Rumor: Bionicle's return in 2015

[ToaDraco]

I completely agree with Iben. The idea that a reboot is the only option is nonsense. I personally really want it to be a continuation set in the distant future. I'm also of the mindset that it is no longer bionicle if it is rebooted but rather a new theme using the bionicle name.

[Makuta Miras]

 

 

 

What is the evidence for it being a contiuation vs. It being a reboot, i think the set left off with tahu and the golden armor, and well i guess sence i can not talk about the leaks i can not continue that, but if you seen the leaks you probaly know where i was going with that.

Well, besides stuff that's leaked that we can't talk about, Greg Farshtey has said that he doesn't think a continuation would be effective because it would immediately put new fans at a disadvantage, and it would be immensely difficult for them to catch up with older story.

 

Although I don't really care if it's a reboot ( as in a restart of the story ) or a continuation, I honestly disagree with this. It all depends on how you do it. Sure "start where we left of" continuation won't work, but there surely are examples of "continuations" that were effective. People who never read The Hobbit could still enjoy LOTR, you don't need to watch all the Doctor Who series in order to jump in a new series (aka the current success of the Doctor ), etc. You'll always have to deal with some ground rules surely, but you don't need to know more if you don't want to, and if you do, then there's another great world to discover.

 

I believe the "continuation = difficult for new fans and reboot = only solution"-view is just a bit too black and white.

This. Also, remember Star Wars. It was compulsory for episodes 4-6 to be understandable, as 1-3 hadn't been released yet. So a time skip like that of SW might be interesting.

[Axilus Prime]

A reboot would disappoint me. I'd prefer a continuation but set so far forward that loose plot threads from before don't matter anymore, though at the same time, we can still have the old characters mixed in with the new.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Axilus Prime

[Sir Kohran]

People who never read The Hobbit could still enjoy LOTR

 

But that's only because Tolkien made sure to have the second chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring specifically explain all the plot elements of The Hobbit that are/will be relevant to the current story (namely the finding of the Ring and the encounter with Gollum). If he hadn't done that, reading The Hobbit would be necessary to understand The Lord of the Rings.

 

 

you don't need to watch all the Doctor Who series in order to jump in a new series

 

Doctor Who is a different type of story. It's many small stories all connected to one character, not one huge unfolding story like Star Wars or Bionicle.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Sir Kohran

[Toa of Gallifrey]

 

People who never read The Hobbit could still enjoy LOTR

 

But that's only because Tolkien made sure to have the second chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring specifically explain all the plot elements of The Hobbit that are/will be relevant to the current story (namely the finding of the Ring and the encounter with Gollum). If he hadn't done that, reading The Hobbit would be necessary to understand The Lord of the Rings.

 

 

 

you don't need to watch all the Doctor Who series in order to jump in a new series

 

Doctor Who is a different type of story. It's many small stories all connected to one character, not one huge unfolding story like Star Wars or Bionicle.

 

Classic Who was small stories, Modern Who has a big overreaching story that, when nearing its end, gets expanded. You can still leap in from new Doctors, though. When the time comes, we're reminded of the necessary information. That can be done in a timeskip continuation. They give us the basic backstory in legend form without going into details, then doing a brand new story that acknowledges the existence of the past but doesn't rely on it. For example, Tahu and Kopaka being hessitant to go near a volcano because of "what happened long ago in that island chain". No need to go to specific details, just a throwaway reference.

[Turaga Jack]

I completely agree with Iben. The idea that a reboot is the only option is nonsense. I personally really want it to be a continuation set in the distant future. I'm also of the mindset that it is no longer bionicle if it is rebooted but rather a new theme using the bionicle name.

What I think they'll do is what they've done with Agents, Pirates, Space Police, basically every theme that's been "rebooted." None of them necessarily were reboots but still had a self-contained story. For all we know it could be a continuation or a reboot. So I don't think they'll infringe too much on BIONICLE canon but will tell it's own story.

[Iben]

 

People who never read The Hobbit could still enjoy LOTR

 

But that's only because Tolkien made sure to have the second chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring specifically explain all the plot elements of The Hobbit that are/will be relevant to the current story (namely the finding of the Ring and the encounter with Gollum). If he hadn't done that, reading The Hobbit would be necessary to understand The Lord of the Rings.

 

 

He explained the relevant plot elements indeed. I didn't say Bionicle shouldn't do the same, did I ? You could easily do that in the new Bionicle line.

