[Lego] Bionicle Retail Flags

With #8989 Mata Nui for scale. Y'know, the small yellow thing on the right that's hardly visible, standing there, menacingly!
Eventually, the Barraki retail flag is somehow going to be relevant to my journey in becoming a LEGO Product Designer...

In my never-ending quest for collecting all kinds of (niche) LEGO products, this is my first time getting my hands on retail flags. Earlier this year, I've hinted at a Bionicle parcel that was stuck in customs limbo, which were these two.

When it comes to product design, there are parts in this process that is often overlooked. Engineering, advertisement, package design, to name a few. When products are about to be sold in stores, stores have the option to decorate their interior to drive sales. There are many ways a store can do this, as there are all kinds of items to fulfill that purpose.

The world of LEGO-themed store decorations is a bottomless pit. Each time LEGO releases a new product, there's an entire industry of its own, dedicated to produce all kinds of promotional materials. When it comes to collecting and cataloging these items, three categories are common: retail flags, product displays and other decorative objects.

What are retail flags? Large, printed cloth banners designed for halls or rooms, specifically designed to be hung from tall ceilings. In stores, you would see these from far away, marking the location of the corresponding toy aisle. If you've ever been to a large toy store or convention, you've probably seen one of these before.

As store decorations continuously comes and goes, all of it is treated as disposable. After products are removed from shelves, related store decorations are destroyed. There's simply too much of it; store owners don't think twice about it. Although, as with everything, there's always some that eventually finds its way on the aftermarket. To obtain specific items however, is not as easy as it sounds. It takes a lot of patience, a lot of digging, and they aren't cheap.

So, what about the two retail flags I've obtained? In particular, I was after the Barraki retail flag on the left. 2007 was such a fantastic year for the franchise, it is by far my favorite. Consider this retail flag to be the one I wanted the most. In order to purchase it however, I had to throw in another retail flag to meet the seller's minimum purchase threshold. By coincidence, the seller also happened to have another retail flag I was interested in: 2009's #8989 Mata Nui.

Suffice to say, these retail flags are huge. Given the purpose they were designed for, both are two meters tall and 90 centimeters wide, each. Both ends have a small channel, just large enough to fit thin rods or strings inside, so you can mount them on a wall or ceiling. Unfortunately, I don't have space for these in my room. Too large. Once I move out of here, I'll definitely find a spot where they can be admired - as they should be. Heck, finding a method and location to temporarily hang these up for this photo was a challenge in itself! That's why it took me this long to write this blogpost.

There are still a handful of other retail flags I'm specifically after; mainly the other Barraki retail flags. You see, some retail flags are designed as a set. While the one I have is the main one, three others exist. One is the same but without the Barraki (which is a fantastic backdrop of Mahri Nui), the other two (example 1, example 2) are thinner retail flags depicting three of the six canister sets each. Unfortunately, Bionicle retail flags specifically target canister sets, so retail flags of the larger Bionicle sets do not exist. A shame, really. Some of them would've made great retail flags.

Aside from retail flags, am I after any other store decorations? Yes, there are some. I've always wanted to obtain a product display. Preferably one of 2007 Bionicle, but any theme I'm fond of is fine, as long as the display is visually interesting. Bricklink isn't an exhaustive list of the many store decorations out there - for instance, at a convention I once saw a large product display of #6979 Interstellar Starfighter with lights and sound. One that I'll never forget was during my childhood in Tokyo, where there was this massive display of the 1998 Ninja theme at our local Daiei. They built a deep ravine out of BURPs, about two meters tall, and had the sets displayed in them. Honestly, it was amazing for its time and awe-inspiring. It's that kind of ambition and passion that makes this never-ending hobby so great.

But that's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 278!

Ding! Two more levels to unlock Arteria. I'm almost there!

New Age is around the corner, so the reduced EXP curve and higher EXP rewards from dailies come into play soon. While I'm expecting to reach Level 280 before the end of the year, both Arteria and Carcion are scheduled for mid-December. It's too early to say if I'll reach Level 280 before that. I have to see the post-New Age daily EXP yield first.

