Zarkan

Thanks for the review, Dor. However, like the review of Jimi Stringer on Bzpower, it really hasn't changed my view at all. Seriously, I don't like these guys much at all. I think what really kills the set for me is that, aside from the new armor pieces (which still don't look good at all from the back), there's really no innovation in set design with these guys. In fact, I'd say that the gun/arm piece is a step backwards in design - not to mention the ugliest and most obtrusive mold I have ever seen on a Bionicle-building-system kit. Seriously, even the squid launchers weren't this bad, as they could be easily taken off. In contrast, there's no way you can take off or replace this new piece without the kit looking incomplete, and its asymetricality and large amount of detail makes it basically useless for Mocing (unlike the squidlauncher, which I actually have seen used in a MOC). Still, if we're going solely on looks, Preston Stormer isn't that bad (from certain angles, anyway). What I'm really upset about is that these guys replaced Bionicle while not even taking it in a new and bold direction. Hero Factory seems more like a step sideways than anything, and in some cases it's even a step backwards IMO. I honestly think there could have been just as much, if not more innovation, if the original plans for Bionicle 2010 had gone through. The sets of 2009 were already awesome, as they really innovated in terms of piece design and elemental flavoring. Imagine much more they could have progressed in those areas if we had gotten the Element Lords! Ah well, it's not as if I can really change anything. I'm just not understanding people who are praising Hero Factory so much - my personal belief is that it's more about "Bionicle was getting so terrible that I'll take anything else over this crap," and not as much about "wow, I liked Bionicle, but this is truly even better!" I know it sounds strange, but with how some people were so vehemently opposed to the direction Bionicle was going in, I wouldn't rule this out at all.

I have to say, while I'm still not too keen on Hero Factory as a whole, I find it neat that they've split the bad guys up into two factions. It's cool that Xplode works for Von Nebula only on his terms, and runs a separate crime ring on his own. Also, I never would have suspected that Rotor was Xplode's flunky and not Von Nebulas's, which would potentially make a battle brtween him and some of the other villians very possible. It's just too bad that Xplode utterly fails as a set, because his character seems to be the coolest of the bunch. I can see some interesting fan-fiction arising out of this new dynamic, and I'd like to see someone write a story about him engaging in a gang war with Von Nebula.

No, I'm not one of those people. I realize that there are anime that have very fluid animation - however, anime series aimed at kids generally seem to have a lot choppier animation than western series. Or at least, the ones that make it over to the United States (Pokemon, Yugioh, etc). However, if a Bionicle series was made with animation that took inspiration from anime (Avatar: The Last Airbender comes to mind), then I would probably like it. My point is, my prime concern about a Bionicle series is that it would animate well. I want the character designs to look good, of course, but the level of detail or design don't matter if the characters don't move smoothly. A series based on Bionicle would need animation on par with the series I have listed, otherwise it wouldn't achieve the level of excitment that it should.

Ugh, to be honest, I always found that exclusive comic cover rather ugly. It honestly makes the Toa look really evil, and some of the masks look nothing like the ones on the actual sets. Regardless, I wouldn't really want a Bionicle anime, as my ideal Bionicle cartoon would have really fluid animation. Something along the lines of Transformers Animated or Spectacular Spiderman would work much better for me - simple designs that move really smoothly and also are visually appealing.

Hey, even if 4Kids got ahold of it, it might not necessarily be bad. The recent TMNT show was from them, and that was really awesome IMO. But really, this is all speculation anyway, as I highly doubt we'll get a bionicle television show. Would it be cool? Yes, especially if it was based off of the early years and expanded on them. Just saying it probably won't happen.

Of course not, now that you're starting to post a lot more stuff relating to other themes. Which is fine by me, as I'm just as much a fan of system as I am of Bionicle. Oh, and I third the notion of changing the forum name to "constraction figures." That title honestly makes a lot more sense, as it distinguishes all of lego's big figure lines from typical action figures. After all, I can't remember the last time I saw an average action figure that you could take apart, rebuild, and combine with other action figures and even vehicles.

I haven't watched the series, so I don't know much about it, but I know enough that what the major movie is doing isn't consistent with the animated series. It's basically like making a Spiderman movie where Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, and all the other main characters are black, while the villian is some other race. It just isn't consistent with the original source material, and it severely changes who the characters actually are. Some people seem to think that race really isn't that big of a deal, and for the most part I'd say they're right. Today's society doesn't (or at least isn't supposed to) prefer people or dis-prefer people for a role soley based on their skin color. Instead, they should chose people based on whether they fit the role or not. In animation for example, white people should be allowed to play black people, and black people should be allowed to play white people, as long as their voices are consistent with who the character is. However, when it comes to making an adaption of something that already has a distinct ethnical tone, changing the race of characters just to appeal to a mainstream crowd smacks of a disrespect for the source material. The fact that it's live action only complicates the matter, as it's much harder to imitate a different nationality in real life than it is in other forms of art. So basically, I think Batbrick has it right. This is simply a bastardization of the source, end of story.

