Happy 20th anniversary, Bionicle!

[Lenny7092]

Hi, guys! Today is Bionicle’s 20th anniversary! I said this because today is the day where the first Bionicle comic book, with Kopaka and Pohatu meeting up with the other Toa Mata, came out in the US on July 1, 2001, which marks as Bionicle’s birth date. True, Bionicle came out in Europe in December 2000/January 2001, but hey. 
 

Now, let’s all celebrate Bionicle because we are fans of it, you know. I mean, do you think Bionicle had a good history? For me, I believe it kind of did. There have been sad moments, like Bionicle’s two cancellations and cancellations of some things in Bionicle, like The Legend of Mata Nui game and the fifth and sixth direct-to-video movies, but I did enjoy other things, which matter the most. 
 

Let me explain the life of Bionicle for nostalgia. 
When Lego was suffering a financial crisis, it tried Slizers/Throwbots, which is the first constraction theme in 1999/2000, RoboRiders in 2000/2001, the second constraction theme, and Lego Star Wars, but these three themes couldn’t save Lego, despite their success and popularity. However, that’s where Bionicle came in and saved Lego in 2001. Bionicle is known to have a lot of sets with various stuff in them. It also has an extraordinary story, as it is about bio-mechanical heroes called Toa and their allies fighting the evil Makuta Teridax and various evil forces and protecting their people and worlds from them while collecting magical objects to save the universe from the evil forces. It goes like this: 

1. 2001 - The Toa Mata collecting Kanohi while fighting Rahi with Infected Kanohi. 
2. 2002 - The Toa collecting Krana while fighting the Bohrok. 
3. Early 2003 - The Toa Nuva fighting the Bohrok-Kal. 
4. Late 2003 - The Toa fighting Rahkshi and the Search for the Seventh Toa. 
5. 2004 - The Toa Metru finding the six Grear Disks while fighting Vahki and Dark Hunters. It’s a prequel. 
6. 2005 - The Toa Hordika fighting the Visorak to rescue the Matoran. It’s a sequel to the 2004 story year and it happened before the events of the 2001 story year. Plus, Vakama fight against the Makuta of Metru Nui and the Dark Hunters. 
7. 2006 - The one is where the Late 2003 story year left off. The Toa Inika fighting the Piraka while finding the Mask of Life. 
8. 2007 - The Toa Mahri fighting the Barraki while finding the Mask of Life again. 
9. 2008 - The Toa Nuva, who are wearing the adaptive armor, fighting against the most skilled members of the Brotherhood of Makuta while trying to reawaken the Great Spirit Mata Nui. 
10. 2009 - The Glatorian fighting the Skrall, who were attacking Bara Magna, and Mata Nui, in his 7-foot-tall form, going on a quest to help the Glatorian save Bara Magna from the Skrall. 
11. Early 2010 - Mata Nui and his allies fighting Teridax and his allies while Mata Nui is trying to restore Spherus Magna, which is the main point of the G1 story. 
12. Events after Teridax’s defeat. That’s not finished, sadly. 
 

Along the way, the story has been told through primarily chapter books, the Mata Nui online games, comics, four direct-to-video movies, online animations, and online story serials. There are also guide books along the way. There are also play sets in 2005-2007. It became so popular and successful that it is one of Lego’s greatest themes in history! G1’s toy line was going to continue after 2009, but Lego cancelled it wrongfully, so that’s where the story got rushed and we got the Bionicle Stars in 2010.

Lego used another constraction theme called Hero Factory to keep the constraction category alive in late 2010-2014 for Bionicle and keep up its legacy, even if HF is second-rate. It at first used Bionicle’s set pieces in late 2010, but also introduced the CCBS (Character and Creature Building System), which some other system themes had used later on. Like Bionicle, HF has a big, but much smaller, story with some similarities. Its story was told through mainly a TV series of 11 specials and five chapter books. In May 2012, The Hollywood Reporter said that Universal is trying to get the rights for a live-action Hero Factory movie, even through there are no updates about it since. The story goes like this. 
1. Late 2010 - The Heroes fighting Von Nebula and his henchmen. 
2. Early 2011 - The Heroes using their upgrades to fight against the Fire Lord and his three henchmen in a fuel station. 
3. Late 2011 - The Heroes using their animal-based armor to fight against the Witch Doctor and his mind-controlled animals on Quatros. 
4. 2012 - The Heroes catching and recapturing villains who escaped from their prison while fighting against the Black Phantom, who is responsible for the breakout and attacking the Hero Factory. 
5. 2013 - The Heroes fighting against Brain parasites and their minions that they are mind-controlling. 
6. 2014 - The Heroes using their battle machines to fight against the Jumpers in Antropolis City. 

