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Bionicle Style Guide


Torsti

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Wow, that's really awesome! :) I'd really love to have something like that. Any chance you could show us the VHS, CD and booklet contents? I and surely many others would be extremely interested in all of them.

 

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- Gata

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 Hey Gata

 

 That is going to be a little hard with the VHS since I haven't had a VCR in over ten years :) But I can take more photos of the booklet and check out those cd's for sure.

It's a little bit late here now, but I'll see what I can do tomorrow when I come home.

 

 Best regards

 

 Torsti

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That is absolutely incredible and I would love to get a look at it (if not own it altogether). The few peeks I've gotten at Bionicle style guides have delivered great insights into The Lego Group's vision for the Bionicle theme and how it would be conveyed visually.

 

Just as an example, one thing I learned from style guides was that Bionicle was not referred to as "LEGO Bionicle" at all during the theme's initial run, unlike just about every other Lego theme. In fact, rather than featuring the Lego logo in the top corner of the box like most Lego themes, it was usually shifted to the bottom edge of canisters or boxes. This, to me, is a good indicator of the sort of shame Lego had for its own brand during the hard times of the early 2000s: Not only was Bionicle a daring success in a time marked by other themes' failures, but Lego wanted the Bionicle brand to stand on its own and not be associated with their traditional building toys. In some ways, that was a smart move—the theme, after all, was partly meant to target kids who thought they had outgrown regular Lego. But it also served as somewhat of a deterrent for Bionicle fans from transitioning back into more complex or expensive Lego sets and themes, something I witnessed all too frequently when the theme ended and many fans swore off Lego entirely due to a misguided sense of "betrayal".

In any case, that's one of the things I admire about next year's upcoming Bionicle theme: It is in fact being marketed as "Lego Bionicle", showing how the company has risen from its troubles to a point where the Lego brand is an asset, not a liability.

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That is an awesome package! Really nice design. 

 

And man, that stuff is golden. A VHS? Wow I feel old. It looks like there might be some nice goodies in there for us fans. Thanks for taking your time to share this with us. :)

 

And excellent job designing Tarix! Was this late 2007? They design sets two years in advance eh?

 

-NotS

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It's been forever since I've seen a VHS tape. I assume that it was made in Bionicle's earlier years, because I don't think any company would still use VHS tapes in 2007. (Feel free to correct me on that if I'm wrong.)

 

The outer case looks great, as well as all of its contents. Thanks for taking pictures of these and showing them to us! B-)

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Everyone is one choice away from being the bad guy in another person's story.


 


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Whoa, that is something very wonderful to have as a gift. I never knew such a thing existed and a VHS tape with the Bionicle logo on it is just cool looking at it. I didn't think that would exist either. I'm very curious as to what is shown in the VHS tape.

 

I love the design and appearence of Tarix, well done on that. He, along with Ackar and Strakk are my favorite Glatorian.

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 Hey guys

 

 Thank you for the Tarix compliments! I will take some more detailed photos of the guide and post them later today.

 

 -Bioniclepluslotr and KopakaFan116, I live in Denmark so no Walgreens here. But my friend likes ripping silly old action and horror movies from VHS to digital, so he might be able to help me. But unfortunately I wont see him for the next couple of weeks at least.

 

 -Nidhiki of the Shadows, Thank you. Yes I was there from November 2007 to February 2008. Yes, the sets are designed about eighteen months before they come out.

 

 -Toa Smoke Monster, no problem, it's my pleasure to share something like this with people who truly walue it. I'm pretty sure the guide I have is from 2003.

 

 -Randomreviewerbros, The development of the look took a couple of months and many tries. Sorry I can't show you anything that has not been published by the Lego group them selves. I take my contracts very seriously and also wouldn't want Lego's team of lawyers to come after me.

 But I can show you my final build for Tarix and the real concept behind the Stingray waterblades/shield, before it all had to jump through a few thousand loopholes at Lego where somebody didn't get the memo regarding the blades ;)

 

 

 

 

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Edited by Torsti
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Great stuff, and i also thank you for coming up with this. Don't open the turahk set, if it isn't already, as with him sealed it may have larger value, and turahk itself is easy to find opened. About the price, it's hard to set it for such a almost one-of-a-kind item, it's mainly dictated by the demand, but i guess that you could get min 150 bucks for it. I think that serious collectors like MaskCollector or ToaLihkanHordika would be interested ;)

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This is amazing! Just when you think all the Bionicle media possible has surfaced, something from ten years ago pops up!

 

I'm excited to see what the contents of the CD and VHS tape are...

 

Also - Tarix was my favorite Glatorian. I really liked the way he looked. It must have been exciting for you to see him come to life in The Legend Reborn film.

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That is an amazing story booklet. I've only heard about the Toa Mata defeating their shadow doubles by absorbing them back into themselves, but I've never read it from a book before until now. And the pictures in it...they bring back many memories for me about the early years of Bionicle. 

