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Bionicle and inescapable nostalgia


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Lately I've been thinking a lot about Bionicle, especially the early years. Things like the MNOG, early sets, interactive CDs, the movies...

But anytime I go back to those things, for me anyways, they usually wind up feeling devoid of any real substance. Still the profound nostalgia remains, and I mean profound. It's no exaggeration to say the entirety of my pre-16 life was unequivocally dominated by Bionicle. I still appreciate certain aspects of them, but now 20 years after the fact they just feel hollow for a number of reasons.

For starters, it just feels like Bionicle's time has past. Nothing punctuates this feeling quite like the fact that none of the links in any Bionicle media work anymore. Another thing is that a lot of the Bionicle "experience" IS hollow, in my opinion that is. Playing with sets isn't fun for me anymore. The story after the year 2002 isn't very good, although just for the record I still to this day think the original 2001 story, its atmosphere, and its background are really fascinating, I did give that article someone here wrote on the original pre-maori scandal story a read and that was very interesting.

I don't know what I'm trying to say. Is this the twentysomething's equivalent of a mid-life crisis? What are YOUR thoughts on Bionicle nostalgia? It's not very common to find someone who knows a lot about Bionicle so I'd be curious to hear your perspective.

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I mean there is a mid-20's life crisis... its called a "quarter life crisis" but it usually relates to school, career, relationships; not often related to nostalgia.
 

Bionicle still mostly holds up for me, particularly MNOG. I'd still say MNOG ranks up there as one of my favorite point and click adventure games ever made. The movies can be goofy, and reading bits of the novel's can induce some cringe. Like take this quote from Mazeka in Brothers in Arms that sounds like some of the "Just2Edgy" writing Bionicle produced sometimes: "I want to learn how to fight. I want to learn how to win clean ... and win dirty. When I'm done, I want to be a master with a blade, with my fists, with any kind of weapon — and then I want you to get out of my way."

master-forgive-me-but-have-to-go-all-out

^I think this is Mazeka now...

What really holds up though? All the behind the scenes stuff. Reading about the men and women who built the world is almost more fascinating to me now than actually reading Bionicle came together. The stories of Faber, Swinnerton, Thompson, etc. all behind the scenes is fascinating. The sets too, I just still enjoy the toys from a MOC and collecting perspective. 

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All aboard the hype train!

 

 

 

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I kinds feel that... and also kinda don't, at the same time? I dunno.

I do very much get what you mean about parts of it sometimes feeling empty, devoid of anything but that pervasive sense of nostalgia - especially some of the novels and early sets, since I no longer feel interested in 'playing' with them. But at other times, much of it (the 01-03 comics, the MNOG, even parts of the movies for me) still feel to me like there's something... something intangible to them still, just waiting to be unlocked.

I think in my case, while I do enjoy the Bionicle story materials for that profound nostalgia you mentioned, for sure... I also enjoy it for what it *could* have been. Looking at the movies, for example... not so great, in hindsight, but the premise and the characters and the worldbuilding that they gave us (not to mention the visual style and the music, BUT that's tangential xD) feel to me like they had so much more potential than the story at the time allowed them to use. It's that potential, and the possibilities inherent in it, that keep me attached to Bionicle just as much as the nostalgia, I think; a desire to not only take the story as we were given it, but to work it from its base components into something that unlocks more depth, more of what could have been. Its why works that take the basic story premise and expand it in a whole different fashion, like NickonAquaMagna's comic retelling, appeal to me so much; it's why I have a drive to take a lot of the basic elements of the story and do my own thing with them too.

More than the story itself, I'd say I personally find the otherwise-missing substance of it in many of the individual elements that made up the Bionicle aesthetic, that simply never got utilised to their fullest. And it's the promise of being able to do something new with those elements, if I experiment with them in different ways, that keeps me coming back to Bionicle.

The nostalgia's a big part too, of course... but I feel like if it was just nostalgia, no matter how powerful, it wouldn't be something that kept me around. The interest in channelling that nostalgia is the biggest thing, for me.

