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Why the hate towards the Glatorian era?


UngluedBike

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It seems to me that Bionicle's sales were at a sustainable level in 2008, but with the release of the 2009 sets, sales crashed. This really does puzzle me, because the 2009 sets were a very welcome change to me. And if 2009 was so bad, then why do people go nuts for the Toa Mata Nui titan set? Discuss.

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I don't really think sales really plummeted in 2009 or anything. They just didn't do well enough for Lego to justify keeping it running. I mean, yes, the series was not as profitable as they would have liked, but it wasn't exactly failing. They made a conscious decision to end the line before it really failed.

 

For my part, I really loved the 2009 sets. The colors and the elemental motifs and the helmets...I found all of it very very nice. Some people were definitely sick of the Inika build by that point, though, so I can definitely see where they come from when criticizing the 2009 sets. I never had a problem with that build (and, moreover, I think 2009 used it best), so I look back on the year fondly, but I know I'm not really in the majority, though.

 

Also, from the mouth of a 2009 fan, I honestly have to say that Toa Mata Nui is a pretty terrible set, and to be honest I've seen very few people that think otherwise? I might be wrong on this, but it always seemed to me like it's not very popular.

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I don't really think sales really plummeted in 2009 or anything. They just didn't do well enough for Lego to justify keeping it running. I mean, yes, the series was not as profitable as they would have liked, but it wasn't exactly failing. They made a conscious decision to end the line before it really failed.

 

For my part, I really loved the 2009 sets. The colors and the elemental motifs and the helmets...I found all of it very very nice. Some people were definitely sick of the Inika build by that point, though, so I can definitely see where they come from when criticizing the 2009 sets. I never had a problem with that build (and, moreover, I think 2009 used it best), so I look back on the year fondly, but I know I'm not really in the majority, though.

 

Also, from the mouth of a 2009 fan, I honestly have to say that Toa Mata Nui is a pretty terrible set, and to be honest I've seen very few people that think otherwise? I might be wrong on this, but it always seemed to me like it's not very popular.

The Inika build was reused purely because of how adaptable it was I think. When I meant Toa Mata Nui, I meant this one. It sells on ebay for WAY over it's original retail price. Edited by UngluedBike
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Personally, I think that the Mata Nui titan set was one of the best sets of 2009, but I actually really liked some of the other sets. Skorpio, in particular, was a really nice set. I thought that the Glatorian builds were really nice. They looked clean, and they built well.

 

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The sets were getting stale and the story veered away from everything we knew and loved right as things came to a climax, focusing instead on an entirely new group of characters in what was, in my opinion, an extremely boring and tedious setting. It felt to me like everything suddenly ground to a halt, and we were suddenly expected to care about a bunch of really dreary scavengers and gladiators trying to survive in a largely featureless world, with no extraordinary powers to keep anything even superficially entertaining or any intrigue to offer other than the mystery of the giant robot parts strewn everywhere, which didn't take a genius to figure out and was pretty lackluster compared to the previous year's big reveal, and the magical gateways in the GB laboratory, which didn't really get any explanation or attention. With no books to tell the story, and anyone without the time, money, or convenient living situation to catch a few specific airing times or buy a DVD able to watch the movie, the story was basically limited to comics and web serials, losing a very rich and powerful story engine which almost every year prior had in piles. 2009 chugged along without much to offer to a big portion of the fanbase, and the sets' fighting game gimmick really just sort of existed without any fanfare to make it interesting for kids. It didn't help that Mata Nui, the only thing really tying the Glatorian story back to the original Bionicle, was just really poorly depicted; you'd think if they were gonna go for the "naive and pompous god learning to be a normal person in a strange land" thing they wouldn't be so half-hearted about it. Uniting the tribes really didn't have anything to do with his own character development and was really just a track for him to magically become an overall better person in parallel to it, and we never really got any indication other than prior knowledge that this was an ancient god spirit who seemed to largely stop paying attention to his own people and was used to general worship and a wide array of powers over reality, with ancient and infinite knowledge gained from a hundred thousand years of studying space and life, suffering betrayal by his own protectors and having just woken up from an insanely long coma that was followed by the trauma of crashing into a planetoid and then getting his life force yanked out of a 40 million foot tall body. He was a really boring fix it all and do no wrong character. And I have no idea why anyone likes the atrocious titan set he got.