In May 2012, The Hollywood Reporter said that Universal Studios is trying to get the rights for a live-action Hero Factory movie, even thought there are no updates about it since. 
HF was brutally and wrongfully cancelled in 2014 for some reason while its story was not finished and had some unresolved things, sadly. 

However, that’s where Bionicle came back in 2015, but as a reboot. This version utilized CCBS and used some elements from G1. The new story is told through primarily online animations in 2015 and a Netflix show called Bionicle: The Journey to One in 2016, and three chapter books and two graphic novels. It goes like this: 

1. 2015 - The Toa fighting against Skull villains while collecting the Golden Masks of Power, finding and reawakening Ekimu, and saving the Mask of Creation from the villains. 
2. 2016 - The Toa fighting Umarak and then Makuta. 

Sadly, Lego had some plans to continue G2, but they brutally and wrongfully cancelled Bionicle again in July 29, 2016, so the ending is rushed. 
 

Along the way, Farshtey was doing three story serials after the Early 2010 story, but he only finished one called Sahmad’s Tale in July 1, 2011. He hadn’t continued the other two since then. However, he is kind enough to answer our questions and let the fan do some canonization contests, even though the G1 story hasn’t actually ended. 
 

Also sadly, there wasn’t a Hero Factroy G2 to keep the constraction category alive after Bionicle G2 ended in 2016, so the category disappeared in 2018 while Lego Star Wars had it in 2015-2018. Along the way, there is a lot of inconsistencies, and quality and quantity declined gradually. There isn’t a word about Bionicle or HF since 2016. However, Lego made some Bionicle references in some sets and The Lego Movie Cinematic Universes. Lego talked about Bionicle a little every year. Even non-Lego things reference them,a don’t there are three articles in 2020 about the themes. Plus, fans had dug up some unused content from the themes, like The Legend of Mata Nui, and the themes’ legacies have been stable, as we see fans doing some fan-related stuff, like YouTube videos, MOCs, fan online games, a fan-made version of The Legend of Mata Nui called Rebuilt, which is still updating, and fan stories. Christian Faber, one of Bionicle and Hero Factory’s creators, is dedicated to convincing Lego to bring back the themes, and fans are trying to make Bionicle projects in Lego Ideas to try to turn them into sets to convince Lego into bringing the themes back. I’m looking the Lego 90th anniversary project from there in 2022 and Lego Ideas’ Sodoka’s project in Brick Link because they would most likely do the trick due to the Bionicle fans’ intense love for them (well, there were some trolls in Lego Ideas, but I hope that won’t stop our wishes from happening, and I bet our wishes can most likely happen). Let’s all hope that these projects can bring the themes back and our wishes come true (don’t listen to these guys’ pessimistic comments because they actually don’t mean anything, and they said them because Bionicle and HF aren’t there): 

It’s so sad to see some pessimistic fans whenever Bionicle and HF were around. We want the glory days in 2001-2009 back, you know. So, yeah. Let’s hope for the Lego Ideas projects. 

