Bionicle 2015 Discussion

[jaller]

I'm pretty much starting to like them(except Skull Slicer and Skorpio...they're so bad for me)...but,honestly,i don't feel that BIONICLE look on them...Definitely i will Buy Mask Maker vs Skull Grinder and the other two skulls (Basher and Warrior),but i'm pretty disappointed (but dat trans-colored mask tho...very beautiful)

P.S - Here is a "better" quality image (if anyone hasn't posted it yet) http://ukonio.de/wp-content/gallery/lego-spielwarenmesse-2015/lego-new-sets-spielwarenmesse-bionicle-toy-fair-2015-andres-lehmann.jpg

P.P.S - They've reintegrated red eyes on Skull Grinder from what i can see

Edited January 28, 2015 by jaller

[Iben]

See? See!? Happens every time! I've got whiplash that happened so fast! Now VBBN's concussion was over nothing! How does that make you feel Eurobricks?? Hmmm!?

( =P )

TBH, even with the new pictures I'm not really satisfied. I can understand that some people need more time and more pictures to make their judgement, but that doesn't mean people can't dislike it from the start. Sometimes I feel like those people get shamed for not liking something from the bat, but there's nothing wrong with that. I still don't like the new sets. Especially Skull Scorpion and Slasher really disappoint me, especially when comparing to the winter sets. Their colour schemes are more well placed out and overall they don't have random bits of colours the villains have here. I expected a bit more of these two sets especially.

That doesn't change the fact that I indeed like Skull Basher and Ekimu, I liked those from the start, those two figures are the best of all to me because they look well thought out. I'm not saying the others aren't thought out and the Lego team didn't spend enough time on them, but they're not as good as these. Skull Warrior is one of the sets that's "in between" for me. I like the fact that he has asymmetrical armour on the legs. It gives a very skeletal and zombie-like look, without sacrificing armour like Skull Slicer does. I like the new bone pieces though, they are aesthetically pleasing and still allow articulation, something the legs of Skull Scorpion don't which is a big flaw for me.

Overall, I don't like the new sets. I understand the look they went for and I appreciate their effort really, but I personally feel that the majority of the sets just don't look that nice. I like the new pieces and I really see their potential, but it doesn't change the fact that I don't like the new sets. And honestly I don't think that's bad. You simply can't like everything, people's taste differ a lot. There's no "right" or "wrong" here. Some people might like the legs of Skull Scorpion because they look nice, but I don't like it because it doesn't offer articulation, what someone else might not need. This doesn't really matter much, it doesn't make the sets worse or better, it just pleases a different audience.

@Aanchir about the different coloured bones :

In my personal opinion, I don't think it's a good idea to break the bone colour scheme in order to avoid confusing. I see what you mean, and I understand your point, but I honestly don't believe that there's such an enormous amount of confusion that it really has to. Lego has three things to keep in mind: aesthetics, playability and "easy" building (easy in this context can differ of course ). I personally believe that these 3 things are all equally important, but should be in balance. My opinion is that the bone pieces are equally important to the overall aesthetics and colour scheme. It's one of the main reasons why I would like to see more differently coloured bone pieces, simply because they have a big influence on how your build will look. I don't think that breaking up the aesthetics of uniform bones is worth it, especially if the confusion is rather minor. I can see why it happens in Technic pieces, but I simply cannot when it comes to these larger pieces that can easily be differentiated.

-Iben

[DraikNova]

What mostly annoys me about the color-coding of the bone pieces is the assumption that kids are stupid, too stupid to distinguish between two different parts simply by looking at them.

[Dorek]

TBH, even with the new pictures I'm not really satisfied. I can understand that some people need more time and more pictures to make their judgement, but that doesn't mean people can't dislike it from the start. Sometimes I feel like those people get shamed for not liking something from the bat, but there's nothing wrong with that. I still don't like the new sets. Especially Skull Scorpion and Slasher really disappoint me, especially when comparing to the winter sets. Their colour schemes are more well placed out and overall they don't have random bits of colours the villains have here. I expected a bit more of these two sets especially.

