Let's Talk Bionicle: Becoming a Fan

[Takama Metru]

Hello once again. In this next topic I want to talk about...the beginning of Bionicle.

 

Not the actual begining of Bionicle. I'm talking about how YOU got into Bionicle and became a fan in the firstplace. I remember that the CGI commercial for the toa mahri got me hooked on bionicle as well as the 2008 Phantoka commercial.

 

What made YOU get into bionicle. Where you seen a commercial, got a set for christmas or became influenced by other kids who played with a Toa Mata Lewa set on the school yard. Tell in the comments below!

[Rahkshi Lalonde]

well, like all small children my age back in.... 2003? 2004? some time like that, I got the LEGO Club magazine, and, like all LEGO Club magazines, mine had these weird robot people comics, and i was all about weird robot people who also happened to be funny-shaped Lego pieces!

[Prowl Nightwolf]

My answer would likely be the same as it was in the first Bionicle set topic as that was basically how I started. My best guess would be that my start was first with a set not of Bionicle though I don't actually remember what set it was, either Robo-riders or Slizors as I don't remember back then. I just know it was a white bike like technic build that could fire these disks type wheels with monsters printed on them. I think I got several of the sets but don't know what I've done with them. They had this cool effect on the canisters where if you threw them in the freezer a code would be revealed.

 

Anyway I liked them and when Bionicle came out it seemed like the next logical step. With the releases of K'nex type sets and with Lego having Technic I jumped on the ban wagon. I don't remember if Onua Mata was my first official set or if it was the McToran Huki. Either way it started there. With my brother following in my footsteps as little brothers often do, we stated collecting the Toa and separating the sets evenly. Onua being my first Toa and official set and him being black I collected the Earth pieces as he was my Favorite Toa. For my brother I think it was Tahu, though he collected both Kopaka and Pohatu as well. Leaving me with Lewa and Gali respectively. Anyway we both had the McToran Huki and over time we collected other characters including several of the Turaga. From the collection that I seen we have The Turaga of Earth Water and Stone.

 

For me my collection extended to the Nui Rama set and the Earth Bohrok, where my brother got the Exo-Toa. We've collected a few random masks over the years but soon after than the drive of Bionicle faded. True I still had my Toa and played with them, but as for collecting I only managed a few more sets of my own and my bother basically stopped all together.

 

We both played the MNOG and I could have sworn I owned a copy of it on a disk for offline play but somebody on here told me that wasn't possible. So who knows.

 

Anyway Bionicle kind of fell off my radar as I only barely followed it after they stopped releasing movies. and was not much of a fan of the later sets in favor of other franchises that sparked my interests. I only recently got back into Bionicle as a whole and I'm not even sure what caused me to. Maybe hearing that it was coming back or maybe I just wanted to join an RP since my old Transformers one had closed. so I started searching online and managed to find this place. I have nearly all the winter wave missing only Kopaka that I hope to pick up tomorrow/later today.

 

Anything else you'd like to know? Feel free to ask...

[Takama Metru]

