Unpopular Opinions about LEGO

[LegoDavid]

I like the Av Matoran.
I honestly never really understood why they are so despised in the Bionicle community.

[ToaNoah_Wafflemeister]

I mean, I understand why (they have, like, ten pieces, no creativity, and no pose-ability), but I still like them. Gavla was my first Bionicle set, so nostalgia and stuff.

[Pakari]

I actually prefer the Shadow Matoran to the Av-Matoran. They were much more uniquely shaped and interesting compared to their pretty static and boring alternatives.

[LegoDavid]

no pose-ability

Well, they have more pose ability than the original matoran, that is for sure.

no creativity,

I mean a lot of other sets such as Turaga, Bohrok Va, Rahaga etc didn't have much creativity either, yet they are nowhere near as disliked as the Av Matoran.

Those "flaws" never made much sense to me.

[Holi]

I mean a lot of other sets such as Turaga, Bohrok Va, Rahaga etc didn't have much creativity either, yet they are nowhere near as disliked as the Av Matoran.

Those "flaws" never made much sense to me.

Look at them in comparison to the 2007 matoran, they're a significant downgrade


Fewer parts, that are almost all difficult to use when mocing, compaired to the fun parts pack of before

[TheOnlyGuyWhoLikesMistika]

I still kinda like them, they don’t have that bad possibility, better than the mata and I always see their bodies, eyes and masks used on mocs, they also have eyes and hands unlike half of the mahritoran

[LegoDavid]

That may be the case, but that doesn't necessary make them bad.

[ToaNoah_Wafflemeister]

Well, they have more pose ability than the original matoran, that is for sure.

Well, if you’re talking about the McDonald’s toys, sure, but their arms are literally rubber, so their articulation is technically infinite...

Okay, but yeah, I’m referring to the actual sets, with gear functions and everything.

I mean a lot of other sets such as Turaga, Bohrok Va, Rahaga etc didn't have much creativity either, yet they are nowhere near as disliked as the Av Matoran.

There’s a level of creativity that goes into attached the individual pieces of the torso, creating the head, and each one is slightly different in a unique way (besides Rahaga, but those are still infinitely more complex).

If you show me a picture of an Av-Matoran, I could tell you exactly how to build it with a second. You just click on the limbs, hands, head, weapons, feet, mask, and jet pack and you’re done. There’s only variation in shape and color, never the build itself. The building experience is awful, and that’s what separates Bionicle from action figures.

That may be the case, but that doesn't necessary make them bad.

The fact that LEGO regressed in their creativity and building ability back to 2001? That isn’t a con? My favorite year is 2007, and the fact that the next year seems to be several steps back (excluding vehicles) really can’t be ignored.

Don’t get me wrong, I like 2008, and it speaks the most “Bionicle” to me thanks to my past, but what really do the Av-Matoran have that the Mahri-toran don’t? And if you say eyes, their entire head is just a block of transparent plastic. If you say hands, there is nothing individual about each one. I’m, of course, excluding the Shadow Matoran; those were unique in ways the Av-Matoran aren’t.

[Eljay]

I mean a lot of other sets such as Turaga, Bohrok Va, Rahaga etc didn't have much creativity either, yet they are nowhere near as disliked as the Av Matoran.

They had an actual build. Av-Toran are 13 pieces I can assemble in my sleep. Rahaga, Turaga, and Bohrok-Va all have decently complex builds in comparison.

I still kinda like them, they don’t have that bad possibility, better than the mata and I always see their bodies, eyes and masks used on mocs, they also have eyes and hands unlike half of the mahritoran

They have roughly the same amount as the Mata with less pieces and a less interesting building experience, with fewer overall functions and brittle pieces. Comparatively speaking, the Av-Toran are the worse experience.

And then yeah, what Noah said.

My unpopular opinion is that Hero Factory isn't actually as bad as I remember it, and I think the show and the podcast were some of the highlights of the theme.

[LegoDavid]

My unpopular opinion is that Hero Factory isn't actually as bad as I remember it, and I think the show and the podcast were some of the highlights of the theme.

I agree. People who don't like Hero Factory should consider some of those you mentioned...

[Toa_Radrix]

I think people hated Hero Factory only because it replaced Bionicle.

[ToaNoah_Wafflemeister]

My unpopular opinion is that Hero Factory isn't actually as bad as I remember it, and I think the show and the podcast were some of the highlights of the theme.

Yeah, I agree a lot here.

When HeroFactory was first revealed, my little self went “This is for five year-olds,” but I eventually got sucked in, to the point where I had fonder memories of HeroFactory than Bionicle. This has most certainly changed by now, but there are still really fun characters and sets out there.

HeroFactory was always more approachable than Bionicle. Being introduced to Tahu as Mistika, I saw Tahu Stars and was like, “Who’s this guy?” Learning there were more Tahu’s out there, it still took me a year to even learn that Tahu was basically the main character, or at least the poster character. Furno I instantly knew was the guy you were supposed to root for, you know? It was much easier for me to get invested in since I knew what was going on.

That, and Breakout will forever have a special place in my heart.

[LegoDavid]

I think people hated Hero Factory only because it replaced Bionicle

That, and the fact that it lacked the complex lore of Bionicle, which I personally never really minded.
Hero Factory can't even compare to Bionicle. But when you stop thinking about what the theme didn't have and start thinking about what it did have, you come to the conclusion that it was a pretty fun and cool theme, that I would personally love to see rebooted in some way or another.

