Aanchir
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Krakalin Oat Bran. It's kind of irritating that because the leaked images can't even be discussed on BZPower, it's impossible to bring decisive evidence like the LEGO Group's attempted removal of the leaked images to their attention. Still, it's been a fun few days, watching BIONICLE fans run around like chickens with their heads cut off. I hope that when we do have an official reveal things won't be too chaotic, but in the meantime the speculation is fairly enjoyable.
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Not true. The first post in this topic, in response to the reveal of a new constraction theme on Asger Johansen's LinkedIn, was made in December. There were 229 posts before the leak was even mentioned. The Hero Factory 2014 topic is just a few months older than this one. People like to speculate on new themes, no matter what they might be. There were ten pages of speculation a couple years ago about a 2013 theme called "Polar Xxpress" that never materialized or had any really substantial hints to its existence (people have made plenty of guesses about what it might have referred to, if anything — could have been this year's LEGO City Arctic sets — or it could have just been a false rumor to begin with). "Leak season" is the time of year when discussions of future sets blossom and discussion of current sets starts to dwindle. It's not just limited to the Hero Factory theme, or to the constraction category for that matter. The LEGO City 2014 discussion topic in the Town subforum has also not had a whole lot of activity lately. There have been less than two pages of discussion there in over two months. There has actually been more recent activity in the Hero Factory 2014 topic than there has been over there.
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It looks like your italics tags got away from you there! But anyway, I agree with you entirely. If Hero Factory and BIONICLE do both continue next year, I'll be thrilled, because it would represent a big change for the constraction category in general. The last time we had two in-house constraction themes at a time and neither was supplementary to a System theme was Galidor, and we all know how that went. Now that reviews have popped up of the summer sets, I think it makes a lot more sense that the first wave was mainly bipedal machines and the second wave was the reverse, since the gimmick of switching around the upper modules on the machines wouldn't work nearly so well if some of the machines were bipedal and others were not. This also explains why Evo Walker and Rocka Crawler are the exceptions in their respective waves: since the small machines would not work with that gimmick anyway, the bipedal one can be put in the multi-legged wave without any negative consequences and vice-versa. It provides a small bit of variety in a wave that otherwise couldn't really have any due to the upper module gimmick.
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Not here in the United States, since they came in small cardboard boxes over here. In Europe they sometimes came in cardboard boxes and sometimes in polybags. Generally, getting a complete collection was not very feasible except for the most dedicated collectors. It was even more ridiculous with some later collectibles. The Kraata packs could include Kraata slugs in six shapes and thirty-six colors each. That's 216 variants. Add the six color combinations that came in the original six Rahkshi sets and the Bright Violet "Shadow Kraata" that came in later production runs of those same Rahkshi sets (all of which were available in any of the six shapes) and there were 252 Kraata variants available in BIONICLE sets. This is a handy chart). All this for little rubber slugs that, unlike Kanohi masks, had little to no impact on a typical model's appearance. At least they came three to a package, so you'd only need to pay $252 US dollars (plus tax) for 72 $2 Kraata packs and twelve $9 Rahkshi sets to get a full collection — assuming that by some miracle you either didn't get any duplicates or were able to trade your duplicates with friends to get Kraata you were missing! And to think collectible minifigure fans complain about them getting too expensive! I'd rather pay $64 for 16 unique minifigures than $252 for 252 near-identical rubber slugs any day! Though incidentally, the BIONICLE collectibles are part of the reason I don't agree with people who think the collectible minifigures are a scam, because if they taught me anything, it's that nobody in their right mind strives for a complete collection just because a certain number of different collectible items happen to exist. That's why the CMF packages say "16 to collect", not "Collect all 16".
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Well, obviously it would have new heads or masks, like every constraction theme since BIONICLE has had. Beyond that, I expect new weapon pieces. Beyond that, I think it's fair to expect some new shells or detail pieces to help distinguish the sets from Hero Factory. Generally, I don't expect to see many classic BIONICLE pieces whatsoever. Those have almost entirely disappeared from sets, with a few exceptions like the Bohrok eye, Barraki eye, Toa Mahri hose, and Piraka foot, which are still appearing in sets today. And for the most part, the Hero Factory building system has supplanted the basic building elements like arm, leg, and torso beams. Thankfully, this should mean we can expect better proportions than many BIONICLE sets offered, especially in the later years. The current building system allows for a $10 figure to have roughly the same proportions as a Toa Mata or Toa Nuva, possibly even better in some cases since the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva frequently used the same parts for their arms and legs, and were a bit bony.
