Bionicle 2009 Images and Discussion

[Ikki o' Moopyville]

Fun debate here. Let's see if I can explain some more of my views --

2001 - this year started in February for us lucky Europeans, plus we had no comics. Maybe it's just that I love this story so much and see so many possibilities for tales within it... it's the one year for whose story I keep creating stories of my own. And yes, 2001-era written stories would be awesome.

2002 - The Nuva looked all right, and the Bohrok are to this day my favorite sets -- and the mystery of energized protodermis was definitely a good one. Still seemed a bit too much a like a rehash of 2001... a good rehash, though.

2003 - Great movie animation, I'll admit that, and a nice story idea... just way too repetitive for a story in its third year.

2004 - totally forgot Lhikan, Kikanalo, and Nivawk! The titans were not too shabby at the time, and the L&K set still remains my favorite. The lack of colorful sets worked this one time because all the colors were new, which rocked.

2005 - forgot the timeline confusion, since I never paid much attention to comics in those days, probably due to the horrible art. =P Reading only the books made for a really epic year, actually, and a staggeringly dark one too. Plus, the Hagah rocked. =D

2006 - I actually did love a lot of the story, but it seemed like a lot of the characters were trying too hard to break the mold. Some more exploration of Voya Nui would have been great too. And I really don't like humor in villains. =P Found it just plain cheesy. Many fantastic aspects of this year though, mainly in story and set colors.

2007 - Best sets since the Metru, the Mahri and especially Barraki ROCKED. The confusing storyline was mainly due to the serials, I think, but it's not too clear in my mind. The whole development of the action, the insight in Matoran culture, and the godlike conflicts at the end came together with greatly innovative sets to form one of my favorite overall years. Plus, the story feel was much more like that of an Ancient Greek tale than one of Polynesian mythology. Nice change, actually.

2008 - I loved some of the Makuta, mainly Icarax, Krika, and Gorast. There was little to no Matoran involvement though, which was a waste of potential. Also, this year had without a doubt the most bland setting in the history of science fantasy. When I hear of a 'world that feeds the world', I want to see a golden subterranean sea lit by suns in every color, dotted with volcanic isles with mysterious forests. Or, in fact anything other than mud and rocks. Serials rock this year though.

2009 - It's like 2001, only with more story! =D

-Ikk

Edited November 25, 2008 by Ikki o' Moopyville

[ShaddowCroc]

I didn't have any problems with any year aside from 2005.

I'll just idly follow the story from it's beginning to it's end, no matter how bad it is, though.

I just thought that the transition from 2005 to '06 was weird; Since the Inika knew all these things about before, and just accepted it. I like the humor, though.

(2004 was the best year, IMO.)

[hewkii9]

2009 - It's like 2001, only with more story! =D

-Ikk

Don't be hasty master hobbit, we know very little about the story...plus there'll be no Templar [it was them, right?] animations.

[The Dor]

*glances at topic title*

...

*glances at past 10 posts*

SERIOUSLY. I come to this topic to have (shocker) discussions about the 2009 sets and storyline. Only three of the last 10 posts have mentioned anything to do with 2009, and it didn't have any meaningful discussion. So if you guys wouldn't mind moving your discussion over which year of storyline was the best into a different topic, I would strongly suggest that you do.

ANYWAYS:

I am a bit concerned about Skrall. It seems he has no way of stabilizing his neck. D: I built his torso, and there was only one place that his neck could attach and it would not be stable. What is likely is that it is a CGI error and the neck piece has at least two empty peg holes that take up at least 3 studs length linearly. I think this is also likely looking at Tarix's second wrist piece, which seems to be long enough to pull that off. I'm not sure though. Looking at it in Paint, it is possible though.

AGH. I cannot wait to see bigger CGI (hopefully) so I can figure it out!

[ShaddowCroc]

*glances at topic title*

...

*glances at past 10 posts*

SERIOUSLY. I come to this topic to have (shocker) discussions about the 2009 sets and storyline. Only three of the last 10 posts have mentioned anything to do with 2009, and it didn't have any meaningful discussion. So if you guys wouldn't mind moving your discussion over which year of storyline was the best into a different topic, I would strongly suggest that you do.

Well, I was under the impression that this was a topic to discuss BIONICLE stuff in general.

(But that's only judging from what I've lurked, and seen so far.)

[Ikki o' Moopyville]

All right, back to 2009. XD I am most curious as to the nature of the Bara Magnians -- if they are fully or partially mechanical, someone would have had to either create or modify them at some point. And since we know it was not the Great Beings, as well as the fact that Greg has stated there are no plans of introducing a new pantheon, the most likely option is that these beings are organic. Likely with some shells though, since they have pistons, and look mechanical. Possibly exoskeletons built from the leftover parts of the construction of Mata Nui?

