Where did Bionicle Go Wrong?

[Jakura Nuva]

 

 

I really liked 2009 as well. The mystery at the start - is this the future of the Bionicle world after Makuta destroys it? - kept me perpetually interested. And when Mata Nui arrived and I realised he was going to be the main character, I got even more interested. I thought 2009 was going to be a real turning point for Bionicle, and that great things would come afterwards, but instead Lego chose to end it the very next year.

My soul was crushed by the advent of the Stars. A truly pitiful way to end the greatest story of my childhood.

 

Yeah, Stars weren't the best, I have to admit. But what would Lego have done if not Stars?

 

better sets, preferably.

Specifics, please.

[Aanchir]

 

 

I really liked 2009 as well. The mystery at the start - is this the future of the Bionicle world after Makuta destroys it? - kept me perpetually interested. And when Mata Nui arrived and I realised he was going to be the main character, I got even more interested. I thought 2009 was going to be a real turning point for Bionicle, and that great things would come afterwards, but instead Lego chose to end it the very next year.

 

My soul was crushed by the advent of the Stars. A truly pitiful way to end the greatest story of my childhood.

Yeah, Stars weren't the best, I have to admit. But what would Lego have done if not Stars?

 

 

better sets, preferably.

 

I'm sure the designers for the Stars would have loved if that option were actually on the table. But they were working with the budget of a theme that was on its last legs, and with a parts palette that was ill-suited to creative models at an $8 price point. I think they did the best they could, given the circumstances. If the CCBS had been ready for production just a year earlier than I'm sure the Stars (and the equally atrocious first wave of Hero Factory heroes) could have been much better, but that was not the case. Edited August 22, 2014 by Aanchir

[Toa Smoke Monster]

I don't think Bionicle went wrong in a specific year. I liked almost all of the story, even the 09 and 10 story years. I do think it started going downhill with the overuse of alternate dimensions though. They kind of brought the story down for me. The reveal of the Red Star's revival powers were also not a good turning point for the story IMO. These two things are where I think Bionicle went wrong. 

[Zidonaro]

When they stopped trying to make new building systems and used the Inika build till the end.

[believe victims]

When they stopped trying to make new building systems and used the Inika build till the end.

 

But why make something that looks new and interesting when you can just use the same thing again and again and again? everyone knows that's good design!

[Zidonaro]

 

When they stopped trying to make new building systems and used the Inika build till the end.

 

But why make something that looks new and interesting when you can just use the same thing again and again and again? everyone knows that's good design!

 

 

lol, I hope you're kidding.

[believe victims]

 

 

When they stopped trying to make new building systems and used the Inika build till the end.

 

But why make something that looks new and interesting when you can just use the same thing again and again and again? everyone knows that's good design!

 

 

lol, I hope you're kidding.

 

 

i've never been sarcastic in my life. everything i say is 100% authentic, even this post.

[S. Forester]

I don't really think Bionicle "went wrong" at any point, but 2001-04 was the only period I followed.  I was 14, and I ignored Bionicle until the Bohrok saga.  Technically I bought a couple of the McDonalds figures in fall 2001, but I didn't get into the franchise until issue #4.

 

In 2004, I was 17.  There was no "Lego Movie" back then, and it wasn't cool to play with toys as a high school senior.  Metru Nui was cool, but I wasn't really invested in a prequel and I just let Bionicle escape me until I started reading the chapter books in 2011.

 

 

For me, Bionicle became hard to follow in the prequel era.  I lost interest when the story stopped moving forward.  "Legends of Metru Nui" was awesome, but I missed the Toa Nuva and I didn't feel like waiting years to get the next real chapter in the saga.

 

Now I am back catching up.

[Banana Gunz]

I don't really think Bionicle "went wrong" at any point, but 2001-04 was the only period I followed.  I was 14, and I ignored Bionicle until the Bohrok saga.  Technically I bought a couple of the McDonalds figures in fall 2001, but I didn't get into the franchise until issue #4.

 

In 2004, I was 17.  There was no "Lego Movie" back then, and it wasn't cool to play with toys as a high school senior.  Metru Nui was cool, but I wasn't really invested in a prequel and I just let Bionicle escape me until I started reading the chapter books in 2011.

