Shakar

I know, I meant the chests too. I don't mind that some designs have 1 chain and the other 2. But I realize not everyone can like it.

I think Slicer's chain is made of energy, since its colour matches the Skeletons' eyes. As for there being a single chain, I guess it plays into their asymmetrical aesthetic. And LewiMOC, check the last 2-3 pages so you can see what funmetal means. It's a joke someone made up a while ago when talking about Takanuva. :wink I was referring to the two tone Toa masks the Skulls sets contain. EDIT: silly me, I left a sentence half-finished. : S

Yup, Grievous, Obi Wan, Cody and Jango. I'm sure we're going to see lots of people building light sabers wielding Toa in the future, heck I'm going to do the same. :-D

http://www.bzpower.com/Imaging/stories//Toy_Fair_2015/TF15_Bionicle_51.jpg Holy Ekimu, Lego! I thought you wanted kids to buy the sets, not to scare the crap out of them! Mind you, this is a good sign. While the builds leave something to be desired, the work of the parts designers is impressive, the new molds are beautifully crafted and deliciously evil looking. The two new masks are honestly some of the scariest looking Lego pieces I've ever seen, the new weapons look very cool, the new armour add-on is fortunately smaller than I thought and has some fantastic details, and the new torso shell (abouttime.jpg) looks pretty versatile (and marks the return of transparent torsos!). And of course there are the chest prints, which are truly impressive- I can't get over the level of detail that went into these and the Toa chests, I thought the HF designs were great but these ones blow them out of the water. The only real bummers are the set bulds issues people have already discussed, and the ridiculously low number of sets (SW at least makes up for it, especially if the other sets are on par with DV). I'd love to see another Skull villain with Gali's and Tahu's masks in funmetal as a retail exclusive, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Atamaii published another video on BIONICLE (apparently he publishes constraction first because he's afraid of us..? Lol). Nothing new, but the Lego rep mentioned that MMvsSG is going to be $30. I hope that doesn't turn into 35 Euro, it's a fair price like this.

Well, colour me impressed. Luke is a bit iffy, but DV is just magnificent! He's big, bulky, accurate to the source and filled out. I'm surprised he uses System too, I hope it becomes a thing in the future. And, even more surprising, the forelimb bone with two holes is back AND in a new colour (a very useful one at that). Now that will be useful for large MOCs. Very curious to see the others. My expectations were low after my disappointment with the 2014 Chima Ultrabuilds (good parts, but subpar designs afaic) but I see a lot of cool builds, pieces and recolours.

He's about as tall as Fangar and Fluminox, who were much shorter than sets like Black Phantom, who in turn was shorter than Brutaka from the old days. Inflation plus increasing cost of plastic equals to this unfortunately.

I fear it's the second. I bet the $20 (..20 euro? More?) are going to be as big as mid size sets like Lewa, Gali, etc. SW sets are ridiculously overpriced like that. Really curious about those $35 sets though. I doubt we're going to get something as huge as Witch Doctor again but that extra money has to go somewhere. Grievous was described as being "very big and impressive" so we can count on him being one of those upper price sets, but I hope there's another big one (DV?).

Got Pohatu today, I can't say how the completed set is because I immediately built him following my planned mods (which are fairly heavy), but I can comment on some of the set's individual elements. I already posted my thoughts on the set in this topic a while ago anyway. -I really like the dark orange and tr. neon green pieces (on their own and as a colour combination). Very vibrant and powerful, I don't miss classic brown (which I never liked much anyway) or orange. -Like with Tahu and Gali, the chest printing is gorgeous. As much as I'd like to see another chest armour piece in 2016, I can't help but want more of these designs, they're just amazing. -The boomerangs are a bit bigger than I thought and they look odd, but they are still fun, well designed and unique. -The new Kakama is awesome, I wish wish it had bigger eye holes. The eye glow is nearly impossible to notice. The Hau has the same problem- of the 3 Toa I own, only Gali with her mask got it right.

I did NOT know about this. I'm not being sarcastic, I honestly didn't. This was such a good read. I remember when I watched MoL for the first time and I was confused at some of Makuta's lines. I thought "Well, I guess they'll explain them in the next years", but they didn't. But even at that time, while I didn't have a big access to BIONICLE media (I discovered BZP in 2004- Lego.com was pretty much my only source back then), I did get the idea they wanted to give Makuta a hint of duality- 11 year old me couldn't quite make it out, but he knew it was there. Now, taking Teridax's "updated" characterization into account, I suppose you can handwave most of those lines as sarcasm (it's not that 01-03 Makuta didn't have shades of a trollish attitude, especially in MNOG). But that idea of Makuta being an ambiguous villain (I mean a well done one, not a forced inconsistent trainwreck of a character *coughorangeninjamangacough*).. I would've really liked to see it. Maybe they're going to follow the original plan for G2, with Makuta being a more sympathetic character (there are already showing some hints of this, given the what we know about the MoUP). It's not that ALL Lego villains are pure evil anyway- a number of Ninjago and Chima villains have shown a fair amount of ambiguity.

