XD yes thank you good sir
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Huh… aight…
Going over your entire thing, this is simply untrue. As they gave the people on the chopping block at least 3 days to fix their error.
So either the person up for DQ can take the time to fix, or alternatively, if they themselves do not have the time or it’s more work than they are able to expend, gracefully bow out.
It at least gives entrants the opportunity to do so.
And granted, some people will argue. but that’s going to happen regardless.
I’m not going to touch your next point because it’s really jumbled and I really do not understand what you’re trying to say.
But we probably agree? 
And now touching on this.
And AGAIN I will repost what I said…
I’m not even REMOTELY being mean or lambasting TTV. Perhaps I came off as a bit rough when Blue was disqualified, but we all were a little justified because it was, pardon the pun, out of the blue, when she was on the poll prior.
If anything I’ve been offering suggestions when applicable. The staff is more than free to take them into consideration, or opt not to employ them at all. So it goes.
And the whole… “Anyone who actually uses the idea that some people might feel bad if they lose as logic for ending the canon contests shouldn’t be commenting on the canon contests.” thing isn’t even accurate… It’s that people have become disenchanted.
It’s not a “Oh my fee fees are hurt and I’m sad my thing didn’t win so I want the contests to not be a thing anymore!!! 
” thing.
It’s a “Wow, these are really not turning out how I’d hoped, and I don’t really like the results of the entries, and some people are being real jerks about it, maybe this wasn’t a great idea?.” thing.
It’s also a “I put a lot of energy into this and I’m really not sure if I can keep going, as much as I want to, I’m kinda losin’ hope here.” sort of thing. Though these people may not necessarily want the contests to stop regardless of how they feel.
It’s a stress to the MOCists and Artists, too… They need a little love and encouragement, not just the ones who won.
I accepted the rules when I entered, as did many others. I’m not upset I lost. Some other people might be but they’re not me, and I’m not them. I’m content I made 3rd preference in my poll.
Mind you This was ALL in response to Ehlektronix effectively asking “why would anyone be opposed”, so I fielded a valid response. I’m very sure people who are disenchanted with the contests will continue to follow along as there is the ever springing hope that it will be better, there are also those who signed off already and that’s just as valid.
I don’t think it’s entirely fair to ask the magic question, then effectively shoot the messenger because you don’t like the answer. If you do not want to hear the answer, then why ask the question?
I have many friends, all of whom are of diverse thoughts regarding the contests, this is a discussion thread, where diverse thought should be welcome, even if the opinion fielded is not always… agreed with. Such as when there was the discussion earlier about 3D models and what qualifies as a Metru build.
Am I approaching it from an emotional standpoint? Possibly. And addressing my own quote, I know that the ‘unhealthy atmosphere’ is really wholey unavoidable, which sucks as I just want us all to vibe and get along because we all love and appreciate Bionicles and Legos…
Even that G2 stuff. lol
Hopefully in all of this… wall… of text… I’m getting across what I’m trying to say.
I’m not sure what I can say further without repeating myself again and again. So I will bow out here.
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am I the only one here who actually isn’t that interested in the contests for like 80% of the characters?
I mean, Helryx or Artakha or even Lariska models are cool but the Toa Hagah? Nidihiki?
IMHO - every single addition to canon, especially for series that rely on the creativity of its fanbase is more or less killing it.
FYI - I am not really talking about things like SW or LotR. This is specifically an issue I have with Bionicle, since this is a series that encourages creativity and stuff like this is more or less killing what little creativity people have left. Now everybody has one interpretation of Artakha, one of Tyet, one of Nidihiki. And in a universe where there is little to no actual freedom left already it feels a bit…strange. Especially considering how much trouble and headache it has cost for pretty much everybody, especially the organizers.
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The thing is, making a moc of your own original character and giving it a backstory that fits into the canon is more creative than making a moc of something that already has a basic outline of what it looks like. You can make up your own story and have it be your headcanon even if no one else sees it that way. bionicle doesn’t limit creativity, it encourages it because there are a lot of planets a lot of characters, and a lot of times when there are gaps in time in certain places where nothing happens, so you can make up your own story.
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So is anyone gonna make an official 3D print mold of the mask of creation from the winning Artakha art?
Yes
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There’s a lot of stuff here that I just want to give my opinions on and I am hoping it doesn’t get lost in this sea of words.
