Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn

Well, I respect him for the amount of dedication he's shown in dealing with folk like me and the screaming 10-year-old BZPers; I certainly wouldnt want to put up with that. I do think he writes a good comic book, and that his work on the 2001 and 2002 comic books in particular was exceptional. Lastly, his work on the Metru Nui scholastic books was entertaining; Voyage of Fear is my favorite Bionicle book. However, here is where the problem starts. It seems like as soon as they took the figurative "leash" off Greg in mid-2005, everything really started going out of control. Thats when we got 3,000 Toa, massive Toa/Dark Hunter/Brotherhood wars, Hakann killing two freakin Toa with just his eyebeams, and the Bionicle comics went from providing an interesting look into the Bionicle storyline to 12 (?) pages of shooting, blasting, and plot-device Zamors. Personally, I think the simplicity and depth that Templar showed in their Bionicle work does outshine Greg as far as creating a universe goes. Greg portrayed the Vahki as simple, clockwork mechanical law-enforcement freaks; while this worked and I have no grudge with it, I found Templars very grim portrayal of the Vahki much more interesting. The Vahki animations reminded you of 1984, and generally gave a very dark and oppressive atmosphere of totalitarian dictatorship on part of Dume and his inhuman mechanical Vahki. It is this kind of atmosphere of place and personality that Templar was able to give; Greg has been unable to match this. To him, making a story "darker" is to simply blow stuff up and have people die. I disagree. And all thats just reffering to the Vahki episodes; Dont get me into MNOLG I and the Bohrok webisodes ;) As far as much of Greg's most recent work, as well as some of his comments, I do believe that, when removed from his natural habitat of writing childrens action books and comic books and put in charge of developing a mythological universe, he has become a "Talentless hack" at it. He is, IMHO, simply not suited to it. While Templar gave more focus on deep, individual character personality, epic deeds, and unlikely plucky heroes, Greg seems to give much more focus on characters giving "witty" and "humorous" comments, Villians giving stereotypical "Grr, I are average evil baddy!" lines, and lots of explosions. Character depth has been substituted for vague character outlines that are interesting enough to make you want more character exploration, yet all you get is bad dialogue. The villians have interesting concepts, but spit out so much bad dialogue that you have trouble defining said concepts. And once we get into combat, gone are the days when interesting mask and elemental powers were used on each other - Lets just shoot at each other! And when we're done doing that, we can load plot device zamors in and shoot at each other some MORE! As far as I am concerned, he is good at writing comic books, but completely unsuited for heading up the BIONICLE story team. His sources of inspiration are westerns and DC comic books. I both respect him for his past work and dedication, and loathe him for his revisionist history comments and utter butchering of everything I found interesting in the official Bionicle mythos. I just dont think he has enough of the right amount of skill neccesary to do this. On the score of Makuta, I can see where hes still the big baddy; the problem is is that he is now a DIFFERENT kind of baddy. He is currently a standard comic-book-villian that plots and schemes and makes grand evil actions that will be foiled by the heroes - I am sure Jinzo can give you a good comic book simile. However, in 2001, he was portrayed entirely differently; For example, Kapura saying that Makuta was with him then, in the burnt forest, and in the shadows. Furthermore, when the Toa met him in his lair to do battle, he did not first appear to them as a big evil armored beastie (2003) or a giant armored titan with a huge sword (2007), but rather as an infected McToran (2001). I found this very interesting; furthermore, when he disintegrated his Matoran form and turned into a tentacled monster, that was extremely interesting to me too; watching the tentacles tear apart and reform like muscle sinew was downright creepy. Makuta was, in 2001, portrayed more like an elder god of ancient mythology then a rather standard greedy and manipulative storyline villain. Having a race of Makutas - with him just as one of them - and giving him lame dialogue like "I have 1000 ways I could kill you... and 941 of them hurt." just dumps the character on his face, IMHO. He comes across to me as a generic bad guy - not as an all-encompassing evil. By giving him a species of his own and the like, the Makuta of 2001 simply ceased to exist. - Helden

lol, indeed. But still, I cant help looking at the new stuff... After all, there might be something good in there. *shrug* Well, I may still get Pohatu Phantoka for those arm-copter things. I'm sure I can use them - and the mask is pretty neat - like a combo between the Vahi and the Kakama Mata. @Falls: Indeed, it gets old. Which is why I've all but stopped - particularly over on BZP. There be no point in doing so over there at all :P Sorry for the mess.

