Aanchir

Well, in the TV episodes he also had Stringer's arm cannon on his opposite arm, but if you were designing a minifigure version of him that wouldn't matter any more than his other weapon.

Sure, a redesign is always possible. Also, sometimes an out-of-use mold can be reintroduced without a redesign if the mold is not completely worn out (example: the 2x4x2 windscreen used for a fishtank in the Pet Shop). But that doesn't happen terribly often. No real way to know for sure. It depends on how much of a new parts budget the sets get.

And it's a mind-blowingly stupid name, too. Even if BIONICLE were to start using Hero Factory style names, I doubt they'd do something with "gnu" in it unless it was... ya know... a gnu. More importantly, you can tell it's fake because the LEGO logo doesn't appear anywhere on the front of the package. The old packages did the indignity of shoving the LEGO logo to the bottom of the front panel, but in this day and age, with the LEGO brand as amazingly strong as it is, I don't know if they'd do even that, and they certainly wouldn't go a step further by removing it from the front panel entirely. Other flaws abound: the use of discontinued foot pieces, the badly shopped Hakann face, the lazy backdrop, the nonsensical inclusion of both a Thornax Launcher AND a Zamor Launcher... even what looks like an outdated LEGO Club blurb. On the whole, not impressed with this effort. At least they used the CCBS, which demonstrates some level of awareness of reality. Though it's possible they might have included that just to elicit cringes from old-school BIONICLE fans who are still opposed to this building system.

According to this article there's going to be a Legends of Chima panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Hoping for some cool insights into the theme's development!

There's going to be a Ninjago panel at Comic-Con according to this article, featuring writers Dan and Kevin Hageman, designers Simon Lucas and Tommy Andreasen, and marketing director Brian Bowler. Hope somebody reports on the goings-on there!

For those in the US, don't forget that there are two new episodes tomorrow evening (well, new for those like me who haven't watched them online)!

Now, I wouldn't say that for sure. I'm just 23 years old and I knew the issue with classic space helmets fairly well even as a child, due to getting pre-owned LEGO at yard sales. Since LEGO (for the most part) never gets destroyed from normal use, it's totally possible for younger fans to learn about older sets, figs, and pieces. They won't be quite such a fountain of knowledge as somebody who lived through that era of set design, perhaps, but knowing what classic space minifigures tend to look like — including their characteristic defect — is not out-of-the-question. However, in the case of Benny, the broken chin strap was just ONE part of the joke about his age as a minifigure. He also had a faded logo, lots of scratches and dings (not present in the official sets, of course!), and always preferred building in the style of the classic 1980s Space sets he represented. The joke wouldn't be nearly as clear on a figure who had just the broken helmet and wasn't even the same color as any of the actual classic figs — it would just be a sort of confusing imperfection.

Ah, so that explains it. Generally, I see "waist" used to refer to the area between the rib cage and the hips. The abs are the muscles that control the movement of the waist, so they're more or less right in front of it. On a real person, there is no singular joint for the waist — its movement is spread out all the way along the spine between the pelvis and ribcage. So for instance, the waist on this piece is that narrow section in the middle. On a figure with a regular 9x9 or 9x7 torso you'd want a "waist joint" to more or less line up with that.

What do you mean by that? To me, "articulation under the torso", "ab pivot", and "waist articulation" appear to mean more or less the same thing — a joint of some kind located towards the middle of the torso. Personally, I like the idea of waist articulation because it can allow for more expressive poses. A figure will be able to slouch their upper body forward, rotate their upper body to face a different direction than their lower body, etc. The Toa Metru Nokama picture you just linked over in the Inika torso topic shows a good example of a pose that is not possible without some kind of waist articulation. Another reason I've always been fond of the idea of waist articulation, though, is that the very first BIONICLE sets, the Toa Mata, had an implied waist joint. Like all of their other implied joints, like the ones in their arms and knees, it was made into an actual joint in CGI pictures and other media — even the instruction booklet art for the Toa Mata often had their upper and lower bodies at different angles (most obvious in Gali's and Pohatu's official art). Yet even as later years made things like knee, elbow, and neck joints standard, waist joints have never been anything but a rare novelty in constraction sets. It's not a huge deal, but if waist articulation didn't matter at all, the LEGO Group wouldn't have put an implied waist joint on the Toa Mata torso in the first place, let alone manipulate it in character art and animations.

