Sketches from Turaga Beach

Bumping because this deserves it.

does anybody else here want to fuck a bionicle so bad

or is it just me

i'm not crying goddammit ;-;

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FABER ON THE FRONT PAGE!

>>14670894
You're far from alone.

>>14670894
I had a crush on Kopaka as a wee grill. He had a really cool voice in those movies.

Stopped caring for Bionicle after the Metru generation, though.

>>14671776
the personified ass whooping that Lego currently deserves and needs

>>14671785
>>14671792

i was just joking. lol

>>14672284
no fucking kidding. Lego has really gone down the tubes since my childhood.

>>14672377
Its probably because since they're the top dog in the toy industry now, they've grown complacent.

When Bionicle was in development the company was in serious financial trouble, so were willing to take risks on new products, which saved them.

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>>14672836
They've reached the point where they have the nads to repackage a set from eight years ago where the only major update are the wigs of the minifigs.

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>>14672862

>>14672862
Eh I consider it acceptable in the sense that model kit reissues are acceptable.

But what I really want from LEGO is a reissue on all the collector edition Star Wars kits. I'm still kinda mad I missed out on the original super detailed X-Wing kit from way back, shit was cool as fuck.

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>>14672306
Boy you do not joke about such matters in this region of Mata-Nui.

>>14673346
Lego's creativity and inventiveness seems to wax and wane in 15 year cycles. Bionicle was the last waxing period and what we're going through currently seems to be the bottom of a trough.

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>>14669820
>all that beautiful G1 inspiration
>angsty 2000s rock music

Wow, this brought me back

I wonder if Bionicle had been a serious, long-standing animation / anime, on the scale of five+ seasons and hundreds of episodes, in another bizzaro dimension.

It would be the best mecha anime, rivaling Gundam and the like. Every awesome fight scene and world-shaking mystery could be followed up-close by serial viewers.

Maybe in thirty years some genius will come along and create something special to breathe life back into what will be the long-dead carcass of Bionicle.

But farewell for now

>>14675220
Some people say the story itself was too complicated or bad, and while there's some truth to that, the main issue I always had with it is that it almost never made good use of its media.

Bionicle was made to be consumed as an audio-visual experience, and all those books, free magazine comics, written online serials and even the movies didn't do its world, mood and story justice. Not only that, they were usually hard to come by for non fans, whereas a lot of media that was readily accessible (like the console games or later web games) was non-canon, so it's no wonder kids got confused about the story. Even G2 totally fell flat in this regard, because Lego simplified the story and universe but still handled their tie-in media like a retard.

A multi-seasoned animated series that keeps true to each year's atmosphere and delves into the plot and characters in sufficient detail (but trims down the excess and needless story bits and fixes some plot holes) would be fucking grand. The concept work, art direction, sound design, universe bible and writing is basically already there, and it's heartbreaking to see it remain so underutilized.

>>14674772
>One of the first Promo materials shows the Island is a face.

That twist was both incredibly well hidden and incredibly obvious in hindsight.

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>Lego is forcing Faber to remove all his concept art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRspfMh7IQk

What the FUCK is going on.

>>14677077
Lego's rubbing our own salt into our own wounds. Turns out G2 was just a Makuta-level ploy to test how much disappointment fans can take.

Either that or legal issues. Maybe they want to reserve the concept art for that showroom or whatever the fuck that Faber talked about some years ago. Don't know if it's still a thing.

But given Lego's handling of the line, I wouldn't be surprised if they are opening the Bionicle showroom only to set it on fire and put up a livestream of it, then ask a bunch of AFOLs dressed in Star Wars and Ninjago cosplay to take a dump on the ashes.

>>14672862
>100 bucks more for 200 additional pieces and the Disney logo

Well shekel'd, Disney and Lego.

>>14677077
Thank fuck he put it on the internet, even if Lego wipes the original copies off the face of the Earth tons of people will have saved the images.

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So in terms of lore, the masks and disks were the same thing in two different forms, right? If all masks were forged from disks, does that mean that it was no longer possible to create new masks once the Matorans escaped to the surface?

>>14679018
I would tend to think so sense the ones on Mata Nui were made from woven bamboo and had no powers

>>14679136
The kanohi worn by weakened Matorans were just symbolic and ceremonial?

>>14669820
Does anyone have amirror to this shit? Somebody took it down.

