Mister N

My artwork on Instagram

Welcome to the wasted world of Afterman! The lightning hits through the grim red sky and ignites a tool with its magical power. Now the lone green Evoid is adapted to this hostile area and prepared to face the destructive evil Cybots with his new power of creation.

This truly heavy metal art of unknown apocaliptic world was made by the basic round brush and is inspired by the feelings of 90s and the rebel creativity of Christian Faber.

Bioventure continues…

My artwork on Istagram

How long has he been lost? Months ago? Years? Yesterday? Time seemed to have stopped. His new home is in such dark mountain depths that he is always not sure about the time of day. And he cannot just abandon his great find, fearing never to find it again. Victim of his own curiosity. A real metal star that has fallen from the sky beckons with its mystery. It’s alien, but somehow vaguely familiar. The new home defined his new way of life. Since time has stoped, there is nothing better than to watch the sky and Record. The сircle on the ground helps to observe the formation of new story.

Let the Bioventure begin. The creation of this instagram account was inspired by the fantastic work of Christian Faber. I’d like to experiment with Biological Chronicle’s ideas and concepts, trying to make the next step in its biolution and biovival.

After participation in a few TTV Canonization Contests (Helryx; Artakha) decided to improve my colorization skills, cause it's still new for me.
Actually original line art was made back in 2018. Special for my mate Krakuva from Rusbionicle.

Finally finished translation of the another chapter. Huge thanks to the @The Shadow Imperator for the help and editing.
It's a big one, hope you'll like it!

the 6th chapter "The Culture and Meaning of Tohunga and Turaga"

On 3/10/2020 at 5:59 PM, Illuminatus said:

This has been a fantastic read. I can't remember the last time I was so thrilled to read about Bionicle lore.

While I'd read about the early store bible, I had no idea so many things were discarded and changed on the go. A cult of Makuta-worshipping Tohunga? I would pay to see this.

I would literally pay to see this become a reality. Is it possible to modify the MNOG with new content? Can @Peri do that?

Thank you very much, I experienced similar feelings myself when I first read the Shadow Imperator's document and learned the original background of the Robot and the Great Beings. It became some sort of G3 to me and an inspiration to get interested in Bionicle again.

Of course, technically you can modify the game as you want. As Peri already said, Nuparu77 was already doing something similar. But apparently this is a truly hard process that requires the work of more than one person. On the other hand, it is strange that for 20 years, fans haven't created a large number of modifications for the game, although it has a cult status.

Something about making of Vahki CGI animation

http://thomasbanner.blogspot.com/2012/01/making-of-bionicle-vakhi-printed-in-3d.html

I just checked my Russian version of BIONICLE #4 and it has one "new" page compared to the extended version, but without Vorox battle scene. It is the standart version of the comic, am I right?

6 hours ago, Biological Chronicler said:

I wonder what this would mean for being beings who are crafted rather than born, if that is indeed the case for matoran. Did Lhii craft Jala? Did he lend part of his body to a smith? Who knows?

In my eyes it looks something like this:

On 2/20/2020 at 4:12 PM, Darth Jaller said:

Something just occurred to me that I find interesting: the idea of Matoran building domestic Rahi wasn't entirely lost forever when it was dropped from MNOG. In fact, it reoccurred in perhaps one of the most unlikely non-canon sources: 2003's BIONICLE: the Game. At about the midpoint of Tahu's first level, he encounters Takua, who tells him the following:

"We need Rahi power to open this door. But all our friendly Rahi have fled from the Bohrok. Rescue Matoran helpers to build a replacement." Tahu, of course, does this; and the rescued Matoran create an otherwise-unknown (as far as I'm aware, at least) fox-like Rahi.

Naturally, I always assumed this was just to slide in a reference to Lego as a building toy, or that someone working on the - already blatantly non-canon - game didn't quite get how creatures worked in Bionicle and pulled up the idea out of nowhere just for game mechanics. But in light of your information, it's interesting to note that might not be the case; it could be a remnant of that old, cut idea from MNOG that perhaps wasn't completely erased from whatever source material the game developers used.

