Zarkan

:-D That was great.... And hey, I only just learned about the Starwars Holiday special a few months ago - haven't seen a minute of it, but just from the descriptions on Wikipedia I can tell it was the greatest cheeseball television thingy since that corny Startrek episode I saw a year ago - I think it was Spock's Brain? Oh, wait, this is about the new starwars movie. Right.... :-| WHAT?! I didn't know there was TWO seasons on that DVD! I only rented the first season... man, I sure missed out that day.... *makes note to rent second Clone Wars DVD* |-/

I think we all did, although I still like most of the new names. But, if TLC revoked their "no real language names" policy and started to steal words from some dialect on some way out tropical island, you can bet someone would make a big deal about it. :-P NO! Not another cruddy matoran on an even more cruddy air speeder! *sing*

I've been wanting an official CITY tanker truck and tow truck ever since the gas station last year, and if they were as good as yours, I'd buy them for sure. Great job! *y*

Uh... half of the comments I made were not definite, since many of the pictures are blurred (especially the Toa) so we can't tell what they look like. I never said there was toa metru feet, I just said it LOOKED kinda like them. Besides, how do you know that they aren't what I said? But then again, I guess I was wrong on Krika - although from the catalog picture, it DOES look like a Kopaka mask, IMO. :-/ Really? Than what is he? I'm serious; I haven't been browsing the Greg Q&A topic on BZP lately, so I might have missed something. Come to think of it, I remember hearing that the conquer of the visorak Makuta was going to be something special, and not a regular set... sorry, my mistake. :-$

I'm so going. Let's hope that it's as fun to watch as the original Clone Wars tv series! ;-)

One word - SPACE. As in, a brand new space line for 2009 that combines the classic space designs with new building techniques and a sleeker style. *sweet* - Two factions to start off - a blue, good faction, and a red, bad faction. They could add more factions in later years, like a space pirate faction and an alien faction or two. - At least one large command ship a year, plus HQ's for each of the faction. - Lots of large and small ships of different styles (the good guys could have a Unitron-Mtron style, while the main bad faction could have a more angular style with lots of fins and unusal designs). - Other vehicles too, like moon walker mechs (in Battletech style, not exo-force style), rovers, space drones, and giant wheeled explorers. Oh, and I'd also love to see a theme based on classic aircraft, without the violent aspect and in minifig scale. They could make the P-51, the Zero, the Me-109, the Spitfire, the B-17, the Me-262, the F-86 Sabre, the Fighting Falcon, the Tomcat, the.... *goes on into infinity* But yeah, that would be awesome. Great for displaying if you're an adult, and great for the kids since they can have dogfights, even thought TLC wouldn't have to advertise that part. ;-)

