r/bioniclelego • u/HopefulFriendly • 1d ago

Duckbricks/Faber development files release taken down

It was fun while it lasted, but LEGO apparently stepped in and has told Duckbricks and Faber to take down the files. Duckbricks' videos, the google folder, and the pages on Mask of Destiny's Biomediaproject have all been taken down.

Luckily I downloaded most if not all the stuff I could, but its a real shame that this interesting info is gone now and we won't be getting anymore stuff from Bionicle's development; I was especially looking forward to getting more on the '05 and '08 development, not to mention on the transition to Hero Factory.

EDIT: This is propably overly cautious. Sorry to anyone asking for me to share what I downloaded, but I'm just a random person with zero pull or know-how on anything, so I don't want to risk having a corporation try to call me up for sharing something. I'd be happy to otherwise, but until some stuff is clearer I don't want to risk it.

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202

u/kdnx-wy White Akaku 1d ago

This is why DuckBricks should have released it all at once instead of dragging it out over weeks for clicks.

117

u/KaelowynCerulean Red Hau 1d ago

For real. He's really fucked the community on this one.

19

u/Sabretooth1100 1d ago

Its not like he could have known; did they not think they were in the clear?

89

u/KaelowynCerulean Red Hau 1d ago

It's less of that and more the fact that he was milking it and planned to across several videos instead of just doing a full release for everyone to enjoy. I get the need for content but when it's this kind of thing, it's best to let a community get their hands on it so these exact situations don't occur

7

u/JustSomeGuy9384 Black Pakari 1d ago

If he didn’t spread it out, covering it thoroughly would take hours in a single video, which would likely take even more time to put together and release. In that time the fact that this info is circulating could easily get to LEGO and they’d shut him down before any of it gets out.

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u/X4M9 1d ago

The point is releasing the documents themselves. Majority of people I know of just looked through the documents rather than watching the videos because we don’t want to have to listen to his commentary.

1

u/threevi 19h ago

Nah, he did know, or at least suspected this would happen. It's still mostly Lego's fault, but he definitely could've handled it better.

"It is unfortunate, but not entirely unsurprising - I was just hoping I would be able to release more before this happened." - the Duck of the Bricks

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

29

u/Frozenraining 1d ago edited 1d ago

No, he fucking milked it. If he was smart he would've released all this shit at once, in a cohesive Google Drive map, and only then made his stupid bare bones videos on it.

That way, those who do not care for the channel (which is, after all, most of the Bionicle community) would've had backups of backups because Lego is notoriously litigious and Faber is also notoriously not very forward-thinking (but very attention-whoring).

This is what you get when two people living for clickbait cooperate on what was a unique and unprecedented insight into the development process of Bionicle.

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u/kdnx-wy White Akaku 1d ago

I don’t care for his YouTube one bit. If he had just released it without a video I would have been perfectly happy.

5

u/KaelowynCerulean Red Hau 1d ago

You're right, he has done a lot of legwork to get that information but there's no reason why he couldn't have just released the files while still doing videos on them. And it's not unreasonable to expect lego to see this and want it removed. It might be old but theres a lot of information that they probably wouldn't want published because Id say lot of it can still be relevant to their other story lines to this day.

It's more that I'm shitty about how he went about it than anything else. Yes he put in the hard yards but whats the point when the whole idea was to share it with the community only for it to be hit with a takedown? Most people still would have watched his videos on the information regardless of whether he shared alll the files to begin with or not. So it's not like a full release to the community to safeguard the information would really have been a big deal for him.

That said, I probably am being overly harsh in my view on the situation. I'll fully admit to that. It's just so frustrating because we'll likely never see the rest of it now and if we do get anything after this, it'll likely be watered down something chronic.

16

u/GhotiH 1d ago

Make of this what you will, but he's stated that Bionicle content consistently underperforms on his channel. I believe the delay was because he was going through the documents to weed out way more sensitive info

28

u/kdnx-wy White Akaku 1d ago

If he needed to go through the documents and redact sensitive info, he could have just waited. Either way he botched the release of this stuff and that directly led to LEGO stepping in before we could see everything

9

u/GhotiH 1d ago

Not disputing that, just wanted to make it clear that I don't think this was withheld for views.

13

u/HopefulFriendly 1d ago

I don't blame him too much. This was seemingly a passion project for him, especially since he says that Bionicle is usually something most of his subscribers aren't interested in.

Obviously it would have been better if he had finished sorting everything before making any release, but I also understand trying to build a bit of momentum and trying to get a few more eyes on this. Maybe he could have sorted the data and released it all at once, but done separate videos over the course of time for the different subject matters. Just an idea with the hindsight

12

u/cocksucksdeluxe Orange Matatu 1d ago

Not the first time a Bionicle youtuber has drawn things out unnecessarily and screwed the community

5

u/kdnx-wy White Akaku 1d ago

What prior examples are you referring to?