If anyone's interested, Nabii describes the situation here (and also verifies that grey bricks were indeed avoided for the Yellow Castle in case kids might use them to make tanks). Generally, I have to agree with the LEGO Group's policies. It would be rather distasteful to do a modern military theme with how serious and sensitive an issue war is for many families and communities. Of course, it would be interesting to get a better sense of where the LEGO Group draws the line. There is definitely some subjectivity involved, but with that said, the LEGO Group is totally entitled to make subjective decisions based on what they think would be more or less likely to offend their buyers. Generally, I don't expect the LEGO Group to ever make a 20th or 21st century military theme, even though some 20th and 21st century military vehicles and uniforms have appeared in sets. It's the difference between having war as a theme's subject and having it as its context, which is probably how things like the military vehicles in the Indiana Jones and Man of Steel sets have been permitted.

Generally I do dislike the faces, just on the grounds that it's hard for them to show expression. I've consistently preferred the head pieces used in Hero Factory to the ones used in BIONICLE (well, the Brain Attack one doesn't have a face, but it doesn't need one so much because all the masks that year have expressive faces of their own). The masks in BIONICLE I don't have quite so much of a problem with, because they're masks, though I prefer the expressive versions in the movies to the static ones in the sets, and try to work some level of expressiveness into all my BIONICLE drawings. Like the Brain Attack masks or the masks in the BIONICLE movies, all the Toa Inika masks had expressive faces with recognizable facial features, and I was honestly a little bit disappointed when this design trend did not continue in future years. And yes, when a character is supposed to be non-humanoid, it's fine for them not to have humanoid proportions. But as I said, the ways a figure varies from humanoid proportions and physique convey a message, and more so the more they stand out.

Yes, stretching the Inika torso out like some post-2006 sets did is definitely an option that helps reduce the wonkiness of the legs and the arms slightly. Distorting the proportions definitely works in some cases, but the important thing to remember is that the effect depends on how exactly you distort them. Characters like Mickey Mouse or the Matoran have larger heads and shorter legs relative to their body than an adult human, but the result is a cute look (probably in part because the proportions become somewhat reminiscent of a human toddler or infant). Exaggerating the width of the shoulders (whether or not you do it to the same extent as the Toa Inika) makes the figure look burly and masculine, so it can be good for characters with a "superhuman" physique — but if you make a figure TOO burly, you can end up with a figure who looks downright monstrous like the Incredible Hulk. Likewise, narrower shoulders can make a figure look lean and feminine, but make them TOO narrow and they start to look downright frail. Human women also often have wider hips than human men (ever heard the expression "childbearing hips"?), but it's a subtle difference and generally not one that you can really convey in a constraction MOC. Take it too far, like with Toa Mata Pohatu, and they just stop looking like human hips — though in some cases this can help a non-humanoid creation like this combi model really stand out. Making the head smaller relative to the body is another way to make a figure look superhuman or idealized. In many types of drawing, including superhero comics or fashion drawing, an ideal adult height will be seven or eight times the size of their head, although in real life most adults' height is closer to six or six-and-a-half times the size of their head. Again, exaggerate this too much and it starts to look ridiculous, and generally you should try to keep the rest of the body proportions fairly realistic rather than putting all the "extra" height in the legs. I think those examples make my point clear — there's no reason you have to keep all proportions realistic, but any changes you make will tend to have some impact on how a viewer will perceive the subject. There's some wiggle room (after all, people rarely complain about Toa Mata Gali looking especially masculine, although her shoulders are actually wider than Lewa's or Kopaka's), but whenever making any design decision you should try to remain aware of what sort of message it will send. And actually, the Piraka torso is the same width as the Inika torso at the shoulders. However, it has a wider chest, less of a neck, and less of a waist, which makes it look more masculine. I think Toa Mahri Hahli and Mistika Toa Gali might have both used it on account of the curvature it lends to the back, though I can't be entirely sure what the designers were thinking.