 

 

For me, Bionicle became hard to follow in the prequel era.  I lost interest when the story stopped moving forward.  "Legends of Metru Nui" was awesome, but I missed the Toa Nuva and I didn't feel like waiting years to get the next real chapter in the saga.

 

Now I am back catching up.

 

Welcome to the site! Yeah, you've missed quite a bit, but I would advise you not to go poking too far around this site until to finish the story, things get spoiled pretty easily (in fact, casually). I hope that you'll find the rest of the story enjoyable, but everyone is entitled to their opinions. What part in particular are you up to?

[S. Forester]

Welcome to the site! Yeah, you've missed quite a bit, but I would advise you not to go poking too far around this site until to finish the story, things get spoiled pretty easily (in fact, casually). I hope that you'll find the rest of the story enjoyable, but everyone is entitled to their opinions. What part in particular are you up to?

 

Hey, thanks for the welcome!  I am currently re-reading "Island of Doom," now that I can get them all in order at my library.  I have also read some of the Glatorian saga and seen some panels from "Journey's End."  I know the origins of the Matoran, that they are "cells" in Mata Nui's giant robot body, and have a general idea of how Bionicle ends.  That's where I am now.

Edited August 23, 2014 by S. Forester

[Reya]

I don't think Bionicle went wrong anywhere. It's more of a 'when did Bionicle stop feeling like Bionicle?'. For me, it was 2004 onward. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the Metru-Nui saga and its sets, but it just wasn't the same as that tropical island I fell in love with in 2001. 

Also, the projectile collectibles didn't help that cause either.

 

[UnderscoreChronix]

It didn't. Society did.

[Nato G]

I don't think Bionicle went wrong anywhere. It's more of a 'when did Bionicle stop feeling like Bionicle?'. For me, it was 2004 onward. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the Metru-Nui saga and its sets, but it just wasn't the same as that tropical island I fell in love with in 2001. 

 

Also, the projectile collectibles didn't help that cause either.

 

 

 

What do you mean when "Bionicle stopped feeling like Bionicle?" Every year Bionicle brought something different.

 

A lot of people seem to hate anything that didn't resembled the nostalgia of Bionicle's early years on the island of Mata Nui, losing interest, like you say, 2004 onward. I honestly thought Bionicle's early years were its worst. They spent two or three years at a time reusing the same locations, and all of the heroes and villains were clones of the others in the same wave.

 

2005 was kinda meh. I didn't get into it too much. 2006 was better. New building system, new chapter in the story (that wasn't a prequel), new heroes and a new island. And then 2007 with the diverse designs of the Barraki and Mahri. That was when I became really interested. 

 

"Also, the projectile collectibles didn't help that cause either". Didn't Bionicle's early years have the most ridiculous amount of collectibles? Masks and Kraata and Krana and Kanoka disks? I don't remember seeing nearly as many collectibles in later years.

[believe victims]

"Also, the projectile collectibles didn't help that cause either". Didn't Bionicle's early years have the most ridiculous amount of collectibles? Masks and Kraata and Krana and Kanoka disks? I don't remember seeing nearly as many collectibles in later years.

 

 

Yes, but those were actually collectible; by 2006, it had devolved to balls in metallic colors, and in 2007, it was squids that only came in 2 colors. Collectibility suffered greatly through the years. The problem wasn't the amount; without a large variety of things to collect, what's the point? If there were only three superhero action figures to collect, completing a collection would be appallingly simple. The point of collectibility is to collect them all. There was far more thrill in collecting the wide variety of masks in 2001-03 than in collecting two colors of useless squid in 2007. And yes, calling them useless is taking into account their "function" as "ammunition".

 

I don't see how focusing on one important location for a few years made the early years the worst years? Mata Nui had a lot to explore in those three years. The set designs may not have had a lot of diversity, but what they did was set up a standard. Of course later designs were an improvement on the Mata; if they weren't, it would mean the set designers failed to innovate. And for many people, it wasn't the sets that made the early years (though the Bohrok are still some of the best canister sets ever made); it was the story, which I think was better then, especially because in 2006 the story tried turning "dark" and ended up hideous as a result.