I understand why some folks love 2009, but it's no mystery why some hate it. I wan't terribly disappointed by it, but... it was disappointing. And the sets were lazy. The thing about the Inika is that they looked coherent and complete. The Glatorian mostly looked unfinished, gappy, and hewn together from random old parts just to keep the Inika builds "diverse". After a year of black, grey, silver, and washed out hues adorning almost every set, throwing extremely vibrant multicolored sets into our faces was like a bright camera flash, it was very unpleasant and it definitely felt like they skipped right over the sweet spot in the middle. The vehicles were the only saving grace, although personally I never cared for them. We also had more av-matoran builds, which, as always, was a hit or miss deal. The fact that 2009 was the last pair of full waves of Bionicle we got before cancellation, combined with the story not getting a proper follow up, makes it a lot worse looking back than it was at the time.

I don't know about the sales figures since Lego never released anything more specific than the line being better or worse than expected, so I can't comment on that with any certainty.

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The sets were getting stale and the story veered away from everything we knew and loved right as things came to a climax, focusing instead on an entirely new group of characters in what was, in my opinion, an extremely boring and tedious setting. It felt to me like everything suddenly ground to a halt, and we were suddenly expected to care about a bunch of really dreary scavengers and gladiators trying to survive in a largely featureless world, with no extraordinary powers to keep anything even superficially entertaining or any intrigue to offer other than the mystery of the giant robot parts strewn everywhere, which didn't take a genius to figure out and was pretty lackluster compared to the previous year's big reveal, and the magical gateways in the GB laboratory, which didn't really get any explanation or attention. With no books to tell the story, and anyone without the time, money, or convenient living situation to catch a few specific airing times or buy a DVD able to watch the movie, the story was basically limited to comics and web serials, losing a very rich and powerful story engine which almost every year prior had in piles. 2009 chugged along without much to offer to a big portion of the fanbase, and the sets' fighting game gimmick really just sort of existed without any fanfare to make it interesting for kids. It didn't help that Mata Nui, the only thing really tying the Glatorian story back to the original Bionicle, was just really poorly depicted; you'd think if they were gonna go for the "naive and pompous god learning to be a normal person in a strange land" thing they wouldn't be so half-hearted about it. Uniting the tribes really didn't have anything to do with his own character development and was really just a track for him to magically become an overall better person in parallel to it, and we never really got any indication other than prior knowledge that this was an ancient god spirit who seemed to largely stop paying attention to his own people and was used to general worship and a wide array of powers over reality, with ancient and infinite knowledge gained from a hundred thousand years of studying space and life, suffering betrayal by his own protectors and having just woken up from an insanely long coma that was followed by the trauma of crashing into a planetoid and then getting his life force yanked out of a 40 million foot tall body. He was a really boring fix it all and do no wrong character. And I have no idea why anyone likes the atrocious titan set he got.

 

I understand why some folks love 2009, but it's no mystery why some hate it. I wan't terribly disappointed by it, but... it was disappointing. And the sets were lazy. The thing about the Inika is that they looked coherent and complete. The Glatorian mostly looked unfinished, gappy, and hewn together from random old parts just to keep the Inika builds "diverse". After a year of black, grey, silver, and washed out hues adorning almost every set, throwing extremely vibrant multicolored sets into our faces was like a bright camera flash, it was very unpleasant and it definitely felt like they skipped right over the sweet spot in the middle. The vehicles were the only saving grace, although personally I never cared for them. We also had more av-matoran builds, which, as always, was a hit or miss deal. The fact that 2009 was the last pair of full waves of Bionicle we got before cancellation, combined with the story not getting a proper follow up, makes it a lot worse looking back than it was at the time.

 

I don't know about the sales figures since Lego never released anything more specific than the line being better or worse than expected, so I can't comment on that with any certainty.

 

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That was a bit more than 2 seeds, but thanks :D

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I didn't love, nor hate the Galtorian era. I was just 'meh'. I did buy a few of the sets, though: Malum, Skrall, Gresh, Tuma, Tarix, Toa Mata Nui, Mata Nui, Cendox V1, Kaxium V3, and Thornatus V9.

