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Hi all Bionicle fans,
I know that you all have already seen the masks of the second batch that
have been found. Well, here's my own experience of the second batch as I was
able to get my hands on these today. Just use this URL and click on the
"Batch #2" link if you want to read more, I did put most of the info right
on that page, so I'll not post it here on Lugnet too, the images would be
missing :-( ...
http://www.brickmaster.de/images/
At you folks from LEGO Direct:
Now that the second batch becomes more and more common, don't you think it's
time to give us some explanation on the strange assortement?
-- Why releasing 2 Turaga shapes in Toa colours, but only these 2 ???
-- Why not releasing Toa shapes in Turaga colours too ???
-- Why releasing (obviously, but correct me if I am wrong)
excactly 8 colours for Kaukau although 6 would be logical and 12 maybe - but
8??? What's the "official" order of these, where do the individual colours
belong to - espacially the yellow one!
-- Why are the masks still not randomly assorted at all. I got NINE
transclear Kaukaus today (out of 90 masks I bought), but ZERO
transparentorange ones, that's annoying!
-- What about infected masks, will there be more than just the "Hau" we have
seen twice already, will they be limitied to black and Toa? What's the plan
here?
And finally, what's the secret of the undefined shape mentioned on the back
of each bag. Obviously this shape has not yet been produced, or has it? Why
have we not seen it then and it's not listed on Bionicle.com either.
PLEASE TRY TO GIVE ANSWERS FOR THESE QUESTIONS! Another "We're still looking
into this (but do not intend to reply this year)!" would be fine.
Thanks a lot!!!
Bye, Christian --- xTIAN.
--------------------------------------------------
Lugnet Member #479 -- The World is full of AFOLs !
mail: xtian@brickmaster.de web: www.brickmaster.de
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Hi again Bionicle newsgroup readers,
Time for another update! We (LEGO Direct) are working on compiling an
official Kanohi FAQ right now. I'll post it here when it's finished and has
gotten the official stamp of approval. It'll also go up on the website, for
all the collectors out there that don't read Lugnet.
Some questions have been pretty much finalized so I'll try to answer a few
things now, to make the wait a little easier. There is only one infected
mask, and it comes in the Hau shape. The mask shape at the bottom of the
Bionicle poster will remain a mystery for now... you'll have to wait and see
where that mask pops up. It is not included in the mask packs.
The masks in the mask packs *are* distributed randomly. I have been informed
that they're being produced in equal quantities at the factory. And then
they're packed randomly, two to a box. Open enough of them up and
statistically, you should get a roughly equal number of each mask. (I'm not
suggesting that you buy enough to do this.) This is definitely true of the
73 masks that are on the poster - 36 Toa shapes, 36 Turaga shapes, 1
infected mask - that form the official Masks of Power collection. As for the
other masks that aren't on the poster, they're not part of the official
collection and distribution may be more erratic -- for more information on
those masks, stay tuned for the official FAQ, coming soon (I hope).
As many of you know, there will be Bionicle games coming out for a few
different game platforms. The masks and their different powers play an
important role in the games, just as they do in the overall story of Mata Nui.
Watch bionicle.com for the next chapter in the saga of Mata Nui. But not
necessarily right at 7:00 PM on Thursday. The stars are unpredictable, the
constellations are in flux... and we only make updates to the LEGO websites
at certain times of the week. =)
Tomas Clark
LEGO Direct
In lugnet.technic.bionicle, Christian Gemünden writes:
> Hi all Bionicle fans,
>
> I know that you all have already seen the masks of the second batch that
> have been found. Well, here's my own experience of the second batch as I was
> able to get my hands on these today. Just use this URL and click on the
> "Batch #2" link if you want to read more, I did put most of the info right
> on that page, so I'll not post it here on Lugnet too, the images would be
> missing :-( ...
>
> http://www.brickmaster.de/images/
>
>
> At you folks from LEGO Direct:
>
> Now that the second batch becomes more and more common, don't you think it's
> time to give us some explanation on the strange assortement?