It'd be a good start, but it could also be complex from a molding perspective, since instead of one simple two-section mold like the current HF torso beams each use, you'd need at least two new molds with at least three sections each just to make a single figure's torso. Not that using a ball joint would necessarily be any simpler — the parts with the ball would be fine, but whichever part you use for the ball cup would be considerably more complex unless you used an existing part like the Y-joint. This is kind of getting off topic since we haven't really seen anything to indicate next year's sets might have waist articulation.

Inika builds are not awkward by definition. It is possible to use a Toa Inika torso to build a decently proportioned figure. The issue is not the similarity in length between the arms and the legs, nor is it the thickness of the torso (contrary to what I often see people complain about). In fact, the torso has generally the same proportions a Toa Metru torso would have when fully assembled, shoulders and all. The issue, rather, is the length of the legs and arms relative to the torso. Generally, the hips of a figure should be about halfway up the figure's height — thus, the distance from the base of the feet to the hips should be roughly the same as the distance from the hips to the top of the mask. The distance between the base of the feet and the hips on a Toa Mata is 11.5 modules, and the distance from the hips to the top of the mask is 10.5 modules. Hardly any difference. In contrast, the distance between the base of the feet and the hips on a Toa Inika is 15.5 modules, but the distance from the hips to the top of the head is just 12.5 modules. That's a difference of three modules. This makes the legs look awkward and gangly. Even more problematic are the arms. Generally, when posed with their arms at their sides, a figures wrists should be level with or slightly below their hips. With the Toa Inika, their elbows were level with their hips, and their wrists were level with their knees. This is flat-out wrong. Toa Mata were not perfect either by that reckoning — the way Toa Mata Lewa's shoulders were built gave his right elbow much the same problem, and his left arm (while a much better length) lacked an elbow entirely. The shoulders were also rather exaggerated — the horizontal distance from shoulder to shoulder was four modules more than the vertical distance from shoulder to hip. But this is a proportion that can be exaggerated in some cases to create a muscular look (and as I said before, it was really no worse than the Toa Metru's proportions). It was somewhat absurd for female Toa, though. Some sets, like Kiina, are even worse with respect to both the arms AND the legs on account of having an even smaller torso and even longer arms than a Toa Inika. To be fair, her shoulders were a lot more realistically proportioned than those of any canister set that used a Toa Inika or Toa Mahri torso. But this was undermined by the length of the arms and legs. If she had been more petite in general, with shorter legs and arms, she would have looked much better. A lot of people hold the Toa Metru up as an example of ideal Toa proportions. This is not entirely fair, since as with some figures that used an Inika build, there was a stark difference between the length of the arms and the length of the legs. And the width of the shoulders was basically unchanged. With the CCBS it is much easier to create a reasonably proportioned figure since pretty much every single beam comes in a wide range of sizes. Obviously, BIONICLE and Hero Factory figures are not human. Doesn't matter. Regardless of that excuse, the people who are going to be looking at and trying to identify with a figure from either theme are going to be human, so unless you want the figure to be visibly exaggerated or even monstrous in proportion, it's best to aim for roughly humanoid proportions when possible. One final note: I ought to mention that I did love the Toa Inika torso. Regardless of its realism, it was without question the most versatile torso beam as a building element, with plentiful connection points, good articulation, and a very basic shape. The blocky, columnlike torso beams of Toa Mata and Toa Metru were far more specialized, hence why you never saw them used for any sets other than Toa or combi models that included Toa. Still, I am glad we have moved past the Toa Inika torso as a standard for mid-size sets.

