While I am still a little bit annoyed that Lewa is female, I can’t deny how awesome these are!
I love the way the colors are distributed and the variety of “tribal line” placement. I just have to say that they way it looks like moss is growing on Onua is an ingenious idea, and it suits him rather well for the new Earth you guys have come up with.
There are however, a few things I have issues with:
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I love the all mask designs and how they pull inspiration from every Toa Mata iteration except '08 there ever was! That said I do feel as though Kopaka’s and Pohatu’s masks could be improved. I think you guys were trying to replicate The Akaku’s roundness with Kopaka, but at the moment, I feel as though something is missing; to me, it looks as though he has a balding issue (It just looks too round). Pohatu’s looks great, but I can’t unsee the ‘nose’ he has at the center on the mask (it reminds me of Nuparu’s in '06).
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I love the face hidden from the masks, but I feel as though all the work in creating the expressions for each toa is lost under the mask. While this obviously occurred in every bionicle iteration, I feel as though it effects it the most here. For example, I really dig the challenging look Lewa has going on for her, but because the raised eyebrow is hidden, something looks off when she has her mask. I’m not sure if the issue can be fixed, just pointing it out.
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I feel like some of the characters have more colors on them than others. On Gali, for example, I count 4 (dark blue, light blue, blue, and orange). On Kopaka, I count 3 (dark blue, white, and yellow). Obviously, I’m not counting blacks or grays, here, but I think (unless I just can’t differentiate colors) that some do, in fact, have more than others. Whether this is a good or bad thing, IDK, but some might say it breaks up the unity of them all (I don’t think it does, but some might)
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In dealing with the weapons and added armor, are you guys going to use different armor and different weapons each year? Is the added armor going to have prints? Are the weapons, for year 1, going to be based off of the G1 Mata weapons? I was having a discussion on another topic whose main purpose is on whether or not the Toa should have mask powers. I’m still kind of against it, but the main argument that the mask and their powers could be used in a scannable gimmick similar to Nexo Knights convinced me slightly. Is that your intent with these masks? If not, then what would you say should be the collectibles, for year one at least?I’d say Nuva symbols that harness their elemental energies, or something like that
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Some have already suggested that Lewa’s cape be specialized in some capacity. I assume Gali’s skirt has printing or stitching on it to get the orange design, so I’d suggest to do the same for Lewa (or at least have a design on the back of the cape)
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Lastly, I’d hate to say this but, doesn’t the printing on a minifig only go down to their knees? I’m no Lego expert, but I don’t think Lego have specialized their machines to print designs at such a tight angle, as your concept suggests at the foot/leg angle. I do think Lego would allow a double molded leg and the printing from the knees upward, but not printing to the foot. The same restrictions, I believe, apply to the arms.
Whew!
Sorry about my super-long post, again. But I do think that Although these designs look exceptionally awesome!.. they still have minor flaws, or my personal nitpicks, that I find brings them down a smidgen.
Nevertheless, I really do enjoy these designs, and look forward to all the turaga, matoran, rahkshi, etc. when they come out!
You all have a LOT of work to do!