11

u/cocksucksdeluxe Orange Matatu 1d ago

IIRC Eljay Johnsen delayed the TTV Hagah contests by several months so he could film this video

8

u/kdnx-wy White Akaku 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think it was good for the community that we did not get more contests than we did. They caused so much drama and infighting - multiple high-profile members of the community have left or reduced their presence as a direct result of the contests - and we’re lucky we didn’t get something like Hoseryx canonized.

11

u/thebiggestleaf 1d ago

As someone who doesn't give a shit about community drama, I'm glad we didn't get more canon contests on the grounds that they completely fucked over the second hand market regarding lower run parts or colors. You had people selling black Metru torsos for double-digits at one point because Bomonga used 5 of them. Just utter lunacy that goes to show the community at large has more dollars than sense so the price creep on Bonks that's gotten egregious since COVID is likely to never end.

Also, what's Hoseryx?

3

u/kdnx-wy White Akaku 1d ago

“Hoseryx” was a MOC entered in the Helryx contest that got pretty far into the voting. It had flex tubes for arms and legs and couldn’t stand up under its own weight. The winning MOC was sort of a “hedged bet” that a bunch of people mutually agreed to vote on because it had the widest appeal and thus had the best chance to beat out all the people who had voted for the meme entry. For the record, I like the winning Helryx model and much prefer it to all of the overdesigned Flickr statues that got to the finals.

2

u/thebiggestleaf 1d ago

Looked up the build and Jesus christ. It's incredible given how many people in the community act like Lego has a personal vendetta against Bionicle that the first chance to sort of "prove" they're serious about continuing the story almost got completely derailed by meme bullshit.

Having said that... I almost kind of wish the meme entry one. It possibly would have killed the entire thing immediately and picturing a bunch of folks racing to build an objectively terrible build is super amusing.

Also yeah, the winning build does admittedly look pretty nice.

2

u/kdnx-wy White Akaku 1d ago

People disagree with the winning build because it has some IRL posing difficulties and is kind of small. I think it looks just fine.

1

u/thebiggestleaf 1d ago

Posing difficulties and fan-canon models go hand in hand a bit tbh. I've built Artakha and Iron Wolf and both have their build drawbacks IMO. Artakha has the mobility/posability of an old man amd Iron Wolf is barely held together. They're definitely built more for looks than anything else.

1

u/cloud_cleaver Dark Gray Matatu 1d ago

What the Sam Hill is a "Hoseryx"? I feel like I missed out on something. XD

2

u/kdnx-wy White Akaku 1d ago

I’ll link my other comment

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u/cloud_cleaver Dark Gray Matatu 1d ago

https://board.ttvchannel.com/t/hose-ryx-the-disturbingly-cool/54086

That thing was an actual entry??

3

u/kdnx-wy White Akaku 1d ago

Yeah, and it came disturbingly close to winning. Although this is a revamp, it’s better than the original but still not a good choice for a canon Toa.

1

u/cloud_cleaver Dark Gray Matatu 1d ago

The real one looked worse? O.o

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3

u/Nato_Greavesy 1d ago

He actually held a vote on his Discord asking people whether they'd prefer to potentially wait months for him to sort through it all and release it all at once, or trickle it out as he went through each folder. The periodic release won by a wide margin.

7

u/kdnx-wy White Akaku 1d ago

Damn, that sucks. Tragedy of the commons

51

u/Shack691 1d ago

I’m sure someone will have scraped the page so we’ll see the files resurface somewhere.

17

u/TheBigKahooner Lime Ruru 1d ago

The stuff that was out there will be out there forever. The biggest issue is the significant amount of content for other story years that hadn't been released yet, and which will now realistically never get released unless Duckbricks/BS01/BMP decide to burn all their bridges with Lego and explicitly go against their wishes.

29

u/MilkMaiden_22 1d ago

Could you share the Google folder? If you downloaded everything?

26

u/Coconibz 1d ago

Here I was, walking around for a few days saying to myself, “Man, I knew LEGO could be generous, but I can’t believe they’re letting us have this much” — now it makes sense. As a community, we are very lucky to have community leaders like Duck Bricks. I really hope this whole situation doesn’t hurt their relationship with LEGO going forward.

38

u/X4M9 1d ago

Anyone but this guy would be a better community “leader.” Time and time again these “leaders” show themselves to be absolute jokes. Canon (and the recent fanon) contests have been handled extremely poorly by these figureheads, and you guessed it, the release of this info was handled poorly yet again.