That doesn't change the fact that I indeed like Skull Basher and Ekimu, I liked those from the start, those two figures are the best of all to me because they look well thought out. I'm not saying the others aren't thought out and the Lego team didn't spend enough time on them, but they're not as good as these. Skull Warrior is one of the sets that's "in between" for me. I like the fact that he has asymmetrical armour on the legs. It gives a very skeletal and zombie-like look, without sacrificing armour like Skull Slicer does. I like the new bone pieces though, they are aesthetically pleasing and still allow articulation, something the legs of Skull Scorpion don't which is a big flaw for me.

Overall, I don't like the new sets. I understand the look they went for and I appreciate their effort really, but I personally feel that the majority of the sets just don't look that nice. I like the new pieces and I really see their potential, but it doesn't change the fact that I don't like the new sets. And honestly I don't think that's bad. You simply can't like everything, people's taste differ a lot. There's no "right" or "wrong" here. Some people might like the legs of Skull Scorpion because they look nice, but I don't like it because it doesn't offer articulation, what someone else might not need. This doesn't really matter much, it doesn't make the sets worse or better, it just pleases a different audience.

-Iben

I think it's more that people are either A. going into it with some preconceived biases about the sets themselves, or more likely B. That people are making snap decisions based on blurry or preliminary pictures. The things people say they like are usually more vague in nature; theme, cohesiveness, etc. while the things people say they don't like are very often specific elements that they turn out to be wrong about.

Not to mention people who have been around long enough know the fluctuation of fanbase opinion well enough to disregard it. The majority of people who go "omg ew" as their first reaction almost always start to find positives once they get a clearer picture. I'm sure there's a study to be done on this.

Obviously people can and will dislike certain things about the set (there's also the forum culture aspect of "what do you do when you have nothing to say about the sets that isn't a criticism") and that's fine. As you say, we're entitled to our opinions, and to share those opinions. But these opinions have often proven themselves to be fickle and changeable, so you'll forgive if people are maybe a little more skeptical that these beliefs are ironclad.

What mostly annoys me about the color-coding of the bone pieces is the assumption that kids are stupid, too stupid to distinguish between two different parts simply by looking at them.

They've been doing this for years with other parts, I wasn't surprised to see it in HF (although I was surprised to see them make the switch halfway through HF to the reverse colors). It's like any kind of construction project, you need ways of distinguishing the parts otherwise people can get confused.

[Ikaatril]

These look much better than the prelims did.

Skull Warrior: From what little I can make out on this guy, I think he's pretty decent. It pulls off the skeleton theme well IMO, better than Grinder or Scorpio does. The trans-blue + silver works, but it's ruined by the trans orange and gunmetal new attachment.

Skull Slicer: Not really understanding the hate on this guy. I like the four-arms idea, and I like the generally unarmoured theme of it. Also trans-green bones, so I may be biased. I generally feel like he also pulls of the skeletal them pretty well - better than Scorpio or Grinder does.

Skull Scorpio: Still the worst of the lot, no contest. What is even up with that tail? And those legs are awful - even worse than LOSS', which I didn't think could be an achievement. Not to mention he has IMO by far the worst colour scheme of the lot, with a lot of black technic pieces with three trans neon-green pieces, silver mask and claws, and two trans-orange pieces... it doesn't look at all coherent.

Skull Basher: Looks pretty solid IMO. Definitely one of the best, but we already knew that, and is that purple I see? Purple is good. And he makes pretty good use of the trans-orange, unlike every other set apart from Skull Grinder.

Ekimu vs Skull Grinder: Ekimu is definitely the better part of this set. Unfortunately, he seems to have fallen to the plague of silver-feet and silver-hands like the Toa, which, considering he's partly gold, are completely out of place. Grinder, on the other hand... meh. He really doesn't pull off the skeleton theme that well at all. He looks unfinished, is what I mean. Due to the use of the new bone pieces, he looks more like someone forgot the armour on the upper legs and lower arms - there's literally nothing else to make you think 'hmm he's a skeleton guy'. He does make the best use of trans orange of the wave here, however, and it goes well with the gunmetal and black.

