Sir Kohran

You suggested he was responsible for it in your first post in this topic. You didn't say outright that he planted them personally, but he'd probably have to if he wanted to avoid questions being asked. I suppose that might be a vague clue, but given that Vakama attributed all his knowledge to his fire in his room (as a cover for his visions) the Matoran might not make the connection between him and something found out in the Wahi. Because we never saw one. You shouldn't something unless it's stated, or at least suggested. I don't see how that matters. I'm just questioning the candidate(s) you seem to have settled on. Are the images around the base really there (ie, canon) or just something for the player? I ask because one of the images is (correct me if I'm wrong) of the robot's face, and that's not something any of the Turaga/Matoran were aware of during their stay on the island. The tunnel is three screens, the clifftop/pass three, then you need to pass three flags to find the warning stone. If you're asking what I'd put the warnings down to, I think the theory about them being a method to keep the Matoran inside the robot sounds reasonable. Why exactly did Takua need to see it? He doesn't seem to have warned any of the others about the Bohrok after seeing the warnings, and when he finally encounters the Bohrok it's simply because he happened to be there after seeing the Makuta confrontation. Carving isn't a Ko-Matoran talent. I think Onewa (as a carver) would be the most likely candidate, though I don't think it matters much anyhow. That's only assuming it was put there at the start of the thousand years, and we have no clues as to that. Do you think they had anyone responsible in mind? Given that an answer was never provided I somehow doubt they did.

The warnings were completely anonymous, so they would hardly be 'advertising' anything about him. No, I just think that if he was planting warnings, he'd surely start in the area he was most familiar with. It's in a snow field of unclear size that's reached from a path in the mountain slopes that joins a clifftop that the Sanctum tunnel opens up to. That's pretty remote from the village. Entrance to what? I think I've established it's not near the village entrance. Your argument was that the warnings were there for the Matoran to see. The problem's that at least one of them is in a place almost no Matoran would visit. There's no need to warn somebody who already knows. No, but that would be more realistic if it was meant to be him responsible for it.

The final fate of the Matoran at North March is never made clear. Kopeke simply says "I fear they will not return." I think bonesiii once theorised that the Ta-Matoran that Jala shows up with at the Kini-Nui battle are meant to be the missing ones returned, but that's never specified either.

We don't know that there weren't some there too, but why just there? Not sure how you would gauge likelihood there. If Vakama's responsible for the warnings, wouldn't they probably be in the area he lives in? That being Ta-Wahi. I don't think the one in Le was, was it? I think it was very near Le-Koro, along a road that was later connected to the tunnel from Onu-Wahi. And the one in Ko was probably near that exit from the village, though admittedly that one is more out there. (Though also easier to spot.) The warning in Ko-Wahi is way out in the drifts, an area that's pretty far from the village and only accessible from there by a somewhat secret door. Takua is also advised that it's a dangerous area even for the Ko-Matoran. The one in Le-Wahi is indeed just by the road, though that might have been due to the lack of any other place in this 'level' to put it. One point of interest is that it appears to be written on the same rock Taipu is snatched from by the Nui Rama.

If he was behind it, isn't it more likely that the warnings would be in Ta-Wahi? But why would they put clues/warnings out in the middle of nowhere where almost no-one would find them? This would require a dead Matoran; I think it's been established that no Matoran died in the thousand year stay on Mata Nui.

The limit of one mask to a character and the disappearance of Suva collections pretty much all comes down to a clear shift away from huge numbers of collectibles after the early years, in which Matoran/Toa/Turaga and even Rahi had Kanohi, Bohrok had Krana, and Rahkshi had Kraata. But from 2004 Vahki, Dark Hunters, Hordika, Piraka and Barraki had no masks at all, though Matoran/Toa/Turaga weren't deprived of their 'default' masks. The role of masks from late 2003 onwards changed to a single extremely powerful and valuable one each year, the possession of which was crucial to the story chapter's outcome. The two reasons I can think of are that collectibles didn't sell as well as expected, and multiple masks granting such a wide array of powers led some characters too powerful for effective situations of danger in the story.

Massive congratulations. Just think, 20,000 posts in five years...that's about 4,000 posts a year. I haven't managed that many in twelve years!

Could it be that Lego's bleak financial state around when the first Bionicle sets were designed necessitated smallness? Larger sets obviously cost more to make and package, and whilst the 'answer' to that may be that they also sell for more, Lego sets generally weren't selling at that point and there was no guarantee Bionicle sets would sell at all. There was also already quite a bit being spent on new molds for masks and tools, so piece counts and sizes were kept minimal, resulting in compact and small sets. Once Bionicle proved to be a strong seller and Lego's overall finances improved, sets steadily increased in size.

Is it a combination of 'gladiator' and 'Matoran'?

Why do you mention the Voya Nui Matoran in this phrase when they included no new molds amongst them? Like the Rahaga (actually moreso than the rahaga, given their lack of year-specific launcher) they were made completely of old pieces, and were actually the most diverse and interesting range of Matoran sets Bionicle ever had. They were essentially a convenient way to use up surplus pieces from previous years (Toa Metru masks being the most obvious).

It wasn't a big problem in the case of characters that never got much development, like Nuparu. It was Kongu turning into the standard Air joker and Jaller being a pretty bland Fire 'lead' that was where a lack of consistency with the old Matoran personalities was most apparent. Appearance plays a big part in a character being recognisable. If an actor playing a movie character is black, tall and bald, then in the sequel is replaced by a short, white actor with long curly hair, then it's going to seem very inconsistent, regardless of how consistent the character's dialogue or personality may be. I meant that we on BZPower were led or at least allowed to think that in 2006 the storyline was going to return to the established heroes - the Toa Nuva and Takanuva. Greg never told us that anyone else would be replacing them. And from a purely storyline perspective, why wouldn't the Nuva be at the forefront? They were experienced, unified and at the height of their power, certainly far superior to a group of newly transformed Toa.