My answer would likely be the same as it was in the first Bionicle set topic as that was basically how I started. My best guess would be that my start was first with a set not of Bionicle though I don't actually remember what set it was, either Robo-riders or Slizors as I don't remember back then. I just know it was a white bike like technic build that could fire these disks type wheels with monsters printed on them. I think I got several of the sets but don't know what I've done with them. They had this cool effect on the canisters where if you threw them in the freezer a code would be revealed.Anyway I liked them and when Bionicle came out it seemed like the next logical step. With the releases of K'nex type sets and with Lego having Technic I jumped on the ban wagon. I don't remember if Onua Mata was my first official set or if it was the McToran Huki. Either way it started there. With my brother following in my footsteps as little brothers often do, we stated collecting the Toa and separating the sets evenly. Onua being my first Toa and official set and him being black I collected the Earth pieces as he was my Favorite Toa. For my brother I think it was Tahu, though he collected both Kopaka and Pohatu as well. Leaving me with Lewa and Gali respectively. Anyway we both had the McToran Huki and over time we collected other characters including several of the Turaga. From the collection that I seen we have The Turaga of Earth Water and Stone.For me my collection extended to the Nui Rama set and the Earth Bohrok, where my brother got the Exo-Toa. We've collected a few random masks over the years but soon after than the drive of Bionicle faded. True I still had my Toa and played with them, but as for collecting I only managed a few more sets of my own and my bother basically stopped all together.We both played the MNOG and I could have sworn I owned a copy of it on a disk for offline play but somebody on here told me that wasn't possible. So who knows.Anyway Bionicle kind of fell off my radar as I only barely followed it after they stopped releasing movies. and was not much of a fan of the later sets in favor of other franchises that sparked my interests. I only recently got back into Bionicle as a whole and I'm not even sure what caused me to. Maybe hearing that it was coming back or maybe I just wanted to join an RP since my old Transformers one had closed. so I started searching online and managed to find this place. I have nearly all the winter wave missing only Kopaka that I hope to pick up tomorrow/later today.Anything else you'd like to know? Feel free to ask...

Cool. I only own 2-3 of the toa mata (Which turned out to be Tahu, Onua and a broken Pohat but I have the pieces to form 99.8% of Akami). since I started collecting bionicles in 2008. I too just ot back into bionicle in 3 years since I last ordered from ebay.

 

Btw the Roboriders canisters revealed the code when placed in a freezer so I'm gonna assume that you got the ice bike (can't remember his name) was gonna get one of those and just make one of my toa mata on it.

[Prowl Nightwolf]

That could be a strong possibility. It has been over 15 years.

[Xabla]

So, me and my parents were taking a loooooong drive for vacation when I was younger. We stopped, and we were not even halfway there, so my mom bought me Takanuva 2003. He is still used in Mocs to today.

[Irrie]

Well, here's my story of how I got into Lego and then Bionicle:

 

I first got invested in Lego back in 2005 when I discovered Lego Knight's Kingdom. I found a knight-based online game earlier that day and my grandmother came to visit us later in the afternoon. I went to go show her it, but I couldn't find the website again so I just kept searching a bunch of random keywords on Google and looking around at a bunch of different pages. I never actually found it, but I did find the Lego Knight's Kingdom page. My grandmother asked me if that was the one I was looking for and so I told her yes, because it looked equally cool to me at the time. 

After a year of following Knight's Kingdom I discovered Exo-Force and I loved it at first sight. I got several of the sets and it kept me occupied during 2006. 

In '07 I was looking around at the Lego website (coincidentally at my grandmother's house) and I found the Bionicle page. I played Command Toa Hewkii and I immediately asked my parents to take me to the store so I could buy Hewkii Mahri. I then proceeded to get the rest of the 2007 Toa, a few Barraki, and I got Gadunka and Maxilos for Christmas. 

 

But one of the best parts was a friend that I made while I was following Bionicle. He went to my Church and saw me reading the Lego magazine in the Bionicle section before the service started. He called me over and we talked about it some. And later that year, he probably did the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. He gave me all of his Bionicle books. 

That was what allowed me to get caught up on the story and probably developed my love for the line that I have today. My family moved in 2008 and I've only seen him once since then, but it's a nice reminder of the "good old days" whenever I read the books that he gave me. 

[Petewa]

I've got it in my profile...let me find it...

 

 

EDIT:

My first BIONICLE set was Hahli Mahri, refused to use instructions, assembled her wrong, still loved the set, didn't realize she was female, got Raanu later, and after that, one of the stars sets, my brother got Gresh, and I either got Takanuva or Tahu...I'm pretty sure it was Takanuva though, thinking, "hey, he's got the same name as that cool guy from the movie, but they don't look anything like eachother...OH WELL!" I later got a bucket of lego bricks which I found out the other day had one heck of a lot of the original sets in it, sadly, they were all separated and lost, scattered to over eighty MOCs, because I have way too much time on my hands.

