Aanchir

Nocturn was definitely a great design, even as a smaller and less expensive titan set than usual. For all his faults, Fire Lord had a clever design for his torso, legs, and feet. Rocka XL and Black Phantom helped iron out the problems in the leg design, but Black Phantom had a much more simplistic torso construction by comparison.

Tell me again how you can't feel for a robot character. Or for that matter how a character's mortality is the only way you can realistically relate to them. Personally, I feel for characters like Bulk and Breez and Furno not because of their physical vulnerabilities, but for their emotional ones. Which isn't to say I've enjoyed every story featuring these characters, but I've enjoyed enough to feel for the characters. I won't be bitter about Hero Factory ending, of course. It had a good run. But I'll remember it fondly in spite of some of its faults.

I'll let Scholastic's blurb for the LEGO Ninjago Official Guide speak for me: "Ninjago is funny. Ninjago is action-packed. Ninjago is Lego's biggest new initiative since Bionicle!" The number of sets it got even just starting out is also a pretty good indicator of how successful it was anticipated to be. A lot of detail about the planning for Ninjago can be read in Brick by Brick.

That could be interesting. Would you prefer traditional or flash-based animation? I think Mata Nui Online Game did some beautiful things with flash animation, and shows like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic show just how refined it can be when afforded a full TV series' budget and production schedule. I also think it can be useful for keeping high-detail character designs on-model. Don't you mean Dark Orange? I agree, it looks like that could be his primary color, which is totally fine by me. I do wish the model used it more extensively than what we can see currently, though.

If we're talking specifically about humanoid characters, then Takanuva, probably. Great articulation, creative design, good proportions, well-organized color scheme, and good-looking from all angles. I used to really like Brutaka and Roodaka as well, but they don't hold up quite so well in hindsight. Roodaka's weight is not very well supported by the single friction ball cups used for her ankles, and her Y-shaped torso is kind of weird. Brutaka is a great, well-proportioned design, but some aspects of his design are also rather simplistic and the fold-out blades are a bit weird (I prefer to leave them folded back, as they fill out the torso nicely). Hero Factory titan sets have been a mixed bag. Witch Doctor is one of the most creative, and I'd probably rank him above Brutaka and Roodaka in terms of creativity, even though as with those two, some aspects of the design are a little inelegant (particularly the extremely gappy back of the torso).

Yep, these are all good ideas! Naturally, you don't want a character to limit their powers to the extent that they become a one-note character. A good story still needs the characters to be able to use their powers in new and surprising ways, like when Gali and Lewa created a storm in the first Bohrok comic. It was something cool, something the two of them had never done before... yet something that still made plenty of sense with their respective powers. I'm pretty sure it'll be gold as well.

