Bionicle 2016 Sets Discussion

[The Outsider]

Considering that birds are just a small group of raptors, it's more like saying that rodents aren't mammals. Your average pigeon is closer to Velociraptors in terms of skeletal anatomy, in terms of physical size and phylogenetically than Velociraptors are to Diplodocus. Anyway, my point was more that they'd need to use more than just dinosaurs if they wanted to give Lewa an extinct creature as a flying mount. Personally, I'd give him an Azhdarchid. Azhdarchids are pterosaurs (closely related to dinosaurs) and ridiculously intimidating, with a skull twice the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and with a diet that probably included T. Rex hatchlings. Think giant quadrupedal death stork with an ironic diet.

Huh, I thought "dinosaur" only referred to the extinct species. Well, I stand corrected.

[Shakar]

I just realized..the trans lime green head is kinda like an updated version of the Toa Inika head.

[Aanchir]

Even when excusing the atrocious posing, I'm not really impressed. They're just not... Grabbing my attention. Maybe things'll change closer to release, but as it stands... Looks like I'll be saving some money.

Too bad there's not a new Onua set. He really knows how to "grab" attention...

I just realized..the trans lime green head is kinda like an updated version of the Toa Inika head.

I'd consider it more like the Glatorian head than the Inika head, myself, by virtue of actually having a face underneath the mask, as well as connection points on the sides and a ball cup on the bottom.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Aanchir

[DraikNova]

Personally, I wish the designers understood that tr. smoke generally only looks good when used for exactly that: smoke. Plus, if a technic function starts to look as messy as it does on Quake Beast, that means you should just scrap it and either come up with a simpler function or scrap it entirely, possibly incorporating the idea into another set where it might work better and not stand out as much.

Huh, I thought "dinosaur" only referred to the extinct species. Well, I stand corrected.

In science, groups of species are generally defined in terms of one species and its descendants, to keep things consistent. This, among other things, means that any reasonable definition of reptile has to include birds, and any reasonable definition of fish has to include humans.

Edited February 13, 2016 by DraikNova

[Bigger Fish]

I still think that the Summer sets look okay in my book. At least they have a decent variety of parts to use. Also, Storm beast has the most striking color scheme in my book.

[Dorek]

Horrendous posing, but the sets themselves are still looking good.

I was hoping Umarak's upper arms would be a little more... substantial, given that they have to hold up his massive claws, but we'll see. Loving the design overall.

The beast head sculpts are really cool, it's some awesome texture and detail. Dunno what's going on with Quake Beast in that pic, but the others are looking fine, even Storm Beast and his weird hands.

Ekimu is still pretty generic, but the color scheme is still rocking, and that mask... mmmm mm.

[DraikNova]

I still think that the Summer sets look okay in my book. At least they have a decent variety of parts to use. Also, Storm beast has the most striking color scheme in my book.

Their color schemes are very creative and beautiful, Lava beast's tr. smoke and cliched red/orange and black aside.

[Takanuinuva]

Umarak the destroyer is looking better. Though his upper legs are too short in comparison to his lower ones. And his neck is too long for his body.

Ekimu looks a lot better but still has too much trans blue IMHO

Quake Beast is still a mess in the arms. The rest looks ok though

Storm Beast also looks a little better but not by much.

Lava Beast still looks great but whoever posed it did an awful job.

Hopefully TTV's photos will make all these sets look 100 times better.

[Aanchir]

Personally, I wish the designers understood that tr. smoke generally only looks good when used for exactly that: smoke.

It's never represented smoke, though, has it? The vast majority of its uses have been as tinted glass. It's also been used very effectively for arthropod wings or carapaces (Beetle from Marvel Super Heroes, the Fly from Minifigures Series 14, ants from LEGO Indiana Jones, Carapar from Bionicle), and for the hair from the Minifigures Series 14 Banshee. I see no reason it can't also be used for grey crystals like smoky quartz, just as pretty much any transparent color can work as crystals of similar color. Saying it only looks good as smoke is tantamount to saying "it has never looked good as anything".

Edited February 13, 2016 by Aanchir

[dviddy]

I'm just having a really hard time reading the beast heads and jaws as one functional head unit. The jaws in all of the photos so far just seem like random parts hanging in space to me.

