Aanchir

Well, in the case of the first question, I don't think it was. Hero Factory was in development for at least a year, like any other theme, and I believe it was well-understood that BIONICLE would eventually need to be replaced with something new. The decision to end it was somewhat abrupt, though, in the sense that most people seemed to think it still had at least a few years left in it. To the second question, there is evidence that BIONICLE would have continued with a new storyline if it hadn't ended. Originally the final battle between Mata Nui and Makuta would have been later and the 2010 story arc would have dealt with the Element Lords and the journey to the Valley of the Maze, the former of which were eventually only dealt with in flashbacks and the latter of which was compressed into the beginning of 2010. Greg Farshtey posted the screen treatment for the planned fifth BIONICLE movie on his BZPower blog. And to the third, yes and no. The main storyline (the story told in the books and comics) was wrapped up fairly conclusively. However, there were plot threads left dangling in the online serials, which was not helped by the decision to continue the online serials beyond the end of the main story with brand new (and confusing) storylines. This is part of why a lot of people are upset about the recent decision to delete BIONICLEstory.com within the next few weeks. Although the serials had not been updated in over a year, a lot of people were still hoping for the serials to update again, at least in the name of providing closure. I agree with you here. In the very least a lot of the details BIONICLE accumulated over the years would be reduced in importance. For instance, some people feel BIONICLE should continue where it left off, with the Agori, Matoran, Toa, and Glatorian living together on the same planet. However, this would be a LOT of species for kids who had never heard of BIONICLE before to learn, especially considering that each has its own unique biology and societal role. Understanding the Matoran life cycle is in and of itself a real burden. Thus, I feel the best way for BIONICLE to continue would be either a complete reboot or a continuation of the story from some point in the future where the characters and events of the previous story are merely the backstory of new adventures, and are only referenced if they become relevant (kind of like how The Legend of Korra relates to Avatar: The Last Airbender). As far as the toys are concerned, I have no doubt that they would use the Hero Factory building system or some further evolution of that building system. The building system and part designs of BIONICLE were good for their time, but there are a lot of features that are simply inferior to Hero Factory's way of doing things: for instance, the fact that lower limb beams were highly-detailed themselves rather than just structural elements decorated with armor shells, or the way that certain armor pieces had incredibly specialized details (Vastus's shoulder armor is probably the most triumphant example), or the way that limb beams were constrained to a very limited number of sizes.

The stickers in the set are for the birthday boy. That way he can have a generic birthday decoration like balloons or a piece of cake, or he can have a number for the age of the child whose birthday it is.

Well, actually, certain stickers do appear on LDD: specifically, the ones from the LEGO Factory sets 10191, 10192, and 10200. So it's incorrect to say that LDD can't add stickers. But currently, these are the only stickers that appear as decorations in the software, and there are lots of stickered parts that additionally couldn't be decorated unless decoration surfaces (parts of the brick the decorations map to) are added to the definitions of those bricks.

Early prototypes of the summer Breakout sets were in the New York Toy Fair press guide from last year. And by "early", I mean "bearing only the slightest resemblance to the sets they became". But in general the majority of preliminary images to get leaked in advance come from retailer's catalogs, where there are rarely substantial differences between the preliminary pictures and the final models.

A TRU exclusive I believe, but even in that case brand stores should have it as well.

Well, the speckling is basically random, but it's not like two parts in the same speckle color would really stand out from one another in any significant way.

Gosh, everyone was making a huge deal about this news a while ago and now nobody remembers any of the important details: Here's the original article. The important facts: Universal was in negotiations to make a movie based on LEGO Hero Factory. Michael Finch and Alex Litvak (who wrote, not produced, Predators) were in negotiations to pen the script. Universal had Mark Gordon, Bryan Zuriff, Ben Forkner, and Dean Schnider in mind as possible producers. Michael Bay has nothing to do with this; pocketmego was just mentioning the Michael Bay Transformers films as the obvious motivation for Universal to pursue more movies based on popular toys (and the third one specifically as an example of how a Hero Factory film should not be done). This is unrelated to the 22-minute episode being produced by Ghost and Advance. There have been no subsequent news updates, so there's no evidence that the negotiations even went anywhere.

There are other differences. The shape of the goggles is one: the final Reidak model has his goggles as somewhat oblong cylinders that point downward to give him an angry expression, whereas these goggles are more like cones and lend him a neutral expression. His spines are a different shape (though I suppose that's what you meant by "antenna"), and there is a tube running from one side of his goggles to behind his head. The spines on his arms are also much longer. The prototype Zamor launcher also has different attachment points. I don't feel there's really enough changed that it'd be awful compared to the final version, but there are some significant changes. I have to say I prefer the finalized Reidak... his face and spines just have more personality. The third eye could have been cool, though, even if it certainly could never light up as brightly as the two that actually have the light-up eye element directly behind them.