Not really understanding the gold+transparent masks either, especially considering we won't get gold/transparent variations for Tahu and Gali. Perhaps BIONICLE will continue into 2016 and we'll see them then? I'd doubt that, considering that'd be a year after Tahu and Gali's release. It does seem a really weird decision to include the masks with sets that aren't even the characters they're supposed to be with. Unless we're going to get two extra sets late into the year (unlikely).

[jaller]

I think that the gold+transparent mask indicate the toa that will figh that enemy (ex:Onua will fight Skull Warrior...or basher,i don't know perfectly the names)

Edited January 28, 2015 by jaller

[Strakk]

Yeah, probably they are infected masks.

I hope we get some more pictures soon.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Strakk

[jaller]

Yeah, probably they are infected masks.

I hope we get some more pictures soon.

Yeah,i think that they are infected mask too..look at the trans-transparent lewa mask.

Edited January 28, 2015 by jaller

[Voxovan]

...

They still look awfull. Zero improvement. I don't get how people can like their unfinished look. Yeah, I get it, these sets are supposed to look like skeletons. But they still look bad. Leaving bones with no armour is not a good way of making a character look like a skeleton... especially leaving the CCBS bones with balljoints with no armour. And I hate those random colors. There's no consistency. We've got a character that's primarly gray and green, and then BLAM random trans-orange armour. Like, what the hell Lego?

Okay, there's one set that looks better for me now, and it's Skull Scorpio... but he still looks like crap. Skull Warrior is kinda ok, but I already liked him the most when the prelims showed up. So maybe I'll be getting him. I'll also try to get Skull Grinder vs. Mask Maker, but only for Ekimu and MoC... because Skull Grinder is Bionicle G2's equivalent of Fire Lord.

Overall, I'm still extremely disappointed. These sets are, in my opinion, the worst Bionicle sets we've ever got. They're even worse than Mistika, and I didn't think I'll ever say that's something worse than Mistika.

And also, why there's no half-gold-half-transparent mask for Tahu and Gali? ._.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Voxovan

[jaller]

I think that Tahu(with Ekimu) will fight Skull Grinder ...but i don't know why they put Gali in the corner

Edited January 28, 2015 by jaller

[Toa Eljay]

...

They still look awfull. Zero improvement. I don't get how people can like their unfinished look. Yeah, I get it, these sets are supposed to look like skeletons. But they still look bad. Leaving bones with no armour is not a good way of making a character look like a skeleton... especially leaving the CCBS bones with balljoints with no armour. And I hate those random colors. There's no consistency. We've got a character that's primarly gray and green, and then BLAM random trans-orange armour. Like, what the hell Lego?

Okay, there's one set that looks better for me now, and it's Skull Scorpio... but he still looks like crap. Skull Warrior is kinda ok, but I already liked him the most when the prelims showed up. So maybe I'll be getting him. I'll also try to get Skull Grinder vs. Mask Maker, but only for Ekimu and MoC... because Skull Grinder is Bionicle G2's equivalent of Fire Lord.

Overall, I'm still extremely disappointed. These sets are, in my opinion, the worst Bionicle sets we've ever got. They're even worse than Mistika, and I didn't think I'll ever say that's something worse than Mistika.

And also, why there's no half-gold-half-transparent mask for Tahu and Gali? ._.

Now now, I'll let you finish, but the Av-Toran were most certainly the worst sets we've ever gotten. =P

All in all, I see both sides of the coin as far as these sets are concerned.

Skull Grinder/Ekimu: Quite honestly, they look fantastic. I'm glad the representation of Ekimu in the animations can finally be seen in set form, and I'm eager to get a hold of those masks. I like the hammer design and the new recolors, and since I didn't get Queen Beast from HF, I'm looking forward to the shoulder armor. Skull Grinder looks, for the most part, alright. He is a bit gappy in some places, and the upper legs compared to the lower legs is a tad jarring, but I eagerly await the new gearbox variant. (Clarification: When I say "new gearbox variant", I mean what they add to the gearbox and how they use it. Like the different ways they used it on the Toa.)