I dunno if it's significant; but it seemed relevant enough to be worth mentioning ^^

Wow, this is a very curious find. Thank you for drawing my attention to this. Honestly, I doubt that MNOG and the Game are somehow connected or used each other's materials. But it is possible that this was part of the idea of the original creators of Bionicle themselves and the adding the Rahi building is the result of consultation with them.

On 2/23/2020 at 1:58 AM, Biological Chronicler said:

Wasn't the island supposed to have been completely artificial? If so, I could see the plants as part of the landscape itself rather than lifeforms living on it. They would exist specifically to provide raw materials to the matoran.

Also, they were a lot more ambiguous about the rest of the planet back in those days, so they could have been migrants from another continent or island. It would help to explain why the bohrok would destroy trees as part of their effort to return Mata Nui to the "before-time". Back then, there wouldn't have been any plants on the island at all!

The story of the creation of Mata Nui is a very mysterious part of the original bible. The only thing we know is that it exists, and it differs from the modern canon. For example, when the Mask of Light was created, Bob Thompson told the directors how the island was created and what role flora and fauna play in it. You can read about it in the Shadow Imperator's document in the Rahi section:

Quote

"Bob Thompson, the creative producer, was explaining to us the story of Mata Nui the island (and its inhabitants as far as like, wildlife), is it's going through a transition right now. From things that were natural are starting to turn into biomechanical [sic]. So we had to approach all the wildlife (the birds, the ash bear, and the fish and I believe also one of the Gukko birds) so you'd see them so they're almost half and half. Actually, really, in a way the ash bear was handled almost all the way mechanical, but the other characters are almost halfway transitions between natural and mechanical"

I can also add that MN was intentionally designed to look alien and synthetic, as seen in the final movie:

On 2/23/2020 at 7:36 PM, Alexander123 said:

Maybe now that you are done exploring the mysteries of the MNOG you can explore early Hero Factory or Chima ideas as your next project.

Oof, well, to be honest I was never interested in these themes and I know almost nothing about their lore. The only thing I know is a bunch of concept art that everyone saw, and the fact that Chima was always planned for three years, as this video says, although for some reason many people think that Chima should have been going on for much more. Moreover, as I said earlier, I have plans for other articles about Bionicle, which I’m much more interested in working on, sorry.

On 2/23/2020 at 11:31 AM, The Shadow Imperator said:

Some of the fruits have actually been depicted with Lego pieces, like the Bula Berry:

Vuata Maca Fruit in LoMN looks more like a glowing ball of energy than anything. As it does in Quest for the Toa:

Huh, strange. In QftT Vuata Maca Fruit looks like Bula Berry you showed above. Is your pic from LoMN?
And if I remember correctly Matoro used Vuata Maca Fruit in MNOG to heal Takua (and it also looked like Bula Berry in your pic):

On 2/23/2020 at 8:28 PM, Biological Chronicler said:

Well, we never did find out how new matoran came into being, did we? Maybe they were also crafted by the smiths, just with different materials. Or it could have just been a source of spare parts, sort of like an organ bank.

I had this theory too and I think it is very logical for the 2001 lore. BTW we actually know that Jala was the son of Lhii. You can read more about it here.

Well, I tried to build this weird prototype.
To be honest, I don’t understand how they could fit gears there, because there is less space inside than the original Toa have, and sprites show that the prototype body is narrow. I suppose that they glued some parts, and then gears can be placed instead of beams.

On 2/16/2020 at 5:42 PM, Master Inika said:

This wasn't the last one, was it? I love this series so much. This kind of eerie yet whimsical sort of BIONICLE reminds me why I got interested in the first place.

Of course. There are total 8 articles. All of them are available in Russian here. You can already read them using Google translate, if you are interested. Translation into English takes a lot of time, although the Shadow Emperor and FrozenDeath help me a lot.