Thank you, KMOI. You summed up much of what I felt and put why I still protest the issue perfectly. You see, Kahgarak, its not that "I don't like Bionicle". That is the furthest thing from the truth you can possibly say on the issue of Legos. Furthermore, I do not think of myself as "bashing" Bionicle, but criticizing it. I will acknowledge that I have been far harsher in pointing out what I dislike then what I like. For example, I have heavily critcized some of the 2007 sets - the Mahri in particular - yet have not pointed out the sets that I do greatly like, such as Takadox and Nocturn. Despite the easily-removeable squid launchers, I find absolutley nothing I dislike about either set, other then that I personally do not care for lime - yet the lime actually works pretty well on Nocturn. Even 2006 - the worst year of Bionicle, IMHO - had sets I liked and bought - namely, the Titans and the Voyatoran. Axonn and Brutaka mix the build quality of a Rahi with the functionality of a canister set - I love it! Of course, I found the names (Axe-Onn and Brute-aka) irritating, but thats easy enough to fix. (I personally refer to them as Nomir Dorn and Naladwor, respectivly.) I even ended up buying 5 of the Inika, and though I replaced Jaller Inika with Jaller Mahri and dissassembled my Kongu to improve on my Ehlek, the others still serve an active roll in my Bionicle adventures. They are inferior set design, but work well in my own Bionicle universe - as they are not the characters they are supposed to portray. As far as portraying Jaller and company, I find they do not evoke one bit of their previous characters. 2008 is the first year of Bionicle to make absolutley NO sets I have any interest in buying. Some sets are okay - such as Lewa - but absolutely none of them hold any real interest for me, and I find some of them - such as Icarax - downright poorly built. I do not "bash" Bionicle because I hate it. I "bash" Bionicle because I love it. I have devoted hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars to Bionicle over the years. For the years of 2001 and 2003, I lived and breathed Bionicle. This is not to say I had no gripes then; for one, I found the Nuva to be horrible (I still do, actually... the sets brought nothing but new armor and weapons to the table, the revamped legs were terrible, and the masks were hideous.) Also, I found the Bohrok Kal worked much better as Bohrok captains and that the "Husky" Matoran were just silly. I originally protested 2004, but more for storyline reasons then set reasons. As it is, I regard 2004 sets as the best of the Bionicle line, and approve of the entire years sets. The Matoran were a letdown, but, they were at least cute, and offered recolored 2001 masks. Originally, I was confused at the past being more advanced then the future, but as the plot was layed out, I went from disliking it to loving it. I have expanded the Metru Nui mythos for my own use and have lived in it since 2005. (2001>2004 I played with my Toa Mata and Bohrok and all that. I finially retired them for the fresh world of Metru-Nui and the superior set build.) I did not care for 2005, as I found the set build crude and the storyline erratic. It was a very nice concept but was excecuted with mediocre intensity at best; the highlight of the year was probably the beutifully done movie. While it does not evoke the same feel as LoMN, WoS is definetly worth a watch, IMHO. What started in 2005 really fell on its face in 2006, IMHO. This is when the set designers lost their touch and Greg took over, and I watched as something I had loved for years and was a passion of my early teen years turn into mud. The epic Toa turned into a vast police force; the bad guys turned into stereotypical comic book villians; the Makuta himself turned into an entire species and he himself became a generic "Grr, you've foiled me again! I'll be back! Rawr!" bad guy, rather then the all-encompassing evil he was portrayed as in 2001. Gregs quotes - such as "The reason 2001 and 2002 were so simple to understand because there was no storyline outside the comics" infuriate me, as he blatantly disregards all the work of Templar studios as it wasnt "canon". I watched as the sets went from detailed mechanical robots to giant, unwieldy and usually poorly designed lumps (Piraka, anyone?) I watched as the Bionicle music - a long time favorite of mine - went from the simple yet intriguing tunes of Templar composer Justin Luchter to the all-time low of "Piraka Rap". In short, I watched my very favorite toy line of my life die. I have wondered if I should stop complaining about it, but every year has always brought new ideas and sets that I could then build in to my Metru-Nui storyline. As it is, I still semi-actively play with my Bionicle sets, and I am still persuing over a dozen sets I still want. Yet still, every year brings more dissapointment; I am incredulous at how Greg can sink the storyline to ever-new depths and the designers can come up with bigger and bigger guns. Shooting powered disks at each other has turned into shooting light energy cannon balls out of weapons that remind one more of an 18th century Carronade then anything I would expect to see in the Bionicle universe. In short, Bionicle is something I am very passionate about, and my memories of playing the MNOLG, watching the beutifully-excecuted Bohrok webisodes, and playing with my sets are some of my fondest memories. I cannot bring myself to just shut up when I watch something I view as being almost holy get desecrated year after year. In the future, I will try to keep my commentary more level-headed and balanced; I find myself complaining about what I dont like yet not praising what I do like, for example. Furthermore, I will try to restrain from getting too agitated or sarcastic, as is my wont to do :P Thanx, - Helden

