I can’t believe it took me this long but I just realized a massive problem I have with these prints, they’re all effectively palette swaps of the same design.
Not like you’re going to change them but I think they should have more variance in their designs, like nexo knights and Ninjago.
You basically translated the early toa ‘clone set’ appearance into minifig form, which is kind of visually boring in my opinion.
I mentioned nexo knights, and that’s a good example of what I mean, they’re all clearly on the same team but they all have unique characterful armor designs that are specific to the character.
Also, now that I look at them again, there seems to be a problem with the consistency of the level of detail, namely that the abs are insanely more complex than the rest of the prints, so it creates a disconnect in the design.
The masks still look a little more organic than I’d like, but they’ve grown on me, except pohatu, I’ve never been a big fan of the uniter design.
Is there a blank for the Axel-fig design without any colors and prints? I’m interested in making minifigure designs and I couldn’t find one for that body type.
I can make one, though it won’t be till this evening, due to work. I’ll just make it an outline, and you can add whatever details you need.
[Edit] - Sorry it took so long… I forgot about this once I got home. Here’s a template for the axel-fig and a standard minifig, along with the toa heads and masks.
So, this minifigures are very nicely done, but it’s evident that IF there will be an official reboot for Bionicle,and it will be a system theme, then the minifigures won’t have so many details. Like heck! They would very very very very very expensive to make! Even the waste have sooooooo many details!
Have you not watched the podcasts about G3? The cast has explained multiple times how the change to system is something that could have prevented G2 from flopping. Constraction is declining, outside of licensed themes like Star Wars.
While constraction is where BIONICLE got its start, the constraction brand is essentially being phased out because it’s not as profitable as it was several years ago. If they were to do a G3, I would prefer it to be SYSTEM.
I’d say it’s even declining there, since they’re down to two-four sets per-wave, it shelf-warms pretty hard.
Well… G2 didn’t last too long. They didn’t even get the third year they planned. Their whole concept was a reimagining of Bionicle with a new building style. I don’t think repeating the process would do much, even if the pieces were even more unique than what G2 did. Also, you say we need to think outside of the box. That’s exactly what the cast did for G3. System Bionicle is way outside of the box.
2019 will be the first year since 1999 where there is no active LEGO constraction theme (that we know of so far, there could maaaaybe be a summer theme, but I doubt it).
That means something. G2 tanked horrendously, Hero Factory bled out slowly as its advertising budget was cut down harshly year-by-year. Superhero Ultrabuilds were short lived. Chima ended and its constraction subtheme was handicapped in its final wave and only saw limited release. Knights Kingdom was canned, Ben 10 got like one wave. Star Wars constraction lasted for a while, admittedly, but petered out into relatively simplistic template builds instead of doing anything truly original or out-of-the-box before ultimately having planned sets canceled despite pictures and data being released of them via catalog leaks.
Constraction has been bleeding for several years now. That’s not to say it can’t be saved, or isn’t worth saving, but the primary logic behind our decision to move forward with our “BIONICLE G3” project using system rather than constraction is because we firmly believe BIONICLE would have a stronger chance to sell well and actually get decent marketing behind it if it were a system theme.
I find it interesting that your designs for the G3 Toa look very much like the Ultron robot minifigures. Was this intentional or just a byproduct of trying to give them organic and mechanical details at the same time?
