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Discovering BZPower


ToaTImeLord

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This topic is for you guys, gals and non binary members to tell your story of how you discovered BZPower.

Was it a IRL friend that showed you or simply stumbling upon this place by accident?

 

How I discovered BZPower.

Back in 2015 when Bionicle came back I got very excited and desided to relearn the Matoran language. In my internet search for a Matoran alphabet I stumbled on a post of someone proposing with a wood-burning in Matoran. Wanting to read more about this bionicle themed proposal I discovered not just one bionicle related topic but a whole forum dedicated to Bionicle. That forum being BZPower. I soon created a account and joined this amazing community.

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Hey I got a Flickr because I like making LEGO stuff.

https://www.flickr.com/people/toatimelord/
 

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I for one welcome this more positive counterpart to that other needlessly gloomy thread.

 

I discovered BZP a good few years before I joined, and was a avid reader and lurker. The very first thing that led me here, I know not from where but likely a google search regarding Bionicle fan comics, was Dark709's Comics. I loved those things, and I remember that as a wee lad the animate "movie" of those was one of the coolest things I saw made by a fan of something. 

 

The forums sucked me right in, and I watched on for a few years before jumping in. My lurking years were mostly the product of anxiety, fearing that I would not fit in or find some ways to embarrass myself. In fact, I'm not sure how active at all I was before the datapocalypse. I know I stopped being active completely after the cancellation (which I regret) and only returned in 2015. My 'rediscovery' of BZPower happened due to a chance encounter with the reboot in a toy store, and I tried the site to see whether my old account still existed, and it did with a 2 digit post-count, so I guess I wasn't terribly vocal in the olden days. Probably for the better, though.

 

:kakama:

:kakama: Stone rocks :kakama:

Model Designer at The LEGO Group. Former contributor at New Elementary. My MOCs can be found on Flickr and Instagram

:smilepohatunu: :smilehuki:

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I honestly don't remember how I found out about this site. Perhaps it was from the old Lego message boards or from a link in another site. I just remember seeing an Evangelion MOC and artwork of Merrick Fortis from Hero Factory on the BZP front page and thought "hey. That looks cool. I wanna see more." I came for the works and stayed for the discussions (and games).

 

Either way, it lead to me joining this place and being here for around 7 years. Even if BZP's end is nigh, I intend to stay with it and have as fun as I can till the end. Unlike some people who seem like they just want this site to die.

Edited by Curious Knight Isniel

pWPTu7m.jpg

 

 

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I think my first exposure to BZPower was in 2004 or so? It may have been linked from somewhere on LEGO.com or I may have gotten there via a search for Bionicle news. In any case, I distinctly remember reading news about the upcoming Vahki and Dark Hunter sets here. I remained a lurker for a year or two and finally joined in 2006 so I could share my art, MOCs, and questions for Greg Farshtey.

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In early 2007, I was on the LEGO message boards when I saw someone using "Wikipedia" as a reference for the first "Bionicle Legends" book.  From Wikipedia I got a link to BZPower's toy fair coverage; of course it took me months to find the forums (and it was almost 2008 when I found the blogs!).  I lurked for the longest time and even though BZPower was younger mes favorite website back in the day I never took the jump and joined. 

 

I actually was this close to joining when the double whammy of Bionicle ending coupled with the forums being down made me loose any interest in joining.  Jump to February of 2014 and I'm getting back into Bionicle while on a stroll down memory lane and well here we all are. 

cheesebanner.jpg.4e180047b2ca502f2c43489af7b439da.jpg

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I remember browsing through the Bionicle.com message boards in 2003 (yes, Bionicle had its own message boards back then), and people were talking about the identity of the seventh Toa in Mask of Light. I hadn't seen the movie yet, and people kept mentioning how they weren't allowed to give spoilers on the message boards. However, they mentioned this other site (Bzpower) that had no such restrictions. Intrigued, I sought and found Bzpower, though I don't think it actually managed to spoil the plot of the Mask of Light for me in the end.

 

After that I lurked around for a while, and then finally joined in 2004.

