This Bionicle Piece MIGHT* be Ruined

[@DarkTakanuva]

the only Ignika I owned had a slightly twisted axle hole so Toa Ignika always looked confused about life

[@satellachannel6423]

Kinda lore accurate 😂

[@Dryym]

SAME I never thought too much of it. But I definitely noticed that it was slightly twisted.

[@CommunimateANIMATIONS]

YES- a good number of mine are misaligned, and it's so annoying to hunt down the good ones when i'm making launchers. The smaller variant was used when the Breakout HF line introduced a stockier top barrel launcher and it was used as the bottom. I doubt Lego was aware of the issue.

[@Ignik208]

Ok, so I thought this video was going to be about the thornax fruit and how the rubber on it can get weird with age, leading to the thorns breaking of with the slightest of touch, since that what's happened to one of mine. I've never noticed any of my launchers to be misaligned, but one piece I think might be mismoulded like that, is the recent 1x1 brick with an axle hole that's skewed a little bit, it especially stood out to me while building the Lloyd's legendary dragon (from Ninjago Core), where it's used to mount the ankle joints (newest version of bionicle-style hand connectors) to the rest of the leg.

[@theredoctopus3196]

I thought that too because that happened to my vorox

[@lukestarkiller1470]

The only problem I’ve had with these is that my old ones have gotten a little warped over time, so now when I squeeze them together they can touch in the middle without actually launching the thornax. I have to squeeze them from right on the edge if I want to guarantee it actually shoots, but it’s not as ergonomic to squeeze it right there.

[@skybirdmakes]

That is also a factor in these pieces, which has been present to some degree since day one, but as you mentioned, learning where to fire them can somewhat help, though it would be best if the firing by squeezing the middle was consistent

[@justsomeguy5628]

Finally! I never thought I would hear another person talking about that technic piece being messed up! The yellow ones really are that bad. I have the Evo XL mech and they were all at least 10 to 25 degrees off. Even the black ones from the same year were around 10 degrees off. It was really frustrating, but it came and went really quickly.

[@aim3k249]

About the zamor spheres: Going by bricklink, the shorter variant of this launcher was last used in marvel sets based on infinity war, so the spheres themselves were used at least up untill 2018, maybe even longer

[@satellachannel6423]

I am all for that parts variance discussion! Never had a problem with my thornax launchers. Yes, some were ever so slightly askew but nothing worth noting when it comes to using them. If the first "Glatorian" version was flawed, this is a good enough reason to justify the introduction of a redesign. But there's other possible reasons; HF 2.0/CCBS introduce a redesign of the "hand" part (again, a new version of an already existing flawed piece, isnt that interesting), and this piece doesnt have the same shape. It's shorter. Just like the Thornax Launcher v2. So, aesthetics reasons? But what i really think is that they introduce this new piece to be a better match for the gun introduced in the HF Breakout wave.

[@satellachannel6423]

I also believe that the first version was specifically designed with the rubbery Ninjago dragons heads in mind from the get go. "+" connection for Glatorian hands. "o" connection for dragon heads. I may be wrong but isnt the new version of the launcher happen to be introduced just as the dragons with rubbery head are phased out of production? (with the Ultra Dragon of the Final Battle wave).

[@skybirdmakes]

I considered it for the blaster from HF, but then understanding that Lego developed both pieces at the same time meant they could have also made the gun one stud longer to match the already existing thornax half from 2009, and saved the cost of a new mold. Of course the reason for the new mold overall is probably pretty nuanced and that's what makes it fun to discuss!

[@birthdaygnat8314]

idk why i can never get enough of you talking, you genuinely have the most insightful toy design commentary ive heard from any bionicle (or lego) channel keep it up!

[@skybirdmakes]

That really means so much to me, you have no idea!!

[@AIFT_Staff]

Never was a bionicle fan, and never had problem with those zamor shooters. But I have 3 out of 4 ninjago 2011 dragons, and I have one small issue. If I don't use them for month or more, ball is just getting stuck in those shooters, no matter how hard i squeze them. If I remove dragon heads, they shoot normal, and so after putting heads back. Not a big problem really, but it's so weird.

[@skybirdmakes]

I can only imagine that is an issue with the rubberized sort of material bonding to the plastic, which can happen with some rubber materials given time

[@djt08031996]

Looking up on my shelf, I see 5 sets of thornax launchers. None are misaligned

[@harrytroglodyte2129]

I remember this happening to me. I didn't get many bionicles with thornax launchers, but I 100% had to twist my launchers to get them to work.

[@battedbook5811]

What i noticed as a kid was that my thornax launchers were misalinged when attached on those pre glatorian hand pieces, but straight with the glatorian hand pieces.

[@skybirdmakes]

Very odd

[@nihili4196]

I never had that problem with OG design, only with shortened, one hole ones. I used to have a bunch of two hole launchers and they were all aligned well

[@nihili4196]

If anything, first set I ever noticed them being misaligned was thornraxx, which is pretty ironic given its name. It always bothered me that its fangs and wings (Because these rubbery swords got all twisted in my bag, those bags were a mistake) were making it look like poor thing was hit by a car

[@idknemore525]

I have some that are slightly misaligned but not so much that it hinders the launcher function.

[@toatahu003]

The Bohrok can launch krana from their heads