>
> -- Why releasing 2 Turaga shapes in Toa colours, but only these 2 ???
>
> -- Why not releasing Toa shapes in Turaga colours too ???
>
> -- Why releasing (obviously, but correct me if I am wrong)
> excactly 8 colours for Kaukau although 6 would be logical and 12 maybe - but
> 8??? What's the "official" order of these, where do the individual colours
> belong to - espacially the yellow one!
>
> -- Why are the masks still not randomly assorted at all. I got NINE
> transclear Kaukaus today (out of 90 masks I bought), but ZERO
> transparentorange ones, that's annoying!
>
> -- What about infected masks, will there be more than just the "Hau" we have
> seen twice already, will they be limitied to black and Toa? What's the plan
> here?
> And finally, what's the secret of the undefined shape mentioned on the back
> of each bag. Obviously this shape has not yet been produced, or has it? Why
> have we not seen it then and it's not listed on Bionicle.com either.
>
> PLEASE TRY TO GIVE ANSWERS FOR THESE QUESTIONS! Another "We're still looking
> into this (but do not intend to reply this year)!" would be fine.
>
> Thanks a lot!!!
>
> Bye, Christian --- xTIAN.
> --------------------------------------------------
> Lugnet Member #479 -- The World is full of AFOLs !
> mail: xtian@brickmaster.de web: www.brickmaster.de
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In lugnet.technic.bionicle, Tomas Clark writes:
> Hi again Bionicle newsgroup readers,
Hi Tomas (Team LEGO Direct)!
> Time for another update!
Yes, it certainly is time!!! And I am more than happy to see that you are
working on an "official" list for serious collectors. I do understand that
it's not possible to give out information about upcoming masks or such, but
the statements I found in your posting were highly appreciated at this end.
Many THANKS to everyone who has helped to release them!!!
> We (LEGO Direct) are working on compiling an
> official Kanohi FAQ right now. I'll post it here when it's finished and has
> gotten the official stamp of approval. It'll also go up on the website, for
> all the collectors out there that don't read Lugnet.
Excellent - excactly what we were asking for. However, you should ensure
that it really becomes a complete list, including all produced version, even
the (possibly) misprints. It would be extremely dissapointing to simply find
the known poster scanned and uploaded to Bionicle.com -> That would *not*
help us at all. We know the "so far official" list of 72 masks, but
obviously this list has turned out to be false (since I do already own 82
different masks myself, so 72 CAN'T be it!!!)
> Some questions have been pretty much finalized so I'll try to answer a few
> things now, to make the wait a little easier. There is only one infected
> mask, and it comes in the Hau shape.
Yes - thanks for that one! One could have expected it as three infected Haus
have been found while no other infected ones appeared. It's a real blessing
to have the official word on it though.
> The mask shape at the bottom of the
> Bionicle poster will remain a mystery for now... you'll have to wait and see
> where that mask pops up. It is not included in the mask packs.
Again, we found that out by ourselves meanwhile. It would be great if you
could inform us once that masks will be included in the bags (I for one will
no more buy any masks in the near future).
> The masks in the mask packs *are* distributed randomly. I have been informed
> that they're being produced in equal quantities at the factory. And then
> they're packed randomly, two to a box.
Hm, you might want to go into the detail here. Maybe LEGO has produced all
masks in the same quantities, but they were 100% not distributed randomly.
You will have to admit that the "first batch" (as we meanwhile call it), did
not include any Turaga colours and not all shapes either. And one month
later, suddenly 50% of all masks found are excactly included these rare
masks. That's weird, really! For my part I still feel a little cheated by
that trick. I was complete on all Toa masks before the first Turaga one got
into my collection and now that I started to get more and more Turaga ones,
I still get lots and lots of Toa ones too (although I do not want any more
of these). For a customer like me, that is simply dissapointing. Nobody at
LEGO Direct will ever be able to convince me that these masks were randomly
distributed, take another look at my Online List and you'll notice that I
already have at least 2 copies of each Toa, while I still need many Turaga:
THAT IS ***NOT*** random!
