Fry

I've seen that before, but I they are very rare. I think

It's pretty good, It is very common for these things to lack decent pictures

Boxes are for big sets. Canisters are for average sets. Bags are for small sets. This was the way it was for 20 years until everything started changing recently

I picked 2015 because of the novelty of seeing old sets being redone in 2016. It always kinda felt like after Lego releases a line and or wave of sets, they just forget about them. Technic Star Wars anyone? I doubt anyone has thought of those since 2002

I'll be honest, I'm rather tired right now and basing this on thoughts I had at work, where I'm usually bored to the point of delirium.

 

We all know that BIONICLE ended with the resolution (death of Makuta; Mata Nui going dormant) of the original problem presented (Makuta putting Mata Nui to sleep) without resolving the myriad of other new issues, among them being:

 

1. what Lewa, Artakha, Vezon, and everyone else in that weird little group is doing;

2. the Red Star's malfunction and how it relates to Gaardus;

3. Zaria, Orde, Chiara, and Gelu's quest to find the Great Beings;

4. Marendar and what he/it's doing, and arguably most of all;

5. the Dark Hunter-Barraki alliance;

6. Velika's plot to conquer Spherus Magna

 

This has left hardly anyone satisfied with BIONICLE's ending and all of these loose ends. Even if LEGO hadn't canceled the line, it's unlikely all of these plot threads would have been resolved as nicely as the original Mata Nui-Makuta conflict. However, I realized that the sensation this left me with is similar to how I feel at the end of various historical documentaries.

 

World War II documentaries come to mind, namely ​WWII From Space, but many other apply: they almost always end with a satisfying conclusion of Germany's defeat, but often emphasizing that the Cold War was just beginning, largely as a direct result of World War II. Naturally, it would be impossible for a single documentary or even a series to satisfyingly discuss every single aspect of any historical event, because all of them intertwine and bleed in to the unending (and largely un-beginning-ing) narrative of human history.

 

I realized that BIONICLE, as a credit to how well the storyline was able to imitate the chaotic nature of real life, can similarly never be concluded properly, at least not without compromising this honestly impressive acceptance of history's non-terminating nature. The idea of, say, the original six Toa riding their Kikanalo off into the sunset, every single bad guy defeated and peace guaranteed forever, exists as a rallying point to constantly strive toward, but, when you really think about it, is unattainable.

 

There's probably a briefer way of saying all this, but I just felt it so necessary to make this theory (of sorts) make as much sense as possible, because I see so much frustration and disappointment at BIONICLE's conclusion (my own included), even though the original conflict was resolved, with everything we received outside of it being a gift from the storytellers with no promise of a similarly satisfying conclusion. My general thesis here is that BIONICLE's loose story ends are, rather than a detriment, a testament to the series' realistic approach to telling the story of a world similar to our own.

At this point in the game, you might as well make your own headcanon ending. Or just ask Greg. He's still on Lego forums, right?

 

Bionicle is not a particularly dark, grim, gritty line, as you would expect from a story about colourful plastic robots who use the power of "unity" which can almost be summarised as "friendship".

 

However, G1 WAS darker, grimmer, and grittier than G2. It's nowhere near franchises such as Warhammer 40K, but the death of multiple protagonists, insane beings, the bad guys appearing to win, and that edgy Inika trailer make it stand out.

 

 

Back on topic, I must confess that the aforementioned grittiness being missing from G2 made me lose interest in it. I probably would have loved just as much as G1 if I was 10 years old, but the lack of grit makes it difficult for my older self to enjoy G2.

 

More connections to G1, more complicated sets, and better animations are other things which would have improved my opinion of G2 considerably.

Found the other edgelord.

 

​Also the sets are pretty complicated considering literally all of them have gear functions that take quite some time to put together, but I have a feeling you're one of those people who have not bought or constructed a single set and are judging them by images you saw online. The animations are pretty darn good too but you were probably expecting uber-violent monochrome schlock with edgy dialogue since you want "darkness" so badly.

 

>bionicle

>in anyway being edgy

lol, do people actually think this?

 

Story, absolutely. Love the story, love the world. Sets (despite having ~130 of them) were almost always a secondary thing to me.

 

And yeah, I think it was pretty awesome that Greg ended up writing most of the serials merely for the fun of writing them. They weren't to sell sets (heck, a lot of the characters in the serials were never even made as sets), they were just written to expand the world and lore. That shows the passion that he and others had for the brand.

For what it's worth, some of the serials WERE written to sell the sets. "Dreams of Destruction" focused on telling the story of store exclusive characters Lesovikk, Sarda, Idris, and Karzahni, who were mostly absent from the year's main story. Likewise, "Brothers in Arms" in 2008 existed to shine a spotlight on Vultraz and Mazeka.

 

I do think it's nice that Greg did write some of the serials and short stories largely for the enjoyment of writing them, as it shows how much he cared about the franchise. Unfortunately, they are also part of why I would choose sets over story: the serials that didn't focus on characters from the current sets often felt aimless and disjointed, especially as the core story approached and eventually reached its conclusion. As side-stories they were satisfactory, but it was their connections with the set-driven core story that gave them a real sense of purpose, instead of just feeling like a bunch of errand-running interrupted by plot twists. The "big picture" in the core story tended to be planned out years in advance, whereas the serials helped fill in the gaps in that big picture. Having that spontaneous cliffhanger-heavy style of the serials without the more purposeful, set-driven main story backing it up is like having mortar with no bricks (no pun intended).

 

I really highly doubt that the books in anyway affected sales. I had never once read any of them while the series was still on going

I think the "how" question is asking more about what sort of software was used, which I have to admit would be interesting to learn. Tohu's been the logo since well before I was here.

