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LEGO BIONICLE – set reviews & thoughts

by Thita (admin) on February 14, 2015

Now that the first wave of the re-launched LEGO BIONICLE sets are out, let’s talk about them a little bit more. Of course we have discussed the new BIONICLE sets and new story-line several times, but I thought it would be a good idea to look a bit deeper into the new sets. I was especially inspired by a video-review by JANGBRiCKS where he analyzes the new LEGO BIONICLE sets and parts compared to the original ones (I will share the video below with you as well). So let’s see what we got! 🙂

I would also like to add that besides the video I will share with you below, JANGBRiCKS also reviewed the new BIONICLE sets separately, and he has also done videos where he compares the old characters to the new ones. If you are an old LEGO BIONICLE fan who is not sure about how the new sets compare to the original ones, or if you are a fan of the recently retired LEGO Hero Factory line and consider moving over to BIONICLE, I highly recommend checking out the other review videos. Here we will only look at the ones with the overall view and thoughts on the new line.

One of the plusses of the new LEGO BIONICLE system is that it takes advantage of what LEGO calls the CCBS (Character and Creature Building System) that has been unifying all of LEGO’s large action figures in the past few years, including LEGO Super Hero, LEGO Legends of Chima and LEGO Hero Factory “constraction” (construction + action) figures. One of LEGO’s main strengths has always been that all of their elements fit into the same system – this allows parts from different LEGO themes, and even different time-periods to fit together perfectly. This systemization was always true for regular LEGO, however with large figures the company has gone in several different directions. To finally pull them all together into one carefully designed system made a lot of sense.

Another great advantage of the new LEGO BIONICLE system is the pose-ability of the figures. The joints are easy to manipulate in any direction you wish, and the figures can hold pretty much any pose with good balance. I’m actually really impressed by this because I have some of the old LEGO Knights Kingdom large figures and they are absolutely a nightmare to put into any kind of pose; they can’t keep their balance well unless put into very specific poses and parts will be falling off all over the place as you try to manipulate the limbs. The gear at the back of the new BIONICLE figures to move the arms remotely for fighting action (as seen in the video) is a fun feature as well. Both the easy movement of the joints and the pose-ability makes these sets so much more kid-friendly!

Talking about kid-friendliness, the LEGO BIONICLE Protectors (which are the smaller figures in the new line-up) are all equipped with the new LEGO rapid-fire stud-shooters. As you will hear in the video Jang doesn’t like these very much, but I definitely do! Yeah, those little studs will be flying everywhere, but they are so much fun! LEGO has been adding these stud-shooters to other sets also, so you should end up with at least a few.

The downside of having such a well-defined system is that it can get a little boring when the same pieces get reused over and over again. LEGO’s strategy to get around this has been to offer the same parts in different colors, printed parts, and also adding various weapons to hide the monotony of the figures. Also, the head-pieces are usually unique, which adds to the perception that the figures are different. I believe as LEGO ads a greater variety of parts to the system that allows customization of the figures will eliminate the issue of becoming too predictable and boring, however it is unlikely we will ever see the same amount of unique parts as with the original BIONICLE sets, as the whole idea of the upgrade has been to simplify.

All in all it looks like the new LEGO BIONICLE sets have a winning design. Some original LEGO BIONICLE fans don’t agree with this, but I believe this new system is much more sustainable on the long term, and it is also more user-friendly, than the original sets. The newly released figures look good, the part are interesting, and the weapons and other accessories are super cool. While in this first wave we mainly got good-guys, in the second wave coming later this year, we will get more of the bad-guys, and I’m sure the line will continue to expand well into the future. You can check out the currently available LEGO BIONICLE sets at the Online LEGO Shop.

So what do you think? How do you like the new LEGO BIONICLE sets? And how do you think they compare to the original BIONICLE line? Which one do like better? And why? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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LEGO Game Creator – build your own games!

by Thita (admin) on February 13, 2015

in LEGO Games & Apps

(Written by ninja5)

I recently found in an issue of the LEGO Club Magazine something about a LEGO Game Creator on Cartoon Network. I got intrigued and thought to give it a try. It turned out to be quite fun, so I decided to write an article about it, as likely a lot of people never heard of this before. I also thought to provide a basic tutorial in case you want to try it out. 🙂

LEGO VIdeo-Game Creator on Cartoon Network

The LEGO Game Creator is available on Cartoon Network (here is the direct link: LEGO Game Creator) and it allows you to create and play your own video-games, using a lot of pre-set options. Once you are done, you can upload your game to the gallery, and you can also play other people’s games that you find in the gallery.

Here is the official description of the LEGO Game Creator: “Who wants to make video games?! The LEGO Game Creator lets you build algebraic LEGO games! Each character has special attacks and powers. Share your games with your friends or play games built by other players! The LEGO Game Creator has tons of free games to play!” Below are my thoughts about the LEGO Game Creator, as well as a basic tutorial on how to create your very own video-game.

➡ LEGO GAME CREATOR – Step 1: The first step is to select a game starter, which is a basic terrain piece. There are a lot of options, but I prefer to select “start from scratch”.

➡ LEGO GAME CREATOR – Step 2: Next, you select what the backdrop will look like. I chose the Ninjago-ish one, but there are a bunch of different themes you can create with the backdrops.

➡ LEGO GAME CREATOR – Step 3: The third step is to select whom you will play as, who will be the hero. I chose Lloyd, continuing with my Ninjago theme. The available heroes are: Laval and Cragger from LEGO Legends of Chima, Lloyd and Zane from LEGO Ninjago, Wyldstyle and Emmet from The LEGO Movie, and Jack Fury and Solomon Blaze from LEGO Ultra Agents. Each character has their own unique powers and abilities you can take advantage of during the game.

➡ LEGO GAME CREATOR – Step 4: The next step is selecting how you will win the game. The “goal” is a portal door that unlocks after you complete the goal. I chose “collect all crystals and defeat all enemies”, which is the hardest of all the available option.

➡ LEGO GAME CREATOR – Step 5: Next, you simply edit the level by placing blocks, crystals, traps, and baddies. There are multiple block types, including but not limited too: ground blocks (that can be walked on), plates (that can be walked on or jumped through), spikes, and water that you can swim across, etc.

Above is what my level looks like further along in the editing process.

➡ LEGO GAME CREATOR – Step 6: This is the fun part! Now you get to test and play your little game. If you fail the test, you can either try again or edit the game so that it’s a little bit easier to defeat. If you pass the game, you are allowed to submit it to the gallery (you have to have a Cartoon Network account to upload games).

Lloyd is awesome! One of his powers is the ability to cling to walls. Unfortunately, he cannot walk up on them.

Ta-da! I won! So as you can see it’s super easy to make and play your own video-game with the LEGO Game Creator, and it’s quite fun too. I only ran into two small issues: the only baddies available are from The LEGO Movie, and the levels are so short! Below is a preview-video on how playing some of the games looks like to give you an idea:

So that’s my little introduction to the LEGO Game Creator. If you would like to try it out yourself, just click on the link mentioned above and start making your own game. What’s you tried it out let me know what you think? Did you find it fun? What game did you make? Feel free to share your own experiences and review of the LEGO Game Creator in the comment section below! Would love to hear how you like it! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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LEGO BIONICLE – set reviews & thoughts

LEGO Game Creator – build your own games!

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