Edited by Darth Jaller
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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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A lot of Bionicle fans like to divide the franchise into G1 and G2. Personally, I think there are actually 3 generations of Bionicle (4 if you count Hero Factory). What I actually consider G2 is 2006-2010. My reasons are: the overall tone of the series shifted; the Toa builds evolved past their original 2001 designs; the comics started over numerically with issue #0 Ignition; just like 2001 and 2015 we restart on a tropical island; 2001GEN shifts into a new world and characters with Metru Nui on its fourth year, while 2006GEN shifts to a new world and characters with Bara Magna on its fourth year (mini reboots).

I left Bionicle between 2005 and 2006. I don't know if it was the rubber masks, angsty comic art, Piraka rap, or just how the story was shifting further away from the original Toa Mata team. I realized that, those early years were made for me and the later years were for someone else. So, it might not be a nostalgia-crisis but just you coming to terms with the parts of the series that were important/significant to you. 

The concepts presented in 2001 were lightning in a bottle; A perfect storm of creativity and originality. If something is good, it sticks with you more than the other stuff.

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It's almost like there were two Bionicle lines - the first years (or year) with rich media, charming and memorable characters, an interesting sense of mystery, then all the following years with very complex and overserious story, overcrowded cast, and most of the media that isn't the books being non-canon.

Nothing punctuates this feeling quite like the fact that none of the links in any Bionicle media work anymore.

Even www.bionicle.com doesn't lead anywhere now.

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Well, the 2001 line, the Toa Mata, Toa Nuva, the Mata Nui Online Games, the Voya Nui one, other 2006 online games, the seven Command Toa Mahri ones, the Phantoka and Mistika ones, Bionicle Heroes, Glatorian Arena games, the direct-to-video movies, the 2006-2010 storylines, Hero Factory if included (mostly 2010, 2011 and 2012, it was the one that kept the constraction alive and I would like to consider HF to be a part of Bionicle G1 in my head canon at least), the Cryoshell songs for Bionicle G1 and HF, and the Toa Masters/Toa Uniters and Elemental Creatures. Plus, the G1 story and the story serials (I want them all finished for my sake). That's all I can say. 

I also remember looking at an instruction manual in one of the large 2001 Rahi sets where there is that video game called Bionicle: The Legend of Mata Nui. I was looking forward for it, but I focused on other things, and in 2010, when Bionicle G1's toyline was cancelled, I learned that the game was cancelled in 2001. It was sad for what happened to that game, but I'm glad fans are fixing it. 

G1 is the best powerhouse for nostalgia. Same goes to constraction in general. G2 tried to do it, but it was weird and got cancelled after 2 years of toys for some reason. Man, I hope anyone has found any sign of Bionicle returning. It's as sad as Thanos disintegrating people and the Avengers looking for a way to reverse this in the Avengers movies. We all suffer a great depression because constraction in general is gone.

It would be nice if Lego would do us a favor by re-continuing G1's story to give it a conclusion for the G1 fans for their sake (ask Samurai Jack and Hey Arnold about it) and doing a Bionicle G3 for younger fans as long as it is around G1's level, but a little less complicated than G1's story and less expensive, bulky, and using pieces than G2's sets, and uses a lot of good nostalgia. Perhaps try to do Marvel-Cinematic-Universe style in there, like incorporating HF in there just to make things reasonably relatable. Do crossovers with other Lego stuff in general (like DC, Marvel, and Ninjago), too. People are into these things, you know. A TV show like Ninjago, with the design of Bionicle: The Journey to One and the animation feel of Bionicle: The Legend Reborn and HF's TV show and using the actors from there, and without any negligence, animation mistakes, or laziness (in other words, make the animation be like Transformers: Prime) would be nice because I think Bionicle G1 could have deserved that from the start. Perhaps a reasonable and well-made theatrical movie, a game similar to Mata Nui Online Game, and a Lego Traveller's Tale game that is much better than Bionicle Heroes, too. Plus, modernized remasters of G1 sets (the Toa Mata primarily). Those are just my ideas to spice things up. 