Gah, didn't really feel like posting about the new pictures yesterday, but I had to do it eventually... *sad* Krika: Hm, I see Av-matoran legs, Vahki body piece for a chest, mask that looks like Kopaka's, strange red and white spines/legs/weapons, an ugly shooter - wait, what was I going to say? Oh yeah: not impressed. Looks like a total nonsensical mashup of new and old parts. :-/ Gorast: A backwards Inika back. This is the best they could come up with for a body. Okay, I admit, I wasn't against the Piraka bodies at all, but this just looks totally silly. Add that to six av-matoran arms, strange new claw pieces, ehleks's tri-talons, another cruddy shooter, and a strange, Pridak like mask, and you get another sloppy mess of a Makuta. |-/ Bitil: Oh great, another stupid - hey, waitaminute, this actually isn't so bad! Some useful parts here, like two of the new Takanuva armor pieces in silver, silver nuparu armor, and yellow claws and arms. Yeah, he/she has an Av-Matoran body, but it looks like it has some armor on the front to beef it up. Plus, the mask/face actually looks decent, unlike the other two Makuta. Yeah, another dumb launcher, but this actually looks okay. :-) Onua: Okay, I can not even tell where his eyes are. If they are those little red spots near the bottom of that giant black face blob, this could be one of the worst masks ever. I can't even make out the rest of his features: what kind of body is he wearing? What are those silver blobs supposed to be (besides weapons)? And why does he seem to have Toa Metru legs for his FEET? *wacko* I ain't impressed. |-/ Gali: Man, she sure is muscular and armored this time around! I mean, look at her: Inika legs for ARMS, HUGE two toed feet, and a huge eared mask that looks like a cross between a Kaukau Nuva and an Elda. Again, can't even tell what her weapons are, except for that stupid missile launcher in the right hand, but at least she's looking better than Onua. :-/ Tahu: What In Blazes - quad jet engines strapped around his body? A giant claw for a melee weapon? A mask that looks more like a Knights Kingdom helmet than a bionicle mask? What have they done to our favorite Toa of fire?! *sing* Okay, so overall, these canister kits are a no win for me. Only Gali and Bitil show potential at all, and even then they don't even begin to compare with some of the better Mahri and Phantoka. What, did I say Phantoka? Yes, because believe it or not, I'm starting to like some of them. Lewa's good, Kopaka just needs new weapons, Pohatu just needs longer arms, and Antroz, aside from the tridax pod, is really cool. The other two - meh, but the Phantoka overall are lightyears ahead of the Mistika, and the Mahri are even farther ahead. I think it's official: bionicle sets have gone the way of the generic, weapon loaded power robot action figures. :-X At least some of the titans look promising: Takanuva and a couple of the flying vehicles actually look okay, and we still have yet to see Maezeka, who is most likely the Conquer of the Visorak Makuta. :-)

Well, I ocassionally find Megabloks in my collection, but I never thow them away, destroy them, or give them away. No, I actually USE them. Case in point: about a year ago, I got a couple of Blok Bots from someone at church. So, using the purple pieces from one of them and some lego pieces, I built this: Now, who here dares to say that this looks like a turd, huh? :-P Yeah, I saw those too. I think that actually, the big Duplo equivilant Megabloks are really nice at times (and, dare I say it, as good as lego?!) and this line seems to be the best example. :-)

Totally agree. I mean, it's one thing to make a historical MOC like the Black Plague one yoda posted, but this "shocking" MOC seems to have only two possible purposes: 1. As a big joke just for laughing at (which is not nice at all; serial killers and execution is nothing to laugh about). 2. As a political statement. I don't really have a problem with it, but if this is why he did this than he's still taking the actual political viewpoint way too far; just because many people believe in the death penalty doesn't mean that we all are desensitized to it. It's not like we in the USA and Europe are killing people for blasting another person's viewpoint (unlike in other countries: just in the Middle East, a man was sentenced to death for "insulting Islam," when he was just raising a good question). This to me is kinda in the same category as those Space Nazis and Bonktron MOCs a while back, which were trying to make jokes out of serious issues. |-/

When I said only Uplink had an open cockpit, I mean that it was TOTALLY unarmored around the cockpit area. Most of the human mechs had at least a canopy over them. In my opinion, the unarmored backs were a totally unrelated issue, but I agree that they were annoying. I agree also that 2008's mechs are much better: I think the big square cockpit design helped with the looks a lot. ;-) Woah, Yoda, that's a BIG minifigure collection! 8-

To be fair, only one mecha (uplink) on the human side had an open cockpit, and since that was more a repairing mecha than a frontline combat vehicle. As for the robot mechas, well, I kinda figured that since they were robots that armor wasn't as big a concern. :-/ Yeah, I know, most of the Exo-force mechas were not air-tight, but this last wave of exo-force this year ratifies that partly, as the Chameleon Hunter and Assault Tiger have totally closed cockpits, and River Dragon has the closest to a closed cockpit we've gotten in all of the smaller mechas. I think it's good that they decided to make the design better for the final year. ;-) I just really haven't gotten your reasoning behind your total hate of the 2008 mechs. I mean, the human ones are the farthest from stick figure we've gotten in all three years, and they have awesome minicons- er, mini-robots instead of stupid light bricks, silly launchers, or boring exo-codes as a gimmic. Why do you hate them, anyway? 8-| BTW, xwingyoda, I'm wondering why you are so against Exo-force these days. Nothing against you, but I seem to remember that you were far more for it back in early 2006, and even bought a few of the sets. :-/

