Mesonak

The sets are my favorite part about G2, no question. I think the CCBS system and the integration of functions into the sets makes the older-style figures, with the exception of Titans and vehicles, look pretty lackluster. That being said, G2's storytelling has been somewhat of a disappointment. There are aspects about its story that i enjoy, no question. I like the atmosphere, the tone, and some of the comedic moments, but overall I feel it's been a bit lacking. So I voted "Love sets, not story."

I heavily doubt that Lego would reveal any specifics about BIONICLE's performance to anyone, especially if it is doing poorly. It would just amount to vague statements, probably along the lines of "It's performing as expected" or "It's doing what it needs to do."

Exactly. I firmly believe that Lego could pull of a subtle and non-obtrusive "connection" between generations without compromising the integrity of G2's reboot, nor would they make it any less of a "reboot" by doing so. I also think there is absolutely zero chance that we would ever return to Spherus Magna to conclude any lingering plot threads. That's a ludicrous and implausible thing to hope for taking into account Lego's strategies regarding the storytelling of BIONICLE G2, nor do I think it's necessary in the least. It's always perturbed me that, from the very moment the possibility of a generational "connection" was first brought up, many people were so vehemently against it. Many seemed to think that the people who were advocating such a theory were G1 zealots, or people who demanded that the loose plot threads from G1 should be resolved at any cost, even sacrificing the integrity of the new story to do so. That's not always the case. I think that, often times, people would benefit by opening their minds to the possibilities of what could happen in such a complex theme as BIONICLE, rather than solely constraining their hopes for the future to nothing but a completely independent and unconnected reboot or a deeply interconnected and complicated melding of the generations. It doesn't have to be so black and white.

I mean that's an assumption. We do not know that for sure. :P

There's no chance that Lego will revisit old plot threads and abandoned loose ends from G1. That's just not going to happen. Like you said, there's far too many of them to realistically address in any meaningful manner. It would do them no good to dredge up those specific story elements again. That being said, a connection can still exist between the two generations in a broader sense, and I'm pretty confident at this point that it will.

I feel like the combination would look a lot better if the sides of the G1 Vahi were either gone or angled differently. Regardless, I really like the design of the top half. I'm hoping we get it in set form at some point.

Chima technically did, to be fair. It had a "wave" consisting of three larger sets which was released separately from the rest of the sets. But yeah, it didn't have a proper one, and Ninjago didn't either (although Rebooted did technically launch the same year, just at an irregular time).

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't place any bets one way or another as to the number of waves we'll be getting in 2017. Nothing can be guaranteed for sure at this time, which was kind of the whole point of my post that was the subject of the discussion in the story topic, lol. I'd certainly like for there to be two waves, so here's hoping. I think it's a pretty safe bet to assume we'll get the MOUP next year. Mask of Time? Not so certain. I'd like to hope so, obviously, but I'm not really sure where it would fit into the storyline.

TTV will be attending NYTF as well, so we'll be reporting extensively on BIONICLE as well as most other major Lego themes. :D

With this year, especially, I've found that hyper-analyzing pictures is pretty worthless as your perceptions on the sets can change drastically once you own them and can see them from a wide assortment of angles and poses. For instance, I still maintain that Tahu 2016's armor having four different conflicting textures isn't a good thing and could have been handled more elegantly. However, it doesn't bother me in person because I'm more able to appreciate the set as a whole rather than staring at a picture where I tend to drift towards analyzing the more intricate details.

It's the sixth year, but the fifth anniversary of Ninjago. You can always look at it from that perspective. :P

What makes you think this? I'm not seeing anything that suggests that at all.

I actually do; when you outline the recent history of Lego's TV show experiences in chronological order like that, it actually does make a lot of sense. Being primarily a BIONICLE fan, I often view the line's old popularity as reason enough to justify faith in G2 getting a larger media presence, but while that sentiment is nice, it doesn't line up with the facts as viewed from a business perspective. The comment about HF, in particular, really helped things click for me; due to the rather... different nature of HF's fnal year, I often forget that Invasion from Below never actually made it to broadcast. It's pretty unfortunate to think about, but that would explain quite a lot. :/