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That's pretty good news, though at the same time it's worth keeping in mind that sometimes certain branches of the LEGO Group treat the "end" of a theme as when they stop providing it to stores and not just after the last wave. If Hero Factory does continue to do battle machines with mini-heroes (and maybe even mini-villains) I will be thrilled! It's a format that has brought so many great opportunities to the theme. And now that the foundations are laid, with the mini-hero parts and cockpits introduced, there is so much further they could take the concept. If Hero Factory does continue at this scale, I wonder if they'll "update" the mini-heroes in any way to freshen them up, the way they do with regular minifigures in most themes. It could be as simple as armor in a new color, or it could be something more elaborate like a totally new armor design. Though personally I'm more than happy with the current design. The biggest improvement I could think of, which wouldn't really affect the figures' appearance much, would be glow-in-the-dark Hero Cores. The Fairground Mixer this year introduced 1x1 tiles in White Glow, so it's totally possible! I'm honestly kind of surprised that the LEGO Group didn't do this sooner, since White Glow was introduced in 2012 and the hero cores switched to being a single white color for all heroes that same year. It seems like a natural way to take advantage of that and make it even cooler.
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The music from the first three movies was pretty great. However, nothing about it really screamed "BIONICLE" to me. It had a distinctive identity, but it was an identity which could have belonged to any epic fantasy adventure series. It didn't really capture the tribal flavor of Mata Nui's culture, or the urban flavor of Metru Nui's culture, or the mechanical flavor of the entire universe and its denizens. When I think about soundtracks that I consider exceptional, they are ones that perfectly suit the stories they describe. Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra have great soundtracks. So do LEGO Ninjago and The LEGO Movie. These soundtracks all have a distinctive sound chosen to suit their universe: the first three all take cues from Asian music, the last has a jerky, synthesized sound that suits its brickfilm-like animation and action. Plenty of characters, settings, and groups have their own leitmotifs which vary according to context. The Mata Nui Online Game had a soundtrack that was less cinematic than the first three BIONICLE movies, but it still had that characteristic sound that BIONICLEmusic.com described as a blend of "the mystical and the mechanical". If future BIONICLE scores had adhered to that thematic blend I might have remembered them more fondly. Promotional music is a different story. I'm fine with stuff like Cryoshell for BIONICLE just like I'm fine with The Fold for Ninjago. For it, all I generally expect is that it be catchy, have lyrics that clearly reference the themes of the story, and fit the tone of the story year in question.
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I wouldn't be so sure about that. Size might be a concern (there hasn't been a Hero Factory set over $35 since 2010) — but even after the CCBS was introduced there have been a couple Technic-based vehicle sets: Speeda Demon and Jet Rocka. And this year even the smaller sets have used a lot of Technic. The flyer portion of Surge & Rocka Combat Machine is almost entirely Technic, as were the removable modules on the $15 machines. Besides, I'm sure there are some beautiful things that could be done by combining Technic building styles with the CCBS.
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As much as it would be cool to have a more exploration-driven space theme for variety's sake, there was never any "contact with alien civilizations" in Classic Space, and the sets were still pretty heavily armed much of the time. The idea that Classic Space was solely characterized by peaceful exploration is a fairly modern invention. EDIT: Another thing I ought to bring up, though it's not quite related to the current conversation: In this post Nabii decribes the notion of the white figs as astronauts and red figs as cosmonauts as something he heard direct from Jens Nygaard Knudsen, so if anyone was looking for a source for that frequently-mentioned idea, there you have it. He also explains what the roles were changed to after other colors were introduced, though this somewhat differs from the info from the interview in Brickjournal Volume 2, Issue 6, in which the black figs were said to be warriors, the blues were considered technicians and mechanics, and the red and white were both described as explorers. It's kind of funny to think of intergalactic spies that predate Blacktron, but I guess the Cold War was still at the top of many people's minds around that time so it makes sense that an otherwise good or neutral faction might have still have spies of its own. I'll have to ask him about that to see if this was just his own memory slipping or if he has heard conflicting accounts.