2003 ended with the Nuva and Takanuva powerful and victorious. During the Metru Nui flashback we were told the Nuva would be making their grand return in 2006. But when that year came, the Nuva are nowhere to be seen in the main story and the Inika are now the heroes for saving the All American Rejects or whatever. We're just supposed to be grateful that Greg squeezed the Nuva into a book or two in which they get utterly pulverised, and also that the new Toa have the names of some old Matoran despite having little resemblance in personality or appearance (part of the problem here being that these characters had been defined in media that Greg didn't write). On top of that, just when we were getting used to this new team with their second year, one of them dies, they disappear from the main story and the Nuva are abruptly brought back the year after, though now in weird forms that bear no resemblance to the ones we knew. This is not good storytelling. I don't mind if they want to introduce a fresh set of main characters. But have the courage to kill or retire the old ones first.

The original MNOLG did a lot to make people fall in love with Bionicle. It brought the story and world (as it was in 2001) alive in a way that I don't think any later media ever quite managed. A bright and wild setting, a diverse cast of heroes, mentors and eccentrics, a sense of mystery and discovery, a dark and thrilling climax and finally a moving epilogue. The only real flaw I can think of is that it wasn't larger and longer, and that it didn't continue further into the storyline. The second one was proof that simply being online and featuring Matoran on Mata Nui weren't what it took to make the first a hit. Almost every aspect was disappointing. The overhead view robbed a lot of the visual appeal, having to spend so much time doing chores was extremely boring, trekking across the island took ages, the Kohlii matches were ridiculously hard, and there was almost no action or story content at all. That's without going into the plague of glitches that came with it. It's almost as though the makers took everything that worked about the first one and decided to make it not work. So I'd definitely like to see another online game, but it'd need to get some particular stuff right in order to be truly great.

They have been brought up on here, quite a few times. They're pretty much all leftovers of unused ideas.

I suggest you try your hardest to accomplish those things and still buy what Bionicle you can at the same time. That way they can't say that Bionicle is holding you back in any way.

I had the game when I was younger. It was a glitch-riddled mess that barely ran without crashing every 7 minutes. Even when it did work, it was still a really bad game. There's also the fact that almost half the promised levels were dropped so it could be rushed to release.

If they did it would've required a lot of new animation work, given that nothing from the Toa's mission is included (there's just one Bohrok episode, pre-Kal, that features a Toa at all).

The animations do miss out quite a bit. In 2001 the major events are nearly all featured in the MNOLG's cutscenes, and it's only background details that are missing (this largely appearing in the gameplay's conversations). In 2002 absolutely nothing from the Toa's confrontation with the Bahrag or transformation into Nuva is depicted, despite it being crucial to the end of the Bohrok storyline. And by 2003 the second MNOLG only has a couple of cutscenes, all focusing on Hahli (the main storyline being covered by the movie by then).

He's already stated he has no plans to continue them, and he has plenty of other stuff to write anyway.

Though it has its share of flaws, it's not a disaster, and at times it recalls some of Bionicle's better years. It was nice to finally have another movie, but also a shame it was a bit too late to rescue Bionicle as a whole.

I first became aware of the line in early 2001 through the Lego Magazine. At first I assumed it was another Slizers, some decent figures but nothing special beyond that. Once I bought a few Toa, visited the website, and started playing the MNOLG, it was clear this line was beyond both of the previous lines.

Because it's probably a photoshopped mock-up of the actual box rather than a photo of the final box. This is the image in question. The Super Smash Bros. logo is the circle with the offset cross. I had never noticed this! So is it likely that a Super Smash Bros game box was the starting point for the 'mock-up', and its logo is a last trace that wasn't removed?

I think 'lazy' is a bit unfair. Following a storyline should be enjoyable, not tedious, and to be enjoyable it needs to be fairly easy to understand. Bionicle did begin that way with its MNOLG and movies, but steadily lost that appeal when it isolated an ever larger storyline almost completely in vast series of books that only some people could buy.

I was talking about the complex storyline, something which only began to emerge from about the Metru Nui flashback, and sales were increasingly unimpressive after that point, which led to the cancellation in 2009. 2001-2003 was a very simple storyline.

A complex storyline isn't necessarily terrible by itself. It was more down to a number of particular problems with Bionicle's that steadily undermined the line. The first is that there were dozens of books and comics being released continually, and the vast majority had to be read for the story to be fully understood. That's already a fairly big ask for most people. To make the matter worse, these were only available for a limited period of time (one year at the most), after which they and their story content with them became forever inaccessible through official means. Meanwhile, a lot of the online content that did remain accessible was non-canon and useless for following the storyline overall. Another problem was that no one story medium ever told the entire story, with movies, comics and books all to be kept track of. This lack of a central medium to rely on left many fans uncertain of where to start or what to turn to. The corresponding toyline was releasing six to twelve or more new characters every year, and each one needed to be featured somewhere in the storyline. After a while, that's a lot of characters to keep track of, especially when relatively few of them are being permanently removed (death occurring a bit less frequently in Bionicle than in other storylines). Another somewhat connected problem was that the story content had to prominently feature characters that were sets in a particular year, and sets were often new characters. This meant that the featured cast was often very different from one year to the next, and Bionicle lacked a main character or group to follow throughout. A consistent and likeable hero or group of heroes is important to making a story appealing. (The 'transformation' gimmick did keep heroes present for a second or later year, but fans weren't always happy with seeing characters' appearances change radically for no particular story reason.) All this considered, I don't think anyone can argue that Bionicle's handling of its complex storyline was at all effective.