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Subject: 
Re: Second Batch has arrived - ripping fans off again?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic.bionicle, lugnet.lego.direct
Date: 
Wed, 14 Mar 2001 22:45:39 GMT
Viewed: 
31 times
  
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.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Bionicle correction and more info
 
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 (...) (24 years ago, 14-Mar-01, to lugnet.technic.bionicle, lugnet.lego.direct)  

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Second Batch has arrived - ripping fans off again?
 
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 (...) (24 years ago, 14-Mar-01, to lugnet.technic.bionicle)  

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