Yeah, I'm definitely in the camp that believes Lego definitely cares about BIONICLE to a substantial degree. I may not have personally spoken to as many people within the company as others have, but it's plain to me from the conversations that I have had that the current team working on BIONICLE has a great passion for the franchise and wants to do their utmost to make this reboot a success in the eyes of the fandom. I can understand how one may think the contrary from the outside-looking-in, but it's plainly untrue from my perspective. Unfortunately, I also am of the belief that for whatever reason, G2 hasn't been given a lot of avenues to succeed, though I believe that stems from upper management rather than anyone within the BIONICLE team itself. I find it difficult to accept that in this day and age, unproven and brand new themes such as Ninjago, Chima, Hero Factory, and Nexo Knights all get multi-season TV series to help promote the themes when they launch, yet BIONICLE, a valued and beloved part of Lego's history gets relegated to 90 second online animations and a book series which isn't promoted whatsoever on official channels. Seriously legitimate question here: does anyone know why Lego doesn't advertise the books or graphic novels on BIONICLE.com, instruction manuals, Lego club magazines... anywhere at all? My local stores don't carry them so if it weren't for the online fan community I would have no clue that they were even being made. ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, Journey to One looks absolutely fantastic and I'm happy to see that BIONICLE is being given the treatment it deserves in 2016. Time will tell when we actually see the show, but the production value looks to be quite high on this small clip, and I absolutely love the cell-shaded style they opted to go with. It's bright, colorful, and leaves an impact because its such a departure from the style of other Lego shows nowadays. I'm incredibly eager to see where this goes.

Grievous and either Obi-Wan or Rey, I would say. Grievous is the best set released thus far and the Hero sets generally aren't as good as the villains, but Rey and Obi-Wan stand out somewhat.

I would love to take the comics as official story material, but after LoSS's comic I really can't. :P

Yeah, I'm not sold on Kopaka whatsoever. He's got a great appearance but his color distribution is the worst in the wave and he really suffers for it. The Metru Blue, Gold, and the light grey/red axles/blue pins in the shoulder area are really distracting. Also the Creature paws look really awkward sitting on top of the Vorox armor. I could take one or the other as far as added bulk is concerned, not both at one time. I feel the same way about Onua. His weapons are pretty legit though, gotta say, and I love his mask design, so it's not a complete loss. Thanks for the review.

Onua looks quite good, and he's definitely one of the better Toa sets this wave, but it still hurts to see him next to 2015 Onua. I feel that he had a lot more personality than this year's variant. I'm also beyond disappointed that the new torso piece has the gear connection molded in, but what can you do?

That's something I've been considering as well, incidentally, because it's not like these new sets have no redeeming qualities. There's a lot I actually do like about them. I'm going to try to whip up some freakish creations that combine the builds of the new sets with the general aesthetic of the 2015 wave. I'll probably fail horribly, but we'll see what happens, lol.

I used to really enjoy the G1 aesthetic, and I still do to an extent, but after BIONICLE returned and showed me how perfectly a meld between a clean and detailed aesthetic could be executed, these new sets look vastly inferior. I appreciate the existence of the parts for the options they'll present to MoCists, but the appearance of the sets end up suffering from their inclusion. Seriously, every time I look at these comparisons it makes me pretty upset. They don't even look like they're from the same line. Thankfully, Tahu and Kopaka are the worst offenders and the others don't suffer from it as much (but they have their own sets of issues to balance the scales), but still... Like, I look at Tahu 2015 and okay, fine, he could have possibly used a few more details in his lower legs or his torso plate or something, that's perfectly fine. Completely independent of whether you prefer highly detailed or smooth aesthetics, though, Tahu looked consistent. Everything in his design flowed and evoked a pretty cool look for the figure. Tahu 2016... not only is he ridiculously overly detailed and his color scheme so radically different, but he has four conflicting kinds of armor on his limbs! The smooth shell, the piston add-on, the new, blocky armor piece with holes everywhere, and the organic crystalline add-on. It looks absolutely ridiculous. The sets are still cool, and I still enjoy them for the positives they do bring to the table, but eh.

Yeah, I'm pretty shocked that Phasma isn't $25. I felt the cape would easily send that up. Very happy about that.

YouTube is an incredibly large website, so your mileage may vary. :P

I eventually grew to like the initial one we saw in the catalog leaks, but it seems like they've again changed it from that design. The side-portrusions (not really sure what to call them) are much flatter and I think the overall silhouette is worsened because of this.

That's pretty cool, man! I really appreciate the MoC. Pretty unorthodox color scheme for a variant of me (I'm not often represented with red, for instance), but it's still a pretty nice interpretation. That gold Skull mask is quite snazzy. I also like the red spikes coming out of the open ball joints on the torso. Nice little extra bit of detail.

Where were these found?