This topic kind of spun off from a comment i made on “Opinions on the prominent use of silver and gold in BIONICLE sets”.
I personally like the idea of Technic being included, but i feel it was implemented poorly. The only set I feel it worked well for was Tahu, and he still only looked half decent for me when combined with Ikir. I feel like they ran out of ways to try and implement it, resulting in abominations like Lewa, specifically his arms.
Outside of Technic feel they failed in many more ways, one example being the color scheme, and another being the unity gimmick. Its good in concept, but it results in the Toa looking incomplete. Clearly some kind of marketing ploy to try and get kids to by the smaller sets as well as the larger ones, that they’ve tried to reinforce by making the Toa look even weaker and less bulky than the 2015 counterparts. Totally fine with them trying to get people to buy the smaller sets too, but they should be able to do it without sacrificing the quality of the sets when not combined. 2008 did this perfectly.
I’d be interested to hear some more opinions on this.
Only reason the 08 sets look complete even without is because they had a bulkier piece. They also didn’t have to accommodate for the Matoran heads to fit and move with the Toa heads without removing them.
Imagine the Phantoka with just pins sticking out of their backs. A lot less impressive then.
I feel the 2016 Toa simply suffer from being too flat. I feel if they bulked up the shoulder area, maybe moved it back a bit and added a shell underneath above the waist gear they would have looked fine.
I guess so, it just felt like a bit of a downgrade to me. The style 2015 had going with the tough and armored looking Toa worked really well, but they lost that this year. It was probably to accommodate for the Uniting gimmick, so the creatures would fit over, but that only makes me dislike the change more.
@Leoxandar I feel like it could have been used a lot better. The shoulder’s were the primary issues, as Kopaka and Lewa had designs which just looked really strange in a lot of poses. Took me a long time to pose them in a way that i was satisfied with.
@PakariNation99 I think the shoulders should have been moved back a pin or two, to give a bit more of the 2015 look - or, taking advantage of the use of Technic, angle them slightly.
Actually the 2016 sets are intended to be combined with the 2015 sets. I’ve already experimented with combining both, however there are no official instructions to work with.
Some cases I feel like the technic was added more to add technic than to help the build.
Sometimes it works, but often it does not. Upper arms are the worst offenders.
Honestly, the 2016 Uniters are my favorite Toa sets out of G1 and G2. Sure, they have flaws, but so do all other sets. The 2015 Masters looked a bit clunky and awkward (OK mostly just Tahu) while the Uniters have more of a sleek profile (which I always like) and have very enjoyable builds, unlike, say, the Phantoka… Speaking of which, @Ozkabot I kind of disagree with you with the “2008 did the Unity gimmick perfectly”. First of all, the Avtoran were terrabad, and looked awkward when slapped onto the Toa’s backs. The creatures are pretty good small sets and a lot of the Unity combos look awesome (not Pohatu, sorry Pohatu…) . I love the Uniters in all of their excessive metal colors and will defend them till the bitter end XD.
Yeah, perfectly was probably the wrong words to use, but what I meant was that the Toa looked complete when not combined, whereas the 2016 Toa have clearly had compromises to allow for the uniting ability. It may not have looked like the best combo in 2008, but at least the Toa looked just as complete as all previous iterations. When I bought the 2016 Toa without the creatures they looked awful, when I added the creatures they looked alright. I didn’t have this issue with 2008.
As long as it’s done for practical purposes that actually help provide an interesting structure or aesthetic, rather than for the sake of “ZOMFG CUSTOM!!!”, I’m alright with it.
I’m of the mind that the simplest solution is often the best, and that something should only become complicated if totally necessary. For example, you don’t need to build a custom bone out of Technic just so you don’t have to use a basic CCBS bone, or build a totally custom torso when a basic torso frame has the exact same proportions and connection points that you want to achieve. However, you might want an armour piece to be positioned over the shoulder in a certain way that can’t be done using basic CCBS building, so in that scenario it wouldn’t be superfluous to use some Technic around the shoulder joint to position it in the way you want. You might also want to give your character a mechanism that the standard 2015 gearbox piece won’t accommodate, so again, building a custom Technic cradle for it is perfectly reasonable.
You really don’t have to make things “custom” for the sake of it. Too often have I seen MOCs with limbs or torsos jam-packed with Technic for what I can only assume is to give the impression of great technical prowess, that end up looking really blocky or messy. There’s nothing wrong with making things more technical, so long as there’s a point to doing so other than - again - “ZOMFG CUSTOM!!!”. Most of this year’s sets do demonstrate that quite nicely, only using Technic when they want to achieve something that basic CCBS building couldn’t - The positioning of Kopaka’s shoulder armour, for example, could not be achieved without Technic-based shoulders. The lower legs on the Beasts however demonstrate what superfluous custom building looks like - They’re built with Technic when they don’t really need to be, and suffer for it aesthetically.
Also, another point I’d like to make - How exactly does the user of Technic make these sets more like G1 sets? Very few - if any - G1 canister sets used Technic to the same extent that any of this year’s sets had. Only titan or vehicle builds from G1 are comparable, but seeing as what we’re getting in G2 are small set and canister set equivalents, that comparison doesn’t really work. Basically G2 sets are significantly more complex than their G1 ancestors.
Ok I agree with you there. The 2016 Uniters look a little unfinished from the back. OK no they look REALLY flat and unfinished from the back. I’m kind of split on the whole unity gimmick debate. On one side, I see a thinly veiled ploy to sell more small sets. On the other end of things, I think that the Unity thing is a great play feature. And on another side, the creatures are really cute…
I would love to see a Uniter revamp that somehow fixes the flat and thin issue of the Toa while also allowing for the Unity to work without disassembling the Creature.