The Lego Ideas project that is a diorama based on G1 is perfect for nostalgia, with those iconic moments. I hope that would convince Lego to bring Bionicle back again because we all need it in our aching hearts. Faber is doing this "3ION" stuff in Instagram, which gives us some nostalgia, too, so we can hope that it could revive Bionicle somehow, too, as he knows how we feel (don't get your hopes up too high, though).

Edited by Lenny7092

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

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I personally didn't really get introduced to Bionicle until 2006 (my first set was Hakan-given to me as a bribe to behave for the babysitter :P). Because there was simply so much story material that I didn't know about, I basically cruised through with the bare basics of the storyline-just enough to understand what was going on (and even that little bit was still enough to dominate my imagination). It wasn't until just a few years ago when I found Biosector and looked up a few of my favorite characters just for 'the fun of it', that I realized just how much story was out there that I knew nothing about. I like Chuckschwa's 2001/2006 distinction. In my brief time among the BZPower community, I've noticed that there do seem to be "2001 people" and "2006 people". The biggest distinction between these two groups (in my opinion) is how well/long they have known the story. For me, as a 2006 guy, the story is somewhat fresher.

I wonder if for 2001 people, because you guys have known the story so well for so long, the story becomes stale or overly familiar? I agree with Xboxtravis-Bionicle is filled with corny prose. BUT, that corny prose facilitates profoundly intricate worldbuilding and conveys deeply complex themes. More than this though, for pretty much all of us on a site like BZPower, Bionicle provided something much deeper-it awakened out imaginations. Think of the middle aged guy who grew up adoring the original Star Wars trilogy, but is not disappointed and frustrated by the new movies. The missing component has nothing to do with the movies themselves, but with the hours of time that he spent with his friends imagining they were flying the Millennium Falcon or fighting Stormtroopers-the first time in his life that he engaged in complex imaginative play and independent world building (basically fan fiction). The same goes for Bionicle. Perhaps what made Bionical such a significant part of many people's lives was not the commercial or intellectual elements (sets or books), but biological development. We say "Bionicle was a major part of my childhood." But to be more precise we should say "PLAYING Bionicle was a major part of my childhood." This unlocking or awakening of the imagination was the biological experiments that our brains did as they learned how to invent and create.

Bionicle was delivered in an imperfect medium, but it performed its function perfectly. 

(That's a lot of thoughts-good luck making sense of this :D) 

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I wonder if for 2001 people, because you guys have known the story so well for so long, the story becomes stale or overly familiar?

I think the problem was the opposite. For 2001-4, the characters mostly stayed the same - Tahu and co, Vakama and co, the Matoran, and Makuta. It was from around 2005-6 that all these other characters and places appeared, mostly in the books, that had had no presence at all in the early years. So the story in later years often got almost unrecognisable from how it had been in the early years. I think this might explain a lot of the divide you mentioned.

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I've been trying to find the words to describe this feeling for so long.

I just love BIONICLE so much, but I don't know *how* to love it. The last time I watched Mask of Light, I just sort of went on autopilot and as soon as it was over I forgot I watched it. I tried to get hyped for G2, but looking back it feels like I just dreamed it. Now I'm stuck with a container full of G2 sets that falls in a weird gray area of whether or not I really even like them.

I try to remember reading the newest comics and serial chapters, building the sets, getting home from school and checking BZPower, but it's impossible for me to separate BIONICLE from my subjective experiences at middle school and being an angsty edgelord, and I just feel like there's nothing to it. Like I was always waiting for BIONICLE to evolve into something bigger than it was, now I just realize it never happened.

Adding to all this, I work security in the graveyard shift, so I spend most of my waking time alone without any sunlight, which makes this existential over-reflectiveness all too easy.

I sometimes remember old BIONICLE characters in particular and ask myself, "Who really is this character?" For a long time it was Carapar, nowadays it's Onewa Hordika.