I think this does make some good points. In truth, yes, people would need to support Hero Factory and similar themes for BIONICLE to ever have any chance of returning. At the same time, this is a bit too optimistic in some respects — even if every person who was a BIONICLE fan when the theme ended continued buying Hero Factory sets, that on its own wouldn't send a "bring back BIONICLE" message because for BIONICLE to come back it'd need to draw in an audience of brand-new fans. It COULD do that, certainly, if TLG's market research indicates that kids would be interested in that kind of thing once again. But it's misleading to suggest that BIONICLE's original fans have such an impressive level of control over what happens with the constraction category. The issue boycotts, petitions, and other "bring back BIONICLE" campaigns have in common is the illusion of control. In truth, the devoted, strongly-connected, lifelong BIONICLE fan community on sites like BZPower never represented the majority of BIONICLE fans, something Greg Farshtey never hesitated to remind people. The majority of fans were "casual fans" who didn't necessarily follow the full story or even realize that there WAS such an in-depth story. I can recall a few of my friends who collected BIONICLE sets but didn't know anything about their story roles — they were simply interested in them as toys. Other fans likely didn't know much more about the story than what appeared in the catalogs and commercials. And I'm sure the same is true of Hero Factory to a great extent. I definitely agree that supporting constraction sets is the best way to ensure that BIONICLE or something like it appears again in the future. But that's not because it makes a whole lot of difference, but rather because it's all that we as fans really have the power to do.

Well, technically, even with an oxygen mask, there has to be an oxygen or air tank for interstellar travel. A certain amount of technobabble can justify a breathing mask used underwater or in an alien atmosphere, since then it has some substance it can chemically convert or filter into breathable air, but in the vacuum of space you need to carry some air source with you. I'm kind of surprised TLG didn't do what they did in Mars Mission and print the air tanks on the minifigures' backs. This is a pretty reliable solution, since while it's not as pretty as an air tank accessory might be for some builders, it does allow the minifigure to carry an air tank without needing extra cockpit space and without ruling out the possibility of alternative back accessories. You know what surprises me most about Galaxy Squad fig design, though? The fact that only the green and orange robot sidekicks got the additional armor piece. I was originally expecting the blue and red robot sidekicks to get armor at some point in the summer wave. But nope, the red and blue robot sidekicks just keep their brick-built jetpacks from the first wave. It's not a bad thing necessarily (TLG gets points for consistency), but since the figure designs are so very uniform in terms of printing, it's quite surprising that only two get that brand-new accessory.

Actually, I'm still pretty sure that the box art is a photograph in this case. A high-resolution image shows some very realistic imperfections like the molding marks on the inside of the horse's rear legs. It's not impossible that they might have photoshopped it to make the parts appear smaller, though. It just seems like a somewhat curious design decision. Of course, it's understandable why they might have done this. In addition to having the "actual size" callout on the top of every box, TLG has a fondness for having at least one of the main product images on a box be close to actual size. I first noticed this with some BIONICLE and Hero Factory boxes, where in some cases this meant having the figure in a very "closed" pose (with parts of their body overlapping) or even cropping the main image at the knees or shins to fit the figure on their package (a smaller image on the back would show the figure in its entirety). This is one reason I was somewhat uneasy with TLG's decision to cut down on their box sizes: I was worried that it might mean not having this characteristic on as many sets. Thankfully, this set seems to show that TLG is willing to "cheat" a bit with their product images to maintain reasonably-sized images of their products on the front of boxes.

I'm quite fond of brighter colors, but that may be partly because six years of BIONICLE sets using bolder colors like Dark Red, Earth Green, and Earth Blue gave me a new appreciation for the classic, vibrant LEGO colors. Bright primary colors stand out really nicely on a shelf, and give models a really strong sense of playfulness, not to mention a sense of nostalgia. The Dragon Knights' color schemes from Kingdoms were nice, but I just don't feel they were all that well-organized on that particular set. Several parts are brown or gray that seem like they should be black, and other parts are black that seem like they should be brown.

Yeah, the issue with selling individual armor and masks that way is that unless they're also being used in sets in the same colors, it might not make good business sense to devote molding machines and factory floor space for brand-new parts. It was actually really groundbreaking when the two-colored Hero Recon Team chest plate was offered through that service, since there had never previously been an example of parts being produced for exclusive release through a custom ordering service.

