Bionicle Guru

Well that was...different. No Ghost Animation this time around, but the tale is very intriguing to consider for us "old" BIONICLE fans. Everything is familiar, from the shape of the island (a low-resolution Mata Nui, crudely arranged) to the names of many of the characters (Makuta, Tahu, Kopaka), so it feels truly like I've stepped into one of those alternate universes BIONICLE was so fond of its twilight years. It will be interesting to see how this "Legend" develops. It seems so much clearer than the original, but simpler at the same time. I'm not sure how I feel about all this. Hopefully, Lego releases more storyline media to elaborate like they did with the BIONICLE comics and MNOLG back before BIONICLE's official launch in the summer of 2001 (North America).

I dunno, sounds a little too close to Japanese. I guess the Maori-sounding words that dominated BIONICLE up until its final years have biased me, but it will be a little harder to reconcile statements like, "Tahu, Gali, and Pohatu searched the shores of Okoto for the Kanohi" (for example). One of these things is not like the others! I suppose time and more information from Lego will tell.

Holy Kanohi, now there is a username and avatar I haven't seen in a long, long time. Always good to welcome back another elder member from the "good old days"!

Word almost cannot encapsulate what I felt yesterday when I read the official news. I was on the road to another job, and I had stopped to eat lunch and get gas for my car. As I sat to eat, I checked my phone. Naturally, I had to go to BZPower. It was the right thing to do, to return to that site which was the bearer of so many great BIONICLE news articles, set reviews, and speculative editorials way back when I was 14 and BIONICLE was in its heyday, with many great years ahead of it. Reading the article about Lego's reveal of BIONICLE's return was cathartic. So much has changed in my life since Journey's End. It was only a little over four years, but in that time I worked my first internship, graduated college, started my career, and am now on the cusp of completing an important promotion that will put me into the next stage of professional life. In that time, many works of fiction in various media caught my eye and my attention. Tron Legacy. The Mars novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Assassin's Creed series of games. There was enough to fill my attention, both from work-related challenges and the diversions I enjoyed in those rare, precious moments I had with my family or on vacation. But, buried deep within my childhood's heart of hearts, I never forgot BIONICLE. Toa figures collected dust in their canisters, and comic books sat sealed in plastic bags, but I never forgot the legend of six heroes with one destiny. Or of a universe that was more than what it appeared, with a villain formless, fearsome, and filled with an all-consuming desire to show that universe that it was Darkness, not Light, that held sway over the multitude of Creation. In my darkest moments, it was things like BIONICLE that seemed to be part of another life, a dream of something wonderful and fun and intriguing in a mundane and unfeeling world. It was hard to imagine a time when BIONICLE could exist again. And so, I resigned myself to Fact of Life #9,461,880: BIONICLE is over, and it is not coming back. Move on with your life, and don't concern yourself with that toyline again. And yet, here I am today. I am at work (during a surprising period of lull in activity). I am posting in the hallowed digital hallways that make up the BZPower forums. I am allowing the inner child to come forth to exclaim in exuberance that adult me was wrong; that Fact of Life #9,461,880 was NULL and VOID. BIONICLE is back! Let that statement ring from every Lego fansite! BIONICLE is back! Tell all your old friends who might have also forgotten their inner youth! BIONICLE is back! Dig out those old Toa canisters and show off your old sets with pride, for though they are the past, they are heralds as well of the future that is on its way. BIONICLE is back! Whatever this Mask of Creation brings to the story, it is undeniable that it brings also the birth of a new era in our lives. It brings not only the return of some cool toys, but hopefully, also the return of our mighty community. United in fandom, bound by a duty to follow and appreciate the story and its facets...join with me, young and old, optimist and skeptic; join with me as we shout across cyberspace the words we've longed to say for many years: BIONICLE is back!

To seriously answer this topic, yes, I still go through the news archives. Visiting BZP was as much a part of my early adolescent experience as BIONICLE itself, so I have fond memories of those days I got to use a DSL-capable computer to browse the Internet and found some exciting news item on Kanohi-Power or Bionicle Zone (and after the merger, of course). I am particularly fond of going back to old reviews written by Jon (Dimensioneer). He had a great style when it came to writing about sets, one that I wish was still the "gold standard" for set reviews on BZP today. I'd love to see the forum archives as well, since I'm suddenly starting to miss all my old posts. Even the newbie ones.

Ah yes. The truly glorious post by connor. Surely he has gone on to be a philosopher of great standing. After seeing that topic, I decided I didn't want to be a Moderator, or Support Team member. Heck, I didn't even want to be a famous Comedy writer. I just wanted to be connor...except, not banned, ya know?