As for the story, it totally could have been a lot worse.  It could've been a medium-reboot, and Mata Nui/Makuta would've never shown up on Bara Magna.

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I loved 2009. The characters were interesting and the weapons and sets were special and original. No two sets looked the same and I can confirm that because I have all six originals and three legends. The only weak part was the movie, but even then that wasn't so bad.

 

Cryoshell killed it though. I blasted Bye Bye Babylon wherever I went.

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In terms of story, I wasn't a huge fan of 2009. It took us to somewhere completely new with no links to the world we knew and had spent years becoming invested in, and took away the cool powers that made the line so appealing. I admit, I was getting somewhat tired of all the random powers and abilities every character/species seemed to have from about 2006 onwards. It made the Toa seem so much less special and almost underpowered in comparison to the many and diverse species of overpowered Titans the universe started filling up with. But then in 2009 they went too far the other way, and suddenly, no one had cool powers and abilities. They adversaries were also really boring and, supposedly, impossible to beat. Greg repeatedly said that any Skrall would beat any Glatorian in a fight ten times out of ten. Then what do we see in the film? Scores of Skrall being wiped out by a handful of Glatorian, some of which were rookies.

 

So I digressed slightly there. The thing I did like about 2009 was the sets. Finally, some colour! Sets that felt, for the first time since 2002, that they genuinely represented a particular element. So it was even more disappointing when they were all powerless. But yes, I particularly liked the Winter 2009 sets. Sure, they were a bunch of Inika builds, but each set felt unique and interesting and almost monstrous in some cases.

 

I think it was mostly the story that put people off. Suddenly, everything we knew and loved about Bionicle was gone. No powers, no Toa and the setting? A desert. Yeah, fascinating.

 

Though I still prefer it to 2006. :P

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In terms of story, I wasn't a huge fan of 2009. It took us to somewhere completely new with no links to the world we knew and had spent years becoming invested in, and took away the cool powers that made the line so appealing. I admit, I was getting somewhat tired of all the random powers and abilities every character/species seemed to have from about 2006 onwards. It made the Toa seem so much less special and almost underpowered in comparison to the many and diverse species of overpowered Titans the universe started filling up with. But then in 2009 they went too far the other way, and suddenly, no one had cool powers and abilities. They adversaries were also really boring and, supposedly, impossible to beat. Greg repeatedly said that any Skrall would beat any Glatorian in a fight ten times out of ten. Then what do we see in the film? Scores of Skrall being wiped out by a handful of Glatorian, some of which were rookies.

 

So I digressed slightly there. The thing I did like about 2009 was the sets. Finally, some colour! Sets that felt, for the first time since 2002, that they genuinely represented a particular element. So it was even more disappointing when they were all powerless. But yes, I particularly liked the Winter 2009 sets. Sure, they were a bunch of Inika builds, but each set felt unique and interesting and almost monstrous in some cases.

 

I think it was mostly the story that put people off. Suddenly, everything we knew and loved about Bionicle was gone. No powers, no Toa and the setting? A desert. Yeah, fascinating.

 

Though I still prefer it to 2006. :P

Have to disagree with you about 2006, it was my peak time of interest during Bionicle's run (I wasn't old enough to experience Mata Nui and I prefer it to Metru Nui). For 2009, I liked the sets, not the story. I think I reinvented the story while they were around. as far as 2010 goes, sets were self explanatory, but I was glad to see the ending with Makuta getting justice, despite the unfinished serials.

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2009 is kind of a wierd year for me. I think there are some things it did really well, and some things it did horribly. I think that, overall, the pros would be the return of the brighter colors from '01, less of a reliance on silver and grey, a new setting and story that could have done really well, and a few good set designs that either don't use a traditional Inika build (Kiina, Strakk) or look good enough to make it work (Ackar, Stronius). The cons for 2009 include the return of the 2008 socket design (which is odd because Lego probably knew about its problems by this point), some awful small sets that fix none of the issues with the '08 Matoran, canister sets that don't feel particularly inspired or nice to look at despite the improvements over '08 (with some exceptions), and finally, the handling of the new story.

