aidenpons Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 One thing I hated about Bionicle's later plot was that it was scattered EVERYWHERE. You had to look at: 1) Club comics 2) Online... novels? WORDS 3) Videos 4) Books (at least in the earlier stages, not so much later) If you didn't know all of them (e.g. we only knew the Club comics existed for a good five years before finding anything else) then the plot made absolutely no sense.... Why is this relevant? If they're splitting everything up then the plot will be invisible to all except diehard fans, which will probably hurt sales & thus the theme in general/ /rant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 6 minutes ago, aidenpons said: One thing I hated about Bionicle's later plot was that it was scattered EVERYWHERE. You had to look at: 1) Club comics 2) Online... novels? WORDS 3) Videos 4) Books (at least in the earlier stages, not so much later) If you didn't know all of them (e.g. we only knew the Club comics existed for a good five years before finding anything else) then the plot made absolutely no sense.... Why is this relevant? If they're splitting everything up then the plot will be invisible to all except diehard fans, which will probably hurt sales & thus the theme in general/ /rant I definitely wouldn't worry about that - the excessive amount of media sources that made BIONICLE such a bloated mess before is actually something they are making conscious decisions to avoid this time around. The only things that are integral to G2's story are the webisodes for 2015, and the Netflix series for 2016. Anything else out there is purely and truly (not just in name) supplemental material for die-hard fans. And the idea of more webisodes this year is just that, an idea (that probably isn't true). Even if it were to happen, I can almost guarantee they would be incidental and unimportant to the core plot. aidenpons 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayliffe Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 Poster for that Netflix series! aidenpons 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted February 25, 2016 Share Posted February 25, 2016 some notes on the poster: - those two planets are in the background again - that really plain looking tower. what's that? - creature jaws are weird - umarak is lookin' good - what the heck is with the colors. is there even a palette they were working off here or was it just 'whatever' - very washed-out looking Mark Palmer isn't new to writing for animation, but his portfolio is mostly episodic 'funny' stuff (none of which I'm a fan of, some of which has an outright bad reputation). We'll see how it goes. Even if it isn't exactly fantastic looking, its nice to finally have some proper key art for the series (and a logo). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Just occurred to me that they are totally trying to parallel the poster on the left here. I was all thrown off by how they switched Gali and Pohatu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidenpons Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 28 minutes ago, Pereki said: Just occurred to me that they are totally trying to parallel the poster on the left here. I was all thrown off by how they switched Gali and Pohatu. I prefer that one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McJobless Posted February 27, 2016 Share Posted February 27, 2016 On 26/02/2016 at 3:01 PM, aidenpons said: I prefer that one The originally was less busy and the colours were sharper. I can just tell from the poster this is a budget project gone bad. Since I've got Netflix, I'll be tuning in for this one. I don't think it'll win me over, though. I still don't like the current parts design. emily 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 bionicle creator reveals the 8th element Quisoves Potoo, Ayliffe, ProfessorBrickkeeper and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfessorBrickkeeper Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 35 minutes ago, Pereki said: bionicle creator reveals the 8th element Whatever Greg Farshtey says, TENNIS IS CANON. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayliffe Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Another trailer, and... ehhhhhhhhh, I'm really not feeling it. Nearly every line is coated in more cheese than the average pizza, and the visuals are still not that great. Call me when they bring back the 2015-style webisodes. aidenpons 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ace Railgun Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 1 hour ago, Ayliffe said: Nearly every line is coated in more cheese than the average pizza, Yeah, it's like they said "I'll have that trailer with extra cheese to go." When they ordered the script. But on a brighter side, it can't be worse than Galidor can it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 5 hours ago, Ayliffe said: Another trailer, and... ehhhhhhhhh, I'm really not feeling it. Nearly every line is coated in more cheese than the average pizza, and the visuals are still not that great. Call me when they bring