<!-- News -- © 2005-2006 AraKaraath halfDragon / A Maus

addNews("toyrev",	new Date(2006, 8,10),"lego,bionicle,titan","gui/news/vezon.jpg","http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=8764","Set on LEGO S@H","Voya Nui Vezon &amp; Fenrakk","Vezon is the seventh Piraka, the one who actually made it to the 'Mask of Life' and bizarrely has it fused to the back of his head. The Vezon/Mask-of-Life Kanohi is rather unusual, being like a Priaka face but capable of being reversed to show a different face. Vezon himself is much like a more evolved Piraka, carrying the 'Spear of Fusion' and has more parts to make up his body and missing the annoying rubbery spines. Fenrakk is a giant spider with intricute articulated legs and another new mask-headpiece which can allow you to make some pretty cool looking nasties. This set has alot of nice blade weapons, armour plates and ball-joint limbs, which means you can build as many as three figures from this set alone. The parts are fairly consistent in black, dark red, grey and metallic silver. Once finished, Fenrakk is an impressive size with really nice articulated limbs. Over all, you get alot of nice parts and a cool looking set. Definitely looking forward to getting the instructions for the Kardas dragon.");
addNews("toyrev",	new Date(2006, 8,10),"lego,bionicle,titan","gui/news/axonn.jpg","http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=8733","Set on LEGO S@H","Voya Nui Axonn","While I was definitely going to add Axonn to my Bionicle collection I'm not overly impressed with him as I am with Brutaka. Whereas Brutaka had an intricate construction all over, Axonn seems fairly simple in comparison. Most of his construction is in his lower legs and feet and his upper arms. He does come with a cool new Kanohi mask and has a massive double-edged battleaxe. Thankfully, his armour and parts are the proper metallic silver instead of the washed-out pearl silver as indicated by previous online photos. While Axonn isn't as tall as Brutaka he is alot burlier. And he is the first Bionicle to have proper hands to grip his massive axe. Definitely the best parts of this set are the mask and axe blades. Unlike Brutaka, Axonn feels insubstantial, little more than a glorified Toa.");
addNews("toyrev",	new Date(2006, 8, 9),"lego,bionicle,titan","","","","Voya Nui Titans","I've spotted <a href='http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=8733'>Axonn (8733)</a>, <a href='http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=8734'>Brutaka (8734)</a> and <a href='http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=8764'>Vezon &amp; Fenrakk (8764)</a> at Big-W, so I splurged and bought the rest of the set. Now I have all four of the Voya Nui Titans. I'm running out of space for all these large Bionicle figures! I'm going to have to take photos and dismantle some of the older ones on the weekend.");
addNews("toyrev",	new Date(2006, 7,13),"lego,bionicle,titan","gui/news/brutaka.jpg","http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=8734","Set on LEGO S@H","Voya Nui Brutaka","I've been waiting for the release of Brutaka since the start of the year and all I can say is he was worth the wait. While the Priaka and Inika were a bit of a let down, the Titans are like going back to more substantial where you actually got to <em>build</em> something. He is a handsome model, with great parts, highly posable body and has a nifty looking Kanohi Olmak mask. The gold is bright and metallic and actually looks good, not like the whishy-washy gold chests of the Piraka. He looks cool and dangerous in any pose, even just standing around. He is the talled Bionicle set to date, not including the combo sets. Apparently can be combined with Axonn and Vezon &amp; Fenrakk to form the Kardas dragon.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2006, 7,12),"lego,bionicle,titan","","","","Voya Nui Titans Sighted","Finally, Toys'R'Us has the two main Voya Nui titans, Axonn and Brutaka, for sale - $39.95AUD each. I treated myself to buying Brutaka, its not often that I buy full-priced lego. I would have preferred that they were on special, but Toys'R'Us never put anything on special anymore, unlike the good old days when they frequently sold lego at reduced prices.");