[Nato G]

 

"Also, the projectile collectibles didn't help that cause either". Didn't Bionicle's early years have the most ridiculous amount of collectibles? Masks and Kraata and Krana and Kanoka disks? I don't remember seeing nearly as many collectibles in later years.

 

 

Yes, but those were actually collectible; by 2006, it had devolved to balls in metallic colors, and in 2007, it was squids that only came in 2 colors. Collectibility suffered greatly through the years. The problem wasn't the amount; without a large variety of things to collect, what's the point? If there were only three superhero action figures to collect, completing a collection would be appallingly simple. The point of collectibility is to collect them all. There was far more thrill in collecting the wide variety of masks in 2001-03 than in collecting two colors of useless squid in 2007. And yes, calling them useless is taking into account their "function" as "ammunition".

 

I don't see how focusing on one important location for a few years made the early years the worst years? Mata Nui had a lot to explore in those three years. The set designs may not have had a lot of diversity, but what they did was set up a standard. Of course later designs were an improvement on the Mata; if they weren't, it would mean the set designers failed to innovate. And for many people, it wasn't the sets that made the early years (though the Bohrok are still some of the best canister sets ever made); it was the story, which I think was better then, especially because in 2006 the story tried turning "dark" and ended up hideous as a result.

 

 

I never liked the collectibles at all, to be honest. I saw no point in collecting an excessive amount of ammunition, or masks, or Kraata. Most of them were of absolutely no use to me, since I already had enough to fit all of my sets, and I never seemed to lose the ammunition I already had, so why would I need more? I saw all of the collectibles as cheap gimmicks, and I think Lego recognised this as well, since there were a lot less of them in later years. 

[believe victims]

I never liked the collectibles at all, to be honest. I saw no point in collecting an excessive amount of ammunition, or masks, or Kraata. Most of them were of absolutely no use to me, since I already had enough to fit all of my sets, and I never  seemed to lose the ammunition I already had, so why would I need more? I saw all of the collectibles as cheap gimmicks, and I think Lego recognised this as well, since there were a lot less of them in later years. 

 

Masks were actually amazingly useful; if the original six masks were only produced in their original six colors, as became the trend, there would have been a tremendous lack of diversity in masks for MOCs, which is, in the end, the purpose of Lego in the first place. The masks served to give you a wider palette to build with. Some people weren't just in it to put sets on shelves. I guess it's a matter of differing tastes, but I think earlier collectibles were pretty nice. 2004 marked the beginning of a steep decline in value, though. The disks were nowhere near as usable as the masks, and were mostly just valuable for the codes for the Kanoka Club. The Rhotuka Spinners were almost exclusively silver, with a few scattered exceptions, and also lacked usability. Zamor spheres were just colored balls, and squids were completely useless. As time went on, they became much more gimmicky. But the originals? Some may argue otherwise, but I think that having 85 unique collectible masks (not counting those only available from a set) was a wonderful thing that not only gave collectors a promising goal to attempt, but also gave MOCers a wider variety of them to choose from.

[Takuta-Nui]

Sensing a lot of dislike toward 2006 here. I actually liked 2006 more than any other year, except perhaps 2008 since the sets came with the fantastic conclusion to the main story arc of the Bionicle saga. 2006 renewed a lot of the mystery of a diverse island like Mata Nui, but with new elements that made it obviously different and interesting. Just one Matoran settlement by itself said to me, Wow, this is a different culture than the other Matoran settlements we've seen.

 

Then having the Piraka invade and impersonate as Toa was like taking the whole 2001 storyline and twisting it around. Some people might think that was a lazy copout to reverse-carbon-copy a storyline, but it really wasn't that much of a copy simply because there were so many little differences. Axonn and Brutaka were there as well, and the Nuva showed up quite early and then got thrashed and thrown in prison. That was a shocker, and only made the appearance of the Inika that much more epic for me. And at the end, having the Mask of Life battle and then the mask zooms into the ocean and leading directly into the 2007 storyline was, in my opinion, the cleanest and most tight story transition Bionicle ever pulled off.