Edited May 25, 2015 by D5 Petewa

[Ford]

In 2001, I started getting the Lego magazine. I thought the Bionicle sets looked cool, and the comics were interesting to read with my parents (as I was only four years old at the time and I was learning to read). My parents didn't get me any of the Toa or Rahi, but then I saw a promo for the Mctoran. About a week later I got a Happy Meal with Jala. I have been a fan ever since.

[steelviper77]

For me as a little kid, I looked up to my brother's bionicles, and I always thought they were the coolest things ever. I had always loved Lego but I think I was mystified by the fact that these not-lego-legos were actually legos and that they had a story and stuff to them. I was too young to read the books, and I tried multiple times, but I just never could make it through them and actually understand what was happening. Our friends across the street had all of the cool bigger sets but I never was allowed to play with them, and my brother had lots of other friends who liked bionicle. I always like to say that my first set was Hewkii Inika but now that I think about it, I distinctly remember getting a Keetongu that may or may not have come missing a piece that made me really sad, I think I had a vahki or two as well, and some set that had a little ta-matoran in some giant bird, but I can't remember what that set was called, or even if it was before I got Hewkii. Anyways, those sets were all at my grandparents house, and I could only get to play with them when I went over, so I didn't think about them very much. (Although I have to wonder what happened to Keetongu, since I got my Maternal Grandparents sets back at some point, I don't think I ever got him) But I digress, my first set that I was given complete reign over was Hewkii. I got him from the tooth fairy after having begged my parents for Kongu for a long time. I had gotten a few other inika, a piraka or two, some voyatoran as well, but what really cemented my "Oh shiz this is my favorite toy line" had to have been the Matoran of Mahri Nui collection, which was the very first thing that I ever purchased from the internet. After that wave, however, I didn't even know the Mistika existed, really, and I got a few phantoka sets. Never got any agori or glatoran, since, never having understood the story, thought that they were actually a different line that was trying to replace bionicle or something, other than one titan set. I collected all the stars sets to build gaardus, and then promptly lost them after finding out how horrible gaardus was. At some point though, we inherited all the sets that my cousins had, but I don't know when, and looking down at the collection of mostly completed G1 sets I have, there are some visorak I ever so vaguely remember helping build. Since then, however, my brother has forgotten pretty much everything about the franchise, even though he was the one who taught me everything, and I still haven't really read the books or anything, although I have a general grasp on the story from reading around here and on the wiki.

 

I didn't get into the fandom, or even know one existed, until very recently, when I was just googling around and found that they were rebooting the series. I figured that since I'm older now and have a job, I can buy my own sets, and I've since collected all of G2 (minus THAT ONE MASK)

 

But I'm really glad that I did find this site, and I'm glad you guys all exist, so that I know that this thing I loved so much as a child wasn't just me and that other people loved it so much, even if they did love it so much more than I could have .

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

My story is quite simple...I was into lego already and then my cousin visited me and showed me his MoC's and gifted me a Makuta set. This was late 2004 and here I am now

[Vrokorta]

I wasn't a fan for years, my sister would tell me how bionicle was cooler than HF and I eventually watched the movie (MoL). After watching all but the 4th movie, the same sister found the 1st 2 bionicle books at a goodwill for either .50$ or 1.00$ each and I bought them, read them, loved them, and wanted the sets. That's what REALLY got me into the franchise, before that, I got a McDonalds Gorast and started collecting the McDonalds and actual sets. I only found out who the figures were after spotting them online.

[Aanchir]

I was a LEGO fan who started collecting Technic sets around 1997 or 1998, shortly before proto-constraction sub-themes like Throwbots and Roboriders started to emerge, so I transitioned to BIONICLE right away. Granted, when I saw the first BIONICLE pics I found them quite weird. Those curvy, specialized mask designs were a far cry from the simple visor-like faceplates of the Throwbots and Roboriders. The compelling storyline and the LEGO Mania Magazine offer to get Tahu and Vakama before their actual US release helped convince me to take the plunge, and once I had the sets in hand I became a committed fan.