 

On the Doctor Who thing, sure that's true, I was merely implying that you could easily jump when a new Doctor arrives.

 

 

In the end, it's just too early to really know what they will be going for, a soft reboot, hard reboot, continuation, etc. All options are still on the table, some are just a little bit less likely ( right of the bat continuation for instance )

[Sir Kohran]

 

 

People who never read The Hobbit could still enjoy LOTR

 

But that's only because Tolkien made sure to have the second chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring specifically explain all the plot elements of The Hobbit that are/will be relevant to the current story (namely the finding of the Ring and the encounter with Gollum). If he hadn't done that, reading The Hobbit would be necessary to understand The Lord of the Rings.

 

 

He explained the relevant plot elements indeed. I didn't say Bionicle shouldn't do the same, did I ? You could easily do that in the new Bionicle line.

 

It'd probably be much harder to do that for Bionicle, because Bionicle's storyline, or even just a fraction of it, is a lot more complex than that of The Hobbit.

 

Another problem is that The Hobbit was still readily available when and after The Lord of the Rings was published, whereas nearly all the Bionicle story media is no longer officially available.

[Comment Expired]

I think a soft reboot is probably the more feasible option, simply because it makes it more accessible for new fans.

[Banana Gunz]

Look, lot's of people have given arguments for different storyline approaches, and we don't really have enough info to give a concrete answer either way. I think we should just wait for the official announcement; hopefully Lego will give us some idea of what the storyline will be like then.

 

100% agreed. I feel like a reboot is somewhat more viable because you don't have to worry about how it'll treat the new fans as much, but I'm completely open for both. Anyway I would hate to have to see 10 years of canon thrown out the window.

[Kopekemaster]

I just remembered something.

Sometime, in 2007, I was looking on the building instructions page on LEGO.com (here: http://service.lego.com/en-us/buildinginstructions), under the Bionicle category, and I remember finding the instructions for Vamprah. (So, the year before they were released. I don't know how much had been officially released at that point about the Phantoka line, but it was still cool.)

That being said, that page might a good place to keep an eye out for some official "leaks" (of a sort).

I did a quick look through just now and didn't see anything. It said there were 274 instructions, though, so if that number changes...

 

We'll know we've hit the jackpot.

[Spectral_Rain]

 

 

What is the evidence for it being a contiuation vs. It being a reboot, i think the set left off with tahu and the golden armor, and well i guess sence i can not talk about the leaks i can not continue that, but if you seen the leaks you probaly know where i was going with that.

 

Well, besides stuff that's leaked that we can't talk about, Greg Farshtey has said that he doesn't think a continuation would be effective because it would immediately put new fans at a disadvantage, and it would be immensely difficult for them to catch up with older story.

 

Although I don't really care if it's a reboot ( as in a restart of the story ) or a continuation, I honestly disagree with this. It all depends on how you do it. Sure "start where we left of" continuation won't work, but there surely are examples of "continuations" that were effective. People who never read The Hobbit could still enjoy LOTR, you don't need to watch all the Doctor Who series in order to jump in a new series (aka the current success of the Doctor ), etc. You'll always have to deal with some ground rules surely, but you don't need to know more if you don't want to, and if you do, then there's another great world to discover.

I believe the "continuation = difficult for new fans and reboot = only solution"-view is just a bit too black and white.

 

First off this is a great summery, there is a mistake, but it will catch the new fans up quickly, all lego would have to explain the glatorians, agori, stars, ect.(basicly 2009&2010)

 

[Kopekemaster]

I'd like to re-iterate something I'm certain I heard someone say earlier - there's a definite difference between the backbone story (basically, what's covered in the comic), and the story (like all of the books, serials, etc.).

It would only be necessary to teach/show the previous backbone story (and not even all of it, there's plenty of stuff they wouldn't need to recap), possibly via a mini-episode thing like SR had said (in the post before this), or two or three "intro" comics of sorts that they could put in the magazine, online, etc.

Then, of course, as it has always been, if they wanted to learn more of it, they could.

[Makuta Miras]

And by a mini-episode I presume that you mean something like the Retrospective which was on Bionicle.com in 2008? I love that video.

[Spectral_Rain]

And by a mini-episode I presume that you mean something like the Retrospective which was on Bionicle.com in 2008? I love that video.

A mini episode like this(but with the 2009& 2010 storylines too, the ones that had sets)?

[Aanchir]

I'd like to re-iterate something I'm certain I heard someone say earlier - there's a definite difference between the backbone story (basically, what's covered in the comic), and the story (like all of the books, serials, etc.).

