Bionicle 2015 Discussion

[Aanchir]

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.

People don't have to be stupid to make mistakes, or to get frustrated by said mistakes. Even AFOLs can be surprisingly error-prone when building constraction sets.

I'm glad YOU can tell the beams apart without them being color-coded. That's no excuse for insulting people who can't, whether they be kids or adults.

[DraikNova]

My personal experience of whether children can or cannot distinguish between parts in the same color by sight may not be representative, but even those who cannot would only make a mistake half the time anyway. Considering that you can also feel the difference between pieces (as long as you don't have inch-thick calluses on your fingers), I don't see why aesthetics would have to be sacrificed for such a minor issue.

[Timeline15]

What bothers me more than the multiple bone colours is Lego's current thing of colouring everything to do with a function yellow. People can tell that something is supposed to move without warning tape being stuck on it. Now the toa all have big blocks of yellow on their backs and weapons. Why? they never used to do this, and I strongly doubt the human race has become worse at building Lego since 15 years ago.

[Logan McOwen]

What bothers me more than the multiple bone colours is Lego's current thing of colouring everything to do with a function yellow. People can tell that something is supposed to move without warning tape being stuck on it. Now the toa all have big blocks of yellow on their backs and weapons. Why? they never used to do this, and I strongly doubt the human race has become worse at building Lego since 15 years ago.

So the gears in the Gen1 Toa weren't a different colour to the rest of the set at all, were they?

Personally, I really don't mind buttons/knobs etc. having colouration to help them stand out. It makes sense.

Edited January 28, 2015 by LewiMOC

[Voxovan]

What bothers me more than the multiple bone colours is Lego's current thing of colouring everything to do with a function yellow. People can tell that something is supposed to move without warning tape being stuck on it. Now the toa all have big blocks of yellow on their backs and weapons. Why? they never used to do this, and I strongly doubt the human race has become worse at building Lego since 15 years ago.

I actually don't mind the yellow, it's way better than red which was being used before. But yeah, I also dislike the color-coding of pieces. The color scheme can be reeeaaally ruined with all those red axles and blue pins...

So the gears in the Gen1 Toa weren't a different colour to the rest of the set at all, were they?

Personally, I really don't mind buttons/knobs etc. having colouration to help them stand out. It makes sense.

Well not for Kopaka :P

Edited January 28, 2015 by Voxovan

[Shakar]

I don't mind the yellow gears that much, I dislike how they look on the sets but they're mighty easy to replace.

[Rayskull]

I too would like axles and pins in black...but I understand.

...But maybe a middle ground color dark bley.

I like the yellow on the back of the Toa, adds character.

Don't be so serious.

[Lord-Vorahk]

I got my first two sets when I was six years old, and I had no trouble telling the difference between the various axle lengths, and those were all black. Kids aren't that stupid, and it's much easier to tell the bones apart than axles. Furthermore, they solved the possibility of having the kids mix it up by printing a 1:1 image of the part at the bottom of the page, for anyone that needed it. We don't need the sets to have their nice, black endoskeletons broken up by bley.

Anyway, images of new sets!

Ekimu... I want him. He's amazing and I need him in my collection already.

Skull Grinder: Looks pretty cool, and I want to get him too, though Ekimu is my main reason for this set.

Skull Warrior: My opinion hasn't changed. He's cool. Looks pretty good to me.

Skull Basher: Again, decent. I like that purple too.

Skull Slicer: I still like him, but he's got my laughing. Why? The exposed ball joints. When the leaks dropped, people complained that the new bones were there instead of using the normal ones with no shells. Slicer uses normal bones as well... and people whine that he's cheap because he has exposed ball joints on his limbs. Make up your minds, people. If he'd used the new bones, you'd probably be complaining that the useful trans-green bones were the new ones and not the more MOC-friendly normal ones.

Skull Scorpio: Well, I want that Pohatu mask, so I'm getting him. He does look better, though.

As for the randomly-coloured parts... On Scorpio, they're only on his weapons and eyes, so, going by my headcanon, it's the energy that's animating the normally dead skull creatures. Disappointed by the lack of black friction extenders, though.

Anyway... WHen I get these, I'm probably going to make them even more mismatched/piecemeal, etc.

[Timeline15]

So the gears in the Gen1 Toa weren't a different colour to the rest of the set at all, were they?

They were grey. It looked right for the gears to be that colour, cos it could vaguely be believed as metal, and it didn't clash with anything. They also didn't have random grey down one arm to show that it could swing, like these new toa have on their weapons, to show that they come apart.

