dviddy

The video's on the Amazon page. ;)

"Innovation" be damned if it doesn't also look good. Add to this that I deny the innovation that is claimed to exist in these lower legs. I've seen the near-exact same thing in the BBC on crappy Titan MOCs. This doesn't prove TLG's being more innovative, it just means that (like with the Exo-Force robot arms as fingers) they've decided to search through Brickshelf for ideas. <<DV>>

Takanuva looks like crap in that picture. I love hollow, see-through legs! Boo hiss boo. <<DV>>

In defense of art: Nudity does not porn make. If so, we'd have to destroy most of the great Greco-Roman sculptures, censor so many beautiful Renaissance paintings, and burn so very many books of artistic photography. As for the MOC, try standardizing your colours. Then get back to me. It's too messy, and I'm so very lost.

Jinzo: Portrait of a Japanophile! Japanese doing character and build design for Bionicle? No thanks. There are enough big-eyed sweat-drop people in the world. I would much rather not see Bionicle go anime. It's just not an art style I find even remotely appealing. But who knows, maybe the 'target group' would love it.... <<DV>>

I do have to say, I think the mask on Lewa 2, the vehicular one, is more true to the original Miru Nuva. It's too bad they turned the spiked visor trans-blue... the spikes really helped that visual homage.

By the by, Gorast is the chickuta. GregF confirmed and approved!

It was at the Hordika comment that I stopped reading. Then I started again, and regretted it. This is why we have crappy launchers, and the Inika had rubber masks. What do they teach you kids in schools these days? Big weapons equal big fun? Engineering is hard, so stay away from simple gear-box constructions? I just don't get it. What makes gears 'too hard'? Has our society fallen so far that when we say we want a 'quick build', on a LEGO set, of all things, it has to be under four minutes? Because Heaven forbid the gears take an extra thirty seconds? So now we've sacrificed engineering for launchers, because this is 'more playable'. I blame the educational system. <<DV>>

You weren't on-line for it- I was. I cannot recall a single complaint beyond the MOCist disapproval of the masks and legs. The Nuva were cool. In ways the Newva cannot be. If just for character recognition. These don't even share colour schemes with the old ones! Also; 'You'll get used to it' is a poor excuse. "I'm poor and starving!" "You'll get used to it." Sure, they're not forcing us to buy anything. Sure, they offer other lines for us to buy from. But why is that an excuse for poor set design?? Take off the high-horse blinders, Swert. We have a legit picture of Tahu. Yes, he might change. He probably will, but not in any way that matters. The differences between the first Phantoka pictures and the final models are negligible. The Inika design differences were negligible. So were the Mahri. There is no reason to discourage opinion making just because you dislike the opinions being made. We have a clear picture, and anyone who has built a set in the past three years knows how he's constructed. There's no guesswork here. So can we jump down off the balcony of haughtiness now? Many of us here are adults, and the majority of the rest are at least somewhat intelligent teenagers. We are allowed to formulate our own opinions, and hey, you are as well. I respect that, and so do others here. Reciprocation would be swell. If you want to wait to make your judgment calls (though it seems from your posts you've already made them), cool. Let us continue our discussion on how we feel about them now, with the current information available. Also, I do hope the new BZP immigrants become less... frustrating. <<DV>> (BZP member for six years [joined when there were less than 900 members (since we're playing this game)])

Greg said in the OGD that Takanuva has his new form at the start of the biocast. So, it's not the reverse world that gives it to him.

For the evil Takanuva idea: So there's a real quote from Greg. So now how are they going to explain this travesty of a Takanuva, if that is, indeed, Takanuva?

Drama, much?

