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Bionicle's Future and What It's Meant to Me


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Earlier this week I discovered that my childhood heroes were making a comeback. Kind of unbelievable that I'll get to see Tahu and the other toa back on the shelves again as brand new sets. With this in mind, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to reflect on the toy series I literally grew up with. This might seem like some longish life story rant, but bear with me.

 

You know how everyone remembers those special firsts in their life? For me, that first Bionicle set was probably one of the earliest memories I had. It was simple enough getting it, I was about five years old and out shopping with my aunt, when she got me the Bohrok, Gahlok, more or less because I looked at it like it was pretty cool. I was too young to figure out how ball and socket joints worked at that age so a team of my uncle, my dad, and my cousin took about three hours to figure it out and build it for me. I adored that thing, and thus started my obsession with Bionicle.

Over the next few years I would collect just about everything Bionicle I could find. I collected all the quarters and dollars I could find just so I could save up for the future sets that were previewed in the LEGO catalog. I collected at least one hundred sets, each movie, those small comics, heck I even had Bionicle shoes with replaceable Rahkshi heads on them. I was a loyal follower to the story the entire way through. It couldn't have been a better time to be a kid...

Until the teenage years happened. I still collected all the sets I could and followed the story, but getting caught with Bionicle doesn't exactly make you the coolest person in the judgmental world of the 8th grade. All the sets that once graced every square inch of my shelves were hoarded under the bed as I started to grow up. Then in 2009, I logged in here and saw the news that the Bionicle line was cancelled. It might sound a bit over dramatic, but that's pretty much the exact moment I realized my childhood was over.

And now here I am about 4ish years later. In that time span I've formed some really close friendships, almost finished high school, and applied to colleges. In that time, Bionicle never really crossed my mind too much. I would occasionally pick up one of my favorite sets, but never really gave attention to my whole collection.

 

So now we've got new sets coming out in January. Moving away from the Bionicle obsessed kid, and moving on to the more neutral younger man, how do I feel?

 

Well having some new sets is awesome first off. Bionicle is back and it'll be the easiest way I can feel like a little kid again. However, I do have a few complaints with the sets themselves. When Bionicle was canceled and Hero Factory was revealed I made a comment on here how, "These could pretty much be new Bionicle sets, but with a new logo slapped over them." Inversely, I feel that these new Bionicle sets look EXACTLY like a Hero Factory set did, but with the Bionicle logo slapped on it. Will marketing a brand that invokes the sense of nostalgia I described earlier work for me? Yeah, it will. I plan on getting one or two of the new sets. But in the long run, I really hope there's some kind of variations between each set year that made pre-inika Bionicle amazing. Only then I might even consider actually buying one or two as a broke college kid. Even if I have no plans on buying Bionicle, I'm a little worried in general that this reboot won't capture the same kind of magic that the original sets had, if that makes any sense.

 

Also a smaller complaint, but please tell me the new sets are going in the little plastic containers. I bought a Hero Factory set as a birthday present for my little brother last year and having it packaged in a bag felt a bit strange.

 

And now that my life story/rant is over, I want to ask a few questions to spawn some discussion.

 

-What did Bionicle mean to you growing up?

-Do you think that the Bionicle reboot has a long, successful future once again?

-Will the return of Bionicle reignite some popularity in this website? I'm not exactly sure what the userbase is like now since I probably haven't logged on over two and a half years.

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lol i not know how to astronaut

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Bionicle has been VERY special to me. The Toa are great and powerful heroes I loved growing up and even in my senior year of high school I never let my love die out.

 

I got my first set when my aunt returned from California. She bought me Toa Nuju Metru and Vahki Keeerakh later for Christmas. I loved those two and I thought they were friends because I didn't know the story.

