When Did You First Feel Nostalgic For BIonicle?

[Master Inika]

This is a bit of a weird question, so maybe I'll just open up with my own answer: 2006. I remember the first time I saw the Piraka, I thought they were cool, I just thought their faces and some other design choices didn't look like anything we had gotten in BIONICLE previously, and a part of me missed that. In hindsight, I realize the issue is that the Piraka faces, feet, and some other parts looked more organic than previous BIONICLE stuff. Every Kanohi before that, IMO at least, looked like an immovable depiction of something immovable, whereas the Piraka's grins looked like immovable depiction of something in actuality moveable. For reference, I was 10 years old in 2006.

I guess it's not as hard to word as I thought: how old were you the first time you realized BIONICLE "used to be" a certain way? Was it only after it was canceled, or some point during G1? Was it the joint redesign in 2008, the first year off Mata Nui in 2004? Or did anyone else strangely sense a shift in 2006 like me?

[Danska: Shadow Master]

Even during its original run, I would get nostalgic for a number of different things. I'd say 2005 was when nostalgia started to hit as I began to miss things like the MNOLG, collectables and the Bohrok/Bohrok Kal web animations. 

From 2006 I began to miss the original bright colours instead of the Metru hues. 

In 2007 I sorely missed the days when new sets meant a new type of build, new limb pieces and a new mechanic beyond launchers. A lot of the sets from 2006 onwards looked great, but were less fun to play with because the primary play feature was a cumbersome or barely functional launcher instead of some aspect of the set itself. 

I think what I really began to feel nostalgic for in the later years was the innocent charm of the early days. The stories felt more mythological and grand. Rather than fighting an overpowered group of stereotypically evil thieves or angry squabbling sea creatures for the ultimate plot device, the heroes were often pitted against the forces of nature itself - deadly wildlife, the elements themselves and all the traps and terrors they faced when collecting their masks - all masterminded by a sinister presence that seemed to be the very personification of evil. 

Now that it's ended I doubt I'll ever stop being nostalgic for Bionicle. It was a huge part of my life as I was growing up and nothing's ever quite replaced that (though my wallet is certainly happier).

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

I feel like I maybe went through a phase of that in 2005. Granted, for the most part, it was the Revenge of the Sith hype that dragged me away; but at the same time? Even after that died down, I felt a reluctance to come back to Bionicle that, I think in hindsight, tied in with the fact that it currently wasn't what I wanted or expected Bionicle to be; though I can't place a finger on what part of it, exactly, made me feel that way. I remember playing MNOG 2 a lot during that summer holiday, despite feeling detached from Bionicle as a whole otherwise (and I did buy the Visorak Battle Ram playset, because the concept of system Bionicle sets had a novelty that appealed to me); but I remember clearly that I didn't return to the fandom until the Web of Shadows trailer dropped.

Web of Shadows, of course, being a link back to something about Bionicle that I had loved - the movies and their style - which showed me that the rest of 2005 wasn't going to be as far removed from my expectations as I had imagined.

Otherwise...

I can't say I felt that in 2006. For me, that year was about rediscovering things I'd loved about Bionicle that 2005 seemed to have missed - A new and mysterious island! Matoran characters, both new and old! Plentiful interactive online content! - so I never really sat back and considered whether it was different than the Bionicle I'd loved during the early years.

I think it was mid-2007 that it started to hit me again; I'd thought nothing of it with the Barraki, whose variety of build amongst themselves was unmatched compared to previous waves, but as the year dragged on it just felt like it was hitting me more and more that this wasn't the same Bionicle that I'd signed up to. I'm not sure if anything, particular, started that line of thought; but I know that was about the time I started taking refuge in Star Wars again, more or less avoiding Bionicle entirely. I can only assume that was because I felt like I was growing disillusioned with it; and while I kind of gave myself an ultimatum at the end of that summer - to chose to like it again or to give it up for good... of which I picked the former, unwilling to let go of things I'd loved from the early years - and did get back into it, I feel like that was the point at which I subconsciously realised that 'current' Bionicle was something irretrievably different from 'original' Bionicle.

Don't get me wrong, I still loved things about the remaining years. Matoro's sacrifice. The new Takanuva set. The twist of Makuta's ultimate victory. But that was the point where Bionicle, as it was at the time, no longer held the sparkle for me that its early years did.

Beyond that, it took me a few years after it had ended to start feeling nostalgic for it. By 2010, I was starting university, my interests had moved on, and while I still enjoyed the memory of Bionicle I was content to let it be part of my past. It must have been... in my third year at uni that the nostalgia bug suddenly bit me, I don't even remember from where or why. What I do remember is that I powered through all the Bionicle novels again in a short space of time and started (for the first time in several years) working on my own fan-story ideas. From that point, I don't think I've ever fully stopped being nostalgic for the sense of atmosphere and mystery that those early years gifted us with.