Skull Basher: This one, surprisingly, is my second favorite. Now, I'm not normally one for purple, or any color nearby, but I will say that this one looks really nice. As opposed to most of the fellows I've discused these sets with, I'm actually not opposed to the orange/red and purple color scheme. Out of all the sets, he seems the most consistent, solid, and fleshed out.

Skull Warrior: It was a really close call between him and Scorpio, but I went with this guy for my third because he's fairly basic, and because of that he can't do a lot of harm. I like the color scheme, and I like the weapon. Not sure how I feel about the white ammunition, though. What are they? Solidified souls? Teeth? Breath mints? Other than that, I don't like the orange, but everything else seems fine.

Skull Scorpio: I like the design of the more finalized set, primarily the legs. The scorpion look is gotten across well enough, and I think he'd make a good pal for LoSS (R.I.P). Not a fan of the trans lime/trans orange mix, though. Quite jarring. The tail, while most don't like it, makes sense to me so long as it's able to come down in front of it and pin opposing Toa down. Otherwise, it's useless. But here's hoping it has some mobility.

Skull Slicer: So, with all the debate regarding how they all look, I think they're overall brought down a little when this guy is around. He's really the one primarily throwing around the naked ball joints and overall lack of armor. While I like the new recolors, I feel they're overshadowed by the severe bare bones (no pun intended) feel of this set. I like the concept for the four arms, though. I'm also interested in the piece at the end of the orange chain.

All in all, I don't mind this wave. I think they are supposed to evoke "skeleton" in every sense of the word. They're skeletal as we know that to be, and skeletal as the CCBS knows that to be. With that in mind, I think these sets pull it off. Without that in mind, they still seem to function, but are certainly lack luster compared to what we just got with the Toa and Protectors.

TL;DR: The Av-Matoran were horrible in retrospect.

[wghost]

Not surprised how so many people seem to be acting more positive toward the sets now that we're getting non-preliminary pictures of them.

*sigh* Who would have guessed? But yeah, that was fast.

[Scarilian]

Starting to see a few new images pop-up, mostly City sets that what we've already seen, just this time from varying angles. Either way added them to the gallery. Expect to see new image fairly soon

Not surprised how so many people seem to be acting more positive toward the sets now that we're getting non-preliminary pictures of them.

*sigh* Who would have guessed? But yeah, that was fast.

No offence, but are you two looking at a different set of messages to me? :L

Edited January 28, 2015 by Scarilian

[Mandate]

Now now, I'll let you finish, but the Av-Toran were most certainly the worst sets we've ever gotten. =P

The Good Guys and Bad Guys would like to have a word with you.

(although for their limitations most of the "Guy" sets were good enough)

[wghost]

No offence, but are you two looking at a different set of messages to me? :L

While people still have issues with them, the warm up has already started that feels dramatic after a still rather vague and hard-to-see image. Don't get me wrong, it's really nice people would give them a second thought, but this evaluation pattern has bugged me since the early years - I just don't really see the point of harsh critique of something you can't even see properly then realizing it later (in this case, a few days later) that these were not that bad in the first place.

Of course, we're still early on the pics, so it could be that the negative comments overwhelm the positive ones. We'll see.

Edited January 28, 2015 by wghost

[Scarilian]

Now now, I'll let you finish, but the Av-Toran were most certainly the worst sets we've ever gotten. =P

TL;DR: The Av-Matoran were horrible in retrospect.

There are a ton of much worse sets than the Av-Toran. At the least the Av-Toran have the excuse of being prototypes for the Matoran so it makes sense in the story that they are less complex. The Agori however do not and recycle the build from several Av-Toran

While people still have issues with them, the warm up has already started that feels dramatic after a still rather vague and hard-to-see image. Don't get me wrong, it's really nice people would give them a second thought, but this evaluation pattern has bugged me since the early years - I just don't really see the point of harsh critique you can't even see properly then realizing it later (in this case, a few days later) that these were not that bad in the first place.