 

Come 2006, and that all changed. The Inika literally took my world by storm, with the Piraka sadly being ignored save for Vezok. 2007, 2008, and 2009 were some of the greatest years of my life as I came to appreciate each and every set I owned. These weren't just toys, they were buildable versions of great heroes and villains that could only exist in LEGO. Once I came to understand what Bionicle was and how it worked, I deeply regretted not getting into it sooner and missing out on the first three years of the series. The ending angered me, though. The sets released for 2010 had nothing on the previous year and the story was nothing to write home about. But 2015 will change that.  

 

My room is filled with Bionicle characters and I have an entire storage bin stuffed with their canisters. This 2015 reboot looks fantastic and I cannot wait to get lost in the enticing lore of the greatest LEGO stories ever told.  As for this site, I do think that once Bionicle picks up steam, the site should get rolling again.

 

Bionicle has a bright future ahead if the LEGO group keeps handling the series like they have been.  

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I believe I first got into Bionicle in early 2003, but something feels off about that. The comic I first saw it in featured the Bohrok Kal and Nuva, so it obviously must have been early 2003, but at the same time my brother signed up for the magazine shortly after getting one of the LEGO Dinosaurs, which would have been out of stock at LEGO stores by that point, I'm pretty sure. Who knows? Maybe I'm misremembering either the first comic I saw or the Dinosaur part. Anyway, that's besides the point. I followed the series pretty closely, despite not getting my first Bionicle set until 2005. I remember after Mask of Light came out, I would constantly ask my parents to borrow it from the video rental store (which makes me feel so old because who even uses those anymore?) even though their DVD was all scratched up and choppy at key moments. I loved the story and followed it avidly. It was my first major interest besides dinosaurs (by this point I had already started gaining my scientific interest in them, pushing myself towards the factual truths as opposed to the sensationalist pop culture images they had become) and I consumed it eagerly. I signed up for the magazine just to keep up with the comics, and pored over the books my school library had to take in the story.

 

I didn't discover BZPower until late 2006, when the first images of the Barraki started to surface, and didn't join until February the next year. I had a rocky start,but I soon joined in the discussions (and arguments) of this community. In some ways, it started making me turn a critical eye to my beloved toyline (which sounds like a bad thing, but it's not, really) and start thinking about what I enjoy about it and what I don't. (which happened just in time for me to turn a critical eye towards the Phantoka and Mistika.)

 

Bionicle has shaped me in a lot of ways. For starters, it influenced my writing in that I tend to start thinking for many of my stories with some sort of twist in mind, some secret that needs dramatic revealing. (It also unfortunately influenced me in that I focus so much on accomplishing that twist and story that I leave my characters underdeveloped on the way :P) It also started a love of mythical/tribal settings and aesthetics, along with a love of robots. Attempting to draw Bionicle characters also shaped a style that focuses on capturing every detail of something, and also led to me taking interest in forming organic silhouettes with mechanical details to produce weird pictures of creatures both mechanical and organic in looks.

 

anyway that's fairly disconnecting rambling to answer the first question. I think the reboot has potential to capture the feel Bionicle lost too much of as it grows into its own being, and takes the line into interesting new direction. I'm so glad we got a reboot because anything else wouldn't have been nearly as good.

 

I can't say I'm sure if this site will go back up to the old level of activity, though considering the difficulty I've had in accessing this site we're sure as heck trying.

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I believe I first got into Bionicle in early 2003, but something feels off about that. The comic I first saw it in featured the Bohrok Kal and Nuva, so it obviously must have been early 2003, but at the same time my brother signed up for the magazine shortly after getting one of the LEGO Dinosaurs, which would have been out of stock at LEGO stores by that point, I'm pretty sure. Who knows? Maybe I'm misremembering either the first comic I saw or the Dinosaur part. Anyway, that's besides the point. I followed the series pretty closely, despite not getting my first Bionicle set until 2005. I remember after Mask of Light came out, I would constantly ask my parents to borrow it from the video rental store (which makes me feel so old because who even uses those anymore?) even though their DVD was all scratched up and choppy at key moments. I loved the story and followed it avidly. It was my first major interest besides dinosaurs (by this point I had already started gaining my scientific interest in them, pushing myself towards the factual truths as opposed to the sensationalist pop culture images they had become) and I consumed it eagerly. I signed up for the magazine just to keep up with the comics, and pored over the books my school library had to take in the story.

