I would have to agree, my example is a little dated.
Although, I donāt think that Porsche is a good metric for how well LEGO could flesh out a humanoid character. The Porsche works so well because itās a vehicle, and Technic is almost entirely geared towards vehicles, even since its inception as the Expert Builders series (almost exclusively vehicles).
I think a better example would be the Mindstorms robots like this:
Heās the only Technic-based humanoid I can think of thatās fairly recent.
I will have to agree with this though, and personally Iād like to see something like that.
Although I canāt help but feel a Turaga-sized Technic figure wouldnāt hold up well, as we fans have been given a higher bar for quality in past sets.
I feel like maybe they could be constraction characters? My only problem with that then is that we would get a lot less of everything.
I really want it as system. I donāt think I would have before G2, but now I think that constraction is dying in its current form, and I think LEGO might give it the funding it needs if it is system. Bionicle is very character and world oriented, so having a dual release of some constraction characters and some system locations would fit the line well. Now I donāt want sets in the vein of the 05-07 ones, but I absolutely donāt think LEGO would do something like that again because their quality has increased. I also hope that it wouldnāt become saturated with unnecessary and uncharacteristic vehicles, but I fear it might although if they went with the whole Bara Magna/Mad Max vibe it could be OK, but not for prolonged periods of time.
To be fair, this is often true with minifigs that are three to four years old, though Iām not sure how old the example is. Since the start of 2016, minifigs and bigfigs have increased in complexity and expressiveness in a dramatic fashion. Iām looking at Nexo Knights villains especially.
Minifigs have definitely improved over the years for sure! In fact I think the improvement of their figures and ever growing complexity is what got me back into system themes (Wellā¦that and Jurassic World along with G2) but at the same time Minifigures are somewhat limited in terms of play potential by the sets they come in. Lego can make some pretty great playsets but those usually are fairly expensive and not sustainable for a whole line IMHO, I think that if Lego were to re-release Bionicle as system with more of a focus based on the setting itād be kind of difficult to make the characters a selling point as well, unless they revamped their figures into something like maybe the MEGA BLOKS minifigure. The only way I could see a balance of characters and sets is by releasing vehicles and mechs along with those playsets.
But I donāt know overall I think making Bionicle System would take away the appeal of having them as buildable action figures and if LEGO was gonna go system why rehash Bionicle when the could just come up with a new theme. I mean IMHO if LEGO re-released Bionicle as system the negative feedback from the older fans would probably not help it any way, on top of that itād be competing with other system themes like Star Wars and whatever other IPās LEGO would have out at the time where as with Constraction it can exist outside of that a little better (Itās not completely immune from competition with System of course)
I prefer constraction sets as far as bionicle is concerned, but I do have a soft spot for the playsets, the terrain crawler in particular. Iād be ok with bionicle making another turn as a system theme, although Iād prefer constraction sets. Or at least them accompanying the system ones.
I would be all on-board with a system Bionicle theme if and only if it was handled like Lego LOTR/Hobbit and Knights Kingdom/Ninjago. Pulling from these concepts would allow stunning location-based sets along with a colorful cast of characters. What Lego LOTR did right was it stayed true to the source material and translated the rich world very well into sets while including lots of play. However, since Constraction allows you to customize your own characters to a level of detail that current minifigures do not allow, it would require someā¦ reworking, shall we say, of the minifigure itself it Lego wanted to keep that feature. If Bionicle were to become a system theme, it could very well be the most innovative line Lego ever produced.
The only two ways I see Bionicle working as a system theme:
āaction figuresā made with Mixel joints and system pieces (smaller than CCBS characters but slightly bigger than Mixels)
standard lego line with robotic looking minifigs (NOT FREAKING HUMANS), and big Rahi instead of most vehicle sets, and great playsets with memorable structures.
I definitely disagree with the concept of Humans in Bionicle. I think thatād take away too much from the theme. If weāre going to incorporate humans into Bionicle then why not just make a totally separate-theme with Bionicle-like traits and add a human element to that. I think the whole appeal in Bionicle is that itās its own separate world where these weird biomechanical beings live, off in some far away beyond. If we add humans into the mix it just becomes something like Transformers,Hero Factory or Evangelion. (Unless of course you subscribe to the idea Great Beings=Humans, which is something I personally find dubious at best). Not that we canāt have some kind of cool system/anime blend in a theme though Iād be down with that, I mean I feel like Exo-Force had something kind of going for it like that but the sets were ok at the best. But maybe if Lego revisited that and tried to emulate that style it might do better (Especially if got a show and all that)
bioincle g3, system is the way i would like ,before i go foward i havent read everyone elses posts or finished the podcast at time of writing this so if i repeat stuff sorry. give it the bugdit it should have gotten, 20 episdoe tv show and all, and who ever basic kept on shotting bioicnle keep your hands off it, have it more along the lines of g1, in the podcast they said about minecraft and firends which are more landscape basied, something they both also share is from competely new minifigure style to diffrent types of basic parts, bioincle woyld need that, at least for the head, have more land based stuff but some sets like the boats from ga koro, i would want lots of named people like in current system story theme and the way to custise them, like all the mask parts being in all coulors, maybe a mask part like with the nexo power packs, have everything be intersting have the world fress, i want some bits of g1 ( the toa and some of the names and such ) but i dont want it all there, i want some elements of it but not a retellings, i want a wave of the toa each year in ccbs with the new parts and such and recoulors, that will keep people happy there, buildings, with chartchers and people, like in g1 , maybe battle packs with matoran and a bad guy side, to build your villager numbers and enemy numbers, a focas on story , and a hand to the old fans, becuase thats going to be there safe base, all of these things with a big marketing push and the mistakes from g2 learnt on top of that, if it fails then it would be difficult to fix it, oh and as a mask fixed to the wall ( like with the heads of BoMN ) it has an offcail MoUP just as a āsorryā to g2 fans, maybe it gets blown up in th show with a quote like, āeh that thing was a mistake anywayā . just my idea im throwing at the wall here, wanted to post something, maybe ill think up a story or something and add it on later.
Lets just say I would be glad whatever rout Bionicle takes, so long as it didnt actually die to begin with and that the rout it took is a worth while investement (but I do fancy constraction more than pure system due to the appeal to me).
I think the big question is if Lego makes Bionicle a system theme in the future, will it have the same budget as Ninjago or Nexo Knights, or will they play it safe again like because of G2. We cannot simply expect Lego to do everything we want if it becomes a system theme.
@Xephix Iām very much under the assumption that a hypothetical G3 would Absolutely HAVE to be a Big Bang type of release, Lego would have to put all or a good majority of itās effort into making it succeed (even as a System line). I highly doubt they will play it safe like they did with G2 seeming as playing it safe was the initial problem in the 1st place, from an underdeveloped bare bones story to lack of advertising, if Lego wanted to release Bionicle again theyād have to go all out on advertisements, promotional material etc. especially if they had any hopes of convincing retailers that this go around it wouldnāt be a theme that serves as a shelf warmer
Hereās a problem with Bionicle becoming a system theme, it would probably mean the end of constraction. If system Bionicle becomes successful that might convince Lego to scrap constraction all together. (or maybe only it in license themes)
But the problem with both constraction and system is that one might become more popular than the other and Lego will scrap one of them. Like what they did with the playsets for G1.