 

The story gets its own paragraph because I have a lot more to say about it. I think that the idea behind the story is fairly solid, and it really could have gone somewhere interesting had it been properly handled. I think giving the story a reboot was a great idea. At this point in G1's lifespan, Bionicle had seen a drop in sales, in part due to its position as a story-based toyline whose story had become too complex for most newcomers to follow. Given this, it makes sense to create a new story in a new world to attract a new audience. However, I think there were a few mistakes made when it came to designing and marketing this new story that ultimately lead to Bionicle's early cancellation. First of all, the setting. I think that, out of all of the themes that could have been chosen for the new setting, a barren desert was definitely one of the worst. If they had included some more interesting settings, like ruins for example (the prototype robot doesn't count), or even just given more attention to the parts of Bara Magna that aren't just desert, maybe it could have worked. But, overall, there wasn't enough focus on anything aside from the desert to give the story an interesting setting. Also, world building was severely lacking. All we get is "desert planet, gladiators, evil nomadic tribes, also theres a giant robot out of nowhere". We don't get a good look into how the world works, we just get a few basic plot points, and then a bunch of random fighting until suddenly there's a giant robot. Something MNOG-like would have been great here, and I think that's what the MLN canpaign was trying to do, but it evidently didn't do it well enough. Also, a lack of mystery hurts the story in my opinion. If we had gotten a story that had gradually given vague hints at something bigger going on behind the scenes, and then at the end linked those hints to a big reveal, in this case the prototype robot, it would have been great. This sort of thing is what I really loved about 2001's story, it always felt like something big was going on that no one knew about, and the MNOG in particular did a good job of dropping hints without making the big twist too obvious until it had already happened. To me, 2009 doesn't feel like it really wants to tell a story, it just wants to rush through to sell more toys. And although it's understandable why it would be that way (Lego is a toy company after all), I feel like Bionicle's focus should always be using a well written story as a way to make people want to buy sets. Yes, it's harder, but if you get people invested in a story and it's characters, they'll buy the merchandise.

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2009 is kind of a wierd year for me. I think there are some things it did really well, and some things it did horribly. I think that, overall, the pros would be the return of the brighter colors from '01, less of a reliance on silver and grey, a new setting and story that could have done really well, and a few good set designs that either don't use a traditional Inika build (Kiina, Strakk) or look good enough to make it work (Ackar, Stronius). The cons for 2009 include the return of the 2008 socket design (which is odd because Lego probably knew about its problems by this point), some awful small sets that fix none of the issues with the '08 Matoran, canister sets that don't feel particularly inspired or nice to look at despite the improvements over '08 (with some exceptions), and finally, the handling of the new story.

 

The story gets its own paragraph because I have a lot more to say about it. I think that the idea behind the story is fairly solid, and it really could have gone somewhere interesting had it been properly handled. I think giving the story a reboot was a great idea. At this point in G1's lifespan, Bionicle had seen a drop in sales, in part due to its position as a story-based toyline whose story had become too complex for most newcomers to follow. Given this, it makes sense to create a new story in a new world to attract a new audience. However, I think there were a few mistakes made when it came to designing and marketing this new story that ultimately lead to Bionicle's early cancellation. First of all, the setting. I think that, out of all of the themes that could have been chosen for the new setting, a barren desert was definitely one of the worst. If they had included some more interesting settings, like ruins for example (the prototype robot doesn't count), or even just given more attention to the parts of Bara Magna that aren't just desert, maybe it could have worked. But, overall, there wasn't enough focus on anything aside from the desert to give the story an interesting setting. Also, world building was severely lacking. All we get is "desert planet, gladiators, evil nomadic tribes, also theres a giant robot out of nowhere". We don't get a good look into how the world works, we just get a few basic plot points, and then a bunch of random fighting until suddenly there's a giant robot. Something MNOG-like would have been great here, and I think that's what the MLN canpaign was trying to do, but it evidently didn't do it well enough. Also, a lack of mystery hurts the story in my opinion. If we had gotten a story that had gradually given vague hints at something bigger going on behind the scenes, and then at the end linked those hints to a big reveal, in this case the prototype robot, it would have been great. This sort of thing is what I really loved about 2001's story, it always felt like something big was going on that no one knew about, and the MNOG in particular did a good job of dropping hints without making the big twist too obvious until it had already happened. To me, 2009 doesn't feel like it really wants to tell a story, it just wants to rush through to sell more toys. And although it's understandable why it would be that way (Lego is a toy company after all), I feel like Bionicle's focus should always be using a well written story as a way to make people want to buy sets. Yes, it's harder, but if you get people invested in a story and it's characters, they'll buy the merchandise.