-Ikk

[hewkii9]

SERIOUSLY. I come to this topic to have (shocker) discussions about the 2009 sets and storyline. Only three of the last 10 posts have mentioned anything to do with 2009, and it didn't have any meaningful discussion. So if you guys wouldn't mind moving your discussion over which year of storyline was the best into a different topic, I would strongly suggest that you do.

I am a bit concerned about Skrall. It seems he has no way of stabilizing his neck.

Well it started as a 2009 topic, but the 2008 topic got boring and we all migrated here.

And don't you mean 'no way of stabilizing her neck?

[The Dor]

All right, back to 2009. XD I am most curious as to the nature of the Bara Magnians -- if they are fully or partially mechanical, someone would have had to either create or modify them at some point. And since we know it was not the Great Beings, as well as the fact that Greg has stated there are no plans of introducing a new pantheon, the most likely option is that these beings are organic. Likely with some shells though, since they have pistons, and look mechanical. Possibly exoskeletons built from the leftover parts of the construction of Mata Nui?

-Ikk

I dunno if it would be leftovers from Mata Nui, necessarily. We don't have any definitive proof he was built there. And besides, there is no doubt some other way for them to build mechanical parts for themselves.

Well it started as a 2009 topic, but the 2008 topic got boring and we all migrated here.

So you admit to submitting to peer pressure??? :P

And don't you mean 'no way of stabilizing her neck?

D:< (this is my angry face)

[~Wrack'n'Ruin~]

Does this mean the canisters are not individuals?

[The Dor]

Does this mean the canisters are not individuals?

It's probably just a mess up. People make mistakes.

Although it would be interesting if they weren't individuals, and in fact all the members of a tribe all looked the same, but it would make it impossible to distinguish different characters.

[hewkii9]

So you admit to submitting to peer pressure??? :P

D:< (this is my angry face)

Not my fault, all the cool kids did it first!!!

And you should only be angry at yourself, you are the one who missed out on the meme I contrived for usage on BZP.

[Wrinkledlion X]

That was awesome! Tony Wedgewood is as good a narrator as the 2001 guy!

And that blog is very alarming... I'm glad to see Onua okay, though...

DiD wasn't great, but still it was interesting to see Makuta's new powers. It kind of reminded me of the comic "Nightmare" for some reason, in its tone. But allow me to join in:

2001- A wonderful, mythical feel all around coupled with unique and amusing characters. While I'll admit that there could have been a bit more storyline, I enjoyed having lots of room to imagine things on my own. This is a favorite year of mine.

2002- A bit darker, but still it shared the mythical feel of 2001- There was a whole sense of something going on that no one knew that really made everything very mysterious. We got this feeling from the Telescope and Kini-Nui in 2001, and here we got it from the Bohrok Hives and enormous artificial caverns. Not as good as 2001, but certainly up there.

2003- Though the sets were such thorough clones as to be almost tragic, I did enjoy many aspects of the Bohrok Kal Saga. It was lighter at times, like in 2001, but introduced a new feel in places that I think has only been replicated at all in 2008: Bleakness and despair. In the Templar Animations we saw a lot of this in the fallen Toa (Enhanced by some of the finest of Templar's music, in my opinion, ever). The ending was very rushed, unfortunately, but overall, ignoring the problems with the sets, I thought this had a pretty good feel to it.

Now the Rahkshi Saga was interesting for a number of reasons. It featured the shocking return of Makuta- But now he had Rahkshi! At the time I remember everyone thinking of them as a sort of Anti-Toa. Rather than being sons of Mata Nui, they were sons of Makuta, which was an interesting idea. They were obviously a huge leap in set design, as well. Plus the whole Seventh Toa thing was very new.

The movie was a bit childish, though, but I enjoyed it.

2004- I've always heard people complain about it being too science-fictiony, but I've never really felt that way. It certainly was closer to sci-fi than the years before it, but really it never seemed that bad to me in this respect. There was still a lot of legend and myth and such (Particularly in the Great Temple) and I thought it was all pretty cool. Plus it featured Dume's Soviet-style takeover, which I still think is pretty cool. Probably a favorite of mine.

2005- There's no ignoring the drop in quality here, because it's pretty big. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense (Spiders that mutate their victims into stronger, fiercer forms?) and on many occasions the whole thing seemed like an attempt to cash in on Star Wars Episode 3, what with the whole "Vakama turning evil" thing and the climax in WoS- Even the music sounded like it was from Star Wars. There were nice parts (Mostly hidden away in the books, but the Rahaga were pretty cool everywhere, and I liked the whole "Follow the tears until they reach the sky" thing.)