It would only be necessary to teach/show the previous backbone story (and not even all of it, there's plenty of stuff they wouldn't need to recap), possibly via a mini-episode thing like SR had said (in the post before this), or two or three "intro" comics of sorts that they could put in the magazine, online, etc.

Then, of course, as it has always been, if they wanted to learn more of it, they could.

That last statement is arguable. Yes, people CAN learn the details of the previous BIONICLE storyline, in theory. It is expensive — most of the story details are contained in things like the books, comics, and movies, most of which cannot legally obtained for free online. It is impractical — the storyline is spread across a wide range of media, so there's no legal way to enjoy it all in one place. It is time-consuming — the movies alone contain five hours of footage, and there are about 29 chapter books with about 20,000 words each (don't forget that the series is aimed at kids, who might not have the most proficiency as readers). And to a certain extent, it is fruitless — binging on huge amounts of disparate information that barely even pertains to the current sets and storyline will never be as rewarding for kids as experiencing it slowly, methodically, and as it happened.

 

If you post a short recap of ten years of "backbone storyline", you're not only providing the storyline in an flimsy, inferior form to experiencing it as it happened, you're also teasing people with snippets of a story that it would take a downright unreasonable amount of effort for them to experience for themselves. You're effectively giving kids a curriculum for a colorful building toy

 

There are definitely merits to providing a short recap of a previous storyline before you hand it to kids. The Legend of Korra started out with a brief recap of the storyline from Avatar: The Last Airbender, for instance, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds gave you a recap of the events of A Link to the Past as it began. But if you're having to recap ten years of a notoriously convoluted storyline for a bunch of kids who have no reasonable way of experiencing it in the same way that older fans did, chances are you're well past the point where inviting them to do so makes any logical sense.

 

Frankly, as far as toy sales are concerned, the new fans matter more than the older ones anyway.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Aanchir

[Wazdakka]

Or you could just use the Bionicle wiki? It takes very little mental capacity to type "Bionicle wiki" into Google.

 

Tadaa, there's your whole story. Not a cent paid, besides for the internet. 

[Spectral_Rain]

 

I'd like to re-iterate something I'm certain I heard someone say earlier - there's a definite difference between the backbone story (basically, what's covered in the comic), and the story (like all of the books, serials, etc.).It would only be necessary to teach/show the previous backbone story (and not even all of it, there's plenty of stuff they wouldn't need to recap), possibly via a mini-episode thing like SR had said (in the post before this), or two or three "intro" comics of sorts that they could put in the magazine, online, etc.Then, of course, as it has always been, if they wanted to learn more of it, they could.

That last statement is arguable. Yes, people CAN learn the details of the previous BIONICLE storyline, in theory. It is expensive — most of the story details are contained in things like the books, comics, and movies, most of which cannot legally obtained for free online. It is impractical — the storyline is spread across a wide range of media, so there's no legal way to enjoy it all in one place. It is time-consuming — the movies alone contain five hours of footage, and there are about 29 chapter books with about 20,000 words each (don't forget that the series is aimed at kids, who might not have the most proficiency as readers). And to a certain extent, it is fruitless — binging on huge amounts of disparate information that barely even pertains to the current sets and storyline will never be as rewarding for kids as experiencing it slowly, methodically, and as it happened.If you post a short recap of ten years of "backbone storyline", you're not only providing the storyline in an flimsy, inferior form to experiencing it as it happened, you're also teasing people with snippets of a story that it would take a downright unreasonable amount of effort for them to experience for themselves. You're effectively giving kids a curriculum for a colorful building toyThere are definitely merits to providing a short recap of a previous storyline before you hand it to kids. The Legend of Korra started out with a brief recap of the storyline from Avatar: The Last Airbender, for instance, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds gave you a recap of the events of A Link to the Past as it began. But if you're having to recap ten years of a notoriously convoluted storyline for a bunch of kids who have no reasonable way of experiencing it in the same way that older fans did, chances are you're well past the point where inviting them to do so makes any logical sense.Frankly, as far as toy sales are concerned, the new fans matter more than the older ones anyway.

Or we can have the kids watch this

 

And explain the rest, ( by rest i mean the rest that had sets only)

[Jakura Nuva]

Or you could just use the Bionicle wiki? It takes very little mental capacity to type "Bionicle wiki" into Google.

 

Tadaa, there's your whole story. Not a cent paid, besides for the internet.