Actually, there's only two books in the Hand of Thrawn storyline, I believe. I read the entire Zahn series some time ago and remember there being only 5. ;-) Hm, I dunno what to suggest really. I remember reading a series years ago about Han Solo's kids at the Jedi Academy. Even though they were meant less for adults and more for teens, they still were good, and I remember them being fairly long each. Can't remember the title though.... 8-|

Well, nearly a month since then and I've gotten 54 stars or so. Right now, though, I'm kinda taking a break from Galaxy, since I'm currently stuck on some of the harder stars... |-/ Ah, oh well. Right now, I'm playing through Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. I loved it the first time around and started to play through it again a while ago, but lost interest when I got to my least favorite chapter, Chapter 2. I think though it was more that I was going through my obsession with buying a Wii, but now that I have one, I'm not obsessed with it as much. :-) Ask me what I'll be playing in a month and my answer will start with b and rhyme with fall. Oh, and it's going to be the absolute best game for the Wii. :-P

This, my friends, is everything Sayger wanted to be but unfortunately couldn't. Great character drawings, nice effects, and good colors. Nothing to complain about at all. *sweet* Well, maybe just one thing: why is Antroz's mask GREY? It's supposed to be Black and Red. *wacko*

I highly doubt Agents will really have any kind of story whatsoever, except for silly comics in the Lego Mag. In fact, despite it looking far better than Alpha Team ever was, I kinda doubt it will last more than one year. :-/ But, seriously, if exo-force actually had a decent storyline, it might have been much better. Sure, there were a few neat bits here and there in the online comics, but overall the characters spent more time making jokes than anything else, and Meca One and Keiken came off very spoofy almost all of the time. |-/ Anyway, since Exo-force is gone, in 2009, another theme may very well take it's place. If it's pirates, sure, why not, but I'm kinda hoping for a new Space line that blends new building techniques and pieces with the awesome style of themes like Blacktron, M-Tron, and Space Police. And hey, why not throw a mech or two in there as well, only more in the Battle Tech style than the Manga style. *sweet*

Yeah, I can just imagine it.... :-D

Dream on, "Brick Purist." :-P Despite major complaints from AFOLS, Bionicle won't be going for a LONG time, as far as what we can see now. Bionicle still is one of the top selling themes, and unlike Exo-force, they continue to try new things each year, with new enemies and characters as well as old ones. Besides, whether you like the current storyline or not, it's far better than the Exo-force storyline ever was. ;-)

I am so getting it... only, does this mean there is no special chapter for the Fourth Movie? 8-|

Ah, always ready to be negative, aren't you Athos? :-P (J/K) But yeah, this is kinda really just a "army builder's dream kit" kinda deal. Still, it looks like it has a ton of weapons and castle related molds, plus a great combination of the two good factions (humans and dwarves) and the two bad factions (skellies and ogres/trolls/orks/ugly green monster thingys). *sweet* Now, if only I was an AFOL, instead of a financially restrained 15 year old.... 8-| X-D