Humerous? Lay off it and stop trying to make yourself smell like a rose here, Clonie. We both well ruttin' know that you enjoy picking fights with me, as you've been doing it since long before you joined Eurobricks. While I am fine with a difference of opinion, after seeing your personality up close for several months, this: Is completely wrong. If you would refrain from bringing personal grudges into open forum debate, I would highly appreciate it. As it is, I grow tired of your twisting facts and logic so as to "debate" my points, and I will not continue further, as this will only get worse for the both of us - And I have no interest in getting suspended. Anyway, about Pohatu: I was unaware that those also functioned as drills. While I am still against building them into his arms, I actually quite like those over Pohatu Nuva's "Kodan Claws", which I never saw much point to. So yes, if you could at least stop trying to publicly make me look like "the bad guy", I'd really appreciate that, too. Cheers, - Helden

Mutran attempts to overcome his incredibly scrawny build

Yeah, I'd take the guy on the right. In fact, I have a spare of him. Anyone want him? :P

Same. Good to see you get your inner hate out, Grevie :-D I concur with Grevious on all scores. The fact that the Toa Ignika will be speaking in baby gibberish (As said by GregF himself) doesnt help, either.

you know, it really looks like Mantax is weilding a pair of SMG's from Halo in that pic.

Hello, I have been doing a limited form of casting for some time, but have not yet attempted Lego parts. I hope to do so in the future, and, if it is successful, I'll help you with yours :-) Also, rather than Sculpey for hair, I suggest Games Workshop two-part Epoxy. Its *way* better than Sculpey, and dries like hard rubber - ie, its practically unbreakable as it isnt fragile nor bendy. But still, very nice!

*sigh* I live in the one town where the foot at McDonalds was so bad, they went out of business. Yes, a McDonalds went out of business here. Sad :P Anyway, my only real regret is not eating there back in 2001 so that I'd have a messload of those little Tohunga buggers. Its taken me 7 years to get all of the ones I wanted... *sigh* So, any news on what exactly this new promo is?

... I want your job :-D

Even I got MIB spam... >_<

Well spoken! Tis what drew me in as well :) Now, I'm a horrible Bionicle MoCer, but I'd love to see that contest :-D I'm surprised BZP hasnt considered it yet!

So YOU'RE the reason that Redcoats and Bluecoats are so darn expensive on Bricklink! Nice army, though. I wish I could get my hands on just one measly squad o' five, much less an army :(

@Clonie: Huh? 2004 had... Lhikans blades... lets see, and Nidhiki had a bunch of blades, but I blame that on poor design. The Vahki's staffs couldnt really be passed off as blades, most of them were too weird. The Toa Metru had the only series of actual TOOLS that functioned as TOOLS, not weapons. And the Matoran had launchers. So yeah. Lhikan had 2 swords, and Nidhiki had 6, none of which actually operated as swords. Could you please explain your point?

An interestingly good point, Tohst.

But... the Nuva look absolutely nothing like their origional Nuva forms >_> Kopaka doesnt even have his eye on the proper side! But, I will wait until I see this ad myself.