back the 2015-style webisodes. I honestly wouldn't even call it cheese, its just a complete dearth of creativity. Makuta's voice is an 'evil villain' voice. That's it. Your done. Nothing fun or interesting going on at all. Same goes for Lewa ('energetic funny guy'), Gali ('token girl in boy thing'), and Umarak ('bad guy's sniveling henchman'). My favorite thing about all of this is that the general fanbase loves this stuff. I'm starting to realize that when they cry "make bionicle great again" they are craving the comfort of mediocrity. But more on that after March 4, when I write a full review of this thing. aidenpons 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzgracefulmoon Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 I think they're just gonna be rehashing the same character arc(s) that ninjago had, minus the character progression that ninjago had a decent bit of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted March 10, 2016 Share Posted March 10, 2016 Last year's webisodes had less than half the time of Journey to One and yet they established all six of the Toa as fun characters that bounced off each other in interesting ways that I really wanted to see more of. They also managed to build up a sense of conflict and suspense (though the first half struggled with that to be fair). Watching them made me excited for the new story and eager for this Netflix series because I was invested in the characters. But the new author just doesn't seem to have cared to carry over their characterizations, opting instead for his own interpretations that are far less interesting and much less distinct from each other. There's no friction between Kopaka and Tahu. Tahu is a carefree dude flying around for fun and wasting time while Lewa is suddenly dedicated to the goal and wiser than the others. Pohatu's tough guy demeanor is flattened out and made really unconvincing (which might've been interesting if it was put to any actual narrative use). And there's no trace of that jealous, human (in the character sense) Makuta. He's back to shadowy-world-domination-plan-man, which I thought we had finally escaped. 2015 made me feel like it was 2004 again - An interesting story with some compelling points that had the potential to lead to great things in future years. 2016 makes me feel like we've slid backward into 2008. Journey to One is not bad, its just really bland and that's disappointing to me as someone that wants to see BIONICLE at its best. All that notwithstanding, I'm still invested in the overall arc the story is taking and wanted to point out that they bring up the line "united, but not one" again in the series - so I guess I was spot on when I called that as a pivotal plot thing back in 2014. And what is very interesting is that in the prologue, the Protector of Fire says the Toa are going on the "search for One." I'm beginning to thing that "one" is some place. Or some thing. Or some one. We know it is important that the Toa are "united, but not one," probably because combining the elements like Makuta did is a no-no. So One has to be something really bad, right? But considering the line comes up in relation the Labyrinth of Control (which was built by the creators of the Toa) we can infer it has something to do with the Toa's origin. I don't know exactly what to think, but at least there's a clear "big mystery" going on - BIONICLE wouldn't be BIONICLE without it. aidenpons 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidenpons Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 On 10/03/2016 at 3:48 PM, Pereki said: All that notwithstanding, I'm still invested in the overall arc the story is taking and wanted to point out that they bring up the line "united, but not one" again in the series - so I guess I was spot on when I called that as a pivotal plot thing back in 2014. And what is very interesting is that in the prologue, the Protector of Fire says the Toa are going on the "search for One." I'm beginning to thing that "one" is some place. Or some thing. Or some one. We know it is important that the Toa are "united, but not one," probably because combining the elements like Makuta did is a no-no. So One has to be something really bad, right? But considering the line comes up in relation the Labyrinth of Control (which was built by the creators of the Toa) we can infer it has something to do with the Toa's origin. I don't know exactly what to think, but at least there's a clear "big mystery" going on - BIONICLE wouldn't be BIONICLE without it. Mask of Tennis Light / Toa of Tennis Light all over again? I'm really not interested in this... I haven't watched any of these & aren't really interested. They're just the same characters recycled from stock media... Where's our mad Vezon? Where's the OP but noobish & yet humble Ignika? Where's the human side of all the villains? Where is.... well, everything interesting? (I would type more but my arm is acting up, will be fine in 3 days) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 It looks like even adding green doesn't get people to buy brown sets. Targets and some Walmarts aren't carrying