Just my traditional January posting --
Please do not PM me questions re: the summer sets, as I am not allowed to talk about them. I know some of you have jumped ahead and gone looking for images purporting to be of those sets -- I cannot comment on them, including whether they are faked or leaked. I would be going against LEGO's rules and BZP's as well, neither of which I am going to do.
We have six months before the summer sets hit shelves. Patience, grasshopper.
Greg
As I finish off the first three Chapter Ones, a quick preview of the winter serials --
#1 - At the end of last year's Gali Nuva Blog, we learned how Tahu and Kopaka had been sent on a mission by the Order of Mata Nui to quell a series of active volcanoes on a southern islands. Now, the Order sends a bizarre team -- Brutaka, Roodaka, Makuta Spiriah, Vezon, Carapar and Takadox -- on a suicide mission to that same island to save a potential wild card in the conflict to come -- the original leader of the Brotherhood of Makuta!
#2 - Makuta Mutran remembers the past history of the Brotherhood. Learn new secrets about the BOM and its Plan, as well as more about events like the Matoran Civil War and the exploits of Brotherhood members elsewhere in the universe.
#3 (biocast) -- Takanuva journeys to Karda Nui through the unpredictable power of Brutaka's mask, only to wind up somewhere very different indeed -- a pocket dimension where Toa Nidhiki allied himself with Toa Tuyet (during the events of "The Many Deaths of Toa Tuyet") and killed Lhikan. Tuyet's power led the Toa down a dark path of oppression and murder, leaving the survivors of the Brotherhood and the Dark Hunters as the only force left to fight for freedom in the universe!
A few pieces of news --
-- Scholastic has informed me of plans to do a new, second series of BIONICLE books starting in late 2008, in addition to the regular ones they have been doing. These will be what they call Level 3 Readers and will be aimed at 5-6 year olds -- similar to what they have done for Batman and other lines. I am writing the first one, and we will see how they do and whether they want me to do the others.
While I am going to make an effort for these to be canon, they will NOT be referenced in other BIONICLE story areas, because I don't want 14 year old fans feeling they have to read something written for a 6 year old to keep up with story. They are going to be very short (about 1500 words), so if you have little brothers interested in BIONICLE and not old enough to read the comics or books yet, this might be a good way to get them started.
It's a little bit of a gamble on the part of Scholastic, because that is not traditionally the BIONICLE audience. However, a lot of the Scholastic audience is that young, and recruiting future 8-9 year olds is important for the health of our franchise. So we will give this a shot and see if we can raise awareness of BIONICLE prior to the movie. Its success or failure will not impact the comic, web site, movie, etc., which will still be aimed at the 9-11 audience.
Anyway, on to the timeline for this year, as best as I know it --
The March comic, Bionicle Legends #9, and Bionicle Legends #10 all take place at roughly the same time, along with the Makuta and Brutaka web serials.
The Takanuva biocast will take place just after the events of Book 10, but will explain in brief what is going on with him so you won't be lost.
The first Level 3 reader will occur between the events of Bionicle Legends #10 and the biocast -- since I am not expecting the reader fans to be looking at any of the other material that much, I am not worrying as much about timeline with those books.
I wasn't going to dignify this issue with a blog entry, but since people keep asking me about it, I guess I have to --
Recently, some supposed names for summer BIONICLE sets hit the Internet, among them "Krika." Some web surfers discovered that there is a site that identifies "krika" as a slang term for something bad. They immediately PM'd me about it in a semi-panic, so I spent my morning doing some research. Here is what I have found out:
-- The site claims that the word is used in Puerto Rican or Cuban urban areas, however a check of Spanish dictionary sites reveals that krika has no meaning in Spanish -- so this is a slang term, not a part of the actual language.
-- The same site that lists krika as meaning something bad also lists the following words as meaning a bodily part, a bodily function, or something else that would be inappropriate to discuss here:
* Chair
* Fabric softener
* Machete
* Macaroni
* M&M
* Table
* Pacemaker
* Oh, by the way -- the site also lists BZP as a term referring to a party drug. But we know BZPower doesn't refer to that, right? Right.
And that's just a small sample. There are 160 pages of urban slang terms just starting with the letter K! Any word, in any language, can be used as a slang term for something bad -- does that mean we should no longer use any of the words listed above in anything?
-- So what does Krika mean? Well -- Krika is a jewelry company in Montserrat that sells silver Wizard of Oz jewelry ... Krika Simo was one of the hikers who discovered the "Iceman" in 1991 .. Krika Peters was an actor in the 1960s ... and Krika is a town in Sweden. There are, in fact, 82,300 hits for krika on Google, only 1 of which refers to it as being a bad word. In fact, krika is being spread around as a bad word more on BZPower these days than anywhere else!