 

That being said - I would have to say that 2005 was a year of missed opportunities. It could have expanded a great deal on the Matoran Universe after 2004 spent so much time labouring on Metru Nui and helping the reader understand that this was underground, there were other islands, other Toa, etc and so on. A year was enough to understand that - now we wanted to see some proper examples. We did get some, but not in as unified a story as I would have hoped for. Sidorak, Roodaka, and Keetongu all contributed to filling in different species and lands of origin, but all the action remained on Metru Nui. This was kind of fair since the Matoran had to be rescued, but I would have loved to see half the Toa split off to check out other places, and then come back to Metru Nui to find the other three turned into Hordika. Then pick up the rest of the story to defeat the Visorak hordes etc.

 

Instead of this fuller and broader Matoran Universe exploration, we had to move back to the present time and to an entirely new place, which was itself cool as I've mentioned above. I think this little disconnect between what we were being told and what we were being shown may have contributed to Greg's newfound penchant for story serials in an attempt to fill in those gaps and to give us a greater variety of colour in the MU. 

 

Now, was that wrong? Not at all.

 

Bionicle hindsight isn't 20/20, it's 100/20 or something like that with all of us hovering over every detail for so many years now. Of course we could rewrite it in a massive collaborative effort and it could be a hundred times better than what we have today, but nah. It was a story, a series of unexpected events that led from one to the next, and it happened the way it did - both within the universe and on a meta-canonical level.

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

Ah, for me it was the Bara Magna arc. There wasn't anything specific against the arc itself, so much, for me - admittedly, I was on the verge of losing interest in Bionicle then anyway and didn't pay much attention to the year as a whole - I just felt it was a thoroughly unneccessary addition. 2008 had been a perfect wrap-up, to my mind, with Makuta's ultimate victory; my personal opinion was that the story ought to have been left there; the future of the whole Matoran Universe would have been left up to the fans' imaginations rather than anything else.

[Nato G]

Ah, for me it was the Bara Magna arc. There wasn't anything specific against the arc itself, so much, for me - admittedly, I was on the verge of losing interest in Bionicle then anyway and didn't pay much attention to the year as a whole - I just felt it was a thoroughly unneccessary addition. 2008 had been a perfect wrap-up, to my mind, with Makuta's ultimate victory; my personal opinion was that the story ought to have been left there; the future of the whole Matoran Universe would have been left up to the fans' imaginations rather than anything else.

 

I don't think many fans would have been happy with a dodgy downer ending like that. I suspect the fanbase would have been even angrier than they were when it just ended. At least Stars was an actual conclusion, with the final defeat of Teridax and all. 

[toa kopaka4372]

 

Ah, for me it was the Bara Magna arc. There wasn't anything specific against the arc itself, so much, for me - admittedly, I was on the verge of losing interest in Bionicle then anyway and didn't pay much attention to the year as a whole - I just felt it was a thoroughly unneccessary addition. 2008 had been a perfect wrap-up, to my mind, with Makuta's ultimate victory; my personal opinion was that the story ought to have been left there; the future of the whole Matoran Universe would have been left up to the fans' imaginations rather than anything else.

 

I don't think many fans would have been happy with a dodgy downer ending like that. I suspect the fanbase would have been even angrier than they were when it just ended. At least Stars was an actual conclusion, with the final defeat of Teridax and all. 

 

Agreed. Besides, I know more than a few people were outraged that the Nuva screwed the universe over by simply fulfilling their destiny. An absolutely brilliant plot twist stunning in its audacity, but not a good place to end the entire story IMO.

[Nato G]

 

 

Ah, for me it was the Bara Magna arc. There wasn't anything specific against the arc itself, so much, for me - admittedly, I was on the verge of losing interest in Bionicle then anyway and didn't pay much attention to the year as a whole - I just felt it was a thoroughly unneccessary addition. 2008 had been a perfect wrap-up, to my mind, with Makuta's ultimate victory; my personal opinion was that the story ought to have been left there; the future of the whole Matoran Universe would have been left up to the fans' imaginations rather than anything else.

 

I don't think many fans would have been happy with a dodgy downer ending like that. I suspect the fanbase would have been even angrier than they were when it just ended. At least Stars was an actual conclusion, with the final defeat of Teridax and all. 