 

I didn't discover BZPower until late 2006, when the first images of the Barraki started to surface, and didn't join until February the next year. I had a rocky start,but I soon joined in the discussions (and arguments) of this community. In some ways, it started making me turn a critical eye to my beloved toyline (which sounds like a bad thing, but it's not, really) and start thinking about what I enjoy about it and what I don't. (which happened just in time for me to turn a critical eye towards the Phantoka and Mistika.)

 

Bionicle has shaped me in a lot of ways. For starters, it influenced my writing in that I tend to start thinking for many of my stories with some sort of twist in mind, some secret that needs dramatic revealing. (It also unfortunately influenced me in that I focus so much on accomplishing that twist and story that I leave my characters underdeveloped on the way :P) It also started a love of mythical/tribal settings and aesthetics, along with a love of robots. Attempting to draw Bionicle characters also shaped a style that focuses on capturing every detail of something, and also led to me taking interest in forming organic silhouettes with mechanical details to produce weird pictures of creatures both mechanical and organic in looks.

 

anyway that's fairly disconnecting rambling to answer the first question. I think the reboot has potential to capture the feel Bionicle lost too much of as it grows into its own being, and takes the line into interesting new direction. I'm so glad we got a reboot because anything else wouldn't have been nearly as good.

 

I can't say I'm sure if this site will go back up to the old level of activity, though considering the difficulty I've had in accessing this site we're sure as heck trying.

I rented Mask of Life on VHS on opening night. And it was a school night.

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 Bionicle was released when I was in grade 1, and has followed me for the next 10 years of my childhood. They were the heroes I grew up with. I remember making sketches of all the masks in my spare time. Bionicle taught the lesson that heroism is more about what you did than what you are. Something a kid growing up could really do more of.  You are automatically in my good books if you like Bionicle. 

 

 BZP, I can't exactly remember when I first discovered it. It was a little prior to the release of the Inika, so I peg it at mid 2006. I remember gawking at the pics of the sets for hours. 2004-2005 was kind of a bore for me, though I bought most of the metru and books. The Hordika was simply not interesting enough for me. BZP also taught me that some people were very smart. Some guy predicted the whole Mata Nui = Matoran universe plot like a year before it was revealed to be the case. 

 

 I took a year to travel last year, so this will be my first year at university. Perfect timing. 

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Also a smaller complaint, but please tell me the new sets are going in the little plastic containers. I bought a Hero Factory set as a birthday present for my little brother last year and having it packaged in a bag felt a bit strange.

 

And now that my life story/rant is over, I want to ask a few questions to spawn some discussion.

 

-What did Bionicle mean to you growing up?

-Do you think that the Bionicle reboot has a long, successful future once again?

-Will the return of Bionicle reignite some popularity in this website? I'm not exactly sure what the userbase is like now since I probably haven't logged on over two and a half years.

They will be coming in neither plastic canisters nor HF-style resealable pouch-bags. They're coming in trapezoid cardboard boxes, which will apparently open at the bottom and you can close them up again. They're kinda like the new Chima Speedorz 2014 boxes.

 

And as for the rest of your questions...

 

  • Until very recently... nothing. It was only a few years ago that I got interested in Lego constraction, and Hero Factory was the first I got into. :) It was a while before I got into Bionicle. I'm glad to get a chance to experience it fresh & new in 2015. :D
  • Definitely yes. With the ultra-so-perfect-everything-has-been-fixed gear functions, the incredible new heads & masks, the awesome new sets, and the endless creativity and fun this theme is promising, I feel it is going to last at least 5 years. (Which is a long time by Lego theme standards. Most themes never last past 2, and Lego already is intending for at least 3 with the new Bionicle.)
  • Maybe when the website finally gets updated from the design it has had since around 2003. When I first found this website by accident I thought it was some sort of old outdated blog or something, and immediately left the site. :P I didn't even notice there were forums on the site, because the button to enter them didn't look like a button to me, and the website had already lost my attention. But if it gets a fresh new look, then it's quite possible.