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As a life long fan I can see where you're coming from. Nowadays the sets just sit around in boxes and are deteriorating in condition. There really isn't a whole lot to look into now and the community has grown up. I'm one of its youngest members and I'm 20 now. When I get out the sets it feels like more of a memory and less like an actual thing that's still here. The sets feel almost alien to me now and project more memories of a feeling less than an actual feeling. It's the same for the movies and comics. I can't even watch the films anymore because I watched them so many times that I could probably write down the complete script, on my own, in less than an hour. And that's not mentioning the aspects that did age poorly. A lot of the online flash games were badly programmed and downright frustrating. It's draped in that 2000s edge which is once again only good in my memories. All of this makes for memories which I simply cannot recreate. I would say this is a mixture of growing up and over exposure. So much exposure that your brain just doesn't get that dopamine hit anymore. Growing up in that consumer products just cannot cause that same reaction it did when I was younger. I think the only way to re-experience it is to go back in time. And unfortunately that is impossible.

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It's time to move on.

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15 hours ago, masterchirox580 said:

As a life long fan I can see where you're coming from. Nowadays the sets just sit around in boxes and are deteriorating in condition. There really isn't a whole lot to look into now and the community has grown up. I'm one of its youngest members and I'm 20 now. When I get out the sets it feels like more of a memory and less like an actual thing that's still here. The sets feel almost alien to me now and project more memories of a feeling less than an actual feeling. It's the same for the movies and comics. I can't even watch the films anymore because I watched them so many times that I could probably write down the complete script, on my own, in less than an hour. And that's not mentioning the aspects that did age poorly. A lot of the online flash games were badly programmed and downright frustrating. It's draped in that 2000s edge which is once again only good in my memories. All of this makes for memories which I simply cannot recreate. I would say this is a mixture of growing up and over exposure. So much exposure that your brain just doesn't get that dopamine hit anymore. Growing up in that consumer products just cannot cause that same reaction it did when I was younger. I think the only way to re-experience it is to go back in time. And unfortunately that is impossible.

(Age 23 here.) I can only imagine what it would be like to be 11 when the original line ended. I thought for the longest time I was the only one feeling like this. Especially what you said about the sets deteriorating, I feel that so hard. I miss being able to watch and enjoy the films like I used to.

I have found a temporary fix: for whatever reason, the Pokemon movies very much have the same "feel" to them as the Miramax trilogy, and there are like twenty of those.

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"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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Click here to visit my library!

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6 hours ago, Master Inika said:

(Age 23 here.) I can only imagine what it would be like to be 11 when the original line ended. I thought for the longest time I was the only one feeling like this. Especially what you said about the sets deteriorating, I feel that so hard. I miss being able to watch and enjoy the films like I used to.

I have found a temporary fix: for whatever reason, the Pokemon movies very much have the same "feel" to them as the Miramax trilogy, and there are like twenty of those.

At the time it wasn't as hard as you'd think. I've been into the series since circa 2002/2003 (very young) and I remember back in 2009 I was starting to feel disillusioned with the series. I remember sitting there looking at the new vehicle sets asking "is that what I got into all those years ago?". Whilst I was upset when it was announced to end it didn't initially have that deep an impact on me. It wasn't until years later and as I grew older I really appreciated it. And I didn't watch the pokemon films that much growing up so I'll maybe give it a try.

It's time to move on.

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  So it's been a while since I posted here,  but felt that this is an especially relevant and interesting topic to weigh in on.  ^_^:tohu:

On 12/18/2019 at 11:04 AM, Darth Jaller said:

I kinds feel that... and also kinda don't, at the same time? I dunno.

I do very much get what you mean about parts of it sometimes feeling empty, devoid of anything but that pervasive sense of nostalgia - especially some of the novels and early sets, since I no longer feel interested in 'playing' with them. But at other times, much of it (the 01-03 comics, the MNOG, even parts of the movies for me) still feel to me like there's something... something intangible to them still, just waiting to be unlocked.

...

The nostalgia's a big part too, of course... but I feel like if it was just nostalgia, no matter how powerful, it wouldn't be something that kept me around. The interest in channelling that nostalgia is the biggest thing, for me.

