Your First Set

[Dapper-Sama]

Rahaga Gaaki, late '05. In a Grocery Outlet where I got my Star Wars sets (interest in the line has died off since then), I saw a neat little box, with a neat little guy inside. Gaaki was followed by Balta, Dalu, Kazi, almost all of the Piraka, some of the Inika, some of the Mahri, all of the Baraki, the Phantoka, Gorast, and many more.

Edited January 24, 2014 by The Dapper Man

[Manducus]

My first set were those Tohungas from McD's. I had a few and lost a few parts along the way, if only I wasn't so stupid when I was four.

 

After that, I immediately got hooked to the toys.

 

My friends mother pretty gave me a ton of Bionicles because she adored me for some reason. Later on, I was like five(?), some guy was feeling a bit nice that day and gave me Gali Mata, minus the hooks. Later on, I didn't get a lot of Bionicles. I was only lucky on Christmas, my birthdays, or a bunch of nice ladies would give me huge boxes of used Legos because their children had grown out of them. Wish they still would.

Edited January 28, 2014 by MaliceGhost

[UngluedBike]

My first set was rahkshi panrahk. I never originally planned to get a bionicle. so here's what happened:

I went to center parcs when I was like 4 or 5ish, and some close friends came with me and my family. my friends both had lego knights, and I longed to get one. so we went to the gift shop to see what was there. There was not a single lego knight in sight, much to my dismay. I tried to get an action man from the top shelf but my dad told me it was too expensive, and so he pointed towards the bionicle section. all they had was lehrak and panrahk, so I just pointed at panrahk, not knowing the difference. I feel glad to say that I still have the set + box with original pieces to this day. Not sure what happened to the instructions though, I think my dad threw them away. Silly.

[Abg]

My first set was Toa Pohatu, it wasn't my favourite of the Mata, far from here. My brothers "were why I start Bionicle (and my LEGO collection)" because they had many Bionicle and LEGO and I always played with them..

I bought Pohatu in a little store that I forgot the name.

[ShadowVezon]

My first was Garan, which was a present from my Uncle in America (I live in England). I was destructive at the time, and I'm not sure where all the pieces went. The year later, I was in a toy store, which was a great one, although it shut a few years ago, and I saw Nuparu Inika, and I decided to buy it. That was when I started buying Bionicles.

[Jakura Nuva]

Strakk, and I bought him with my own money right at the end of 2008

Edited February 4, 2014 by Hero2065

[Azani]

My first was Toa Vakama Metru, though I actually got him for free as a party favor. When I was five years old (yes, five), one my friends had a Bionicle themed birthday party, and frankly it was, at the time, the most amazing thing in the world. My friend gave Toa Metru sets out to a few of his guests, and so he entirely introduced me to Bionicle, as I had never even heard of it or seen an ad for it beforehand.

 

A few weeks later, my dad bought me Matau. I went on to collect all of the Toa Metru that year, as well as Tehutti and a Vorzakh. From that year on, I bought at least four sets each year until 2010.

 

Interestingly, one of my parents bought me a Lerahk around the same time that I got Matau, after Vakama. In stores. So even though the first set that I ever owned was Toa Vakama Metru, the oldest set that I ever bought in stores was a 2003 set.

Edited May 19, 2014 by Artakha's Nephew

[Akuna Toa of Sonics]

Way back in 2001, my mom got McDonald's for lunch while we were on our way to my grandmother's house. Luckily, this was when the Tohunga were promotional toys, and I got Macku.

If you want to count store sets, it was Pohatu and Onua.

[Blaizthaw]

Although I'm no sure, I think my first set was Toa Mahri Hewkii.... I believe I got it when I was six when my Aunt came home with it, I played with it for a while and lost pretty much all of the projectiles that came with it. After that I lost it and got piraka, Glatorians, Barraki and a bohrok kal. Unfortunately those sets along with my Exo-force sets went to a charity....

[MrSciFiGuy]

It was Tahu, shortly followed by Gali. I had those two sets for a few weeks, and then bam, all 6, and then came the rahi.... And it turned into a large collection of while I am missing only a handful of sets.