I know what you mean. A mask is a big part of a character's personality, and sometimes it's hard to detach the mask from the personality. To anyone familiar with the original set, it will be impossible to ignore that "That's _____'s mask!" impulse. At the same time, there are ways to keep a model from looking like a revamp of an existing character, even if you use their mask. One is to radically change the color scheme. I don't think anyone would confuse this lovely MOC (not mine) for a Breez revamp. That is one of the advantages of the two-part helmets used in the Ordeal of Fire and Brain Attack waves: by switching out or removing one of the parts you throw off that sense of immediate recognition. Evo's helmet won't immediately designate a character as Evo if you add a prominent secondary color like Bright Green instead of his familiar secondary color of Titanium Metallic. This is part of the reason the BIONICLE mask packs are missed by so many people: the existence of masks that weren't consciously linked with particular characters made it very easy to create your own characters with identities all their own. Another solution is to avoid using a mask on figure with similar characteristics. If you use a hero helmet on a figure with a hunched posture, a tail, extra arms, or a giant bubble-dome over their head, then more often than not it can easily be made to seem like an entirely different character. Changing height can also help: A four-inch tall figure with Furno's helmet won't immediately be identified as Furno unless there are other obvious hallmarks of his design in your model. The Voya Nui Matoran sets did this quite effectively in 2006, reusing helmets from 2004 for brand-new characters with very different height and posture from the Toa Metru. The Great Kanohi Ruru is a particularly stunning example: it was used for both Umbra and Garan in 2006, but nobody would confuse either character with Toa Metru Whenua from 2004. If possible, use masks and helmets in non-traditional ways! That's what I did with Kit Martello, Cyril Starlight, and Bogwaddle. BIONICLE MOCists have been doing this for years, and in fact BIONICLE sets did this as early as 2001 by using masks as sculptural details rather than as the face of models like the original Rahi. It can be somewhat difficult with masks that cover the whole head or have no holes other than the eye holes, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. Bulk's original silver helmet, for instance, has a dome-like forehead that could just as easily be interpreted as a sci-fi visor if you turned the helmet on its back. A face doesn't even necessarily have to look like a face: Cyril Starlight above is a good example, with four eyes spread out across a flat dome rather than a recognizable and expressive face. Sometimes an expressionless face is even preferable if you want a character to look fearsome or imposing. And finally, remember that the longer it's been since a character has worn a particular mask or helmet, the less people are likely to associate the two, especially if a lot of other builders have reused the mask or helmet for other characters in the intervening time. Hero Factory tends to reuse helmets often and base new helmets on the character's older helmets, but this shouldn't stop you in all instances: Corroder's helmet, for instance, hasn't been used in two and a half years, and if you couple it with some of these other tips like a different posture or color scheme your character can definitely still look unique.

Probably not, unless TLG happens to have new parts in the works for other themes that would just coincidentally be perfect for this project. That's always a possibility which shouldn't be discounted, and probably part of the reason why TLG doesn't just reject a project that uses a non-existent part outright. Imagine, hypothetically, if a project in development in 2011 had used a custom lipstick tube element — even if the project creator had no way of knowing it, there was a theme in development at that time which would have a part fitting that very description. Additionally, since the concept is what's important, there's always the possibility that TLG's designers could find solutions for certain design problems that use only existing parts, even if the project creator could not. This doesn't necessarily apply when the part in question is a minifigure accessory or something similarly small and specific, but always remember that even some prototypes of official sets use custom or modified parts that are substituted for existing parts later in development.

This is very neat, but one thing that bothers me is that it leaves a sharp angle where the curve meets the base of the torso and where the curve meets the shoulder. Naturally, though, it's easier to create a smoother curve with printing than with additive or subtractive sculpting. I also find it a bit odd that the concave curve continues almost all the way to the shoulder joint. Generally I find this a bit lacking. When trying to judge torso prints and sculpts alike, one criterion that I always use is "could the curved ribcage of a LEGO skeleton fit comfortably within the outermost boundaries of this torso design?" If the concave curve ended lower on the torso and reversed into a convex curve meeting with the natural slope of the sides, I think it would follow this rule a bit more effectively, though I imagine this would be a whole lot more complicated given the tools at your disposal. The Arealight torsos do a good job keeping the curve a bit lower, but I find they still have this first problem with a sharp angle where the slope of the sides meets the concave curve of the waist. This pic from SilentMode's review of the Arealight torso shows this problem somewhat. There's still plenty of room between the waist and the shoulders for the concave curve to reverse into a convex curve, but instead the angle is abrupt. So yours seems more effective in this regard — still a little room for improvement though.

