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Do you think that kids cherish Bionicle G2 as much as we did G1?


HeartOfMetruNui

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I want to share my connection with Bionicle with you all.

I was born in 1995, in Israel. When Bionicle came out, I was but 5 years old. A friend of my mother knew that I loved LEGO by then (My favorite theme was Advanturers, more specifically the dino island stuff) and she bought me my first ever bonkle, Toa (mata) Pohatu. At first, I remember being shocked. As I always looked through the old cataloges, I skipped the Bionicle page because I thought I was a "grown up kid's theme". Why, you may ask. Well, think about the classic LEGO figures. All of them, even the "specialy designed" ones (AKA Johnny thunder, etc. who had a uniqe face instead of the classic LEGO Smily face) were smiling. Dual head printing didn't exist back then, so the characters never had a distressed, sad or angry look.

But those Bionicle figures... looked so agressive to me. Their masks were scary, and the faces behind were even scarier! But when I looked at Pohatu, I couldn't help but shift my point of view on these models. Suddenly, instead of agressive, they began to look mysterious.

Now, as a 5yo Israeli kid, I didn't know a single word in english, but all the LEGO catalogs were translated, so they were my main source of cannon. I remember reading about each toa's trait, and how they fought the rahi in the time before time. And boy, nothing in the world seemed more cool than this. I began collecting the sets, and got most of the toa and many rahi.

And than... I discovered the best piece of storyline I could imagine at the time... The Mata Nui online game, that is. As I have mentioned before, I didn't understand english at all. I couldn't even read the letters back then. However, fortunatly the game was heavy on visual story telling. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, or why, but I always ended up discovering the cutscenes after randomly clicking on things. I rememver Tahu's arrival. How the matoran first attacked him, but then Turaga Vakama came to bow before him, and they all understoon that it was not an enemy they were looking upon, but a hero.

In 2003, the the first movie, mask of light came out. I didn't know it came out, until I watched an old VHS that had an ad for the movie. I simply cannot put into words my excitement when the ad first played, and the narrator said "in the time... before time...". At that exact moment, I knew exactly what I was watching. I went with my parents to the nearest movie store (what a wierd concept in 2019) and got the VHS. And thank god, it was dubbed in hebew. Thats when EVERYONE were crazy about Bionicle in my elementary school - after the movie was out. I was considered to be a hero in my classmates eyes, because when we discussed the movie, I always knew every bit of lore detail, and could tell them all about the mysteries of Mata Nui.

Now, Im not going to go into detail about every year, but generally, Bionicle was always a theme that I cherished. Ofcourse, during its 10 years of runtime I was going on and off about my interest in the theme, but it was always a place for me to come back to every now and then. When Mata Nui was revealed to be a giant robot I went bananas. It was CRAZY for me to realize that the great spirint that controls the universe, WAS the universe. Even now I get chills writing this.

My point is, for me Bionicle is a theme that I will always appreciate and love for its story, characters and mystery. All the way from pohatu, to Tahu, to Takanuva, to Vakama, to the piraka and barraki, and finally, to Mata Nui himself.

Do you think, that kids who were 5 or 6 in 2015 felt the same way that I did about G2? I'd really love to be shared with the stories of the younger generation.

 

Edited by HeartOfMetruNui
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G2 may be short-lived, but I believe new generation kids would cherish it, but not as much as G1 fans cherish G1. I cherish G1 much more than G2, despite G2 using CCBS and the Toa Mata. I would also hope that the G1 story would be continued and have a conclusion and either bring G1 back or cause G3 to begin in G1's way, which is better than G2's way. I get how you feel, bud.

I like Lego, Bionicle, and Hero Factory!:)

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Unlikely. G2 didn't start off with that magical sense of mystery or anything to really get kids hooked, and the story wasn't even good. It also wasn't around for very long. Kids are gonna be more likely to forget G2 entirely than G1.

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6 hours ago, Tahu3.0 said:

Honestly, I think there will be more kids that cherish Hero Factory than Bionicle G2. It's not because it lasted longer than G2, it's because I've seen some HF in the wild compared to G2.

To measure how memorable can these constraction themes be, I'd say Bionicle G1 being the most memorable because it was a huge part of constraction, second is Hero Factory because it kept some of Bionicle's legacy and started CCBS, and the last being G2 because it's ridiculously short-lived.

I like Lego, Bionicle, and Hero Factory!:)

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5 hours ago, Valendale said:

there are for sure a lot of younger fans who have gotten into the franchise via G2

I think people underestimate this point. Sure, maybe G2 won't be looked back on as fondly as G1, but there are people who would never have became "nostalgic" for G1 were it not for G2 (simply b/c they were too young at the time). 