[Katuko]

I was hooked the moment I saw the first ad fro BIONICLE back in a LEGO Magazine in 2000. The lush tribal island setting + robots + magic powers just drew me right in. They were so cool! Due to me having little cash and little drive to appeal to my parents all the time, though, I didn't really go out and buy any. I put some on my wishlist, but that was about a year later when the Bohrok started showing up.

 

My family are friends with a family from England. I believe it was the summer 2002 that they were visiting us, and their son brought with him Gali and another set I don't quite remember. They gave me a Tahnok as a gift, which might be the most awesome LEGO set I'd ever gotten at that time. The bright red color, the fire motif, the neck-snapping action and the soft rubber KRana were awesome. And I could knock off my friend's mask and mind-control his character, I was told. Awesome!

 

Then I bought Nuhvok later, because its black and lime color scheme appealed to me. I was hooked on Bohrok, so I slowly got the rest of them. Young and stupid me never got any of the Toa Mata. I skipped on most of the Nuva too, mostly because at the time I think my parents were a bit intimidated by toys with big swords and ugly faces. The Nuva looked a bit mutated, after all, and and Onua Nuva even had chainsaws. So, I got Pohatu due to his running action, but I skipped on the Rahkshi too when they came out. Gee, I regret that now. I wish I'd gotten sets such as Tahu Mata and Kopaka Nuva, I'd have played the heck out of those.

[Toa Of Anarchy]

Tahnok, I think my Dad brought him home to me after shopping. I thought it was a spaceship and the Krana was a mini spaceship.

[panjshir]

Lewa back in Christmas 2001. Still have them all in various states of assembly in a box somewhere.

[JAG18]

On Christmas day 2001, I receive Pohatu Mata and somehow managed to build him wrong, despite the simplicity of the old BIONICLE sets.

Very next day, I bought Lewa Mata and needless to say I was hooked.

[Great Being Velika]

I've been able to trace the date to Feb. 12, 2006. My first set was reidak.

[TBK]

I was six years old when I spotted Tahu Mata on the metal, beige-colored Wal-mart shelf and was quickly enamored with his spinny arms and epic Kanohi. I started collecting the rest, and needless to say, my whole childhood revolved around Bionicle from that point on. I considered myself a walking Bionicle Encyclopedia up until around its last two years... it's a wonder I didn't find BZP until 2008.

 

I also had a knack for MOC'ing and had limited resources other than my sets, so my older purchases didn't stay together very long. I still managed to keep Tahu together, though!

[Pohatu: Uniter of Stone]

My story starts with a comercial for the Toa Hordika. I was pretty young at the time, and my parents hated anything that involved any sort of violence- I could not play Nerf gun wars with my friends, I could not buy Lego sets with guns, etc. But this comercial appealed to me more than other Lego comercials- I loved the action, animations and the Rhotuka spinners. Slowly, I began to ease myself and my parents toward the inevetible purchase of a Bionicle. I subscribed to Lego magazine and saved all of the Bionicle comics that came with them. Although I no longer have them, they meant a lot to me and my parents knew that. Eventually, in 2008, I mustered up the courage to ask my mom for a Bionicle. The Phantoka seemed cool, and the launchers seemed cool, too. I showed her the Bionicle page in the Lego catalog and asked her if I could buy one. Her answer was the dreaded "Maybe." A few months later, I was at Hershey Park with my dad. I spyed Pohatu in the gift store as we were walking in and remembered him as the one I wanted before. When it was time to go, I was given $15 to pick out a souvenier. I went straight for Pohatu and purchased him. My dad questioned my choice, and told me I should get something I would remember for years to come. I still bug him about that. I built Pohatu fairly quickly and flew him around the backseat of the car for nearly the whole ride home. My mom approved of the propellers (even if they had the potential to be drills) and supported my love of Bionicle. Now I have over fifteen sets- that's when I lost count- including some of the sets that first drew me to Bionicle. Pohatu will always be my favorite Toa.