I sort of see what you mean, but at the same time, I am not terribly concerned with it. I am confident that with this building system, sets can stand out mostly by virtue of how they are built. For example, the first wave of Legends of Chima constraction sets clearly belonged to a different theme than characters like Ogrum, even though they used the same torso shell and chest plate. New motifs are fine, and it seems like the new BIONICLE sets will have some in the form of new add-ons. At the same time, I don't want it to rely on new motifs to define the theme's identity, because that would limit what could be done in sets and MOCs while still letting them fit in as BIONICLE creations. It wouldn't do to have the new BIONICLE's visual style defined more narrowly than Hero Factory's, would it? Creating "BIONICLE-specific" shells and using them throughout the theme just to set it apart from Hero Factory could run that risk. On a final note, I don't think the theme has to be more "biomechanical-looking" than Hero Factory, because even the Toa of the old BIONICLE theme were not all that biomechanical-looking. All of their specialized details — pistons, accordion joints, gears, etc. — were mechanical in nature. This helped set them apart from the beastly villains they faced: the Bohrok with their white teeth, rounded shape, and rubber brains; the Rahkshi with their smooth, curved faceplates and armor; the Barraki with their smoothly blended color patterns and organic sea creature motifs; etcetera. In fact, in some respects, many Hero Factory/CCBS parts feel more biological than typical BIONICLE parts, because their smooth, solid surfaces and gentle curves give them a slightly organic look, even though many of the finer geometric details still have a sense of machine-tooled precision. Many of them are nearly as "organic" in appearance as any LEGO part can be before it becomes as specialized as Galidor. I don't think the new BIONICLE should be pushed any further in THAT direction. Better to keep the Toa and Matoran looking ambiguously mechanical than to add details so unquestionably organic that they limit the versatility of the parts in question. On one hand, I agree that it's good for the characters not to have to split up too often. At the same time, it's also good for any story about teamwork to involve depending on each other's unique strengths, not all having the same strengths. I sort of wonder if the Toa Mata would not have "forgotten" their lessons about unity and teamwork so often if they DID have to depend on each other more often... then again, their transformation into Toa Nuva gave them the PERFECT opportunity to learn to depend on one another, since they could do so without splitting up by sharing their mask powers, and instead the storyline used their increased power as an excuse to split them up YET AGAIN. >_< With that said, there are times in any story where you NEED to level the playing field so that the characters don't all have to depend on the same character throughout the entire story arc. A storyline like the one in 2007 that takes place entirely in an underwater setting would not have worked at all if the characters all had to depend on one character with the power of water breathing. Likewise, 2008's aerial setting would not have been NEARLY as effective if all the Toa had to follow Lewa around like a group of helpless ducklings. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic dealt with a problem like this in the episode "Sonic Rainboom" since its main events took place in Cloudsdale, a city made of clouds that normally only winged creatures like Pegasi can inhabit. Twilight Sparkle used magic to give one character, Rarity, a pair of enchanted wings which became a major plot point later on, and used a simpler spell on herself and the rest of her friends that let them walk on clouds (Fluttershy, of course, was already a Pegasus, albeit a weak flier who prefers life on the ground). This leveled the playing field enough for the setting to work, but Rainbow Dash — an ace flyer and native of Cloudsdale — still got to save the day in the end with her own unique aerial talents. Avatar: The Last Airbender also does a good job separating unique skills from shared powers. Aang starts out with only the ability of Airbending, and although he later learns Waterbending, Earthbending, and Firebending, he still depends on his friends for both tasks that need more than one bender of a particular element and tasks that their own unique skills and experience are suited to. For instance, Toph, an Earthbender, has a sixth sense that lets her see things others can't by detecting vibrations in the earth. She also becomes the first Earthbender in history to bend metal, something Aang never learns. Zuko, a firebender, can redirect lightning, though he never masters the ability to create it himself the way his sister Azula can. And Katara, a waterbender, can use her waterbending ability to heal injuries. Aang never learns to master these skills to the same extent as his friends, even once he's proficient in using the very same elements. If the new BIONICLE has to deal at any point with multiple characters who share the same element or mask powers, it would be interesting for it to likewise give them their own unique ways of using those powers, rather than treating them as an all-encompassing "moveset" that any wielder has full access to. There's a difference between having a power and being automatically proficient in all of its uses, and BIONICLE acknowledged this at times, but rarely was the idea used to its fullest potential. Usually it was just a character unlocking a new use for their power — their ability to use that power in that way rarely became a part of their identity like Rainbow Dash's aerial skills or Toph's metalbending.

Personally, I find the CCBS to be every bit as fun as more Technic-based building, but I realize this is completely subjective. However, what I can never understand is why people think sets have to be EITHER Technic-based OR CCBS-based. Incorporating Technic into the CCBS is not nearly as difficult as people make it out to be. In fact, a lot of the CCBS parts have plenty of Technic connection points, and it confuses me greatly that people think they need more. The 7M beam has two pin holes, the same as the Toa Metru lower leg beam which has the same length. Furthermore, since each beam has a ball in the center, you can add three Technic connection points in an instant using a basic Y-joint. Already, some of this summer's Invasion from Below sets have been close to 50% Technic by piece count. Indeed, even System-based sets often use Technic extensively for adding structure or functionality, as in the case of many sets from the Legends of Chima theme. So it's not as though a model is restricted to only using one building system or another. As for ways to improve the CCBS, I wouldn't mind new shells, but there aren't any particular sorts of designs I see a pressing need for. I'm sure the LEGO Group's designers would be better at coming up with new concepts than I am, though.