I mean, there are a lot of us on BZP that can vouch for this. I didn't get into Bionicle proper until about 2007? I had toys since 2002 but I wasn't hardcore about buying them or following the story. Once I learned about the story (through the movies, encyclopedia, etc.) 2004 came to be my favourite year. Yet, I never owned the toys from 2004; the ones I do have I got on eBay or in trades specifically because I was looking for those characters.

I can easily imagine a child who bought G2 Bionicle looking into the history of the name and learning about G1 and becoming captured by it. G1's sets are pretty cheap on Bricklink and the like too, so experiencing those years for oneself anew isn't that hard to do. 

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I've wondered this myself, both about HF and G2. I've never actually witnessed kids get excited about either of them the way I have for lines like Ninjago (probably closer in impact to BIONICLE than either of the two). It's almost surreal to think about.

"You are an absolute in these uncertain times. Your past is forgotten, and your
future is an empty book. You must find your own destiny, my brave adventurer.
"
-- Turaga Nokama

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The biggest case against G2 is primarily how short-lived it was. When you think about it, it's not only a matter of a shorter, less developed story, but also about the age of the fans. When Mata-Nui awoke and Teridax took over the universe, it wasn't just a culmination of the storyline leading up to that point: Mata Nui and Teridax had been major figures in your imagination for 8 years! That's a great deal of investment. 

But even despite that, I think G2 holds a very special place in many people's hearts. When I look back on my interest with Bionicle (my first set was Vezok so I only got on board in 2006), it didn't really culminate until after Bionicle had ended-when I went "wait a sec..." and tried to find answers to the questions that I still had lingering. I think G2 can function in a similar way, with the various references/connections it has to G1 (Mask of time, Toa Mata, etc.)  

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For the most part no, but the lack of in depth story and longevity don't really matter. Let me share a theme I cherish that has been forgotten to the sands of time...….

Pharaoh's Quest was one of my favorite themes when it came out. I was (an still am) into ancient cultures and civilizations at the time and had recently watched the Mummy(1999) for the first time. I collected the Playmobil romans and Egyptians but there was no legos for these subjects...….until Pharaohs Quest. I collected nearly every set except for the sphinx and the pyramid. Sadly the theme was overshadowed by the ninjago juggernaut of that year and was sadly canceled. So there are probably some kids who cherish G2 like how I cherish Pharaohs Quest.

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15 hours ago, Alexander123 said:

For the most part no, but the lack of in depth story and longevity don't really matter. Let me share a theme I cherish that has been forgotten to the sands of time...….

Pharaoh's Quest was one of my favorite themes when it came out. I was (an still am) into ancient cultures and civilizations at the time and had recently watched the Mummy(1999) for the first time. I collected the Playmobil romans and Egyptians but there was no legos for these subjects...….until Pharaohs Quest. I collected nearly every set except for the sphinx and the pyramid. Sadly the theme was overshadowed by the ninjago juggernaut of that year and was sadly canceled. So there are probably some kids who cherish G2 like how I cherish Pharaohs Quest.

That's beautifully tragic. I had that with Aqua Raiders. It seemed like LEGO really liked the underwater setting for 2007. I got the entire wave except Aquabase Invasion. I guess there has to be at least one kid who associated HF with something personal like that, now that I think about it.

"You are an absolute in these uncertain times. Your past is forgotten, and your
future is an empty book. You must find your own destiny, my brave adventurer.
"
-- Turaga Nokama

nichijou2.jpg

Click here to visit my library!

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On ‎11‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 2:55 PM, Alexander123 said:

I collected the Playmobil romans and Egyptians but there was no legos for these subjects...….until Pharaohs Quest. I collected nearly every set except for the sphinx and the pyramid.

The Adventurers line began with Egyptian sets in 1998.

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I can vouch for the longevity of HF to kids. My brother was approaching peak age for starting interest in that sorts of stuff in 2010/2011, so all he really had to base his thoughts off were the stars (yikes...) and my stuff. Come Hero Factory and he finally had something cool and customizable (in the same sense as bionicle). The year of breakout I swear he got nearly the entire wave for Christmas. I would buy bionicle sets online for him for birthdays and stuff (Bohrok, Toa, Nidhiki, even Axonn) and although he thought it was cool, it didn't have the same charm as it did for me because HF was his 'gateway' into constraction.

We both got a few sets from G2, but I think ultimately he ended up with HF as his favorite and Bionicle as mine due to timing. Maybe if G2 had happened 2 years sooner he would have been just as rabid about it as he was about HF. I think it all depends on what's being released as you go through that time. I got Bionicle and Mars Mission and he got Hero Factory and Chima.

Its interesting though- because we started in different periods, our building styles are drastically different (not just because I'm older- comparing MOCs I still have from his age-ish there's a clear style difference)

 

TL;DR 100% there's some kid out there who loves G2 to death and mourns the early cancellation with their whole soul

move along.

nothing to see here.

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