Of course, we're still early on the pics, so it could be that the negative comments would overwhelm the positive ones. We'll see.

I do see a lot more criticism than praise at the moment. Their are a few jumping on the bandwagon of saying the sets are perfect at this stage, but i feel those people tend not to stick to their views. The so-called warm-up is more a few random people changing their mind, which happens when people realise that they wont get better sets this year and settle to the idea of getting these. I think its less that people are seeing the sets and thinking they are good sets or that the official images are in anyway an improvement over the prelims - and more that they've accepted what they are getting because their is no way to change it, so in their mind, why register a complaint.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Scarilian

[Toa Eljay]

The Good Guys and Bad Guys would like to have a word with you.

(although for their limitations most of the "Guy" sets were good enough)

At best, those were polybags.

At worst... No, those were just polybags. They don't even get to count as sets. >=(

There are a ton of much worse sets than the Av-Toran. At the least the Av-Toran have the excuse of being prototypes for the Matoran so it makes sense in the story that they are less complex. The Agori however do not and recycle the build from several Av-Toran

Okay, hold on. This is an issue I have with a lot of people. The story rarely affects the sets in most cases. Hence forth, the Av-Toran being prototype Matoran means nothing to me. The sets were terrible because they were terrible. Nothing more, nothing less.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Toa Eljay

[Mandate]

At best, those were polybags.

At worst... No, those were just polybags. They don't even get to count as sets. >=(

Even by polybag standards they were awful. The Guy sets, not the awesome Hikaru mini-Mech

Edited January 28, 2015 by JayWalker

[Logan McOwen]

Oh hey, new photo!

• The blended Toa masks are superb. Digging the Purple and Gold MoE the most.
  
• The Skull guys all look excellent... Except for Skull Scorpio. What the hell is up with that tail?
  
• The new bone bones (hue) look bloody brilliant. I'm a little concerned about the lack of space around the ball, as that might hinder wrist/ankle poseability... But still, I like 'em!
  
• Ekimu looks great, and it's cool to see the MoCr in plastic! Honestly not as bothered with the green eyes as some other people are - blue eyes would clash with all the blue in his armour, which there is a lot of.
  

I'll likely be buying all but Skull Scorpio.

[GK733]

I'm pretty sure I could build these just by looking at the pictures after some mistakes even scorpio. Aside from the masks, I can pretty much think trough how the final product will look later on.

The new bone and torso pieces are in silver, sweet. It's better than the white, or light grey we thought about. It really helps to give the idea that these creatures have skeletons made out of metal/protodermis and not bones. While other colors would had worked, it just wouldn't be as Bionicle as it is.

Skull Warrior

I love the bow and the color scheme works. I don't think the trans-orange shell makes it that much worse, but without it could be better. He has a sword on his back. Nice. Makes it live up to the 15$. Use of the Grinder's mask isn't the best thing to happen, but good enough.

The asymmetrical leg armoring is a plus and a con. While the other leg just looks just fine the other looks spaghetti compared to the other.

Skull Slicer

Outright the worst set of the whole relaunch. Colors work well enough, expect for the completely random transorange piece. At least his claw-chain-thing uses same color. It barely has no armor. only two on it's hands which are the smallest size possible. Use of four arms on the same gearbox is a nice and welcome idea. But... the swords are massive and make it harder to work. They also are possibly the thing that ate this poor guy's budget the most with it's two extra hands. And last and possibly worst, they give him a skullspider as mask. That is just outright pathetic.

Skull Basher

No trans-pink :( Purple does well enough. The color scheme works pretty well. I love this guy's appearance. if I would be nitpicky I would say it needs some upper leg armor. That wouldn't be the case if those massive new add-ons on the lower wouldn't be there. Oh well this guy is anyway well thought out it's also surprisingly only 15$ which is nice!

Skull Scorpio

I have grown to like this guy more. I really hope the legs are pose-able from the torso. I don't want another LOSS (get it?)

