This is the point where we’re supposed to forget the literal decades of stuff this man has made.
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So apparently Faber posts “BIONICLE”->“BIONICLE” (“OC”) images, which some people misread, and this is somehow “exploiting the fans”?
As others have said, Faber isn’t promising a product for you to inspect and he has been clear about this. The simplest reading of the situation is that he would like some sort of BIONICLE project to take place, and has been sharing his own concepts.
The original hashtag “14B2020” referred to his self-set target to get something concrete done by 1/4/2020, but apparently COVID postponed a key meeting. We don’t know if said meeting has even happened yet due to the pandemic still taking place, or if it would fall under NDA etc.
Maybe recent posts suggest that the meeting’s outcome was negative, or that it is still uncertain. Or maybe Faber was just reflecting the entitled / combative tone of many messages he receives. But the logic is clear that even if (eg) LEGO initially turns down a concept proposal, that outcome may change if it has enough public support.
Personally, I enjoy seeing Faber’s art and clever concepts (AI, environmentalism etc.) and am grateful that he wants BIONICLE to continue in some way. I will be very disappointed if he is put off from publicly sharing his work (and likely put off continuing it) because community members with loud voices denounce him every time his English isn’t very clear.
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Under hired contracts and mandatory deadlines, sure. The same cannot be said of his own projects. Some people just need suits to rope them in line, because they’ll continue to spiral into nothing.
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I’ve been on/off following his independant work regarding Rebel Nature for… a good long while, and the aesthetics and concepts covered are food for my soul. I think I’m almost certainly his desired target demographic, as I look at Rebel Nature and Rig 21 and my first reaction is “What could I do with this?” Not necessarily in the most literal sense, but the ideas put forward send my imagination spinning.
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No, he has not.
Every single post he has made on the subject has been intentionally super vague, so no one has any idea what he’s doing. Heck, even 'is first post was on April Fools, just so people wouldn’t be sure if it was a joke.
Did some people misread what Faber wants to do? Yes. Is that their fault? No. Because Faber refuses to make any clear statements. He says nothing but vague and cryptic statements, then is shocked when no one knows what he’s doing.
[e.
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We know exactly what he has been doing - hyping people around a specific concept which he may or may not ever deliver anything at all on. We’ve known that since day one. And he’s used the internet clout for other means. Whether that’s good business - or business at all - is completely irrelevant.
There is no advertising because there is no product. He is making vague promises that a product exists; we are to expect nothing because he has offered nothing. Show-don’t-tell only works when there is something to show and not tell.
And overestimating his godlike status and the speaking power it “grants” him to the point of it actually pacifying the community, and underestimating the wrath of a community scorned. You think it’s bad for him now, wait till he eventually admits there was never anything in store and he was playing hype for hype’s sake - hype he “doesn’t need”.
Quote source - Christian Faber.
“Hey guys there is a thing!” is literally all he has said.
This isn’t marketing, this isn’t show-don’t-tell, this is don’t-show. This is inane and unequivocal babble which amounts to less than business, less than creativity. It’s pointless fluff which isn’t even pointing anywhere. It is a sum of its parts; its parts are four or five images of concept art for an idea nobody knows and a brand entirely kept alive outside of his involvement.
It makes me kinda wonder how much Bionicle he’s retained; how much of that masterful worldbuilding and conceptual skill is being ignored in favor of concepts nobody else agrees with. It’s part of the struggle of attempting to appeal to nostalgic memories because everyone’s Bionicle is different. Quote:
Yes I do quote myself to inflate my ego, be silent
But that’s hardly an excuse for the lack of anything other than “look at how much of Christian Faber I am” which he’s been posting everywhere he can. To gain a following? To advertise a product which may or may not ever exist? To remind people he’s alive and please notice him?
Maybe all. Maybe none. And we don’t know because he can’t do PR for his life.
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I will make you care. >:)
I mean to be fair, when everyone is throwing accusations at you it’s pretty easy to get into an aggressive mode.