 

My first ever topic was me asking why Takanuva wasn't called the eighth Toa, since Voriki was the seventh. People were obviously tired of that question, and educated me promptly and somewhat sternly about it.

 

Good times.

Edited by Toatapio Nuva
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I found BZP while trying to find the alternate instructions for the model on the back of the Tower of Toa. I cycled through someone's signature, without realizing what I was doing. I never ended up finding the directions, but I found BZP, so it all turned out well!

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:smilematoro:

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I was a wee little lad of 8. When I was 7-8 I was a Lego Club member who regularly went on the forums. I saw this dude from the Bionicle forum always sign his posts as 

 

"P.S.

Takea, member of BZPower"

 

or something like that. I was like "what's a BZPower?" so on a whim, I typed "www.bzpower.com" in my Windows 98 Internet Explorer browser, and my life was changed forever.

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Years ago, when I was still kinda new to having an account on Lego.com, I was browsing the gallery on the Bionicle site, and often found images of unreleased sets and strange creations, with tags or comments relating to some weird thing I'd never heard of called "BZPower." As I got into the Message Boards more often, I started to get involved in the discussions and saw some people talking about things they saw over on that same site. So, in summer of 2006-ish, I ventured across the interwebs to this strange land. It was there that I found everything from stories to MOCs to hilarious combinations of pixels by some of the Legendary Comic Makers (or so I like to call them), including Wise One, Varderan, Lavaside Rahi, Akano, and Dark709. What a wondrous place this was!

 

So, I decided to lurk for a few years. In the early summer of 2010, I decided to make an account and share in the conversation and share some of my own works. Been here ever since. 

~Your friendly, neighborhood Shadow

 

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~Credit for Avatar and Banner goes to

NickonAquaMagna~

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I was looking for Ninjago stuff and I found a blog post on here comparing Ninjago to Bionicle which my brother and I argued over. He was a huge Bionicle fan. Then drama happened and that blog post mysteriously vanished. I joined to try to figure things out. I found out very litte, which was for the best - it was a very sad story that did not need prying.

 

I decided to stay, I think to remember my brother or something. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I remember that, back in 03/04, the Official Bionicle Website had a few links to prominent fansites on one of its pages. It's not something I'd ever seen on any Lego website, before or since, so some years back I was convinced that I'd imagined it altogether, until someone else on BZP mentioned seeing those same links.

 

In any case, I was curious and wanting more of a fix for my Bionicle obsession, so I clicked one of the links and began poking around. At first, I think, I wasn't certain; but then I saw a couple of threads on the hot topics list on the front page that caught my interest; and, after seeking my parents' opinion first (I was only twelve at the time, and new to actually interacting with people on the internet), I joined right up. Of those threads, the one that I remember most standing out to me was the review topic for Galigee's old Makuta Island epic, which I spent many enjoyable hours reading before I began venturing into the rest of the forums. Where, you know, I was generally your typical annoying newbie before I started to learn the ropes xD;;

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"New legends awake, but old lessons must be remembered.
For that is the way
of the BIONICLE."

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MNOG: The Bohrok Swarms!  (Dang that was good)

 

I played that, stalked around for a while, then decided to create an account to post my own bad fanfic MNOG clone, Adventure Posts.  I also kinda abandoned the BioMedia Project in the process.  (Sorry about that...)

 

And I've stuck around ever since, not doing much but enjoying my stay all the same.

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Avatar by Nicholas Anderson (NickonAquaMagna)

My blog: The Jaga's Nest

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I remember that, back in 03/04, the Official Bionicle Website had a few links to prominent fansites on one of its pages. It's not something I'd ever seen on any Lego website, before or since, so some years back I was convinced that I'd imagined it altogether, until someone else on BZP mentioned seeing those same links.