In future I have pretty big plans. Since the Emperor met Alastair Swinnerton, we learned a lot of new things, and many old things began to make much more sense than before. After the translation of all the chapters of the MNOG Chronicle has been completed, I plan several more series of articles about other years when Bob Thompson was the head of the story team. For example, now I am working on a series entirely devoted to the evolution of Makuta character from 1999 to 2005 (no Teridax here ). All I can say is that Seven Books of Bionicle will have a much bigger role in future articles.

On the other hand, I would not like to make big promises, because the more things we find, the bigger this snowball becomes, and it’s very difficult to work with it, especially considering that this is a simple hobby, not a job.

On 2/16/2020 at 5:42 PM, Master Inika said:

Protip: read these articles while listening to ambient chillout lounge music.

When I write articles I prefer this music 

On 2/17/2020 at 4:12 AM, chuckschwa said:

This was the first time I had seen this image. Very interesting. 

You can read full booklet here

10 hours ago, balljoint dog said:

Thanks for sharing this! I don't think I've seen these prototypes before. It's true that the torso in this video looks a lot like the sprites, but the sprites don't seem to have the same narrow waist or the hole in the pelvis. Of course, they're so small that there's a lot of guesswork involved.

It's also interesting to me that the builds in the video look more like the final sets than these sprites do... except for Gali, where the opposite is true.

Oh, I see. these bodies really look very strange
However, your find is in any case very curious, because we have never seen the Slizer heads on the Toa feet before

8 hours ago, Sir Kohran said:

Does anybody know why Makuta is shown with a Vahi? Was it meant to be his in an early version of the story?

I think it was just an 'evil-looking' placeholder until they came up with Infected Hau logo. As you can see all Toa have only Hau. It seems that designs of other masks were unfinnished yet.

2 hours ago, Sir Keksalot said:

It's in Russian, so you'd need someone who actually knows the tongue to solve it, since it doesn't translate to a real word. Russians of BZP, heed my call and translate this thing!

This mysterious word is "ВОЗДУХА" ("AIR"). 

And as Peri said there are subs in English 

It seems to me that this torso looks like a Slizer only because of its unusual angle.
It looks like this is actually the same torso that we saw on other Toa prototypes. In this video you can see especially how deep this hole is.

Finally the 5th chapter "The Rahi breeding cycle" was translated.

Thanks @The Shadow Imperator for editing.

- The role of Rahi in the GSR world then and now;

- Biodermis - early version of Protodermis;

- The Biodermis Forge in MNOG and deleted quest;

- Canceled Master Builder Book;

- Strange lore of Rahi fusions;

- Rahi and their offspring in games.

Bob Thompson left the company in the fall of 2005. However, I agree that Gregg began to have a much greater influence on story after 2003. As he said in a recent podcast, the story of the Morbuzakh was completely invented by him. And this is very clearly visible even due to the fact that the great disks were intended for the mask of time, and the "destroy the morbuzak" function was added later.

In fact, I want to say that b-stories began in 2003, and this directly depends on the movies. Previously, Bob Thompson said that the plot of each year is like Lego-bricks, from which children themselves recreate pieces of one whole story. This is very well implemented in 2001. We have QftT - this is the beginning. Then the Legend of Mata Nui is the story of the Toa. Finally, MNOG is the story of Tohunga. We also have comics that describe the small adventures of the Toa. It's funny enough that in every media we see the arrival of different Toa on the beach. In one game - Onua, in another - Tahu, in Greg's comics - Kopaka, in the comics from the magazine - Lewa.
2001-2002 were the best story-telling years, because there was no "most important media" and all pieces of history are equal. We had a beginning - the arrival of the Toa/awakening of the Bohrok, and we had an end - the battle with Makuta/Barag. The rest is a huge number of small stories, both official and those that children themselves can come up with. Everything changes when we get movies. In 2003 and 2004, we have the “main media” - this is a movie. You cannot influence its plot; it is unchanged. But movies are released at the end of the year, so all other media is support for movies, all the rest of the story is secondary. For example, B-story of the 2003 was about Bohrok-Kal and Qust for the Nuva Masks. In 2001-2002, this was not, because there was no "main media", we learn the whole main plot from all types of media right away, because he is described in legend and comercials.