As for the Destiny blogpost, I'm expecting to wrap up 3rd Job later today. That also means the most time-consuming chapters are done - the remaining GIFs won't require as much. I'm aiming to have 4th Job and Hyper Skills done next month, and to wrap up the remaining chapters in December. However, whether that's possible is uncertain, as until the end of January I no longer have a say in my own schedule. If that situation stays relevant enough, I'll write about it.

By the way, our latest episode in the High-Dex Hero series is out! We should have another video later this year...

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] 16 years of Rayque!

Basically, my second birthday for the year.

Hi guys! Today's the 30th of September, which means I've been playing EMS for 16 years daily on Rayque!

It's been a very productive year in terms of levels; the changes introduced with the Ignition update (which was released at the end of 2022) has been absolutely fantastic. Whereas previous years didn't see many level ups on Rayque, all of that changed with Ignition's introduction of substantial daily EXP rewards and Monster Park Extreme.

To give you an idea, here's a breakdown on the levels-per-year:

• 2007: Level 2X (started on the 30th of September)
• 2008: Level 4X (2nd Job Advancement in Q1 2008)
• 2009: Level 11X (3rd Job Advancement on the 19th of April)
• 2010: Level 14X (4th Job Advancement on the 23rd of January)
• 2011: Level 161 (Level 154 before Big Bang) 
• 2012: Level 189 
• 2013: Level 200 (reached Level 200 on the 29th of December)
• 2014: Level 206 
• 2015: Level 210
• 2016: Level 216 (5th Job Advancement on the 15th of December)
• 2017: Level 226 (reached Level 220 on the 18th of February)
• 2018: Level 237
• 2019: Level 247
• 2020: Level 251 (reached Level 250 on the 12th of April)
• 2021: Level 260
• 2022: Level 266
• 2023: expecting to reach Level 280

As you can see, the amount of level ups saw a decline around the early 2010s, due to the general changes introduced with Big Bang and the first level cap increase from 200 to 220. This decline grew worse with the level cap increases to 250 and 275, where the amount of grind multipliers (which used to go up to 32x in EMS) were reduced drastically, the EXP-per-mob couldn't compete with the steep EXP-required-per-level, and the amount of HP per monster has been inflated (read: overcorrected) since Big Bang in order to balance out the power gained from Potential/Enhancements. 

Then, with the introduction of Level 300 and Arcane/Grandis symbols, symbols are locked behind level milestones all the way up to 285. The amount of hours required to reach these milestones puts Pre-Big Bang levelling to shame, and the inherent value of symbols makes reaching these levels more important than ever. Players have been starving for better EXP gains, and Ignition saw to remedy that. I've said this before and I'll say it again: Ignition might be one of the most pivotal updates to MapleStory's history, because it fundamentally changed the landscape by addressing one of the largest hurdles in the game: levelling. New Age will become the Chaos update that followed Big Bang, where it'll refine the groundwork that was laid before. The traditional power-grind of old has been surpassed by daily EXP bursts.

Case in point: I'm currently breezing through levels that would've otherwise taken me years, weren't it for the Ignition update. Around the year 2020, I could only expect a handful of level ups, even though I've always been diligent with my dailies (even Pre-Big Bang). I was one of the first in EMS to have maxed out on Arcane Symbols, and this was before they drastically made Arcane Symbols easier and gave out daily EXP rewards. 

So you can imagine, that once they slapped EXP on dailies, levels went like a hot knife through butter. Before Ignition, 

I was only Level 265. In less than a year I've hit Level 277, and I'm expecting to reach Level 280 by the end of 2023! We are talking about 130 trillion EXP in just one year, without changing my habits whatsoever. It's been the exact type of change that continues to be a huge boon to my progress, and it's going to be even better with the New Age update. Now, if only they could do something about gear progression in a similar manner to what they did with levelling...

It's hard to imagine, but at this rate, I might even reach Level 290 in 2025. Anyway, milestones! Stuff that happened this year: I've completed Hyper Burning twice, maxed out my first Grandis Symbol, obtained my second and third

Legendary Additional Potential, and I've reached my long-awaited 10.000th Commerci Lith Harbor Voyage milestone. 