For the latest version of my list, please check [2]:
http://www.brickmaster.de/images/bio_masks_list.jpg
This list also reflects the experiences all other AFOLBs [1] (and kids in my
region for that matter) have made while purchasing mask bags #8530.
> Open enough of them up and
> statistically, you should get a roughly equal number of each mask. (I'm not
> suggesting that you buy enough to do this.)
Suggested or not, I have spent about US$400 on masks by now (something
extremely crazy must have driven me) and I picked up the bags at many many
different places. But still, lots and lots of Toa masks and hardly Turaga masks.
> This is definitely true of the
Sorry, this is definitely NOT true !!! The first bags that have been shipped
did not include any Turaga masks and LEGO would better not deny that since
all the serious collectors do already know that it is simply not true, at
least not the way you have just been discribing it.
> 73 masks that are on the poster - 36 Toa shapes, 36 Turaga shapes, 1
> infected mask - that form the official Masks of Power collection. As for the
> other masks that aren't on the poster, they're not part of the official
> collection and distribution may be more erratic -- for more information on
> those masks, stay tuned for the official FAQ, coming soon (I hope).
Don't worry! I'll stay tuned for the official FAQ! Please keep in mind the
most important problems regarding these erraticly distributed masks:
- 8 x Kaukau ?!? Which colour belongs to which character? Are 12 shades of
Kaukaus planed or were two colours falsely produced?
- 2 Turaga shapes in Toa colours (Matatu and Ruru in brown, black, red,
blue, white, green) ?!? Why have Turaga masks been produced in Toa colours
and why are there only two shapes that appeared in this section? Any plans
to release the other 4 Turaga shapes in Toa colours, or Turaga masks in Toa
colours for that matter?
- Golden masks ?!? Solid metal or plastic? A promotional limited release or
randomly (though rare) assorted masks that will be given out to everyone
willing to spend $$$ on bags?
> As many of you know, there will be Bionicle games coming out for a few
> different game platforms. The masks and their different powers play an
> important role in the games, just as they do in the overall story of Mata Nui.
Thanks for that fact. Every true Bionicle Fan has meanwhile found out the
uses of these masks as listed on Bionicle.com and it makes sense (for the
game as well as for TLCs financial situation) to have that many different
ones, based on their unique "capability" within the legend of Mata Nui.
Please ignore the strange guys that consider the masks bags themselves
questionable, they're not gonna buy any. (Pokémon keeps using new ugly
mosters too and nobody cares to be ripped off there too, that's what we call
"collecting").
Hm, BTW, any new info on the upcoming software then? I assume that's still
all secret, but in case you already have internal screentshots, I bet
everyone reading this newsgroup would be flabbergasted to see some sneaks or
read a few short lines (that would at least increase the hype) ...
> Watch bionicle.com for the next chapter in the saga of Mata Nui. But not
> necessarily right at 7:00 PM on Thursday. The stars are unpredictable, the
> constellations are in flux... and we only make updates to the LEGO websites
> at certain times of the week. =)
:-) It's certainly not easy for TLC to change the website excactly in the
right minute, but it's good to know that Thursday really seems to be the day
for expecting the next event (as found out by AFOLBs). I for my part will
not need to go to work tomorrow and keep reloading the site as often as I
can, not leaving the house before having seen the update :-) . Maybe LD
could drop a line here too, once the section is open. But then again, it'll
not take much longer before we're going to find out on our own.
Tomas, Thanks again for this highly detailed posting. It's a big help and
although it leaves some aspects unsolved for now, I'm sure you're telling us
more soon. At this point, let me excuse the hasty emotional speech level I
might have chosen for earlier postings. You can imagine the disappointment
after having spent that much money on masks (353 by now) and still not
having all of 'em. I might have been a bit too harsh back then, but
obviously you understood what I tried to explain.