If story is meant to sell sets, then they should've made giant robot sets or whatnot. And how did they advertise the story? As a 2001 Bionicle fan I had no idea until this year that Bionicle had a story outside the sets. I highly doubt that many people outside Bionicle fan sites pay that much attention to the story.
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2009 is kind of a wierd year for me. I think there are some things it did really well, and some things it did horribly. I think that, overall, the pros would be the return of the brighter colors from '01, less of a reliance on silver and grey, a new setting and story that could have done really well, and a few good set designs that either don't use a traditional Inika build (Kiina, Strakk) or look good enough to make it work (Ackar, Stronius). The cons for 2009 include the return of the 2008 socket design (which is odd because Lego probably knew about its problems by this point), some awful small sets that fix none of the issues with the '08 Matoran, canister sets that don't feel particularly inspired or nice to look at despite the improvements over '08 (with some exceptions), and finally, the handling of the new story.

 

The story gets its own paragraph because I have a lot more to say about it. I think that the idea behind the story is fairly solid, and it really could have gone somewhere interesting had it been properly handled. I think giving the story a reboot was a great idea. At this point in G1's lifespan, Bionicle had seen a drop in sales, in part due to its position as a story-based toyline whose story had become too complex for most newcomers to follow. Given this, it makes sense to create a new story in a new world to attract a new audience. However, I think there were a few mistakes made when it came to designing and marketing this new story that ultimately lead to Bionicle's early cancellation. First of all, the setting. I think that, out of all of the themes that could have been chosen for the new setting, a barren desert was definitely one of the worst. If they had included some more interesting settings, like ruins for example (the prototype robot doesn't count), or even just given more attention to the parts of Bara Magna that aren't just desert, maybe it could have worked. But, overall, there wasn't enough focus on anything aside from the desert to give the story an interesting setting. Also, world building was severely lacking. All we get is "desert planet, gladiators, evil nomadic tribes, also theres a giant robot out of nowhere". We don't get a good look into how the world works, we just get a few basic plot points, and then a bunch of random fighting until suddenly there's a giant robot. Something MNOG-like would have been great here, and I think that's what the MLN canpaign was trying to do, but it evidently didn't do it well enough. Also, a lack of mystery hurts the story in my opinion. If we had gotten a story that had gradually given vague hints at something bigger going on behind the scenes, and then at the end linked those hints to a big reveal, in this case the prototype robot, it would have been great. This sort of thing is what I really loved about 2001's story, it always felt like something big was going on that no one knew about, and the MNOG in particular did a good job of dropping hints without making the big twist too obvious until it had already happened. To me, 2009 doesn't feel like it really wants to tell a story, it just wants to rush through to sell more toys. And although it's understandable why it would be that way (Lego is a toy company after all), I feel like Bionicle's focus should always be using a well written story as a way to make people want to buy sets. Yes, it's harder, but if you get people invested in a story and it's characters, they'll buy the merchandise.

If story is meant to sell sets, then they should've made giant robot sets or whatnot. And how did they advertise the story? As a 2001 Bionicle fan I had no idea until this year that Bionicle had a story outside the sets. I highly doubt that many people outside Bionicle fan sites pay that much attention to the story.

 

Unless you got the comics in the mail, but yeah. Not many people who bought sets really cared for the story as a lot of us do.

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I liked 2009 quite a bit, I just think its legacy has been soiled in the intervening years. The first wave of sets that year was really solid, and had great colors and some occasionally innovative design (ie: the Skrall). Although there was still some Inika stuff going on, it wasn't as miserably dull as in 2008. 

 

I remember a lot of excitement for the story, as well as for the sets. That image of the tiny figure staring up at the giant Vahki leg still jumps out in my mind as a very memorable, very Bionicle image. It was a good location, and pretty well-developed, so I was ready to settle in for a few comfortable years on Bara Magna.