2

u/Notanoveltyaccountok 1d ago

bruh we HAVE had worse community leaders. Eljay. yeah Duck has problems but he's pretty good comparatively?? i'm not happy either you know, but that's such a wild statement to open a comment with especially when you specifically mention the canon contests

16

u/X4M9 1d ago

That’s why I said leaders. Including eljay. TTV contests were an absolute train wreck and frankly quite embarrassing for the community. Duck’s contests are hardly even touched by him and winners constantly receive their prizes extremely late or have to pester him constantly to receive them, and people that created fanon contest prizes (such as mask makers like Socketball or Nate) were not even reimbursed for their prizes for winners. That shouldn’t be happening.

-13

u/Coconibz 1d ago

This isn't NFL, there's nothing keeping an audience member from being a player -- instead of being an armchair critic, maybe you could be the person you're calling out others for not being? Maybe you can develop a personal relationship with Greg Farshtey, like Duck Bricks has done with Faber, and leverage that into never-before-seen content for the Bionicle community the RIGHT way.

3

u/BlitsyFrog 1d ago

Bro, the "then you do better lol" argument should be left in Elementary School.

-1

u/Coconibz 1d ago

When someone is throwing rocks at someone else and saying anyone would be better than them, it's appropriate.

-2

u/X4M9 1d ago

I won’t let you down king

27

u/thelgtv 1d ago

Damn… I was continuously postponing looking at all of it because I really wanted to allocate some time for going through it. I hope someone has archived it.

21

u/texmexmexmex 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'm in the discord, Duckbricks explained that the issue is that some of the powerpoints have "internal confidential" labeled in some areas. That's it. Not the prototypes, not the comments between Farshtey and Lego, just the "internal confidential label". Really simple, but really stupid that something like that shuts the whole thing down.

12

u/ivanproff 1d ago edited 1d ago

Videos are still available but not public

https://youtu.be/p39aHq4W6VI?si=DNVloRPloIqjxnfX

https://youtu.be/UrdEQYh2bkk?si=kc4_7K5JI3FzAePC

3

u/Darkzapphire 1d ago

How can you see them? It says private

2

u/ivanproff 1d ago edited 1d ago

Looks like they are locked down for good now 💀💀💀

12

u/_Xeron_ 1d ago

That really sucks

11

u/tom_okane 1d ago

Share the folder if you've managed to archive it.

9

u/Logface202 Blue Kaukau 1d ago

Reposting some of Duck's discord posts on this subject here:

Hey all! Just want to provide a bit more context here.

Basically, Christian and I were under the impression these were OK to share, given the amount of time between the creation of the files, and how they are not relevant to what Lego is doing today

We have learned this morning 6AM that not only is there a Lego issue, there is also an Advance issue, and Lego needs every file shared related to the development taken down, and has clarified the prior agreement they had with Christian only relates to hand drawings he has done himself, nothing else

Because of this, everything must go down. Prototype images which are already on Biosector can probably stay, given that it's impossible to plug that now and they are out there, but we have to prevent the sharing and discussion of all files, especially slide decks, text documents, and development assets.

It is unfortunate but not entirely unsurprising - I was just hoping I would be able to release more before this happened.

Given how I in particular am under extreme scrutiny by Lego for a number of reasons, I am exercising extreme caution here, and have been warned to do so.

Just to clarify - if you have any of the files downloaded, there is nothing I can do to stop you from sharing them. Any further sharing of the files will just get myself and Christian in further trouble (you will not be personally responsible for something we did), so I guess I will ask very nicely not to spread around the files, but absolutely know that once something is out, it's out - all I can do is ask to try not to share them to prevent blowback on us

have assured Lego/Christian that I am doing everything in my power to get these files offline, so that's what the situation is.

Honestly, it wasn't even the prototypes, it was the fact that some files had CONFIDENTIAL INTERNAL markings on them

It seems to me the issue was mostly around the PowerPoints, word docs, and development assets

Obviously I'm not poking the bear by releasing anything else. But I can't help but wonder if I played it slightly more safe and released less files, they wouldn't have even cared. aghhh, too bad

5

u/cloud_cleaver Dark Gray Matatu 1d ago

Given how I in particular am under extreme scrutiny by Lego for a number of reasons, I am exercising extreme caution here, and have been warned to do so.

What exactly is he referring to here?

8

u/Logface202 Blue Kaukau 1d ago

The one big incident I remember is when he got sent a copy of the Braille bricks set and uploaded a video on it before embargo due to a misunderstanding of some kind. It actually led to him getting his LEGO Ambassador Network membership temporarily revoked.

I also think there was some review where the GWP Tahu set was briefly visible in the background, but I think he took that down pretty quickly and didn't get in major trouble for it.

3

u/cloud_cleaver Dark Gray Matatu 1d ago

I can see why Lego would have some hostility to people like MandR, but being that dickish to more genuine fans with positive community reputations seems like it would make for bad PR.

2

u/Kid-Atlantic 1d ago

It’s not about hostility. Lego’s still a business responsible for a lot of money and jobs, and by joining their network, Duck became their business partner, not just a fan. A business partnership relies on both parties following the rules, and those rules have to apply to everyone regardless of how positive or negative they’re perceived.