On 1/4/2020 at 9:55 AM, eilrach said:

Just wondering where did you get the photos?

Are you asking about the preview images? Just made them in Photoshop

On 12/22/2019 at 4:40 PM, Toa of Italy said:

The original concept of the Toa Kaita, as you describe it, does seem somewhat more elaborate than the final version. I should add that, were it not from the touch-and-go appearance of Wairuha Nuva in 2003 (which was basically put thrown in the comics, and then reprised by Hapka, to publicize the combo sets for the Toa Nuva and the Bohrok-Kal, without devoting much effort to it), there would be nothing in the canon version of the story to contradict it.

Perhaps this concept is really harder to understanding for kids if we discuss the toy robots. But with some restrictions (like special chambers) the great power of the Kaita becomes severely limited. And it seems to me it's better for storytelling.

As an alternative way, my friend The Shadow Emperor suggested that Kaita Chambers were needed only for the first time, so that the Toa could learn how to make fusions and learn to do it themselves later.

On 12/22/2019 at 4:40 PM, Toa of Italy said:

Even more interesting is the section on the Turaga Nui. In my opinion, never featuring the Turaga Nui in the official storyline was a colossal waste: such a character had so much potential! I do wonder what the original plans for the Turaga Nui were (maybe you'll be writing about that in the Turaga chapter... I can't wait to read it) and why they were scrapped.

Unfortunately, I will not talk about Turaga Nui in the Turaga chapter. We don’t know why they cut him out of the plot, but as I said in conclusion, most likely no one could find a place for him. Bob Thompson's method for storytelling was that the story bible serves as an encyclopedia of the bionicle world and is a source of inspiration. He followed the idea that we do not have a single media source from which we learn the whole plot of the year. We must assemble it from many different pieces ourselves - from video games, from MNOG, from comics, etc. Probably the Templar Games and Saffire Games couldn't figure out at what point Turaga Nui could be appear.

In the Turaga chapter I'll talk specifically about the wisdom of the Turaga, about how they learn many of the secrets of the Mata Nui and about the places where they do it. It's pretty hard to explain it in short.

On 12/22/2019 at 4:40 PM, Toa of Italy said:

On the other hand, I'm not sure the issue of the Golden Kanohi means much. Personally, I'd prefer to go with the simpler explanation (which you acknowledged as well): the 2002 (and end of 2001) material featuring the Toa without Golden masks was created because the sets don't have them and they later modified some of it to be coherent with the story. I honestly don't think the authors ever meant the Toa to lose their Golden masks at the end of 2001 (it seems a bit limited for the Golden masks to be used only for the creation of the Kaita)... at the most, they didn't think it through when the 2002 material was developed.

I totally agree with you. I'm also not sure that this was somehow conceived initially. Nevertheless, I had a set of strange facts that I decided to put together and share them with you. I don't try to make my articles look like serious scientific research with an ideal evidence base. Therefore, if I have a bunch of interesting details, supported by a weak theory, I will share this anyway, because it can help someone develop my ideas and find new pieces of the mosaic and get to the truth.

A little unexpected addition for the "Origins of Akamai and Wairuha" section based on some Peri’s findings. All information is added to the article.

- An early MNOG cutscene in which both Toa Kaita wear Golden Masks;
- In this cutscene the names of Toa Kaita are again swapped;
- In an early script Wairuha is mentioned with a feminine pronouns.

On 10/6/2019 at 2:32 AM, Mukaukau Nuva said:

This series (building off of Maku's work, of course) sounds like the perfect start to a book! The Secret History of Bionicle, perhaps? The Star Wars fandom created The Secret History of Star Wars, of course (written by Michael Kaminski).

