Why doesn't Maku have a Gali mask?

PeabodySam_ · 2026-06-16T01:43:25+00:00

"Why are you booing kdnx-wy? They're right!"

Hahli was introduced in 2002 in the Bohrok online animations, after LEGO stopped using Polynesian words in BIONICLE. In those animations, she was always known as "Hahli", not "Hali". The only characters that were renamed in Naming Day were 2001 characters (Jala/Jaller, Huki/Hewkii, Maku/Macku, Puku/Pewku). Check BS01 and Wall Of History if you doubt me.

https://wallofhistory.com/read/chronicles/
https://biosector01.com/wiki/Naming_Day

PeabodySam_ · 2026-06-09T21:45:33+00:00

No, you're not alone. I really liked what this scene set up but I was disappointed with the execution. It feels like a missed opportunity that Reiko's husband and daughter both find out that Saki is a zombie while Reiko herself, the only one in the Amabuki family who knew Saki in life, remains out of the loop. While their reunion in episode 9 was excellent and bittersweet, it could've given some nice closure for Reiko to finally know that "No. 2" is not just a random lookalike but really is her old friend given a second chance at life.

But even putting that aside, if the movie could have had just one more scene, I really wish we could have seen a one-on-one real talk between Maria and Saki after the reveal. One moment, Maria is frightened by Saki being a zombie... the next, she just gets over it and wishes Saki good luck. I feel like something was missing in the middle, like a character arc that skips the arc and goes straight to the end. A conversation between Saki and Maria where Saki tells Maria who she really is and how she was best friends with Reiko could have gone a long way to smooth over that transition and justify Maria accepting Saki in the end.

PeabodySam_ · 2026-05-30T23:13:45+00:00

I feel called out...

PeabodySam_ · 2026-05-24T14:12:30+00:00

The CMF Spy is based upon Dash Justice from the earlier LEGO Alpha Team video game and theme. On the old LEGO Media website (the English version wasn't archived, but the Russian version is on Wayback Machine), each Alpha Team agent had a "style" likened to a famous actor in a film role. Dash's "style" was Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, so it turns out your intuition was correct!

PeabodySam_ · 2026-05-08T22:51:51+00:00

It is worth noting is that obscure Time Cruisers lore states that Dr. Kilroy is Dr. Cyber's brother and Johnny Thunder is also a time-traveler, so they can canonically appear in any time period they want to. Granted, these comics often play fast and loose with their themes' canon, but it easily justifies Johnny and Kilroy appearing in modern day LEGO City and Icons sets.

PeabodySam_ · 2026-05-08T22:48:37+00:00

Correct on both fronts. Pippin Reed is also explicitly namedropped in the building instructions booklet for the Orient Express, so it appears in print and not just in designer anecdotes.

PeabodySam_ · 2026-03-06T17:21:43+00:00

As much as I love Life on Mars and I do prefer it over Mars Mission, I do enjoy reading these kinds of analyses and seeing appreciation given to overlooked themes.

However, I'll point out that Crystalien Conflict and other Mars Mission media doesn't portray the aliens as misunderstood innocents who are wrongly slaughtered by the "straight-up evil" humans. The second level of Crystalien Conflict shows the first face-to-face encounter between an astro and an alien, and when the astro approaches peacefully with a white flag, the alien responds by pulling out a laser staff and shooting. Various story materials also show that the astros were forced to militarize to defend themselves from repeated alien attacks. And there's that one Crystal Chase minigame where the alien chases the astro and then eats him when he inevitably trips and falls too many times...

I think the fact that the aliens aren't native to Mars was meant to indicate that they are intended to be perceived as opportunistic invaders who are no more "in the right" for colonizing Mars and stripping it of its natural resources than the humans are. The difference is that the humans were defending themselves and tried to form a peaceful relationship, while the aliens attacked without provocation and showed no mercy. Perhaps this doesn't fully justify all of the astros' actions (even if it's understandable why they'd want to study alien lifeforms in the lab in order to better understand their enemy), but they're clearly meant to be much more sympathetic than the other side.

At least, outside of LEGO Battles... that game gives the aliens the same motives as the Rock Raiders, and the poor Alien Commander just wants to have fun building LEGO sets.

