Blocks issue 85 out now
Posted by Huw,
Here's the press release for this month's issue of the printed publication:
In this milestone year for LEGO BIONICLE, Blocks magazine celebrates the story-driven theme that reinvigorated the LEGO development process and helped save the company.
Issue 85 is available worldwide as a single issue or as part of a subscription at blocksmag.com and will be in UK stores from November 4. Subscribe today to be in with a chance of winning £1,000 to spend at the LEGO Store and one of five 75296 Darth Vader Meditation Chamber sets!
While BIONICLE delivered something different to traditional LEGO sets with buildable action figures, it also changed the way the LEGO Group develops in house story driven themes. In an exclusive feature, the creators behind BIONICLE reveal how they came up with the concept and turned it into a multi-year, epic fantasy adventure that took the world by storm.
This month’s striking cover art is also available as a double-sided A2 poster with no cover lines. Subscribers get a £6 discount on the high quality poster.
That’s not the only classic theme Blocks is revisiting, with the original 1989 wave of LEGO Pirates sailing into Issue 85. As well as look back at some of the theme’s best – and worst – sets, Blockstalgia includes instructions for building a mini Black Seas Barracuda.
With new Marvel film Eternals arriving in cinemas, there are reviews of the LEGO sets based on the film along with 71395 Super Mario 64 Question Mark Block, new City wildlife sets and 10295 Santa’s Visit.
The festivity continues in Mod Squad, which offers a guide to turning 31120 Medieval Castle into a jolly Christmas market. Rather than leave the castle on the shelf this holiday, these tips show how to turn it into a European style snow-covered market, the perfect spot for minifigures to enjoy a warming drink.
If you’re thinking of attending a LEGO convention or want some extra tips for the next one you visit, then there’s also a guide to attending brick events. Find out what’s in store and get some advice on making sure your MOC is admired.
There’s plenty more besides in Blocks magazine’s 116 pages, including an interview with the latest LEGO Masters champions, the top 10 Harry Potter minifigures, LEGO House Masterpiece Gallery models, how to light paint around your minifigures, a guide to building clocks and much, much more.
Blocks is giving away a £1,000 LEGO gift card and five 75296 Darth Vader Meditation Chamber sets! To be entered into the prize draws and to get Blocks magazine delivered every month – ahead of the shops – visit blocksmag.com and check out the money-saving subscription deals available.
Everyone who subscribes to the print edition by December 1 will be in with a chance of winning (existing subscribers will automatically be entered into the prize draw).
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15 comments on this article
Always happy to see articles praising Bionicle, even if sometimes the comments get predictably irascible about it. We can hopefully all agree that a theme that lasted near a decade is deserving of congratulations I hope
This makes me unbelievably happy!
Seeing Bionicle get some love is just a joy. Still a bit bummed about that Ideas set not going through, so it’s nice for these old constructions to have some spotlight.
Also... WHAT DO YOU MEAN 20 YEARS HAVE PASSED!?
I’ve been *thinking* of attending Lego conventions for over 2 years now without actually being able to go to one and with none immediately on the horizon - hopefully next year will change that as I see plenty of comic cons already going ahead now in the UK. Can use the Blocks tips when we finally get there!
@CCC said:
"What is the milestone? The fifth anniversary of LEGO still not wanting anything to do with Bionicle!
"
Why did you have to say this? T_T
Although in truth, we at least got some easter eggs such as a screenshot with Onua of the 2001 unfinished game on the screen in 70423 , the Hau sticker in 70436 , the hau in the stars in 76389 , the screen with a flight over the island of Voya Nui in 60262 , the map of Mata Nui in 70657 and the toa nuva symbols in 70620
I echo the sentiment of @Brickalili in that it's great to see the theme get some love. The anniversaries of Ninjago and Harry Potter are cool (HP had gaps from 2007-2010 and 2011-2018!) But it's nice to see the only other in-house theme from the 2000s to last 10 years besides City and Ninjago get some recognition.
For those who don't know, Bionicle recently had some fan-games made that look surprisingly great! One project even managed to get the narrator from the original commercials and some online videos on to the project!
Well, at least someone remembers!
Oh, nice!
You know, I've been thinking about checking out Blocks magazine for a few months now, ever since the issue with the Rock Raiders throwback feature; I've seen it in local newsagents a few times and always been sort of... "Maybe, but not really?" about getting it, since only about 45% of the content of any given issue feels relevant to me. But an article about Bionicle's history might be just the thing that gets me to finally go ahead and give them a try.