2006- The first half of 2006 was awesome. It had charming 2001-esque Matoran characters, a mythical feel (Particularly with Velika's stories), and probably the cleverest premise ever seen in BIONICLE. The whole thing with the Piraka washing up and pretending to be Toa was an awesome perversion of the original storyline, both for the nostalgia and for a sick laugh here and there. It featured great lines, fairly eloquent dialogue, and a bit of mysticism on occasion (Vezok meditating in a temple). The parts that took place in Karzahni were incredibly mythlike and creepy as well.

Once the Inika arrived, though, everything was dull. Constant fighting with no depth in the storyline, and it just got so repetitive that I had trouble following it. The first half of 2006 was as cool as 2001 (But with a somewhat different style) and the second half was as bad as 2005. If it had ended halfway through it would be a favorite year of mine, but now it just stands as a reminder of how to botch something that's awesome.

2007- A very uneven year. A fantastic location and a pretty good start with the Barraki sets, but things could've been pulled off a whole lot better. The whole Matoran culture was poorly explained and the characters didn't act as dignified as they should have. Far too much sarcasm and far too many one-liners. Sayger also got lazy here and made everything so dull and repetitive that the comics were practically ruined. Many of this year's problems I'm hesitant to pin on Greg, though, as he did have some big complications regarding the book cancellation, so a lot of the more general errors were beyond his control. The last book and comic were awesome, though, without a doubt.

2008- I think Greg's gotten into the swing of things, because this has been a very strong year. Lots of memorable characters and a generally epic tone. It was great to see the Nuva again and the ending was handled incredibly well- I genuinely felt sorry for the victims and also a bit of happiness for Makuta himself. And the expanded universe stuff has been great this year- Serials, that incredibly surreal kid's book, and pretty much everything. (Admittedly, Dark Mirror was too Sci-Fi for me, but JoT and The Kingdom make up for it.) Probably a favorite.

...

And yes, I did that to anger The Dor.

Edited November 25, 2008 by Gunnar

[Bundalings]

Does this mean the canisters are not individuals?

LULZ, Skrall tribe. XD

It's just Amazon being stupid.

~Bunda

[Bfahome]

Did anyone else hear the infected-Kolhii-ball sound in the latest animation when MN's eyes turned red?

Yay, 2001 references. :3

Also LINK THOSE FREAKING PICS PLEASE. ;___;

Edited November 25, 2008 by Bfahome

[Wrinkledlion X]

Did anyone else hear the infected-Kolhii-ball sound in the latest animation when MN's eyes turned red?

Yay, 2001 references. :3

Also the background noises from the Charred Forest.

And the wind-sound effects from the Toa Mata CD-Rom.

[---Vertea---]

*glances at topic title*

...

*glances at past 10 posts*

SERIOUSLY. I come to this topic to have (shocker) discussions about the 2009 sets and storyline. Only three of the last 10 posts have mentioned anything to do with 2009, and it didn't have any meaningful discussion. So if you guys wouldn't mind moving your discussion over which year of storyline was the best into a different topic, I would strongly suggest that you do.

ANYWAYS:

I am a bit concerned about Skrall. It seems he has no way of stabilizing his neck. D: I built his torso, and there was only one place that his neck could attach and it would not be stable. What is likely is that it is a CGI error and the neck piece has at least two empty peg holes that take up at least 3 studs length linearly. I think this is also likely looking at Tarix's second wrist piece, which seems to be long enough to pull that off. I'm not sure though. Looking at it in Paint, it is possible though.

AGH. I cannot wait to see bigger CGI (hopefully) so I can figure it out!

The Vorox armour on his chest has a plus-rod at the end which the neck ball-socket attaches to.

[The Dor]

BLAH BLAH BLAH TEXTY TEXTY TEXT

...

And yes, I did that to anger The Dor.

...

So much hate. ;)

The Vorox armour on his chest has a plus-rod at the end which the neck ball-socket attaches to.

But that is how the armor is secured. Try looking at it and thinking critically. And build a model. I sensed something was amiss, so I built one myself. Seeing as the armor can only attach w/ one plus rod due to its location, the way it is secured is by the plus rod going into the last hole in the Inika torso.

It's hard to explain but it works. :/

If I need to I can draw a picture.

[---Vertea---]

...

So much hate. ;)

But that is how the armor is secured. Try looking at it and thinking critically. And build a model. I sensed something was amiss, so I built one myself. Seeing as the armor can only attach w/ one plus rod due to its location, the way it is secured is by the plus rod going into the last hole in the Inika torso.

It's hard to explain but it works. :/

If I need to I can draw a picture.

I get it. But look at the picture of Vorox and you will see that the armour part has sharp fins things on the side that angle down, possibly securing it to a 1-stud wide rod.