Icarax looks like a poorly built MOC. Silver weapons slapped on everywhere in over-abundance, in such a way to make them completely impractical? Check. Boring torso taken from a canister set? Check. TLG based arms? Check. Everyday 2006+ legs? Check. Really lame feet, that not only look silly (seriously, Visorak toes aren't flat on the sides, his feet don't even look like they sit flush on the ground. Plus what's with the silver Mahritoran knives on the back? WTF?), but look slapped-together. Wahoo noob MOCery. No thanks. I do like that he's supposed to wear the Mask of Shadows, and, hey, he does! <<DV>>

Story exposition is fantastic, when it fits the story being told. If the comic focused solely on Matoro's run with the Ignika, then it'd be far more fantastic. As is, ending the Barakki/Mahri story that has been the focus for the year with a simple "and then Matoro teleported them away" is not responsible storytelling. It's a quick and easy out that requires no real exposition or storytelling. Every storyline deserves a fitting climactic event, and a fitting close. The Barakki/Mahri did not get one in this comic, and it led to a thematically weak story, with a saddening lack of closure. A good climax requires a fitting climax. Whisking the Mahri away does not do that. And the story suffers for it. Hopefully the book does a better job than this comic, because as an overall 'end' to the story arc, this comic blew.

WEAK SAUCE. "Matoro puts on the MoLi, teleports his fellow Mahri to Metru-Nui, leaving the Barakki behind in the Pit. Matoro dies, and Mata Nui is alive again! Hurray!" So anticlimactic. No real 'battle' (sure, we get little snippets of a battle, but there's no conclusion, the Mahri are swept away to Metru-Nui), no real suspense, not much of anything. Plus, I hate the artwork. It's skewed, and it looks like something an elementary schooler drew. I don't understand how this guy gets hired. His artwork is juvenile and malformed. <<DV>>

Congratulations, you've made his point! Xia, the technological base and weapons factory that it is shouldn't exist. They should never have allowed such tech into the story. Yes, the line should've stayed primitive and mythical. It was far more interesting. With far more directions it could be taken. Now it's all sci-fi and high-tech. Oh, what fun. Yawn. Oh come off it. Just admit that they look the same, and move on. Making a case on silly little nuances is tedious and unnecessary. Of course it's not a long time, on a planet billions of years old... ;) Call me rude, but I still hold that this is perhaps one of the dumbest ideas of all time. "Look, we took a living being and transformed the inside of it into a high-tech underwater submarine/ocean-floor-crawling vehicle!" Ridiculous. If you're going to try and argue something, at least try to come across as reasonable. <<DV>>

First, you can't base a 'the personalities were stereotypes!' for the first year. The first year was the base, and anything else was built upon. You can't retroactively claim stereotypes. The first is the original, and it's BECAUSE of the first year that the rest aren't. Secondly- using the Piraka bodies as, oh man, bodies in Titans is not creative. It is not 'ohmylookattheawesomeusefulness!' It's lame, it's stupid, and it proves the exact opposite of your point. Also, I loved the gears. Don't be hatin' because you're one of those 'the new style is cooler, and gears were hard!' kids. ;)

Greg. And plus he also said there was one other one we hadn't even heard of yet. <<DV>>

There won't be more 'Toa Phantaka'- there will be more TOA NUVA. The word 'Phantoka' is an overarching word that describes both good and bad sides of the winter release. It's "a Matoran word that means 'spirits of the air' ". There will not be any more small sets. There are two sets we haven't seen for the winter release. Icarax, and one we don't know of yet. <<DV>>