So my advice to everyone is to calm down and get some perspective. This is a non-issue, and it's only going to become an issue if people run around and get hysterical about it when it's not warranted.
Greg
GAVLA
Quote: "You might say I saw the light ... by looking into the darkness."
Personality: Leader of the shadow Matoran, Gavla's hatred for her own people makes her a formidable enemy. She fights the Matoran of Light as much because she enjoys it as because she has been ordered to.
Weapons: Claws blades; teeth
Powers: Vertigo -- can disrupt the sense of balance in a target (when linked with Makuta only); shadow energy
CHIROX
"We knew what to do with Toa on Destral ... raw material for my Rahi, that's what they were."
Chirox is one of the Brotherhood's top scientists, but is best known for the fact that the Rahi he creates tend to be vicious and destructive. He is less of a warrior than Antroz, but more cunning, and much more likely to fight dirty. He lives to do experiments, always tinkering with Rahi to make them more monstrous, and is quick to point out how much better his creations are than those of Mutran.
Weapons: Tridax pod; blades
Mask: Kanohi Shelek, the Mask of Silence -- can cause a target to temporarily lose the ability to speak or hear.
KIROP
"All those years we spent hiding in the light ... we were wrong. We should have embraced the darkness from the start."
Forner leader of the Matoran of Light, Kirop has become their most dangerous enemy because he knows everything about all of them.
Powers: Sight stealing -- can make a target temporarily blind; can fire shadow energy from his claw blades
ANTROZ
Quote: "Toa serve an important purpose in this world -- they help me keep my claws sharp."
Personality: Antroz if the leader of the Brotherhood of Makuta forces in Karda Nui and an accomplished warrior. He is well aware that he has to deal with powerful personalities in the other Makuta and the need to make sure he retains their respect. Unlike the Makuta of Metru Nui, he never underestimates a foe. Antroz is a rare Makuta who has some sense of honor and would rather win a fight fairly than cheat.
Mask: Kanohi Jutlin, the Mask of Corruption. Causes items to slowly rot and break down.
Equipment: Tridax pod; claws; teeth
RADIAK
As fierce a fighter for the side of shadow as he ever was for light, Radiak was once the biggest hero among the Av-Matoran. Now that he has been corrupted, he delights in challenging his former friends to combat and then seeing them ambushed by the Makuta.
Equipment: Four legs blades; teeth
Powers: Can shoot shadow energy from his blades; sloth -- can make a target too slow and lazy to get away (accessible only when riding a Makuta).
As promised, here is some info on Vamprah (Chirox and a better Antroz write-up to come later in the week):
Vamprah (8692)
Quote: Vamprah does not speak.
Weapons: Tridak pod with shadow leeches; claws; knife-sharp wings
Personality: Vamprah is the true hunter among the Makuta, who delights in silently stalking his prey. Even his allies are uncomfortable around him. Thanks to his mask power and his own experiments, he now literally feeds on the hopes and dreams of others. Vamprah hates to see a hunt end too soon and will often toy with his prey before feeding.
Mask: Kanohi Avsa, Mask of Hunger -- allows Vamprah to drain his choice of light, energy or positive emotions from a target at a distance. His preference is always the latter, but he will drain energy when in combat.
Hi guys,
As you can imagine, I am getting bombarded with 2008 questions now that the first sets have appeared in Anaheim. I did release a mask name and power this week, and will do more next week.
However, I'm not going to just hand out the entire first half 2008 info on December 7th, and leave us with nothing to discuss between now and next July. I am not going to embargo all info on '08, but I am going to portion it out so that it lasts. Okay?
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In other news, we had a company meeting yesterday to discuss our year-end results -- while final numbers will not come out until early next year, it looks like we had another fantastic year worldwide, despite the toy market being stagnant as a whole. It's a really remarkable turn-around considering the hole we were in a few years ago. A lot of this has to do with our management team, who have set a really clear direction for the company and been willing to make some tough decisions and dispense with some "sacred cows." And the early read from the market is that our products for next year are some of the strongest we have done in years.
BIONICLE had an okay year, but could have been better. We have some challenges we have to face -- getting away from clone sets means the cost of producing the sets has gone up, due to all the new molds, etc., and that cuts into profitability. And, while we are still strong among 9+ year olds, we have work to do introducing BIONICLE to the 6-8 year olds who will keep the franchise going into the future. That is something Scholastic will be helping with, which I will tell you about later on.
On the plus side, when kids were asked the top 10 franchises they would like to get a toy from, only three of their 2006 choices were still on the list in 2007, and BIONICLE was one of the three.
So now we focus on these critical next three weeks, as we go into the Christmas toy-buying season, and then we get ready to take that momentum into 2008 and make it another great year!
Greg