addNews("toyrev",	new Date(2006, 6, 8),"lego,bionicle,titan","","http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=8625","Set on LEGO S@H","Umbra, the unexplained Titan","Umbra (8625) has to be one of the strangest Bionicle sets I've purchased to date. He appears to be a titan, a good 30cm tall, armed with a staff tipped with Inika light-up weapons at each end. He is mostly black, silver, green and orange, a real hodge-podge of colours. His mask is a black Metru Ruru, which is the same as Toa Whenua (8603) so nothing special there. And strangest of all, he has wheels on his feet! Story wise, there isn't much about the character other than that he's been guarding the 'Mask of Life' for over 100,000 years. While Umbra is made up of some nice parts, the whole of the set experimental and feels unfinished, as if it was a concept.");
addNews("toyrev",	new Date(2006, 6, 7),"transformers","http://www.hasbro.com/common/images/products/871731090ecc_A100.jpg","http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/default.cfm?page=Products/Detail&product_id=17864","Product details","Battle of the Planets","A couple of years ago, the first official release of Unicron apeared on the shelves. He was a massive 40cm tall and just looked totally uber. But now Cybertron Prime has been recently spotted in K'Mart for $99.00AUD. Like Unicron he is huge for a transformer, covered in exquisite detail and bristling with special items and weaponry. I always thought Unicron was cool but Cybertron is even more impressive (I never knew that the Transformer's home planet was a transformer in itself but I should have guessed.) I so wanna add tis guy to my megre collection. He would make an imposing presence on the shelf, glowering down on the other assembled toys. 'BOW BEFORE ME, FOR I AM A PLANET. KNOW THAT I AM &Uuml;BER' and suchforth.");
addNews("toyrev",	new Date(2006, 6, 7),"lego,bionicle","","","","Bionicle Toa Inika","My first impressions of the Bionicle Inika is that its now hard to tell the difference between the good guys and bad, the Inkia look rather .. formidable and not very heroic. The packaging is rather bulky compared to previous sets, mostly to display and 'try' the new light-up weapons. They come with light-up weapons which are cool (though the strobing could induce epileptic fits) and a zamor sphere launcher with a magazine fitting. They are taller than any Toa so far, come with lots of new armour parts and new rubbery head/masks. The Masks look good but are very unbionicle-like. Some look downright disturbing rather than noble and heroic. The new torso parts are strange, but have alot of potential for other models and a wide range of flexiablity for posing. Overall, the Inkia look better and have cooler features and parts than the Piraka but still feel like they are missing something.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2006, 6, 7),"lego,bionicle","","","","Bionicle Toa Inika spotted","The new Bionicle Toa Inika toys have been spotted at K-Mart for the first time, and as they were on special, I bought the set. A Dragon and his gold are soon parted when it comes to cheap Lego.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2006, 3,29),"transformers","","http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/default.cfm?page=Products/Detail&product_id=16549","Product details","Transfomer Scourge","I've always loved Transformers, especially dragon ones. Today i snapped up a mini version of Scourge for $5.99AUD. He's three inches tall and transformers into a cool looking three headed dragon. I would love to get my claws on the larger version but he seems impossible to find as very few stores stock Transformers in Australia, and those that do have a depressingly limited range. I don't know if Transformers are just not popular here, or they only ship about five or six different sets per carton, but its nigh impossible to collect Transformers over here, especially the dragon ones.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2006, 1,27),"lego,bionicle","","","","Bionicle Piraka","Ok, I caved. K-Mart was selling the Piraka cheap for $7.90AUD each so I bought the whole set plus another Hordika Nuju, who has awesome weapons and whose body parts will be useful in some upcoming ideas I have. I hope they release the new titans Barutaka and Axonn soon - those two have very cool parts.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2006, 1,17),"lego,bionicle","","http://www.bzpower.com/story.php?ID=2641","Article on BZPower","Voya Nui Bionicle Toa","Finally getting our first glimpse of the 2006 Bionicle Toa. I'm not sure what to make of them. While they have some nice parts, their heads seem to be rubber blocks that slip over a featurless yellow head. Their weapons incorperate a light up mechanism which could definitely have been designed better. I'll probably end up buying them anyway, but I think Lego is starting to lose the plot with Bionicle, they are running out of ideas and the quality of the sets is starting to slip, becoming more gimicky now rather than good quality designed parts and sets.