 

But some people - me included - don't want to have to search on a Wiki. Getting something similar to a story bible, with everything documented in order, would be a much better way for new fans to learn the old story. Edited September 6, 2014 by Jakura Nuva

[Aanchir]

Or you could just use the Bionicle wiki? It takes very little mental capacity to type "Bionicle wiki" into Google.

 

Tadaa, there's your whole story. Not a cent paid, besides for the internet.

Learning events and characters through dry, boring descriptions on a wiki is not remote similar to getting to know them in an actual story. Plus, no sane company would design their new product line to be utterly dependent on fansites that are completely outside their control. What if the best BIONICLE wikis were to lose funding, or experienced some technical mishap that resulted in a server crash?

 

Frankly, if the LEGO Group thought relying on fan-created wikis was a viable option, they'd never have wasted the time, money, and effort putting together all the character pages, story summaries, and other reference material on BIONICLEstory.com. But it's completely idiotic to place the burden of educating new fans (and thus the quality of the information those fans receive) entirely on the shoulders of random online fansites.

 

Or we can have the kids watch this http://youtu.be/tuaM-5cBOwU

 

And explain the rest, ( by rest i mean the rest that had sets only)

If that video were as perfect a method of conveying the BIONICLE storyline as you continually make it out to be, there would have been no issues with new fans feeling overwhelmed from 2008 onwards, and there are plenty of accounts directly from representatives of the LEGO Group that this was not the case. This is perhaps one of the strongest pieces of evidence against the viability of a continuation of the sort you are advocating — the LEGO Group already tried creating brief, digestible recaps of the classic BIONICLE storyline multiple times while the theme was still alive, and it still couldn't bring in enough new fans to sustain the theme. So why would a summary of ten years of storyline in 2015 work better than a summary of eight years did in 2009, or a summary of five years did in 2006?

 

A lot of you seem to think that this brilliant idea of a short recap never occurred to Greg Farshtey when he was asked whether he'd prefer a continuation or a reboot. Do you really think he's so stupid that he would never even consider the possibility of a video like this before rejecting the idea of a continuation?

[Irrie]

A summery could be, rather than a video, two sentences: 

 

"Long ago, there was an evil being who threatened the universe. However, a team of heroes defeated him, and reunited their world with another."

 

That way it satisfies the older fans and the younger ones are given a theme of mystery, similar to what the first ones felt back in '01. And the inquisitive of the new fans could delve deeper into Bionicle's history is they wanted to. 

Edited September 6, 2014 by The Irrational Rock

[Sir Kohran]

 

 

Learning events and characters through dry, boring descriptions on a wiki is not remote similar to getting to know them in an actual story.

 

And on top of that, where would a new fan even start when trying to learn the story? Learning a story through the official material begins with the first released piece of media and each one following on from that. But a wiki has no beginning piece or ending piece, it's just a vast collection of standalone pages that happen to contain links to each other. Which page should be read first, and which page after that one, and so on? A newcomer would have no idea, and would probably find it all too intimidating to bother with.

[Jakura Nuva]

 

Learning events and characters through dry, boring descriptions on a wiki is not remote similar to getting to know them in an actual story.

And on top of that, where would a new fan even start when trying to learn the story? Learning a story through the official material begins with the first released piece of media and each one following on from that. But a wiki has no beginning piece or ending piece, it's just a vast collection of standalone pages that happen to contain links to each other. Which page should be read first, and which page after that one, and so on? A newcomer would have no idea, and would probably find it all too intimidating to bother with.

I think you just hit the nail on the head. If a continuation was done and fans needed access to the old story, a collection of the stories in order of occurrence is what's necessary. A wiki, while a useful resource, is neither easy nor necessarily entertaining to get an entire storyline from. Edited September 7, 2014 by Jakura Nuva

[Spectral_Rain]

 

 

Learning events and characters through dry, boring descriptions on a wiki is not remote similar to getting to know them in an actual story.

 And on top of that, where would a new fan even start when trying to learn the story? Learning a story through the official material begins with the first released piece of media and each one following on from that. But a wiki has no beginning piece or ending piece, it's just a vast collection of standalone pages that happen to contain links to each other. Which page should be read first, and which page after that one, and so on? A newcomer would have no idea, and would probably find it all too intimidating to bother with.

I think you just hit the nail on the head. If a continuation was done and fans needed access to the old story, a collection of the stories in order of occurrence is whats needed the most. A wiki, while a useful resource, is neither easy nor necessarily entertaining to get an entire storyline from.