The FallenAngel Guild Castle has been opened, and I can't wait to have my 6th Job Advancement later this year.

So yes, there's still plenty of fun left on this never-ending train ride, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Cheers! 

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post. The journey continues!

[EMS] Level 277!

Ding! Three more levels to unlock Arteria. Speaking of which, I still haven't done the Shangri-La story quests...

I've had to take a short break from working on the Destiny blogpost to sort out some unrelated stuff, but I'm expecting to get back on it starting next week. I did manage to grab a good recording for my next video in the High-Dex Hero series, and I'm aiming to release it somewhere next month (just in time before 6th Job is out) - so look forward to that. 

It's not the video I've hinted at back in June; that's an entirely different one. I haven't forgotten about it, I just haven't gotten to editing yet because I prefer to prioritize on wrapping up the Destiny blogpost. Same applies for that Bionicle parcel and the other subject matter that I haven't posted anything about, but I'm saving those for the inevitable drought once levels are no longer monthly occurrence. There's also going to be plenty to write about my other LEGO projects.

Also, I should probably give a shout-out to the short bump in viewership to my blog, which was caused by a Reddit post last week. It did not go unnoticed, as there were a couple of thousand viewers that visited my blog. This doesn't happen often, so thank you! To all of my new readers: welcome aboard! Hopefully you all will find your time here worthwhile. My only regret is that I didn't have the Destiny blogpost and the next High-Dex Hero video out in time...

But that's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] 10.000 Lith Harbor Commerci Voyages!

Hi guys! Today, after over seven years of daily Commerci runs, I've hit my 10.000th Lith Harbor Commerci Voyage!

From what I understand, I should be one of the first (if not, the first) in EMS to have reached this milestone. While there are players from other versions to have already achieved this milestone, keep in mind that EMS received Commerci three years later compared to GMS. In case of EMS, the first 10.000th Lith Harbor run would've been legally possible since last month, although that's also highly unlikely to have happened for several reasons.

You see, Commerci is one of the most unstable content in the game, as it's effortless to let the game crash mid-run. There are so many things that can cause this, such as events working with Commerci, having an unstable connection or lag(spikes), opening almost any interface (i.e. whisper, stats, skill tab), using too many skills simultaneously, or any skill that causes heavy strain on the client. Even starting a Commerci run itself can cause the game to crash. And your run count will only go up after you've cleared it, so crashing or disconnecting before that means you lost a run forever.

If you're a frequent reader of my blog, you know I'm diligent with my daily efforts. Weren't it for the dozens of lost runs and the infamous "15 minute day", I would've had this milestone on the earliest date possible. As far as technicalities go, I've entered my 10.000th run several weeks ago. But as far as the game is concerned, it only counts starting today. Honestly, I'm surprised that Commerci is still in the game, or that Nexon has rarely updated it, because this spaghetti coding is far worse than the likes of Jett, Captain Vaga or Monad. Even Veracent and Supreme were better than this.

Anyway, if you ask me, I believe that Commerci has been on the chopping block for several years now, because of how unstable the content is. The lack of updates to Commerci is a red flag. When they reduced all the daily boss and Party Quest entry counts many years ago, there was none for Commerci. The recent removal of early 2010s content, such as Evolving System Lab, Cross Hunter, Aswan and Dimensional Invasion doesn't bode well for Commerci either. 

And then there's the gradual decline of Commerci's appeal: Cube Fragments were removed from the loot table, then they removed all Master/Meister Cube drops, and then there's the missed opportunity to add Undying Flames to the drop table when they were added in late to EMS. Nowadays it's far more lucrative and rewarding to do fifteen minutes of Elite Monster surfing, than it is to do the daily four Lith Harbor Commerci runs of three-and-a-half minutes each.

Even so, I still do Commerci for the same reason as anything else: because it's fun. Sure, even by today's standards the content sits at the bottom of quality control, and there's not much incentive even if you're selling the rewards, but as long as the boat hasn't sunk, my run count will continue to go up. Captain (or, Hero?) goes down with the ship.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!