#good-guy

There are a few toy lines who were gone too soon I would like to bring back, but none more than LEGO’s Hero Factory.

I know that between the lackluster storytelling and having the misfortune of having to live in Bionicle’s shadow it didn’t have the best reputation in life, but I had a huge soft spot for it growing up. It may not have been the multimedia wunderkind that Bionicle was, but it had an innovative aesthetic that drew my attention. The CCBS building system was perfect for building, play, and posing; it also made for a great variety of character designs for every hero, villain, and monster.

If I could bring it back, I would like to reboot the lore but keep the toys largely the same. This world carries so much potential for stronger stories, I would love to dive in and explore how the setting works. In fact, according to esteemed Bionicle and Hero Factory writer, Greg Farshtey, there were supposed to be deeper storylines in the original series. That’s the kind of thing I’d want to look at. Stuff like conspiracies within the Hero Factory. How this world was created. What kind of universe has to have heroes made by a company anyways? Is this a universe so plagued by crime and catastrophes that heroes need to be manufactured to keep up with demand? Or this a Transformers or Steven Universe type situation where everyone is created as part of a caste system? Plus, I’d also create more satisfying plots and characters to keep the audience engaged, no matter how old they were.

Took another crack at drawing my best buddy in the whole wide hellsite and here he is: my own take on @good-guy-is-alive ’s Good-Guy! (Made with pencil crayon and ink pen.)

The last time I drew him, he turned out a little on the smol side (which was a little embarrassing since it was supposed to be a big birthday picture), so I did the reasonable thing and made him SWOL this time. I mixed elements from his original look and his current look so he resembled Bionicle figure as much he did a cartoon character.

Sorry it took so long to answer this, my dear good-guy-is-alive I was taking my sweet time racking my brain to come up with just the right answer to this excellent question. It was no easy task seeing almost every franchise known to humanity has been revived at least once in the last five years, and if not, there’s probably a good reason (i.e. it’s either perfect or unsalvageable). But now, after so long I finally have the perfect answer.

I would bring back the mother of all utopian fantasy adventures: Dinotopia.

Why? It’s quite simple, really: I adore dinosaurs, fine art, light fantasy, and utopian fiction. Aside from meeting all of these fields, Dinotopia is a childhood favourite of mine. I grew up on Hallmark’s miniseries and tv series on ABC, I got the direct-to-video animated movie, and I borrowed Journey to Chandara from the library when I was a young lad. Of all the dinosaur-related media I voraciously consumed as a young boy, Dinotopia was one of my favourites, right up there with Jurassic Park and The Land Before Time, probably because it showed humans and dinosaurs living together in what the best possible scenario. However,  there’s no denying that the adaptations haven’t help up that well—the miniseries and TV series forsook the lighthearted imaginative journey for an edgier by-the-books adventure show with mediocre special effects and lackluster acting, and the cartoon while more charming is just too… cartoony for its good but the less about that the better. The books had so much potential but sadly the mediocrity of these adaptations seems to have killed their chances of getting a proper adaption any time soon.

Which is exactly why I chose this particular franchise for a proper reptilian rejuvenation. Dinotopia’s message of peaceful coexistence between different civilizations and the environment is something that is desperately needed in todays divided world, and this colourful prehistory-themed world is one of the best candidates to deliver that message. I believe that if you could get talented people who were passionate capturing James Gurney’s original and give them a good budget to work with, audiences could enjoy this “World Apart From Time” for what it was always meant to be.

My ideal approach would be an animated film or TV series in the style of Studio Ghibli and traditional-era Dreamworks that adapts the plots of James Gurney’s original book series while exploring both the mundane and adventurous sides of life in Dinotopia. I haven’t really read the books (yet), but going by the art and plot summaries, there’s tremendous potential for storytelling here. You have A Land Apart Time’s tale of a father and son learning to integrate into a new world, The World Beneath’s subterranean adventure in a lost civilization, Journey to Chandara’s exploration of Dinotopia’s other regions and cultures, or First Flight’s legendary science-fantasy battle for freedom. While I’m at it I would expand on certain elements of Dinotopia’s story that the books didn’t go into, such as allowing carnivores to integrate into Dinotopian society, how Dinotopia has been able to stay hidden all these years, and where the Dinosaurs came from. Stuff like that.

Although I never got around to watching the cartoons or buying the toys, I always had a fondness for the Mixels.

They were a really unique bunch compared to most other products from LEGO at the time. The characters weren’t based in reality like City, or in some big motion picture brand, but rather a wholly original creation with a strongly cartoony look and feel. In fact--like their successor Unikitty--the cartoon was made to complement the looks of the toys, and the toys to complement the cartoon.

Every Mixel, be they an individual or a whole tribe, had fantastic designs and personalities. My favourites being the Infernites, Wiztastics, Mixies, Klinkers, and Newzers.

An excellent question! I’ll just stick to the American studios or else you’ll be reading for a looong time. Here we go:

Disney: Lilo & Stitch

Pixar: Ratatouille

DreamWorks: How to Train Your Dragon 1, 2, and 3/The Hidden World

Sony Animation: Into the Spider-Verse

Laika: Kubo and the Two Strings

Illumination: Despicable Me

20th Century Fox Animation/Blue Sky Studio: Robots

Warner Bros. Animation: The Iron Giant

Nickelodeon Movies/Animation Studios: The Spongebob Squarepants Movie

Happy (belated) Birthday to my good friend, Good-Guy!

(aka @good-guy-is-alive )

Here’s me and my buddy jumping into action to have fun and fight the forces of Cringe Culture!

I had so much fun drawing this bombastic birthday present for one of my first and best friends on this entire site. This picture is a tribute to our friendship, and as thanks for being there for me during some tough times. Tumblr--no--this whole world is a better place with you in it.