 

Here is a playlist of summery videos for gen 2 fans

Go to 1:48:30 into this video

after watching this

 

And that should catch them up with every single official lego set, as for the parts of the story that did not get sets, they will have to find that out for theirselfs, by then they could probaly go to bio sector 01 to get the missing parts.

[Kopekemaster]

 

 

If you post a short recap of ten years of "backbone storyline", you're not only providing the storyline in an flimsy, inferior form to experiencing it as it happened, you're also teasing people with snippets of a story that it would take a downright unreasonable amount of effort for them to experience for themselves. You're effectively giving kids a curriculum for a colorful building toy

I did say that you don't need to recap it all. There's plenty that you wouldn't need to recap.

And, as far as I know, the only things you can't legally get/view for free are the movies (easy enough) and books (less so, but arguably less necessary). For a large part, the books just go into more detail on the backbone story. What I'm considering the really "extra" stuff is covered in the serials and such, which are available legally.

 

But Bionicle has never been something that LEGO has spoonfed to kids. LEGO doesn't have to worry about "putting the burden" on them, any more than they've ever had to (I mean, the same things that are illegal/legal now were illegal/legal then).

If the kids want to figure something out about it, they can just do it. They don't need to depend upon LEGO to cater to their every wish.

 

I guess I'm a bit of a let-them-work for it kind of guy, but that's how Bionicle (to me, anyway) was. If I wanted to learn more about an event or character, I had to look up the serial or whatever it was in, read it, or look it up on BS01 or something (as others have said).

 

Anyway, for a chronological list of media, I think that would be great for LEGO to do. It provides a map, of sorts, for the kids to follow, but they are the ones who have to actually look for the stuff. (There's actually already a pretty good one here on BZP: http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/4238-bionicle-chronology-topic/)

It's sort of like the saying, "You get what you pay for", but more like "You get what you work for". Satisfaction for work well done is much superior to satisfaction from someone handing you the byproduct of that work, without you having lifted a finger. There's a certain... joy that comes from researching something, then finally coming upon it.

 

 

 

(don't forget that the series is aimed at kids, who might not have the most proficiency as readers)

Let's not forget that those 20,000 word-long books are children's books. If the minds of youth have deteriorated so much that they aren't able to comprehend those, I'm not sure that there's much hope for any returning Bionicle storyline to have much substance.

 

 

 

A lot of you seem to think that this brilliant idea of a short recap never occurred to Greg Farshtey when he was asked whether he'd prefer a continuation or a reboot. Do you really think he's so stupid that he would never even consider the possibility of a video like this before rejecting the idea of a continuation?

I highly doubt Greg would be the one to make that decision, though, it being such a major one. And let's not forget that Greg hasn't really said much more than cagey and open-to-interpretation answers about Bionicle returning, anyway.

 

gosh the man is a living male aes sedai

[boston100]

 

 

 

Learning events and characters through dry, boring descriptions on a wiki is not remote similar to getting to know them in an actual story.

 And on top of that, where would a new fan even start when trying to learn the story? Learning a story through the official material begins with the first released piece of media and each one following on from that. But a wiki has no beginning piece or ending piece, it's just a vast collection of standalone pages that happen to contain links to each other. Which page should be read first, and which page after that one, and so on? A newcomer would have no idea, and would probably find it all too intimidating to bother with.

I think you just hit the nail on the head. If a continuation was done and fans needed access to the old story, a collection of the stories in order of occurrence is whats needed the most. A wiki, while a useful resource, is neither easy nor necessarily entertaining to get an entire storyline from.

 

Here is a playlist of summery videos for gen 2 fans

Go to 1:48:30 into this video

after watching this

 

And that should catch them up with every single official lego set, as for the parts of the story that did not get sets, they will have to find that out for theirselfs, by then they could probaly go to bio sector 01 to get the missing parts.

 

lol 2 hours.