[DraikNova]

It's never represented smoke, though, has it? The vast majority of its uses have been as tinted glass. It's also been used very effectively for arthropod wings or carapaces (Beetle from Marvel Super Heroes, the Fly from Minifigures Series 14, ants from LEGO Indiana Jones, Carapar from Bionicle), and for the hair from the Minifigures Series 14 Banshee. I see no reason it can't also be used for grey crystals like smoky quartz, just as pretty much any transparent color can work as crystals of similar color. Saying it only looks good as smoke is tantamount to saying "it has never looked good as anything".

On action figures, though?

[Quisoves Pugnat]

Ekimu is a bit generic, but after some of the worse innovations of the Uniters, I'm not going to complain.

But yeesh, that posing. Someone's asleep on the job.

[Bigger Fish]

Anyone have any ideas on how Ekimu's shield is attached? I'd like to know for my own MoCs.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Bigger Fish

[Kalhiki]

Ekimu's a bit boring, yes, but he does have a redeeming quality: Waist function and gearbox. Looks like he also uses the piston add-on for back armor, so he's nicely covered as well.

[Takanuinuva]

Anyone have any ideas on how Ekimu's shield is attached? I'd like to know for my own MoCs.

You can see in this picture. http://toynewsi.com/ig.php?mode=view&album=2016_New_York_Toy_Fair%2FLEGO&pic=2016_Toy_Fair_LEGO120.jpg&dispsize=600&start=20&sl=25949

[MakutaOfWar]

Sooooo the smaller figures say they release in June, but UTD's says July?

[DuckBricks]

Still cannot for the life of me figure out the Beast functions... Can someone lend me a hand?

[ToaDraco]

I'm really intrigued by the beasts' functions. I'm glad they each have something unique, I'm very glad the design team is getting creative with functions. It's also pretty cool that Ekimu has both waist swivel and a gearbox. UTD still looks awesome and I just now noticed he also has the waist function, interesting. It's cool he has 2 different functions but that's a lot of upper body to be swiveling. It looks like quake beast has an inward-swinging arm and I can't quit tell what storm beast's is, though if I had to guess I'd say you squeeze his sides at the beam pieces and his arms come forward in 'hugging' motion.

Also, Onua's mask blended with trans neon green is GLORIOUS. Umarak's mask looks pretty sweet with the trans neon range too but black and green are my bread and butter.

Edited February 14, 2016 by ToaDraco

[MakutaDreadscythe]

I'm not definite but something tells me Storm Beast uses those old rubber (++) connectors for the function.

[Logan McOwen]

Hmm...

Sets

• Still not sold on Ekimu. He doesn't offer anything of interest to me that I can't get elsewhere. The UtH mask he comes with is gorgeous, but that doesn't warrant a purchase in my book.
  
• Now I've seen UtD from the back, I can't help but be a little disappointed? Don't get me wrong, he still looks fantastic overall, but that empty gearbox just tells a sad story of what could've been. Regardless, I'll definitely be picking this guy up.
  
• Lava Beast is still for me the best Beast aesthetically, which is ironic as he has the worst lower leg build of the three. The chest print and the overall shaping of this monstrosity make for a really nice, visually interesting figure. The poisoned Tahu mask (?) he comes with is surprisingly rather striking, too. Day one purchase for me.
  
• Storm Beast's function is ingenious! While he's not the greatest looking figure, the amount of animation his mechanism promises is enough to warrant a sale for me. That, and the dark blue shells open up a lot more possibilities - heck, seeing as he has an odd number of those, I might end up buying him twice! The poisoned Kopaka mask is a bit yucky looking, though.
  
• Quake Beast is definitely the weakest of the Beasts. While the sideways gearbox is an interesting idea on paper, it's not very well executed. A much more elegant mechanism with a similar function could've been achieved using the build used on Ikir, Uxar and Melum. That said, he still wins points for originality, and has an overall lovely colours cheme. The poisoned Onua mask looks really good.
  

Parts

• I'm glad we have confirmation of the recoloured G2 heads! They look really striking in trans-lime, and will likely look really cool underneath transparent masks.
  