I agree with a lot of what you said DJ, as well as another post here.  To me, the novels (which only came later on as a primary story medium) do not stand the test of time. But the movies and even more so the early sets continue to have much more value beyond nostalgia - particularly aesthetic value. Even though I don't agree with others' disillusionment, I can see what's being said about feeling a disconnect with the sets/nostalgia... They are what you make of it I guess :shrugs:

So...Bionicle 2001 was foundational in concept, premise, lore, characters, world, tone of story, and more. There is (rightfully so) golden memories  - or "nostalgia" - surrounding that time for many fans who experienced it back then. This nostalgia, from my perspective, is not blind or without good reason. While many fans (myself included) who followed Bionicle's original run have come to appreciate the story as LEGO ended up telling it up to the end, nostalgia for the first year *or two or three* seems to fundamentally communicate a stronger connection/identification/resonance with Bionicle as it was first presented during that era. (Whoa that was a sentence!)

For me, it's not that I discard the rest of Bionicle after 2004 as "not truly Bionicle", but over time since G1's retirement, I've noticed that I've increasingly realized: it's not so much the linear, singular story with a rigid timeline to follow that makes Bionicle what it is for me today. Rather the entire concept and underlying proposition - the MYTHOLOGY - is what sticks with me as Bionicle. The original 2001 run and it's basis - the old story bible (the work of the likes of Swinnerton, Faber, Thompson) exemplifies this.  If we fans could continue to articulate what it was that was so special about the early Bionicle, it could benefit the community and maybe even reach LEGO.  If only LEGO could somehow see this and take into consideration how the Bionicle fan community has endured and developed.

Bionicle is a toy line for youth, but it is valuable to note that that fact does not cheapen the rich product, premise, and potential that we were given in this case.

Quote

It's that potential, and the possibilities inherent in it, that keep me attached to Bionicle just as much as the nostalgia, I think; a desire to not only take the story as we were given it, but to work it from its base components into something that unlocks more depth, more of what could have been.

Hey exactly. That's what LEGO is all about, and this has always been LEGO BIONICLE after all! 

Plus, the recent uncovering of more of the line's prehistory and alternate/unused concepts has given even more credibility to fans who had previously been unable to articulate what it was about early Bionicle that was lightning in a bottle.

Edited by BIzzy
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Tangentially related to this discussion, but did anyone else ever have BZPower as their web homepage? I was so excited setting it up when I got my first laptop. I think I was 10 at the time. I loved checking the front page and reading about ToyFair, seeing pictures of new sets, new reviews, and stuff like that. I first heard of BZPower through the LEGO forums, typed it in, and that was that. I suppose that's more about inescapable BZPower nostalgia than BIONICLE nostalgia as a whole, though.

I don't know. I just have so many thoughts about this sort of thing that I can't even articulate them properly. Some of you might have noticed I posted more wistful nostalgia-oriented topics here in the past few months than I care to admit, and this is really why I've been doing it. It's impossible for me to talk *about* BIONICLE; I can only talk about talking about BIONICLE. Someday we'll be in our 50s, BIONICLE will have been gone for decades, and what will we do then? I wish I could be a kid again.

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"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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For the most part, it still holds up. A lot of people mention the movies as something that doesn’t still hold up, but honestly, even as a kid I thought they were campy. A lot of people also think that the story went downhill starting in 2006 due to the darker tone, but that actually helped reinvigorate the franchise for me (I lost interest around the time Mask of Light came out, but for Easter 2005 I got Bomonga and the LoMN DVD in my basket and got back into it, and by the end of the year I was more obsessed than ever). I was 13 and 14 for the 2006 story; maybe I needed something more serious.

On top of that, though, I’ve re-read the books as an adult, and they’re still entertaining. You might say the dialogue is cheesy and overly serious and maybe forcefully edgy sometimes, but watch any Star Wars movie and you’ll find similar language.

Edited by Cheesy Mac n Cheese
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I would agree the edginess, much like Star Wars, was just a normal way to acclimate young adults to the real world. In particular with BIONICLE, I don't think there was a single specific year that shifted from light to dark. Even MNOG, which gets looked back on as this lighthearted adventure compared to 2006, had serious moments (mainly in the atmosphere and music, but still).

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"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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Click here to visit my library!

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