Distorted

It's under 'Pneumatic'.

I think it's also worth noting that Bionicle's early marketing was really a product of its time. Back in 2001, going to a website to learn more about the lore was a relatively novel experience. Streaming 3D computer-generated animations of the toys on the internet - in glorious 144p - was a relatively novel experience. Playing a whole interactive and episodic point-and-click adventure in your browser was a relatively novel experience. (Not to mention, the idea of a big-budget Lego theme and even the actual toy concept of a Lego action figure you can build was fairly new itself...) In the era of Youtube, social media, fan wikis, affordable CG animation, an oversaturated digital marketing landscape, and a Lego brand that's releasing all kinds of posable action figure sets, managing multiple big-budget themes and even doing whole animated TV series and movies now; none of these things are special any more. It's easy to say Lego didn't do enough marketing in 2015 - and they probably didn't - but Bionicle 2015's marketing team had a much bigger uphill battle. They couldn't just repeat the same tricks and expect to recapture the same lightning in a bottle.

Junkbot, baybee! Honestly, there were a *ton* of good Flash and Shockwave games on the Lego website: MNOG (which sadly never worked very well on my dial-up connection; I had to wait until the 2006 re-release to make any real progress in it) Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident Mindstorms Robohunter 2: Spy City (don't think I ever made it past the first level cuz I was bad at stealth, and again my internet speed was garbage) Those isometric-ish Drome Duel racing games Supersonic RC (the looping music is baked into my skull) Lego Studios Backlot I also really liked the instructions pages that were exclusive to Lego.com. Nowadays I can see them for the cheap-and-easy content that they were, but back then it really did feel like being part of this little secret club.

If they weren't interested in 2015, I doubt they'd be interested now...

Probably the biggest news is that the long-lost PC game Legend of Mata Nui is now available to play.

These are super cute. I'm intrigued to see more MNOG-accurate versions, but these are still great; the belly buttons are a nice touch!

We all posted some cringe when we were seventeen, dog. FWIW, I don't remember having any bad impressions of you and your posts back in the day. And I was judgemental as all heck back then, so you must have been doing something right.

- Built for New Elementary's Bionicle 20th Anniversary Festival (part 2 of 4): https://www.newelementary.com/2021/11/47299-lego-50914-bionicle-57557-part-61807-.html Thanks to Huw for the pics! (Not an Iron Man thing, despite appearances...) -

- Built for New Elementary's Bionicle 20th Anniversary Festival. Thanks to Huw from Brickset for the pics! -

It's Mask of Light, but all the Matoran on Mata Nui are on their own quests to find the seventh Toa before anyone else like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Takua accidentally rides Pewku into a lake of lava and they both slowly become lava bones while Jaller waves from the bankside.

I'll be honest. I read the title and thought 'oh, here we go again; another Bionicle fan overanalysing their favourite franchise'. I wasn't expecting a post with actual effort put into the calculations and a really funny conclusion. Nice work!

If you think any part of Umbra is going to make sense, you're gonna have a bad time. He's an ancient guardian with roller skates.

- See the full MOC on Flickr -

Thanks for sharing these. I love seeing set prototypes; they're like a glimpse into an alternate universe sometimes! I imagine you'd rather keep your sources secret, but I have to ask; how did you get hold of these? How does one go about hunting down Lego prototypes?

If you need any similar art, I'd recommend seeking out the various style guide files on Biomedia Project. They have a bunch of cool PSD files where you can see the various layers of promo art and disable any layers you don't need (such as logos).