Actually, looking at it now, that might be a prototype they used on that picture. On the instructions for the set, the teal tarakava was obviously teal. Yet it is very much a darker green color in this picture. So, they may have used an unreleased prototype in the picture.
Also, the Mata green Tarakava exists in the Masks of Power game, though that may just be for the purpose of balancing enemies in the game.
The model has one grey Onua Claw, which was never officially released. Besides that, its entirely buildable!
In fact, Eljay built it a few years back:
ah, very nice.
Yeah, that’s along the lines of what I was thinking, just more humanoid.
Obviously the mask was never released either. It would also seem that, according to the images in this article, the actual hubs are built differently from how Eljay did it:
EDIT: To my knowledge, the hubs are Part 2994:
I suspect that using these hubs would fix the issue that @Eljay mentioned in his video, about the tread moving from side to side.
While I agree with this statement, I would argue that if Lego were ever to consider making an official 3rd generation, they should do it primarily to attract new fans to the theme and not to please G1 fans.
True, but those themes have never had the sophisticated media and widely branching underlying content (especially story) that Bionicle or even Hero Factory had.
Don’t get me wrong, I love many of these lines to this day (most notably Exoforce), but the fact is that most of them were simple and one-note sub-themes with lots of memorable sets but not much else.
If the fan base is big enough, as it was in Star Trek’s and Transformers’s case, then yeah, sure.
Unfortunately, Bionicle doesn’t have the luxury of being such a cultic brand or pop-cultural phenomenon, like the two aforementiened ones, to be kept alive by just fan-made content.
It is and always was a niche theme that was only interested by a handful of fans within the whole consumer base of Lego. But since then, it got even worse, thanks to the disappointment caused by the failure of G2 coupled with the complete cancelation of the whole constraction line, resulting in many people leaving the community or stopping caring about Bonkle altogether.
The sad fact is that fans, in general, constantly desire new & official content that they can invest in themselves. If those aren’t available anymore, they start to lose interest gradually, and after a while, they’ll move away from the given brand or franchise to something else that might offer all the things they demand.
I totally agree. As a 22 year fan, I’d love a little consideration thrown my way, but at the end of the day it’s the new generation of kids that is best suited to move this forward, as you say. I’d just be grateful for the invite, and I think that’s the attitude us old-timers should bring to the table. No accusations here, just a general viewpoint.
I would also add that I think, if they did do G3, they should make some of them, well… girly. And even more so, a bit less gender specific. Not that anyone was ever really barred from Bionicle, but the equation “Robot + Fight = Boys” was certainly prevalent back then, and Lego Friends has proven that this medium can lend itself to a broader audience. I think Bionicle can do that too, and it would be good of Lego to more actively invite other demographics. Might even be good for them, not bottlenecking the IP through a gradually fading stereotype. The social climate has changed, after all.
Not to be rude, but I think adding many new characters in that way could also turn away many traditional-minded fans. Not that I would care. I’d still buy the sets. But still, in each theme where LEGO added new female characters, many of them were made almost more stereotypical than the male characters, which is why Friends is (probably) more popular with girls than Ninjago or City. At least City is easily compatible with Friends, due to their similar building styles.
You’re all good, man. I see your points, too. I wanna deep dive into this but I’m worried I’m taking us off the subject a bit
I think that makes the most sense because it looks so clearly mata green. Plus, the little pieces that you push on for the punching function look orange instead of yellow.
What’s really weird is that the same picture is at the end of the other instruction book, but the tarakava is turquoise-ish instead of green. It’s still not quite the right color though. I wonder if the printed copies have the same difference, or it’s just like that in the scans on the lego website.
After seeing the interview I now know that the set couldn’t have been ready for production at that point. The poll apparently also served to find out what castle themes could be implemented in a castle set. So there was system to the madness. But then, wasn’t there already the possibility to note down preferences or do I remember that wrong? The setup of the poll is just so bizarre.
While I see your point, the poll still feels completely arbritrary. Like its no suprise that castle and space(still shouldn’t have gotten a set) got a set. LEGO would have made similar sets either way.
However again my main problem with the poll and the result isn’t that Bionicle didn’t get a set but that LEGO break their own rules. Like sure they maybe didn’t plan for the castle subthemes spilt to backfire but it still feels like they were biased towards castle to begin with
I am a little upset that Pirates and Castle continue to get re-represented in plenty of individual scenarios, and that Classic Space just got a new set (despite not even winning), and while I love Tiny Tahu, I don’t think he really was made to make us happy. Every theme that lasted more than 3 years pretty much got something. Also, Castle, Pirates, and Space all got represented in the 90 Years set, so they basically all cancel out.
If sets are important to you, as they are to me, then yeah, we can feel upset. But Bionicle is so controversial right now that LEGO doing something and not doing something faces essentially equivalent amounts of backlash. If it doesn’t fit someone’s own personal opinion of what Bionicle should be, they don’t want it.
If it doesn’t have the right story, if it switches to System, if it’s made for kids, if Lewa’s a girl, if it’s the same as G1, if it’s different from G1, a large group of people are going to be angry and vocalize it. LEGO doesn’t dislike or even ignore Bionicle, they just can’t make us happy because we’ll never be happy. Maybe our perspectives matter too much to us.
I am decently upset that Bionicle is the only one of the four winning themes not getting their own set in these few years (2 just now), but it’s not the end of the world, and it’s not the end of LEGO for me. It’s okay to be angry, it’s okay to be sad, it may even be okay to be upset with the people who are angry or sad, but there will need to come a time when we accept that Bionicle may just be a good thing that’s gone, and one day, hopefully, we’ll be very pleasantly surprised if it returns.
Thank you for reading my own rant. Have a day that is good.
You just basically summed the whole thing up so beautifully. Thank you
It has to be intentional that the four options were the four finalists in the 90th Anniversary poll, right?
But not as original lines.
For those that cares the Galaxy Explorer instructions says that it was choosen from the poll to be made as a set as well:
Just to reiterate:
Also the Galaxy Explorer remake was concieved in 2013 by the designer
Source: text from 10497 instruction
interesting topic and my gut tells me yes. it tells me they are probably sick of it and sick of the years of being bugged to revive it. i feel like greg’s dismissal was part of that cause he was still a large remaining connection to it within the company. they want it to fade from memory and for the fanbase to slowly die out so they can just forget about it altogether and get on with their other, lets face it, less ambitious or creative projects.
but thats just my view
No. Just no.
