Respectfully, I demonstrated that simply by showing that for the majority of the years 2020 and 2021 Greg was not on TTV’s forum to answer general questions from the public, while TTV is known to have engaged with him during that period for the contests.
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Approximately 159 topics were made in the Ask Greg category in 2020, with Greg posting 27 times. This means he interacts 16% of the time.
Approximately 142 topics were made in the Ask Greg category in 2021, with Greg posting 7 times. This is about a 4% (really close to 5%) interaction rate.
This brings us to approximately 301 topics and 34 replies. That gives us a total interaction percentage of about 11%.
We received 8 emails in 2020, and 3 in 2021, for a total of 11. All pertaining to the Canon Contests, and only if we were asking a clarifying question, approving a character list, or presenting him with Canon Contest results. One of these emails was a response letting us know he would need more time to answer our questions (RE: Inika, Mahri, and variant Kanohi), which have gone unanswered.
Of the 11 emails, only 3 were questions to him. One was about the allowance of pieces, one was about the Inika, Mahri, and variant Kanohi, and the third was about the Toa Tools. In these instances, two were about story related matters, of which only one (this most recent one) was answered.
Are we more likely to get an answer? I don’t know, because we only reach out to him about the contests, not a variety of BIONICLE lore questions that he would need to think on or come up with something for. They’re all specific, they’re focused, they’re regarding something we work with him on. But at no point has our interaction with him been at a greater rate for non-contest related subjects than anyone posting on the Boards.
Ultimately, though, this conversation isn’t going to go anywhere, because we aren’t trying to seek restrictions unless the arguments for/against are equal in merit and we need his decision. We didn’t seek restrictions in this case. Any perceived “privilege” has been used very specifically, and this narrative of abuse we’ve been hearing about has no solid ground to stand on.
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I have a question now.
There are many types of staff.
What’s the case with spear?
I made Chiara’s, but I realized that spear shape was close to a glaive because it had a curved blade.
I don’t know if I can see it “spear” that piercing weapon.
well, anyway, visorak fang is “piercing” weapon
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I imagine that’d be counted as a spear. I mean, with the Hagah we got some wacky ”””spears””” like with Norik and Pouks. Shoot, speaking of Pouks, I entered a hammer with a spike on top of it as my “””spear””” and it wasn’t banned, so I think you’d be cool here.
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IMO, the best benchmark is “If lego released this as a set today, would/could they call it a spear?”
Which leaves a lot of room for creative liberty.
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I think this is spear, because Vezon’s The spear of fusion had similar shape! 
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My guess is that Staffs are shorter than Spears. In the case of the Vahki, their’s are energized bladed, pincer, drill, scissors, saw, hook staffs.
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I agree that that isn’t a fun prospect, but that does make me wonder what Greg’s motivations were for these (somewhat similar) weapons. Even if we assume that he misunderstood the question and only listed names because he thought TTV was asking for specifics, I find it very difficult to believe that he would actually give an answer unless he had put thought into it beforehand.
To that effect, there is this quote, where he said he would reread the story and think about it:
Admittedly, this is from before the quote in which he said he hadn’t come up with them yet, but it’s possible he’s read the story and made a decision in the 8-ish years since.
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Yeesh, I really do miss a new controversy every time I leave this thread don’t I? xD
Honestly, I’m in the camp that feel that it kinda sucks that we’re now pigeonholed into making specific weapons for 3 more Toa where restrictions didn’t exist before, but I suppose that can’t be helped now.
I guess we just need to be more careful with what we say to Greg going forward. Obviously TTV couldn’t have foreseen that he’d actually answer a vague question with specifics for the first time in his career, but hopefully in future this teaches them to only include topics in their mails to him if said topics are causing an absolute stalemate, like Tuyet’s sword.
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That would mean Zaria is on Ghid’s wanted list
WAIT WAS GHID THE MAKUTA WHO TRIED TO KILL ZARIA
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I’ve put some thought into the weapons and why they make sense, and how I’d do them if I were MOCing them. I figure Zaria likely carries some unornamented staff like a bo-staff that he is able to use his Iron powers to reshape into more effective tools when the time comes. Refraining from carrying an outwardly effective weapon would reflect his guilt over killing the Makuta. Orde carries a mace, likely not spiked, as a parallel to his nearly-rude blunt directness. Chiara carries a spear as she keeps those around her at a distance.
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*gunchucks
They’re like three weapons in one.
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A hypothetical thought:
Some of the Mocs with Guns have been some of my favorites for upcoming contests.