All anybody needs to know about the "Golden Age of BZPower" is one simple, powerful message: "brakelatabasaasta feed me " That, and maybe the burnmad emoticon.

I guess it's time to announce my return to this website as well. Hello again to the familiar faces, Lady Kopaka and Reya. Reya, I recall attempting to trade with you, but I was much more poorer back then, and couldn't make a fair deal with you. I looked up the old PM thread and realized I now have everything I was asking for. Haha. But I digress. I have always been Bionicle Guru, back in the old days when there was a Bionicle Rex running this site, and will likely never change this name. I wrote two comedies, the first of which was a mildly juvenile tale named "Matoran Boot Camp", and my sophomore effort (which I am far more proud of) was "Bornicle" (BORing chroNICLE). I was also one of the participants in Greg Farshtey's "Master of BIONICLE" competition held here on BZPower in the summer of 2005 and one of the 50 winners in the BIONICLE Rahi Building Challenge hosted by the Lego Club Magazine back in the spring of 2004. After I wound down Bornicle, I haunted the Storyline and Theories forum like a bad ghost, so Adventurer might remember me. I had lots of theories about the Bohrok-Toa relationship, as well as the nature of the Matoran Universe. As far as BZPower is concerned, that's my entire resume right there, and I am still pretty much not more than an unknown, irate, sometimes drawn-out member. But I like this place, and I like BIONICLE, and that's why I keep coming back, over a decade since I first signed up. Oh, and just so no one thinks I was making some big, proud statement with that previous paragraph, I also entered in one of BZP's art contests and lost horribly, and I started an epic a year ago that went nowhere and was ignored completely. Strikes and misses.

I won't lie; new BIONICLE sets would bring me back to this site more frequently, and therefore, these forums would see a return of my begrudged participation (Mods, I apologize in advance for my irreverence). I imagine others like myself from "the good ol' days" would return, too. Naturally, I foresee some clashing, though not necessarily between those who favor "Old BIONICLE" and those who only know "New BIONICLE". Rather, I predict more conflict along classic, generational lines. I am 25, going on 26. BIONICLE has been around long enough that people born when BIONICLE was new (2001) are now thirteen. That's not much older than I was when I discovered BIONICLE (I got my first three Toa after I turned 12), but obviously, the theme skewed heavily to those younger than me and as well as those much older. I imagine this new iteration will do the same, but considering Lego's past strategies with Ninjago, Chima, and Hero Factory, they may focus heavily on appealing to the younger age group; the target age group. So, we'll likely see an influx of pre-tweens who have always been on the internet, always had access to at least one or two hand-held wireless devices, and may also be completely oblivious BIONICLE was something that existed before 2015. Meanwhile, the old BIONICLE fans from 2010 and earlier are all at least teenagers now, with a great many more now out of college or employed full-time (like yours truly). We like different cartoons, movies, books, and TV shows, and were molded by different cultural cornerstones (i.e. attitudes towards BIONICLE in the USA were in part molded by a post-9/11 atmosphere). Needless to say, and without going into detail regarding all things someone like me will disapprove of that kids nowadays love, there will be personality and cultural clashes. We old guard members and moderators would be remiss to not acknowledge this. There is more than BIONICLE fandom at stake. We must understand our demographics better in order to build a new, cohesive community that will truly evoke BZPower's ancient splendor.

See, that's what I figured, Aanchir. There's something unique to BZPower, even without BIONICLE to perpetuate it alone, so maybe it should continue with focus just on the constraction and "toy saga" lines (like Legends of Chima and Ninjago). Maybe now I see the real reason I've gravitated towards Brickset more often, and it's because the themes that BZPower focuses on are ones that do not interest me, and I have been blinded by that. But Brickset gives plenty of press to Mixels and Chima, less for Ninjago and almost none for Hero Factory, so perhaps that was my initial response upon switching to BZP News, then back to Brickset, and seeing little in the way of differences. I always assumed BZPower would just focus on Hero Factory and Ninjago, the obvious heirs to BIONICLE's legacy, but it seems it can operate as such for all toy lines that Lego makes for the (typically) 6 to 10 year old age range.