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2006, 1,17),"lego,bionicle","","","","First Sighting of Bionicle Piraka","Big-W as been the first place I've seen in Australia to stock the new Lego Bionicle Piraka sets. So far its only the six new characters Reidak, Hakann, Vezok, Zaktan, Avak and Thok. The new characters feature light up eyes and glow-in-the-dark teeth, fairly lame features really. Weapons are equally lame though they come with a Zamor-sphere launcher, a crossbow-like device for firing toxic-green balls. Instead of masks, the Piraka have a rubber headpiece that slips over the 'skull' and has a spine and tendrals for the back and arms. While the Piraka are suppose to be the evil characters, I don't really find them all that great as sets, but they have nice new leg and feet peices.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2006, 1,12),"lego,bionicle","","http://www.bzpower.com/story.php?ID=2641","Article on BZPower","New Bionicle Titans","The new Voy Nui Bionicle titans, Axonn and Barutaka, look awesome. Both have new masks and new weapons and lots of new parts. While Axonn is armed with a wicked looking battleaxe, his construction seems mostly in his arms nad feet, his body being little more than that of a Piraka. Barutaka, on the other hand, had a heavily constructed body, lots of great parts and weapons, many in gold. My only gripe is they both look like they have washed-out opalescent silver and gold parts, not the nice solid silver and gold that Bionicle sets have previously enjoyed. Both will be worth buying, none-the-less.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2006, 0,23),"lego,photos,moc","","http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=164608","View images","New Lego MOCs","Finally I got around to uploading the photos of my latest Lego creations, including upgraded Bionicle characters and my 'Dragon action figures'. Check them out on my <a href='http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=164608'>Bricklink Lego archive</a>. More to come soon, including my 'Tauran' Hordika and Seethrath, an anthro onxy serpent.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2006, 0,13),"lego,exo-force,mecha","","","","Lego Exo-Force","Someone at Lego has definiately been watching whats going on at <a href='http://www.brickshelf.com'>Brickshelf</a>. Lego has brought out a new theme called <em>Exo-Force</em>. Influenced by Manga comics (or copied from the <em>'Warrior: Future Force'</em> toys brought out by Mega Bloks), Exo-Force consists of humans and robots fighting each other in huge mechs. The mechs are fairly well designed with nice array of parts making them good cheap source of curved and beveled tiles, hinge joints and other rods and parts for making cannons etc. They have light-up blocks that attach to fiber-optics to make more realistic firing action. While the story behind Exo-Force is the usual wishy-washy contentless dribble Lego usually comes out with, the sets are really well made, with good part and good alternative models.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2005,10, 6),"figurines,halo 2","","","","Spcecial Op Elite","For the first time, I've seen the Halo 2 toys on sale in Australia. More specificly, I've seen the Elites. EB had the Special Op Elite, standard Elite, Arbiter and a miscellanious human troops. So I grabbed an Special Op Elite. I should have grabbed an Arbiter too cos I know I'll never see another one again.");
addNews("toynews",	new Date(2005, 9,21),"lego,vikings","gui/news/legovikings.gif","","","Latest Acquisitions","The new <a href='http://shop.lego.com/leaf.asp?cn=235&d=7&t=3' target='_blank'>Lego Viking</a> sets are on special at K-Mart at the moment, and I had to splash out and get all the sets which contained Dragony goodness. So for $180 AUD I got three sets which consist of a <a href='http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=7017&cn=235&d=7&t=3' target='_blank'>Viking Catapult</a> (7017), a <a href='http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=7018&cn=235&d=7&t=3' target='_blank'>Viking longboat</a> (7018) and a <a href='http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=7019&cn=235&d=7&t=3' target='_blank'>Viking fortress</a> (7019). The sets are nicely detailed, harking back to the early 90s when Lego sets were cool. The dragons come with nice parts which are easily incorperated into <a href='http://www.bionicle.com/'>Bionicle</a> sets allowing me to make rather handsome-looking posable dragon figures.");

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