[Sardrox: Will of Makuta]

I think it would be best if there was something on the new Bionicle.com that briefly explained the storyline, with a few sentences per year. Like this:

 

In the time before time, an evil being named Makuta enslaved the inhabitants of the universe and placed our Great Spirit into deep slumber. A team of Toa warriors were able to hold Makuta back while they freed the enslaved people, at the sacrifice of their powers, and migrated to the island of Mata Nui.  Makuta's creatures continued to harass the people, until 6 legendary Toa arrived. They managed to defeat the strange creatures that Makuta sent after them, time after time, and at last, with the help of a seventh Toa, were able to defeat Makuta. But Makuta did not die. As part of his master plan he let a new generation of Toa obtain the Mask of Life and use it, saving the Great Spirit from death. Furthermore, the legendary Toa, called the Toa Nuva, were able to at last awaken the Great Spirit, Mata Nui. But Makuta took advantage and took over Mata Nui's gargantuan body, and all who dwelled within. With the entire universe under his control, Mata Nui's spirit arrived on a barren planet. When Makuta and his armie arrived on said planet, an all-out war broke out between Makuta's army, the Toa, and the inhabitants of the planet. With the help of a large body of his own, and Toa Tahu, Makuta was finally defeated, once and for all, and the planet was reunited with its two moons to make a beautiful paradise. 

 

11 sentences, I believe. And not too wordy so younger kids would still be able to understand it.

[Irrie]

I think it would be best if there was something on the new Bionicle.com that briefly explained the storyline, with a few sentences per year. Like this:

 

In the time before time, an evil being named Makuta enslaved the inhabitants of the universe and placed our Great Spirit into deep slumber. A team of Toa warriors were able to hold Makuta back while they freed the enslaved people, at the sacrifice of their powers, and migrated to the island of Mata Nui.  Makuta's creatures continued to harass the people, until 6 legendary Toa arrived. They managed to defeat the strange creatures that Makuta sent after them, time after time, and at last, with the help of a seventh Toa, were able to defeat Makuta. But Makuta did not die. As part of his master plan he let a new generation of Toa obtain the Mask of Life and use it, saving the Great Spirit from death. Furthermore, the legendary Toa, called the Toa Nuva, were able to at last awaken the Great Spirit, Mata Nui. But Makuta took advantage and took over Mata Nui's gargantuan body, and all who dwelled within. With the entire universe under his control, Mata Nui's spirit arrived on a barren planet. When Makuta and his armie arrived on said planet, an all-out war broke out between Makuta's army, the Toa, and the inhabitants of the planet. With the help of a large body of his own, and Toa Tahu, Makuta was finally defeated, once and for all, and the planet was reunited with its two moons to make a beautiful paradise. 

 

11 sentences, I believe. And not too wordy so younger kids would still be able to understand it.

 

A summery could be, rather than a video, two sentences: 

 

"Long ago, there was an evil being who threatened the universe. However, a team of heroes defeated him, and reunited their world with another."

 

That way it satisfies the older fans and the younger ones are given a theme of mystery, similar to what the first ones felt back in '01. And the inquisitive of the new fans could delve deeper into Bionicle's history is they wanted to. 

Depends on the attention span of the fans. You could start them out with two sentences, and then give them a paragraph if they seek it out. After that, the hardcore of the new guys could dive further into the history. 

[Makuta Miras]

I think it would be best if there was something on the new Bionicle.com that briefly explained the storyline, with a few sentences per year. Like this:

 

In the time before time, an evil being named Makuta enslaved the inhabitants of the universe and placed our Great Spirit into deep slumber. A team of Toa warriors were able to hold Makuta back while they freed the enslaved people, at the sacrifice of their powers, and migrated to the island of Mata Nui.  Makuta's creatures continued to harass the people, until 6 legendary Toa arrived. They managed to defeat the strange creatures that Makuta sent after them, time after time, and at last, with the help of a seventh Toa, were able to defeat Makuta. But Makuta did not die. As part of his master plan he let a new generation of Toa obtain the Mask of Life and use it, saving the Great Spirit from death. Furthermore, the legendary Toa, called the Toa Nuva, were able to at last awaken the Great Spirit, Mata Nui. But Makuta took advantage and took over Mata Nui's gargantuan body, and all who dwelled within. With the entire universe under his control, Mata Nui's spirit arrived on a barren planet. When Makuta and his armie arrived on said planet, an all-out war broke out between Makuta's army, the Toa, and the inhabitants of the planet. With the help of a large body of his own, and Toa Tahu, Makuta was finally defeated, once and for all, and the planet was reunited with its two moons to make a beautiful paradise. 

 

11 sentences, I believe. And not too wordy so younger kids would still be able to understand it.

You might want to add that Teri ejected the Ignika as well as MN, and also the fact that the entire MU is inside the GSR. 