[Arcee]

I fell sort of backwards into Bionicle. Like Aanchir I was into Technic and Slizers when I was a kid and then the Bionicle comics started coming out and of course I thought they were the coolest thing. I was pretty young though...8 years old??

 

I didn't get any sets until the Nuva came out for whatever reason but I remember really liking the concept of the comic books. I didn't remember their names or care about the story but I'd play make-believe with my friends. "I'm gonna be the green one he has air powers" etc. My memory of this is actually really vivid. It's nice to remember how big an impact Bionicle had on me even over 10 years ago.

[fishers64]

The books sucked me in. Most specifically, Web of the Visorak, Challenge of the Hordika, and Legends of Metru Nui. 

[sydorack]

As far as my parents tell me, they got me started on duplo sets when I was a toddler. In the mid-late 90s, I was all about aquazone and the many space themes they had. I definitely had some robo-riders and throwbots. Millennium was my dude. Bionicle must have just been a natural transition. I recently found one of the two tarakavas in an old bin. I forgot I had them. That was my first bionicle set. I got a bunch of the toa mata and mctoran as well that year. Man, bionicle rules so much, and looking back on all these years makes me love it even more.

[Zatth]

I already had a few LEGO sets since 1997, but in early 2002 I had to go in for a horrible medical treatment (I had to swallow this gigantic tub of a lemon-flavored liquid), and my mom promised to take me to the toy store if I drank it all.

 

We swung by, I saw Lewa, Lehvak, and Lehvak Va, and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

 

(Fun fact: I had to repeat the treatment in February, and I jokingly told my mom I'd need her to buy me another BIONICLE as a reward. So I was surprised and happy when she arrived at my hospital room two days later with 2015 Lewa and I got to building)

[MarkSurge9411]

I was in a library, found Tales of the Toa, borrowed it, read it, loved it.

 

This happened in October 2014, mind you.

[Takama Metru]

I was in a library, found Tales of the Toa, borrowed it, read it, loved it.

 

This happened in October 2014, mind you.

 

Reminds me how I found Makuta's Revenge at my school library a few years back

[Regitnui]

I was always a Lego kid, but one day we (me, my mother, my father, can't remember) found this strange tube box with a white robot on the front. It was Lego, but looked really different, so we bought it. I saw in the back there was a combo with the blue and green ones, so i got those eventually, through pleading and begging. From there, to Hahli, Baller and Hewkii Mahri, with the Axalara T9 being my.last ever G1 set.

 

I now have all the Toa Okoto, and plan on following this train to the end.

[Aanchir]

The books sucked me in. Most specifically, Web of the Visorak, Challenge of the Hordika, and Legends of Metru Nui. 

Ironically, even though I was a fan from the beginning, I think the 2005 chapter books might have been the first BIONICLE chapter books I read as well. The books didn't really interest me too much before then. Maybe it was because I was more interested in books that challenged me academically like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, or maybe it was just because I had gotten used to doing without the books in the first few years of BIONICLE and thus didn't realize how important they had become to actually following the storyline. Bear in mind that I wasn't involved in the online community at that point so there was nobody to make it clear to me that I had been out of the loop. Not to mention that the first few years that had books also had movies and comics that told enough of those years' stories for me not to realize I'd missed out on events in between. After reading a few of the chapter books and realizing they told engaging stories, I went ahead and got all caught up on the ones I missed.

[McNugget]

I was a 2 year old, I was visiting my aunt's house, My cousins had a Visorak Oohnorak, By the end of the month I had a Boggarak.

[Owlexander]

From there, to Hahli, Baller and Hewkii Mahri, with the Axalara T9 being my.

