BIONICLE G1 Canon Contests Discussion & Questions

Cause we want it

10 Likes

Well for one itā€™s something we want and for another, itā€™s like all things where a consensus is needed it acts as both a grounding and a springboard for otherā€™s ideas.

Also as a note. Someone brought up that the argument ā€œjust ignore itā€ for the contests isnā€™t that great and I donā€™t disagree with that I donā€™t feel like the anti-contest people are bringing up much better arguments. It feels like they are just wording the same 3-ish arguments over and over in different ways.

ā€œWhy do we want/need this or thatā€

ā€œThis treads on peoples ideasā€

ā€œI donā€™t like them so no one else canā€

And all of these arguments at least imo donā€™t feel all that compelling either and most of them have a fair counterargument.

Also it feels like those who are against the contest keep disregarding and acting like those who do want the contest donā€™t exist or are weird or insane for wanting such a thing whilst weā€™ve (those in favor of them) have remained fairly civil recently and relatively speaking. I also want to make clear that this isnā€™t aimed at any one person since some of if not most of the anti-contest people have been quite civil and brought up some good points once you give 'em time to explain and elaborate imo but there are some people and a general undertone of disregarding everything the pro-contest people say. (Is anyone else getting some deja vu from this)

7 Likes

The changes seen in other Bionicle characters appearances are so drastic (This is where Takua comes inā€¦) thereā€™s no reason a fan canā€™t make their own interpretation ā€œcanonā€ in their mind, even if it has virtually no resemblance to the canon model.

From what Iā€™ve seen, most who are against the contests are afraid of their creative freedom being limited and their head-canons being ā€œstomped onā€. Therefore, I argue neither are necessarily true.

It would be nice if everybody could just come to accept every winning entry as canon. But clearly some people canā€™t do that, which is why Iā€™m promoting ā€œignoringā€ in the first place.

3 Likes

I donā€™t even necessarily agree with the idea that appearances of these characters is something that should be viewed of as fluid (outside of cases with explicit reasons), but, like, Stuubhā€™s rightā€¦matoran universe characters existed for 100,000 years. Even if it was only 100 years, thatā€™s a lot of time for weird stuff to happen to the way characters look in a universe where weird stuff happens to the way characters look. A canon depiction absolutely does not stop you from still exploring other ways to depict these characters

Also, likeā€¦this isnā€™t the first time weā€™ve discovered how a character looks a long time after they had a story role. Nektann, Karzhanni, Icarax, and Mata Nui himself all come to mind, and thatā€™s just off the top of my head without checking BS01. That doesnā€™t include official canonization contests from back in the day, like Tobduk. No one complained about the set Karzhanni stomping on their headcannon of him, and if I remember correctly, yet another INCREDIBLE depiction of him was later shown in bionicle world after that point, despite the fact we had a canon set.

The fact that this conversation has happened every two weeks for a decade, but seems to keep coming down on the side of canonization, means just that: people like new parts of the story being added. We like finding out what these characters looked like in canon. Sure, we could have each come up with our own Toa Kualus, but nowā€¦there is a SPECIFIC Kualus. One with a parts list, and instructions. Thatā€™s awesome. Thatā€™s cool.

And it absolutely, 100%, does not diminish people making their own versions. Itā€™s lego. Build whatever you want, whenever you want. And people do! People make their own variations on established, released-by-lego canon models all the time. If I go look for Toa Mistika reworks right now, Iā€™d find a LOT. And very few of them will look like Onua, Tahu, and Gali. And theyā€™d not be official canon, and may even contradict canon a bit. And theyā€™d still be awesome.

So, just, likeā€¦let people have nice things, yā€™all. I want canon Toa Nidhiki art. That canon Toa Nidhiki art doesnā€™t make it illegal to make your own Toa Nidhiki.

10 Likes

Unpopular opinion: I like that Nidhikiā€™s Toa mask looks so different than his mutated face, because it emphasized the grotesque transformation. The Volitak in particular works because the shape is fairly similar to a human head (more so than most Bionicle masks), so it goes well with Toa Nidhikiā€™s humanoid body and contrasts strongly with the insectoid head and body of his mutated form.

I totally understand why people think the Kualsi shape would be better for Nidhiki though. The contrast between his Toa and mutated form is already obvious, so people prefer the resemblance/intentional design.

