Your dictionary is wrong.

Clearly they need dresses.

More evidence that the name of the new "Bionicle Action Figure Game" is no better than saying "bionakulz arr dols!11!!1"

I don't really care what you call my figurines. I call them figurines, dolls, action figures, etc. They all mean pretty much the same thing. It's just that boys don't want to call their figurines "dolls".

No.."doll" is an affectionate term for something pretty.

BIONICLE sets aren't pretty, they're cool-looking.

Plus they're made for action poses, so they're "action figures."

And building toys.

Doll: a small figure representing a baby or other human being, esp. for use as a child's toy.

Yeah, Bionicles aren't humans and thus are NOT DOLLS. And since Action Fighures are technicaly "dolls", that means Bionicles aren't action figures.

So what do we call them?

Action figures typically have limited posability. You can move some of their limbs and turn their heads backwards (0__o), but that's about it. And some of them say some random phrases.

Bionicle SETS have a large amount of posability. And I have met no Vahki who have screamed:

"IMMA FIRIN MA DISKOR!"

-Aelita-