> Tomas Clark
> LEGO Direct
THANKS and Bye, Christian --- xTIAN.
--------------------------------------------------
Lugnet Member #479 -- The World is full of AFOLs !
mail: xtian@brickmaster.de web: www.brickmaster.de
[1] AFOLB: Adult Fans Of LEGO *Bionicle* (excluding the LEGO Fan in general,
since Bionicle is so much different than what AFOLs consider real "LEGO".)
[2] It's the same link I gave you weeks ago, but the list is being
constantly updated. You'll still notice the imbalance though.
[3] For more interesting recent Bionicle images check
http://www.brickmaster.de/images/ ,probably a known link for you too.
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Christian (and Michael and everyone else),
Sorry, I should have been more clear on one issue -- Christian is right that
not all of the masks were included in the first release of the mask packs.
So it's inaccurate to say that "all 73 masks had an equal distribution."
There will be more information about this in the official Kanohi FAQ. What I
should have said is "from now on, in the rest of the releases of packs for
the rest of the year, the distribution of those 73 masks should be equal."
That's the official word. However, don't feel too bad about buying the first
release of packs -- you got some masks that I suspect are not in the later
releases (ones that are not part of the official 73).
We'll also have a web page up sometime soon about the Bionicle video games.
Again, I don't want to commit to exactly how long "soon" is. =) Same goes
for the golden masks: information will appear on the site. And since the
golden mask is a mask, information will also go into the Kanohi FAQ -- but
naturally a unique solid gold mask is not "collectible" in the usual sense.
Now, the FAQ is not going to be a checklist, just the answers to some
questions. The checklist is another idea we are still considering. *If* we
have a checklist, it won't be just a reprint of the poster. We would try to
have as much information as possible about all the masks that LEGO is
making, not just the official 73 Masks of Power.
I can't say much about the video games except that they look very cool.
Well, I'll tell you about one thing that you'll see in the next section of
the Mata Nui website -- the geography of many parts of the island will be
the same in the games as it is on the website. So if you wander around a
village a lot on bionicle.com, you'll know your way around when you play the
game. Neat, huh?
Oh, and don't reload the page all day tomorrow -- we probably will not post
the new section until Friday or Monday. We're debugging the next section of
Mata Nui right now, and personally I would rather let you guys play with
something that works, instead of rushing to put it up right when the
telescope says it should be up. Hope you can wait!
Back to work,
Tomas Clark
LEGO Direct
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In lugnet.technic.bionicle, Tomas Clark writes:
> Christian (and Michael and everyone else),
>
> Sorry, I should have been more clear on one issue -- Christian is right that
> not all of the masks were included in the first release of the mask packs.
> So it's inaccurate to say that "all 73 masks had an equal distribution."
> There will be more information about this in the official Kanohi FAQ. What I
Okay, good to hear you officially admit your "mistakes" now, although I
still think two different batches are a marketing strategy, rather than a
true misprint (which sounds rather impossible having in mind how much hope
and efforts TLC has put into Bionicle). After all, I already noticed a
"disappearance" in Batch #2 of some strange combinations. It would be
interesting to see more details on this with the FAQ.
> should have said is "from now on, in the rest of the releases of packs for
> the rest of the year, the distribution of those 73 masks should be equal."
So, can you make promises that there will not be a third batch ? No more
strange combinations during 2001 ? Excellent ! That means I need no more but
five masks to go, ye-ah !
> That's the official word. However, don't feel too bad about buying the first
> release of packs -- you got some masks that I suspect are not in the later
> releases (ones that are not part of the official 73).
We do? Why not telling that earlier? By now, the first batch is completely
sold out all over, I'd have bought a lot more knowing about their rareness.
> We'll also have a web page up sometime soon about the Bionicle video games.
> Again, I don't want to commit to exactly how long "soon" is. =) Same goes
> for the golden masks: information will appear on the site. And since the
> golden mask is a mask, information will also go into the Kanohi FAQ -- but
> naturally a unique solid gold mask is not "collectible" in the usual sense.