 

"Baller"?

 

As in ball is life?

[Toa Smoke Monster]

Back in 2001, my Mom and I were in a Toys R US when we came across the Lego section with the Toa Mata. I picked up Tahu and Lewa that day, and the rest is history.

[JMSOG]

 

From there, to Hahli, Baller and Hewkii Mahri, with the Axalara T9 being my.

 

"Baller"?

 

As in ball is life?

 

 

Anyways...I wish I could remember the exact moment. I saw an ad somewhere about the original Mata back in 2001...I became super vocally excited about it, and next thing I knew, christmas came, and I was the proud owner of the mctoran, the Mata, and Muaka and Kane Ra. Been a die hard fan ever since.

Edited May 26, 2015 by JMSOG

[Takama Metru]

 

 

From there, to Hahli, Baller and Hewkii Mahri, with the Axalara T9 being my.

 "Baller"? As in ball is life?

 Anyways...I wish I could remember the exact moment. I saw an ad somewhere about the original Mata back in 2001...I became super vocally excited about it, and next thing I knew, christmas came, and I was the proud owner of the mctoran, the Mata, and Muaka and Kane Ra. Been a die hard fan ever since.

Should've made him Derrick Rose. Chicago ftw.

 

Anyways I though that I'd go into more detail about how I began bionicle. You guys had great stories! I was just sitting on a couch when the toa mahri commercial came up. My mind was blown completly and I soon became hook to what was Bionicle. I just knew that I needed Hahli Mahri. Then when the Phantoka commercial popped up, I couldn't wait any linger so I went to my local Target.

 

I was wanting to pick up Lewa Phantoka but couldn't cause of money, so I got Tahnma instead. a few months lateer, got my first toa. Pohatu and I played with him A LOT to the point where he was broken and I re assembled him. By 2009 I researched the whole lore and knew what was happening and who the characters were. Then it went from there...

 

P.S: In the end I got all 6 Toa Mahri on Ebay

[MrSciFiGuy]

It was back in 01 and I was at a Lego store and saw these sets. I loved legos already, and that night I left with Tahu mata, and shortly collected the rest of the 6. 

And then came the books

[Xabla]

I was 8 too.

[Prowl Nightwolf]

How old was I back on 01? How old am I now? Almost 28? subtract 14 and I was, huh... 13 or 14 depending on what half of the year it was when I got my first one.

 

Yeah I know I am one of the oldest members on the board, lets move on people...

Edited May 27, 2015 by Prowl Nightwolf

[MisterJulius]

Back in 2001, my mother took me to Toys-R-Us to get a Lego set. Of course, they had Bionicle, and the Bionicle canister sets were really the only thing that we could afford at the time. Any other system set with a similar price point was too uninteresting to kid me when compared to these awesome robot action figures. So, I picked up Gali and have been hooked ever since.

 

It wasn't until 2004 that I became a dedicated fan, though. Up until that point, I mainly followed it because its canister sets were all my mother could afford to get me, and it had a cool comic series that kept my interest from dying out. In 2004, though, I had access to all of the storytelling material. I got to read all the books thanks to my school's library, I got to watch the movie, I had all the comics, and I had most of the sets. Because of the story, I was hooked for good and I decided that I was going to follow this series until its death.

 

Fast forward ten or so years later, and I now own a collection of every piece of published Bionicle storytelling media.

I still thirst for more things to collect.

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

Back in 2001, my mother took me to Toys-R-Us to get a Lego set. Of course, they had Bionicle, and the Bionicle canister sets were really the only thing that we could afford at the time. Any other system set with a similar price point was too uninteresting to kid me when compared to these awesome robot action figures. So, I picked up Gali and have been hooked ever since.

 

Gali...Hooked...I see what you did there  (lol)

 

I never really noticed Bionicle on store shelves until after I was into it (which is really surprising now that I think about it...)

[Xan]

Got Nuparu Mahri in 07 as a gift. Then we all know what happened since.