 

Agreed. Besides, I know more than a few people were outraged that the Nuva screwed the universe over by simply fulfilling their destiny. An absolutely brilliant plot twist stunning in its audacity, but not a good place to end the entire story IMO.

 

 

I agree. It was Bionicle's best plot twist, and a good place to end that part of the saga. But not the place to finish the entire storyline. 

[Mr. House]

I honestly abandoned the story when Bara Magna came around. I prefer the MU in all ways.

[Nato G]

I liked Bara Magna. It was a nice change of pace and setting, and it took us back to the true roots of the entire story. That desert waste was where it all began, the birthplace of the Matoran Universe. It left me with this respectful sense of awe for the location, but maybe that's just me. 

[Core: Matoran of Chaos]

For me it was when they did their third iteration of the original Toa. At first I thought it was a cool idea, but once I got a look at the sets I started to feel like I no longer knew the characters I had grown up with. They were just no longer recognizable. It was a major turn off for me.

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

Maybe I just have a thing for dark endings sometimes, I don't know XD I'm not going to disagree with your arguments, I get that it wouldn't have been viable for Lego to leave it there; I'm just saying that it would have been my personal preference.

[randomreviewerbros]

haha what i get from the title of this topic is 'where did i go wrong, i lost a friend' from How to Save a Life by the Fray lol

 

but back to the topic question, i really dont think Bionicle went wrong, personally i liked every year, i mean there were a few bad things here and there but overall i think the creators did a great job keeping the sets and storyline fresh and even though it did get very technical at the end with the story overall it was a great story which was extremely entertaining. I liked every year of sets personally, even the Piraka/Inika builds which many people thought got repetitive, i thought it kept improving, the Toa Nuva and Mahri were great examples of this as they were all unique and no two of them were anywhere near the same, even the Piraka and Inika themselves were great looking sets and some of my personal favorites because of the look of them overall. So yeah to sum up I dont think Bionicle went wrong anywhere really

[Zidonaro]

Voya Nui was, without a doubt, one of the worst places of the Bionicle saga. The only thing we could get from there, it's that it was a horrible and dangerous island, where Matoran were enslaved and killed all the time, and this made it a terrible location.

 

If you want a line to be successful, you must make a location look appealing to the audience, even if it's a deadly island like Voya Nui.

 

Do you know why we all loved Mata Nui ? It was because each place of it was so different from one another. We had forests, deserts, caves, lakes of lava, icy mountains, beaches, etc. Of course, a strong media is required to promote all of these locations, and the series of MNOGs were responsible for it.

 

What about Metru Nui ? Sure, maybe we didn't like it at the beginning, but you can't deny it was a "boring" place. Like Mata Nui, or actually even more than Mata Nui, each place of it was so different from one another, not to count the technological improvement over Mata Nui. Test tracks, furnaces, temples, knowledge towers, chute stations, archives, schools, sculpture fields, etc. It is a real shame that Metru Nui didn't have the kind of media that the Island of Mata Nui had to show the whole city to us, but even still, you could say it was an amazing place.

 

What we have from Voya Nui ? A barren place where danger was lying in every corner. No mysterious buildings, no forests, nothing. It felt like a dead place, and I'm not using dead here to refer to the location itself, but the content it had. It was a boring place that needed to shove a dangerous feel in your face to try to make itself a little interesting.

[Tahnok02]

I think about 2004 with the Toa Metru.  I liked the idea of it being about the Turuga's stories but it just lost a bit of it's charm for me.  I dipped back in for the 2008 Tahu Mistika, who I wasn't impressed with, the 2009 Glatorian Legends Mata Nui and finally the 2010 Stars Tahu and Takanuva rebuilds.  Part of me is hoping that the rumoured Bionicle sets for 2015 are real, but on the other hand... do we really need a reboot of it?  Surely they're fine with what ever similar brand they have at the minute.

[Comment Expired]

Storywise it lost most of the charm by the end of 2003.

 

Setwise it was good up until the Inika, then every year after that it was a trainwreck until the Glatorian grabbed hold of the wheel and steered it back to safe ground.

 

However it was out of gas by that point anyway.