Greg Farshtey

External Image
External Image
From BIONICLEsector01

"Real life physics don't apply in BIONICLE, unless scientists discovered Protodermis yesterday and I wasn't told about it."
— Greg Farshtey

Greg Farshtey
Human
Job Generation 1 BIONICLE Books, Comics, and Graphic Novels Author (2001-2010)
Editorial Director at LEGO (formerly)
Creative Specialist at LEGO
Part of the BIONICLE Story Team
Department Story Team


Gregory Todd Farshtey is the author of nearly all the books and comics in BIONICLE's original run between 2001 and 2010.

Biography

The original logo for Ask Greg from 2004

Greg Farshtey was born in New York State and spent most of his childhood in Standford, Connecticut. His writing career began with different journalism outlets, such as newspaper reporting.

He began his career with the LEGO Group as an editor for the LEGO Magazine in 2000. He later applied for and became the writer of a comic series that was to accompany the LEGO Group's new BIONICLE range and joined the story team. In 2003, Farshtey was asked to write Tales of the Masks and then replaced Cathy Hapka the following year as author of all BIONICLE books. He has gone on to write books for many other LEGO themes, including LEGO Exo-Force, LEGO Hero Factory, and LEGO Ninjago.

For many years, Greg Farshtey has been editor-in-chief of the LEGO Magazine. He also wrote the web serials on BIONICLEstory.com and voices the narrator and male characters in the audio serials.

While the "Ask Greg" service was active on BIONICLE.com and BIONICLEstory.com (in 2007), fans could ask him questions about the story. The questions were filtered by the web team, and select ones were answered and posted on the site.

Greg Farshtey is a member of BZPower, this Wiki, and other BIONICLE fansites by the username of GregF. He also went by ScribeGT6817 on the LEGO Message Boards, and goes by LEGOGreg on the TTV Message Boards. He made a point to kindly answer many questions asked by fans (via Personal Messenger on BZPower and other means elsewhere), though he began a hiatus from most of these sites in 2011. In 2013, Greg began to use a topic on the LEGO Message Boards to answer questions posted by fans about any of his works. However, on February 28, 2017, new posts were no longer accepted on the LEGO Message Boards, and on March 6, 2017 the boards—and thus Chat with Greg Farshtey—were taken offline completely.

On May 22, 2017, the TTV Message Boards opened an "Ask Greg" category in which fans may pose questions to Greg Farshtey.

Farshtey has a daughter, Alexandria Marie Farshtey, born September 4, 2010 to his then-wife Jackina Farshtey. They have since divorced.

On March 1st, 2022, Farshtey announced on his LinkedIn account that he would be leaving LEGO in July after working for 22 years at the company. He later clarified on the TTV Message Boards that he was one of multiple employees who were laid off by LEGO due to LEGO Life being restructured and moved to a different team in Europe.[1]

Quotes

"Just wanted to say a quick something --
A lot of you guys are BIONICLE fans, many from way back. It's no secret that you are some of the smartest, most loyal, and most dedicated fans out there. You, and you alone, have carried the torch for the line over the last four years. Hopefully, you will feel rewarded for your efforts by 2015 BIONICLE.
Regardless, I wanted to take this opportunity to say that I am really proud to be associated with you, and you should be really proud of yourselves.
"
— Greg Farshtey[2]

Trivia

The redesigned Ask Greg logo from 2007
  • The image used for this article was taken with former BIONICLEsector01 General Manager Darnzerf while Greg was holding the image of a previous BIONICLEsector01 advertisement. Darnzerf was cropped from this photo.
  • Greg Farshtey's favorite BIONICLE book is Time Trap, and he enjoyed writing sub-plot books the most.[3]
  • Farshtey's overall favorite BIONICLE character is Kopaka,[4] because he was the very first character he ever wrote about,[5] and his least favorite are the Vahki, because they were very basic, clone enemies.[6]
  • Farshtey's favorite BIONICLE characters to write about include Kopaka, Karzahni, Teridax, Krahka, Takanuva, Lariska, Velika, and Vezon.[7][8][9] His least favorite are characters that use Treespeak.[10]
  • Farshtey's favorite element is Ice.[11]
  • Farshtey enjoyed creating new Rahi.[12]
  • Farshtey's ex-wife, Jackina, assisted Greg with the BIONICLEstory podcasts in offering her voice for some female characters at the suggestion of BZPower member Kraahlix.[13][14][15]
  • For the 2015 revival of the theme, Greg acted as a creative consultant.

External links

References

  1. "Correcting misperceptions". TTV Message Boards.
  2. "Chat with Greg Farshtey", post 11268555. LEGO Message Boards. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  3. "Official Greg Discussion", post 8448. BZPower Forums. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  4. "Chat with Greg Farshtey", post 7018454. LEGO Message Boards. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  5. "Official Greg Discussion", post 9278. BZPower Forums. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  6. "Chat with Greg Farshtey", post 7029936. LEGO Message Boards. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  7. "Official Greg Discussion", post 5501. BZPower Forums. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  8. "Official Greg Discussion", post 5295. BZPower Forums. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  9. "Chat with Greg Farshtey", post 9852505. LEGO Message Boards. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  10. "Chat with Greg Farshtey", post 9852505. LEGO Message Boards. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  11. "Official Greg Dialogue", post 12237. BZPower Forums. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  12. "Official Greg Discussion", post 1179. BZPower Forums. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  13. "Official Greg Discussion", post 9425. BZPower Forums. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  14. "August Update." BZPower Blogs. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)
  15. "Official Greg Discussion", post 9608. BZPower Forums. (archived on greg.thegreatarchives.com)