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There is no advertising because there is no product. He is making vague promises that a product exists; we are to expect nothing because he has offered nothing.
You misunderstand what I wrote; He never said there would ever be a product, and you are not entitled to one just because you got your hopes up. What Faber is and has been doing is building proof of having a following which he can use to entice companies and/or independent investors to become business partners or to fund his projects. So far, this has landed him a series concept development partnership with Toon2Tango: Log into Facebook | Facebook and I’m sure he hopes that it will lead to more in the future, at which point you will be able to purchase product(s).
Show-don’t-tell only works when there is something to show and not tell.
You are taking my “show don’t tell” analogy too literally. He cannot tell his fans that they are part of a viral marketing brand-building exercise because that defeats the purpose of it being viral marketing. Instead he shows us artwork and test animation footage to keep us interested and invested in his ideas, because that makes his IP brands as well as his personal brand as a creator appear more lucrative to potential partners and investors than they would otherwise appear if he were relying on the originality of his ideas alone. Faber needs to do this because- and this should have been obvious to everyone- he is just one guy with little to no resources aside from knowing a few friends who work in digital design and scriptwriting, so it was always unrealistic to expect him to be able to launch an entire franchise with products based on another company’s IP within a year or two from announcing his desire to do so.
underestimating the wrath of a community scorned. You think it’s bad for him now
Please do not harass Faber. If you feel so passionately scorned over getting your hopes up based on the possibility that a man who you’ve never met might bring back a toy franchise he used to be involved with but never owned, then you should step back from this situation.
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I think that anyone who believes that Faber’s posts are anything more than fortune-cookie esque motivational ideas i.e. “never give up your dreams” “creativity is the key” is simply delusional. Even if he had any actual plans for whatever he’s doing he won’t be able to realize them now due to Covid (not his fault really). But he definitely isn’t going to bring back Bionicle, at least not in the shape and form we used to know it. The sooner people realize that the better.
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I personally just find it a bit dirty that he’s using the goodwill he acquired for Bionicle to drum up support for his current projects, with only the vaguest hint that they might be even tonally similar.
Like, he doesn’t seem to get that there are no fans of him, just fans of Bionicle. He hasn’t produced much else. Maybe one day down the line when Rebel Nature has actually been released, someone will genuinely be able to say “I’m a fan of the work of Christian Faber”, but right now, that only amounts to saying “I like Bionicle”. He isn’t owed support or a following for his new projects because of it, especially when he markets them so poorly.
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But the constants teasing with Bionicle artwork and criptic messages are the same as him saying “Wouldn’t it be nice if someone brought back Bionicle? wink-wink”. He made a hashtag for “bionicle revival” (if he clarified some other meaning of the word, please enlighten me).
If he doesn’t clarify that he doesn’t want to bring Bionicle back while doing all these teasing, I don’t think it’s a surprise that big chunk of his followers think/thought that he tries to do it.
Ehh, I don’t think so.
Scanning through his instagram, half of his post are Bionicle/HF related, quarter are some shower thoughts, and the last quarter are about Rebel Nature, and these can be the same concept art. The Bionicle posts, in average, get 2-3 times as much attention as the Rebel nature ones.
So to me its more like he rides the passion of the Bionicle fans to raise his “personal brand”, so he can sell Rebel Nature. If it wasn’t for Bionicle, I doubt he would get this much attention.
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*Biological chronicle of survival
I’d also like to mention that Faber commented under Mesos video. He is hoping for an interview.
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Showdown incoming. His wording, as always, is interesting, presumably implying that he’s trying to make this without drawing LEGO’s attention. So, exactly what we’ve known for the past two years.
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“Do you care? I will make you care”
No it isn’t shut UP 
Correct.
You don’t know that. You can guess that was his true intention all along, but jumping to that conclusion is post hoc ergo propter hoc.