Tfw you still remember the exact spot at TRU you bought Tahu back when Bionicle was a brand new franchise
I even remember the employee explaining what it was to my mom. Im like 24 and I dont understand gow I remember it so clearly. He was one of my favorite toy though, along with Wargreymon & Starscream

>>14672836
Well yeah having a blockbuster (heh) movie and a video game series thats actually successful will do that to a company

>LEGO took down the video before I could see it
Fuck you you stupid danish fuckers
Im seriously mad. My future kids won't get any LEGO ever unless I see this fucking video

EVERYTHING GETS CANCELLED!
EVERTHING IS FUCKED IF IT'S NOT PART OF THE STAR WARS THEME!
EVERYTHING GETS CANCELLED!
AND THE PRICES BECOME OBSCENE!

http://brickset.com/article/23310/mixels-coming-to-an-end

>>14680407
Is Lego actively trying to kill itself? At this rate it's just going to be a Buildable Star Wars and Batman company in another year! It's amazing how they didn't seem to learn from their mistakes, because that's how they got into their last financial crisis last time.

>>14680442
>Buildable Star Wars and Batman company
Don't forget Ninjago and the various other fantasy-action themes (Chima and now Nexo Knights) they keep doing and promoting to hell. Whereas original Constraction IPs get fucked over and aren't even allowed to expand because "well they perform poorly if we don't put any effort into marketing them".

Fucking Ninjago is even getting a theatrical movie because the TV show isn't enough.

>>14680206
>>14680284
Sadly, there's now only a version that doesn't show any of the concept art. From now on, everyone save and screencap everything Faber posts.

>>14680741
Plus a bunch of the Legoland parks are getting a new Ninjago area.

They must really be confident that it will last.

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>>14669820
Is it me, or does the image look like the helmet of a WH40K Terminator?

>>14680844
Well they have the facts to back up that confidence. Ninjago had like the most profitable debut among all Lego themes and kids keep evidently eating it up. There's demand for the toys, the TV show and it seems the movie.

Even I watched the cartoon when I remembered that it was on.

And I can't shake the feeling that the same could be said for Bionicle, if Lego hadn't kept it as low-key and instead poured their money and effort into a TV show for it. But sadly Constraction hasn't been performing well enough for Lego to consider this idea, so they let it flush itself down the toilet instead of taking a risk and giving it costly support. Whereas there's not much risk involved with making Ninjago even bigger.

>>14680442
Just how did they get into a bad money situation last time though?

>>14681660
Been awhile since I read the book about it, but I recall it being caused by a very bad attempt to avoid a general economic down turn that snowballed it into a crisis. Lego was falling into some irrelevance, so they just started throwing everything at the wall. Galador was part of that. Lego parks. Those Lego movie maker sets. All sorts of things that just never hooked into the audience or retailers.

Importantly, Lego's bureaucracy was severely out of date too. It's file keeping was so bad, they had no idea what was actually making them a profit. Once someone went through to do some bookkeeping, it turns out LITERALLY EVERYTHING BUT HARRY POTTER AND STAR WARS WAS LOSING THEM MONEY. Bionicle too was a major money maker, but it came a bit after things started getting really bad. The idea was to have a multi media product like Star Wars and Harry Potter that they would own the rights to entirely.

They got out of it by just going back to basics and forging stronger ties between their designers, retailers, and consumers. It's likely why Ninjago is still going but Bionicle did not. They're much more risk adverse nowadays, considering what happened the last time they were just throwing money at things and hoping it worked out. Likely why there were so few new parts in the Bionicle G2 line. New molds are super expensive, and they used to go nuts with new parts during their severe downturn before they got a handle on things.

>>14681801
Plus they also began ignoring their core consumer-base and tried to cater towards kids who didn't like building with Lego that much, designing shoddy, oversimplified, gimmicky sets with very few parts (often large and specialized ones at that).

Stuff like the juniorized City sets, cars with printed details, unrealistic, sloping windshields and no doors, or Jack Stone. Galidor was part of this too.

Technically Slizers, RoboRiders and Bionicle could be considered branches of this idea, but Slizers and Bionicle fared better, partially because of the larger world Lego (or should I say Faber and Advance) designed for them.

>>14681801
>>14681940
Jesus, just how bad do you have to be to lose profits on universal themes like Castle and Space?!

>>14682418
Even those themes were having hardships. I'm no expert on the matter, but I believe some of the lines that came out around that time, like Insectiods (basically the last sub-theme of the original Space "lineage" before Star Wars filled in the slot) or the simplified castles with the huge baseplates and one-piece walls were unpopular among Lego buyers.

Lego was simultaneously simplifying some of their classic lines and getting overly experimental with other series (Time Cruisers come to mind, what the fuck was up with those sets?), and the whole thing threw the company off balance for years.

>>14669820
>>14680206
>>14680741

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1wYPnoQkJo

>>14680407
>>14680442
Just symptoms of the general economic climate. Everything gets concentrated more and more. At this rate in a few decades all entertainment and toys will be produced by one company, and it will all be about one single IP.