Your market points are invalid- Just look at Lego Star Wars. They release updated versions of ships they've already released about hey, once every five years. In fact, the Droid Fighter has been re-done slightly and re-released in the same year about three times. Yet Lego Star Wars is the second highest selling Lego line. Maybe it's brand recognition. But if Bionicle is the number one/two selling Lego line, can stores afford to tell TLG they won't stock the product? Do you think Toys R Us is going to tell TLG that they don't want TLG's number one selling building product? I'm also not sure where you're getting the rounder Akaku Nuva statement from- I didn't make it. I don't want exact copies of the Nuva; that's why I dislike ToM's 'Nuva Update' project. They're boring. They are. But so are these. Because just like ToM's project, we've seen these before. Same design, same build, same damn pieces we've gottin in every damn canister set for the past two-three years. But what I do want is sets that evoke the originals. These do not. One out of two colors is not alright, as Jinzo stated, that's half-assing it. Especially when we've been told that the designers set out to specifically recreate the Nuva. And why is it important for Kopaka to have a shield? Because it's an integral part of what makes the character. Same with Pohatu's girth and feet. It was a unique aspect that only they carried. Onua Nuva had best be hunchbacked. Because he always has been, and always must be, because it's part of the character (this is especially important if they're going with the 'they just put on new armour' idea, because then Onua's anatomy will have changed with his new armour, and that's not exactly square with the story, now is it?) It's the little things like those that would silence most of the negative feedback on the new Nuva. Give Kopaka an effin' shield. Give Pohatu something on his feet. Give Lewa his old green back. Give them masks that at least evoke the original. I don't want copies. I want something that looks plausibly like it could be the same mask, yet different. Most of the Nuva masks shared some sort of design cues with the Olda masks. Kopaka's eyepiece is a step in the right direction. Pohatu's mask is not. If the fanbase that existed with the Nuva doesn't exist, statistically, and the new market had no knowledge of these Nuva, and has no '2002' bias, then it makes little sense from a marketing perspective to create sets that don't resemble the originals in such a manner that you can look at them and go 'Oh, that's a new version of the same character, I can tell by how it looks'. The old base will, to some extent greater than their current buying prowess, buy, and the newer base will buy because the 'style' is that which they apparently prefer. It's win-win. Plus, modifying the molds that produced the Nuva/Olda masks to make new masks must be cheaper than creating brand new ones. That saves TLG money. <<DV>>

"Consistency is all I ask! Give us this day our daily mask!" The new Toa Nuva should have resembled the old Toa Nuva for sheer consistency. These are established characters, indeed, they are THE established characters for this 'book' of Bionicle. As the Nuva resembled the Mata, so too should the 'Newva' resemble the Nuva. Now I agree that I don't think ToM's MOCs, as nice of an ideas as they are, should be what we are seeing in these scans. Those wouldn't work because they're TOO similar, and lack some of the points of articulation we've become accustomed to. The lack of elbows bugs me. BUT- They should have at least kept the colors. Green over lime, White over light grey (which they more or less did, thank goodness), BROWN over TAN. This would be a vital step towards character recognition. And it wouldn't be that hard. And masks. I'm not the biggest fan of the Nuva masks (though I love the Miru Nuva, <3), but something that resembles either those, or the original masks. Something that when looked at you go "Oh, Lewa's wearing some sort of Miru." With the somewhat exception of Kopaka's mask, none of these do that. And Kopaka. Where'd his shield go? Little things like this would go a long way towards character recognition. Is there something that was a trademark of the old sets? Keep it. Kopaka's shield, Pohatu's girth, and feet, etc. Give Kopaka back a sword, he's always had at least one, and he's not Kopaka without it. By all means, keep the monkey proportions of the newer sets. Update the posability so they match today's standards. Give them knees and elbows. Give them necks. Hell, give them waists! Go the extra mile. I'm all for that. But for sheer consistency's sake, let them resemble the old Nuva in at least some regard! And you're right, this isn't Batman. Because Batman's been around in so many mediums, has had so many toys, is shown as owning more than one version of his costume, etc. He's allowed to be different in each toy/medium. He's a friggin billionaire, he can pretty much do what he wants. But look at him. Each one is clearly Batman. And still he sells. "Making the new Nuva look like the old one would be bad for business!" Tell that to Batman. And Optimus Prime. And Star Wars. And Spider-Man. And... <<DV>>

Icing on the Nuva cake:

And a friggin' shield. <<DV>>

Europe, Jinzo. October 5th. Not May 10th. <<DV>>

Absolutely nothing my rear end. Accidentally get an axle stuck in a configuration where you couldn't pull it out, and it seemed stuck? Stick a knife in the holes on the front of the socket and push the axle out. Those holes were life savers more times than I could count when I began MOCing. That said, I don't see the change as anything to fret over. As long as you do it right, inconsistencies can be your friend. Layer them, so the old ones are inside where they can't be seen, and the new ones are outside. Do it by color, so all white ones are old, all black ones are new. Etc. It's not that hard. <<DV>>