The tail seems to have a gripping mechanism. It leads forwards and grips. (think about-Kanera leaning forward and opening it's mouth). Sadly it has no dark tan shells. the color scheme works fairly well. While the tail looks kinda ridiculous I can give it back for it's function. Depends on if the legs are posable if I like this set more, but I have my doubts with them.

Sadly it's not a homage to Nui-Jaga. Still, good enough.

Skull Grinder

A menacing looking villain with certainly intreseting upperback. Yet he is too short and suffers from the same little problem as Basher on his legs, yet it looks worse.

His staff is an original looking, yet strange weapon. It's not magneficent but it's not bad either. The horns are a nice touch and give him an outright demonic appearance.

Ekimu.

Amazing, the MOCr just makes it even better. really not much to complain.

How these could have been fixed (in the way they would still be the same price)

.

Skull Warrior

change the transorange to something else or add it more. balance out the leg armor.

Skull Slicer.

Much, much to do. change the torso to a smaller one and mount the gearbox there add limb shell instead of the new torso armor and cover it with the same chestplate.. Swap the weapons to smaller ones. Give it upper leg armor, hands are okay. Mold it a proper mask. add more trans orange or remove the one from his right shoulder.

Skull Basher

Not much can do. It's already close to breaking it's price point. annd works pretty great now.

Skull Scorpio

if It seems if the legs can't be posed, they should be made from smaller pieces to allow that. Dark Tan would had been better with it.

Skull Grinder and Ekimu

Remove Ekimu's shield. he already has many, many functions. use the budget of the shield to give grinder longer upper legs, get rid of his small pathetic sword. and armor them properly. Now he needs longer arms, no need for lower arm armort hough.

I feel like the desgners were playing around with the idea that the skullguys take toa's masks and corrupt(?) them. Then a Lego guy said their budget and they cut the 2 sets (Skullgenerifireguy and skull-water-thing with 6 legs) out.

It's nice we get new bones and all but this wave is really not that great. I really hope they push harder next year.

Edited January 28, 2015 by GK733

[Timeline15]

Can't really comment that well until there are close ups, so I'll just say this. I really hope blended versions of Tahu and Gali's masks become available at some point as well. I thought this wave was unusually small, and was fine with that, but if it's been actually cut down, resulting in the loss of 2 sets, and the masks they would have come with, that would be a real shame.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Timeline15

[TheOneVeyronian]

For anybody hoping that Ninjago will bring more Dark Blue and Spring Yellowish Green to the CCBS palette, I think this picture of the dragon that was said to have the said parts might dismiss that. It is the same dragon as the big brick built one where the speculation came from. The shells look suspiciously gunmetal to me, but I hope it's just the lighting:

http://i.imgur.com/fd933ls.jpg

Now I have had a bit of a closer look at the summer sets, I have to say that that view of Skull Scorpio makes it look worse than it did for me in the prelims. The trans-orange looks out of place on almost all the sets, but I am loving the ribcage piece (it looks suspiciously like the Savage Planet armour add ons though, or at least it appears to be in the same style). Does Skull Grinder have that mask with nostrils that was shown in a club magazine? It's a bit hard to tell, but I really want to see that mask in the plastic.

By far the best bit though is that this wave looks to be far cheaper than I had originally anticipated. Looking at the box sizes above, the £13 price is definitely right for all except the Skull Grinder set.

Edit: oh yeah, it's a bit frustrating that you can't see Basher's head at all. He's posed like he's camera shy or something ;-P

Edited January 28, 2015 by TheOneVeyronian

[BrickBuilder3213]

Wait... Ekimu has trans-light green eyes?

That just ruined the accuracy to the animated Ekimu in the "Legend" video. :c What a shame.

As for the other sets, I like the look of Skull Warrior and Skull Slicer. The other two just look weird to me, but I'll probably get them anyway.

The trans/gold masks are cool, but I would've rather had evil/infected-looking Toa masks.