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That is correct, actually. The chances of getting a faithful BIONICLE movie in theaters might be stronger today, though, since the LEGO Group has more money, more storytelling experience, and more bargaining power in general. Sort of. The BIONICLE collectibles were blind-packaged like the CMFs, but instead of figures they had accessories like masks. Also, generally each set would include two or three randomly-packed collectibles, so it'd be rare for any two packs to have the exact same contents. The mask packs from BIONICLE's first year had 72 masks to collect (12 shapes in 6 colors each).
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While the BIONICLE Facebook page is run very professionally, it is still operated by fans who probably lack any kind of insider knowledge.
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I'm not convinced by a lot of so-called "coincidence". But I get what you're saying. I'm in the "wait and see" camp myself, but I find the evidence for the news being real to be mounting and I think I'll get a lot more enjoyment out of entertaining both the possibility of either a big discovery by the fan community or an elaborate hoax by the fan community than leaning one way or the other. Either way the BIONICLE community hasn't come together like this in a long time. The story behind how we were brought together like this, whether by the LEGO group or a group of pranksters, is going to be an interesting one to hear.
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Isn't it possible you're doing the opposite? Assuming potential evidence is just coincidence? If BIONICLE does come out next year, that makes it a lot more likely that things like Greg's slip-up or the deletion of that one topic on the LEGO Message Boards were indeed because the decision was made to bring BIONICLE back, and not just random coincidence. It's best for most of us to be open to both possibilities, though those who have direct inside knowledge like Chro certainly have no need to do so. Now as for assuming the images depict specific characters, I agree that much is wild speculation. If we had seen blurry, black-and-white pics of Toa Lhikan before we knew more about the character it would be easy to assume (wrongly) that it was Tahu — he's got the Hau, the swords that turn into a surfboard, after all. People also at one point assumed (wrongly) that the Kanohi Nuva were related to the Krana due to their weird, wrinkly, organic look. Sometimes a resemblance can be unintentional and meaningless (the "kranohi") and other times it can be intentional and meaningful but not have the meaning we might expect (Lhikan's Hau).
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More importantly, though, those fakes were trying to imitate preliminary images that were generally cruddy by nature. This is trying to imitate a product display stand where presentation has a much bigger impact. This is not a dynamic pose. It would never appear on the front of a product's packaging or on a product display. This is the closest any of those images had to a dynamic pose, and even it is a fairly bad angle for a display image since so many of the details are hidden. The products from this new leaked image are all in dynamic poses, which is obvious even without any details of their builds being clear. They are also poses that would appear to show off the products in detail if the image were clearer. That alone demonstrates that the person who created this image put in more effort than the people who put together those low-effort fakes back in the day. Composition of photos is a big deal, and it's something a lot of MOCists don't grasp. I was not very good at taking good MOC photos back in the day, and I still struggle with it compared to some of the community's elite MOCists. This is why I'm led to believe that if this is a hoax, it's a competent one. You don't need to see the details to know that. You just need to see the poses and the presentation.
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Which isn't entirely surprising. Different markets can prefer different kinds of sets. LEGO Technic also gets a much wider release in Europe than North America because it's just not as popular over here as brick-based themes.
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I don't think that's all there was to it. An "all stars" line would be incomplete without more recent characters because it would have only appealed to older fans by including characters they'd remember. Instead, they spread the characters out: one represented a set from 2001, two represented sets or series of sets from 2003, one represented a series of sets from 2006, and two represented sets or series of sets from 2009. This way, every fan would be treated to at least one character they were familiar with. The important thing for maximizing the sets' audience was that the characters would be familiar: some would be familiar because they were "classics", others because they were recent. Were there any official claims that BIONICLE was axed for being "too mature"? I don't remember anything of the sort. It just seems like something people assumed because Hero Factory lacked the same grim tone and complexity that BIONICLE had in its later years. The existence of a more kid-friendly theme isn't itself proof that more mature themes don't sell. It's just a different marketing strategy that has plenty of precedent. But in any case, I hope the story direction is still plenty kid-friendly and not so grim and serious that it only appeals to adults and kids with pretensions of maturity. The BIONICLE fan community has too much of that already, judging from how many BIONICLE MOCs have ludicrously grimdark backstories. And Ninjago has proven that aiming things squarely at kids ages six to fourteen can still be wildly successful.