I AM IRON MAN!!! From the song, not the movie; anyway, looks like it is that special time of the year they let us crazies come out and play with the Blog machine. I haven't participated in the last few years (thanks, work), but here I am now, on a whim, deciding to share some thoughts with all you whippersnappers. I joined BZP a long time ago. July 28th, 2003, to be exact. This was shortly after I got my first email address, and I was only 14 years old. I'm 25 now, and soon to be 26. That means it is highly likely some of you weren't even born when I joined the site (and many of you were still soiling your diapers). This blows my mind. In a much shorter span of time (between 2010 and now), I've witnessed BZPower become just another Lego news site on an Internet now teeming with them. I can't say if this is a bad or good thing, but I will say one of the reasons I don't visit BZPower that often is because I am a high-and-mighty AFOL that doesn't consort with the likes of low-brow BIONICLE and constraction figure collectors like the lot of you. I hope you took that as a joke. BIONICLE fans are all becoming (or already are) AFOLs, so don't let the especially old fogies tell you ###### like that sarcastic statement I made above. Aanchir knows what I'm talking about. The truth is that BZPower served a niche for me, and that is what is still in the site name to this day. "Your source for BIONICLE news, reference, and discussion!" But there is no more BIONICLE. There is nothing to keep up with. Aside from nostalgia, I feel no need to talk about it, so I returned to a pre-BIONICLE state of Lego fandom, in which I already visited several other websites for news and discussion over. There's FBTB.net for Star Wars Lego, Brickset for general Lego collecting and buying, and Eurobricks for obsessive hyperventillation over minifigs and Fabuland. BZPower hasn't really found a new niche yet. It's not "HERO Factory-Power", and it certainly is too soon to tell if Legends of Chima or Ninjago will win the war for supremacy amongst discussion here. And of course, people still talk about BIONICLE. After all, it only ended four years ago. Anyway, without some special role, BZPower no longer draws me here for anything I can't (and have already) find elsewhere. I see progress. BZP is doing some neat things, like this raffle system they have, and their approach to Lego site standards, like set reviews, are novel (if not entirely appealing), so there is good reason to celebrate this site 13 years after its founding as Kanohi-Power.com. A new dawn is breaking for this site. Will I be a part of it? I doubt it, especially since I am virtually a new member again. Who remembers me? Will I recognize anyone after four years and countless name changes, avatar changes, and weird memes? Maybe. But lest you all despair, I will check in. Maybe some old BORNICLE fan will dig out a cached version of my silly saga and re-upload it for me. Maybe someone will recognize me from other websites and chime in with similar sentiments. I don't know. But I suppose the most important thing to reiterate is that I still am a huge BIONICLE fan, just like the rest of you dinosaurs that may be creeping around from the "good old days" of Bohrok clones, Vahkipower.com, and official GregF discussion mayhem. I moved into a new apartment recently, and I brought some Lego sets. Tower of Orthanc, Grand Emporium, Jango Fett's Slave I. You know, real impressive stuff for a bachelor to show off behind the curio cabinet. However, I also brought a secret box that no one will get to see. Inside is my complete collection of BIONICLE comics, from #1: Coming of the Toa all the way to the last part of Journey's End. Those will forever define what anchored me to the saga in the first place, and I can't live without them. Even if BZP crumbles into digital dust like a derezzed program from Tron, I will still hold BIONICLE dear.

Dude, I AM the archives. Now you kids get off my lawn!

Here, I am compelled to leave a place for you all to discuss the story I am writing. Enjoy!