 

In any case, I was curious and wanting more of a fix for my Bionicle obsession, so I clicked one of the links and began poking around. At first, I think, I wasn't certain; but then I saw a couple of threads on the hot topics list on the front page that caught my interest; and, after seeking my parents' opinion first (I was only twelve at the time, and new to actually interacting with people on the internet), I joined right up. Of those threads, the one that I remember most standing out to me was the review topic for Galigee's old Makuta Island epic, which I spent many enjoyable hours reading before I began venturing into the rest of the forums. Where, you know, I was generally your typical annoying newbie before I started to learn the ropes xD;;

Huh, that was the same with me! Late march 2004 is when I first joined BZP, thanks to seeing an ad for BZPower about it on Bionicle.com. I remember what got me hooked was The Editorialist/T-E's comics, and comedies like Litoru's "Mata Nui Bakery", if memory serves. Unfortunately (though maybe for the best considering how much of a Noob I would've been), I believe that account was temporarily banned at the time because my first and only post was "Tahu Sucks" ... I was not a smart kid. I assumed the account was gone for good, and started lurking.

 

(One of my earliest memories after that was seeing it turned to "Vahki Power". I was on a computer in the lobby of a hospital, waiting to get stitches above my eyebrow, for in true Canadian fashion I got it sliced by a piece of ice going head-first on a toboggan down a snowy hill. :P)

 

Any case, the site kept people from having multiple accounts on the same IP, so it wasn't until my parents switched internet providers in 2008 that I was finally able to create this account here that I've used to this day. :)

 

--Akaku: Master of Flight

"I've brushed with death so often I should start giving him high-fives while I pass."

Recent Work: Return to Forum (2024)
Friend's works: Terrible Comics (2016) | The Guardians of Gevra Nui (2017) | Reborn (2016)
Older Work: The Legends of Taladi Nui (2017)

 

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I stumbled on the site a couple times between 2004 and 2007, before I finally thought "maybe I should remember what this website is called" and started lurking in 2008.

 

I don't remember much from those days (I think I mostly just checked the news), but in the forums I spent most of my time in Comedies. I remember following A Day in the Life of GregF, checking out The Bionicles Try to Run a House, and reading through My Life With the Bionicles.

 

Finally, the writer in me had enough of just passively reading, and I tried multiple times to join (all of them failing for reasons I don't remember and didn't understand at the time) until I was successful near the end of the year.

 

I started writing comedies promptly. I kinda wish I could still see the first chapter I ever posted; it'd be interesting to compare it to what I can toss together today, almost ten years later.

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Back when I was randomly googling Bionicle-related stuff, I came across a story called The many deaths of Toa Tuyet. Then I realized that this was on a forum. And the series writer interacted with members, it was beyond cool. So I made an account in 2007, and basically spent the next ~4 months lurking before finally starting to participate in the community.

 

And whooo, did I interact. Think 13-year-old with too much free time finds a place where people share an interest in the toy line nobody at school really cares about. :lol:

 

The story that brought me here, though? Never got to read it, sadly. ^^'

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 My art collection topic - updated! (21/09/2021)

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I believe I first came into contact with BZPower around the time Bionicle Heroes was released back in 2006, as it was referenced by the game’s promotional material and the game itself. Six years later, I created my account.

 

It wasn’t until the resurgence of Bionicle in 2015 that I became a more active member, albeit in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum.

 

I never got to experience BZPower in its glory days, which is quite unfortunate, yet I’m glad the site still exists. I’ve met a lot of great friends thanks to the forums and hope to meet yet more. :)

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As big of a fan I am for Bionicle I never knew there was a forum for it

 

I joined in 2014 I believe that when leaks image of bionicle reboot.

 

I kind of stopped going to this place for like a year half but I feel like I'm going to stick around now that am collecting again.

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I found the Bionicle page on Wikipedia, which had a link to the BZPower Official Greg Discussion. I think I lurked for about 2 years before joining in 2008. :)

 

This was my experience as well. Found the OGD in 2007, lurked for a year, joined in 2008. I forget if it was Wikipedia or maybe it lead me to Bionicle Wikia, but I remember I was reading about Ehlek and there were a bunch of oddly specific details I'd never seen in the comics or on the website, and about 20 citations leading to the Official Greg Discussion. I was intrigued, followed the link, blew my mind wide open.

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I joined for the 2001 nostalgia; I keep coming back for the BZP nostalgia.

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