They were in the movies.
Any Toa Inika character. Let’s take Hahli as an example:
Matoran: Mata/Metru blue and light blue
Toa Inika: Metru blue and white
Toa Mahrii: Metru blue and lime green
3 Likes
They did, and they sort of worked for what they were trying to do, but it doesn’t work when only one of six of the Toa looks mildly different in shape or size.
Well, if I were running Bionicle from the start, I wouldn’t have gone that far down the sci-fi route.
But if we’re strictly talking about how we would improve them as they stand now, I don’t think those themes are mutually exclusive with color or a tribal aesthetic.
Two of those themes are already natural elements in Bionicle, water ('07) and air ('08), and the designs for those years could lean heavily towards the aesthetics of the element (think Moana for the Mahri and Avatar’s Airbenders for the Phantoka).
You could make the case to keep the dark and grungy style of '06 as it stands and just have that so it stands out (and so the normal aesthetic doesn’t get boring). Or, you could make the sort of elemental theme stone, and make the aesthetics really rough, hard, dare I say…
EDGY.
I’m kind of inspired to draw that out now…
3 Likes
Do movies count?
2 Likes
I see lots of people mention the av matoran
some are gonna love me
some are gonna hate me
I actually like the av matoran, as they are actually quite well designed matoran, (no this is not for a stupid meme) sure they are simple with no knees but remember the Tohunga’s knees? Or the Mata’s? Or any other matoran’s knees? I don’t! Plus they are super cheap and super easy to buy loads of off of bricklink and both av matoran and agori look great together now!
3 Likes
Other than the articulation, The Av-Matoran didn’t seem bad.
2 Likes
The thing is tohunga and Toa mata have functions and are also a product of their time. The tohunga don’t even have a full leg to incorporate more articulation in the first place.
The Av Matoran have little excuse other then for lego to save money on production
2 Likes
After recently watching the Bionicle Stars stopmotion movie, it appears whoever made that either modified the sets or were given modified pieces by lego which actually had bendable arms and knees. It’s not CGI as opposed to what I originally assumed, you can see a an added hinge - would have been great if the Av Matoran builds featured this even if the joints were fixed & not removable like standard ball joints.
I actually wonder if these are leftover concept pieces, and they were planning on them having knees and elbows all along but they decided against it for whatever reason.
4 Likes
You forget about the turaga… They had no function at all…
I agree. Av-Matoran are not that bad. Some say they’re boring. They actually have really cool masks. Some say they don’t like them because they don’t have any function. Why does everyone love the Voya matoran and the Mahri Matoran? They don’t have any function. Yeah I know, they have a zamor launcher. But it is not in them. Anyone could just easily place a zamor laucher on an Av-Matoran too.
3 Likes
Also they have eyes and Kopaka Mata’s bright and vibrant colour scheme is well…
1 Like
Let’s also not forget how Dekar has no eyes at all…
1 Like
I’m not bothered about the lack of a function, but I personally prefer the Voya / Mahri matoran because they atleast have fairly interesting builds & more pieces; not complex by any means, but looking at an Av Matoran next to a Voyatoran I feel like I’d get more value from the Voyatoran. Also Garan having FOUR Hordika necks in such a small set absolutely blew my mind back in the day… I love hordika necks…
1 Like
Yeah but he has no eyes, he can’t see!
At least Solek can see, and he has an actual body and not just like he’s been thrown together from a parts bin
I never saw the issue with sets ‘not having eyes’, I don’t think a set needs an eye stalk to have eyes. With every bionicle set there’s a degree of having to fill in the blanks for it to actually make sense, e.g. imagining most sets from 2001 - 08 actually have hands with fingers as opposed to weird stumps at the end of their arms that weapons magically slot into.
They both have actual bodies; the difference is that Soleks body is just one big lump of plastic, while Garans body is made up of multiple (albeit pre-existing) pieces. I think they both have their positives and negatives - it’s nice that the Av-Matoran introduced a lot of new pieces, but the idea of just one big lump for the body always felt off to me. It’s also nice that the Voyatoran have a higher piece count and slightly more interesting builds, but they are very much “been there done that” regarding pieces and maybe do look a little awkward. Comparing the Av-Matoran to the Mahritoran however… no competition IMO - they also don’t introduce new pieces but they again present a more interesting build than the Av, while also dropping the hunchback / slightly akward look of the Voyatoran. In my opinion the Mahritoran are the best Matoran sets we’ve ever had except for maybe those Kolhii Matoran sets, which again look kinda odd proportionally but their function does help to make up for that.
3 Likes
I would make Good Guy cannon. Seriously, he could be a defected Matoran from the realm of Kharzani or something.
4 Likes
I would improve a second hand for the poor Hewkii Mahri
3 Likes
At first I thought this was a modified sets thread. I actually made slight changes to a few sets to fix issues I had with them, such as swapping out Vorox’s blue rods and repositioning Stronius’ chest armor.
One thing I don’t like about a few BIONICLE sets is the bare “Piraka build”, where they assemble the piraka torso backwards and don’t add anything to cover it, (e.g. Kalmah, Hewkii and Hahli Mahri.) It makes the set look unfinished.
3 Likes
I would add more leg articulation for the 2003 Matoran, and add brain stalks and an alternate version of the “Tohunga” heads to allow such connections.
And give Toa Mahri Hewki a hand (literally).
3 Likes
- make the mistika look more more similar to their 2001-2002 forms, by adding in their original secondary colors (orange, light blue, and dark grey), and by changing their masks slightly.
- Add more colors for glatorian heads, like purple, or pink for more variety
The Turaga do have a function though. There’s a lever and rubber band at the back that lets you move the arm up and down.
4 Likes
I would’ve redesigned the 2008 sockets so they will have the same socket mold as CCBS has now, so that my friction adders do not need to be used up.
5 Likes