A while back I started building some of the Hero Factory combi models from 2012 on LDD, and I just decided on a whim to resume that project. Some of them are some really beautiful designs, but they do bring to mind one other thing I hope for in a revived BIONICLE. I'd LOVE if all the combi models had names and story roles, like the classic BIONICLE ones did (most of them, anyway — strangely, the alternate models for the large sets of 2002 didn't really have names of their own).

Full waist articulation can be tricky, even in MOCs. I've tried to come up with designs for CCBS parts with waist articulation. This is the best I could come up with, and then Front explained to me why the center piece wouldn't work. Even though some people feel the current Hero Factory torso beams are rather large and awkward, frankly there aren't a whole lot of alternatives that don't cut down on the number of usable connection points, or result in two awkwardly-shaped beams instead of one. I honestly don't know how much chance there is of us ever seeing waist articulation become standard on smaller models.

Not really; no more than the locking clamps on the Brain Attack heroes. Honestly it could be kind of cool! But I'm not going to get my hopes up too much. If we do get articulated hands, awesome. If not, I'm perfectly fine with the fist pieces we have currently. They're pretty nicely proportioned.

You could fix the straight arms if you swapped them for two 3M beams each. It could actually make the set slightly cheaper, I think, since you'd be using more of the same parts (so it would be less of a logistical hassle), though he'd be a bit bonier. But there were a couple reasons I didn't do that. For one, I feel like having more shells and longer beams offers slightly more potential to build and rebuild than just having a bunch of shorter beams with only two connection points each. Additionally, 3M beams come in pitfully few solid colors, although of course my option isn't using entirely parts in colors that exist anyway. Finally, having a beam and a shell offers more potential for variety, since you could use different size shells or no shell at all depending on the set. Either way looks fine I think. I deliberately chose to avoid knees mainly because I was trying to evoke the relative height of a 2003 Matoran, in accordance with my earlier 2001 Tahu sketch. Back in 2003, Matoran and Turaga alike were about half the height of a Toa, while after 2003 they tended to be closer to 2/3 the height of a Toa. I don't particularly think a model this small needs knees, but this design could work just fine whichever way you prefer, since with knees it'd be closer to the relative height you'd expect from post-2003 Matoran. I think it'd still be about a $5 set either way.

He doesn't have to say "allegedly". Whether he's right or wrong, everyone can tell he's alleging it. :P Anyway, here's a Matoran MOC I designed! It's 21 pieces and stands 10 centimeters tall, so should be fairly well-proportioned next to a 7 inch/18 centimeter Toa. I think he'd be a good $5 set once you add tools/weapons:

Perhaps they are closer in terms of age, but if the LEGO Group wants a BIONICLE reboot to be successful I think they're going to be focusing a good portion of their attention on people who are experiencing it for the first time. A rude awakening, perhaps, but at least they'd finally be awake. I don't at all expect a BIONICLE reboot to be everything everybody dreamed of. It can't be. It shouldn't be. I believe both of the friendship lessons from "Suited for Success" apply here: "if you try to please everypony, you often times end up pleasing nopony". And "you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth". If BIONICLE comes back, some people will realize their expectations were far-fetched and adjust them accordingly. Other people will cling tight to them and will feel "betrayed". That will be the case no matter what LEGO does, even if the new series is 100% faithful to what BIONICLE was when it began, or 100% faithful to what BIONICLE was when it ended. The important thing to realize, though, is that a lot of the fans from the theme's original run would already have grown out of BIONICLE by now anyway if it had gone on uninterrupted.

Ooh, good color quality on these instructions. Me gusta. Annoying that Furno and Stormer's eye colors are mixed up in the instructions, though. That explains why the BZPower review had them wrong. Like the mix-up of Surge and Rocka's armor in Surge & Rocka Combat Machine, it's just sloppy. Those combi models look nice. Can't wait until their instructions are uploaded! The products page is also updated with Tunneler Beast and Queen Beast, though oddly they show up in the Heroes category rather than the Beasts category.