And Iā€™m hoping that Greg changes his mind and lets Nidhikiā€™s mask be silver, because makes it easier to MOC and silver-and-green would be a much better color scheme than just green. The precedent of normal Toa with a metallic color was already established through Lhikan and through Toa of Psionics. Given this precedent, Gregā€™s reasoning about metallic armor being unique to Hagah or ā€œnon-normalā€ Toa doesnā€™t make sense; presumably the uniqueness of the Hagah comes from the material the armor is made of, ā€œforged from precious metals.ā€

9 Likes

surprisingly better than most lariskas iā€™ve seen

I disagree with Gregā€™s reasoning but heā€™s been saying Nidhikiā€™s volitak is green consistently. And since we only have Gregā€™s word to go off of, a green volitak it must be.

That said, Iā€™d imagine TTV would allow a silver volitak as a placeholder. Requiring people to paint pieces seems unfair.

5 Likes

Had to look up what you meant by this, and dang, I donā€™t know how I never noticed that before. They really did her dirty :joy:

I 1000% agree. This is also why it annoys the heck out of me when people use those fan-fiction ā€œpre-mutationā€ Barraki heads to make their pre-mutation Barraki that are supposedly super handsome: theyā€™re way too similar to their mutated forms, which are supposed to be super ugly!

2 Likes

Just wondering, what do you suggest the barraki look like?

Well, if theyā€™re supposed to be handsome, they must have looked like Toa Matau.

20 Likes

Pre-mutation? Armored Inika builds, more or less, mostly by way of them standing up straight, no hunches or anything. Faces that donā€™t look like their mutated faces (which I usually default to bare Mata or Metru heads, but if someone does a face that isnā€™t those fan-fiction pieces, then I really donā€™t care).* Thatā€™s how I imagine them, anyways. Unimaginative perhaps, but :woman_shrugging:

*The only exception is Ehlek, which we know from the second Encyclopedia only grew those spines on his back. You could argue those ridges on his head count as spines, in which case Iā€™d default to his prototypeā€™s smooth head.

Because that was a new mutated form, for one. No one had any headcanons about Karzahniā€™s mutated form because it didnā€™t exist yet.

2 Likes

Well, we know that Ehlek actually looks pretty similar to his mutated form, since his species was somewhat resistant to the mutagen.

Itā€™s also worth noting that Pridak was the only one of the Barraki who took particular pride in his appearance (or at least that was mentioned). When I imagine a ā€œhandsomeā€ Bionicle character, I tend to think of a more humanoid face than the typical Metru head. Almost like a Bayformer, maybe?

EDIT: Never mind, it does apply to all six:

From Legends 6: City of the Lost:

Those who saw them said they made Toa look like some kind of Rahi that crawled out from under a rock.

1 Like

Modified: No one complained about Bionicle: Worldā€™s Karzhanni stomping on their headcannon of him.

Better?

like this but in 6 different colors

20 Likes

By my mind, standard design volitak honestly works only in bright color

green or dark greenā€¦ I really donā€™t think it suits

ģ œėŖ© ģ—†ģŒ-1
Baraki art Contest winner is meeeeeeeee


Could Barrakiā€™s species be the same as the other Canon character species we donā€™t know about appearance?

19 Likes

Well nobody ever needs to make anything Baraki related ever again, this is canon as far as Iā€™m concerned.

8 Likes

We know that Ehlekā€™s species is a ā€œnewā€ one, and we see others of the species in Federation Of Fear.

As for the other five Barraki:

In February of 2010, Greg said that itā€™s possible that they could be of known species:

Later in the year, though, Greg said that he, personally, never saw them as being parts of known species:

This latter sentiment was repeated in 2015:

1 Like

So on the topic of Nidhikiā€™s Volitak, I know thereā€™s a rule against cut/modified parts, but perhaps there could be an exception for him.

The official Volitak part has that obnoxious rebreather on the chin. Surely this is one of the aquatic elements of the Nuparuā€™s Volitak. Perhaps for the MOC entry period, modification to that piece alone could be allowed. If that entry wins and itā€™s kept in the winning art entry, someone could simply make a 3D model of the rebreather-less Volitak and itā€™ll be considered a custom part.

Just a thought.

2 Likes

This hasnā€™t been confirmed, and, as such, is pretty shaky ground for such a drastic rule change. Besides, the ā€œNo Cut Partsā€ rule exists for reasons beyond ā€œyou shouldnā€™t need to do it anywaysā€.

Also, couldnā€™t someone just make a rebreatherless Volitak model before the contest?

(Side note, I find that the existing part makes more sense on Nidhiki and Chiara if you see the ā€œrebreatherā€ as a third-party muffler addon, like the scope of an Akaku, rather than an aquatic addition)

7 Likes