Many thanks! Sometimes I also think about writing something more complicated, but every month I find a lot of interesting things about the old Bionicle. Therefore, for now, I would like to focus on the blog in order to "absorb information" for future projects.

19 hours ago, Planetperson said:

A great article as always. When I was young, the Kaita and Nui were always one of my favorite features of the sets. It's too bad that this element of Bionicle appeared so seldomly in the story. I do wish the story team had laid out the parameters for forming Kaita and Nui more precisely.

That Matoran Nui artwork is boss.

Thanks! It seems to me that Greg should have come up with more restrictions for Kaita in order to use it more often in the plot. For example, using specific elemental combinations (Kaita of Valor for only Ta+Po+Onu and Toa of Fire can't merge with Toa of Iron and Lightning or something like this).

Thanks. I have full height version of this rainbow guy:

19 hours ago, Planetperson said:

I've added a link to your blog on my own website. Do you have a Twitter I can link to?

Wow, it is very inspiring. Technically, I have a Twitter account, but it is completely empty. Although it may be worth considering publishing some things there too

19 hours ago, Master Inika said:

Another great entry. It's so cool reading real in-depth BIONICLE analysis like this, and the Kaita is one of those things I'd never even thought about this deeply.

The Toa keeping their special masks in 2002 was an interesting part. I always thought personally that it looked weird with them keeping them, even if it made sense as far as I knew story-wise. My big question was always, what's the benefit of the Golden Masks over just having all six masks at the Suva? The visual effect is the same, it just changes shape.

If I had to guess, I'd say LEGO dropped the idea of fusion as some esoteric thing and just made it another power because it could come off as weirdly religious.

Yeah, Kaita really looked like like some form of religious rite in the sci-fi form. It was special Bionicle magic for me. Unfortunately over time, any religiosity was abandoned in favor of only science fiction, but I understand the reasons. It remains only to praise Lego that they had the courage to do it in 2001.

15 hours ago, Daler99 said:

I just read through all the articles, and WOW, BIONICLE had some insanely awesome plot points that were removed.  Thank you for writing this blog!  I’m kinda sad that these were (for the most part) cut from the final story. :/

There are a lot of things cutted at different stages of production. For me personally, the Seven Books of Bob Thompson are the holy grail of unrealized things in Bionicle. Until 2005/06, Bionicle was a fairly authoring project in terms of plot. I do not blame Greg and other team for making Bionicle different, but I am just very hurt that Thompson did not bring his idea to its logical conclusion. We have lost many years of the story.

Finally the 4th chapter was translated. 
It tells about the many differences between Kaita 2001 and Kaita 2002-2010:

- Three special Kaita Chambers and Makoki Stones;

- Origin and the deepest lore of Turaga Nui;

- Secrets of the strange Toa-head Temple near the Kini-Nui (it also called the Turaga Cliff);

- Turaga's toughts about the Kaita;

- Early Toa Kaita lore;

- The strange theory about destroyed golden Kanohi in the early version of 2001 plot.

Ch. 4: Secrets of Kaita

In the Russian magazine Lego Samodelki, a couple of pages were devoted to Bionicle at Legoland in 2001.

Text from the pages:

One of my most important articles in this series. Despite the name, it describes much more extensive topics, such as the original origin of the Toa, the role of the Red Star, and even the sources of inspiration of the Bionicle.

Ch. 3: Sky Father Rangi and Earth Mother Papu

9 hours ago, Planetperson said:

Interesting read. I look forward to future posts. I think we all wish that Lego had spent a lot more time building the 2001-era world, and I agree that it would have been nice to have intelligent enemies to oppose the Toa earlier on.

Technically in 2003 we already had Bohrok-Kal, but let's be honest - these guys were invented at the last moment and did not have a character as such. As for me, even six Rahkshi hunters had more personality due to the special behavior of each of them.

Just added the second chapter about the 7th tribe of Tohunga. I hope that you learn something new for yourself, because I mentioned there some of my new sources of information abot retconned Great Hunger of Rahi.