As we are just about to start production on the new film, thought it would be a good time to share some script news with you guys.

As you know, I got the chance to write the story for the movie, which was very exciting and fun to do. The script itself has been written by Sean Catherine Derek, who I must say has done a fine job on the project and has been very willing to work with me to make sure it came out "BIONICLE." It's been a very smooth process, and we will most likely be working together again on the planned 2010 movie.

To give you some background, Sean has been nominated for four Emmys for animation scriptwriting/editing, with one win (for her work on the Warner Bros. animated Batman series). She has also done work for other animated series, including Spider-Man, BKN's Kong and UBOS, and Mortal Kombat: Legend of the Dragon, among others. She has also written for children's comedy series and is a writer/producer on the live action Mortal Kombat Conquest series. Most recently, she finished writing and story editing for the Zorro Generation Z series.

Greg

I am sure 99% of you already know all this, but in the wake of the Makuta contest, I thought it would be a good idea to post these LEGO Magazine contest tips again for any newer BZPers.

-- If you are entering a building contest, please submit either a photo or an image printed out on photo paper (which you can find at any Wal-Mart, Target, office supply store, etc.). Photos printed out on regular printer paper won't be accepted, because they will not scan well for reproduction in the magazine. It states very clearly in the rules that entries need to be photos or on photo paper, and a lot of nice entries end up getting tossed every contest because people submit them on plain printer paper.

-- Pay attention to the quality of your photos. If the photo is blurry, we won't be able to make out what the model is. If the photo is a giant shot of you with your model looking very small in your hand, readers won't be able to make out what the model is.

-- If you are entering a contest where it states that the winning entries will be displayed on the web site, you are much better off just sending a picture of the model and not one with you in it. The reason is that we are not allowed to show pictures of kids on our site without first getting parental permission. We will NOT disqualify anyone from any contest for not following this suggestion, but it is one of those things that just makes the process more complicated for everyone involved.

-- If you submit a photo, please do not fold the photo up. We get a lot of that, and again, the photo will then not reproduce correctly in the magazine. If we can't display your winning model in a way that will make it look good in the magazine, then you won't make first cut.

-- If you are entering a drawing contest, it is a good idea not do your drawing on lined paper. While your drawing will still be considered even if you do, it's going to look a lot better when scanned if it is done on plain white paper instead.

-- While we appreciate that you want your entry to arrive safely and securely, sealing the envelope with massive amounts of tape just makes our job harder. Remember that we may have two people opening 10,000 entries in the course of a few weeks. If we have to wrestle with yours to get it open, it slows the whole process down.

-- If we ask in a contest for you to build a model, we want to see your creativity at work. A lot of people who entered the Makuta contest just built Mutran and took a picture of him and sent it in as their entry. We want to see what you can build on your own, not how well you can follow the building instructions in a set.

-- On a side note, thinking outside the box when doing contest entries is always a good thing. In our recent City Police contest, winners included a giant zeppelin and a vehicle with a giant police dog as part of it. Remember that if an idea seems like a no-brainer to you, it probably is also one to the 10,000 other people entering too. If you hand in something a ton of other people have also built, yours is going to have to be that much better to stand out from their entries. There are certainly entries that win because, even though the subject matter is standard, the actual build is really impressive -- but the best entries are the ones where the building is good AND the idea is different.

Greg

This is really more of an FYI than anything else, as many of you already guessed this -- but to make it official, the grand prize winner of the BrickMaster Makuta Building Contest will be considered Makuta Miserix for the purposes of the story.

Greg

Back from a brief trip to North Carolina (and warmth!) ... here's the news:

1) We had a one-night story meeting to discuss first half 2009 story. We got the bare bones figured out, now I have to get to work on the story bible.

2) We discussed any number of things, including beefing up BIONICLEstory.com in 2009 and possibly doing a serial or something similar that woud focus on the current universe while main story focuses on the new one next year ... I really like that idea, since there is no reason to believe we won't be bringing back current characters in future and it would be good to keep people "in touch" with them.

3) Binkmeister presented some great ideas for possible web content -- he has done a wonderful job since taking on the BIONICLE.com web producer role.

4) No new movie news, beyond that they are interviewing directors now.

5) BIONICLE Legends #11 is going to need some rewriting so it can match up with the CGI animation being done for second half 2008 commericals.

And that's about it!

Greg

Recently, there was a very interesting discussion on BZP about people who no longer buy sets (what we in the biz call "lapsed users") and how much influence they can or can't have on product.

There are, based on what I have seen, three main types of lapsed user. We will call them Joe, Bill, and Tom. All three have stopped buying BIONICLE sets, and all are in their teens, for the purposes of this example:

Joe still thinks BIONICLE is interesting, but stopped buying sets in 2004 because he dislikes clone sets and the organic Inika masks, something he has made very clear in his posts.

Bill still likes BIONICLE too, but stopped buying sets because he likes gear functions in the figures, brown stone figures, and clone sets.

Tom is still interested in story, but his life has changed -- he has to save for college, he just got a car, and he has more demands on his money and his time than he had a few years ago when he was buying sets regularly.

Now, of those three, who does BIONICLE have the best chance of getting back as a customer? Not Tom -- his priorities have changed, his needs and wants have changed, and he has had to make a choice between what his life demands now and buying sets. It's highly unlikely that we are going to be able to reactivate him as a customer.