Even if at some point in its development, BIONICLE was meant to end in 2001, I have a feeling that by the time the first wave of sets in 2001 came out the designers had realized they had to prepare for the possibility of it continuing further. Of course, I'm sure they were likewise prepared for the possibility of ending it quickly if its sales didn't meet expectations. And as I said, the LEGO Group was caught by surprise by Ninjago's sales strength adn the dedication of its fanbase. This was not because they didn't know it would be popular. Like BIONICLE, it was designed to be a craze. But its popularity was presumably not expected to continue to grow like it did.

I had completely forgotten about the Jurassic World sets. That's a very real possibility, especially since it's a franchise that's ingrained in popular culture and Comic-Con is chiefly a pop culture event.

Ninjago's break was an unusual case, though, in that the LEGO Group didn't realize they WERE going to continue it until they saw that interest in the theme was significantly greater than they expected. If they COULD have kept it going non-stop, they would have, but by the time they realized just how much potential the theme still had, it was too late to rush a wave of sets to production for summer 2013. In this case, I think Hero Factory has basically run its course. It COULD be brought back, but its fanbase isn't anywhere near as huge and dedicated as the Ninjago fanbase, so I don't think there will be any "surprises" of that magnitude for the LEGO Group. It won't be difficult for me to move on, since there will still be new sets with the same building system and I wasn't really getting my hopes up for any resolution to the theme's loose ends. Even if there are some dangling story threads left behind, it's not like they were story threads that had been progressing in any way since they were first established. They were just sort of created and abandoned, which is disappointing, but not as disappointing as when you've been faithfully following new developments in a storyline for months or years and then they come to a sudden halt.

Yes, it is. And his Sand Yellow (Dark Tan) chest plate is the same color used on Avak and CHI Vardy.

It's possible that other sites and communities might have also gotten tickets to give away and just haven't announced how they're giving them away quite yet. October is a long way away, after all.

I've tried on LEGO Digital Designer, but since I started with my bedroom the proportions quickly became a bit ridiculous. Around 60 studs wide or something. I should try again sometime, this time aiming for reduced detail and a more reasonable scale.

According to BZPower, the LEGO Group will be unveiling a brand new LEGO theme on Thursday, October 9 at San-Diego Comic-Con. If it's not BIONICLE, my only guess at what it might be would be the enigmatic new "Super Cars" theme — unless it's some completely unknown new license that the LEGO Group has done an uncanny job keeping secret from AFOLs.

Well, hang on one moment. Pokémon is a considerably different beast from BIONICLE in terms of its jargon, in that most of the names have apparent meanings that relate directly to the Pokémon's design. In fairness, some names' origins are slightly obscure (to pick a recent example, "Greninja" doesn't make complete sense unless you recognize that the first part of its name comes from "grenouille", the French word for frog). But BIONICLE names' meanings and origins can be even less apparent. It wasn't until 2006 that we started getting sets with obvious English cognates... names like Axonn and Brutaka. Before that, most characters' names were either plucked from obscure languages or made up with arbitrary combinations of syllables that only had clear meanings in-universe. There are some exceptions, of course — Nixie in the Mata Nui Online Game II has an actual English word for her name, though a lot of people didn't realize this. I have actually read a fanfic where somebody came up with a backstory for Nixie and had a character name her for the Latin word for snow, Nix! Never mind how little sense this would make in-universe. Also, knowing every Pokémon is basically trivia. It is not necessary to know every Pokémon to understand the TV show and games. Remembering the names, powers, and backstory of the current BIONICLE characters and species is much more important to following the BIONICLE storyline than knowing every Pokémon is to following the events of the Pokémon games and TV series. With that said, I don't think this is a real issue for BIONICLE at all. The term Toa is perhaps one of the simplest concepts in the BIONICLE universe, once you strip away all the crazy science of how Toa powers work. And those storyline complications have nothing to do with what the species is called. If the term Toa is not used in the new storyline, so be it — but it wouldn't be because it would complicate things significantly. And in any case, I don't see why people are even speculating about the name Toa going away, as if we have any evidence to suggest it! Tahu has been called a Toa of Fire, a spirit of fire, and a master of fire at various points in the storyline. Only one Tahu set (the 2008 version) ever actually included the word Toa in its name, and for that matter, no Matoran set EVER included the word Matoran in its name. So it's a bit odd that people expect to see the word Toa or Matoran in these sets' names at all!

