Bionicle

Merry Decemberween, gathered friends. I come bearing leaked proof of the rumored Gift-With-Purchase set!

Bit of a clickbaity title there, this is clearly just a one-off thing.

There's some qualifying sets I'd be interested in getting, so I may try and pick up this one.

Here's a better look at GWP Tahu and Takua, and here's a budding series of MOCs in the GWP style.

As an aside, BZ Power is hosting a bracket to determine the best Toa figure!

I voted, and was SHOCKED to see Bonkle Tahu not winning his round.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jan 6th 2023 at 9:59:32 AM

I do like that GWP, but on consideration probably not enough to spend a hundred quid for it. It is cool to see people making more in the same style though. It seems clear that we're never getting Constraction back but a small part of me wonders whether Lego would consider trying system-based Bionicle as a full theme.

There is something very funny about seeing Bonkle Tahu in there with "proper" Bionicles but I guess he does count as an official figure.

I'm just glad that there's a LEGO set that costs enough to be eligible that I want anyway, so I don't have to spend all that money just for Tahu. It's the Mario ? Block, if anyone is wondering.

This coupled with the Tahu in the 90 Years of Play set feel like a gradual escalation, as if they're testing the waters for a wide-release line or something. Moreso when you consider their recent brick-built Marvel figures and the 'Mech Armor' sets.

I guess this is a good enough place to discuss our favorite weird looking robot heroes from LEGO!

Reviews are starting to pour in for the Tahu and Takua GWP set! Impressions seem to be particularly good!

EDIT: How's this for a deep cut, Takua, with his blue mask and yellow feet is modeled after how he appeared in the Mata Nui Online Game!

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Jan 16th 2023 at 9:41:51 AM

OK, so apparently only select themes count as what you need to buy to get the gift with purchase... just, why?

Not sure. Maybe to see if LEGO can still pull off original IP?

I'll admit it's annoying that Speed Champions, DC, or Marvel sets don't count, but I do like Ninjago, Monkie Kid, City, and Creator, so it's a non-problem for me.

What is a bit tricky is how to scrape by 100 dollars worth of LEGO before the end of the promotion in February.

Well, I'll be going for the 3-in-1 castle. Assuming it's still available when I get my paycheck next week.

Here's something I never quite understood about Bionicle.

Apparently, the OG Toa had different masks? Like Tahu had masks shaped like Gali's and Kopaka's and the others? And I'm like "how was anyone suppose to score these other colored masks?"

Was there some blind bag thing I never noticed or what?

Also, it irks me that this awesome build exists and there aren't any instructions on it...

Pretty much this exactly.

Yeah. Every set with a mask gimmick had grab bags for alt color masks.

There were blind bags for the alternate coloured Kanohi, and the Krana, and the Kanoka Disks, and the Kraata. Actually the blind bag for the Kraata wound up, for some reason, having a much wider variety of colours than the Rahkshii themselves, and so the story had to justify this by inventing 36 more Rahkshii powers... and then since the Kraata are produced from the bodies of Makuta it was declared that Makuta have access to all of those powers...

So if you ever wondered why Makuta have so many different powers, it's because of blind bags.

Bricklink's big list of Kanohi, for reference. You could occassionally get mask colour variants with different sets like Matoran or Rahi, but it was mostly the polybags.

In the story, the Toa Mata each collected their own copies of the original six masks, and then got golden versions which gave them all the mask powers. Hence quite a few masks overall. There was also a special "corrupted" version of the Hau, Tahu's original mask.

I do remember a boxset of first four original novels also came with a poisoned version of Tahu's Nova mask. I didn't see it listed among the list of masks for some reason.

https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/B536_BIONICLE_Chronicles_Boxed_Set

Here is link that describes the boxset. From what I looked up briefly, there were more boxsets that offered masks as well.

Crazy how the merch ended up influencing the lore. I wonder if that happens often with other toylines.

Anyway, is anybody trying to score the Bionicle GWP? Because I might have to begrudgingly pass on it because I kinda have to buy tickets to see Wicked for my sister's birthday and theatrical productions aren't exactly cheap...

I've placed an order that will get the GWP. The main order had to be back ordered, so I don't know if that will affect the GWP's arrival, but I'll received at some point.

And I pray that you have a great time with your GWP.

Yeah, had to opt out because A, my sister's birthday takes priority, and B, it's bad enough that I got Transformers all over my house without a proper spot to really display them like the usual TF collector would have.

Best case scenario, if the itch still prevails, I might look into just buying the GWP from eBay.

Hopefully it's not too expensive a resale. The estimated price I saw was about $18 USD, but that wasn't factoring in supply.

I went back and forth on it but I've decided to pass on the GWP. It is cool but it's still quite a bit of money, and there's nothing in the eligible sets that's really calling out to me. I will occasionally drop that much at once on Lego but only if there's something I really want (previously the Haunted House and Optimus Prime).

If they had released it as a normal standalone set I would have snapped it up, but the GWP approach is just too much.

Oh, I got the GWP. I've got a niece who is just getting into LEGO. I figured you can't go wrong with some Classic kits. Just a big tub of bricks.

Without set restrictions, I would have gotten Bowser. The ? Block was one of my all time favorite build experiences.

Edited by Zeromaeus on Feb 6th 2023 at 12:35:48 PM

Artist/designer/illustrator Brian Ellis devotes Episode #22 of his Whiteboard Artist Series to his experience designing Pridak: (Other credits within Bionicle include the illustrations for the Mata Nui Saga)

This also reminds me of David M. Bird, a designer/illustrator/photographer who had also worked on the Bionicle design team. Here's a look on how he developed Krika.

Edited by Noah1 on May 3rd 2023 at 4:42:04 AM

The link's wrong, or the video was removed, or something.