The third round of Bio-Cup 2020 has completed, and we are now at the semi-finals. This time, the theme was Art History, which each of the contestants being assigned different time periods. Since there's only eight entries, read on to see all of them.  

What's with all these articles about Bionicle lately? Is there an anniversary coming up or something? Over at CBR, one of the largest comic book sites on the web, Matthew Attanasio has recently penned a piece titled "Bionicle: How Comics Brought the LEGO Franchise to Life." They definitely seem to have been a fan of the theme, with an opening line like, "Bionicle is LEGO's greatest gift to mankind," and it's great to see that appreciation from places outside the LEGO community. The article itself is mainly a brief overview of the story and a look at how comics were such an important part of what made the line special to so many of us. There's nothing new revealed that will blow your mind, but we have no complaints of the mention on such a large platform. Go check it out!

Let's all head to Discworld and visit the fabulous city of Ankh-Morpork! It's been a while since I've read any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, but there was a time when I was all about his universe that can be best described as The Lord of the Rings meets The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So that means i'm quite pleased that BrickHammer's Terry Pratchett's Discworld project has achieved ten thousand votes of support on LEGO Ideas. The model captures the look of the rather absurd world perfectly, complete with elephants, a giant turtle, and the flat disc itself. If that seems weird yet fun to you, you should check out the books. There's lots of great techniques in the build too and it makes creating round things out of square bricks look easy. We wish it the best of luck when it gets to its review phase!

In exactly one month, it will be August 10th - why is that date important? Because it is the community's self-proclaimed 810NICLE Day! Get it? The folks at BIONICLEsector01 have posted a trailer on YouTube to build up some excitement and share some of the activities being planned for the event. In addition to all the great stream content, you can expect there will be chances to win some prizes along the way as well. Mark your calendars and get hyped!

The R2-D2 and Gonk droid from LEGO Boost 75253 Droid Commander have been looking like they could use a friend since we built them a couple of weeks ago. So let's build them one! Come by the BZPower Twitch channel this Sunday, July 12th, at 1 PM Eastern as we dive back into the LEGO Star Wars Boost set, build the Mouse droid model, and check out the app some more! I'm looking forward to diving into the features and games and will make sure to have a charger handy for my phone this time. Hope to see you come by to watch, chat, and win prizes!

If you've been a Bionicle fan since the beginning, the Mata Nui Online Game was likely one of the first ways you interacted with the franchise. Even if you're newer to the fandom, you've probably played it at least once over the years. Recently Twitch streamer Derek_MK was doing a speedrun of the game and captured this clip from Le-Koro. As Derek found after the fact looking at the source, there's a 1% chance that after Tamaru falls down, the other Matoran will hold up signs showing either a one or a zero in their alphabet, rating his landing. It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of thing, so who knows how many players have had it show up over the years without realizing it. Now it's been documented though, so you can go play the game a hundred times and hope it happens to you once. Good luck!

Nice part usage, or NPU, always catches my eye in a creation, and today's feature is no different. BZPower member Kraata Kink took some essences of Makuta that featured various shades of green and used them as fronds of a palm tree for Lonesome George. Overall, the MOC is fairly simple in composition, but it comes together really well with the backdrop and just makes me smile. The Kraata, the flower stems, the pirate who's happy despite his seemingly-desperate plight, and of course the crab all immediately form a picture that you instantly recognize. Kraata Kink says he's getting "a ton more" of the slugs soon, so I can't wait to see what he builds with them next!

It's Tuesday, which means it's time for our weekly reminder about our videogame stream tonight. Come by the BZPower Twitch channel starting at 7:30 PM Eastern to watch us play LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures. We're knee deep in The Last Crusade on our quest for the Holy Grail, and we hope to see you there to chat with us and cheer us on our way!

Interviews for the 10K Club are back on LEGO Ideas, talking with two designers on their three submissions that have hit 10,000 votes. While LEGO Ideas has had fans reach the coveted number multiple times, and even achieved multiple sets, Guillaume Roussel's Globe and Mary Poppins Cherry Tree Lane hit 10K within the same review period. Read his interview here. Next up is another car, but not a classic from last century: BrickinNick's Tesla Cybertruck has all the right angles for a ride from the future. Read his interview here. Congratulations to both builders! Think any of these will become official sets?

On Saturday we shared an article from Popular Mechanics looking back at Bionicle. Squirreled away in that story was a link to a nearly-seveteen year old article on Kidscreen looking at the then new idea of advertising toys in ways that didn't include 30 second ads, a TV show, or a movie. Of course the prime example in 2003 was Bionicle, and Bob Thompson and others from The LEGO Group weighed in on how things came to be back in the day. The story is an interesting time capsule that's somehow still online all these years later, and is worth checking out for the historic lens it provides on Bionicle.

A new video was recently uploaded to the LEGO YouTube channel that should be of interest to all Ninjago fans. If you haven't already, you should go watch the NINJAGO: Master of the Mountain Official Trailer for a look at the upcoming season of the show. It appears all is not well in the Ivory City of Shintaro, so of course the ninja will dive right in to get to the bottom of it. Who knows when Cartoon Network will decide to air the episodes in the US, but hopefully it will be while the sets are still on the shelves. One of these days I'll catch up on the show and see what the current fun is all about!

I've seen articles about Bionicle in a lot of places, but Popular Mechanics is not one I can say I would have expected. But recently David Lumb wrote a piece titled, "LEGO Almost Went Bankrupt. These Heroes Saved Our Bricks." where he goes into the origins of our favorite toy line and how it was crucial to the current success of LEGO. The article includes quotes from Christian Faber, Bob Thompson, David Robertson (author of Brick by Brick), and Martin Riber Andersen (Bionicle co-founder and design manager) to really give you some behind the scenes looks at the franchise. It's impressive to see such attention being given to our beloved theme after all these years and the article is definitely worth a read!