 

I don't know what the exact plan was for the MU during that time, but I'd have liked to see hints of Makuta's apocalyptic arrival in the years leading up to it. They could have really built that up in a way that was scary and dramatic. And even if we weren't in the MU, Bara Magna still provided access to a lot of mysteries related to classic Bionicle. We had the scattered body parts of a great spirit, we had the Great Beings, we had the Red Star... (Personally, I really wanted to see the interior of the Skrall city housed in that giant head. I think it should have held the ruins of a sideways Metru Nui clone, hanging high above the Skrall city.)

 

Of course, that year cumulated in a pretty weak movie, and as soon as the plot seemed to get moving, 2010 happened, and everyone was disappointed. But I think that if 2010 hadn't affected our views retroactively, 2009 would have a pretty good reputation as the start of a new story direction.

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I think that 2009 gets more hate than it deserves, but I can see how some people hate it. After all, it is my second least favorite year (2006 worst) but that does not mean it has to be horrible. 2008 was a great year in my opinion. After 2003 what did we get? A giant, 2-year flash back, A attempt at a reboot, that lasted another 2-years. Then, we get 2008, back to the main story. Then the year after that? We go back to what 2004-2007 did. At least we then got 2010 (which I really liked), but then that would lead to the question:

 

Why the hate towards 2010?

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I think that the 2009 story was mostly good, with a few so-so parts in it. (Looking at you, The Legend Reborn.) I really liked the web serials of that year. Empire of the Skrall is still one of my all-time favorites. And The Riddle of the Great Being's first four chapters were good too. (The other chapters not so much...) Plus, I really liked some of the characters, like Tuma, Malum, Gelu, Gresh, and others. 

 

I think one of the things that hurt this year was it being introduced the year after Teridax took over the MU. We actually see Bionicle's main villain succeed with his plan in taking over the universe, and then the story is rebooted right after, with only the Reign of Shadows serial to keep us informed of what was going on in the MU at that time. Another thing that hurt the Bara Magna setting was the line being canceled. If the story had continued as it was originally planned, I think that the characters would've gotten more development, and maybe would've been more well liked in the story as a result. But in 2010 we got two giant fighting robots, so at least we got that. :P

 

The only set I got after 2008 was Tahu Stars, so I can't really say anything on the sets. I do know a lot of the canister sets had the Inika build, so that may have affected sales on those sets. But I don't have any knowledge on that to say anything concrete about it.

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I always thought it was because of the story. I've often heard people call it rushed, unfinished, and with very little characterization. The sets themselves were, in my opinion, worlds better than 2008, and at least somewhat better than 2007. The Inika builds were almost all different/creative, and every set seemed to have a slew of awesome recolors and two or three amazing new pieces. Some people hate that the helmets are smaller than most Kanohi, but I thought they were almost all downright gorgeous. There were also a couple of incredible vehicles - the Skopio and Thornatus were incredible well designed, and much more interesting than the 2008 Battle Vehicles (and had more great pieces, especially the Thornatus).

 

The Agori had the atrocious Av-Matoran design, but all of the new pieces that they came with were great (and Berix is an amazing set despite the Av-Matoran limbs).

 

As for Toa Mata Nui, I never owned him, but I think he is kind of a mixed bag. On the one hand, he has hideous colors, his head is too small, his neck too long, his weapons stink, and he is riddled with gaps. However, he also has some brave new design choices (particularly the pistons at his waist), and of course the gold Ignika. I think he's a terrible set.

 

One other thing that receives hate is the environment/atmosphere. Bara Magna was a totally barren wasteland, and the only imagery we ever got was dry empty deserts, and bland Glatorian arenas. Personally I liked the setting, I just wished that some more interesting locations were described in greater detail.

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I loved almost all of the early 2009 sets, the only exeptions being Strakk and Metus who were also pretty cool. Late 2009 however I found almost all the Legands to be worse than their Glatorian counterparts, only exeption being Gleu. In fact I only liked Vastus, Gleu and by a stretch Mata Nui. Unlike other years however they didn't have amazing titans to balance it out, I never really like vehicles. I loved Toa Mata Nui, though partialy biased because my younger self's mind was blown by it. Other than him I like Skopio and Baranus but didn't like any of the others

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I think that 2009 gets more hate than it deserves, but I can see how some people hate it. After all, it is my second least favorite year (2006 worst) but that does not mean it has to be horrible. 2008 was a great year in my opinion. After 2003 what did we get? A giant, 2-year flash back, A attempt at a reboot, that lasted another 2-years. Then, we get 2008, back to the main story. Then the year after that? We go back to what 2004-2007 did. At least we then got 2010 (which I really liked), but then that would lead to the question:

 

Why the hate towards 2010?