@Zaktan: You're missing the point. Greg has likened just about everything he's written to some Marvel superhero or other. Its how he sees the Toa, and he sees the Bionicle villians as your generic "Popup" badguy; ie, they're "super powerful", go "Arr, you've foiled me again!" and appear one after another. He's likened how one Superhero comic - I think it was the Green Lantern? - went from a small group of heroes to an intergalactic civilization of heros defeating bad guys and the lot. I simply think the story would be a lot more interesting to a lot more people - including those who are ALREADY INTERESTED IN IT - if he took more inspiration from historical mythology then what Captain America was doing in 1987. @Clonie: Wrong. I have read Gregs books, and some of them - all of the 2004 ones, in particular I quite liked. Others... not so much. And I *really* do not like where he's taken the 2001 characters (Jaller and co); Nuparu and Kongu in particular irk me. 2007 did end on an emotional and interesting note; however, I still did not like it as much as, say, 2004. But, thats personal opinion. I find his work entertaining in its own way, but he is a comic book writer, and, IMHO, that field of expertise does not come in handy when writing a fantasy world. And anyway... Yeah. In 2001, you had one book - which was basically a mashup of the comics and, except for a few parts, fit quite well with the MNOLG and the comics (For example, in the book, Pohatu/Kopaka's meeting got extended then from the comic, and the Toa receiving their gold masks was portrayed in yet a 3rd way; it was portrayed 2 different ways in MNOLG. That was apparently something nobody had quite figured out.) So, yeah, you had the comics depicting certain pivotal battles with the Toa, and those first three were, IMHO, the best comics to date; the art style has not yet been matched, IMHO. The closest anyones come to it is Sayger, and his style is very... styalized :p Then, you had the book, which told the basic story of the Toa from start to finish. But what of the rest of the Bionicle world? That was fleshed out in the MNOLG, and fit well with the books/comics. So, I dont care if it was approved by the story team or not; it was the MNOLG that portrayed the Bionicle universe in the beginning; it was the MNOLG that defined the world of Bionicle, it was the MNOLG that introduced us to the characters personalities - including the Toa - and it was the MNOLG that told the story of Bionicle from an interesting and interactive perspective. Canon or not, approved or not, it was MNOLG that defined BIONICLE, and despite what you may think, the Templar team wasnt just smoking crack when they came up with the MNOLG; They were given a definite direction by the LEGO story team headed by Bob Thompson. It was the mythological feel that got myself so involved in Bionicle that, even now, after years of dissapointment and disgruntlement, I'm still with it. I can tell you right now that far more kids in 2001 played MNOLG then read the book - I didnt actually get the 2001 book until mid-2002 - so, while perhaps the books matter more NOW, they didnt back then. Of course, now, the online games consist of shooting stuff and collecting rockets. Whee. 2007 did have several aspects that I liked, such as the little "news report" on Bionicle.com that mentioned such things as the stone cord and the giant eel. These were things that one could use their imagination on and run with, since Lego layed down the original inspiration - Just like they always have. If the Toa's vehicle there had been, oh, a vehicle, not a rahi with control panels in its head and viewports for eyes, I would have approved of that too, as it fit in with the 2004 sense of technology. I am not "Oh, its new Bionicle, it sucks!" I have very definite reasons for my approval or disapproval of the sets/story. I simply have no use for a Nuparu Mahri that looks like some kind of hollow-jointed frog and cant shut up about blowing stuff up. On the flip side, his mask and sheild are quite nice, as is the masks of both Hahli Mahri and Jaller Mahri, as well as the weaponry of Matoro and Jaller. On the other hand, Matoro is a hunchback, Kongu is Heavy Weapons Guy, Hewkii has a manta stuck on his head, skinny legs, and spikes on his thighs, and Hahli acquired wings even though she's underwater. So, yeah. - The Admiral

Ah, my bad. I mean, between Lewa and his piggy back rider, theres only 5 swords! And lets not forget the Toa Ignika, all of the Makuta-baddies, and Lesovikk.

As you well know, that kind o' pirate speak is jus' th' way I type. Und hyu should jost count hysef lucky dot hy dunt tolk like dis hall de time! Edit: I see your "Mythology" statement and... woah. I guess that explains why the works of J.R.R. Tolkien have such a small fanbase, and why nobody plays God of War, and that everyone from Homer to Socrates was jus' tomfoolin' around since not everybody would like what they wrote! Face it. 2001, Bionicle was a mythology. in 2006, Bionicle met Marvel superheros. Anyway, back on topic...