 

Thanks again for posting this! B-)

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Everyone is one choice away from being the bad guy in another person's story.


 


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That's awesome! I love these things that you are showing us. I never knew these things exist before, either! And also, I like Tarix, too. He's an awesome character, and his weapons are cool, too! I would love to see how he came to life in The Legend Reborn movie, too!:)

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 -Randomreviewerbros, The development of the look took a couple of months and many tries. Sorry I can't show you anything that has not been published by the Lego group them selves. I take my contracts very seriously and also wouldn't want Lego's team of lawyers to come after me.

 But I can show you my final build for Tarix and the real concept behind the Stingray waterblades/shield, before it all had to jump through a few thousand loopholes at Lego where somebody didn't get the memo regarding the blades ;)

 

 

 

 

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haha i understand, but wow you did a really great job on Tarix, I remember getting him like yesterday and he remains one of my favorite figures of 2009, loved the color scheme you gave him, the classic Mata blue mixed with a darker royal blue and gold armor, you did a great job designing him!

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This is amazing. You are very lucky to own something like this. The insight into Bionicle's history and the pure nostalgic value of this is staggering. I don't think I'd be able to sell it were I in your position.

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This is awesome. I am particularly fond of the fight against the Shadow Toa. BIONICLE 2015 will have a lot to live up to! :P I can't wait to see the rest of the content. Thank you so much for everything! :)

 

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- Gata

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This is wonderful! Thank you. :D

 

The synopsis is undoubtedly written by Greg. It has his version of the Shadow Toa fight (which, incidentally, must've originated here when he was commissioned to write this in 2003). It's basically a predecessor to his books that began with Tales of the Masks later that year. His version of Hapka's works, condensed.

 

It also butchers the original version of the 2001 story and substitutes it with a new version, but that's nothing new. Greg didn't have access to the cancelled PC game, of course, and without it his only resource to work from was MNOLG, which he seemed to disregard a lot because it wasn't approved by the story team, even though Templar did an incredible job of integrating the game with the BIONICLE story proper. Even when Greg does allude to the game in the guide, he gets stuff wrong and shows that he didn't pay it much heed. A shame, really.

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Oh my goodness. This is amazing!

As you said, I think I saw a little bit of the style guide somewhere before, but nothing near this. This is awesome.

So, would the synopsis booklet basically be the mini story-bible for the years it runs for?

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I love it when the staff involved in the bionicle series releases concept art, drafts and prototypes of sets and other stories but this is awesome! I can't wait to see what's on those CDs and that VHS tape! We've become one step closer in unlocking more secrets of the bionicle universe!

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I have no idea how much that gift box is worth, but I know it's something I would never sell if I somehow received it. (Now I just go to get a job at Lego! Haha) Thank you so much for posting this, and great work on Tarix! I enjoyed him a lot when he came out...

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That's really cool! The early 2009 lineup was a really solid one, and I rather like Tarix. Thanks for that! The rest of the stuff is quite cool. It always pleases and surprises me to see how much affection for BIONICLE the people within the company had. And presumably still have, since they're bringing it back.

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First off, major kudos on designing my favorite Glatorian, style-wise. I love Tarix's blades, and he has a pretty nice body design. Also, gold and royal blue, can't go wrong. :D

I think it's pretty amazing that you received this. You must have been doing something right!

Also, I have to ask about the minifigure.

 

On another note:

I may be angering people, but I think I'll accept this version of the events of Mangaia as my personal cannon. It parses best, and I love the whole "overcoming your darkness" theme.

 

Also, May I point something out on page 14:

"Far below, Tahu heard the Toa of stone cry out. He swung his mighty fire axe and tore a gash in the side of the Mangai."

Earlier on they allude to Tahu's sword. Was he originally to have an axe in its place? I wonder...

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"Far below, Tahu heard the Toa of stone cry out. He swung his mighty fire axe and tore a gash in the side of the Mangai."

Earlier on they allude to Tahu's sword. Was he originally to have an axe in its place? I wonder...

As this was written in 2003 by someone uninvolved with BIONICLE's initial development, it was probably just a mistake. There's even late Doo Heads concept art where the character that would become Tahu has a fire sword, so it's been around about as long as Tahu has.

 

Was this a product that was never released?

This is a guide that would be given to partners of the LEGO Group, so they would know what BIONICLE was and how to present it to consumers.

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believe victims. its actually not that hard, and youd look kind of bad if you were to, say, side with an abuser because theyre your friend

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On another note:

I may be angering people, but I think I'll accept this version of the events of Mangaia as my personal cannon. It parses best, and I love the whole "overcoming your darkness" theme.

I believe this IS supposed to be the canon explanation of events, and I agree it's by far the best. It misses out on Makuta's dark and philosophical monologue from the Mata Nui Online Game, but does not contradict it. And it provides better character development for the Toa than arguably any other official account of that story year.

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