Biovival Discussion (aka Christian Faber's mysterious project)

guys just hop on the ninjago train already it’s been 9 years

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Don’t go ridin’ on that long hype black train…

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I’ll move on when Hell freezes over. cocks rifle

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About what? :confused:

Danke.

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Were you not there for the early 2016 discussion?

Oh god that was three years ago

ahhhhh

but uh, TL;dR Hutere thought he saw a skrall shield in the clouds and it sorta became a meme when they were still allowed

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If LEGO is crazy enough to do this, I think we’ll be seeing a large departure from G2. Instead of another G1 reimagining aimed at kids, I think we could be seeing a new story aimed at teens or adults. Maybe they’d bring back Technic/G1 builds or go without sets entirely.

I hope Faber is reaching out to some of the other big names in BIONICLE, like Greg Farshtey. I think that’s the only way this is gonna work.

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Mata Nui, if only. That can only mean that they’ll go for more complex stories than the linear slog that was G2, and lord knows we need that. That level of storytelling is part of why Transformers is a household name after all these years: it evolved with its following.
Uploading…
…Well, mostly.

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I have a lot of really mixed feelings on this.

On one hand, holy crap. Faber is one of the people behind what made Bionicle G1 so freaking good, and I trust that he would be able to do something that keeps the original spirit intact while still being unique. The somewhat more sci-fi looking title (but still with distinctly tribal-looking elements in back) has me quite intrigued, too.

The description on the original post, particularly the bit about “What if there is an undiscovered way back? A secret path to reset destiny.” sounds insanely promising. I could even see it implying a Days Of Future Past sort of setup, or at least a take on the story inspired by a ‘what-if’ scenario. A G3 taking place in a version of the G1 world but where the Shattering never happened, for example, could be very different but still very interesting. Even setting all that aside, I would also love to see a more traditional sort of reboot, too. I think it can be done; it’s all down to execution, and again, I trust Faber would be able to pull it off.

(I’m also one of the people who, while taking issue with how G2 was handled, doesn’t think it was the worst thing ever. It just needed some better fleshing-out and more of a marketing push. If the story team had had more time to sort some things out, Lego as a whole was more interested in pushing it, and the timing hadn’t coincided with Star Wars’ hype train steamrolling everything, I think it could have worked.)

With all that being said, though…

On the other hand, I’m hesitant to expect too much from this. No matter how you slice it, a lot of this is out of Faber’s hands. I really hope the leadership at Lego would be willing to give this another shot, but after G2 I’m not inclined to trust in that without evidence. As @Mesonak brought up, he could still go independent with it and I would love to see that, but it would also mean the potential resources and exposure he could get for it would be much more limited.

Now mind you, I don’t really care too much about the sets at this point. Like, I see three possible approaches to this; more CCBS constraction, traditional system and minifigs, or something in between, with mixel joints and stuff used to make a constraction-like thing in System. All three, I think would be really cool to see, honestly! But I am in the ‘story comes first, sets are nice bonus’ camp, so I’m not really as concerned with whether we’ll get more sets or what form they may take if we do.

So even if Lego do approve this, and I’m pretty confident in the strength of Faber’s concepts, whatever they may be… my other main worry is about how the story may be conveyed. I want it to be something high-profile, that can bring in new fans while doing justice to the ideas. The G2 webisodes, as much as I personally enjoyed them, were very obscure unless you were actively looking for them, and Journey To One was too little too late, and not terribly good besides. (It did have some redeeming factors, but as a whole, it was just… bleh.) Again, this comes back down to the question of just how far Lego themselves would be interested in taking this, assuming they even take it up in the first place. I would love to see like, a big-budget movie for theaters or something, but how likely does that strike you as being? A show like Ninjago is more in the realm of possibility while still getting a decent amount of attention, (and would probably be more suitable to convey something as complex as Bionicle anyway) but they’d have to exercise care to make sure it doesn’t turn into another JTO.

So all in all, I’m really excited for the possibilities here, but the issue is how it may stack up in reality; while there’s plenty of reason to believe in this succeeding, there’s also a lot of obstacles standing in the way. Would Lego be willing to do this? If so, how much of a marketing push and story focus would they be willing to give it? If they turn him down, how else could Faber make it happen? And either way, even if the ideas are solid, can the execution match up?

I’m hoping for the best here, but I’m reluctant to assume or expect anything to come of this just yet. I will simply wait and see, and keep my fingers crossed.

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Dude, Bionicle in space with a cool triangle/circuit style. I like this.

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*Karzahni

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Is there anyone who isn’t interested? :laughing:

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So let me start off by saying that ANY Bionicle news nowadays is good news, and I’m not just an old fart who hates the line. But whenever something like this happens, my cynicism kicks in.