[TERIDAX941]

Nuparu and his Boxer. My parents were at first skeptical over BIONICLE, so it took me awhile to start collecting them, but I always had a fascination with gears and LEGO technic, so I was visiting the store one time, and saw the Boxer, and just had to have it, so yeah, Nuparu was the very first in my collection. The Bohrok came soon afterwards.

[Spiderus Prime]

My first BIONICLE set was Macku because My brother once had Jaller and Openu,than My first Canister set was Lewa Mata ,with he I got the other Mata at times my second was Onua,my third was Gali,my fourth and fifth were Tahu and Pohatu, & my sixith was Kopaka.

[fasggbfrfesv]

I think I might be a bit younger than some of the people here, seeing as my first set was an Axonn in 2006. I would have been 7.

Anyway, I got into Bionicles quickly, and I inherited a cousin's collection who is some years older than me, consisting of the 2001-2003 line, so he had the Makuta and Exo Toa. At the time the Inika and Mahri would have been out, but I was entranced with the Mata Nui and Metru Nui series, so I went and bought all of those old sets, and the films. By the time I'd caught up with the current storyline, Bionicle was pretty much ending, so I might have caught on a little late.

 

Axonn was a pretty cool set though, I would still like to get a Brutaka to go with him.

[Pomegranate]

It was over a decade ago, I think around 2002, and I was at a big shopping mall in New Jersey. I always loved me some LEGOs and we went into KB Toys, I think it was, and I saw the row of Bohrok and I thought they looked really neat and different from anything I'd seen before and I got me a nice blue Gahlok and as we walked through the mall my uncle helped me slowly put it together between stores, and then I was running around the place head-snapping at everything. It was awesome

Later I got two Bohrak-Kal, as gifts or something maybe, I don't remember, and somehow got the first Bionicle book, which is how I learned about the story. From there, that's when everything began I still have that Gahlok, I rebuilt it recently, but for years I haven't been able to find its blue feet so I had to use black ones... oh well.

[Crunchyn]

My first set was Gali, bought from a Toy R US. Unfortunately, lost her mask when we moved out of the old house. I didn't really get into the story until much later, the MoL arc when my cousin gave me Comic #11 that I finally found out that BIONICLE had a story behind it.

[Toa Turing]

I got Nuju Hordika for my 7th birthday. I thought he was pretty weird looking, but the spinner was pretty cool. I wasn't really into Bionicle until a few months after I got him, and even then it wasn't because of Nuju. The first set I bought for myself was Piraka Riedak, so I have more nostalgia attached to him than Nuju.

[Takuma Nuva]

I'm too old to try and remember stuff that happened that long ago.

Originally, I wanted to order the Tahu/Vakama deal that was advertised on the back of the the first LEGO Mania Magazine (it has never been the same without the "Mania" in the title) that teased the coming set line. That didn't happen, so my first Bionicle set was Onua Mata. I don't even remember anymore if I was with at the store when I got it or if I just had my mother pick it up for me (Yes, I, an eleven year old with no allowance paid for it. Kids these days.), but I still remember the first time I got a whiff of that "freshly opened Bionicle canister" smell. I'm pretty sure the only reason I didn't get Tahu first is because my mom had already bought it for me for Christmas. For that matter, I don't much remember what month it was; certainly wasn't July anymore.

Takuma Nuva

[BrickPharaoh]

Ah, that day brings back so many memories...

 

My parents had basically molded me into a Lego freak. It was all I thought about (and largely still is)! My first constraction set was the Slizer Blaster that my father had bought for me from Saudi Arabia. I fell in love with the idea of using Technic pieces to put together a cool-looking robot that threw discs and looked awesome.

 

Not long after that, it was Eid time in Egypt (Eid is the Islamic equivalent of Christmas, only we get those twice a year!), and as it was customary, my parents would take me to Toys'R'Us to squander my Eid gift money (It is commonplace for one to pile up some decent pocket money from his/her relatives during that time). The first thing I lay eyes on was the Nui Rama, and it was the largest set that I, a seven-year-old, could afford at the time. And I was hooked ever since. I loved the compatibility with my other sets, namely the Slizer I had, and after building the set and playing with them briefly, I immediately tore it down and started building some little Matoran-like figures from whatever pieces I could combine together.