[Owlexander]

 

 

From there, to Hahli, Baller and Hewkii Mahri, with the Axalara T9 being my.

 

"Baller"?

 

As in ball is life?

 

 

Anyways...I wish I could remember the exact moment. I saw an ad somewhere about the original Mata back in 2001...I became super vocally excited about it, and next thing I knew, christmas came, and I was the proud owner of the mctoran, the Mata, and Muaka and Kane Ra. Been a die hard fan ever since.

 

 

"Just work that body, work that body, make sure you don't break nobody!"

 

LITERALLY

Edited May 29, 2015 by Forgeta

[Bluest-of-Jayys]

I have a little brother. In 2001, he was... four or something? I was six. Baby bro ended up getting Pohatu Mata for Christmas and I dismissed it as a silly boy thing until he made me "play Bionicles" with him... turns out it was actually pretty fun.

 

Then I bought the books, got hooked on the story, and never left the fandom, lol... I'm currently working on my annual binge re-reading of the Bionicle series. 

[Electric Light Gunhaver]

My older brother was a big fan of Bionicle, and had collected some of the 2006 sets and 2002 sets from garage sales. I loved to play with them and always asked to keep them. My first set that I remember buying was Hewkii Inika, which was awesome. Years later, with quite a few of the later years' sets in hand, I went back and started reading up on the lore and collecting most of the sets. And even though I had only known the story from 2006 onwards, I watched The Mask of Light countless times and became infatuated with Bionicle itself.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

 

I got some mctoran at Micky D's (where else?), and I guess my mother noted how cool I thought they were as at my family's Christmas party/grandmother's birthday in February (don't ask), I got Onua Mata. I consider Onua being my real first Bionicle as I distinctly remember opening the present and observing the canister in awe (also got a gameboy color that year, trans purple me thinks), rather than the mctoran, as I don't recall which one I even got first, just seeing li'l  Jaller/Jala throwing he depowered kanoka on a lava farm at the drive-through menu.

 

Screw you nostalgia...

Edited May 30, 2015 by Iaredios Paerkenon

[Underscore]

I was pretty into lego back in the day, and I think my first encounter with it was in the back of an instruction booklet or something. In 2008 I discovered the large collection of Bionicle books at the library, and I'm pretty sure that's what really got me into it.

[Dorek]

I actually was nearly turned off of BIONICLE at first. I had gotten into Technic a few years prior, loved the Slizers/Throwbots, but was less sold on the Roboriders initially (my mistake!). I saw the ad for BIONICLE in the Mania Magazine, and then got the comic, but the comic confused me at the time; I didn't understand why these characters were wearing masks that made them look like each other (Matoro's mask was colored white in the comics at first), or why a character who is ostensibly a hero (Kopaka) is just attacking randos (who look like him!) as the first thing.

 

But I was later gifted two sets for my birthday, Gali and Vakama, and I immediately went out and purchased Tahu because I was so enamored with the build and functionality of the sets.

 

The rest, as they say, is history.

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

Always a good story to share!

 

The LEGO Magazine and the comic is what got me into Bionicle. At first, I didn't really care for it but my brother thought the concept was super awesome. We went to the park that day and he got us roleplaying Bionicle characters. Then we got Lewa, our first ever set. And finally, we found the Bionicle website and were just mesmerized. Fond childhood memories for sure.

 

-NotS

Edited May 31, 2015 by Nidhiki of the Shadows

[Booky The Bookworm]

Back in the day, 2001 or or so, I got interested in it. I remember myself thinking, "Well, I remember 'Throwbots', but these are way cooler!" So after a while, I started getting a set or two.

 

But what I did mostly was study up on the storyline and fandom. It was the biggest part of Bionicle, all the plotlines and side quests and characters they had goin' around, living their life, fighting Rahi, et cetera. It was the coolest part to me, back then. To this day, I still love the storyline, and of course the sets, too.