I hear you! That's a tough space to fill on a custom torso for sure. I've been wanting to build a male figure roughly Stormer XL's size but better-proportioned for a while now, but that's just one of the problems that keeps setting me back. Even Kit Martello (one of the most solidly-built models I've managed) has a gap under the arms visible from the back, plus the other armor on her sides is held in by friction.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason the 2008 police helicopter is still around is that it didn't sell too well and was massively overproduced... and in that case, it makes sense that massively popular sets and themes wouldn't stick around for as long after their initial release. Once they're out of production, they don't linger in some stockroom or warehouse — they sell out much more quickly.

Good review. I really like this set; it's a very unique carriage design. The ballista doesn't look as bad as I was expecting either. The small outpost doesn't make a whole lot of sense other than as a hiding place for additional playability. However, it has some nice parts and is built in a way that gives it a varied texture, so it doesn't feel too simplistic. Is it me, or are the bars connecting the horse to the carriage smaller on the box art than in the actual set? Kind of odd, but the classic longer ones make more sense.

I agree this is one of the weakest sets of the new Castle line, but conceptually it's brilliant (I love the ruins it's built on) and the furnished interior is a nice surprise. I wish it, like the Gatehouse Raid, it had a modular expansion system so it could be connected to a future bad guy castle, though admittedly it has a lot more character as a lonely tower atop a precipitous mountain. It's just a little disappointing that it's the closest thing to a castle that the villains get this wave. The new wizard is lovely, as is the princess. Really this theme has had some stellar minifigure designs in general, and I hope this iteration of Castle continues that trend in future waves. The dragon looks very nice. I can't say for sure whether I prefer Ninjago's brick-built dragons to this sort. Really I feel they're both very strong in that their angular, beveled corners and printed eyes make them feel like proper LEGO animals. Admittedly dragons like this avoid the bony-looking Technic joints that plague the Ninjago dragons, and the overall look is more unified at first glance than if they were brick-built, but I have a soft spot for the Ninjago dragons' impressive articulation and the clever part use that is used to give them that sleek, beveled-corner look. So I'd rate them as pretty much equal.

Great review. This is a very substantial set, which is what one should expect for $30. Great minifigures, a great structure, and a sturdy-looking (if a bit boring) catapult. Your photos do a great job showing off the set.

Why so? I find the new one a lot more interesting myself. It's modular, it can be combined with the King's Castle, it has one tower and some nice brown roofs instead of just an arch and two half-towers, its color scheme is organized more sensibly, and even if the catapult's nothing to write home about I think it's way better than that rudimentary flick-fire ballista. In addition, it has two knights in full armor rather than just one. Overall, that previous gatehouse was a decent set, but I don't see much redeeming value in it except as an army builder and a half-decent parts pack, whereas the new one feels a whole lot more solid and substantial. Of course, it's not exactly a fair comparison since you're paying ten dollars more for the new one.

Wait, you cited an example of wacky BIONICLE cover design and you chose the ENCYCLOPEDIA? Come on, now, that's hardly an egregious example compared to the infamous Dark Hunters Guide: Also consider BIONICLE Legends #2, which didn't even use a finalized image of the Piraka: Or BIONICLE World, in which only the background even remotely suggested an atlas: Compared to that, the BIONICLE Encyclopedia seems downright sensible. Three characters sampled from three different story years covers its scope pretty nicely, and using characters with a range of colors makes them that much more distinctive. Even if Gali Nuva is effectively swimming through the air on account of the background that was chosen. As far as "Faceoff!" is concerned, note that Furno XL's picture is also a photo rather than CGI. It isn't as blatant on the cover since he lacks any rubber parts, but it's the same as the main product shot from shop.LEGO.com, where the streaky metallic textures of the spike elements on his chest can be seen clearly. Basically, as is the norm with LEGO guide books by Scholastic, the cover design is somewhat arbitrary.

Yeah, I think DraikNova misunderstood your comment and thought you were talking about the one Advance and Ghost are producing for next year. Though as far as I know, a feature-length Hero Factory movie isn't yet in development. The last I heard was that Universal was in negotiations for the rights, and I don't think there have been any subsequent news updates on its status.

I quite like that torso design. It has a substantial amount of bulk and is nicely constructed from scratch without being excessively complex. The main area I have issue with is the area under the arms, which leaves very conspicuous gaps. I imagine the shoulders might also droop if this fellow sat on a shelf for a very long time, but it helps that he doesn't carry any particularly heavy weapons.