the full range of sets. Even some LEGO stores aren't. Also, the books and graphic novels are discontinuing after the presently announced third installments. Of course, it's really hard to say anything for certain, but it sure looks like BIONICLE is burning out again already and I can't say I'm disappointed if that really is the case. I'd be quite happy to see 2017 truncated to a small winter wave and call things good - just so long as we get our Makuta. I was actually rather horrified when the leaks first dropped the news of the theme's return in 2014, and only the Legend short that premiered at NYCC swayed me the other way. But that was a two-minute thing released far in advance of the toyline. It was supposed to be a primer for the greater things to come. Instead its the best thing to come out of G2 and everything afterward has been a slow-dawning disappointment, dead-ending in Journey to One. Sometimes the best thing you can do for something you love is let it rest in peace. Ayliffe and aidenpons 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidenpons Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 This topic started as a parody.... .... any volunteers to end it as a parody- oh wait somebody already did Alas, it would seem Bionicle was not meant to be. We can but hope. [disorganized rant] Something I really liked about Bionicle were the big sets. I never really cared much for the smaller figures - they looked nice, but you couldn't do that much with them. I liked those really big things. Not only were they giant and awesome but you could do so much with the parts! I've built a rather large dragon out of Bonkle parts (and a healthy dose of Technic) and the only reason I have the parts is from large sets. In fact, a lot of those parts actually came from smaller sets too. These newer sets appear to be mostly joints & armour. Things seem to be stuck on a frame. All good and well, but if you want to upsize the frame - what then? To be fair, the smallish bipedal figures have never done well with this. If you want to make a slightly larger Tahu without going Kaita-size, what then? It's not so much the frame as the armour on it. The extra armour pieces have no other use! The armour is too patterned.... By that I mean it's not really reusable. Tahu's breastplate has gold - fine, red - fine, and blue? .... Why? What if I don't want blue on my model at all? The pieces are just too situational. The small models still had Technic parts in them. I'm thinking of the Toa Metru. A nice blend of armour and Technic, and I've used both in creating my giant big dragon. The colour schemes of the new ones are also.... odd. What's wrong with quite literally red and grey? An aesthetically pleasing model that is almost entirely red, with grey used as a secondary colour. It might look a little bland and not very eye-catching but so what? It's recognisable and reusable! From my own experience in MOCs total monochrome (black ) just looks ghastly, so I use highlights (transparent neon green ). A secondary colour is something I've considered using. But the secondary colour can't clash, which is why something like grey works well in Bionicle sets. It's pretty universal. But using a completely different colour - green with brown in the case of Pohatu - just looks ghastly. It just looks plain wrong. That can be used to quite a good effect with villains. Hero Factory liked to make rabidly coloured villains. But hey! Even Hero Factory got it right once! That is a set I actually want. A wonderful mix of Technic & armour pieces, and the hint of a secondary colour of dark blue. Wonderful. That guy looks menacing. Whereas this guy looks like a twat. He doesn't look very imposing. Neon green right next to neon orange, with some black and grey thrown in there.... He really looks like comic relief, a court jester. I briefly googled Bionicle MOC. To my absolute lack of surprise, no multi-coloured pieces (e.g. new Toa breastplate) were used. Certainly different colours were used, but not opposites (in the same way that red is opposite to blue) and most certainly not on the same part. Even then, drastically different colours weren't commonly used. White and transparent light blue. Black and neon green. Certainly contrasts can be given. A blue figure was riding a gold motorcycle. This tells the two apart, without bleeding the eyes in doing so. But giving large contrasts on the same figure just doesn't look right. What am I trying to say? Lego's ideas of sets - I understand that I may not be Lego's target market - just don't appeal to me. They look eye-catchingly bad. The clash of colours on the same part makes them rather hard to use in MOCs. Never mind the plot & cliched characters (another rant which Pereki said most of), but the sets just look wrong, and are built wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayliffe Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 Volta (the blokes who did JtO) animated a thing in their free time. It's... actually really nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted April 14, 2016 Share Posted April 14, 2016 please watch Pranciblad, The Ace Railgun, Brigs and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 good news: the webisodes are continuing this year bad news: they're just shortened bits of journey to one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidenpons Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Ya know, if they turned Bionicle into some Monty Python hybrid and the webisodes were just a selection of totally random skits like the one linked two posts above, I'd reckon Bionicle would probably be more popular than it is now... *sighs* So much potential.... so little outcome.