[Spectral_Rain]

Lego probaly said all of these things, and either found a way to make it a contiuation, or gave up, and made it a reboot

[Boidoh]

I think it would be best if there was something on the new Bionicle.com that briefly explained the storyline, with a few sentences per year. Like this:

 

In the time before time, an evil being named Makuta enslaved the inhabitants of the universe and placed our Great Spirit into deep slumber. A team of Toa warriors were able to hold Makuta back while they freed the enslaved people, at the sacrifice of their powers, and migrated to the island of Mata Nui.  Makuta's creatures continued to harass the people, until 6 legendary Toa arrived. They managed to defeat the strange creatures that Makuta sent after them, time after time, and at last, with the help of a seventh Toa, were able to defeat Makuta. But Makuta did not die. As part of his master plan he let a new generation of Toa obtain the Mask of Life and use it, saving the Great Spirit from death. Furthermore, the legendary Toa, called the Toa Nuva, were able to at last awaken the Great Spirit, Mata Nui. But Makuta took advantage and took over Mata Nui's gargantuan body, and all who dwelled within. With the entire universe under his control, Mata Nui's spirit arrived on a barren planet. When Makuta and his armie arrived on said planet, an all-out war broke out between Makuta's army, the Toa, and the inhabitants of the planet. With the help of a large body of his own, and Toa Tahu, Makuta was finally defeated, once and for all, and the planet was reunited with its two moons to make a beautiful paradise. 

 

11 sentences, I believe. And not too wordy so younger kids would still be able to understand it.

 

How many times will I need to say this. Bota Magna and Aqua Magna are NOT moons, they are planets with their own independent orbit around Solis Magna!

[Banana Gunz]

 

If you post a short recap of ten years of "backbone storyline", you're not only providing the storyline in an flimsy, inferior form to experiencing it as it happened, you're also teasing people with snippets of a story that it would take a downright unreasonable amount of effort for them to experience for themselves. You're effectively giving kids a curriculum for a colorful building toy

I did say that you don't need to recap it all. There's plenty that you wouldn't need to recap.

And, as far as I know, the only things you can't legally get/view for free are the movies (easy enough) and books (less so, but arguably less necessary). For a large part, the books just go into more detail on the backbone story. What I'm considering the really "extra" stuff is covered in the serials and such, which are available legally.

 

But Bionicle has never been something that LEGO has spoonfed to kids. LEGO doesn't have to worry about "putting the burden" on them, any more than they've ever had to (I mean, the same things that are illegal/legal now were illegal/legal then).

If the kids want to figure something out about it, they can just do it. They don't need to depend upon LEGO to cater to their every wish.

 

I guess I'm a bit of a let-them-work for it kind of guy, but that's how Bionicle (to me, anyway) was. If I wanted to learn more about an event or character, I had to look up the serial or whatever it was in, read it, or look it up on BS01 or something (as others have said).

 

Anyway, for a chronological list of media, I think that would be great for LEGO to do. It provides a map, of sorts, for the kids to follow, but they are the ones who have to actually look for the stuff. (There's actually already a pretty good one here on BZP: http://www.bzpower.com/board/topic/4238-bionicle-chronology-topic/)

It's sort of like the saying, "You get what you pay for", but more like "You get what you work for". Satisfaction for work well done is much superior to satisfaction from someone handing you the byproduct of that work, without you having lifted a finger. There's a certain... joy that comes from researching something, then finally coming upon it.

 

But why should anyone have to work to understand a toy line's story? Would you really want to have to do research to like something? Bionicle has to be interesting, refreshing, and open to fans. If new consumers/kids see that in order to like Bionicle 2015 they have to do work and research 10 years of canon just to understand the current story, don't you think they would say no? Why should they have to devote their own free time to force themselves to study canon. And what if they find that they don't like it? It would've been a total waste of time for them. If you are presenting a product it is your responsibility to present it in such a way that it is free and open to get into.

[Wazdakka]

TL;DR, we know that "story was too complex = no continuation!111!" has no merit because we can easily make a brief and digestible micro-summary of the past. 

[Irrie]

TL;DR, we know that "story was too complex = no continuation!111!" has no merit because we can easily make a brief and digestible micro-summary of the past. 

Am I the only one here who likes the story because it was complex? 

 

Anyway, I think that a short couple of sentences will be able to satisfy the market of new fans.   

[Toa of Gallifrey]

They'd only need to do said research if the story was a direct continuation. If it was a timeskip or soft reboot that took place elsewhere, you'd only need the basic premise that can be said in one sentence. The point of it would be to acknowledge the existence of the past canon (at least not contradict it) but not depend on it for storytelling.

 

TL;DR, we know that "story was too complex = no continuation!111!" has no merit because we can easily make a brief and digestible micro-summary of the past. 

