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!

We are almost halfway through 2020 somehow, and the end of the month means the end of another raffle! If you haven't already, now's the time to enter the 2020 Member Raffle #6. We're giving away 5002942 Bionicle Villain Pack, one of the G2 Bionicle accessory packs that had a limited distribution. You have until the end of the month to enter, so don't dilly dally. Good luck everyone!

In addition to the review results being shared this week on LEGO Ideas, two new projects have achieved the enviable goal of ten thousand votes of support on the platform. The BMW M1 (E26) by TOMOELL comes in a mass-produced street version and a racing model and features all the details you'd expect in a Creator Expert style car. A variety of slopes are used to great affect to achieve the proper silhouette for the vehicle. The Caribbean Clipper by Babyteeth is a spiritual successor to the set from the very first wave of Pirates sets back in 1989. This one has a lot more cannons, sails, and bricks in general, and looks gorgeous. It would be great on display next to the Pirates of Barracuda Bay set that was recently released. Best of luck to both when they get reviewed!

The second round of Bio-Cup 2020 is now over, and although the number of entries has diminished, the quality remains very high. I'm counting about 24 entries for this round, which focused on Regional Mythology and Folklore. Yet again, the Reporters of BZPower selected a handful of the MOCs to highlight, so read on to see some cool builds and let us know which your favorites are!  

It's been a little bit since our last LEGO live build, so let's fix that this weekend! On Saturday, June 27th we'll be checking out the LEGO Boost 75253 Droid Commander set on the BZPower Twitch channel. Come by starting at 1 PM Eastern to watch as we build at least one of the droids and get it moving around with the included Move Hub. We've got a new capture card, new streaming software, and are ready to provide a higher-resolution, less buffery experience. There will also be doing our normal giveaways as well, so stop in the chat for a chance to win!

Today LEGO and National Geographic are announcing a new campaign to help raise awareness on the importance of protecting both the wildlife and the oceans here on planet Earth. In addition to a number of co-branded sets in the City and Friends themes, they will be releasing a series of videos and other content to encourage creativity and problem solving with a focus on these areas of nature and conservation. To get an early look at the partnership and the full press release, read on!  

From now until June 29th, Xbox has a small selection of LEGO videogames on sale for 75% off! You can pick up LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Deluxe Edition for $7.49, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 Deluxe Edition for $8.74, The LEGO Marvel Collection (which has three games, including the previous one) for $14.99, LEGO DC Super-Villains Deluxe Edition for $18.74, and others for some of the lowest prices yet on the platform. You can see all the LEGO and other games currently on sale over at Major Nelson's blog and see if there's any that strike your fancy. If I didn't already own most of them, I'd be all over these deals!

This year's Ninjago sets have had some really interesting builds based on a virtual reality world with a very videogame-y vibe, including health bars floating above the characters' heads. They also have some eye-catching villains that feel like they came right out of the 80s and 90s kids media, such as giant mutant rats. BZPower member Pohaturon built one of these creatures, Hausner the Whack Rat, for his entry in the first round of the BioCup, and I love it. There's obviously a lot of constraction parts present, but I particularly like the Knights Kingdom armor piece making an appearance. Using the dragon head elements from Lloyd's dragon from the Ninjago Movie as the mouth works great, and the floating health bar makes him look like a boss from a 90s side-scrolling platformer or beat 'em up game. Go give the creation a closer look for yourself and let the builder know what you think!

Tonight it will be time for our weekly videogame over on the BZPower Twitch channel. Armed with a new capture card and streaming software that we tested out last weekend, things should hopefully be better quality and buffering free. We'll be headed back into LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, playing through the story of The Temple of Doom as we try to recover valuable artifacts and avoid personal injury. Come watch starting at 7:30 PM Eastern and chat with us as we play!

We've all be holding our breath awaiting to hear if the LEGO Ideas submission celebrating 20 years of BIONICLE will bring our favorite mythology into the limelight again with a System twist. Today you can see the results on the Ideas Blog for the results from the latest 10K vote submissions. Spoiler alert: BIONICLE didn't win. But you can watch the designers talk about the three winning entries: Home Alone, Typewriter, and Seinfeld. Congrats to those three sets which we'll see on the toy store shelves soon, and hopefully another BIONICLE Ideas submission will rise in the ranks to keep our spirits high.

Hasan has shared on the LEGO Ideas blog that the results from the current review phase will be announced tomorrow! They're also doing a giveaway for 21322 Pirates of Barracuda Bay, where if you guess what passes the review you could win the set. There are twelve projects whose fates we will learn, including The Legend of the BIONICLE: Celebrating 20 years of Lego stories by Sokoda. I'm sure we're all hopeful for a positive result, but let's make sure to keep our expectations tempered. There's a lot of great ideas and unfortunately not all of them can make it onto shelves. We'll find out soon which ones have made the cut!

Today we've got a new set review for you all! BZPower staff member Ta-metru_defender has shared his thoughts on the 75275 A-wing Starfighter from the LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series theme of sets. We built this live a few weeks ago, but now we're diving deep and getting a second opinion on this large, detailed spaceship from a galaxy far, far away. I encourage you to read on to see his thoughts and watch his video review, which is much more entertaining than my live builds I'm sure. He also puts it through the playability tests in a way I had never thought of before but now am sorely tempted to.  

There's been a bit of activity on LEGO Ideas in the contest recently. Let's see what we've got:

• If you want to build something, check out The Ultimate Tour and build a Ducati motorcycle in any place you'd like to take one for a spin. Entries are due July 13th and the winner gets a Technic prize package and shopping spree.
• You can go vote in the Build That Holiday Into THAT holiday contest and pick which model will be turned into a gift-with-purchase.
• LEGO announced the winners of the Your Build in the LEGO House contest so you can see which models will go on display in Billund!