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I don't see Piraka any more than I see Tahu or a Fikou. All I'm saying is that the face is slightly Piraka-like as far as I can tell. I could be totally wrong and it could just be a very shiny piece with highlights that look like a big mouth, but it definitely doesn't look like Takanuva's mask, nor does the rest of the build look anything like Takanuva.
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Here's a good question: Would you rather have a classic space reboot theme which would — by nature — be short-term (even classic LEGO space had to be "refreshed" with new color schemes on a regular basis, and eventually replaced with newer Space themes), or would you rather have the LEGO Group continue to release periodic "tributes" like Benny's Spaceship, the Exo-Suit, and the recent promotional set? The latter is what I think is happening now, and honestly I think that might be the best thing for Classic Space in the future. I'd hate to see the modern era become so saturated with Classic Space that it wears out its welcome and largely disappears once again. Not to mention that for us as AFOLs, periodic sets like this one inspire us to fill in the gaps with our own creations.
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Most of the "bring back BIONICLE" projects in question have atrocious proportions and are photographed or screencapped in amazingly boring poses. so I have to disagree with you there.
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I was pretty sure that spiky thing in the left hand is a shield or weapon of some sort. Either way, there is no claw for the left hand and it definitely isn't just the 2008 Takanuva, since nothing else about the model bears the slightest resemblance. My point wasn't that those parts prove it's real. My point is that they prove that if it's a hoax, the people making it aren't idiots using plainly out-of-date parts and building styles, or even just shopping existing sets. If it's a hoax, they have a competent MOCist helping them — someone who, in the very least, is a more competent MOCist than any of the ones whom I've seen propose "Bring Back BIONICLE" projects on LEGO Ideas.
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The mask has no resemblance at all... are we looking at the same image? It looks to me more like a Piraka face than anything. I don't see any claws.
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The set you mention has legs that look totally different. The waist is also much narrower and the face looks different. In fact, I can't see a single thing it has in common with the 2008 Takanuva, so I'm not sure where you got that impression. If this is a hoax, the people making it were thorough. The only clearly recognizable parts are CCBS parts like the Super Heroes chest plate, which is consistent with what could be expected of a real BIONICLE reboot. The sets on the third and fourth rows are the ones that convince me the most because presentation-wise, they are consistent with what might be seen on an actual constraction set's box art. The same is true of the items on the first and second rows, but the details of those are harder to discern. I'm glad to see that the boxes are being branded as "LEGO BIONICLE", also. Real BIONICLE sets never had that kind of branding — the BIONICLE logo or the logo for the individual series would invariably take priority while the LEGO logo would be squished to the bottom of the package. This was actually a part of the original BIONICLE style guide — BIONICLE was always to be marketed as BIONICLE, not "LEGO BIONICLE" or "LEGO TECHNIC BIONICLE". The decision to brand Hero Factory as "LEGO Hero Factory" was very impressive to me because it showed that the LEGO brand was no longer something the LEGO Group thought they had to be ashamed of when marketing a stand-alone theme.
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I liked the Stars. They were a very caring tribute to the sets and series of sets they represented.
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Of course, it's possible Exxtrooper, DeeVee, and Greg Farshtey are all in on the hoax. And me of course. And just for grins let's say Dorek is in on it on a subconscious level. The photoshoppery of the key visual was done by conspirator Christian Faber of the ADVANCE advertising cartel. To enhance the ruse, they're planning to release a full wave of fake BIONICLE sets that would fool even the most observant skeptics. And they will profit off of all of our foolishness while convincing us that they did, in fact, bring BIONICLE back.
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Screencapped for posterity. And yeah, let's get that hashtag trending!
