Zarkan

Great stuff as usual, Batbrick! I love that you chose an unusual subject - mining mechs! And the design is just sweet - bulky construction, cool specialized arms, and lots of greebles! Iamded will sure love this.

Oh man, I'm in love with this exclusive! Detailed design with lots of features, airtight cockpit, removeable transport ship, lots of great pieces - man, so cool! Yeah, Mars Mission has improved so much from it's first year, which still had some great stuff (the landing craft, the small fighter, the shuttle in the base, and the giant tank rover come to mind). Now we have alien ships that don't look all alike and alien minfigs with ARMS! If this is the last year of MM, it's sure going out with a bang!

Amen! Sometimes I really get tired of people blaming Greg for everything that supossedly went wrong with bionicle, even if I dislike certain things as well. Greg is not the overlord of bionicle, just one of many team players that work for TLC. TLC makes the sets, and Greg and his team write the story that goes with them, not the other way around. I had a really good idea for 2009 once - where the new launchers in 2009 would use the Nynrah Ghost blaster ammo but be unique to certain classes. Some would have crossbow launchers, some would have sniper launchers, some would have heavy duty launchers, and so on. If the new launchers are anything like that (since I almost am sure we'll be getting some kind of launcher), I'll be really happy. Oh, and Greg also said that some of the new parts in the 2009 sets would be really good for MOC'ers. Now, before you say "what does he know?" remember that Greg has said that the sets generally are designed more with playability in mind than MOC'ing. Just the fact that he is saying something like this has to mean good things.

Happy birthday! And please, don't get drunk and embarrass yourself in front of all of your friends.

Now, this is something I don't understand. The romance plots in the Spiderman are not just thrown in for the sake of it - it's common knowledge that romance has always been a strong element of the Spiderman comics. Sure, not as much as the main story and villians, but still a major element. It's not just chick flick stuff - it's comic acurate.

Woah! What kind of chat does he fight with? AOL? Yeah, this game is looking awesome. I'll probably get it for my PC eventually, but not for a while.

True. I guess you're right. Still, I think Disky's moc was better - and it still had elements of Rahi in it as well, like a tail and wings. I just would have liked Miserix to be in a more natural form. I kinda agree. 01 was lighter in terms of the storytelling. Still, 2006 still had mythical elements, especially the Mask of life and everything intwined with it.

Actually, the design is quite nice. The problem is that this is a MAKUTA building contest, not a RAHI building contest, so TLC's judgement automatically fails. Disky over on BZP should have won. Oh, but look - a nice combiner for once! Beats Spiriah easily.

Waitaminute - from what I saw on BZP, I thought the winning MOC was a black and gold Makuta with wings, not this monstrosity.

Got Exo-force River Dragon yesterday. Very nice small mech - even better than last years and a huge step up from the small mechs of 2006. Decent parts pack too!

I can not wait. The only thing I'm not sure of is the Joker's personality - I'm hoping he laughs more than he does in the trailers. We need our good old fashioned joker laugh!

Thanks guys. I really enjoyed making these, and may even purchase some of them for my town in the future. I'd like to put up links so that other people can view the prices, but I don't know how to do that. Can anyone help?

Exactly. Although, it is not completely TLC's fault that this is happening. I head Greg say that the stores are very worried about carrying sets named "Toa Nuva" again just because they carried sets named that 5 years ago. I believe Gregs telling the truth, but I must say I'm not happy with the stores, especially since they carry every stinkin' GIJoe, Transformer, and Superhero action figure, even if they have the same names as the last year's lineup. I disagree, especially since TLC already showed they can make great looking Toa Nuva remakes with the Phantoka. It boggles my mind as to why TLC didn't make the Toa Mistika in the same way that they made the Toa Phantoka. Sometimes I just don't get them.

I haven't seen it, but it sounds like you're praising it for the same reasons I loved the spiderman movie series so much, especially the very first. That has to be a good thing.

Nope, haven't noticed a problem. And I constantly take my minifigs apart to make new ones, just as I do with any new sets I buy.