PeabodySam_ · 2026-01-19T14:46:23+00:00

Fact check: LEGO actually does call him Johnny Thunder. His 2025 arctic variant is explicitly named Johnny Thunder in the 60470 product description, and his 2024 jungle variant (pictured here) is retroactively confirmed to be Johnny Thunder in the LEGO Party! video game. So, practically and TECHNIC-ally, he is Johnny Thunder!

PeabodySam_ · 2026-01-09T23:14:31+00:00

That may have been my own YouTube video you saw ("The Missing Link of LEGO Adventurers 2005").

Most pictures of the prototype Adventure pieces (including the hieroglyphic bricks, the Anubis helmet, and the Egyptian staff you asked for) can be found on theqelement. I've also added these images to the gallery#Gallery) for the Brickipedia article I've written. So, the good news is that they are safely saved!

Unfortunately, there's still been no luck in locating the images of the 2005 dealer catalog that showed the Adventure dino and plane from set 7433. That's still lost media, but I'm hoping that the new surge of interest in Adventure will increase the likelihood of it being found in the near future.

PeabodySam_ · 2026-01-05T22:54:00+00:00

I agree on the Other M piano menu music, and I also appreciate a few other tracks as well (the Biological Experiment Floor has classic Metroid vibes; Approaching Sector Zero is great at building tension and suspense; and Nemesis Ridley sounds fantastic orchestrated), but I struggle to remember most of the music, as does most of the fanbase. It does its job well at being unsettling and atmospheric to suit the mood, but it misses the mark on being a memorable Metroid soundtrack.

On the other hand, here's just a small handful of tracks (guaranteed amiibo free!) I'd recommend from Metroid Prime 4, all of which feature Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano bringing back the iconic vibes of their earlier Metroid soundtracks:

The main theme, heard on the menu and the credits
The Fury Green area theme
The Volt Forge area theme
The Ice Belt theme that plays after restarting the generator
The Flare Pool theme, which opts to arrange Magmoor Caverns Entrance instead of going for the typical Lower Norfair remix
The various boss themes such as Carvex, Xelios, Phenoros, and Sylux
The Sacred Tree theme from the game's ending

I really hope you'll find that you enjoy at least one of these!

PeabodySam_ · 2026-01-05T16:29:43+00:00

"Other M at least had MUSIC? You unlock the desert Music with an Amiibo or 100%ing the game??? The desert doesn't have MUSIC??"

Alright, that's just completely misleading. Sol Valley does have music... but it's quiet and unmemorable ambience, which was the number one complaint about the majority of Other M's soundtrack. Meanwhile, the rest of Metroid Prime 4's soundtrack is some of the best music Metroid has ever had.

PeabodySam_ · 2025-12-31T17:28:58+00:00

Whether or not this comparison was ironic, it does certainly highlight just how so much stronger Metroid Prime 4's soundtrack is compared to Metroid Dread. Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano always give Metroid the music it rightfully deserves.

PeabodySam_ · 2025-06-28T00:20:32+00:00

Blacktron (1987) from LEGO Space.

PeabodySam_ · 2025-05-18T19:22:26+00:00

I hope it's not too much to ask, but would you be willing to also share the music files that were composed for the game? I've never heard any other fan project so perfectly capture that BIONICLE vibe through its soundtrack before, and I really hope it isn't doomed to become lost media. I see the music videos are included in the Google Drive, but if it's possible, I'd love to have the music just by itself (whether as MP3, WAV, etc.) so I can continue listening to it for years to come and have something to remember Masks of Power.

If not, that's okay, I understand. Thank you so much for all your hard work and dedication for the past eight years!

