Standardized Onua Revamp (Technic)

[LegoDavid]

A few days ago, I proposed the idea of bringing back Bionicle using the current Technic parts available. @ToaOfPlastic, however, was quite skeptical whether this idea would actually work in practice. So I decided to try it out for myself, making a Toa Mata-style build that would be primarily made out of Technic, would use as few Specialized pieces as possible, and could realistically be produced as an official set that would retail for less than 10$. This was the result:

The build is comprised of approximately 95 pieces, which, given the current market price of Technic sets produced today, could easily retail for 10$ without any issues.

I challenged myself to use as few discontinued pieces as possible, but without compromising on the Bionicle aesthetic. As such, I still ended up using the Mata Head, Onua Claws, and Pakari. As long as those are the only specialized pieces included, I don’t think LEGO would take issue with brining those back.

I also used a few more generic discontinued pieces, such as the short CCBS bones, Mata feet, and a few generic uncommon Technic elements such as the Slizer feet. Although those parts are technically discontinued too, the fact that they are rather generic and could still be used across multiple themes would not be particularly problematic for LEGO if they were to bring them back. And if, in the worst case scenario, they can’t even bring those simple generic pieces back, than I am pretty sure they could still figure out other substitutions.

The size is almost identical to the original Onua Mata set, but the possibility has been increased significantly. My version features knee, elbow, hand, and partial neck articulation. I even experimented with incorporating the Classic Gear Function too, but that would have required completely re-doing the torso build. However, I’m pretty sure someone could still reverse-engeer my build to include the gear function as well if they tried.

What do you think? Is this a good demonstration of the concept of Technic-Bionicle? Could this realistically be produced as a set today? Any thoughts and feedback is highly appreciated.

[Rhyla416]

ah neat
ye no this is actually a pretty cool and feasible way for the bonkles to return!

[T4k4nuv4]

Incredible reimagining here, excellent job!

[TheJerminator]

@LegoDavid

As long as those are the only specialized pieces included, I don’t think LEGO would take issue with brining those back.

Ehhh… That’s still quite a few pieces, especially is you’re going to make masks and weapons for the other Toa as well.

I agree that the mask is necessary (or at least a mask, even if they don’t bring back the original mold), but I think the head and claws could be made from Technic. The weapons are the bigger issue here; at least a new head mold could be reused on all the other sets, while weapons tend to be fairly set-exclusive.

Alternatively, Lego could make a head with existing parts and then design all the new masks specifically to fit with it.

All that being said, though, this is still a great proof-of-concept for the viability of Technic-built Bionicle sets,

EDIT: Example:

Of course, some may disagree with the use of System for the forearm, but I personally don’t mind it.

[LegoDavid]

@TheJerminator

Of course, some may disagree with the use of System for the forearm, but I personally don’t mind it.

That’s quite a clever alternative! Thanks for sharing. I thought about making the lower arm out of Technic too, but I couldn’t figure out any design that would still look good and wouldn’t be too long, so I ended up just using the CCBS bone. I would have never thought of attaching the Mixel joints in that way!

[TheJerminator]

I also just came up with this head design:

It works with all of the 2001 Kanohi, with the exception of the Kakama; there’s a tiny bit of clipping just above the eye (and even then, you could probably get it to stay on there well enough):

You may also be able to cram a krana on there, but it definitely wouldn’t be a full connection.

This construction uses entirely currently-used pieces in existing colours, with one exception; the minifigure ring from Lord Of The Rings has been recoloured in Light Bluish Gray .

[ToaOfPlastic]

the ammount of retired parts used aside, I also feel like the style of limb construction used on the thighs and upper arms wouldn’t look as nice in practice given that LEGO would most likely use red axles to hold those together.

@TheJerminator

Ehhh… That’s still quite a few pieces, especially is you’re going to make masks and weapons for the other Toa as well.

Very true, this build alone uses 6 “new” molds, if we extend that to the weapons and masks for all of the other toa mata, that’s a total of 16, 17 if you want to include the slizer/mata claw for the toa that use that. While I agree that things like the short CCBS bone could still be useful (some of the medium sized ninjago mechs would benefit from those) the bulk of those parts, specifically the masks and weapons, are very character specific.

@TheJerminator

I also just came up with this head design:

how stable is that?

[TheJerminator]

@ToaOfPlastic

how stable is that?

I can’t say for sure, since I built it in stud.io, but I’m pretty confident in it. Everything’s held together by at least one stud (except for the “nose”), and all possible points of rotation are locked by adjacent parts. Obviously it’s not the most sturdy structure out there, but it should be able to support a mask and stand up to reasonable handling. The only possible issue might come when removing the mask, since it’s also held on by a single stud; the mouth area might just come off with it.

Here’s some additional angles if anyone wants to try it with physical parts:

[LegoDavid]

@ToaOfPlastic

Very true, this build alone uses 6 “new” molds, if we extend that to the weapons and masks for all of the other toa mata, that’s a total of 16, 17 if you want to include the slizer/mata claw for the toa that use that. While I agree that things like the short CCBS bone could still be useful (some of the medium sized ninjago mechs would benefit from those) the bulk of those parts, specifically the masks and weapons, are very character specific

While I understand the concern, I frankly don’t think producing that amount of new molds is really as unrealistic as people might be led to be believe. Monkie Kid, the most recent original theme, for instance, got at least one new mold for almost every new character, on top of a few new smaller “utility” molds as well.
Just looking at the first wave alone, we have one big Sandy bigfig, Monkie Kid’s hair, Mei’s Hair, Pigsy’s head, Red Sun’s hair, and Lady Iron Fan’s hair. That’s six new character-specific molds in the first wave of the theme alone.
Assuming that producing a new mask mold would cost about as much as producing a new Minifigure hair mold, I think getting six new mask molds at the very least is a fair bet.
Remember, if Bionicle came back, expecting it to introduce some new molds too is pretty much a given. Every new LEGO theme does that, even if they are small low budget “one and done” themes.
Expecting LEGO to bring back an entire building system and all the parts associated with it was the actual problematic part. And since my MOC has more or less resolved that issue, I don’t think we should worry about it anymore.