In my experience, I love Bionicle since day one. It’s always my main thing in life whenever I get bored. It’s one of the very first franchises that I like in my life. It’s my childhood. I grow up with it. It taught me in valuable things in life, like having friends and good writing. It helped me with my middle school stuff. I collected most of the sets. I enjoyed G1 a lot. I have a lot of good memories from G1. Sadly, when the first cancellation happened, I was devastated, and I am not completely happy without Bionicle. That caused me to have a terrible at high school and college. It was good thing that HF came to my life to cheer me up. I enjoyed HF pretty well. I always believe that HF shares the same universe as Bionicle G1, and it’s possible that way. I was sad when HF got cancelled, but Bionicle G2 happened, which make me so happy that I cried in tears of happiness. I went to New York Comic Con 2014 to see that. G2 felt like The Amazing Spider-Man movie series in 2012-2014 when it feels less good than G1, but it is good for some reasons. When the second cancellation happened, I am extremely depressed again. I am so bored. I have been waiting for Bionicle and Hero Factory to come back, and I hope they will in a much more beautiful way. If they had continued, they would have had a TV show similar to a Ninjago’s and a live-action Cinematic Universe, but with these Lego Ideas, I believe that could happen for Bionicle’s and HF’s sakes. The themes inspired me to love other things since their cancellations, including Transformers, DC Comics, Marvel, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man, Ninjago, and Ben 10. Basically, Bionicle and Hero Factory are Lego’s own Transformers from Hasbro, SpongeBob SquarePants from Nickelodeon, Mega Man from Capcom, Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega, Mario from Nintendo, Batman from DC Comics, and Spider-Man from Marvel in terms of mascots for the constraction category. The themes are one of the things that inspired me to draw my friends as superheroes, which I have been doing since July 1, 2014. Ninjago isn’t the only mascot for Lego. I emailed Lego in September 2020 to have them think about bringing Bionicle and Hero Factory back soon in 2021 or 2022 and following my ideas to make them better. Their reply is vague, but they like my ideas and understand how I feel. When I see Marvel Studios, the makers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having problems with sharing the Spider-Man, Hulk, and Namor film rights with Sony Pictures and Universal, I keep on telling MS through social media to get the tithe back completely because I don’t want the MCU to end up like Bionicle and Hero Factory. 
 

So, how would you guys celebrate Bionicle’s 20th anniversary? What are your good memories, hopes, and dreams? You thinking the same thing as I do? Let’s all hope that Lego would celebrate Bionicle’s 20th anniversary somehow and very good, and bring back Bionicle and Hero Factory and follow my ideas to go with that. Five years has been too long, you know. I hope you guys can understand that. I’m a dedicated fan who doesn’t give up hope that Bionicle and Hero Factory are the huge parts of my heart because I love building action figures and reading cool stories about them. 
 

Happy 20th anniversary to Bionicle!

Edited July 1, 2021 by Lenny7092

[Axelford]

On 7/2/2021 at 4:15 AM, Lenny7092 said:

Happy 20th anniversary to Bionicle!

Indeed. I've only been a fan since 2015 so I've never known the community when it was more active, I think I am going to celebrate by participating in my first Collab (Dark Hunters reimagined) Actually marking Bionicle day on my calendar (All previous years I've forgotten and let it pass by) and doing all I can to get my Ideas project to 10k before then. 

Also I think I'll do a drawing or something that can be a nice screen saver.

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

To me, the anniversary passed several months ago, due to Europe getting the first comic and sets some time before America... but that said, I'm also well aware that I'm in the minority here so I won't make a big deal of that xD

Regarding celebrating the anniversary, I've got an A2-size poster project in the works as my contribution. It, evidently, is not going to be ready for the day itself; but I hope to have it finished by the end of the summer at least, and naturally I'll upload it to the art forum here when it's done ^^

I dunno, it's crazy to think that 2001 was so long ago. Time kinda seems to have been on pause, for me, ever since I finished university (a while ago now!), so that doesn't feel like it should be anywhere near so long ago as it is. Either way, though, Bionicle's definitely left its impression on me; most especially on my creative process, since so much of the world-building for my various projects now, in particular, is influenced by the MNOG and other aspects of the early Bionicle story, as I try to capture something of the atmosphere that so enticed me into them as a kid. And who knows if I'd have got so into making stories and such, if I hadn't cut my teeth on writing in BZPower's library forum for several years first?

Those works were awful, please don't look for them! But the fact remains that they were an important part of my creative development.

Happy Anniversary, my old friend Bionicle! Good to have known you all these years ^^

[BionicleBean]

i'm looking forward to it like a rascal. 

(it's a mr gum reference)

Edited July 21, 2021 by Heyzorks