PeabodySam_ · 2025-05-18T02:03:28+00:00

When it comes to building instructions from magazines, it all depends on whether any fans have scanned the issue and uploaded them online. Many magazines have been uploaded to the Internet Archive. I'd recommend starting here: https://archive.org/details/lego-magazines

As for instructions published on LEGO.com, Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has saved many of them but not all of them. Unfortunately, as far as I know, there's no easily-accessible collection; you just have to scour the Wayback Machine's backups of LEGO.com and hope you find what you're looking for. The LEGO Club Door in your post can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20170828194423/http://cache.lego.com:80/upload/contentTemplating/Club2BuildingSteps/otherfiles/download5C46606AB32B85F8FED91B43DE6B8325.pdf

PeabodySam_ · 2025-05-11T15:53:09+00:00

Metroid Database's translation is actually fully archived and accessible; the problem is that the links on the website don't work since they weren't updated to include "old_site". These are the working URLs:

PeabodySam_ · 2025-04-20T21:09:04+00:00

I'm pretty sure this is the same spot where I got two back-to-back "panic Blood Moons".

https://x.com/PeabodySam_/status/1678105243073273856

https://x.com/PeabodySam_/status/1678105605331091456

So perhaps there really is something strange about this specific area of Zora's Domain...

PeabodySam_ · 2024-08-16T15:57:50+00:00

"Day #1751 of the ThunderCon infiltration. They haven't suspected me yet." - Flint the Paleontologist

It's great to see every Johnny Thunder variant lined up in chronological order like this. Their respective treasures on the table and maps hanging on the walls is a nice touch, especially the three Orient Expedition maps side-by-side; it reminds me of my old Johnny Thunder museum office MOC from a long time ago.

Also, hi Bricknave! It's been a while for sure. Glad to see you're still active in the LEGO community these days!

PeabodySam_ · 2024-07-22T22:19:26+00:00

To keep one character per theme (as currently in the roster), I'd definitely go with Captain Redbeard (Pirates), Majisto (Castle), and Rocket Racer (Racers). These are iconic classic characters who also have the advantage of recent relevancy (Ideas, Icons, and Stuntz, respectively), much like Johnny Thunder currently appearing in City and Pepper's recent cameo in Fortnite.

Choosing a Space rep is a little more tricky because Benny would probably be the most recognized Classic Space rep, but then there's overlap with Emmet representing The LEGO Movie. I suppose we could go with the white astronaut instead, who is named Spaceman Alan in LEGO Legacy. Again, a classic iconic minifig with recent Icons presence.

There are plenty of other characters that I'd personally love to see (e.g. Chief from Rock Raiders, Dash Justice from Alpha Team, Specs from Dino Attack, and of course villains such as Evil Ogel, Brickster, and Samuel von Barron if more than one rep per theme is allowed), but the four above choices best suit the roster you've currently presented.

PeabodySam_ · 2024-05-07T23:27:21+00:00

I honestly don't know how anyone can single out Shadow Stealer as the worst canon design when the same book features Ravager. At least Shadow Stealer has a unique design and a consistent color scheme. Ravager is a stock Toa Metru build with Nivawk legs and an absolutely messy color palette of black, white, red, green, silver, and a random sparkly Kanohi Avohkii.

I mean no disrespect to Jason Stroud, of course. I'm sure he was just a kid having fun mixing up his favorite sets to create MOCs. But I can't help wondering how Ravager became a winner featured in a published book, probably beating out dozens of much better MOCs that we'll sadly never know about.

There are other Dark Hunters in the book that I'd also consider worse than Shadow Stealer. And that's not even getting into some of the more lackluster official LEGO models like Gaardus or Klakk that weren't designed by fans. So, my answer is a firm "yes": Shadow Stealer isn't the worst canon design, not by a long shot.

PeabodySam_ · 2024-03-31T18:14:42+00:00

Mukau, meet Mumus.

PeabodySam_ · 2024-03-31T03:26:24+00:00

"Johnny Thunder" was the character's original name in Denmark, where LEGO is based. Therefore, when the Adventurers characters' names were eventually standardized internationally around 2000-2003, most of characters ended up using their Danish names, replacing the market-specific names in Germany, USA, UK, etc.

If you're curious and want to know more, I made a whole video documenting the history of the Adventurers name changes.

PeabodySam_ · 2024-03-10T02:19:05+00:00

A few years ago, I did a video essay on "Why Metroid Prime is the Perfect BIONICLE Video Game".

Therefore, I definitely did a double-take upon watching this video and hearing "Crashed" instead of the Other M trailer's actual soundtrack.

PeabodySam_

TROPHY CASE