This is what I meant by how

How and when was the site logo created?

I hate how they've changed the colors of all the modern pegs/pins to be really bright and easy to see. If you ask me, they should all be black and or grey, like they were pre-2002.

I also loath Toa Lhikan and Keetongu because everything about that set was out of place

Story, absolutely. Love the story, love the world. Sets (despite having ~130 of them) were almost always a secondary thing to me.

 

And yeah, I think it was pretty awesome that Greg ended up writing most of the serials merely for the fun of writing them. They weren't to sell sets (heck, a lot of the characters in the serials were never even made as sets), they were just written to expand the world and lore. That shows the passion that he and others had for the brand.

On a semi-related note, I find it funny when people ask Greg about their novel of a theory and he essentially says "Yea, okay I guess that's canon"

 

 however, I suppose that G2 may also be discussed despite the obvious answer to this question when applied to it.

 

"I personally dislike G2 therefore obviously everyone else does too"

 

Oh the arrogance...

So, you actually like the G2 story?

*ose

If you had to pick between the story, and the sets, which would you choose, and why? This is mainly concerning G1, however, I suppose that G2 may also be discussed despite the obvious answer to this question when applied to it.

Also, before somebody writes a book about it, yes; I, and everyone else on BZPower understand that without the sets, there would be no Bionicle

Given what I've said regarding the topic in the past, I'd say that it's pretty easy to guess which category I fall under; story, story - always the story.

And yes, I also think that Bionicle would be a lot less interesting if it was strictly a story with no sets, but if I had to choose, I would probably choose a good story.

Bionicle initially started with the stories crafted to sell more Bionicle sets; the hunt for the Kanohi masks, the hunt for the Krana, Krana-Kal, Krataa, Kanoka Disks, and weird ball things(?)/squids. If you ask me, though, later on, Greg seemed to be writing solely for the sake of the story rather than sales.

Post thoughts

Shogun

I mean, aren't they all the same character?

 

 

maybe if they can overcome these flaws and enhance the story I believe bionicle may still have a *tiny* chance of survival.

 

Dude, if the story magically becomes cool to me that doesn't mean I'm going to buy the sets. The story and the sets are two completely different animals.

 

What do you mean the story and sets are completely different? Is that suppose to mean one is better than the other?

 

yes

also, after 15 years, can this site finally learn that there are some people who have different opinions, and that is no reason to begin slamming keys on tumblr?

These toys are only going to get older. Bionicle still feels 8 years old to me. Bionicle is going to be 20 in 5 years. think about that for a second

I used to like post 2005

 

 

Mask packs might've done the trick, but perhaps also animal creatures like the Rahi might help. But also, a more interesting story and villians, and more worldbuilding through media. Also it needs to be darker, like in the original story. I loved the grittiness of bionicle originally and now it's not so grim.

G1. WASN'T. DARK. And a story being "not so grim" is not a bad thing you absolute edgelord.

 

​Also there's been a ton of worldbuilding but of course you've probably ignored all of it. And there's been animal creatures...? At this point I have the feeling you hid under a rock when G2 came out and refuse to actually learn anything about it.

You don't know how wrong you are. G1 WAS DARK. I guess a happy little world is a better place for you, anyway.

 

Also there are NO ANIMALS. Unless you count the little "skull spiders" which are more animations than are creatures. Maybe I should "read the amazing books" because clearly I'm missing out on something here?

 

"g1 was dark"

true, and it was almost as frightening as torrenting the Bee Movie, right?

Honestly, if anyone thinks that G1 was dark, you really need to watch some actually dark things. So what, a Barakki killed someone once or something? Boring!

Bionicle G2 could have done with little thing called a story. or a cool game. or something. Maybe Lego has forgotten that kids like to act out the story with their toys, not just play with them. that was at least my case. idk, maybe it's not normal. at any rate who cares; g2 is obviously done for. I'd rather see it stay dead than to be resurrected every few years to be paraded around, and then cancelled (again)

No.

Why is everybody so sad? Bionicle G2 was horrifically disappointing, and yet it is worshiped solely because it has the "Bionicle" logo? 

There is hope for Bionicle G2!!

lol no there's not

 

Wait, people were actually triggered by this? Are you kidding me? It's a joke! At the time, considering that Bionicle had been cancelled for 4 years, I was happy just to see the Toa Mata on the big screen! Lego didn't insult Bionicle by giving it such a small role in the movie, it's called the LEGO movie for a reason. Call me crazy, but I never categorized Bionicles as Legos. For me it was always bricks=lego everything else=bionicle

 

I don't understand this logic at all. To say that Bionicle is not Lego is flat out silly, and frankly, a bit ignorant. 

 

I too think Bionicle could have been a bit more recognized than a single image. It didn't need a talking character, but a mask in the background or something slightly more substantial would have been appreciated. But I certainly was not angered by it. 

 

Ignorant of what? Bionicle parts and Lego pieces may as well be from different brands, they're not at all compatable and totally different.

Wait, people were actually triggered by this? Are you kidding me? It's a joke! At the time, considering that Bionicle had been cancelled for 4 years, I was happy just to see the Toa Mata on the big screen! Lego didn't insult Bionicle by giving it such a small role in the movie, it's called the LEGO movie for a reason. Call me crazy, but I never categorized Bionicles as Legos. For me it was always bricks=lego everything else=bionicle

No. When Bionicle ends this time, it's gone for good 

Frankly, though, considering how terrible the story is, what will anyone really be losing?

 

Lego.com/shop now has a 

• Free Classic Knights set with purchases over $50.  If they can do that, why can't they have a promotion that comes with Tahu Mata or something?

 

you can get Tahu for like 5$ on ebay