[Nekchir]

Cooooome oooon......The Toy Fair should start pretty soon.

HURRY UP.

[TheDesuComplex]

Cooooome oooon......The Toy Fair should start pretty soon.

HURRY UP.

Whining about the wait certainly won't get images to come any faster, or encourage those who are taking the pictures. Have patience, please.

[Nekchir]

Whining about the wait certainly won't get images to come any faster, or encourage those who are taking the pictures. Have patience, please.

I don't know the meaning of the word.

[Aanchir]

What bothers me more than the multiple bone colours is Lego's current thing of colouring everything to do with a function yellow. People can tell that something is supposed to move without warning tape being stuck on it. Now the toa all have big blocks of yellow on their backs and weapons. Why? they never used to do this, and I strongly doubt the human race has become worse at building Lego since 15 years ago.

I think you need to refresh your memory a bit. LEGO used to do this very frequently. Remember the yellow arrow tiles on Muaka and Kane-Ra? The yellow triggers on the arms of the Tarakava? The red switches on the Ussanui? Even the Competition/Cyber Slam sets which predated BIONICLE regularly featured brightly-colored switches and triggers.

It's not that the human race is worse at LEGO building than they used to be, but that the LEGO Group is better at actually making the sets accessible to a wide audience than they used to be. Just because many of us who went on to become AFOLs had no trouble learning the ins and outs of LEGO Technic building doesn't mean NOBODY has trouble with that. I remember the way my peers struggled when I had Throwbots sets as party favors at my 7th birthday party. Using axles of the wrong length, putting them in the wrong holes, etc. These things which were common sense to me by that point were a tremendous hassle for kids who were mostly used to LEGO building as a simple process of stacking parts vertically, and who weren't used to there being so many wrong ways to put the same parts together, or having to measure a part in any way other than counting studs.

Even Huw Millington, the lead admin of Brickset and an extremely experienced LEGO builder, had to be corrected twice on how to attach the Titanium Metallic armor to the torso Furno Jet Machine in a review last year. The first time, he attached it like this, and the second time like this. On his third try he finally got it right. Huw is not stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but as a beginning constraction builder he simply didn't know there were so many potential errors to watch out for!

[Rayskull]

Is only one person allowed to take photos???

Photos from the fair are scarce not just for lego...

[SuperGeniusCreator]

I think you need to refresh your memory a bit. LEGO used to do this very frequently. Remember the yellow arrow tiles on Muaka and Kane-Ra? The yellow triggers on the arms of the Tarakava? The red switches on the Ussanui? Even the Competition/Cyber Slam sets which predated BIONICLE regularly featured brightly-colored switches and triggers.

It's not that the human race is worse at LEGO building than they used to be, but that the LEGO Group is better at actually making the sets accessible to a wide audience than they used to be. Just because many of us who went on to become AFOLs had no trouble learning the ins and outs of LEGO Technic building doesn't mean NOBODY has trouble with that. I remember the way my peers struggled when I had Throwbots sets as party favors at my 7th birthday party. Using axles of the wrong length, putting them in the wrong holes, etc. These things which were common sense to me by that point were a tremendous hassle for kids who were mostly used to LEGO building as a simple process of stacking parts vertically, and who weren't used to there being so many wrong ways to put the same parts together, or having to measure a part in any way other than counting studs.

Even Huw Millington, the lead admin of Brickset and an extremely experienced LEGO builder, had to be corrected twice on how to attach the Titanium Metallic armor to the torso Furno Jet Machine in a review last year. The first time, he attached it like this, and the second time like this. On his third try he finally got it right. Huw is not stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but as a beginning constraction builder he simply didn't know there were so many potential errors to watch out for!

Well said.

[Scarilian]

Is only one person allowed to take photos???

Photos from the fair are scarce not just for lego...

From what it seems the main sources appear to be reporter's, so it could be a case where only they are allowed to record/photograph. Rest assured if/when some is uploaded i shall find it :P

[Voxovan]

I think you need to refresh your memory a bit. LEGO used to do this very frequently. Remember the yellow arrow tiles on Muaka and Kane-Ra? The yellow triggers on the arms of the Tarakava? The red switches on the Ussanui? Even the Competition/Cyber Slam sets which predated BIONICLE regularly featured brightly-colored switches and triggers.