This new board design is, to be honest, meh. Of course, it isn't really Eurobrick's fault, but the fault of the host - but it sure is going to take some time to get used to. I think my least favorite change is that clicking "add reply" when not logged in doesn't automatically bring you to the login screen. Sure, it's only an extra click, but there's no point in changing something it if doesn't improve it. Ah well, I don't even spend as much time on Eurobricks as I used to (or other forums for that matter). If the other sites I go to upgrade soon as well, I may be around even less.

Yeah, but the Joker is also insane - and even then, it wasn't exactly the same as his classic outfit. Then again, you might have a point - I guess I'd just personally like to see a more subdued riddler, in the vein of Two-face's and Scarecrow's costumes.

Interesting... however, there's one problem with having an opinion like this. You see, regardless of whether you liked Mata Nui being a robot or not, the reality is that he had always been that way in the storyline. We just didn't know about it until 2008 - but it had been planned since the very begining. In fact, if Bionicle had only been a one year line, as it might have been originally, we would have still gotten a similiar ending, with everyone finding out that Mata Nui actually is a giant robot that contains the universe. Other things that you don't like, like the Brotherhood of Makuta, had been planned from the begining as well - the entire story had, actually, up til about 2008. The only years that hadn't been planned were 2009 to 2010 - otherwise, everything that we have experienced was part of the original plan laid out by Bob Thompson and the story team. On another note, I've never had the opinion that, just because there are other Makuta out there, the one we have known since 2001 is suddenly much less powerful. Makuta was never really as much about power as he was about trickery anyway, and in that sense he has been completely consistent. He tricked the Toa into making him the ruler of their universe, he tricked his brothers and sisters into dying for him - he tricked basically everyone, and it took the Great Spirit himself to defeat him once and for all. That's why he is "The Makuta," not just "a Makuta" - because his intelect is far ahead of almost every other being in the universe. IMO, that makes a far more interesting villian than just "I'm so powerful because I'm the strongest being in the world."

I fail to see how a giant robot fight between Mata Nui and Makuta is "terrible," even despite the fact that 2010 was rushed. And what do you mean by "blown out of scale?" Did you really expect Bionicle to stay on the same scale as it was when it began? It's been around for ten years now, and there was absolutely no way in Karzahni that it could have stayed on Mata Nui and dealt with Tohunga and Rahi for that amount of time. Especially since, it had been planned since the begining that Bionicle would expand outward, going from Mata Nui to Metru Nui, and eventually covering an entire universe I'm sorry if I'm reading you wrong, but it just gets tiring when people hold to the supposed vision of the earlier years of Bionicle - a vision that never actually existed. The only way we would have never gone into the more complex storylines of 2004, 2006, and so on, would have been for Bionicle to end in 2003. Now, tell me - would you rather have had Bionicle end with "Mask of Light: The Movie," or would you rather have it end with a final confrontation between the Great Spirit and Makuta? Because I'm not really seeing how the former would have been a better ending.

Man, those images aren't just fake, they're dumb! Catwoman looks way too muscular, and Kristen Bell as Harley Quinn makes me want to puke. Riddler's okay, but I have no doubt that, if they use him in Batman 3, he won't be wearing an outfit anything like his classic one. Finally, what kind of title is "Gotham City?" That sounds more like a TV show than a movie, and it makes it sound like it won't really be about Batman. In other news, I am also glad that they aren't recasting the Joker. Trying to replicate Heath Ledger's performance would just be a disaster in waiting, and Joker's story is already wrapped up anyway. Some references to his reign of terror would be fine in Batman 3, but other than that the final movie should have a totally new central villian.

Oh well, at least the baterra look cool.

As I said before, I'll be picking up GN #8 for sure, since it's made entirely up of exclusive content. I'm not so sure about #9 though, as I already have all the comics that appeared in it. But hey, who knows. On another note, that Baterra is absolute win. Not exactly how I pictured it, as it was inferred that they would look something like the Bohrok, but still incredibly awesome. Edit:

Well gee, I didn't really think it would be a big deal. Isn't this what Culture and Multimedia is for anyway, and couldn't the same thing be said about almost everything in this particular subforum? Anyway, I'm currently on World Five in Super Mario Galaxy 2, and I have to say that it keeps getting more and more innovative. For example, in the Space Storm Galaxy, you eventually find yourself on a cylinder planet with see-through glass and electric lines. At first, I wasn't sure how what to do, until I noticed that there was a bomb-omb dispenser in the interior of the planet. The clue was in the star's title: "Follow me Bomb-omb." What you had to do was to get a bomb-omb to follow you as you walked along the exterior of the planet, making sure it didn't fall off the narrow interor platforms. At the end of the trail, it would blast a hole in the planet, letting you get inside to reach the launch star. It's neat gameplay innovations like this that make me laugh when people claim that Nintendo is just "releasing the same game over and over agan." If anything, it's Nintendo's competitors who are guilty of this practice, particularly Microsoft. It seems that every new Halo game that comes out is almost exactly the same as the previous, except for a new 6-hour campaign, a few new weapons, and better graphics. In contrast, Super Mario Galaxy focuses almost entirely on gameplay, and the result is a game that is jam-packed with creativity. You'll be hard-pressed to find a level that doesn't contain a new powerup, gameplay gimmick, or challenge. Switches that slow down time and turn water and lava into ice, cloud flowers and rock mushrooms, and the gazillion different functions of Yoshi are just a few of the new udeas you'll find in this game, and the list goes on and on. Still, if you've played the original, you probably won't have that much trouble getting through the main game. It's getting all 120 stars that is really tough - some of the bonus challenges are brutal, and the prankster comets seem even more difficult than before.

Well, I'll sure as heck be getting GN 8, since it's one of only two so far that have exclusive artwork. Dunno about GN 9, since it's just a compilation of comics I already have, and the graphic novels are a bit expensive for my liking. On another note, anyone else here contributed to the whole "Mask of Healing" discussion going on at BZP? I personally voted yes, but on the condition that some of the suggstions people have made about it's canonization are also included (mainly, that it can heal the user as well, and that it can only heal afflictions that the user understands). Oh, and I also agreed with everyone else that it would have to be used in official storyline, although I really wonder how ensuring that would be possible.

Since I'm sure I'm not the only one on this site who has played the games, I though I would start a topic dedicated to them. Anyway, I just rented Super Mario Galaxy 2 (don't have enough money right now to make a full purchase), and I'm loving it even more than I loved the first. The levels get a lot more interesting right away, and you don't have to suffer through an exceedingly easy tutorial. The new powerups are also awesome - I particularly love the Spin Drill, but Yoshi is fun as well. So, what do you guys think?

Only Sauron knows. Seriously, I'm really starting to get worried about this project - until MGM is either bought or sells the movie rights, production can't even start. The release date has already been moved back once or twice, and this will likely continue until the situation is sorted out. And even when (if?) it does eventually get started, the production will still be minus one awesome director. I at least hope that the new director uses all the stuff del Toro created for the movies (sets, costumes, creatures, etc) instead of starting over - that would save a lot of effort and would preserve some of what we would have gotten with him as the director.

Some sad news - Guillermo del Toro has quit directing the Hobbit! You can read the full article Here, but it seems that he was tired of waiting to start production on the films, which have been delayed extensively because of the MGM bankruptcy. This is really unfortunate - I was looking foward to seeing how he would handle the adaption of the books. Fortunately, he's still involved in the film somewhat, but it's still disapointing.

What exactly do you mean by "old Bionicle glory days?" Because if you're on of the people who thinks 2001-2003 were the only good years, need I remind you that Bob also helped plan out almost all the other years of storyline, up to 2008? Although Greg has been writing the actual books and comics and stuff for a long while, most of the stuff he wrote about was planned from the very begining, including the Metru Nui and Ignika arcs. Only 2009 and 2010 were not in the original plans in any form, and since the former was praised by fans as a great return to "classic Bionicle" glory, I don't see what you're getting at.

This was easily the best chapter of Reign of Shadows, which unfortunately has been rather hit and miss qualitywise. While it does pose more questions and answers, in this case it's a good thing, as it will provide Greg with plenty of story fodder in Bionicle's set-less future.

Concerning the element of Psionics and why people are choosing it, I personally don't really see why not. It would certainly balance a team with some of the more destructive and combat oriented elements, such as Plasma and Lightning, and I bet it would result in some really interesting story situations. But hey, I'm also the guy who wanted Kinetics to become an element, and was campaigning a bit for Crystal to become an element. Oh well, at least there's the Expanded Multiverse for that.

Well, to some of the members here, that's actually a good thing, as it would be a waste just to reveal all his new powers right away. Revealing them gradually over the course of a serial is a far better way, IMO.

Yeah I know. Think of the posibilities - depending on what Rahkshi Makuta had sent out at the time, he could have anything from some of the Bohrok-Kal powers like Electricity and Vacuum, to some of the more interesting ones like adaption and limited invulnerability. Heck, in an ironic twist, he could potentially even have ice resistance! Then again, is it actually confirmed that Makuta sent out Rahkshi besides Heat Vision? I forgot what happened in the scene in JE when they came out of the robot - could someone remind me?