Bill is more likely, but much more problematic. We could get Bill back if we changed sets to suit his tastes. The problem is, his tastes run counter to everything our sales and market research tell us. Everything we know says that if we do a brown clone set with gears, it won't sell. Given that, we aren't going to do one, so it's likely Bill will not come back.

Joe, on the other hand, is a different story. Like Bill, he would be willing to buy BIONICLE again if it suited his tastes. But the things he dislikes -- clone sets and organic masks -- are the same things the majority of the audience dislikes, based on sales and market research. Changing those things and so making the sets more to his liking is easier, because they are changes we need to make anyway for the market as a whole. There's no guarantee we will get him back, because he has found other things to spend his money on ... and the difficulty makes it less likely we will set out with a goal of reactivating him ... but there is at least a chance if he is still paying attention to the sets that he might buy again.

So, you see, it's not just about "you buy or don't buy sets" -- it really comes down to WHY you're not buying, and what the chances are we will get you back. There are some Joes and Bills on BZP, and a lot of Toms, and Joe and Bill are the ones as a business you are more likely to talk about when you discuss reactivating lapsed users. Tom may well still have strong opinions on sets, but as a customer, he is most likely gone for the foreseeable future regardless of what we do.

Greg

A few items of interest today --

-- LEGO financial results were announced to the press today -- record profit last year. And so far this year, we can't keep stuff on the shelves, everything is selling well.

-- Finished Part 3 of Mutran Chronicles -- you are FINALLY going to get some movement on that Blade Burrowers plotline!

-- Dow Jones news ticker reports Wal-Mart Canada has come to an agreement with TLC and will go back to carrying LEGO sets, which is wonderful news.

-- Still recovering from my trip to the UK -- feel like I have been eating non-stop since I got back Spent the weekend shopping and gaming, two of my favorite pastimes

Greg

Hey guys,

Back from my week in Henley-on-Thames, England, attending LEGO Club meetings. Productive meetings this time, but very long -- still, it is always nice to see the entire team, including Benie, Lina, Panja and Maaike, our European Club managers.

Couple of notes from the trip --

-- BrickMaster subscriptions are on the rise, thanks to the addition of exclusive LEGO sets to the offer.

-- We got to see a presentation on LEGO Universe, the new MMOG that's in the works -- very impressive. I am hoping to get to do some work with that project, if only on the promotional end. If you want to check out what is out in public, you can go to http://universe.lego.com

-- It is probably going to take me a while to wade through the 66 PMs I got while I was gone, so if you sent something this week, please have patience.

-- Starting work this week on a story bible for a new LEGO line slated to come out in 2009. I can't say anything about it, unfortunately, but I would imagine set images, etc. will be public sometime in the fall. I am also working with the LEGO Concept Lab on some ideas for 2010 and beyond, which is a lot of fun. (If I had not had the Club meetings scheduled, I would have been in Canada meeting with CL this week.)

Greg

Hey guys,

Just so everyone knows, I am offline from 2-11 through 2-15 -- I have LEGO Club meetings to attend.

Other news --

2009 story team meeting and set focus groups coming up at the beginning of March.

Movie call this week -- we are still quibbling over the beginning of the picture, but everything else seems set.

BIONICLE 12, due out in March, has been approved and is on its way to the printer. BIONICLE 13, which will be out in July, has been written early and is with DC -- my understanding is that Australia is going to be distributing that issue (not sure how) and so needed it early.

Greg

Just some quick news --

-- A lot of people on here have been talking about a set they have seen with a Hydraxon mask on it and suggesting that is the 2008 BrickMaster exclusive set. It's not. No images of the BM exclusive set are on the net (I've looked), but I do have an image of it and it does not have a Hydraxon mask. The item number for this set is #20005 and we aren't even showing BMs what it looks like yet. The March issue will show what the May and July sets will look like, but the BIONICLE set is not until September.

-- I will be appearing at the Butler & Dimmock Library on Main St. in Coventry, CT on Wednesday, April 16 at 2 pm. I'm going to to be talking about BIONICLE and they are also talking about doing some contests, though that is not firmed up yet.

-- Will be back at Comic-Con again this year, looks like -- July 24-27, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA.

-- Some 2009 set designs are now final, some are still in the process of being worked on. New script is out in Billund now, looks good.

Greg

Just some bits and pieces today --

-- The movie script is out with the folks in Denmark for a final read. I am expecting that we will pretty much have an approval by the end of the week or so. The ending is set, hopefully the beginning is too -- surprisingly, there has been more debate about how to start it than how to end it!

-- It looks like the BrickMaster BIONICLE set will be out in the fall -- we are still looking into the possibility of getting it sold in non-BM countries. It will play a role in story, possibly a significant one, and should make its first appearance in either the Federation of Fear or Mutran Chronicles serials.

-- The CEO of LEGO Group, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, wrote a wonderful post on our Intranet this week praising BIONICLE as "rocking and unique" and reaffirming the company's commitment to maintain the line's success. (If you haven't heard of Jorgen Vig, he has been running the company for a few years now and helped to turn it around from the few bad years we had early in the decade. I had the chance to meet him in person last year -- he's a really cool guy, very down to earth, and very open to talking with employees. He's very popular in the company.)

-- My events calendar is SLOWLY filling up. I am in talks to do a program at a local library, trying to get some local Barnes and Noble signings scheduled, and of course, Comic-Con rears its head again at the end of July.

-- 2009 sets are still in focus groups -- I think the last round of testing is the end of Feb. in North Carolina.

Greg