Yeah, I… Know. But anyone in any klind of marketing knows you don’t blind hype and expect it to pay off; you add substance and all Faber’s done is hint as a theoretical Bionicle that may or may not exist. Hint, prod and lead to something Real, not something that after two years you are as equally vague about as you were when you started (if not more vague). That’s not even how viral marketing works.
For Rebel Nature, sure. The stakes are laid there. We know his pitch precisely and we know the general scope of everything he’s trying to accomplish. He’s been methodical and proper about that angle of viral marketing, and it’s paid off decently.
But that only makes it more obvious there’s nothing in 14B2020 or we would have seen something telling us what it is by now. Nobody in the community or online or anywhere outside of Faber’s inner circle has any clue what 14B2020 is because… It’s nothing.
And until Faber makes it something it’s going to continue to be an ad campaign for something that doesn’t exist. That’s why people are getting angry and are being disappointed, because all the posts and all the hyping adds up to a grand total of zero - which is exactly what he promised.
It is obvious. What’s also obvious is Faber’s pointing at the sky and boasting how many clouds there will be based on the fact that there aren’t any now. When pressured he’s responded with accusations, implying if people aren’t satisfied they can go home, and where he’s going he doesn’t even need clouds, so why bother arguing with him over it?
People are not upset because Faber has been utilizing a corporate tactic. People are upset because Faber is so bad at basic PR he’s shooting his leg clean off because he’s not going anywhere near land and therefore doesn’t need to walk.
Great, now tell that to every other person on the planet who actually feels that way, and not just the messenger. I’m something of a community weatherman since I’ve been leeching off it for so long, and my predicted forecast is Faber’s going to be hit with a community-leveling hurricane if he doesn’t either stop the misleading posts and fall to silence or make good the imaginary promises the community thinks he made by nature of being Faber.
I will be watching from far away.
Ones that also tug at your heartstrings and promise a breath of life into the old, decaying corpse of Bionicle by the one person who would theoretically have the status to do that. You can’t say Faber hasn’t had the appearance of teasing a theoretical product when he’s flashing logos, professional concept art, and discussing business deals. If you do, that’s simply delusional.
And any flak Faber’s received thus far has been, frankly, entirely justified. He knew what he was doing, and it wasn’t just hyping the mob for corporate gain.
In fact, he…
He, uh…
He’s… Actually watching the topic and he’s… Gambling for an interview?
More specifically, he is literally saying this is working up to be an end product, which proves me right, haha take that losers, Ghid is right once again!! wow I’m so glad I’m this smart but more specifically he’s…
…Yeah. Doing the exact same thing he’s been doing this whole time. Meso, if you’ve survived this long, I wouldn’t do that interview. I expect it to be, well, more of the same.
Also hi Faber how’s the weather over there
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Don’t do that. Don’t give me hope.
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Technically, you are correct; he has never said “there will be a product”. Instead, all of his actions have been designed to make people think that there is a bionicle product.
Lying through actions is still lying.
“Look at all these fans who only follow me because I’ve promised something I might never deliver! Now give me money to make a completely different thing that these fans won’t care about!”
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All this confirms to me is that BIONICLE has a thoroughly toxic fandom. With the G1 contests lately, and even this. I grow tired of the pointless anger and entitlement. BIONICLE is dead, just enjoy it for what it was and make your own MOCs and stories like the ending of G1 encouraged. Why must we desire an official product?
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We’ve been through this gather yer pitchforks phase so many times at this point that I can’t even bring myself to care about it anymore. Just shut up.
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Or that when attempting to form partnerships with said companies, you aren’t allowed to just release all your plans to the public. Doing so would ruin your negotiations.
Agreed. It sure would be nice if people could just be happy to see this cool concept art.
Regardless of his end goal, Faber is already giving something to the community for free, at a time when he has other actual paid work to do. What right does anyone have to demand (more) details / disclaimers / promises etc?
Mainly though, to those it concerns, please stop claiming Faber is “exploiting” people by drawing a BIONICLE. He’s asking for nothing in return, so just don’t look if it upsets you.
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