My family's first pet was a cat. By the time I came around, she was old and did not like kids, so my memories of her were not the fondest. My family got a dog off the Internet back in the year 2000. Her name is Cider and she's very friendly, but she's getting old and really starting to show it. She has cataracts in both eyes so she can barely see, and we can't operate on them because she has a heart palpitation that would make it extremely risky to put her under anaesthesis. But we do our best to take good care of her, and thankfully she knows the house well enough to get around most of the time. When I was a teenager I had a hamster named Goldie, and my twin brother had a hamster named Silver. The person at the pet store assured us all the hamsters were female, but it turns out they were wrong, and soon enough we had a lot more hamsters. Thankfully we found owners for most of them. Goldie died in 2007, and our family doesn't have any hamsters any more. I really love animals, and a few months ago my brother and I got to take care of my aunt and uncle's dog Sydney. She's about the same age as Cider, but she's just barely beginning to show her age (eating less and being less active). We took good care of Sydney for a little over a week, so maybe I might do more pet-sitting in the future. I really like cats, in spite of my early childhood experiences. I would love to have a cat of my own one day, but it probably won't happen until I have a place of my own since my younger brother is allergic. And I don't want to get a place of my own until I have a steady job.

Curious that the packages for the new sets seem to be closer to the size of the sets from the next price point up in Hero Factory than the sets of the same price point. That honestly does not bother me terribly — I do not judge the value of a set by its size, let alone by the size of its package, so much as by its piece count. Still, I hope that the piece counts DO measure up to what we'd expect of these price points. I also still wonder what TYPE of packaging the new sets will use. I hope they stick with the foil pouches, personally. The display stand image we've seen does not provide much enlightenment in this regard, as all the packages are represented simply with two-dimensional cards. If they ARE pouches, then it seems like those for the Defenders are a new size... but then again, the size listed is just slightly larger than the size of the non-resealable foil packages used for the Mixels and LEGO Friends animal packs, so maybe they will use a similar style of packaging, except not packed in a box like those? The incredibly small depth measurements for these sets (fractions of a centimeter for even the largest sets) seem downright impossible, and I'm fully prepared to chalk those up to either an error in placing the decimal point, or an indication that the measurements given represent the packages when empty... which would be strange, but it could also explain why the height and width measurements are slightly off from the most similarly sized 2013 set packages.

This is exciting! I've been saying for a while now that the LEGO Group's next foray into girl-oriented themes should be an in-house fantasy theme (I'm not at all fond of how sanitized and domestic the subject matter of the Disney Princess theme is — it lacks much of the sense of magic and adventure that characterized the movies it's based on). There's a lot of money in fantasy play for girls, as evidenced by the success of brands like My Little Pony and Monster High. Yet it's a genre that LEGO Friends itself can't really effectively touch on. I wonder what age range these sets will be targeted at — hopefully the same age range as LEGO Friends or even slightly older. The Disney Princess sets appeared to be targeted at a slightly younger audience than LEGO Friends, and I was not thrilled with their design quality.

First impression: "Whoa, Anacondrai? That's crazy!" Second impression: "Wow, that's a LOT of sets for one wave." If this set list is accurate, then it's a very good thing for the Ninjago theme. I would not have expected eleven sets in the first wave by any means!