It's not that the human race is worse at LEGO building than they used to be, but that the LEGO Group is better at actually making the sets accessible to a wide audience than they used to be. Just because many of us who went on to become AFOLs had no trouble learning the ins and outs of LEGO Technic building doesn't mean NOBODY has trouble with that. I remember the way my peers struggled when I had Throwbots sets as party favors at my 7th birthday party. Using axles of the wrong length, putting them in the wrong holes, etc. These things which were common sense to me by that point were a tremendous hassle for kids who were mostly used to LEGO building as a simple process of stacking parts vertically, and who weren't used to there being so many wrong ways to put the same parts together, or having to measure a part in any way other than counting studs.

Even Huw Millington, the lead admin of Brickset and an extremely experienced LEGO builder, had to be corrected twice on how to attach the Titanium Metallic armor to the torso Furno Jet Machine in a review last year. The first time, he attached it like this, and the second time like this. On his third try he finally got it right. Huw is not stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but as a beginning constraction builder he simply didn't know there were so many potential errors to watch out for!

Well if the admin of Brickset is too stupid to simply follow the instructions, then maybe we seriously need color coding

[Mesonak]

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.

1. Because it's fun

2. Because it's a traditional part of the community

3. It gives people plenty of extra time to get accustomed to the design of the sets and allow them to grow on people, so when they're seen at a Toy Fair it's only upwards from there

A lot of people like to underestimate exactly how much can be discerned from leaked images, even taking into account the watermarks. Pretty much everything deduced from those pictures has come to pass, despite a few instances of coloration changes. Nothing has really changed about these sets to make them any "better" or "worse." It's all a matter of perception, and the slow warming process. There's no real need to stamp it out.

(also it appears like the majority's opinion is negative, or at least partially so)

Edited January 28, 2015 by Mesonak

[DraikNova]

Even I look at instructions, if only because some of the set designs don't make any sense. It's kind of amusing that Huw managed to fail that badly, though. Best schadenfreude I've had all year.

[wghost]

1. Because it's fun

Strongly disagree.

2. Because it's a traditional part of the community

Community customs are subjects to change, too. And using this as an argument implies either that 1. you are not part of the community if you express your dissent with this tradition or 2. you should get used to it, both being kinda offensive... of course, I don't assume it was intentional. :)

Nothing has really changed about these sets to make them any "better" or "worse." It's all a matter of perception, and the slow warming process.

And that's it exactly why I find it baffling and tiresome all the time. But I don't want to stamp it out by any means: everyone has the right to express themselves in a way they see it convenient as long as it doesn't violate the forum rules.

(Btw taking the comments on other websites into account as well, I think the perception is generally positive as always.)

Edited January 28, 2015 by wghost

[TheOneVeyronian]

Hey, I wouldn't be too hard on Huw, when I bought my first CCBS Constraction set back in 2011 I frequently made mistakes like that when building, even after looking at the instructions. Nowadays I consider myself an expert CCBS builder.

And before anybody asks, the fact that I have moderator roles at Brickset doesn't come into this, it was just something I wanted to mention ;-)

Anyway, I wonder when we could expect close up pictures of the sets, it seems slightly odd that Nuremberg news and pics is a bit less than usual. I am seriously wondering if we might not get anything else Bionicle related until New York...

[Lord-Vorahk]

If we have to have different coloured CCBS bones, I'd rather have set colours than bley. I've got red ones from Breez 4.0 and Core Hunter, two of which are going into Tahu when I get some gold shells. Those look great, and the only thing miss from HF is how tight the colour schemes were prior to Brain Attack. Now we've got random bley and silver bits

[Mesonak]

Strongly disagree.

Community customs are subjects to change, too. And using this as an argument implies either that 1. you are not part of the community if you express your dissent with this tradition or 2. you should get used to it, both being kinda offensive... of course, I don't assume it was intentional. :)

And that's it exactly why I find it baffling and tiresome all the time. But I don't want to stamp it out by any means: everyone has the right to express themselves in a way they see it convenient as long as it doesn't violate the forum rules.

(Btw taking the comments on other websites into account as well, I think the perception is generally positive as always.)

Well, that's perfectly fine if you don't view it as enjoyable. I'm just trying to help explain why people feel the need to do it; the majority of people, myself included, find great enjoyment in the quest for leaked images. Also, you'd be correct in assuming I wasn't trying to offend; my apologies if it came off that way. I'm just saying, it's become so deeply ingrained in the Lego fan community over the years, it seems as if it's sometimes done more out of habit than anything else. Long, bullet-point lists giving opinions on things, overly critical analysis, and the comparisons between preliminary and finalized imagery... it's deeply woven into the fabric of the community itself.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Mesonak

[BrickBuilder3213]

When can we expect to see the terms of the Bionicle GWP promotion in English?

[DraikNova]

I find it hilarious when people's opinion does a 180. This year, that hasn't been happening much.