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BIONICLE was my childhood. I can attribute a lot of who I am to this site, which I would never have found had my grandmother never gotten me two Bohrok Va in 2002.
 
I hope that the reboot makes it as much of a successful line today as it was then. Certainly it's a different time, but LEGO has grown as a company and they're pulling out all of the stops to make the reboot successful. I can only hope that it works, but realistically I don't see how it can't.
 
We've gone through some tough times as a community, I'd say. On the staff, I can judge activity based on the number of reports as well as the posts everyone else can see. Before the rumors and leaks started, we were slowing down, but since then we've sped up. I think this just might be the most active I've seen the forums since their return from the Great Downtime three years ago. It's very promising.

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BIONICLE wasn't actually a massive thing in my childhood. It was one of my favourite toylines, but other than spending time on the floor constructing them and making them do battle with one another, there wasn't really much else to it (disregarding the stories which I grew up on).

 

Hopefully the reboot will last long. I want to see kids play with action figures instead of these nargle-fargled iPads of the modern generation.

 

And more people to join this site so I can RP. Woosh.

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I've been a fan since the very beginning, when the line launched in 2001. I was pretty young (6 years old) so it was pretty tough to get used to the intricate building system. But my brother was really the one who introduced the line to me, and for a while discussions about Bionicle became a really good connection point between us.

 

Unfortunately my brother started to feel like you did, but a lot earlier, around the Mask of Light era. He kind of just stopped being interested. But my passion for the franchise lived on for a long time after, and even when I stopped collecting the sets extensively in 2007, I still followed the story closely. I loved Bionicle so much, and I didn't let anyone tell me otherwise. Bionicle ending was devastating news to me, and I was like 15 years old at that time. 

 

Bionicle coming back has me excited because Bionicle was literally an extension of my current self. Bionicle took up 9 whole years of my life, which was more than half when it ended. It coming back instills some great inner desire to go back and revisit all previous Bionicle content to relive that childhood, all the while being open to what the future holds.

 

It's interesting that a lot of people are skeptical about the new Bionicle. As a fan from the beginning, I am more than excited to see it go a new direction with a 100% new story and building system. I've barely followed anything LEGO related in the last 5 years since the cancellation and it's extraordinary to see how far LEGO has progressed in that time.

 

BZPower is gonna be active again. It's all around. The forums are flooding with new posts each day, which I am sure is something that was missing in the past couple of years. The return of Bionicle is invigorating the fanbase because it's a relaunch of something that captured many people's childhoods - it's a household name for many, and that's reason enough to be at least a little riled up. Even my brother is pretty stoked about this reboot. 

 

-NotS

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Oh man, Bionicle holds many special memories for me. Way back in 2001, when I was an innocent little 3rd grader, I saw some boys in one area of the spacious playground of my school playing with these cool-looking toys that look kinda like humanoid versions of my Roboriders with masks that get knocked off in sparring matches. I was intrigued, and after some talking with the head honcho of the ragtag band of Toa kids (who happened to be a classmate of mine, who even carried around a Tahu with a gold mask!), I became acquainted with the world of Bionicle, where Toa collect Masks of Power to fight Makuta and his evil Rahi (who all the 5th graders somehow ended up playing as and antagonize the Toa team).