[TheOnlyGuyWhoLikesMistika]

Reboots are not a good idea

The Bionicle 2015 sold terribly, whether you blame that on Lego or not, I still see them at toy shops sometimes!

[LegoDavid]

I still see them at toy shops sometimes!

Then I'll say buy them as soon as you can.
Seriosly, trying to get the G2 sets sealed off the seconadary market has started to get pretty expensive for some reason...

[prentice1215]

I think people hated Hero Factory only because it replaced Bionicle.

That, and the fact that it lacked the complex lore of Bionicle

For me personally, this is why I dislike Hero Factory. G1 ended and HF was introduced, and I was pumped. New opportunities for new stories and characters to fall in love with, it was a fun, if bittersweet, time. However, not only did HF not have as complex a lore as BIONICLE did, but it was hard to even find the story in the first place.

The theme didn't get an annualized run of comics like BIONICLE did, the chapter books (those were a thing, right?) were impossible to find, and LEGO never made an announcement on when the TV show was airing. The idea that a LEGO theme would be receiving a tv show at the time was mind boggling. This was a whole year before NinjaGo would start, so LEGO content was usually comics, chapter books, or straight-to-DVD releases. Again, the prospect of LEGO story telling on TV was exciting, but to my knowledge, they never actually posted on the site when the show would be airing. And it was on NickToons of all places, which was essentially an afterthought of Nick's reruns at the time, so I usually steered clear of it, and thus was never able to catch commercials (which I only know exist because I've watched them on YouTube after the fact) saying when it would be on.

If I'm remembering correctly, I think the NinjaGo pilots got an advertisement in the LEGO Club magazine prior to them airing on CN. That's at least some form of a heads up, and it was enough of one that I tuned in. HF got none of that, which is why I gave up. Unlike other fans, I was never into BIONICLE for the building system. It's not what got me into the theme, nor is it what got me to stick around. It was the story. HF being BIONICLE's replacement isn't what I found insulting, it was that the replacement seemed to care so little for its story that they didn't bother to properly advertise. To this day that remains the reason I dislike HF, because, in all honesty, it still did some cool things.

It introduced CCBS, which is a great building system, that build-your-own-hero thing was cool even though I wasn't aware of it back in the day, and with the exception of that animal year and the final wave, the sets honestly looked really cool. There was just never an incentive to buy those cool looking toys because I had no clue what was going on in the story. Even when I noticed the show getting the DVD releases I had no want to buy them because by the time they were coming out, it was like two years after the fact and the story was off doing who knows what by that time.

So there's my potential Unpopular Opinion. Hero Factory did pretty much everything right except in one way, the story, and that in my mind, is why it's a failure even though objectively speaking the theme wasn't a failure because it lasted five or so years, but we'll ignore that because I still don't care for the theme .

[ToaNoah_Wafflemeister]

Reboots are not a good idea

Clone Wars wants to talk to you

I still see them at toy shops sometimes!

I wish I could still find them... I only just a week ago was able to purchase my favorite G2 Toa set.

The idea that a LEGO theme would be receiving a tv show at the time was mind boggling.

I mean, do two episodes every six months really count as a show? They were more like specials...

[LegoDavid]

The TV episodes were available on LEGO.com and also later on the official LEGO YouTube channel, so they weren't really that hard to watch.
In all honesty, you can't judge Hero Factory for not having the lore of Bionicle. It was LEGO's (poor) decision to abandon complex stories and focus on simple stories, and Hero Factory was just a casualty of that. As much as I am a Bionicle fanatic that is trying to get every set ever made and read every piece of lore I can find, I never actually grew up with. I grew up with Hero Factory. So for me, and a lot of other people, Hero Factory was our Bionicle, and we loved it as much as people loved Bionicle when was around. Again, Hero Factory can't even compare to Bionicle, and when compared to it, it does seem like a failure. But when you look at it as a stand-alone, independent theme, you have a cool, unique concept that will still be remembered in years to come. And without it, I would probably not be here, in this amazing community today, and I would probably have been just another casual LEGO fan that doesn't show any respect for constraction, just because it's not "LEGO-like". So that, and the fact that it helped me (and other people) get into Bionicle, something so much more marvelous that Hero Factory could have ever offered, deserves, in my opinion, at least a little respect.

[TheOnlyGuyWhoLikesMistika]

Clone Wars wants to talk to you

There’s a difference between toys and a show

[DaimosZ]

My issue with the Hero Factory show was that it introduced so many potential plot threads and quickly dropped them before they had any form of resolution.

I will say the toys/story-while not as complex as Bionicle-works in being more accessible to Bionicle. I got into Bionicle around 2006 (my first sets I got were from 2004 however) and back then while the plot was complicated, Lego did repost the old story guides and games via the Kanoka Club and watching the movies which helped me get caught up...but how many other kids did that?

It didn't help that as the plot grew more and more complicated, the Bionicle sets became basically specialized to the point if you were to use a part from a specific set on another character people would say how too similar it looks to the actual character (looking at you Jaller Mahri) and how you had essentially no freedom to use the toys as basic action figures unless you knew everything about the lore and character (which kinda defeats the imaginative play Lego encourages)

Hero Factory at the very least was very much like Slizers or Roboriders where-while there was a "story" to the characters-there was no character specific elements nor was it dependent on your knowledge of the story to "play it the right way". If you were a kid and wanted to use Furno 2.0 as a Robot Tony Stark invented or use The Fire Lord as a Decepticon general in your play time or swap some parts around the figures, nobody was forcing you not to. It truly was like a sandbox tool in much the same way earlier Constraction themes encouraged.