Yeah, same feeling. I did like building with G1 parts, but MOCs would never manage to properly capture what I had in mind (colours, proportions, size, etc..). I was almost never fully satisfied, to the point that, around 2010-2011, I definitely gave up and settled down on limiting myself to "Toa-mods". They looked nice but they certainly weren't the pinnacle of creativity or engineering. With the CCBS it's just another matter entirely. Putting into plastic what I have in mind is immensely easier for me. I can adjust the size and the proportions of the MOC however I want, and colours that used to be rare or non-existent (purple, gold, azure/teal, yellow, orange, etc.. and the impressive plethora of transparent shades we've been getting) are now fairly common. I MOC and mod my sets much more often, and the results are much cleaner and well-executed, and overall far more satisfying for me.

How is set MM not Ekimu? He has his colour scheme, his design, his hammer, the Protector mask he's worn during his slumber and..well, just about everything. It's pretty obvious that the Toa are going to awaken him. The quest to awaken Mata Nui was huge, but it seems the new plot is going to focus on different themes and concepts (Makuta is still asleep, for one).

Yeah..pretty much. SW sets are stupidly overpriced and in Europe it's even worse. I hope they don't pull out the crap they did with Marvel, with 20 dollar sets mysteriously getting a 27 EURO tag.

I don't know, Cody and Vader are essentially heavily armoured people, and the chest add-on looks very natural as human armour. It'd be neat if we got some new armouring though (be they shells and/or add-ons). But as I keep saying, it all depends on how big the budget for these sets are. On one hand, it's Star Wars, so a fairly big budget should be almost taken for granted..but on the other hand, these are constraction sets, which we know are pretty niche as far as Lego's business plans go.

Dunno if you guys need it, but I was bored so I translated Episode 7 from Italian. I can guarantee that the translation is accurate, since, well, you know. Narrator: Near the center of Okoto, the City of the Mask Makers stood. Who knew what dangers could it hide? Now, the Heroes had arrived. Destined to pursue the same search, they met for the first time. Tahu: I salute you. I am Tahu, Master of Fire. The Prophecy has gathered us under my command. Kopaka: Say what? Perhaps fire burned your brain?! I am Kopaka, and I'm under no one's command! Gali: Stop it, you fools! Onua: Ohohoh, enough fighting! Tahu: In any case, we need a leader! Gali: Then we shall vote. Lewa: I vote for Onua, he knows how to... TAKE* people in the right way! Eheheh.. Pohatu: Be quiet. We're having company. * = The pun here is that he uses a verb that can be translated as "grab" or "pick up", joking about how Onua stopped Tahu's and Kopaka's fight. Aw, the post messed up the colours. I can't make a post without editing it, can I...

I got Gali today, another great one! Very elegant yet well armoured. I love the azure she's using and I hope we get more shell sizes in that colour in 2016 (*coughG2GaliNuvacough*). The new Kaukau, like the Hau (..yeah, I'm still calling them like that) looks much better in person. I like the new axe piece a lot- maybe even more so than *gasp* Axonn's axe. Probably my only complaint is about the shoulder pads: if you adjust them like the instructions tell you to, they look awkward, like some sort of odd neck padding. If you flip them upside down they look a bit better, but they're still a bit odd.

3 good guys and 3 vilains (I'm extremely ignorant about Star Wars so forgive me if this is wrong). Not surprising really. I just hope the Jedi have useful pieces (more dark tan thanks). Grievous sounds like he's a "titan", I wonder if there's another big set or the others are average sized?

Don't be fooled by the length, the video is actually about 4 minutes long, everything else is black and without sound. : P Shame, I was looking forward to some demonstration by the Lego employees there like with Ninjago. Still, we get some closer looks at least. (I'm writing a separate post anyway so might as well write my thoughts here) -I really like all the printed chests- I'd argue those are my favourite parts of the sets! I wish Scorpio had one too but, well, he doesn't. -The masks are indeed recycled, but at least Warrior's is a recolour. And boy, they do look really creepy! -The new armour add-on is.. pretty cool. It might've been better if it was a bit small but I'm eager to tinker with it. -Seems like everyone save for Basher and Scorpio uses the gearbox. -Grinder's torso is rather interesting. There are those dish pieces on the shoulders (for? Friction? Bulk? Still, I like it). The gearbox is attached way high and they did something with the neck I can't tell. Really though, they could've filled him out a lot more, and those exposed balljoints are..eeeh. -I can see studs on the other side of Ekimu's hammer, plus the hammer itself is heavily Technic-based. Looks like it indeed fires afterall. -Scorpio, like I thought, uses the shorter tr. neon green bones from the Ninjago sets. The set is still awful though- just, what the heck, man. -Basher doesn't seem to have back armour. -Slicer's arms are indeed 100% geared! This is going to be fun at least -Warrior's chest design is the one green eyes!Grinder had in the promo pic. Glad to see they didn't scrap that design. So.... yeah. These have a lot of good parts but they are definitely not as well executed as the Toa and Protectors are, which is a pity. I feel designers kinda dropped the ball on them, which, you guessed it, is a pity. But at least each set inlcudes most of the parts you need to rebuild them into better figures.