PREFACE "...I won't write a story; I'll write the truth. But the truth will be like a story." --Vadim Shefner This July, I will mark ten years on BZPower. I think for just about anybody reading this, ten years is a long time. I was still very new to the Internet in general ten years ago; just a week or so before joining BZP, I got my first email address (I still use it). BIONICLE was in its heyday, and I had some fun on BZP both keeping up with the news, reading storyline theories, and occassionally contributing stories to the Library. This work, while quite different from my earlier stories, is special because it is a little something I want to leave in order to commemorate my tenth year on this website. It also serves as an apology, of sorts, for having been away for so long. College, the end of BIONICLE, followed by the Great BZP Forum Downtime, and then the pressures of adult life all tore me away from here. Of course, the biggest reason I avoided returning here was the post-BIONICLE disarray. For seven years, I visited BZP exclusively for BIONICLE. Without it, I found it hard to go "off-topic" and let myself use this place for something other than BIONICLE. Even if it was other Lego themes (I still avidly collect and build with Lego), it just was not BZP for me. Maybe it still is not. But I think I still have one more thing to contribute. It surprised me when I figured out what it should be, but then again, it is something I have been thinking about since BIONICLE began, and its evolution brought me to the present in such a way I cannot resist sharing. Hopefully, some of you may find it interesting and nostalgic at the same time. Therefore, let me invite you this time to sit down and read the legend of the BIONICLE... INTRODUCTION: The Coming of the Toa Darkness. Then, suddenly, a light appeared, and Colson was up. It was time to get himself together. "I had some bad dreams," he thought as he put on a shirt. "They were of...the year before. That was the worst." He was finishing putting on his pants when he saw his mom walk by the door to check on him. Immediately, he stopped thinking about his dreams and went to eat breakfast and interact with his family: his mother, father, sister, and cat. His inner monologue did not continue until an hour later, with the wind in his face as he marched forward, up the street from his house. "Those were bad dreams, but like Kopaka said in the comic, 'The scattered elements of my being are rejoined. Now I am whole.'" Colson paused as approached the curb and looked ahead. There, across the street and looming high on a slight embankment, was his middle school and the start of the seventh grade. It was a new school; a chance for a fresh beginning, away from the mire of ignorance and injustice that defined his experiences in school prior to this year. "And the darkness cannot stand before me," he mouthed silently, and then, with a confidence ususual to his age, he stepped off the curb, crossed the street, and marched into the unknown. CHAPTER 1: Of Toa and (Pre-)Teens Kopaka strode into the icy wastes surrounding Mt. Ihu. He knew who he was and what he was looking for. The mask he wore was just one of six that would allow him to find the power to challenge the Makuta who controlled this island. The next one was actually near the top of the mountain itself, so he carefully began to scale the steep cliffs. Far above, the peak of Ihu loomed like a giant white nose, with nary a cloud to be seen. The rumbling, followed by the avalanche, annoyed Kopaka more than it scared him. He was starting to like being alone up here, away from the scurrying Tohunga below and-- Colson felt another tap on his shoulder. He turned around cautiously. He did not exactly feel like being sociable in math class. The face of another glasses-wearing kid with brown hair was staring back at him. "Hey," he said, "is that a BIONICLE on your book cover?" "You know of BIONICLE?" Colson asked, a little startled. He never dreamed to inquire if any of his fellow classmates played with Lego sets still. Previous experiences painfully taught him it was fast becoming "uncool" to like Lego openly. It was going to have to become Colson's secret, but since this other kid recognized the Toa drawn on the paper cover of his textbook, maybe it would be OK to admit his newfound BIONICLE fandom. "Yeah, I have a few of them at home. Your drawing looks like one," he responded. "Yeah, it's Lewa, actually. It's not very good; I have better drawings at home of the other Toa." "You like to draw, too!? I draw a lot of stuff.""Really?" Colson was happily shocked, but he was not going to show it. Not yet, anyways. "My name is Colson. What's yours?" "Peter--" Colson and Peter had to stop since their teacher was going to resume the lesson. But lunch was soon; Colson thought he could perhaps find a place to sit in the cafeteria now that he found someone with some common ground. When lunch finally came around, Colson and Peter reunited outside of the food lines to find a seat. All the tables were the same length and were all more or less full. At the very end was a smaller table, a different table that was oriented north-south as opposed to east-west. There sat four other guys. Colson turned to Peter and said, "I see a potential spot. I don't know those people, though." "Well, let's go over," Peter rejoined optimistically. Colson followed behind, but he could not be so hopeful. Like Kopaka coming down the mountain with Pohatu, Colson couldn't be quite sure if the people he was about to meet would be friends...or enemies. To be continued! --Since apparently this is a rule of the forum, I guess I'll link you to the Review Topic: http://www.bzpower.com/board/index.php?showtopic=9201

I don't know. I saw it and immediately thought, "Cybernetically/genetically-altered whales battle evil, nature-destroying corporate machines!". LOL. Not really. But I do see this going in some ecologically-retro, 90s-style "Captain Planet" vein of conflict. But I will Mr. Faber surprise me.

I'm glad I can come to BZP and see enthusiasm for all these projects! On one other site I frequent, all the old fogies are grumbling and snorting at us young whipper-snappers for getting licensed ideas like these passed and not their baroque AFOL dreams. I'm particularly stoked for the Back to the Future Time Machine.