But: maybe, maybe, it’s the kind of thing I can see Greg actually rejecting, if a character has a straight up gun-gun. Not a cordak or midak or whatever, or some hypothetical weapon that is technically canon but never seen, but just, visually, a gun.
I have no evidence other than a gut feeling, and that restrictions from lego feel like they might come into play there. That’s not a lot to go on, and it may get definitively shut down by some piece of evidence I don’t remember (which I’d be thrilled about), but just wanted to bring it up.
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I agree with that, and honestly it goes against what we fundamentally know about Toa. They wield tools that in most cases have an overtly utilitarian purpose. Walking around with a gat (or something similar to a gun in function) just goes against the Toa’s operating habits. Tying back to an earlier topic, the very few Toa we’ve seen who carried launchers were all in some way specially enabled to carry weapons due to their circumstances/job, and it’s not normal for Toa.
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Aren’t straight-up guns also just uncommon in the Matoran universe? They have all sorts of magic-science they can put into their launchers, and Toa have bulletproof armor themselves, making any cannon that fires plain inert mass feel a little weak.
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Oh, i know how it works out in canon, and I actually still think a gun would be a really cool toa tool. Weak or not, if canon was the only concern, then i’d have not said anything, ‘cause that’d be up to the moccist.
My concerns are more from a meta, “bionicle is owned by a toy company who has previously had issues with outright depicted violence, and greg might have to/thinks he has to act accordingly” kind of place.
EDIT; again, hypothetical, but a hypothetical worth noting
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While a firearm as we define it is likely next to useless (and too technologically complicated to be worth producing, as far as cartridges go), “guns” have a place in the BIONICLE universe. As I elaborate in the linked post, they don’t really serve a role for Toa, being superfluous to a Toa’s existing ability to channel power.
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True, but it’s also worth keeping in mind that Zaria, being a Toa of Iron, can create whatever tool he needs at a moment’s notice. To me, it makes sense that his primary weapon might be something that he couldn’t instantaneously generate, and that’s why I believe a projectile weapon makes more sense for Zaria than for any other given Toa.
Of course, that isn’t the only possible explanation; perhaps his staff is made of a non-metallic material; @KDNX 's theory is good as well, that he carries the staff as a source of metal so that he doesn’t have to generate it himself.
Ultimately, I’m not trying to say that Zaria should definitely have a cannon-staff, but it would make more sense for him over any other Toa in these contests.
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I definitely see the logic there. I think a question worth asking, though, is whether a projectile weapon would be used by Toa at all. I just see a few logical hangups to it:
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Ammunition. The Inika’s Zamor spheres were fashioned for them, they looted their Cordak rockets from the Pit, and the Phantoka/Mistika’s weapons generated their own ammunition. A projectile weapon (as opposed to an energy weapon like the Nynrah ghost blaster) would need the projectile to come from somewhere. If Zaria’s producing it, why doesn’t he also use his elemental power to just throw it at an enemy at lethal speed? If it is an energy weapon, it would be a first among Toa tools for being a (standard, not counting the Phantoka) ranged weapon that has nothing to do with the user’s element.
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Morality. A ranged weapon, generally speaking, has only one utility: to kill or maim the enemy. This flies in the face of everything we know about how Toa operate. Maybe that actually works in Zaria’s favor, since he was rumored to frequently kill his opponents. Looking at Zaria’s actual conscience, though, I don’t think it would tonally mesh well. There’s also the distinct possibility that Toa view melee weapons as more “honorable,” akin to a knight’s chivalric views, but I recognize that this is purely speculation.
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Elemental ties. I touched on this with my first point, but essentially if a ranged weapon is shooting an Iron projectile, he really has no reason not to just make some and magically throw it using his elemental power. The EE drain would be about equivalent.
Regarding his Toa tool being made of something he can generate: why not? If he’s already carrying a metal stick, it saves him time and elemental energy if he can simply modify the stick he’s holding to turn it into a shovel, climbing gear, a hammer, a spear, whatever. He doesn’t have to generate one out of thin air. Toa of Iron are partly made of their element, so I don’t see why their weapon shouldn’t also be. (Of course, this leads me down the track where I think it makes more sense if Zaria’s tools were formed from/built into his armor, and how it would also work if he was weaponless because he can use his element to control a target’s body… etc.)
I’m not saying I wouldn’t vote for a gunstaff or arquebus or whatever strikes a MOCist’s fancy, but imo the logic holds that he, and any given Toa, would prefer a melee weapon.
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