... the Cordaks are still six-shot machine guns, nomatter how you dress it up, clonie T_T Anyway; at the same time, the 2001 battle with Makuta was, in its own way, very unique. No Makuta clash since then has rivaled it; I know that Greg wouldnt have had him appear as a Matoran, because, apparently, that wasnt scary enough. 2001 and 2004 still have my all-time favorite endings. I jus' feel that Greg should read a little more (for example) Greek mythology as opposed to, oh, marvel superheroes, which he appearently eats with every meal of the day :P

Covering yourself in swords is the thing to do!

WARNING: I JUST WOKE UP WHEN I WROTE THIS, SO IT RAMBLES. SORRY. Allright, let me make my point a bit clearer. I am not against technology in Bionicle. I am not against a more expansive, advanced setting. I am against "lulz, lets make random crazy s***". It took me a while to warm up to it, but I am a diehard fan of 2004 and Metru Nui; Metru Nui has a place in my heart right next to Mata-Nui. You see, I had been playing - and making up stories - for my Toa Mata (I never accepted the Nuva because, as Jinzo said, they were ugly as sin). I advanced the Mata-Nui world, and there was still potential for more. But then I got Toa Whenua; then Onewa, and then a Vahki, and I realised how much I liked the 2004 sets. Mind you, unlike 05 and 06 and 07, I never said the 04 sets were bad. Clonish, yes, but a great step up from past sets. The 2004 line is still, IMHO, the best line to date, as it provided a solid all-around building experience and playing experience. 2005 just had poor sets period :P Now, you see, Metru-Nui was the precursor to Mata-Nui. I found that intriguing. As the storyline was revealed and I watched the movie, I really liked the whole feel of Metru-Nui; there was so much to expand on. The city was like one great blank, but with its own style; they went to the trouble to invent things such as chutes. I loved it and I ran amok. Today, I have a very solid metru-nui and pre-metru-nui setting in which to play with my sets, with a full history. But heres the thing. In Metru-Nui we had distinctly Bionicle technology; the disks were not simply weapons, but could be put to other uses and melted down and made into masks. The Matoran civilization was vastly intriguing, and provided a great setting. The technololgy... the architecture... all of it had a very unique and original feel to it. After I realised how awesome both the story setting and the sets were, I ate it up. 2005 had poor sets and a poorly-executed storyline; the movie was probably the best part out of the year. This was when Greg started to take over and Bionicle morphed from an origional story and setting to your average superhero story, with big generic baddies and superpowered "police". (Yes, Greg reffered to the Toa as police, not heroes.) The shooters while not my favorite were at least an original concept, and Rahi-Toa was also interesting. I took the basic ideas and morphed them and the sets into my own universe. And then in 2006, it all went in the can. The set quality went from "Poorly Designed" to "Gimmicky"; the Titans were the only thing that showed any signs of intelligent planning. The masks out-uglied the Nuva; the storyline was cheap and had no definite "Feel" to it. The comics, which previously had tried to tell a story, went to 12 pages of shooting and plot devices. And swinging back around to the original note of "Technology", I got to watch as it went from Tribal>Unique advanced>Plain gimmicky/stupid. Now we have islands making thousands of war machines, we have chainguns, we have flaming ball-launchers; the technology - which I had valued as greatly as I value the tribal feel of 01-03 - went all to hell. The story, the sets, the technology - its all about shooting the enemy. Sure, the 07 animation is nice, but it's just a bunch of characters shooting at each other; the Barraki trailer had more depth then that. Ugh. I have a hard time getting my point across; Jinzo probably did a better job. I just wanted to make clear that its not that I am anti-technology in the Bionicle universe, its that technology done as poorly as "LULZ, LASER-STONE GUNS an' SIX SHOT ROCKET LAUNCHERS" is seriously out of place in a universe that had established itself as original and unique for 5 years. And guess what? Next year we get... ZAMOR CORDAKS! Bleh. At least we get masks that dont suck.

Face it; high-tech beings in a primitive setting with a mixture of tribal and ancient high-tech technology was far more interesting then the high-tech shooting blaster-mayhem it is today, and was far more original for a toy line story. As I've said before; Bionicle has become generic.

KMOI, you win an internet.