 

For the next few years, up until my teenage years, it was basically all I spent my money on. I would buy a Bionicle set for every Eid, every birthday, every time my dad would go abroad (some of the ones he gave me were Toa Pohatu Mata and Sidorak), and whenever I could amass a decent lump of money from my child voice acting career (fun fact: I used to voice over in Arabic-dubbed Disney movies, and it was quite a lucrative career for a child like myself ). The thing that bugs me, however, is the fact that I lost a lot of my pieces everywhere, because we used to have a cleaning lady that I assume threw much of it away in utter disregard to the nature of those pieces, and that infuriates me till this day. I don't know whether I was losing those pieces to her incompetence or something much worse, but let's give her the benefit of the doubt.

 

And to this day, I regret having lost so much of my Lego, that would have otherwise been a massive collection. But I will never cease to adore the love of my childhood. I will never stop loving Bionicle (and Lego in general).

Edited March 31, 2014 by Mohamed Marei

[Timelady Gallade]

We have a disney actor here?! AWESOME.

 

Anyway, my one was Vesok/Avak in 2011 or so for 5 quid togather sealed at a carboot sale. Thats it.

[Emzee]

I had very little interest in Lego until I saw textbook covers (of all things) featuring the Robo Riders. I made it a point to go to my nearest Target and check one of these interesting Lego figures out, only to learn that the textbook covers were actually almost two years old. The only technic sets I could find where the pretentious sounding Bionicle sets (Bionicle wasn't a word I knew about, so I naturally found the notion of making up new words for their toy line to be pretentious. Makes perfect sense right?)

 

The only reason I decided to ask for Gali for my 11th birthday (which came about 2 weeks after my failed quest for Robo Riders sets) was because a friend had recommended the Bionicle line. The masks piqued my interest a lot more than I had expected, and the rest is history.

[Belicure]

I believe my first set was either Gahdok-Kal or Tahu Nuva .

[KittehWubbins]

Piraka Avak. Mom bought it for Christmas, when I was 6-7. My destructive brother, twisted around the jackhammer piece so then the axle fell of, rendering the nice piece useless and broken. I still have all the other parts to this day though, and the broken piece as well, as I plan on fixing it soon.

 

Also thought I might mention, I was in London Drugs last year, and saw a Phantoka Kopaka Nuva hiding behind a memory foam pillow. It was marked down to $5 dollars, and my brother claimed it even though I found it... When we got home I insisted on not opening it however my brother just RIPS it open... so yeah.

[Meyres of Drifting Huna]

I never really got any sets until 2005, and it was that christmas that I got the Vohtarak.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Meyres the Anchorman

[ALVIS]

I played with LEGO and Duplo from a very early age, but my first BIONICLE set was bequeathed to me by my aunt on a trip to Warwickshire in 2000: Toa Gali. We still have pictures of me and my brother carting her around in a wheelbarrow.

 

Soon after that, I acquired the other Toa Mata (and an extra Tahu, for some reason) and discovered the story, including the fact that Gali was the only girl, "That's not fair," said four-year-old me, who promptly decided that Lewa, Kopaka, and by extension Wairuha were also female. (Unfortunately, I wasn't able to maintain that headcanon after years of official story telling me otherwise.)

[BrickPharaoh]

Piraka Avak. Mom bought it for Christmas, when I was 6-7. My destructive brother, twisted around the jackhammer piece so then the axle fell of, rendering the nice piece useless and broken. I still have all the other parts to this day though, and the broken piece as well, as I plan on fixing it soon.

 

Also thought I might mention, I was in London Drugs last year, and saw a Phantoka Kopaka Nuva hiding behind a memory foam pillow. It was marked down to $5 dollars, and my brother claimed it even though I found it... When we got home I insisted on not opening it however my brother just RIPS it open... so yeah.

