Unity. Duty. Destiny.

2004: Teridax kills Toa Lhikan and causes the Great Catalyst

2005: Teridax has been freed from his prison

2006: the Mask of Life has disappeared again

2007: Mata Nui just straight-up fuckin dies

2008: Teridax is now in control of the GSR

These are in no particular order. 

To begin, we have the promotional sets. Bad Guy is just that- bad. His clashing colors, maskless piraka head, poorly-designed legs- there’s nothing to like other than his meme potential.

Speaking of memes, here’s Good Guy. An improvement from Bad Guy albeit not by much. His colors don’t clash nearly as much as his evil counterpart, and he has more than one point of articulation in his legs. In the case of promotional sets, good triumphs.

Of course, there isn’t only one Bad Guy. Introducing QUICK Bad Guy, perhaps the ugliest set I’ve ever seen. I understand these are promotional sets, but this… thing… is proof little effort was put into their design.

Just no…

Perhaps this is cheating, for this is a combiner build. Nevertheless, this was released as an individual set, so I believe it should count. Ultimate Dume, from your inconsistent design to your wonky proportions and chompers which give Mileena something to gnash her teeth at, you miss nearly every mark. At least you provide a plethora of good parts and a fantastic mask.  

Umbra is, in my opinion, one of the less offensive sets on this list. While his color scheme is all over the place, and his general construction is nothing to write home about, this set does possess some interesting aspects- that being his dualblade with the built-in rhotuka spinner and his wheeled feet.

Tarduk, plain and silly-looking.

Does this set need an explanation?

They really missed the mark with scorpions in G2.

Perhaps my most controversial choice. Mata Nui is a set I both love and hate. I love the torso design and how it implements pistons in a manner similar to that of the Great Spirit Robot and the toa mata; however, everything else about the set rubs me the wrong way. His arms are rather spindly given how bulky his torso and legs are. In addition, this set is dreadfully gappy. My greatest gripe is his color scheme; keetorange, yellow, pearl gold, and pearl light grey do not mix well. Nevertheless, despite this set’s faults, it’s a far-better sendoff to Bionicle G1 than Stars.

Why am I allowed to make comics

Time to unload some more Bionicle fanart:

I made these a couple of months ago after watching the Brickonicle discussion on the TTV podcast. This was before they had settled on final designs for the Toa and decided Lewa was going to be a girl. These seemed to influence their final versions a little.

Why do they have lungs?

Why do they have expressive faces- seriously, if you’re building a bunch of robotic soldiers or mechanical laborers, what’s the point in them being able to smile, even if some of them are sapient? Imagine all the artificial musculature involved. Why?

Why terraform jungles and tropical islands and such for them to live in, especially when your own planet is a desolate barren wasteland?

Why do they need to eat AND sleep? Couldn’t they just have a single recharge function that would improve productivity? And do they really need a sense of taste if they rarely eat with their mouths?

It’s possibly reasonable to conclude that the GSR, or at least, the first Matoran were in the early stages of development before the Shattering, given all these unnecessary details. When the Great Beings had plentiful resources, it’s entirely possible that they might try and build artificial life that could mimic a “real” living thing as closely as possible, regardless of efficiency. It could have been just a pet project that they later found needed to be turned into something functional that could fix the planet.

But there’s something else that needs to be considered. At least one Great Being was able to fully transfer his consciousness into a Matoran’s body. Now, how could he be so sure it would work? How could he do it so easily, in secret and with no assistance?

Perhaps it’s because that’s what Matoran were designed for in the first place.

Artificial bodies that don’t age, can be easily repaired if damaged- and- with a system in place that can bring them back from any “death” short of total disintegration. Capable of experiencing almost any sensation that a living being is, so giving up one’s organic body didn’t mean giving up any of the comforts and pleasures of being alive (okay, except one, perhaps, but I’m sure they were working on some hardware mods for that). And also capable of getting upgraded into stronger forms with potential access to all manner of powers, to boot.

Was trying to do some filter things with Makooti and accidentally made a museum piece