Though... does anyone else notice an odd discrepancy about that cover shot? It shows the original, classic Toa... EXCEPT for Gali who is inexplicably in her transformed Nuva form instead? I have to wonder whether that was for a deliberate reason, or if the photographer just wasn't able to find a Classic!Gali set in time, and decided that including the different version of her was preferable to leaving her out entirely.
Regardless, it's still a VERY cool cover image!
Did Bionicle really save LEGO? Can someone enlighten me with the full story?
@emartinez said:
"Did Bionicle really save LEGO? Can someone enlighten me with the full story?"
The short version of the story is that Lego almost went bankrupt in the early 2000s and only Star Wars and Bionicle were profitable enough to keep them afloat. (Star Wars is a huge seller, but the licensing fees complicate things. Bionicle was their only original theme doing well at all.)
"Brick by Brick" by David Robertson is a really great book to pick up that goes into detail about the whole history of Lego, they talk about this period a lot in there.
@CCC said:
"What is the milestone? The fifth anniversary of LEGO still not wanting anything to do with Bionicle!"
To be fair, I'm pretty sure Bionicle won the "theme for a set" contest on Ideas and will likely get a new set.
@emartinez said:
"Did Bionicle really save LEGO? Can someone enlighten me with the full story?"
Not only did Bionicle prove a steady profit source (along with Star Wars, and to a lesser extent with Harry Potter); it also introduced the "cross-media" template future themes like Ninjago would follow.
I loved Slizer/Throwbots , the precursor of Bionicle, soon those are 22-23 year old.
Slizers folding up in their plastic case with some discs was a fun bonus aspect to the sets.
I never really got in bionicle as I already had most slizer sets and wasn't collecting LEGO anymore at the time, but I can see how the theme took the system to a different level, in terms of parts, story, and consistent sets at least for a long time (including hero factory, and Chima, or buildable Star Wars characters etc).
After 2018 , I don't know why the era of CCBS ended.
@Trionx said:
" @emartinez said:
"Did Bionicle really save LEGO? Can someone enlighten me with the full story?"
The short version of the story is that Lego almost went bankrupt in the early 2000s and only Star Wars and Bionicle were profitable enough to keep them afloat. (Star Wars is a huge seller, but the licensing fees complicate things. Bionicle was their only original theme doing well at all.)
"Brick by Brick" by David Robertson is a really great book to pick up that goes into detail about the whole history of Lego, they talk about this period a lot in there."
What happened? Did people stop buying Lego or did they spend too much on other things?
@emartinez said:
" @Trionx said:
" @emartinez said:
"Did Bionicle really save LEGO? Can someone enlighten me with the full story?"
The short version of the story is that Lego almost went bankrupt in the early 2000s and only Star Wars and Bionicle were profitable enough to keep them afloat. (Star Wars is a huge seller, but the licensing fees complicate things. Bionicle was their only original theme doing well at all.)
"Brick by Brick" by David Robertson is a really great book to pick up that goes into detail about the whole history of Lego, they talk about this period a lot in there."
What happened? Did people stop buying Lego or did they spend too much on other things?"
The short version: in the mid-90s Lego felt like digital media like video games were shifting the toy market away from physical toys. As a reaction they started to take more and more drastic measures: the Town Junior theme, an increasing amount of Lego video games, and a myriad of ventures. They fired some of the old guard and hired new people who... weren't too well-versed in lego set design. If you look at the catalogs of the early 2000s there were a lot of nontraditional things being created by the company. Couple this with an cost for sets due to poor inventory management, increasing amounts of barely used colours, digital parts costing more than the sets were sold for (the fiber optics system)... they were losing a lot of money.
SW gained money short-term when films released in 1999 and 2002. But between that sets didn't sell well enough. Couple that with licensing fees to Lucasarts...
And Bionicle, the in-house theme and one of the few attempts at branching out that were succesful was one of the few themes that still made a good profit in 2003, the year they nearly became bankrupt.
I'm gonna wait until TLG snubs Bionicle on their 25th anniversary before I start to actually get mad.
I actually went and bought a copy. The Bionicle was a big part of it, but I am also interested to see what they have to say about the classic pirates.