Christian Faber's TTV Interview

[Xboxtravis]

Its a long one, but earlier today TTV did a nearly three hour long interview with Christian Faber. Topics included discussion on Biovival and Faber's history with Bionicle. Give it a listen here (a few content labels, there is some adult language during the live stream so a heads up on that):
 

A few things I found most interesting:

• Biovival is still very much in a pitch phase, but is also meant to be a fan interaction story. A lot more existentialism with a heavy focus on environmental and humanist themes, that treats the original Bionicle story as a sort of "founding myth" and is meant to be much more fan focused and mature in tone. As for physical toys? Very much our existing Bionicle collections, it seems to be a pipe dream to have new Lego products down the line but for now Biovival is meant to remind Lego about how active the Bionicle fandom still is especially after G2 left a sour taste in their mouth. Don't expect much of a strict adherence to canon, instead returning to mystery and mysticism to "find out what is underneath the robot." To me it sounds like Faber is treating it as a fan fiction project that gives Bionicle a bit more leverage back in official Lego eyes. 
• Faber was very hush hush on it, but he suggested his standalone venture since leaving Advanced in 2015 is once again somehow "consulting with Lego." If that is part of Biovival or something else, he didn't really clarify but Faber does still have some relationship with Lego currently.
• Hero Factory was set in the present day (i.e. 2010-2014 during the theme's run). There was a lot more story planned that can't totally be shared because the film rights are owned by Universal, and until those rights expire much of Hero Factory's world will have to remain buried under NDA's. However Faber suggested that in 2010 we can imagine that Hero Factory "extended its service district" to include Earth, showing that a lot more Hero Factory and human interactions were planned beyond just the initial ads in the 2010 Lego Club and tv spots showing children "calling the heroes." So it seems an Earth bound present day adventure would have happened somewhere in Hero Factory eventually, and that Hero Factory was intended to be a smaller window into a much larger world. 
• Faber mentioned working in a collaborative space with Bionicle, mentioning what it was like working with Greg and Binkmeister at Lego. 
• The mask codes in 2001 are actually initials of various Lego designers.
• Faber's initial pitch for a ball joint system in the 1990's that lead to Slizer then onto Bionicle was an early response to Lego's financial struggles of the era, noting that the mood coming from Lego employees in Billund was pretty grim as the company was already laying people off and restructuring. So Faber's incentive to design an action figure system was to "create a product kids are interested in, not their parents" and cheap enough for kids to buy on their own. He then pointed out that G2 in 2015 was a result of Lego "suffering from to much success."
• When asked about "is love canon?" Faber tried to recollect various story pitches the team discussed early on trying to figure out how romance and reproduction worked in the Bionicle or "robot" world. He pointed out various ideas about how the male and female robots would create new life like humans while also being Lego friendly; and how discovering "what is love" would be a part of the robot experience as commentary on our own humanity. However it seems as the line's focus was refined these ideas were dropped, leading more towards the canon we know that Matoran were created by machines within the GSR that Greg recognized as official canon. Faber noted that moving to Rebel Nature with human characters is primarily a way to address some of the shortcomings of a "robot-centric" story, hoping to show love in a way that can "teach lessons to my eventual grandchildren." He then pointed out how storytellers such as Hans Christian Anderson have long lasting legacies about their comments on human nature, due to the story telling medium. 
• When asked about Good Guy, Faber had a good chuckle once the hosts showed him a photo of it. He then named it "Troggle Morph" half jokingly, before reminding people not to actually quote that as canon. 
• Faber pointed out ideas of collaborative creation spaces online, and how he believes NFT's can allow artists to better profit off their work. He mentioned an idea that Cryoshell might eventually do an NFT music release, and is even considering potential CD and Vinyl releases for Cryoshell music as well. 
• Faber has a file of behind the scenes Lego productions he worked on that he hopes to share someday.

[Zidonaro]

So biovival is basically a Fanwork from Faber.

[Lenny7092]

Faber always keeps fans to be fans by using Biovival. It’s a cool thing because we love Bionicle, and it makes pessimistic fans from thinking about G2’s disaster. Hey, we can forgive Bionicle and Hero Factory for how hard they try. Faber does seem to relate to this when he was talking about Hero Factory: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/universal-lego-hero-factory-robots-movie-328785 

I once asked Faber in a comment in one of his Instagram posts if he had ever thought about Bionicle G1 and HF sharing the same universe due to the similarities. He Liked my comment. 

Anyway, it’s rude for what the fans are saying about Faber’s intentions. It’s like what I said in my first paragraph.

[Zidonaro]

51 minutes ago, Lenny7092 said:

Faber always keeps fans to be fans by using Biovival. It’s a cool thing because we love Bionicle, and it makes pessimistic fans from thinking about G2’s disaster. Hey, we can forgive Bionicle and Hero Factory for how hard they try. Faber does seem to relate to this when he was talking about Hero Factory: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/universal-lego-hero-factory-robots-movie-328785 

I once asked Faber in a comment in one of his Instagram posts if he had ever thought about Bionicle G1 and HF sharing the same universe due to the similarities. He Liked my comment. 

Anyway, it’s rude for what the fans are saying about Faber’s intentions. It’s like what I said in my first paragraph.

Baiting fans for over 3 years isn`t exactly commendable either.