Nidhiki’s Kanohi:
I personally believe that the mask can be of any shape really, as long as the mask power is the Volitak. Though I will say that Volitak-shaped Volitaks are probably going to be the closest to the canon as you can get (and that determination can be made by voters). The reason I say this is because I feel like 3D printed custom Volitaks are on the same playing field as the set Volitak. I am totally fine with the set Volitak being used on Nidhiki but I also feel like 3D printed ones are still equally up for grabs.
This point opens up to my “standard shape” point. I think the mask themselves have a “standard” shape not because of their mask power, but because of how common the masks were in that shape. Though just because a mask shape is common, doesn’t mean that it would exclude other shapes. So “in-organic” Inika masks and “non-aquatic” Mahri masks should all be up for grabs too. If you want to use the set Mahri masks or the set Inika masks, that’s okay too (tho I personally prefer if my Inika masks fit a Mata or Metru Head rather than a green blob of a head)
Contest Changes:
Blue’s situation was very unfortunate especially since it was DQed at the last minute despite it showing up on the Artakha polls initially. The main issue is tied with communication. When it comes to these contests, there should be some system to allow the entry to be modified before finalizing it. That way, the contest can gather many more entries. My real life job, for example, allows Attorneys a chance to reply to a rejection before it gets finalized. Providing some opportunity to know whether or not an entry has fit the criteria is something I feel like is important especially if the rules themselves do not have definite boundaries.
I suggest two solutions to this:
- Allow a 2-3 day grace period after submission deadline to modify the entry if the entrant is notified that their entry does not meet the contest rules. This would allow the entrant to at least perform 1 change to their entry before the polls are finalized and the contest shifts to voting phase. Multiple rounds of changes should not be allowed. Only 1 chance to change the entry.
- Make it very clear and definite regarding the rules. This can be difficult to capture but making it clear regarding what can and cannot be done would at least provide some entrants a clear idea of whether or not their entry was DQed. I will say that this might make the contest quite restrictive and rules may be difficult to fully capture. But, I do feel like some of the contest rules should be clarified so that situations regarding Colors (of all things) never happens again.
Overall Thoughts of the Contest:
Personally, I view these contests to be a double edged sword. On one end, some people are very optimistic about these contests. They get to see the visual depictions of their favorite characters made into canon (as well as get a ton of fan art and fan MOCs of their favorite characters). On the other end, there can be a lot of conflict and arguments involved in these contests over the tiniest of things and headcanons being thrown to the ground because a contest said so.
This recent Artakha contest is certainly an improvement from the previous Helryx contest. One of my fears is that these contests may drag on for a very long time and it might come to a point where people might lose energy from it. Based on the rate of these contests, I do not believe we will be done until 2023-2025, and with a second list potentially coming, it’s going to be a long and bumpy ride. By that time, I’ll probably have a family.
There are some people who are growing tired of seeing just contest related content being the only Bionicle content out there. I am hoping TTV can bring about new content besides these contests so that we have other things we can look forward to. The constant back and forth about “what is considered a metru torso” or “what eye color does Nidhiki have” is interesting but it is not something I would want to constantly see moving forward (even though it is inevitable).
tl;dr version
Masks can be whatever shape they want
Grace period so entrants can change submissions
TTV, more new content than just contests
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That, uh, already exists. It apparently isn’t enough simply because it isn’t applied at the very last minute. If TTV misses an entry that by their book cannot qualify, they don’t extend the contest in order to give that person time to fix; they simply move on.
At the cost of becoming extremely unpopular, at the cost of causing an upheaval, and at the cost of starting a whole new line of arguing and insisting the contests be rewritten to change what is currently something polite TTV gave themselves the option to do into an absolute rule that staff must follow.
My next point related to my first - your answer to the issue, as I demonstrated, failed to take into account that the Bionicle community will continue to be the Bionicle community no matter how nicely approached, and therefore wasn’t an answer at all.
You’d need the community to agree on how each piece is to be judged, thoroughly inspect each entry, deal with arguments every time you find something wrong, and God help you if you accidentally miss something (as seen by the passionate outcry after Blue’s entry was DQ’d without following a DQing rule that didn’t exist).
When you write six lengthy posts explaining, defending, and justifying opinions which you repeatedly state aren’t yours, they really make it look like they’re yours.
Sorry, but I’m going to continue to argue against these points under the assumption that the person writing walls of text in defense of them is, in fact, in defense of them.
I apologize to the three people who had absolutely no experience with the Bionicle community prior to these contests. It’s a bummer that some people are having buyer’s remorse, but that’ll happen with any format. You’ll never please everyone.
Mhm. And I’m just as welcome to argue against any of the reasons brought up here; I don’t see where the issue is.
Goin’ strong for two decades and no sign of stoppin’. The community knee-jerk reaction must be planned around, not ignored.