• The lower jaw piece used on the Beasts and UtD seems very limited in its uses, and I'm not keen on its shaping.
  
• Why on earth is the new crystalline piece a shell? It would've been a lot better if it were an addon - Heck, I wouldn't have minded if it were just recolours of the rocky addon from Bruizer and Korgot. Not keen on this piece at all.
  
• The Beast mask (?) is pretty swanky, and really plays on the design language of UtH's mask. That said, it's a little on the big side, and the fact that it relies solely on the trans-lime G2 head is a bit of a disappointment.
  
• The new, bestial MoCo is pretty cool! I'm glad the eyes line up with the standard eye position, so it can be used on a silver head if required. The cracked sections at the sides are a little odd though, and may prove to be tricky to work around.
  

Overall

I guess I'm gonna be "that guy" when it comes to summer waves, as I quite like these! These sets are certainly not without their flaws, but they still all look fairly decent in my eye. I'll be buying all of the Beasts (Storm Beast twice) and UtD, but likely not Ekimu.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Logan McOwen

[MakutaDreadscythe]

I think the beasts and Umarak are a definite purchase for their originality and functions. I feel that in some cases functionality is a bigger factor than aesthetics due to the intrigue of what the function does. Ekimu while he uses the waist and gearbox at once looks awkward and has even worse legs than Gali. I like trans colours as much as the next guy but this guy is like Epic Meal Time if the bacon was trans-blue. It's too much to be appreciated properly.

[Voxovan]

Wow the Beasts look even worse than before. They are all Skull Scorpio all over again, aesthetic sacrificed for the sake of a function, filled with huge amounts of color-coded technic pieces that mess up their colorscheme in the worst way possible. Only Storm Beast is somewhat decent looking, despite his lack of elbows and open ball sockets in hands. And then there's Ekimu, who's pretty okay-ish, but then again pretty plain and boring, and the fact that he has only one new mold, not even in an exclusive color, is unacceptable. Umarak looks really weird in those photos.

Overall I'm not impressed, at first I was thinking that this summer wave will be better than the Skull Squad, but now I'm not too sure about that. I'm definitely getting Storm Beasts, but only because of his three dark blue shells. Others are most likely a pass.

[DraikNova]

Where are you guys seeing the backs of these sets? Also, I still want to know why someone thought it was a good idea to give the mutated Mask of Control tr. neon green clown hair.

[The Outsider]

Where are you guys seeing the backs of these sets? Also, I still want to know why someone thought it was a good idea to give the mutated Mask of Control tr. neon green clown hair.

I thik there's a few images and a video on TTV.

[Ikaatril]

Functions:

Storm Beast's tail looks like it springs forward when the arms are pushed back, and judging by the brown axle with a stopper, that it can swivel from side to side as well..By far the most function-heavy of the beasts, but it's hidden from the front well.. Looking close, I'm not sure if it can spring forward...

Lava Beast's blades swivel - only one of them on each hand, not both of them. By far the least function based Beast, and in no way sacrificing aesthetic for the sake of a function as someone said above considering Lava Beast hardly has a function.

Quake Beast: Sideways gearbox, extended with that trans-green cylinder + spinning drill in the same manner as Korgot? Not the greatest implementation of function.

Ekimu: Waist gear + hammer arm is turned by gearbox.

Umarak: Fingers swivel in and out + waist gear. Not sure if the arms can be raised up and down since I can't really tell.

Looks:

Storm Beast and Lava Beast pull of the 'beast' aesthetic the best, IMO. I love the idea behind the extended wrists, since that helps get across the 'beast' part of 'Storm Beast'. Lava Beast's hands are very good, as is its head with the beefier extended neck than usual. Quake Beast doesn't look as good with the exposed gearbox and probably could have done with a one-arm version of Skull Basher's function instead - it'd be hidden better and look better.

Umarak... what is up with that neck? It's a mess in a sea of goodness.

Ekimu is decent, not the greatest set ever, but decent and probably one of the better Toa figures this year, and the fact he has only one new piece is in fact acceptable since LEGO is not about using tons and tons of new pieces that will never be used again.

They're all pretty decent sets, none of which sacrifice aesthetic for function like Skull Scorpio did. They're a massive improvement over Skull Scorpio in terms of function integration.