> Now, the FAQ is not going to be a checklist, just the answers to some
> questions. The checklist is another idea we are still considering. *If* we
> have a checklist, it won't be just a reprint of the poster. We would try to
> have as much information as possible about all the masks that LEGO is
> making, not just the official 73 Masks of Power.
The usual "we're still working on xxx" but you can't imagine how happy I am
about it anyway!
> I can't say much about the video games except that they look very cool.
> Well, I'll tell you about one thing that you'll see in the next section of
> the Mata Nui website -- the geography of many parts of the island will be
> the same in the games as it is on the website. So if you wander around a
> village a lot on bionicle.com, you'll know your way around when you play the
> game. Neat, huh?
Neat, indeed. There'S not so much to wander around right now.
> Oh, and don't reload the page all day tomorrow -- we probably will not post
> the new section until Friday or Monday. We're debugging the next section of
> Mata Nui right now, and personally I would rather let you guys play with
> something that works, instead of rushing to put it up right when the
> telescope says it should be up. Hope you can wait!
I don't know, but wasn't it TLC that has created the telescope? So, they
knew what dates they were announcing and that months before we were able to
calculate these. I don't know, but I wouldn't be happy about a serious
delay. Friday sounds okay, but monday? Come 'on , it's not that you started
working on that three days ago! But then again, you're correct that I'd
rather play the working version. There'd better be something flawless at the
first try this time, otherwise one could include that the first release of
Bionicle stuff is typically incorrect!
What just came to my mind regarding odd difference ( a minor problem though):
I ordered one TOA each through S@H back in January. The sets were shipped
fast and arrived by mid January. However, the six sets all came without
CD-Roms while the "retailer-versions" included these free Mini-CDs being
shipped in february. So, is it usual for the Bionicle stuff to be released
incomplete first :) ?
> Back to work,
Midnight over here, no need to work right now. I hope you're making progress
on the FAQ then, unless your work is restricted caused by all the traffic in
lugnet.technic.bionicle that you have to deal with...
> Tomas Clark
> LEGO Direct
Bye, Christian --- xTIAN.
--------------------------------------------------
Lugnet Member #479 -- The World is full of AFOLs !
mail: xtian@brickmaster.de web: www.brickmaster.de
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In lugnet.technic.bionicle, Christian Gemünden writes:
> > Sorry, I should have been more clear on one issue -- Christian is right that
> > not all of the masks were included in the first release of the mask packs.
> > So it's inaccurate to say that "all 73 masks had an equal distribution."
> > There will be more information about this in the official Kanohi FAQ. What I
>
> Okay, good to hear you officially admit your "mistakes" now, although I
> still think two different batches are a marketing strategy, rather than a
> true misprint (which sounds rather impossible having in mind how much hope
> and efforts TLC has put into Bionicle). (major snippage)
Given the choice between a stuff-up and a conspiracy/marketing startegy,
choose the stuff-up every time.
YMMV,
DaveL
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> However, don't feel too bad about buying the first
> release of packs -- you got some masks that I suspect are not in the later
> releases (ones that are not part of the official 73).
Lego screwed it up and gave us REALLY rare mask misprints... :-)))) Kanohi Ruru and Kanohi Matatu in Toa colours, Kanohi Kaukau in
tryellow and trlightblue.......
I am slightly amused by the fact that Lego created REAL collector items by mistake.......
Thanks for the info....... and I'm looking forward to the Kanohi FAQ!!!!!!!!!!!
brickhead
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I saw a mention of a trading-card game.
Any news or more information?
-gyug
In lugnet.technic.bionicle, Tomas Clark writes:
> I can't say much about the video games except that they look very cool.
> Well, I'll tell you about one thing that you'll see in the next section of
> the Mata Nui website -- the geography of many parts of the island will be
> the same in the games as it is on the website. So if you wander around a
> village a lot on bionicle.com, you'll know your way around when you play the
> game. Neat, huh?
>
> Tomas Clark
> LEGO Direct
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