We really need to rethink how we let companies handle IPs when we get to a point where artists aren't even allowed to show fans their work.

>>14682624
Someone needs to go resurrect Teddy Roosevelt so he can sort things out again.

>>14682567
Thank you

>>14677077
Just a note on the "missing" sketches. I want to thank you for all your great and encouraging comments on that first "Sketches from Turaga Beach" video. Regardless the reason for taking it down, none of your words are wasted because I kept them in a doc on my laptop. It is a fantastic boost to read what the story meant to you all. The greatest thing you can experience as a creative is when something you helped create gets a life on its own. I felt like being on a adventure myself even though I was part of the team creating the twists and turns. The Bionicle universe "decided" what was going to happen and it was just to follow and try to visualise it. That a very rare felling and that is the feeling I have been hunting ever since. That is the kind of story wave I'm hoping to catch again. One thing is sure, you have to be on the right spot at the right time. Fingers crossed:)!!!

all of his comments are fucking gold

why hasn't lego assassinated him yet?

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I know it's when most people checked out, but I really fucking loved the underwater theme and the sky theme. Even the swamp theme has some pretty cool bad guys.

>>14683345
Awesome, Lego has become Konami.

>>14684348
Bionicle pachinko machine that sexualizes the Ga inhabitants when?

>>14684431
To tartarus you go and take that damnable thought with you!

>>14684282
I liked those stories well enough, but the settings were pretty crappy. Generic seafloor with an underwater city that's barely featured, and boring sky area and swamp area.

Faber was right, establishing a memorable setting is very important to give the story life, but by its second half, Bionicle burned through all sorts of settings so fast that it hurt my enjoyment of the plot. Nothing about Voya, Mahri or Karda Nui sparked my imagination as well as Mata or Metru Nui, or even Bara Magna.

Although I guess that was the point. Those were essentially throwaway settings and the story was meant to feel urgent, so there was no room for exploration.

>>14684476
I mean, it was a race against the death of their universe. Rushing to the finish make enough sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CIJ_MjIOHM

I miss G1 so much.

>>14687295
As much as I liked those narrated videos, I feel they were a pretty misguided attempt to get newcomers up to speed. In 2008, with the story heading for its climax, Lego wanted to summarize everything leading up to that point so that new fans could keep up with the events. But those videos (and that little booklet some stores would give away with the sets) didn't give kids enough details and context to latch onto.

Instead of actually explaining the story and the characters, the narration just uses these vague and generic description ("heroes fought evil but then other villains appeared but the heroes won again"), so it's no wonder kids were still left confused about the story.

>>14687632
Never saw it that way, since I followed the story. Considering the amount of material a new fan would have to learn, perhaps it would have been better if the narration was even more vague and kept to a minimal. Instead of trying to catch new fans up to speed, perhaps it would have been better to just give them a sense of the scale of the final confrontation and let them find out about the rest on their own.

>>14688433
Probably. The way Lego did it, newcomers were flooded with several minutes of story content they knew nothing about, but without sufficient explanations. At least the video gave the names of the main Toa.

Granted, bioniclestory.com also had lots of written material, character bios and such, but I wouldn't expect kids new to the franchise to have the patience to read through those.

And now we're back to the topic of how having something like a cartoon or a more widely distributed comic line would have been so much more helpful.

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I think the story being difficult to follow added to the mystique of the first couple of years.

Maybe it's just me.

>>14688480
I gave up on it back then due to having no access to either the comics or the net. When I saw the set advertisements in the Rahkshi booklets, I was blown away that we were finally getting a Makuta, but I was like "who the fuck are these Takua and Jaller?" And I had no idea what the difference was between Bohrok and Bohrok-Kal apart from the colors. It was fun to make up a story to try to fill in the gaps but eventually I just grew disinterested because I had no way of keeping up with the story.

In that regard, Mask of Light was a godsend because I finally got a sense of what was going on.

>>14688617
One of my biggest dissapointments as a kid was reading the Bionicle comics. I was so hyped for the climax of the Toa of Light storyarc. I got my parents to buy me the Tao of Light set with the giant fish and everything. But it just ended with "LOL WATCH THE MOVIE FGT WE AINT GUNNA DRAW SHIT" Fuck you. I never saw the movie out of spite and I hated how they looked completely different to the toys and comics anyways.

>>14689618
You have Lego's brilliant multimedia aspect to thank for that. Comics and movies/games weren't allowed to overlap, so the climaxes of five years just get neglected in the comics.

And at times they even contradicted each other. Like how the 2005 comics ended on Vakama leading the Toa into the Coliseum to rescue... Vakama, as it turned out from the movie.

>>14688466
In another world, anon.