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Folks who vehemently denied that Bionicle was ending, how do you justi


Wazdakka

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-justify that it did?

 

I haven't been particularly active on BZP lately, so just before Bionicle ended, I was distressed to find a bevy of threads in which people butted heads over whether the line would continue past Summer 2016. In particular, there was serious vehemence against so-called "doomsayers" ... but they were proven right. I'm not trying to point fingers or attack certain community members, but I'm just honestly very curious as to how the gentlefolks who shot down the "naysayers" feel, why they had the opinions that they did, and how that meshes with the reality of the Bionicle G2 situation.

 

Edit: I completely borked the title. If some mod can clean that up to "Folks who vehemently denied that Bionicle was ending..." , I'd be much obliged.

Edited by Wazdakka
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G1's end was a little more obvious in retrospect, what with having one line of small sets at the very end.  Denying rumors about G2's end made a ton of sense considering that all evidence we had towards its end were ... rumors. There was no concrete evidence towards its end until LEGO's official announcement.
 
It's not "vehemently denying" anything. It's just not believing rumors.

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We believed it was behaving like the oil market. Small amount of product in demand.

We had reports saying Europe was selling them like hotcakes.

Sets were starting to be design to a higher level.

Everything pointed to atleast one more year or more.

 

We had no information beside Doomsayers that it was ending.

Edited by ToaTimeLord
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To be honest, most of my G2 experience was colored by the fact that I couldn't by most of the sets in my country, so I feel the tiniest bit of relief of not having to divert most of my spare money towards shipping the sets at triple the price.

 

The story always left me wanting to know more, to the point that I started a fanfic just to have a satisfactory narrative.

 

Now, I've never defended any particular posture. I knew the line wasn't doing as well to have it be sold on México, but it was never a strategic market to begin with. The situation in Europe seemed to point out to it lasting the three promised years. The last episodes of Journey to one come out and we are left thinking the worst. A day later they announced G2's cancellation. So it wasn't a matter of trying to put down the "naysayers", we sincerely didn't think that Bionicle would end the way it did.

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I personally saw no sign of Bionicle doing badly until the official announcement of the cancellation. Where I sat, all the facts seemingly supported the stance that it will continue. I mean, this is just one small country, but the sets sold really well here in Hungary. It was probably just wishful thinking, but I assumed the same was the case everywhere in the world except the USA.

 

You can imagine what a gutpunch it was when the announcement came. Like lightning from a (seemingly) clear sky. 

 

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Mostly I was just amused that the people running around claiming that it was ending weren't doing anything else productive. It's fine to debate market analyses and whatever, but most of the doomsayers were repeating the same line over and over, which isn't a good argument anyway, nor is it productive to discussion. Regardless of the veracity in hindsight, it was a topic that got old really quickly.

 

Even in retrospect, I think a lot of the "evidence" put forth was flimsy at best, but some people just thought stirring the pot was the best course of action.

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Mostly I was just amused that the people running around claiming that it was ending weren't doing anything else productive. It's fine to debate market analyses and whatever, but most of the doomsayers were repeating the same line over and over, which isn't a good argument anyway, nor is it productive to discussion. Regardless of the veracity in hindsight, it was a topic that got old really quickly.

 

Even in retrospect, I think a lot of the "evidence" put forth was flimsy at best, but some people just thought stirring the pot was the best course of action.

How did you feel after fan media day in Billund with the NDA you had to sign? I'm just curious. I noticed you were very quite on the topic until the official announcement came out.

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Mostly I was just amused that the people running around claiming that it was ending weren't doing anything else productive. It's fine to debate market analyses and whatever, but most of the doomsayers were repeating the same line over and over, which isn't a good argument anyway, nor is it productive to discussion. Regardless of the veracity in hindsight, it was a topic that got old really quickly.

 

Even in retrospect, I think a lot of the "evidence" put forth was flimsy at best, but some people just thought stirring the pot was the best course of action.

How did you feel after fan media day in Billund with the NDA you had to sign? I'm just curious. I noticed you were very quite on the topic until the official announcement came out.

 

Didn't particularly trust myself not to say anything stupid, so I deliberately avoided that part of the discussion and instead posted about whatever else came up =P.

 

There's bits I think were probably more concrete than others; the spotty availability, for instance, wasn't unprecedented but that late into the cycle was indicative. And I think the plot itself was hinted to be wrapping up in JTO. But a lot of the arguments came back to "G2 sucked in the first place because they didn't care!" (and, y'know, this became a rallying cry AFTER the cancellation announcement too) which was just hilariously false.

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Flaky evidence I couldn't buy and a healthy dose of hope put me in denial. Alas, it was for nothing.

No it wasn't. You wanted Bionicle to continue to live on, and it will forever in our hearts. I think if everyone held more hope then I think the line could have been saved.
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While I really didn't get into the debates about whether Bionicle was ending at the time they were taking place, I did personally believe that Gen 2 Bionicle had at least one more year in it because it had been stated by Lego itself that there was a three year story plan. That was my main reason for thinking that Gen 2 Bionicle wasn't going to end this year. 

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Flaky evidence I couldn't buy and a healthy dose of hope put me in denial. Alas, it was for nothing.