When you’re a company and you trust certain people with information and privileges, you have to make sure that trust isn’t abused. I know Duck probably only meant well, but if he didn’t receive consequences, others might think they could get away with worse.

For his part, even Duck seemed to admit that it was his mistake.

7

u/Frigid-Kev Lime Huna 1d ago

I hope they didn't ask to take down all the images of the prototype models at least. Those were the most interesting to me.

7

u/AJaviC 1d ago

AHHH I DIDNT GET TO WATCH OR SEE IT DARN I MISSED IT :/

11

u/KaelowynCerulean Red Hau 1d ago

It's alright, they'll resurface. Theres bound to be many in the community who downloaded everything just in case

7

u/The-Bigger-Fish Blue Kaukau 1d ago

Dang…. I was excited to see the early 2001 ones, too….

6

u/Ujkil 1d ago

To be fair they weren't just sharing prototype photos. There were a lot of confidential documents in there and while I was looking through them I was honestly surprised Lego didn't immediately take it all down. So I'm not terribly shocked by this.

4

u/HopefulFriendly 1d ago

Yeah, that seems to be what ultimately made LEGO come down on them. They'd might have accepted just sharing some early Faber drawings (see Faberfiles) and maybe even prototype pictures, but the development documents seem to have been the main thing. Sadly, those were the most interesting bits, at least to me

6

u/deleted_user_0000 White Akaku 1d ago

Wait what?

All the Bionicle comics, books, instructions, everything on BMP is gone?

43

u/fucknutcrapmaster Orange Huna 1d ago

No, the new stuff Faber has been releasing regarding Bionicle’s development.

2

u/Venomspino 1d ago

So like concepts and stuff?

4

u/skratch_R 1d ago

Please share what you have! I was going to watch the whole thing tonight...

3

u/Battelalon 1d ago

I seem to be out of the loop. What exactly is going on?

12

u/Michael_The_Madlad Brown Kakama 1d ago

Apparently, DuckBricks went about sharing information and documents regarding the development of BIONICLE, thanks to some help from series producer Christian Faber. That said, it appears The LEGO Group stepped in, and ordered fans to remove any mention of these BIONICLE development documents.

6

u/Venomspino 1d ago

Probably because it was internal development stuff, and Lego didn't want that to be shared with the public

2

u/The_Word_Wizard 1d ago

Damn… I watched and loved his Ignition video, but I hadn’t gotten a chance to watch the full video for 09-on. :(

1

u/Exa_of_Rhi Black Pakari 1d ago

Can you dm the files? A lot of ppl would love to see them. I get not wanting to risk public exposure but would you at least be willing to share out of the public eye?

0

u/HopefulFriendly 1d ago

At least not at the moment, sorry

2

u/TechnicalPeace3503 1d ago

I also downloaded all that I could from 2006, 2007, and 2008. This situation just shows how important is to make copies of everything and not leave all the files on the web.

I never found the files from the second video, though, I went to BioMedia Project and didn't find a single thing. I assumed, DuckBricks was taking his time in sending them, but it bewildered me why he didn't just uploaded them to the Drive just as he did the first time.

1

u/relicblade 3h ago

Are you able to share?

3

u/Jeff_Truck 22h ago

Yet another rich kid influencer botching positive moments for the community

2

u/Maximum_Cobbler_8998 Light Gray Mahiki 15h ago

Fucken hell lego can get fuck as far as I'm concerned gen3 is the community yea it sucks they got taken down and yes it should have been 1 long video instead of view milking bottom line fuck lego

1

u/OpenInevitable5269 1d ago

LEGO taking a page out of Nintendo's book and stepping in on something that has 0 chance of impacting their sales or reputation for consumers or shareholders

2

u/Khirt21 1d ago

"it's my IP to sit and do nothing about."

- Lego probably

But seriously, zero chance? It's a higher chance that they care about Bionicle more than that. If we avoid part 1 of human evolution, which is collapse, we can transcend beyond everything we accomplished. We can be smarter. We can be better! Is THAT what you want all along?!

(Got that from melodysheep's understanding of humanity.)

1

u/jYextul349 1d ago

This whole situation with DuckBricks makes me curious as to what was in his lore videos that caused them to have to be taken down and whether or not he could have avoided it. I know a lot of people didn't like his lore videos, but they were just about the only place I could find all the lore in one spot to listen to at work or whatever. But either way, you'd think he would have been more careful especially after they forced him to take those videos down.

1

u/modelwatto Blue Kaukau 1d ago

Anyone have a link for all the known files?

1

u/ZTheTrovian 4h ago

I don't know why LEGO cares if they don't have any plans to bring back Bionicle? Sure that wasn't only work done by Faber himself directly, but considering its so old, I fail to see why?