming this apparent return isn't a one-off anyway!)
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The 2012 (and to an extent, 2013) ending(s) gave the presumption of follow-up, but I think they realized that it was overly serious, so the IFB ending was much more campy and not needing in continuation. I'd like to see HF next year too, but maybe we'll see it take a break for a new constraction line, or just one wave a year or something.
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I'd want to see a helmet/faceplate type thing, but one that attaches via click points (like the Hero Factory kaiju jaws) to facilitate knocking off; the perfect blend of old and new! (if anything it will be a peg in a face but I CAN DREAM)
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Built the Combat Machine, which is pretty cool. Rocka's part is a little dopey, but apparently it's designed to accept the Flea Machine and Drill Machine parts as alternatives, which is really cool (if I had them!). Gonna build Queen Beast next!
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Got the Combat Machine and Queen Beast sets for my birthday; stoked to build these. Combat Machine first, I think...
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Hero Factory, I think, proved a certain point of "why do all these small people win against the big people". You saw it even in 2009; Mata Nui has to beat Tuma specifically by exploiting his weakness (which took TWO separate supplemental story bits to explain, might I add) and not by virtue of being a more skilled warrior, because there needed to be a reason the small guy could beat the big guy. There are plenty of similar scenarios that play out across BIONICLE and Hero Factory; almost never does the small guy beat the big guy in direct combat, presumably because it diminishes the value of the titan sets, which are hard enough to sell as it is.
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I always have a really weird methodology of buying sets. If I plan on buying them all, I try getting the more interesting looking ones first, but save the best looking one for last. In this case, I think Tahu is an appropriate first purchase choice. Maybe Gali.
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Hey, I asked for definitive proof. I'd say this is the closest thing we're going to get before the typical retail catalog leaks. I am satisfied.
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Okay, okay, you win, you evidentiary bastards. Time for BS01 to get a set database...
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Figured that would be the update. Poor guy answers one normal question about his job and it turns into "BIONICLE CONFIRMED????". Given the response to Hero Factory comics and books, I think it would take a bit for those to get off the ground for any new constraction line. This wouldn't be the same BIONICLE from ten years ago; it's a new environment for transmedia toylines, and some things work better than others.
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I keep forgetting that they didn't! They were actually supposed to. Possibly. Who knows? We could have gotten more than one iteration of the Inika, for instance, to keep the changes palatable. I guess there are some changes that end up being contrived or just flat out unnecessary, but I still appreciate an acknowledgement of such, even if the end result is a bit... weird (and this goes for a lot of stuff in BIONICLE). And then there's IFB... I think there's two trains of thought for that. One is creating an open world where anything and everything can happen (which is Hero Factory in a nutshell), while the other is telling a very specific story in a very specific timeline. BIONICLE tried to do a bit of both, to varying degrees of success, but since there was always a bigger plan in mind, it makes some of the nitty gritty contradictions passable, at least to me.
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Sets come before story; it's always been that way. Sometimes there isn't much to work with, like the Inika masks. Generally I appreciate an effort to explain what is otherwise something to dismiss entirely.
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I thought it was funny!
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They're all two-dimensional so it's hard to tell, but I see where you're coming from. I liked the bags, but I'm okay if we see some new types of packaging. Experimentation in packaging has always been a cool part of constraction lines in general.
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Remember, buying Hero Factory help shows there's a market for constraction lines... :U
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I can see Lewa, but I can't make out the others for the life of me. Also, so much for fingers =P.
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Oh, underneath Onue's gold plates. Possibly. I would assume the gold on Pohatu is actually gold, since I can't see any other gold, and we wouldn't want to break motifs =P. But then, not all of the Defenders have gold...
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Aanch mentioned that it looks like like Toxic Reapa's combining of 3m shells, and I gotta agree with him there. I don't see any purple on Onua, though.
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Broken release dates tend to vary as it is; you might see it at your local place, you might not. I haven't checked yet, but maybe I will this weekend...
