Was the end of Bionicle gen1 and start of gen 2 planned ?

[PaleoTiatan]

Hi guys ! here we  a new theory , this time I hope it is going to be better .

Bionicle ! A toy-line with a story so good that it still haunts us . Unfortunately the good dream ended  in 2010 , but the "end"

 was kindda ... meh .

The story we all love had unfortunately become too complex for the young to understand so it had to be terminated . We received a new toy -line with a simple story , called Hero Factory to compensate for the loss . Five years later Lego brought back Bionicle into a new form ( Gen2) .

The question is : " Was Hero Factory just a facade so that Lego could develop Bionicle gen2 ?" 

Now time for the proofs : 1) The 5 years cycle they offered us 2) Hero factory not having a complex backstory 3) The concept art for Bionicle 2015 was done very well , that needs time and money 4) Lego keeping Hero factory doe not advertising very much.

 That was it , my theory , what do you think guys ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

BTW if anyone wants to learn how to speak Romanian  contact me via a private message . 

[Irrie]

Don't know about the end of Gen 1, but I believe that 2015 Bionicle was planned as early as 2012. I'm not one of the BZPowerzoids that studies market and stuff, but I'd assume it was a result of lower HF sales, since that's the driving purpose for a theme's existence. 

But don't take my word for it, I'm just speculating. 

[Zidonaro]

I remember Greg saying Gen 1's end was decided in september 2008. I've no idea about Gen 2 tho.

[The Hip Historian Iaredios]

I have always thought it was like that, even before the return of Bionicle was announced.

[Som1udontno]

The new Masks of Power video says it was uploaded in January 2014. But then again, after Onya and the water figures appearing on the ice village page...

[Toa Green Ninja]

I know I remember reading somewhere recently that Generation 2 of BIONICLE was in its early phases of development in the Spring of 2013. I believe Greg Farshtey stated that in his Q&A thread on the LMBs.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Toa Green Ninja

[Sergei Rahkmaninoff]

     We know for certain Lego had at least a vague idea of bringing it back later when the cancelled it in 2010, since their reason for doing so was they didn't want it to be remembered badly. That only really matters to them if in the future they return it, right? I never really doubted it would be back eventually, what is surprising is how soon it is back.
 
     (BTW PaleoTiatan, you should probably put the offer to teach Romanian in your signature. )

Edited November 30, 2014 by Johnrahk

[Cap'n Shirley J. Puma]

You know, I have been wondering this too. It seems that the first wave of hero factory had an actually decent story (remember that booklet that we got in the lego magazine with the bios and story?). However, after savage planet, in my opinion, the story became garbage. It does kind of make me wonder, did they stop focusing on HF to give more attention to bionicle? If anyone remembers, in breakout, they re used quite a few molds, however I don't have an exact number; it could actually be average as far as new molds went. Anyways, it also suprised me that the video on lego was published in January. And bionicle g2 was started in mid 2012, which also happened to be the first year we got 2 waves for the same conflict. So what if they, to some extent, intentionally used HF to introduce the new system. I mean, how many of us would have been totally fine with lego just randomly switching from the bionicle system to the ccbs? So maybe Hf was used as a transition and just a place filler for bionicle. It wouldn't suprise me, but it would anger me that they had bionicle annex the whole time. Seriously, post 2011, all I wanted was bionicle to return. Well, time to wrap up this post, keep in mind that this was speculation right off the bat, so it won't make too much sense.

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

I'm pretty sure the idea of bringing back Bionicle was always on the table, and LEGO was just waiting for a perfect opportunity. Upon seeing interest in Hero Factory decline, they jumped on the figures and decided to revitalize the constraction line with another iteration of Bionicle. The franchise did have a huge effect on Lego, and I'm sure they realized the fans were clamouring for it to come back. It leads me to believe that they were stagnating it long enough to make sure the return would be fresh and appeal to a bigger demographic than ever before.

 

-NotS

[Nescent]

The guy who designed Tarix said that LEGO begins developing sets eighteen months in advance. So I'd guess that they decided to bring Bionicle back at least two, maybe three years ago. That would be...two years after Bionicle ended?

 

They also said that they always wanted to bring Bionicle back. My far-fetched, off-the-top-of-my-head-with-only-a-small-amount-of-information speculation is that LEGO intended to bring back Bionicle with a simpler story if Hero Factory wasn't successful enough.

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

I can believe that though. This relaunch of Bionicle seems extremely well-planned.

 

-NotS

[Archon~]

Interesting thing about Bionicle is that it seems like it will stick around for a while as a theme that will repeat itself, similarly to Star Wars and City to name a couple.

 

I watched the video of NYCC or something like that and it was stated that Bionicle was planned to come back eventually even when it was ended.