Alrazvick

Here I am wondering what 2026 is going to be like.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about what I should do next with Bionicle. I started out with a vague idea and decided to explore whether or not it was a good one. Now I think I should try something different. Maybe instead of trying to start my own thing I should focus on doing my best to support others in the community. There are a lot of good projects out there that I think deserves to do well and if I can help with that it would be great.

@Lorentz That I understand and I realize that I should have been more forthcoming about the fact that I am still trying to formulate such a plan. I am still learning and gathering information and as for my correspondence with LEGO Customer Service I never expected the company to do anything aside from answering questions and that’s exactly what they did. I asked them if they would be willing to enter a partnership of any kind and what it would require for it to work. They answered by saying that they are indeed willing to enter a partnership but it has to align with their current focus, which right now is to encourage creativity and education in young children using their products. This current focus might change in the future however and if a proposal is good enough and doesn’t require much from the company then LEGO may consider accepting it even if it doesn’t align with their current focus. Right now I know that LEGO isn’t in a position to directly support anything I can currently present. But my short term goal is to continue building out a solid plan and present my findings to the fan community in order to receive more feedback and criticism. My long term goal is to have something ready for LEGO when the company’s priorities do shift or more ideally convince the company that it’s worthwhile to support the project anyway.

@Aiden Yeah getting praise was never the point. However the general negative attitude made me wonder if I should continue even if people don’t want me to. The entire point was to try and do something nice for the Bionicle community so trying to force things would have only been counterproductive.

@Lorentz Plausible Deniability. As long as there is no hard evidence that LEGO is aware of the existence of the BioMedia Project they are not legally required to intervene due to Copyright Law and Trademark Law. That means that they have to keep their distance from the BioMedia Project in order to protect it. They won’t have to do that with a legitimized archive. In all honesty LEGO wants to support the Bionicle community but their hands are tied by law and corporate policy. Ideally the Bionicle Legacy Project would allow the company to openly support the community in a way that still benefits LEGO.

@Nato G Also allow me to explain what I mean with a legitimized archive. You are right that the BioMedia Project has already preserved all Bionicle Media but it does exist in a legal grey zone and it can’t exist in the open without LEGO being legally obligated to intervene. A legitimized archive on the other hand is something that they actually could support in order to celebrate Bionicle’s legacy. The benefits to LEGO would mostly be good PR but it could also be used as a marketing strategy to encourage the purchase of LEGO sets that are commercially available that are suitable for the creation of MOCs. It would also potentially create a market for Bionicle themed suggestions on LEGO Ideas. Especially if they are advertised on the archive. So in short it’s less about preserving Bionicle media and more about celebrating the franchise’s 25th anniversary and introduce it to a new generation. That is the core concept but I am still working out the details on how such a project can be made viable. That being said this legitimized archive would not be complete, at least not initially, especially since LEGO doesn’t have full rights to some of the Bionicle media. As for LEGO trying to take down the BioMedia Project, practically it would be a futile effort and it would also damage their public image. The BioMedia Project is basically free advertising for those who would be interested in Bionicle. The only reason I can think of for why LEGO would have an incentive to target the BioMedia Project is if the company decided to make some Bionicle media commercially available again for purchase. A scenario I think is unlikely but even it were to happen the company does deserve to make a profit of an IP that they own and it would technically mean that they are willing to at least consider bringing back Bionicle as a viable and active IP. All of this is still theoretical though and my research is ongoing.

@Nato G @Master Inika Thanks for replying and I agree with most of what you both said. I was going into this completely blind and with no idea of what would and would not work. That’s why I posted in the BZPower Discord in the first place. Before taking any action I needed to know what people would have thought about it and what I would need to change in order for it to improve. The criticism and feedback I received was absolutely crucial to my effort because, like you both pointed out, doing something reckless would have only caused harm. What I didn’t like is that despite making it clear that I would never do anything without being absolutely certain that it would have the desired result, and explaining that as of right now I am still gathering information, feedback and experience, there were people who still treated me like an enemy more than someone who is trying to help. As for the lack of praise, I didn’t want to or expected to be seen as a hero or a savior, I just would have appreciated a least one person who wasn’t a hyper cynical jerk. Ultimately what I want to determine is whether or not I should continue with my efforts despite the hostility or if I should leave before people decide to throw me out.