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted April 26, 2016 Share Posted April 26, 2016 New graphic novel came out and there's some good s*** go౦ԁ s***? in there Spoiler First off: absolute confirmation that the Masks of Time are one and the same. At first I was a little bothered that this probably means the whole matter of "wait, Vakama made the Vahi, where the hell did this upper-half come from" would never be resolved - because, let's be honest, that would necessitate delving WAY too much into the old canon to work. But then I realized I'm actually rather happy with it. It implies this Vahi, and G2, come from a G1 that never left Mata Nui - a G1 that only ever knew the Vahi as a mysterious and powerful artifact. Could it have been only a half of a single, reality-crossing artifact? Sure, who knows! The other biggie is Makuta, who is firmly established as being only a jealous younger brother - the Mask of Ultimate Power corrupts him into his villainous ways. The narrative had seemed to be moving further and further from that take on things and I'm glad to have it set in stone now. Also, consider how the Toa were summoned by the Vahi. Makes no sense in the full G1 canon where they were firmly rooted to their own universe. But if you just take 01-03 into account, I can totally see the Toa as some sort of device the universe calls upon to save islands in peril. They plop from the sky onto Mata Nui, they plop from the sky onto Okoto. Thanks, sky! TL;DR I'm pretty sure the guys running G2 are low-key retconning everything 2004 and beyond and that's pretty great I've seen a couple of photoshops of the full Vahi already, but they all seem sort of... idealized? Here's a quick and dirty edit of what it looks like the design is actually going for, to me: I get the impression the designer is going for visual suggestion more than making the two actually compatible. Especially with the whole eye-hole business. But the new one's got the horizontal lines down the center under a circle, and the surrounding wedges, so in that way it is true to the source. It really needs those cheese holes, though. Quisoves Potoo and Brigs 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emily Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 Buncha summer-wave stuff is trickling out. Even though the Beasts are coming from the volcano in this image, the pack-in comics show them emerging in disparate locations and converging on the volcano, so there's probably something hidden in there that they're aiming to nab. Some set descriptions in Russian say they're after what translates as the "Mask of the Universe" so probably the Mask of Ultimate Power, though the same descriptions also definitely refer to the Mask of Ultimate Power as "mask of absolute control," so there may be some leeway if you want to run with an out-of-left field theory like the Vahi being brought into the thick of things already. I guess the main question I have now is "what the actual hell happened to the island to transform it into this heckscape?" Is Umarak putting on Makuta's mask just that potent? Anyway, stuff is more or less making sense now. Makuta wanted his old mask specifically so he could get it onto Umarak, so that he'd be able to control an ultra-powerful guy who is able to get what he really wants: the Mask of Ultimate Power. So if/when they get that this summer, the next step is Makuta waking up for 2017. The poster definitely plays up the parallel to summer 2003, what with the 7th Toa figure and all. Now that they've basically done their take on 2001-03, I wonder if the idea is to go off completely in their own direction next year, or even to do something with 2008. aidenpons 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzgracefulmoon Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 I like how they're paying homage to the old posters but at this point it feels like they're just being like "HEY YOU REMEMBER BIONICLE WE SURE DO LOL ;))" story wise? I think it could be decent, if not fall flat. but i've liked the past wave of bionicle sets so far so I have no doubt the summer wave will be good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidenpons Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 This.... doesn't actually look terrible. Surprisingly. Merely "bad." Pereki, I really appreciate your plot summaries - they give me an excellent idea of what's going on and they save me from burning my eyes emily 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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