Edited November 25, 2019 by Darth Jaller

[IvanisIvan]

When I was 3 we got the first Bionicle movie, Bionicle: The Mask of Light. This was an accident as the VHS was inside an Anne of green gables case. I begged my mom to let us watch it instead of returning it. She agreed and my siblings and I instantly fell in love with it. We rushed to our small stash of bricks and made mini Jaller and Takua (coincidentally, my favourite color was blue and his was yellow!) to play with.

The next week or so my dad found a movie he thought we'd like, Bionicle : Web of shadows. Without the knowledge of my dad we had the first one and he was glad he picked something good. I remember being scared as I watched that movie and feared for these new Toas that I hadn't met before, and I was to young to understand the concept of a cliff hanger so I thought they were born from the sea. The music at the end of the movie hit me hard. I loved the songs that they played and I remember it vividly but my family would always ask to change the disk when it got to that bit because everyone disliked it.

It wasn't until 2008 that my dad bought me a Bionicle set. We walked into a small boutique called kids stuff and we saw the label "BIONICLE" plastered everywhere. Up until this point I had no idea that it was a lego theme. Sure I had seen the lego symbol at the beginning of the VHS tapes but during that time you used to get a lot of advertisements. I asked for the orange one and when my birthday rolled around I unwrapped Photok's container, pulled off the awesome plastic lids, and struggled to snap him together (I got my mother to do it for me )

Throughout the year my brother and I would get more 2008 sets, he even managed to get the limited edition Toa Inika. Although I knew that this was Bionicle, I didn't know any of the characters or how they related to the movies, I just knew they were awesome as and I wanted more. The following year I would travel to America to see my cousins and it was there that I would get my first Glatorian set, Gelu, and my cousins would give me a full Toa Tahu Nuva, and half of a Pohatu and Onua! This was 100% when I finally met my earlier childhood heroes, and 100% the first time I felt nostalgic. Later that year i'd be given Carparar  but that was pretty much it for nostalgia. I could go on for several more pages about my journey through Bionicle but perhaps another time. Cya!

[Master Inika]

Reading these has been such a cathartic experience. It's nice to remember that I'm not the only BIONICLE fan left in the world, though everything I do offline makes me feel like it.

4 hours ago, Danska: Shadow Master said:

In 2007 I sorely missed the days when new sets meant a new type of build, new limb pieces and a new mechanic beyond launchers. A lot of the sets from 2006 onwards looked great, but were less fun to play with because the primary play feature was a cumbersome or barely functional launcher instead of some aspect of the set itself. 

First off, it's awesome that the guy behind the cool sprite kit posted in my topic. It feels like a celebrity walking into my little ma and pa shop. Thank you! And that's the best description of post-2006 sets I can think off, looking great for less play value. I read someone else once describe them as statues, which is on point too. It's its own kind of beauty. There was a bit of an art to getting them into really dynamic, emotive poses.

3 hours ago, Darth Jaller said:

I can't say I felt that in 2006. For me, that year was about rediscovering things I'd loved about Bionicle that 2005 seemed to have missed - A new and mysterious island! Matoran characters, both new and old! Plentiful interactive online content! - so I never really sat back and considered whether it was different than the Bionicle I'd loved during the early years.

That's interesting, it is true that 2006 was, in a way, a bit of a tonal reboot, like a darker 2001. 

2 hours ago, IvanisIvan said:

When I was 3 we got the first Bionicle movie, Bionicle: The Mask of Light. This was an accident as the VHS was inside an Anne of green gables case. I begged my mom to let us watch it instead of returning it. She agreed and my siblings and I instantly fell in love with it. We rushed to our small stash of bricks and made mini Jaller and Takua (coincidentally, my favourite color was blue and his was yellow!) to play with.

The next week or so my dad found a movie he thought we'd like, Bionicle : Web of shadows. Without the knowledge of my dad we had the first one and he was glad he picked something good. I remember being scared as I watched that movie and feared for these new Toas that I hadn't met before, and I was to young to understand the concept of a cliff hanger so I thought they were born from the sea. The music at the end of the movie hit me hard. I loved the songs that they played and I remember it vividly but my family would always ask to change the disk when it got to that bit because everyone disliked it.