Yeah, I saw this on BZP just after someone posted it in the official Exo-Force topic over there. I really have only one thing to say: :'-( .... *sing* Oh well, at least we had three years, and at least they were a lot better than the three bad Knights Kingdom years.... *y* And who knows, maybe in a few years TLC can make a new futuristic high-tech based line that combines the great elements of Exo-force with a better story and a different foe. I think they just need some time to work out a new angle. :-) But until that hypothetical event happens, IF it does, so long Exo-Force..... :-( Actually, I liked all the January kits at least somewhat, as well as some of the summer kits. True, the 2007 line wasn't as good as 2006 or 2008, but there were some genuinely great kits in there (Claw Crusher, Golden Tower, and of course, Golden Guardian *wub* ). I can see how many would dislike the Sky Guardian, Areo Booster, and Mobile Devastator, and even I hated Crap - I mean, Combat Crawler ( :-P ), but I can't see how anyone could hate Golden Guardian (I remember that you yourself gave it a favorable rating in a review.). ;-) Totally agree with that, considering that you're more into peaceful themes. Yeah, exo-force never was good for Town, Train, or History builders, but for Space and Mecha builders, it had a TON of great parts in so many colors that they nearly made my eyes burst... *sweet*

Well, if that was how megabloks was seven years ago, than I can say that they've changed a lot. The pieces I used for my exo-force creation were of fairly good quality. I do remember that when I had some of the old Planetoids kits, that they did match your description of horrible quality, but they aren't like that any more, at least from my experiences. ;-) And, actually, I can't agree that hating megabloks right at the start is totally innocent, because overal Megabloks has improved, and the box art is just as good as the box art on lego kits. I think more people need to give them at least a BIT chance, as Starwars4J did when he bought one of their POTC kits. :-)

Hm, don't see why myself, but I guess I have different tastes.... 8-| Anyway, I recently bought Bionicle Legends 8 using my Borders gift card I got for my birthday, so here's a semi-quick review: Bionicle Legends 8 was the last book of 2007, so many fans were expecting it to be the most epic of the year. Does it pull off? Well, actually, yes and no. The writing is solid, and anyone who enjoys Greg's writing will like it, but it didn't seem as epic as some of the other Legends books. Still, there was a lot for me to like while reading it. Makuta was at his high point, as he had been last year. I liked that even when he too realized Mata Nui had died, he was not really fazed in the slightest, showing how much he truly despised the Great Spirit. Overall, however, the most enjoyable character had to be Matoro, and his maturing throughout the entire Legends story arc has been quite interesting to read about. As I expected, his final scene was far more epic than in the mediocre Ignition comic 11. The description of his final moments was just far more satisfying than they could convey in a 16 page comic book. The effects of the rebirth of Mata Nui also were neat. Turaga Nuju totally abandoning his chirping and shouting with joy was especially neat. So, overall, it wasn't the best book Greg's written, but I still enjoyed it, and I can't wait to read the three Legends books this year. :-)

WHAT? Okay, that suprised me. Regardless of the design, why wouldn't that be an awesome set for all the semi gold parts? *wacko*

Ohhhh crud... here we go with another "bash Megabloks" topic. :-| Seriously, I wonder if even half of you guys have ever owned a megabloks set. Regardless, though, you can't say it's wrong for Megabloks to exist because they made lego like products, because ol' TLC had a chance to renew that patent on the lego brick, but they didn't, so too bad for them. *sad* Besides, if there is one thing that I know, it's that many Megabloks parts actually can be used in lego MOC's well with skill. I once saw a castle-like diorama made mostly out of legos but using Megabloks Dragons bases as the ground. Then, there's the Exo-Force mecha I made partly out of parts from a Blok Bot... 8-| Oh, this topic was about a lego article in the Onion, right? Whoops, er... nevermind. It was pretty funny, though, despite it's shortness. X-D

Name calling doesn't do anything, you know.... :-/ Besides, IMO, I think that's not true. As Visorak Kal said, this gun, cruddy as it may be, probably isn't costing TLC much, since it's made out of cheap, non ABS plastic and may not even have been made by TLC themselves. All new lego parts, no matter how small or big they are, cost lots of money to make, but all the worthless side-merchandise probably doesn't. *wacko* And all of a sudden, Jinzo and every other dedicated bionicle MOC'er add a new product to their "dream product list." *wub*