The thing to remember is who Faber is. He’s a great guy, great concept creator, great artist. He is not the man who singlehandedly created Bionicle. I’ve noticed that a lot of people seem to treat him as such consciously or subconsciously, but it’s not true. There was a whole team of people that made G1 what it was, and Faber was just one part of that. Alastair Swinnerton, Bob Thompson, and Martin Andersen were equally involved if not moreso in the creation of Bionicle. When it came to things like the story, the sets, the atmosphere, they were all working together as a team. So can a single gear still achieve the same function outside of the original machine?

Another thing to remember is that Faber is a concept artist. Just because he draws something really cool does not mean it will ever translate to a real set form. Look at the concept art for G2. Look at Invasion from Below. These had beautiful concept art that barely came across in the sets. Just because Faber makes a really cool concept doesn’t mean we’ll get it.

And if Lego doesn’t accept his concept, what then? Will Faber take the project up on his own? He’s already got a lot on his plate, and I’m not wholly convinced that he could take it up in a way fans like. Look at Rebel Nature. Awesome concept, beautiful art. It took a solid 4-5 years for us to get anything outside of beautiful art. And even then, we still haven’t gotten much. It’s possible that he could take up this 3ionicle project on his own, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Meso in his post above mentioned 3 potential outcomes, all of which have positive outcomes. And those are still possibilities. But there are some more that have less favorable results.

  • Lego accepts Faber’s concept, creates a line for it, and G2s it hard. The writing is bad, the story bible constantly changing, the marketing terrible, all the things that caused G2 to fail. My personal opinion is that those issues can be contributed to upper management at Lego, which I’m guessing hasn’t changed greatly in 4 years.

  • Lego doesn’t accept Faber’s concept, and he only works on it infrequently. Like I said, the dude has a lot on his plate. I don’t think he could manage a project like 3ionicle while also working on his other stuff.

  • Lego doesn’t accept Faber’s concept, and nothing happens. Just because Faber created a concept doesn’t mean it must see the light of day. Lego could turn him down and force him to never share what he made. There’s a possibility that all we get out of this is a fancy “Bion” and nothing else.

I want this project to happen. I want a Lego line with a great story. I want constraction to come back. I want that pure hype I had 5 years ago in 2014. But I also know that sometimes things don’t happen the way you want them to, and that expecting a positive outcome can be dangerous.

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Yeah that’s Greg obviously[quote=“Political_Slime, post:113, topic:48962”]
And if Lego doesn’t accept his concept, what then? Will Faber take the project up on his own? He’s already got a lot on his plate, and I’m not wholly convinced that he could take it up in a way fans like. Look at Rebel Nature. Awesome concept, beautiful art. It took a solid 4-5 years for us to get anything outside of beautiful art. And even then, we still haven’t gotten much. It’s possible that he could take up this 3ionicle project on his own, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
[/quote]

Bionicle has a bazillion whining children (like myself) and a million old codgers (also me) who will probably wage literal war to defend Bionicle, and like three people in the total that would be willing and definitely more than capable to assist

Rebel Nature doesn’t exist yet [quote=“Political_Slime, post:113, topic:48962”]
I want this project to happen. I want a Lego line with a great story. I want constraction to come back. I want that pure hype I had 5 years ago in 2014. But I also know that sometimes things don’t happen the way you want them to, and that expecting a positive outcome can be dangerous.
[/quote]

Hold on

Did he himself say this is a pitch to LEGO? As far as I can see the only time Pitch was used was by Vahkiti

If he’s simply preparing a proof of concept that doesn’t mean he’s trying to rush to LEGO to do this; it could fall into the same vein as every other fan project

Which also means it probably will go even less than nowhere

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How did the Invasion from Below concept art looked like? I can’t remember anything… Can you please share the image or provide me a link?

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Or, here’s another outcome:

Faber is secretly an eldritch being and swallows Denmark for not accepting BIONICLE. He goes onto threatening Sweden and Germany if Lego of America refuses to accept his pitch. Soon he amasses an army of life-sized BIONICLE figures and conquers Europe. He proceeds to attack Russia in the land and actually succeeds. Soon BIONICLE becomes a world power, and we all shiver in fear as Tahu becomes Omega and completely takes over all the railroads of the Old World, filling them with hype trains. The only safe place is the American continents, but it’s not for long, as Faber plans to take New York next.

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And then he will use the Mata Nui Robot to conquer America and the rest of the world…:laughing:

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Pakari posted this earlier, and I just went through the effort if finding the OP on Instagram:

I thought they were on the Faber Files website, but I can only find one piece on a quick search. It might be that the ones I’m thinking of aren’t from Faber. Regardless, my point still stands.

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We did it, this is the most talked about thing on the boards! Now we just wait for the rest of the logo.

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I find it hilarious that less than a month ago there was the question of Bionicle’s coming death

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This entire post reminds me of Bionicle 2015 hype and it’s not doing wonders to help me safely contain myself. Help.

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