 

My first ever Bionicle set was Mctoran Matoro, and while I didn't join in the sparring (some kids with Mctoran also did that along with the Toa kids), I had a good time running around hanging with Team Toa (which I just made up for the purpose of the story, heheh). And since I got a Mctoran, I also got the promo comic that goes with those happy meals along with some info on the Tohunga (as they were known then). It was from there that I started to get the sense of something wonderful from the story. Also, lil 7-year-old me was thrilled to learn that there are girl characters in the story and so really wanted the girl sets at the time. I had rotten luck with getting Macku (I got Matoro both times, and then lost both of them, grr...), but my priority changed to Gali after Tahu Kid - which is what I shall call the leader guy who introduced me to this series since he's very fond of Tahu, having all sorts of masks for his ever-present Tahu including both an infected and a gold Hau - told me that she's a girl.

 

I can't remember if I actually did get Gali first or if I was given Pohatu by mistake the first time. I think it was the latter, but either way, I always had Gali with me at recess once I had her. She was like a sister to me growing up to be honest. And that was how my third grade was; just me frequently hovering around the Toa boys, watching them spar as they prepare to fight the 5th grade Rahi.

 

I would later add a Tahu and 2 Bohroks to my small collection, though I had no one else to enjoy them with by that point since I had moved to another state. But I didn't mind too much, especially since I already had a good idea of the story as far as things went thanks to a story manual I got from the Bionicle trading card game. I do regret not getting a Toa Nuva when I had the chance though. I had all of them in sight and was really psyched for Gali Nuva, but for whatever reason, I didn't get her.

 

Then Mask of Light came out and I fell in love with Takanuva as soon as he appeared in the movie. Unfortunately, by the time I saw it, the Taka sets were all gone and 8-year-old me was so stubborn then that she refused any other set. It wouldn't be until last month that this old childhood regret was finally rectified. Although, I still wish I had at least gotten Kopaka Nuva when I had the chance (he was the last Nuva set on the shelf then and I was still stuck in my Taka or Gali or nothing mindset). Then I managed to convince myself Bionicle was over because Mata Nui had awakened (I didn't know until years later he did not in MoL).

 

I saw LoMN in a commercial and on shelves and turned my nose up. Because I was just stubborn like that, ugh. I did not like the idea of Toa besides the Nuva and Taka, and I thought things were starting over with the Turaga as Toa. And I stayed stubbornly away until late 2006. It was on a trip to Waldenbooks (gosh, I miss that store so much! >.<) where I saw a LOT of Bionicle books on the shelves. Somehow I finally got intrigued about the Bionicle story again despite being turned off by the Piraka earlier in the year (for some reason I thought they were the new Toa and was mad about how ugly and evil looking they are). Might have been the Inika, but then I was kinda annoyed by their design initially as well. Actually, it might have hust been I had seen ads for WoS with the Toa Hordika (and I am such a huge sucker for werebeast changes, heh) and started with reading the WoS books. From there, my old love came creeping back on in, and I quickly picked up the books from the 2005 portion of the story. Before long, I've soaked everything in and finally found the 2006 books irresistable and started reading them as well. And from there my love of Bionicle became a truly permanent part of me. I really came to appreciate the complexity of the story and the amount of character development happening at the time. As a result, I became a very ardent collector of many sets who followed the books and serials religiously. Mr. Farshtey's writing style became the starting model for my own (though it has evolved over the past few years).

 

Even so, I'll admit to drifting away a bit interest-wise during these past four years of Bionicle's end. However, I always had a very fond regard for it and would still occasionally revisit parts of the story. So not surprisingly, as soon as I learned that Bionicle is coming back in 2015, I was overjoyed.

 

And my joy only grew with each piece of information revealed. I was thrilled to see the amount of thought and heart put into this revival, and how big a deal this return is. While some things look a little iffy to me (namely certain aspects of the bios), overall I am very pleased with how things are turning out so far. I know I'm definitely gonna try grabbing as many sets as I can. Based on how much effort was put into this reboot, I am confident that the new story will be at least just as good as the old 2001 storyline. :)

 

As for whether BZP will return to its former highly active state, considering the fact just the news of its return brought people like me back, I would say there's a good chance that the set and story release will do just that. But as with everything, we shall see. ;)

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