Nothing was more heinous than the clustermuck that was the 2005 story. I don't blame anyone in particular for it; I think that after four years of rampant success with the theme, BIONICLE tried to take things to the next level just by "exploding" the story. Like 2004, we had the same heroes, a movie, and the comics. However, since 2003 had altered the canister release cycle by being a year with two sets of villains, 2004 and 2005 had to awkwardly avoid dealing with the canister villains until their summer release dates. They did well in 2004 by having the Toa Metru's first antagonist be a giant plant (the Morbuzahk, which clearly could not be a set) and keeping the Vahki and the Dark Hunters "behind the scenes". However, such a clever idea was not implemented in 2005. To make matters worse, Lego did this RIDICULOUS opposite release of the Visorak and the Toa Hordika. In Spring 2005, the Europeans had Visorak, Sidorak, Roodaka, Keetongu, and the Rahaga. In the USA, we had the Toa Hordika and Rahaga only. Suddenly, the Visorak did not need to kept in the "shadows" story-wise like the Vahki the year before. But it caused a lot of chagrin to have Hordika in the USA with no Visorak to battle, and vice-versa in Europe (though I dare say they at least had Keetongu and the Rahaga as partial hero subsitutes).With this weird set release pattern, the story took a turn for the convoluted. Now, the Toa Hordika had to battle not only Visorak, but their primal, bestial natures that were slowly taking over their minds. This is a sound idea, and it is still a great part of the BIONICLE story, since it comes to question what it means to be a Toa (up until that point, the only time we saw "dark-side" Toa was whenever Lewa wore an infected mask and when he was Krana'd). As a result, the Toa Hordika's quest was two-fold. [*]Rescue the remaining sleeping Matoran and bring them to the new island above.[*]Find a way to return to their normal Toa Metru selves.Things now start to get convoluted. The Rahaga told the Hordika of Keetongu, but suggested that in the meantime, they learn to control their Rahi instincts and altered powers. Vakama doesn't really jive with this, becomes frustrated, and leaves the team. This was all seen in the movie "Web of Shadows". However, we all know that wasn't the only story source. Before defecting, Vakama and company encounter and battle strange creatures aligned with Sidorak and his horde. They also go a mini-quest to find the Mask of Light. This was detailed in some online videos. Then, there was an aborted online comic concerning the Hordika's quest for sleeping Turaga Dume. Then, in the comics, we got a flashback to when the Rahaga were Toa themselves, and of how they came to be transformed. Then there is all that stuff in the movie.Your head might not be spinning, but I'm sure if you were 7 or 8 or however old you were seven years ago, this was frustrating to follow. I'll break it down again with the numbered bullets. [*]Rescue the sleeping Matoran and bring them to their new island home.[*]Find a way (Keetongu) to return to their norma selves.[*]Find the Mask of Light with the Makoki Stones and keep it away from the Visorak.[*]Rescue the real Turaga Dume.[*]Find and redeem Vakama.[*]Defeat Sidorak, Roodaka, and the horde; keep Makuta from being freed.Out of those six quests I outlined, five of them were going on concurrently, and I may even be forgetting some things, since there were books as well. In any case, the first half of 2005 was really hard to follow, and hopefully, you'll agree with me. As convoluted as many say years like 2006 onwards were, 2005 really was the most jarring for fans after 4 years of relative consistency and stability.

I really miss the Black Knights, Spyrius, the Royal Knights, Aquazone, and BIONICLE, but alas, their time has truly passed. In this age of cutesy minifigure overload, good-vs.-bad-in-one-set, and increasing Chinese plastic production, I feel like it is best that my old childhood favorites rest in peace.

I had to log in again to share my thoughts on these wonderful conceptual sketches and designs. It's really fascinating to consider what was once "Bone-heads of Voodoo Island" then became "Doo Island", followed by (?) "Bionic Recur Unit", and finally, "BIONICLE".I liked the rather intricate Tohunga face designs. Though they clearly would not have worked from a set design perspective, they are true to the technological-tribal fusion that defined BIONICLE right from the start. The names are interesting as well...Zuul gave me a laugh. "Are you the Keymaster?"I believe that "first map" of Mata Nui was included in the liner notes for the BIONICLE Music CD that came included in the Powerpack set. Makes me so glad I sprung for that set on a complete whim when I saw it in Wal-Mart over 10 years ago.It was always the little details that made BIONICLE so awesome. Whether it was physically present, like in the designs of the masks and sets themselves, or in the storyline, leading us on this epic quest and great mystery, it made BIONICLE more than just an ordinary Lego kid's theme with good guys and bad guys. With a name like "Doo Island" and a location shaped just like a face, it strikes me that as a concept, BIONICLE could have just been Hero Factory in scope. While that would have been fine and dandy for Lego and fans alike, it was the refinement of the concept by people like Christian Faber that took BIOINCLE somewhere beyond the ordinary and into that rare spectrum of true greatness that will know no loss to the cycle of toy fads over the years, instead firmly entrenching itself in the memories and hearts of kids and (now) adults for a long time to come.

Yeah, you know I'm excited. I've more or less anticipated this day for years. Lego better deliver the goods with more gusto than they did for Pirates of the Caribbean. LotR should rival, even surpass, Star Wars sets in terms of awesomeness and design. I can't wait to see what June 2012 holds in store for us with these new sets.

I still can't get over how the sets come in BAGS. I might mistake it for a snack and eat the pieces while watching TV! My poor teeth.