There was absolutely nothing in the early years making BIONICLE markedly more mature than Ninjago. Have you forgotten Taipu's stupidity, or Hafu's absurd ego, or Tamaru's fear of heights, or Pewku's job as a "Taxi Crab", or the time Pohatu got a bunch of goats magnetized to him, or the various other gags that filled the Mata Nui Online Game and Bohrok/Bohrok-Kal Online Animations? How about the little "who's on first?" routine that the guards of every village did in the "Tales of the Tohunga/Quest for the Toa" game for Game Boy Advance? Clearly, not only does lighthearted humor work for BIONICLE, but I dare say in some cases it actually improves it. Ninjago is not purely a comedy, far from it. It has plenty of dark and serious moments (the Overlord is every bit as fearsome a villain as Makuta was in 2001), but it doesn't get too caught up in its own pretensions to engage in a bit of childish humor from time to time. And screw whatever old-school fans think a kid-friendly series with kid-friendly humor is beneath them. Once you're that caught up in pretensions of being grown-up you have no business enjoying a LEGO series like BIONICLE anyway, and there's no reason the LEGO Group should pander to you at the expense of kids and kids-at-heart. Fans like that can go enjoy Game of Thrones or whatever. That sort of series is probably grim and edgy enough for them. Something like that would be fantastic. Avatar: The Last Airbender is yet another show that tells an epic, mythology-laden story but isn't afraid to poke fun at itself and its characters. It definitely deals with some much more serious subject matter than Ninjago — no LEGO series I know of, even BIONICLE, has taken a serious look at themes quite as heavy as genocide — but in terms of tone it's still mainly a lighthearted, kid-friendly adventure story. The rule "never say die" is violated only on rare occasions — a rule that BIONICLE recklessly abandoned in its later years with hammy, "2edgy4u" lines like Roodaka's "I always kill the messenger" or Mantax's "I have no friends. Only enemies I haven't killed yet." A BIONICLE series with A:TLA's level of narrative balance would be a dream come true. I'd actually love if BIONICLE returned to having some even smaller $5 sets, like Matoran or small Rahi. Clearly there's still a market for sets at that price point, judging from the Mixels, Friends animal packs, etc. Furthermore, judging from current constraction set prices, a $5 set would probably have to include between 20 and 30 pieces. With the flexibility of this building system there's no reason the LEGO Group couldn't do that. They might even be able to use a similar business model to the Friends animal packs or Ninjago booster packs and rotate them out more frequently, so we could have a new wave of three small sets every four months. The only question is whether the constraction category is strong enough to support that many sets in addition to regular $10–$35 sets... but with a theme like BIONICLE I would certainly hope so.

If "butchering the line" is what happened to LEGO Ninjago, then that's probably what's best for BIONICLE. Ninjago was the LEGO Group's single most successful new product line launch of all time, and has an extremely dedicated fan community. LEGO Ninjago books have made the New York Times bestseller list multiple times, and the TV series frequently ranks among the most-viewed programs by boys ages 6–12. It was only intended to be a three-year theme, but is now looking at new TV episodes in 2015 and a theatrical film in 2016. There has even been a temporary Ninjago Miniland in LEGOLAND Germany. So yes, please let's "butcher the line" if that's what you mean.

I wouldn't mind. The LEGO Ninjago TV show has been excellent and I'd actually say it often has better humor and character development than the official BIONICLE story. Plus, a Cartoon Network TV show could potentially reach a much wider audience than the Hero Factory TV episodes or BIONICLE movies did. Even just a 13-episode season would allow for a much greater amount of story content than a single movie or even a four-episode miniseries. Looking at the runaway success of LEGO Ninjago, I see no reason why BIONICLE shouldn't mimic its business model in that respect. The bigger question is whether Cartoon Network wants or has room for an additional LEGO program on top of Ninjago (which we know is returning with new episodes next year) or Legends of Chima (which might be as well). I can't imagine they want people to think of them as "The LEGO Channel".

The brick contents of the Mixels activity book have been revealed. Just a pair of Nixels. I suppose this isn't too bad, as Nixels are supposed to have strength in numbers, so having duplicate Nixels is hardly a problem.