Bricklink might have spares of the pieces you look to replace. There's little point in fixing one and making it look horrible compared to buying an intact used (or new!) one for (usually) quite cheap. Plus, it's handy if there is more that one piece you need to retrieve.

[veeder]

Make fun of me if you will, but my first set was Atackus...Yes, I started in 2009

[Pomegranate]

Make fun of me if you will, but my first set was Atackus...Yes, I started in 2009

Hey, no shame ^^ He had the Toa Mata feet, so there was a little bit of 2001 in there too

[veeder]

 

Make fun of me if you will, but my first set was Atackus...Yes, I started in 2009

Hey, no shame ^^ He had the Toa Mata feet, so there was a little bit of 2001 in there too

 

Lol. I'm just sad I couldn't live through bionicle. I was born after bionicle came out, and I don't even remember seeing commercials.I hear all this and that about it, and it makes me sad that the only sets I bought in stores were two glatorian ones Although I am happy I wasn't as devastated when it left, cause I wasn't as attached to it

Edited April 5, 2014 by veeder

[Pomegranate]

 

 

Make fun of me if you will, but my first set was Atackus...Yes, I started in 2009

Hey, no shame ^^ He had the Toa Mata feet, so there was a little bit of 2001 in there too

 

Lol. I'm just sad I couldn't live through bionicle. I was born after bionicle came out, and I don't even remember seeing commercials.I hear all this and that about it, and it makes me sad that the only sets I bought in stores were two glatorian ones Although I am happy I wasn't as devastated when it left, cause I wasn't as attached to it

 

Yes, that's the perk to coming in late, your heart doesn't get crushed And you don't have to spend years waiting for things to happen! You can just sit down with the BS01 wiki and steamroll through ten years of stuff in one sitting! (one very, very, very long sitting.)

[Kakaru]

I've been through this topic a dozen times over the course of BZPower's lifetime and every time my answer was the same, but today I came in here because a pomegranate posted and that's something I had to see for myself. There it is. Wow.

 

(though my brother and I started collecting with Lehvak, my first all-to-myself set was Pohatu Nuva and he was/is the best forever)

 

I signed up for the lego magazine later that year and I started into the story for real with the end of the Nuva saga/beginning of metru though?? I guess that makes me more of a second-generation Bionicle fan.

[Elmerius]

It was in 2006 or 2007. I was 6-years old, when we visited Lego Show. Just before we left from there, we visited the store. I wanted Exo-Force Stealth Hunter, but i got Dalu. i had never seen Lego like that, all the ball-joints and mask. Dalu is still one of my favourite sets.

[SLIFERZpwns]

My first bionicle set was tohunga Jalla back when McDonalds was doing the promotion. I whent with my father to go and get us lunch as we were busy and working on our house. The feeling of wonder and suprise that I experienced when looking through Jalla's little instruction book was immense and helped to light the flame which led me into the Bionicle world. I loved making him fling the Hauh kanoka disk, and trying to MOC him ( a kind of impossible thing to do with an 8 part set) Now although this was my first Bionicle, I was young at the time and didn't make the connection that I could buy them in the store. Anyways about a week later, we went to Mcdonalds again, and I was SO excited about getting a new bionicle. However I opened my happy meal and inside was, to my horror, a polly pocket doll. I started crying and told my father and he shrugged it off. Broken hearted I played with Jalla and re read his book. Skip ahead a few years, and I came across a green Bohrok kal canister in a CVS, I noticed the gloryous BIONICLE logo, and was instantly reminded of the days of Jalla. After buying my first Bohrok, I got Lewa Nuva a week later. These sets led me to discover the Bionicle web sites, games and other fantastic sets. Because of little Jalla, I have my history and respect for the Bionicle Universe.

[RioT]

My first set was the original Lewa back in 01. My older brother had gotten his first bionicle, which was Tahu, and me being the younger brother, wanted to follow what my sibling was doing while also doing my own thing, so i got Lewa. With it being my first it's naturally also one of my very favorites.