TL;DR, if you don’t want to be argued with on logic you don’t agree with, don’t, y’know, continuously defend said logic through multiple lengthy posts.
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Well, my personal core problem is simple: I do not want to force my creations as canon onto anyone, and neither do I want that other people’s creations are forced as canon onto me.
As long as any creation is just an option, that is entirely fine with me. Because then if I want to I can always say “This does not work with how I see things, but my headcanon can still be canon-compliant”.
So really my sole problem with these contests is that the results are gonna be canon. Apart from that I’d be all for them.
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Well.
If these contests were all for fun, with no prize anywhere close to the opportunity to literally add to the canon the site is formed around, I can promise you there’d be a lot less people in favor of them.
Here’s the thing: Tahu has four canonical set appearances(six if you count G2), and none of them have inhibited creativity, but actually inspired it. Last I checked, something having a set-in-stone appearance hasn’t stopped anybody from making their own iteration, and more often that not has inspired them to make their own.
There’s been a good amount of collections with ‘creative spins’ on existing characters from both notable and unknown builders, all of which might not have decided to do so if, say, Lewa never appeared in a set or had any canonical description other than ‘He is green’.
Nothing about these contests is stopping creativity. Quite the opposite; it’s getting people en masse to enter and attempt to craft the winning design or draw the winning presentation - it’s the most activity this community has had in a long while. Some people not liking the result is hardly a reason to shut the whole thing down.
Sure, some headcanons may be trampled. But seeing as people are still genderbending Onua for some reason, I don’t think that’s going to change.
If you aren’t going to address my earlier question, that’s fine. But it also implies you don’t have an answer outside of ‘my headcanon will be ruined’.
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I understand a lot about these contests comes down to personal preference, but this is canonically incorrect. Toaskello has already provided most if not all quotes on the subject:
Greg has been consistently clear that Nidhiki’s mask is the same Volitak as Nuparu Mahri’s and Mazeka’s, only green instead of silver. So, if someone were to enter a Nidhiki MOC with a differently shaped mask and win, either:
- Greg will not accept it, which will be unfortunate.
- He will accept it and create a contradiction.
Both outcomes need to be avoided.
The rules are already clear:
4e. Artwork cannot significantly modify the aesthetics of the original MOC, either by omission or addition, and must follow the color scheme of the original MOC as closely as possible. For example, additional limbs or significant color shifts would not be allowed.
Blue changed the shoulders and knees from gunmetal to gold, which clearly violates this rule. Yes, TTV should’ve caught it sooner, but they still can disqualify any entry at anytime given good reason.
11. We reserve the right to disqualify, at any time, any entry that we have reason to believe has been entered in bad faith or in an attempt to disrupt the voting process, or any entry we have reason to believe may disrupt the voting process.
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The thing about that is Greg may define a different mask shape as a completely different mask shape. So, if someone with KhingK’s Volitak wins, and Greg sees it, his reaction may be “that looks like a Volitak, approved.”
Which would only make things needlessly complicated for those trying to interpret what he’s said before but it’s another outcome.
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In regards to Nidhiki’s Volitak, I hard agree with Dag here. Greg has made it very clear what it should be, and I don’t think there’s any two ways around it.
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no one’s talking about how LEGO doesn’t want to make masks with only very slight differences and just use the same molds to save time and money.
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LEGO isn’t making a toa nidihki set, so why would they care if it has a different mask?
That’s a fair point, but what story explanation could be offered for why Nidhiki’s Volitak is different from Mazeka’s? The only one I can imagine is that Nidhiki’s is a different style, like Lhikan’s Hau, which is certainly possible, but then Nidhiki’s can’t be considered the “standard” shape.
Because that’s not an in-universe explanation.
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Nuparu’s mask was modified - the mold we have is therefore the modified version. It makes sense that Nidhiki’s would look different, but LEGO isn’t going to make an exact copy of the mask minus the rebreather. Not sure they expected their fan base to have this kind of issue with that, because at the time their audience was mostly children. It’s only been since the discontinuation of the line that the community has become so increasingly nitpicky.
In case they ever did, maybe?
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Well no. According to the person who is behind the canonization of these contests in the first place, the mold itself is not. It’s just the tube and visor pieces.
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You don’t think it’s possible that that was stated so they wouldn’t have to make a new mold? Let’s be real - can the oversized jazz mic be anything but an underwater modification?
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I mean, we can hope? I guess? The chance of lego bringing bionicle back is super low, and even if they did, it probably would be a new universe with new characters.