No it wasn't. You wanted Bionicle to continue to live on, and it will forever in our hearts. I think if everyone held more hope then I think the line could have been saved.

 

Hope and a quarter'll give ya 25¢.

 

I'm in the won't-believe-it-until-I-see-it group. Just wowed it was this quick.

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Based on precedent, it seemed extremely unlikely to me that Bionicle G2 would end so soon. Both Bionicle G1 and Hero Factory lasted two years after the decision was made to discontinue them, in order to allow time to develop a successor. And while there was strong evidence that Bionicle G2 was underperforming, there was no strong evidence supporting the leap from that to the fact that it would be ending this year, without so much as a small final wave in 2017. The limited availability of the summer sets was consistent with the experiences of some other themes that had been on the brink of ending, like Ultra Agents, but also with the experiences of surviving themes like Technic and Speed Champions.

 

Honestly, the fact that this abrupt cancellation defied precedent to such a degree makes it quite difficult to predict what to expect next. I know from speaking and watching interviews with LEGO employees that constraction as a category and the CCBS as a system will definitely live on into 2017 and beyond, but in what form? Will they be limited to spin-offs of larger and more successful themes, like Star Wars or Super Heroes or Ninjago or Nexo Knights? And if so, will that be a temporary change while they develop a new independent constraction IP, or will it be the new status quo? I guess only time will tell.

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2 sets missing out of a wave for months(uxar and ketar) in 3 stores always same ones) never got em for months after the uniters arrived late and i knew it was a bad sign.

The europe fire sale is no rumor. Yeah the prices of the uniters wave was permanently to 50/75% off. It's as if it's permanent black friday at this European toys'r'us in Iceland. Kopaka got sold in less than 2 weeks after the change and i barely got the last one out of 3 left, my prediction was true since me and my friend visit a local mall on a weekly basis where that toys'r'us is and i was right...the weekend after, the kopaka were sold and i could've won a money bet if i wanted.

Edited by necross hordika

 

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I felt as though everything presented, while just rumors, still wouldn't be enough to prove that the line was a complete disaster and wouldn't be continued to it's third year. The fact that it had 3 years planned at the very least indicated to me that the line would continue at least until that wrapped up, so I felt that the shelves filled with precious-waves' sets didn't indicate the poor sales of the line as well as it did.

Edited by jed1ndy

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To this day I am convinced that there were no conclusive indications of an imminent doom - everything posted by the doomsayers was inconclusive and could have been interpreted in many different ways other than an imminent doom. I hold the opinion that this higher standard for accepting the conclusivity of posted reports - required by me and others who countered the doomsayers - is a far more valid approach than the approach of the doomsayers.

 

Now the problem is that a higher standard and more valid approach doesn't guarantee a successful prediction - it only increases its chance. However everything that isn't guaranteed can fail and in this case it failed. Despite that I certainly won't lower my standards for considering rumors to be conclusive indications because of this - As I said in a previous thread the day Bionicle Generation 2 collapsed - If a weather forecast fails to predict the weather next week, but a common man who had a quarter liter of gin on Friday evening manages to predict it accurately, does it mean that meteorologists should trhow away their climate models and satellite imagery and instead just drink a lot of gin day after day? One small unsuccess doesn't topple well serving methodology and one small success doesn't shoot randomness to the stars. That is the reason why I don't feel ashamed and why I proudly hold to the view I had during those discussions.

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I knew it because the Lego store employees at my location let me in on the secret that Bionicle was being discontinued. They got the email before we did, stating that a collection of themes, one being bionicle, were set to be cancelled by the end of the year and that they weren't going to stock the summer sets. It was so bad that even they had to RETURN their summer wave stock of bionicle sets. It's so sad I look in the back room of the lego store and see where the bionicle products were supposed to be stored, with a piece of paper with the old bionicle logo as an indicator, now cold and lifeless. I tried to warn the masses about the cancellation but I was repeatedly told I didn't know what I was talking about. I suppose that's fine though, I understand G2 was not as bad as some made it out to be safe they hoped it was going to go on but we all had to face the music some way or another. Maybe they are just fine tuning bionicle for another relaunch in the future.

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I really don't see what the fuss is about :P G2 was pretty bad story wise. I mean most of the sets were good, but even HF's storyline was better.

 

I'm fine to wait another five or so years for it to come back. :P

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Because up until the official announcement, there was no definite indication that it was ending, and stating "it's ending" was entirely unjustified, even if it ended up being the case.

This.

 

Plainly really I couldn't dare to believe such crud of it's end. So what if it's over now? Back then it wouldn't have mattered, and it certainly doesn't now. BIONICLE was in a rut from the start, but instead of just pulling it out of said rut, LEGO cancelled it. Well, what are we to do then? Nothing! So shut it, this happened once before. And when that happened we hated LEGO for it, and now that it happened again why are we even surprised? There is nothing to justify on our half, those of us doubting the naysayers. It's over, whatever. Move along and do something else.

 

As quoted before, Bfahome said it the best. there was no definite indication. And I share the same justification as he.

 

My justification is nigh. It's over, that's all. To say to just "Move Along" when G1 ended would have been an offence to it's legacy, but G2 doesn't have much of a legacy, rather a small footnote that must be moved on from.

Edited by Toa Imrukii

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