It’s incredibly tight on the Tahu I received. It’s actually hard to get it to swivel freely, and the gears tend to slide apart. It’s not a great mechanism.
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Shame to hear. They can’t all be winners I suppose.
While the Technic shell doesn’t look good on Tahu with the rest of his textures clashing, how well does it look on Ikir? Since it has no competition with much other mechanical details I’m interested in hearing if it stands up better on its own.
Edit: That’s surprising. Since the gears have their own casting I at least thought they not slip as easily. Not good. Hopefully its possible to fix it somehow.
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yess ! i grew up with lewa being my favorite of the mata/nuva also i can’t wait till lewa 2016 is reviewed so i can see how the set actually looks
@Eljay
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Well, fudge. That really sucks to hear.
At the very least, seems Ikir’s alright, as I understand it. =P
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But they look good on the creatures right? (or at least that’s how it looks to me)
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i wonder how it would look if tahu 2016 had his 2015 mask on . .
I understand that some people might like the smooth aesthetic CCBS shells bring, and that’s perfectly fine if you do, but I personally think the aesthetic is overrated and overused, considering our specific era. I mean, recently anything “futuristic” or “robotic” in our modern age is designed to be sleek. I’m kind of over that look, it’s fine in moderation, but there’s just a large oversaturation of it in all media (and I prefer steampunk type designs to plain surfaces). I want to see the technology. I want to see gears, pistons, swivels, wires, I want to see things that I associate with the word “mechanical”.
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It’s not that I don’t like the sleek look, it’s that I want Bionicle to be more unique. Those parts we had for 2015 were a good start, but everything else shell-wise weren’t anything we haven’t seen before. I like that Bionicle is getting more unique parts and how they sort of separate Bionicle from other sets.
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That’s perfectly fine and all, however it’s plain as day that the 2016 sets don’t pull it off well because in some instances, they’re trying to mix the two styles and it just doesn’t work.
Personally speaking, I much prefer the smooth aesthetic of the CCBS. Because it’s consistent, cohesive, and looks fuller to me than the useless pistons and odd ridges.
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I could say the same for the 2015 piston armor piece. It add ridges and pistons to the 2015 sets, and here Lego is trying to expand on that since we clearly showed that we liked how Bionicle sets looked with that piece. That piece alone mixes that “steampunk” style with the smooth shells we’ve been getting ever since the sets who shall not be named.
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@Toa_Maleko Or they mistook all of the trolls and G1-only fans on various sites as constructive criticism. XD
You could say that, however I’d argue you’d be wrong. The thing with the 2015 add-on was that it was still in-line with the aesthetic of the CCBS. It was still smooth and angular, while looking slightly technical. It was a fairly decent balance.
The new pieces + the new torso do not do this. They do not balance out. It’s clear that Lego in this case is trying to hearken heavily back to G1, and then attempting to mix it with CCBS. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work. They’ve gone too heavily into the “greebles” and pointless pistons that make it look cluttered and needlessly complex. From a design standpoint, 2016 is a step back in regards to consistency.
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Maybe they should just make all shells consistently design heavy (okay no, not happening). Seriously though, people who prefer a sleek aesthetic got their wish this year, those of us who like heavy textured designs get what we want next year, seems equal to me. 
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I would be okay with this. I prefer the sleek aesthetic of 2015 more by a longshot, but I could conceivably get used to the return to such an increased level of detail if it was done consistently.
But it’s not. It looks pretty bad on every figure that uses the “Piece of Unification.”
Thankfully only two of the Toa do. 
-Mesonak
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The thing is, regarding the torso, is that there is still a slight smooth feeling in the chest and stomach. It’s like if 2015 Tahu’s torso and the silver plated torso was mixed and the chestplate was also mixed in. Lego could also be adding the technical armor pieces to spread out the style, same with the crystal and skull villain armor.
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Meh, to each their own. I think it looks wonderful on Kopaka, but I can see why people might dislike it. The piece just looks so cool though…
Although the piece might’ve fit in better if it was smooth where the… vent groove things are.
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Maybe if you were running your hands over it, sure. However thanks to the printing, I don’t feel that it balances it out just by not being as 3D as the rest of the design.
And the thing is, they’re not spreading out the style; they’re adding it in where it was balanced before, and adding it unnecessarily.
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[quote=“Tarvaax, post:1716, topic:15529”]
Maybe they should just make all shells consistently design heavy
[/quote] I fail to see how a garbled mess would look good…
seriously, if they make G2 look as cluttered as G1 they will have ruined ccbs.
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@Payinku Hey, dude, I just buy sets. I could care less about what the heck happens to their building systems or how they change. I don’t have any investment in them. From my point of view, if they make what I like, they get my money. I like designs, that’s just how it is man.
Isn’t it the same for you? If you like the cohesion that 2015 brought and dislike 2016’s design choices, then I say don’t buy something you don like, y’know? I like both, but the Uniters feel more BIONICLE to me.
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And also make a new build so they can add more smooth shells to balance it. Near the chest, they add two small shells to widen the chest and shoulders. They also try to cover the sides with the bohrok eyes.