It wasn't until 2008 that my dad bought me a Bionicle set. We walked into a small boutique called kids stuff and we saw the label "BIONICLE" plastered everywhere. Up until this point I had no idea that it was a lego theme. Sure I had seen the lego symbol at the beginning of the VHS tapes but during that time you used to get a lot of advertisements. I asked for the orange one and when my birthday rolled around I unwrapped Photok's container, pulled off the awesome plastic lids, and struggled to snap him together (I got my mother to do it for me )

Throughout the year my brother and I would get more 2008 sets, he even managed to get the limited edition Toa Inika. Although I knew that this was Bionicle, I didn't know any of the characters or how they related to the movies, I just knew they were awesome as and I wanted more. The following year I would travel to America to see my cousins and it was there that I would get my first Glatorian set, Gelu, and my cousins would give me a full Toa Tahu Nuva, and half of a Pohatu and Onua! This was 100% when I finally met my earlier childhood heroes, and 100% the first time I felt nostalgic. Later that year i'd be given Carparar  but that was pretty much it for nostalgia. I could go on for several more pages about my journey through Bionicle but perhaps another time. Cya!

Your parents must've been so confused opening up the VHS case. "Okay kids, time for a wholesome, timeless classic... what in the world?"

That's an adorable story on the whole. I too had to get my dad to help me with the ball joints to my first set, Tahnok-Kal.

Your story resonates with me the most of collecting sets without really understanding how they interacted in the story. For a long time, even until 2008, I was only really familiar with the movies, and didn't get how things like the other Makuta worked.

[Danska: Shadow Master]

On 11/26/2019 at 12:56 AM, Master Inika said:

First off, it's awesome that the guy behind the cool sprite kit posted in my topic. It feels like a celebrity walking into my little ma and pa shop. Thank you! And that's the best description of post-2006 sets I can think off, looking great for less play value. I read someone else once describe them as statues, which is on point too. It's its own kind of beauty. There was a bit of an art to getting them into really dynamic, emotive poses.

 

I'm honestly flattered, thank you! It's really nice that people remember that (and it's just possible I'm still working on it a little - but sssh!)

Posing them became their main play feature, definitely. I really loved the Phantoka line, for example, and I did quite like the Makuta's feature of dropping a bunch of tiny leeches on a poor, unsuspecting Toa, but nothing would ever be quite as fun as the 01-03 sets where they were completely built around the idea of knocking each other's masks off. The number of times I'd get my Toa to fight each other and get a clean hit on the other's mask, or making the Bohrok/Rahi hit them square in the face and seeing that little piece of plastic fly off - it was very fun and very satisfying! I only had to get a couple of replacement axes for Lewa because I kept making him hit things too hard...

I think the launchers did get better over the years. Saying that the Rhotuka spinners, oddly, were one of my favourites, I think because they were built into the set rather than being something enormous the Toa had to carry. Zamor launchers were fine, but the multi-shot addition for the Inika was huge and annoying. The squid launchers were useless and the Cordak blasters the most egregious in terms of being ridiculously oversized, making each set feel like they existed solely to carry this gun rather than being cool in themselves (which is why Jaller Mahri is the coolest because he gets a crab to do it for him). The Midak Skyblasters were fun, powerful and not too intrusive (though I'm still annoyed Kopaka didn't get a proper weapon). The Nynrah Ghost Blasters, like the Cordak Blasters, dominated the sets too much and weren't nearly as fun. Then the Thornax Launchers...I actually liked those (even if, again, they stopped a characters having a proper weapon. Poor Mata Nui). They were very small, not too intrusive and looked more like Bionicle parts than most of the launchers. They also came up with a game to be played with them, so they were at least trying a bit harder on the playability side that time.

Thank you for reading my early morning ramblings on sets and launchers. I shall now leave everyone in peace, be a responsible adult and go to work. No, I don't like it either.

Edited November 27, 2019 by Danska: Shadow Master

[IvanisIvan]

8 hours ago, Master Inika said:

Your story resonates with me the most of collecting sets without really understanding how they interacted in the story. For a long time, even until 2008, I was only really familiar with the movies, and didn't get how things like the other Makuta worked.

Glad to hear it! I only started to get back into Bionicle around the G2 hypetrain and then really got into mocking even though I couldn't care less about anything after '10. Bionicle has and always will be one of the best pieces of literature I have ever been a part of, even if just a fan. I wish more people could have the spiritual connection that we had. I honestly think that although some of the written stuff wasn't well written, the overall story and aspects created a wonderful atmosphere and story. 

[Akaku: Master of Flight]

Bionicle was always just Bionicle to me for most of it's initial run, other then a few small things like missing the cool Rahi designs/mask packs of 2001, or the Toa Metru body designs of 2004.

I think 2009 was when I started to really feel nostalgic for the earlier days overall, I wasn't a fan of the vast majority of things concerning Glatorians at the time, although I've learned to appreciate them years later. Several different factors, such as G1 ending, The Dataclysm/mass exodus of users, Hero factory's lack of appeal and getting bullied on BZP for my awful art at the time all kinda led me to loose most (but not all) of my interest in Bionicle for a few years, when I left BZP to go on a massive Transformers binge...