As for the project that I had in mind, I wanted to understand why Masks of Power was shut down by LEGO and how to prevent something like that from happening again. Unfortunately I started with knowing absolutely nothing about how to accomplish this. So I did research into Copyright Law, Trademark Law and Corporate Policy and I found a possible solution in the creation of an independent Legal Entity that could potentially formally negotiate with The LEGO Group. The reason for why I believed that it could work is because apparently it has been done before with other IPs and the reason for why they can involve those IPs is because as long as the Legal Entity is a nonprofit noncommercial organization and has an agreement with the holder of said IP it doesn’t infringe on either Copyright or Trademark. Upon discovering this I began to work on a first draft of what I ended up calling the Bionicle Legacy Project. Which ideally would, in collaboration with The LEGO Group, create a fully legitimized archive of Bionicle media that could be made accessible to a new generation of Bionicle fans. Preferably in time to celebrate the franchise’s 25th anniversary. What I drastically underestimated was how monumental such a task would be, especially when dealing with a community overwhelmed by cynicism, skepticism and hatred towards The LEGO Group. I realized that if this project is going to have any hope of being successful I had to start extremely small and gradually work my way upwards, all while trying to learn as much as possible on the way. That’s why I came up with the Foundation Project. A purely fan driven initiative that seeks to educate the Bionicle community about the nature of Copyright Law, Trademark Law and Corporate Policy so that they can make informed decisions on how to ensure that whatever project they want to start won’t get too close to infringement and thereby force The LEGO Group to act against such projects. I reached out to LEGO for advice on how to ensure that such a fan driven project would be in compliance with the company’s needs and succeed in foster goodwill and trust between LEGO and its fans. Even though they couldn’t do much to help me they did show their appreciation and support for my project and encouraged me to continue without their involvement. Right now I’m just trying to figure out what I should do next. LEGO did point out that if I produce a much more developed and structured proposal that will be more in line with their current focus then they would be more than willing to consider that proposal. Until then they wished me luck and hoped that I would be successful in my endeavors.

The criticism I was thankful for. That’s not why I was disheartened. It was the general attitude. I got plenty of people telling me why my project would never work and why it wouldn’t do any good but basically nothing on how to improve it. That I was left to figure out entirely by myself. No one praised me for trying to help or come up with solutions. I tried to help and instead of it being appreciated I was treated as either a joke or an enemy despite my attempts to take every criticism into account and adapting my approach. Even my correspondence with LEGO Customer Service was nothing more than simply gathering information. And they at least were polite when they explained why they couldn’t help me. What I am sick of is the hostility and cynicism. If this is what the Bionicle community has been reduced to then it might as well be left to rot.

I have been posting about it in the discord server but in short I decided that I wanted to try and do something for the Bionicle community in the wake of what happened with Masks of Power but so far it hasn’t gone well. No matter what I suggest everything gets shot down immediately and I am honestly starting to wonder if I should even bother at this point. I had hoped that with BZPower being a part of the LEGO Ambassador Network I would receive at least some kind of support or at the very least guidance on how to continue. Instead it has been mostly at best brutal skepticism to hostility and mockery at worst. Pretty much everyone is convinced that I am either wasting my time or potentially putting the community in danger by drawing too much attention from LEGO. So the advice I am seeking here is if I should just give and pretend that I never tried to do something for the community in the first place or if I should try something else next.

I wish I could help out with the project but I probably don’t have any skills that would be useful to you.

Ever since what happened to Masks of Power I have been asking myself this very question and I want to use this as an opportunity to motivate myself into becoming more active in the community. I like helping others, even if it’s only a small thing, and I think it can inspire me to continue creating and share my Bionicle ideas with others. I of course also want to see what others have come up with over the years. Problem is that I don’t know how or where to start so I am open to any suggestions. Do you have a project that you are currently working on? If so feel free to tell me about it. Even if I can’t help you will at the very least have shared it with another Bionicle fan.

I’m happy to see that I got a response so quickly! 😄

Decided that I wanted to become more active in the community. Joined a few Discord servers and try to connect with people.