Am I the only one here who likes the story because it was complex? 

 

Anyway, I think that a short couple of sentences will be able to satisfy the market of new fans.   

 

I loved the complexity too.

[Banana Gunz]

 

TL;DR, we know that "story was too complex = no continuation!111!" has no merit because we can easily make a brief and digestible micro-summary of the past. 

Am I the only one here who likes the story because it was complex? 

 

*snip*

 

 

I like story complexity but if it gets so complex that it starts tripping over itself then you know things need to be toned down a bit. There needs to be a balance in complexity. I really want a story that allows you to delve into it and explore a bit more from the main story line, but when you extend and build the story to make it more complex it's important to remember that it shouldn't have a large effect on the main story-line so regular fans who don't try to go deeper aren't missing anything really important.

[Kopekemaster]

Would you really want to have to do research to like something?

Short answer, yes. That's what I was trying to say earlier. That's what I (and a lot of other people) have always seen Bionicle as. I'm not saying that it can't be open to new people - that would be stupid, and pointless, it needs to be open to new people. But I'm saying that, as always, if they want to learn more of the details of Bionicle, they should be the ones who dig up information on it. That way, LEGO doesn't have to give a gigantic recap. All they need give is the necessary "backbone story" for people to understand things and characters and stuff, but then leave it up to the reader to decide how much more they want to learn.

 

(Also, story complexity is definitely one of the main reasons I love Bionicle. I know that isn't true for others, but it is for me.)

Edited September 7, 2014 by Kopekemaster

[Banana Gunz]

 

Would you really want to have to do research to like something?

Short answer, yes. That's what I was trying to say earlier. That's what I (and a lot of other people) have always seen Bionicle as. I'm not saying that it can't be open to new people - that would be stupid, and pointless, it needs to be open to new people. But I'm saying that, as always, if they want to learn more of the details of Bionicle, they should be the ones who dig up information on it. That way, LEGO doesn't have to give a gigantic recap. All they need give is the necessary "backbone story" for people to understand things and characters and stuff, but then leave it up to the reader to decide how much more they want to learn.

 

(Also, story complexity is definitely one of the main reasons I love Bionicle. I know that isn't true for others, but it is for me.)

 

 

Really? I find that when I want to get into something I don't want to have to bother myself about it and rather let the natural likeness pull me in with a smooth transition. Giving just a backbone story will be hard too. Can fans really believe something like that and be enticed by it? We learned of the nature of the Great Spirit robot being a universe over the course of many years, the story slowly building itself towards that goal so that when it came, it was still shocking, but cool and believable. Bionicle has a lot attached to that backbone story, and plenty of things won't make sense to new fans when they see it. "Why was there a large robot" "Why was it a whole universe?" "Why was there an evil spirit trying to take over?" Why why why? That's still a lot they'll have to end up going through to understand why things are as they are. Sure they don't have to go and research all that happened over the course of those ten years, but they'll find themselves far more obligated to understand what happened rather than just ignore all that canon, and that will still make them have to trouble themselves with trying to understand what was going on. It's like college, it's not necessary, but wouldn't your future (theoretically) be a lot more sound if you do go?

[Chro]

I believe the "continuation = difficult for new fans and reboot = only solution"-view is just a bit too black and white.

I agree that it is not that simple, but I still hold firm in saying that it is most likely to be a reboot.

[Kopekemaster]

 

 

rather let the natural likeness pull me in with a smooth transition

I think we're talking about two different things. As I've said before, the beginning recap doesn't have to be very extensive, just enough for them to know that Makuta was the bad guy, why he was the bad guy (motive), who the Toa are (especially the Mata, if what it's looking like is going to be what it is), what Spherus Magna is, etc. Plus any other things that would be necessary to the new plot (for example, they would give more details on Dark Hunters if they're featured in the plot, etc.).

The beginning should be smooth and gradual enough to bring people in, as it was before. I'm saying that if they want more details about it, such as what the Red Star does, who Annonna is, how Av-Matoran become Bohrok, etc., then they can look into it more on their own. Which is where a chronological list of media and such, provided by LEGO, would be very handy.

Another idea that Madu Cabolo and I had while talking earlier was that they could do an as-you-go recap thing, where, almost like the Turaga telling the Mata about Metru Nui and stuff, the background (backbone) story gets gradually introduced, as it is needed. That would be great, too.

 

Also, this is just for the story people. A large percentage of people, very likely, will just be in it for the sets and maybe a piece or two here and there of the story, delivered in comics or something.