[DraikNova]

For anybody hoping that Ninjago will bring more Dark Blue and Spring Yellowish Green to the CCBS palette, I think this picture of the dragon that was said to have the said parts might dismiss that. It is the same dragon as the big brick built one where the speculation came from. The shells look suspiciously gunmetal to me, but I hope it's just the lighting:

http://i.imgur.com/fd933ls.jpg

That shell looks black to me. Still a chance of spring green bone pieces though. And am I the only person who doesn't dislike the exposed balljoints on the Skull Slicer? They look like an exponentially better way to make the set look skeletal than the new bone pieces, and the translucence makes the balljoints kind of indistinct anyway.

EDIT: Looking at the close-up of the brickbuilt version makes the bone pieces look lime green compared to the spring green barb on it's leg.

Edited January 28, 2015 by DraikNova

[Shakar]

Well, now that most of the things that bugged me got fixed and new interesting parts surfaced, I can actually comment on these.

General: There are tons of good parts. Tr. orange eyestalks! New torso shell! No white at all (white masks would've annoyed me immensely)! A ton of gunmetal! Gold/transparent Toa masks (shame about the Hau and the Kaukau though..)! Cool new printed chests (Slicer's looks very creepy and abstract)!

Unfortunately, the unexposed bones and the tr. orange spam (I wonder if that that has anything to do with the, ahem, not very stellar performance of the Chima Ultrabuilds..) are still there. And I wish we didn't get so many silver hands again. The sets still seem to be a notch below the Toa and Protectors in overall quality and consistency, but with a few things fixed the gap isn't as huge as the preliminary pics made it out to be.

Warrior: I like the idea and most of the design, I just wish there was no tr. orange. Cool mask too- I don't think it's the one from the magazine preview..it seemed to feature some underbite in the preliminary pic.

Slicer: lots of tr. bright green bones! This guy looks decent, not very good but still better than Scorpio. With some armouring he has the potential to look really cool. Don't mind the Skull Spider mask much, no other set uses it as a mask anyway.

Basher: ugh, more purple Ben 10 horns that I have no idea where to use. Plus it really annoys me when they mix solid colours and their transparent equivalent like on here. Other than that, easily the best of the 4. Glad he has a tr. purple torso in the final version.

Scorpio: it's pointless, this guy is really beyond hope. Other than the mask, the tr. neon green torso and the titanium metallic giant Chima bones I don't see any interesting parts (the bones can be already found aplenty in Pohatu and PoS). This would've really been better as a humanoid- designers just seem to be unable to make good humanoids under 20 Euro (which is something I really don't get, the Savage Planet beasts and the small Breakout villains were fantastic). I'll either buy him at a reduced price or BL the pieces I want like I'm going to do with LoSS.

Ekimu vs Grinder: I don't get why Ekimu's eyes are green, and I can't appreciate the Silver Hands and Feet Syndrome, other than that he looks good. Grinder's chest print seems closer to the one he had in the box art than the one in the promo pic- since he had green eyes in that one, I'm going to assume that was the preliminary one. Now, I wonder where that chest design went then.. I hope one of the smaller set has it, I really liked it. As for the rest of the Grinder figure, he at least seems to be bigger than the other 4, has a well balanced colour scheme and a cool giant axe. Also, dark bley torso in a new size (mid size one with narrow shoulder, I guess) confirmed.

And somewhat related, but now that we pretty much know know how the sets look, it occured to me that none of them looks anything like the statues in Po-Okoto. Then just what is the deal with that model? Is that really a non set figure they made up just for the heck of it? A prototype of Scorpio? A store exclusive (unlikely, it had new parts)? 2016 foreshadowing?

Overall, I'm still extremely disappointed. These sets are, in my opinion, the worst Bionicle sets we've ever got. They're even worse than Mistika, and I didn't think I'll ever say that's something worse than Mistika.

Oh come on, really? I don't think you remember the Mistika very well. At least these guys aren't a vomit of silver, have actual weapons instead of launchers everywhere, feature highly reusable and versatile parts and mostly decent builds (certainly no rotated -sp- Piraka torsos or crap like that) and use joints that don't break.