It wasn't until a year or so before G2 arrived that I came back to BZP and really started to feel Nostalgic for Bionicle as a whole. after G2 came around my interest in it really bounced back, and I've maintained a fairly consistent love and interest for the series, although at this point I'm Nostalgic about nearly everything from my later childhood/teenage years... Who else misses Bungie-era Halo? 

--Akaku: Master of Flight

 

[Master Inika]

20 hours ago, Danska: Shadow Master said:

Thank you for reading my early morning ramblings on sets and launchers. I shall now leave everyone in peace, be a responsible adult and go to work. No, I don't like it either.

Joke's on you: I'm at work as I type this (nighttime security).

I like your projectiles list. I always preferred the Zamor for being buildable (unlike the Cordak, Midak, or Nynrah), but the Rhotuka and Thornax accomplished that, too. Thornax did get points for simplicity.

[chuckschwa]

I was Bionicle fan from day 0, as I had decided to collect Throwbots and Roboriders over Pokemon, pogs, and MLB cards. I still remember the first time seeing the exotic names of the Toa in those mini catalogs they used to bundle into medium-large sized LEGO sets. Logging onto the website and playing MNOG for the first time, and being a big MYST fan with a love of robots and pacific cultures, this felt like something that was catered exclusively for me. 

I stopped collecting the sets and LEGO in general after the metru nui spiders. I just couldn't get into the new rubber masks on faceless Toa. But I didn't really leave the story. Occasionally I'd flip through the comics which my brother was still getting in the mail. So I was there for Matoro's sacrifice, Mata Nui rising, and the defeat of Makuta... just from a distance. The only set I purchased during this time (on a whim) was the 8998 Toa Mata Nui set. I figured the series would ultimately end with a giant Mata Nui set. 

My entire Bionicle collection remained neatly stored through college. I would occasionally play MNOG which I had downloaded sometime during school. When Templar started posting MNOG concept art my Bionicle fandom kicked back in for a short time. This was what I had always wanted, some insight into the building of the island world I had loved so much. And having Faber and Swinnerton coming back to talk and share concepts was like Christmas for me.

I thought when G2 started that the nostalgia would bring me back to collecting Bionicle. I came back from my LEGO dark ages around 2013, discovered Bricklink, and started following LEGO news again. But it was actually when The Legend of Mata Nui PC game beta was leaked that it sent me back into full on nostalgia. I was back into Bionicle. Big time. Although I didn't buy any G2 sets (which I kind of regret) I did finish my 2001 Kanohi collection, revisited building Rahi, started collecting comic art, and absorbing the music and sights of the PC game I had wanted since 2001. I'm kinda ashamed to say it, but LOMN was the best thing to happen to me in 2018.

[Toatapio Nuva]

Considering that I've been a full-time Bionicle fan since 2001, it's hard to pinpoint a time when it became nostalgic for me. The early years were certainly nostalgic long before G1 even ended. I don't really feel strong nostalgia for the years past 2006 though, as I stopped collecting the sets around that time and found the story to be on a decline.

Edited December 1, 2019 by Toatapio Nuva

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

12 hours ago, chuckschwa said:

When Templar started posting MNOG concept art

MNOG concept art? I hadn't heard anything about that before; where might I be able to see it? ^^

Edited December 1, 2019 by Darth Jaller

[chuckschwa]

Here is their latest post
https://templargames.tumblr.com/

[Sir Kohran]

1 hour ago, chuckschwa said:

Here is their latest post
https://templargames.tumblr.com/

I think it's a bit funny how what they planned was often more elaborate than what appeared in the final game, like Ga-Matoran and Po-Matoran also showing up at the Kini-Nui battle.

[Xboxtravis]

I had stopped collecting in 2007 shortly before the Toa Mahri came out. I was 13 years old then. Shifted my focus completely over to regular Lego System sets. I followed the story loosely, and knew about Matoro's death and the final Mata Nui-Makuta battle; nearly tempted to get the 2009 Mata Nui set but never did. 

The next was during my religious mission in 2015. I was nearing two years of living in Argentina. I was in an apartment of some other missionaries, all of them American too on that particular day, spending the night with them after a day of work. I was a bit home sick by that point so when we started talking about things from our childhood, Halo, Star Wars, the Marvel films, and eventually I brought up Bionicle. After me explaining it they were all like "we didn't ever realize Bionicle was so deep."

So imagine when I returned to the USA in July that year, went to the Lego Store the next day and was surprised to see Bionicle G2's first wave of sets on sale. I had ZERO idea Bionicle had been rebooted until I walked into the store that day, sure was a bit of a shock. I left the store with Tahu Master of Fire in hand and my nostalgia was fully hooked..  

[That Matoran with a Vahi]

2 hours ago, chuckschwa said:

Here is their latest post
https://templargames.tumblr.com/

Oh WOW that's cool to see! Thanks so much for the link