WARNING: The following has traces of extreme anger, extreme opinions, and extremely disgusting toy injustice. Read at your own risk. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, summer is edging closer, and the summer means a lot of things to bionicle fans: higher prices, more serials and books, and, of course, giant vehicle sets. Sadly, though, the summer means one more thing as well – the arrival of the Toa Mistika, who also happen to be three of the Nuva trashed beyond comprehension. I mean seriously, they have taken our favorite Toa of fire, water, and earth, and turned them into three of the worst canister sets to date. Okay, so 2005 and above have all had failures as well. 2005 had the visorak AND the hordika. 2006 had the awful rubber Inika masks. And 2007 had Pridak, Hewkii, Matoro, or whatever canister sets out of the 12 you didn’t like as much. But not in ages have we had the original toa back in set form, and that should raise the bar in quality. SHOULD, but unfortunately, has not. Firstly, summer 2008 has brought a slowly appearing trend out into full force: the lack of melee weapons for Toa sets. This all started in 2007, when we got Kongu Mahri, who had double Cordaks instead of one Cordak and a different weapon. This was met with mixed responses, but since Kongu was established to be a distance fighter in 2006 (laser crossbow, anyone?) and even in 2001 was known for less melee fighting and more projectile fighting, this was not so bad. Then we got into 2008, and Kopaka suffered a huge downgrade. Toa Lewa got an air saber and a midak. Pohatu got two giant propellers AND a midak. But what did Kopaka get? A midak and an ice pick. That’s quite a downgrade from his usual shield and sword, if you ask me. Still, he had a melee weapon, and the other Toa faired much better. All this, however, will change this summer. The Toa Mistika happen to be the most unarmed Toa set to date. Lacking conventional melee weapons, they have instead gone for a much more “shoot-em-up” style. Instead of a giant flame sword, something that he is known for and Jaller got as well, Toa Tahu has to make do with a spinning tri shield thing. Instead of a pair of massive digging tools of sorts, Onua has to make do with a piece of silver Takanuva armor for a shield. And instead of some sort of swimming tool or water based weapon, which Hahli got in the last two years, Gali has to make do with a tiny crosshair for her stupid launcher. Come on TLC, is this the right way to treat characters who were once the staple of your theme and now are again? You gave Jaller flameswords, Hahli harpoons and giant swimming claws, and Nuparu GIANT shields and blaster drills, so why can’t you at least be as fair to the Toa Nuva as you were to them? More importantly, is this a trend you are going to continue – making Toa rely on giant shooters and tons of Halo style violence? Please, don’t do this! But the madness doesn’t stop there. Look at the Toa Mistika, just look, and what comes to mind first? Their awful masks! Okay, so I know a lot of people here hate the old nuva masks just as much, but at least you can agree that they still looked like the original mata masks at least somewhat. Tahu still had the giant mouthhole and bulky shape, Onua stil had the small eyes, mouthhole and inner ridges, and Gali still had the diving mask look and nostril-thing. Now flash forward to 2008. Tahu now has a Knights Kingdom helmet with no mouthhole at all, Onua has a giant evil mask of shadows, and Gali has the face of a dark hunter. What has TLC done to our favorite toa? Look, if you made the Phantoka masks look at least somewhat like the originals, why couldn’t you have done this with the Mistika? And guys, I respect your opinions, but I still can’t see how Onua’s mask of shadows is better than his 2002 Nuva mask. But above all, the Toa Mistika show one thing – TLC is running out of originality in Toa designs. All three of the Mistika have almost identical designs, minus specific part shapes and colors. Piraka body, legs and arms, armor – and there you go, a generic bionicle humanoid. Even the new aspects – the flying propulsion devices - are much more tacked on in the Mistika than in the Phantoka. Lewa had two giant jetpacks on his shoulders, Kopaka had a giant wingpack, and Pohatu had two giant propellers, but the Mistika all have little jet engines attached to various parts of their body. They don’t even look like they can hold their ugly bodies up! Okay, so I may have very strong opinions, and I certainly am not mirroring everybody elses, but I still think a lot of people here understand where I’m coming from. TLC is getting lazy on toa designs – end of story. And in the process, they have mutilated three of the original toa and turned them into the most boring, ugly, underarmed “heroes” we’ve ever gotten in bionicle. And that just isn’t right. EDIT: Merged this post in from the "Mistika = Mistaka" topic... because Hades knows we've been here already. -JINZO

House B-RV-1B; Small Bus V-LB-04A; Car V-LV-29C; Tractor Truck V-LC-12D; Tractor Trailer V-LC-12E; Mcdonalds Restaurant B-OV-1E; Park Bench B-V-1B; Phone Booth B-V-1C; Bus Stop B-V-1A Just yesterday I downloaded Lego Digital Designer onto our new computer, and whatdoyaknow, it works great! (It locked up on our old computer). Of course, this means I've been on a building craze - I've built 9 different town creations using only the bricks that you can buy at the online pick a brick, and took screenshots of all of them to post here. House: Small Bus: Car: Tractor Trailer Truck: Trailer for Truck: Mcdonalds Restraunt: Park Bench: Phone Booth: Bus Stop: Hope you enjoy them.

Great lineup! I've always been a fan of Fire Vulture, and I can't wait to see what it looks like now! All Star ON!

Hm, you may be right about that, actually! I wouldn't be supprised - after all, this is a supply and demand system. If a lot of people want purple and TLC doesn't deliver the goods, tis bad for buisness! And Purple hardly isn't an UNPOPULAR color by far.

Happy B-Day! Wow, only one year old and you're already trying to fight crime in tights? I'm impressed! Hope you got lots of lego or cash! *gasp* It all makes sense now! I knew the eurobricks obession with underage booze had a ringleader!

Man, we seriously need to see more of this. I'm loving that you're tackling a really hard genere - combination of bionicle and system. The sections you built are looking great. And am I right in thinking that the bionicle figures from the playsets will be manning the ship? Cool. More, please! I could use a second course of this.

MMM, I smell ultra-destructive weaponry. These models are all great! I must confess that I have no idea what the originals looked like, but I'm sure they were still great. However, the fact that you've managed to make every model COMPLETELY studless is quite impressive - you don't see something like that every day. Keep on trucking, even if I don't totally agree with your military campaign.

I do all three! As soon as I finish a set, I always give it a play test, often with other sets from the same theme. This especially works well with Starwars, Mars Mission, Exo-Force, or other high tech combat themes. When I'm done playing with it, I often put the finished kit on my shelves or in my town display. I have all my Bionicles displayed upstairs in my bedroom, and Exo-force and a couple of other themes on shelves in my home's family room. And of course, eventually I take apart the sets for a time to see what else I can make with the pieces - although many of my creations never get uploaded to the internet, I do usually take pictures of them.

Excellent! You've really managed to give ol' uplink a lot more beef while still keeping it recognizable. And that flamethrowerblowtorch is SA-WEET. So, what are you going to do next in this series (after gate defender)? I think it would be nice to revamp a robot mech next, if you're going to do robot mechs at all.

Excellent design. You've used a lot of interesting techniques and the color scheme looks great! My only gripe is that he just doesn't look that evil with Solek's mask. I think Kirop's mask would be a better choice. Still, this is really cool.