[The Dor]

I get it. But look at the picture of Vorox and you will see that the armour part has sharp fins things on the side that angle down, possibly securing it to a 1-stud wide rod.

Oh! That's right! I dunno if it's long enough, but it might work. That could easily be it. :)

[---Vertea---]

Oh! That's right! I dunno if it's long enough, but it might work. That could easily be it. :)

I'm afraid we'll never really know 'till the sets hit shelves in a few weeks, but I'm sure a lot of problems we've had with trying to MOC the sets are solved with the new parts. Or perhaps I'm wrong and there's something else holding it in place. We'll see, huh? :)

On a side note: Is your name a reference to the character Dor from the Xanth series?

Edited November 25, 2008 by ---Vertea---

[The Dor]

I'm afraid we'll never really know 'till the sets hit shelves in a few weeks, but I'm sure a lot of problems we've had with trying to MOC the sets are solved with the new parts. Or perhaps I'm wrong and there's something else holding it in place. We'll see, huh? :)

:| This is the lame part about new builds. It's gonna tear at me until I get the sets. :|

On a side note: Is your name a reference to the character Dor from the Xanth series?

No. It actually came from Trogdor, then Turaga Dor (Apparently I do have humor, at least on BZP). And now this. :)

[---Vertea---]

:| This is the lame part about new builds. It's gonna tear at me until I get the sets. :|

The anticipation kills me, too. I just went over the Skrall and Vorox pics but could not find any evidence to prove or disprove. There is just too much a picture cannot tell. Another thing I'm eager to see is the new heads and the dual-function thing. Also, the life-counters will be a fun addition for non-cheating gameplay.

No. It actually came from Trogdor, then Turaga Dor (Apparently I do have humor, at least on BZP). And now this. :)

Keeps getting shorter, huh? Like P-diddy or whatever XD. Pretty neat, tho.

Maybe we can shorten it to T.D. and see if anyone can guess what it stands for. :P

[Algernon]

2001 was THE year for Bionicle, but in order to really appreciate it I think you've got to have the right context. I was a big fan of Throwbots (no, not Slizers, I hate that name) and later, Roboriders back in the day. Throwbots were cool because they were such a weird idea, but they provided some neat parts, awesome combo models, and general collectability. Later, more Throwbots came out, and they were cool, but they didn't add anything to the series- just more of the same. In the end Throwbots were very shallow. Roboriders, the spiritual sequel to Throwbots, with similar strengths and weaknesses- cool idea, appropriately vague storyline, but nothing incredibly new.

Then Bionicle came out. At first, the sets were only impressive because there were just SO MANY new parts- virtually every piece on the Toa olda were completely new, besides axles and such. (A worthwhile point to make- after the Bohrok we haven

Edited November 25, 2008 by Algernon

[Can Calyx]

2001 was THE year for Bionicle. It's sad that, for a series that I loved because it was such a new direction for LEGO, everybody is excited because it's starting to look like the very thing it was supposed to be an improvement on- Throwbots. But there you have it, and I'm actually pretty stoked for 2009.

(A worthwhile point to make- after the Bohrok we haven’t really had a year with totally new pieces.)

2004 was quite a shift in pieces used.

Anyway-

2001 is, for you, the best year- because of nostalgia. For any fan, the first year is usually the best, because Bionicle still had that magic.

Though I started in 2001 (and have, since I saw the first teaser, questioned the use of Rock instead of Electricity), 2006 is my favorite year, because that was when I got back into it in a major way after 2005.

I'm not saying you're wrong about 2001 being the best year- it was certainly one of the most innovative. But the storyline now, beyond nostalgia, is much deeper, much more interesting than the mystery we were originally confronted with.

Mixing this with new mystery, like we had in 2001, is the perfect move for the series.

[Algernon]

(A worthwhile point to make- after the Bohrok we haven’t really had a year with totally new pieces.)

2004 was quite a shift in pieces used.

Anyway-

2001 is, for you, the best year- because of nostalgia. For any fan, the first year is usually the best, because Bionicle still had that magic.

Though I started in 2001 (and have, since I saw the first teaser, questioned the use of Rock instead of Electricity), 2006 is my favorite year, because that was when I got back into it in a major way after 2005.

I'm not saying you're wrong about 2001 being the best year- it was certainly one of the most innovative. But the storyline now, beyond nostalgia, is much deeper, much more interesting than the mystery we were originally confronted with.

Mixing this with new mystery, like we had in 2001, is the perfect move for the series.

Nostalgia probably has something to do with it, but I maintain that it was 2001's relative simplicity that MADE it the best. Nowadays the storyline is a headache to follow. You can call it deep, I call it a jumbled mess.

And granted, 2004 is probably the exception, but that's two years of 7- not very many.