A new train set has been released from LEGO: The Crocodile Locomotive. Watch it shown off in the designer video, as designer Pierre Normandin explains his love for this train engine that was prevalent in the 1900s for running on both steam and electricity, especially in Switzerland. (Wonder why it's called a crocodile? He explains that too!) Find the set on Shop at Home once it's available again. BZPower isn't known for its train fans, but there's always a chance you'll find a new LEGO collection with each new set, and this one got a lot of love put into it.

Earlier in the week Julia Goldin, the Chief Marketing Officer of The LEGO Group, released a statement regarding the company's use of paid social media advertisements. Following in the footsteps of several other large corporations, they are pausing all spending on such ads for at least 30 days. This is in order to evaluate the standards they use to decide on their advertising in an effort to contribute, "to a positive, inclusive digital environment free from hate speech, discrimination and misinformation." We'll have to see how the changes affect Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms - hopefully it will encourage actual changes for the better.

We've got three new projects that have achieved ten thousand votes of support on LEGO Ideas over the past week, joining the ranks of the 10k club:

• Sheriff's Safe with Combination Lock by Il Buono looks amazing and features an even more amazing working combination lock!
• 31 Minutos T.V. Studio by YnsomniacTypho is certainly a Chilean show featuring puppets highlighting crazy news items from around the world, and one I had certainly never heard of before.
• Southwest 737-800 by BigPlanes-Customs is iconic to someone like me who usually flies out of BWI on Southwest flights, and reminds me of times when there were places and things to visit.

Best of luck to these models in the review phase!

Today LEGO is announcing their next foray into the adult-focused product market with LEGO Art. The company has explored mosaic-style sets in the past, but usually they were custom based on an image provided. These new sets, which release August 1st, are based on pop culture icons that lean decidedly more towards nerdy than fine art, which I'm sure will appeal to many people. Featuring the likes of Iron Man, Darth Vader, The Beatles, and Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, these $120 sets each contain the instructions for three or four images, and in some cases allow you to combine three copies of the set to make one larger image. If you're already a seasoned mosaic-maker, you should at least check them out for the new 16x16 Technic brick element that allows you to easily assemble individual subsections of the builds in a hopefully-sturdy manner. Read on to learn more!  

Over a hundred LEGO sets are on sale at Barnes and Noble Booksellers for the summer. Marked down at 30% off, these sets should be stickered for the sale and are possibly moved to a single location instead of spread throughout the LEGO shelves. Items on sale mostly consists of sets from 2019 and earlier and cover a variety of themes from Star Wars, Ninjago, The LEGO Movie 2, and more, even DUPLO. Sets should be available for BN.com's Buy Online, Pick Up In Store feature, but buying sets in the store will also allow for the Membership 10% discount as well. If there is something you've been eyeing for a while, now's your chance before it's retired for good.

It's a new month - we've made it halfway through the year - and that means it's time to give away a new set. Go check out the 2020 Member Raffle #7 for a chance to win 71311 Kopaka and Melum - Unity Set from the second generation of Bionicle sets, featuring the Toa of Ice and his creature companion. As per usual, you have through the end of the month to enter, and any member of BZPower is welcome to drop their name in the virtual hat. Since July is our anniversary month, you can expect to see some more giveaways throughout the coming days as well! Maybe you'll be lucky like MartinCollects, who won our raffle for June!

In addition to the press release, LEGO sent on specific information for one of the four LEGO Art sets releasing in a month. Come get a closer look at 31199 Marvel Studios Iron Man, which allows you to build a 48x48 image of either the Mark III, Hulkbuster Mark I, or Mark LXXXV suits from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to display in your house. Three copies of the set can be combined into one larger 144x48 image to really show off your love of Tony Stark. At $120, you might have to settle for just one to rebuild every now and then, but that's part of the beauty of the brick, right? Read on for a closer look including a short video about the set, and more product details.  

BZPower member Namata shared a fun original story last month in BZPower's library. Go read Naming Day for their take on the beginning of the Turaga and Matoran's time on the island of Mata Nui. It starts with the titular occasion, and while there's a certain level of gravitas to the event, there's some good, lighthearted humor in there too. Give it a read for yourself and let the author know what you think!

Today is our last Twitch Tuesday stream for June, and while the month is ending we're starting a new movie in LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures - The Last Crusade. Stop by the BZPower Twitch channel starting tonight at 7:30 PM Eastern as we begin our quest for the Holy Grail! This is my favorite movie of the series, and by far the most fun, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how TT Games translated it into the brick. Stop by, chat with us, and watch us undertake a new adventure!

Recently Creative Capers, the studio that made the first three Bionicle films, took to Instagram to share some content from their time in the universe. In addition to artwork, there's a clip of Lewa with an infected Miru that hasn't been seen in such high quality before now. They also shared some background on how they got started with LEGO:

Back around 2002 Creative Capers got the opportunity to bring the Lego Bionicle toy line to life. We partnered up with CGCG, an outstanding group of CG artists located in Taiwan. Together we put together a test to show the folks at LEGO what our vision would be like for a feature length DVD film. The executives loved our take on their popular toy line and gave us the project. The Directors @dammolina and @tinkerted took turns traveling to Taiwan to work with the animators, and a year later finished up "BIONICLE: MASK OF LIGHT".

Hopefully we'll see more glimpses in the future!