[Rons_oc]

Cool! Works really well

[ToaOfPlastic]

While it’s true that the more character specific molds would be required either way, system builds wouldn’t need to reintroduce those more generic retired parts. Which leaves more room in the budget for the more character specific ones.

I’d go so far as to say that system could probably get 95% of the way there with existing pieces. Which is partially because, again, LEGO is already leaning in the direction of system constraction. Even if the concept hasn’t developed enough to support a theme on it’s own I think it’s come too far now for LEGO to jump ship to a completely different system.

Whatever direction LEGO takes with constraction I think they would want to do it in a way that can support a wide variety of IPs and aesthetics (similar to what they were going for with CCBS.) Technic would lock them down to only the skeletal mechanical look of G1-esque builds.

I’m not opposed to some technic being included in modern constraction builds. (I’ve built in that style myself) but I don’t think primarily technic is the way to go.

@LegoDavid

Expecting LEGO to bring back an entire building system and all the parts associated with it was the actual problematic part. And since my MOC has more or less resolved that issue, I don’t think we should worry about it anymore.

It’s not just about whether or not to bring back an old building system, it’s about being reasonable within the modern era and the wider LEGO sphere. Parts budgets are just one facet of that.

You don’t get to decide that the discussion is over just because you made one moc that some people generally seem to like. In all fairness it is a cool moc, and I don’t mean any of this criticism as a slight against your creative ability, but claiming that it alone “resolves the issue” just comes off as arrogant imo.

[LegoDavid]

@ToaOfPlastic

You don’t get to decide that the discussion is over just because you made one moc that some people generally seem to like. In all fairness it is a cool moc, and I don’t mean any of this criticism as a slight against your creative ability, but claiming that it alone “resolves the issue” just comes off as arrogant imo

Please note that I said “more or less”. This by default means I have not definitely solved the issue or ended the discussion. Have I? Of course not. This was just my answer to what I personally perceived as the obstacles to Constraction returning, and what I would personally like a “realistic” reboot of Bionicle to look like. Of course, there are a lot of factors to consider, and the discussion is indeed very nuanced, but please, I don’t think it was really fair to call me “arrogant” just for that.

@ToaOfPlastic

While it’s true that the more character specific molds would be required either way, system builds wouldn’t need to reintroduce those more generic retired parts. Which leaves more room in the budget for the more character specific ones

Even if Constraction would return as a full blown theme in System, it is pretty much expected that we’ll get new “generic” molds too either way in order to support the new building style. Longer, recolored, or modified Mixel joints are to be expected to come up eventually in such a scenario. Which budget-wise would be pretty much the equivalent to re-introducing older retired Technic Bionicle parts. (As a matter of fact, reintroducing an older mold might actually be significantly cheaper than designing one from scratch, but I don’t have any confirmation of this, so don’t quote me on that).
So I think it kind of goes both ways, to be honest.

[TotalMaddness]

@LegoDavid

Longer, recolored, or modified Mixel joints are to be expected to come up eventually in such a scenario.

I don’t see how that’s to be expected? We know for a fact that they can’t be recoloured, and longer or modified joints seem useless considering that you can just make longer joints by using regular parts and putting connectors on each end. Making such hyper-specific parts doesn’t seem cost effective or useful at all.

[ToaOfPlastic]

@LegoDavid

Even if Constraction would return as a full blown theme in System, it is pretty much expected that we’ll get new “generic” molds too either way in order to support the new building style. Longer, recolored, or modified Mixel joints are to be expected to come up eventually in such a scenario.

Yes, but LEGO has reason to make things like that currently, despite no current full constraction lines being on shelves, because of how prevalent mechs are. As I’ve been saying, LEGO already has a head start in this direction. Unlike with technic, where they would effectively need to start from scratch.

also I feel like we should move back to the thread where this started

Calling you arrogant was probably a bit excessive, but that initial statement still reads to me as an attempt to shut down further discussion. If it wasn’t intended that way, fair enough.

[DuneToa]

@TotalMaddness

? We know for a fact that they can’t be recoloured

Why can’t they recolor mixel joints?

[ToaOfPlastic]

Statement from an actual LEGO designer (posted in the TTV patreon discord)

[DuneToa]

Ok, that makes sense. I have noticed that those two shades of grey seem to have the most friction and strength compared to other colors.

[ToaOfPlastic]

yeah, in my personal experience, some of the ball pieces have been made in other colors and they do seem to have notably less friction. Obviously can’t comment on recolored sockets though

[DuneToa]

I know that Hero Factory seems to have violated this rule. They had black, gray, red, and white CCBS bones. Oh and green ones from Surge.

[TotalMaddness]

The CCBS ball joints are big enough to be able to be recoloured without too many issues. The mixel joints are colour locked due to their tiny size and subsequently more delicate nature.