2006 and 2007 wasn't really a reboot, it just followed different characters (The Toa Inika). We weren't unfamiliar with everything that Voya Nui brought. And who didn't love the Piraka? I digress.

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I seem to recall RayG liking the Toa Mata Nui set. :P 

 

Personally, I liked many of the '09 sets. I wasn't a fan of Stronius' armor build--he looked cool, but structurally, I think he failed.

Strakk's design was exceptional! The way they did his torso was brilliant--shame the same can't be said for the Skrall. 

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Personally, I liked many of the '09 sets. I wasn't a fan of Stronius' armor build--he looked cool, but structurally, I think he failed.

Strakk's design was exceptional! The way they did his torso was brilliant--shame the same can't be said for the Skrall. 

 

Strakk was awesome, and I agree about Stronius. I liked the idea - bulked, spiky brute with rocky armor and a mace, but the set itself was very underwhelming. I wish he had a more creative design, instead of huge simple new parts (head/torso/mace). His color scheme was cool, however; Mata Red Metru Red as a secondary color to black hadn't been done before, and it looked great.

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I seem to recall RayG liking the Toa Mata Nui set. :P

 

Personally, I liked many of the '09 sets. I wasn't a fan of Stronius' armor build--he looked cool, but structurally, I think he failed.

Strakk's design was exceptional! The way they did his torso was brilliant--shame the same can't be said for the Skrall. 

Strakk was my first and only Glatorian. He seems to be the best up there, but mine has cracked joints. My only other sets from that year was Tarduk (who I know almost zero about, nor do I care) and Cendox V1 (which is awesome, but I hear almost no one mention)

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I seem to recall RayG liking the Toa Mata Nui set. :P

 

Personally, I liked many of the '09 sets. I wasn't a fan of Stronius' armor build--he looked cool, but structurally, I think he failed.

Strakk's design was exceptional! The way they did his torso was brilliant--shame the same can't be said for the Skrall. 

Strakk was my first and only Glatorian. He seems to be the best up there, but mine has cracked joints. My only other sets from that year was Tarduk (who I know almost zero about, nor do I care) and Cendox V1 (which is awesome, but I hear almost no one mention)

 

I forgot about the Cendox V1. The swivel function in the front of the vehicle was really neat, I had a lot of fun steering that thing.

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I seem to recall RayG liking the Toa Mata Nui set. :P

 

Personally, I liked many of the '09 sets. I wasn't a fan of Stronius' armor build--he looked cool, but structurally, I think he failed.

Strakk's design was exceptional! The way they did his torso was brilliant--shame the same can't be said for the Skrall. 

Strakk was my first and only Glatorian. He seems to be the best up there, but mine has cracked joints. My only other sets from that year was Tarduk (who I know almost zero about, nor do I care) and Cendox V1 (which is awesome, but I hear almost no one mention)

 

I got Cendox V1 (mostly because of its unique yellow elements) and though it has some great things about it, I sorta regretted getting it over Fero & Skirmix. 

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I seem to recall RayG liking the Toa Mata Nui set. :P

 

Personally, I liked many of the '09 sets. I wasn't a fan of Stronius' armor build--he looked cool, but structurally, I think he failed.

Strakk's design was exceptional! The way they did his torso was brilliant--shame the same can't be said for the Skrall. 

Strakk was my first and only Glatorian. He seems to be the best up there, but mine has cracked joints. My only other sets from that year was Tarduk (who I know almost zero about, nor do I care) and Cendox V1 (which is awesome, but I hear almost no one mention)

 

I got Cendox V1 (mostly because of its unique yellow elements) and though it has some great things about it, I sorta regretted getting it over Fero & Skirmix. 