Based Atamaii coming in our aid:

Absolutely love Basher's chest printing and mask (..well, his and Scorpio's. Damn that limited budget). Not sure about the torso, I'd have liked a gearbox there myself but I'll wait for better pics. I agree the horns look out of place, in attachment, size and colour. Looks like the recoloured torso is silver.. I excepted dark bley (so to match the wide shoulders one from Stormer XL) but this is cool too. The tr. orange and the bones still suck. Ekimu looks cool but I wish his limbs were longer. Looks like the shield has a spinning mechanism.

I still don't get what Grinder's chest is supposed to represent. Flames?

Weeeell.. Talk about a nice (to say the least) surprise. Just when I was thinking it's sad we don't get any constraction line besides BIONICLE this year and that the summer wave for that theme is so ridiculously small.. THIS this comes out. I guess they want to take advantage of Episode VII, which makes perfect sense. Those high price tags make me think that they will be quite overpriced as it's customary for SW sets- I wouldn't be surprised if the 20 euro sets are about on same level of complexity of 15 euro BIONICLE sets like Lewa, Gali and the like (I'd love to be proven wrong, but..). The 35 Euro set/s (I shall use plural only from now so the post feels less cumbersome), however, sound much more interesting , even if they're overpriced. Unless we're looking at more VS sets like Mask Maker VS Skull Grinder, we might finally get those big hefty Titan constraction lines failed to deliver in the recent years. And of course I'm dying to see what types of new pieces and recolours (sand green on Boba Fett anyone?) we might get- weapons, armour add-ons, etc.. Lego invests a lot in SW so, while I obviously don't expect one as big as the one System sets get, I hope this line still gets a sizeable budget. Hoping for some cool designs as well. I hope we get a big Darth Vader I can turn into Makuta or some other Bio-baddie.

I don't mind the yellow gears that much, I dislike how they look on the sets but they're mighty easy to replace.

Well, now that most of the things that bugged me got fixed and new interesting parts surfaced, I can actually comment on these. General: There are tons of good parts. Tr. orange eyestalks! New torso shell! No white at all (white masks would've annoyed me immensely)! A ton of gunmetal! Gold/transparent Toa masks (shame about the Hau and the Kaukau though..)! Cool new printed chests (Slicer's looks very creepy and abstract)! Unfortunately, the unexposed bones and the tr. orange spam (I wonder if that that has anything to do with the, ahem, not very stellar performance of the Chima Ultrabuilds..) are still there. And I wish we didn't get so many silver hands again. The sets still seem to be a notch below the Toa and Protectors in overall quality and consistency, but with a few things fixed the gap isn't as huge as the preliminary pics made it out to be. Warrior: I like the idea and most of the design, I just wish there was no tr. orange. Cool mask too- I don't think it's the one from the magazine preview..it seemed to feature some underbite in the preliminary pic. Slicer: lots of tr. bright green bones! This guy looks decent, not very good but still better than Scorpio. With some armouring he has the potential to look really cool. Don't mind the Skull Spider mask much, no other set uses it as a mask anyway. Basher: ugh, more purple Ben 10 horns that I have no idea where to use. Plus it really annoys me when they mix solid colours and their transparent equivalent like on here. Other than that, easily the best of the 4. Glad he has a tr. purple torso in the final version. Scorpio: it's pointless, this guy is really beyond hope. Other than the mask, the tr. neon green torso and the titanium metallic giant Chima bones I don't see any interesting parts (the bones can be already found aplenty in Pohatu and PoS). This would've really been better as a humanoid- designers just seem to be unable to make good humanoids under 20 Euro (which is something I really don't get, the Savage Planet beasts and the small Breakout villains were fantastic). I'll either buy him at a reduced price or BL the pieces I want like I'm going to do with LoSS. Ekimu vs Grinder: I don't get why Ekimu's eyes are green, and I can't appreciate the Silver Hands and Feet Syndrome, other than that he looks good. Grinder's chest print seems closer to the one he had in the box art than the one in the promo pic- since he had green eyes in that one, I'm going to assume that was the preliminary one. Now, I wonder where that chest design went then.. I hope one of the smaller set has it, I really liked it. As for the rest of the Grinder figure, he at least seems to be bigger than the other 4, has a well balanced colour scheme and a cool giant axe. Also, dark bley torso in a new size (mid size one with narrow shoulder, I guess) confirmed. And somewhat related, but now that we pretty much know know how the sets look, it occured to me that none of them looks anything like the statues in Po-Okoto. Then just what is the deal with that model? Is that really a non set figure they made up just for the heck of it? A prototype of Scorpio? A store exclusive (unlikely, it had new parts)? 2016 foreshadowing? Oh come on, really? I don't think you remember the Mistika very well. At least these guys aren't a vomit of silver, have actual weapons instead of launchers everywhere, feature highly reusable and versatile parts and mostly decent builds (certainly no rotated -sp- Piraka torsos or crap like that) and use joints that don't break.

Since the large Morro Dragon from Ninjago is using Spring Yellowish Green (the colour of the green Skull Spiders), could it be that the small dragon from the Destiny's Bounty set (that's a statue, but it's clearly representing the set) uses bones in the same colour? Would be great!