They might not, but it would seem a bit random to me to keep the names of classic characters who were used in the main story for a handful of years and stop using a term that was used in the main story every year. Furthermore, "Master" as it is used in the titles does not seem like it's at all meant to be understood as a species name, and unless they do not refer to the characters' species at all (which would be possible, but a bit strange), they have to have SOME term for it.

Sort of, but I think that might even be overcomplicating it a bit. The main purpose of a set name is to describe the set and tell people what the set is. Calling sets "Toa" doesn't tell people anything about them if they've never heard of Toa before. So it's just an effort to make the set names more legitimately descriptive. Another thing worth noting — even if the characters are called Toa in the new story, there's no reason to automatically assume that the word Toa will still be used as a title or honorific like "sir". Before BIONICLE: Mask of Light, Tahu was never officially called "Toa Tahu". His name was Tahu, and he was a Toa, but you wouldn't necessarily expect to hear him addressed as "Toa Tahu" any more than you'd expect to hear Superman addressed as "Superhero Superman" or Spock addressed as "Vulcan Spock". In future years, we might see a "Toa Tahu" set, or we might not. Depends on whether they want to go back to using Toa as a title, and on whether they still think that would make a good set name. It's worth noting, though, that despite becoming "Toa Tahu" in his 2008 set, Tahu went back to being just "Tahu" in 2010, so it's possible that having titles like that in the names of sets was perceived as pointless overcomplication. Certainly Hero Factory never bothered naming its characters "Hero Furno" or "Villain Jawblade".

Not really. In this day and age "Master" is fairly gender neutral, and "Mistress" carries an entirely different set of connotations. You don't see female martial arts champions being called "mistresses" — if they master the art, they are considered masters.

I don't think it's anything like that, to be honest. The new BIONICLE will be trying to appeal to an audience that may never have heard of Toa (the youngest of them would have been babies when BIONICLE ended), and many people in that audience have probably never HEARD of a Toa. So instead of throwing a bunch of vocabulary they've never heard at them, the set names explain their role in words pretty much anybody of the right age will understand. Even the old BIONICLE never used the word "Toa" in set names until the Toa Metru in 2004. Before that, characters just went by their names and nothing else.

I can't imagine the skull spiders adding that much to the cost of a set. We can already tell that they're just five pieces each and that in the pictures we've seen they all use the same molds. That's a big difference from the mini-heroes which included nine pieces (not counting accessories like rocket boosters, data pads, and weapons), including one unique helmet mold. And each set only includes one skull spider in addition to the main figure, unlike Rocka Crawler which included a mini-robot, a cocoon, AND a jumper, or Evo Walker which included a mini-robot and THREE jumpers. My goal for the new sets would be for all price points to have a price per piece of 20–25 cents USD. So the $10 Defenders should have 40–50 pieces, the smaller $15 Toa 60–75 pieces, and the larger $20 Toa 80–100 pieces (ideally, all towards the higher end of that range, especially at the higher price points). All of the Invasion from Below sets met or exceeded these thresholds, as did most of the Brain Attack sets. The Chima constraction sets have not consistently met these thresholds, but to their credit they have elaborate printed, pre-assembled head pieces that are no doubt more expensive than the simpler heads and masks of BIONICLE and Hero Factory sets. For the new BIONICLE, I do not anticipate that being a problem, so I would expect their prices to be more like what Hero Factory has demonstrated for the past two years. I do not think that it will be difficult for the defender sets to meet these thresholds — each has not only a five-piece skull spider, but also six ammunition pieces and possibly as many triggers (if the new blasters are anything like the click shooter used for this summer's Hero Factory sets). And each defender seems at LEAST as complex as Aquagon from the Brain Attack series, a set that managed to meet these thresholds even with very simple weapons. However, I am not so sure about the Toa. None of my doodles of them on LEGO Digital Designer even approach these piece counts. Hopefully that's a sign of how little of them I've been able to figure out correctly, and not how little complexity the actual sets will offer. I wonder how long we have to wait to learn official piece counts. That would give me a better sense of how complex the various sets are.