 

I will tell you a story: I had the Skopio, but me in 2009 could not figure out one of the last steps. I then got rid of the set. This was my biggest regret ever related to an item.  :begging:

Edited by moamahrimatoro

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I honestly really liked the story for 2009. It was an interesting new setting, a fresh start, and had some memorable characters in the form of Malum, Gresh, Kiina, Gelu, Ackar, Metus and of course, Mata Nui. I think the story itself was pretty nice and had some stellar character moments and great action - unfortunately, it was not delivered very well. The first half was as barren as the desert the story was set in. Sure we had Secret of Certavus... and what else? Two comics? Serials that updated irregularly (Empire of the Skrall was great though, not so much Riddle of the Great Beings)? Finally, The Legend Reborn didn't exactly live up to many expectations.

 

And finally... the sets. While I was glad we had some fresh new designs like Strakk, Skrall, Vorox, Kiina, Skirmix etc. the Inika/Piraka design was treading really fine water at that point. We were all fed up with it. Designs like Ackar and Gelu did not help at all, adding nothing to the table and resulting in extremely mediocre designs. Colour language was really good though, and I was super glad they returned to bright, vibrant colours after years of dark palettes.

 

Wasn't a bad year... but could certainly see why people dislike it.

 

-NotS

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2009's soft-rebooted story over-complicated the lore. I confess I almost lost interest when 2009 started as a result, and I see a lot of other fans felt the same way.

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2009 was too little, too late for a toyline that was already gasping and floundering. Their attempt to cut loose from the previous eight years of gnarled story ended up just tacking even more onto it, and the second wave of canister sets was 5/6ths almost unchanged Inika builds with terrible proportions. Top all that off with the horrendous Toa Mata Nui, and you have a rather disappointing year, though it was by no means the worst. 2008 or 2006 seem like likelier candidates for that title.

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I've never seen too much outright hate towards 2009 itself—certainly not in the manner of some other years. The Bara Magna era as a whole was vastly protracted and the rushed ending didn't help, and I think a lot of folks have looked back on what BIONICLE became in its later years and disliked what they saw. That said, I haven't seen too many people rush to make 2009 a culprit.
 
There's a feeling more of "what could have been" with the 2009 story more than any other. We were all expecting a much harder reboot, and suddenly, the nearly decade-long backstory was even more important. 2006 was an easier jumping-on point by comparison.
 
There was no precipitous decline in set quality; 2007's broken joint epidemic had been all but patched up (although my Stronius more or less shattered upon disassembly) and color choice and layering in the sets improved drastically, especially when coming right off of the unnecessarily silver-laden Mistika. The vehicles were also better.
 
Inika builds aren't terrible. While that's the equivalent of saying that you like Comic Sans, here's the kicker: in terms of pre-made torso parts, it was vastly superior to the plastic atrocity that was the Piraka torso. It's overused, I'll grant you—but if we were going to get a pre-made torso, I'd rather have the Inika. Also, the designers did what they could to branch out and do something new, either with the Inika build (Strakk) or with something entirely different (Kiina).
 
Overall, 2009 was an experiment that failed in most aspects, most notably in its attempt at a reboot and the lack of viable alternatives to an overused torso. I'm not sure that G1 could have been saved at that point, but the efforts to make 2009 accessible backfired. I can't disagree with the decision to axe the line when I have the aid of hindsight.

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I think that, for Canadian fans, it was the fact that they cancelled the comic series slightly after the Fall of Atero. We missed out on a large chunk of story, and while it might not have driven people to absolute hate, it certainly wasn't a 'pro'

 

I do agree with the set thing, though, they started to really change course that year, and dropping those huge changes made it harder for long time fans to adjust

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The story definitely threw me off.  Even Mata Nui couldn't help familiarize things.  The fact that it ignored the crisis of Teridax taking over the Matoran Universe kind of felt unnerving, as we didn't know what was going on with that universe until 2010ish.  Except if you were frequent on Bionicle story.

 

Personally, I'd have preferred a new wave based off Teridax's takeover of the Matoran Universe, possibly with new characters and redesigns of older characters (looking at the inconsistent Toa Mahri here...).  Maybe by some sort of events Mata Nui found his way back?  Eh, that sounds sorta lazy and cheap, but what can I say?  I made it up on the spot.  But instead we got 2009, and even though it felt jarring, the connection towards the older storyline in 2010, as rushed as it was, helped familiarize things.

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