trying to get info for a reboot

[confused piraka]

what were you top 3 favorite things about g1 and g2?

[Nektann]

This is all G1 stuff

1. Low set prices $10 (adjusted for inflation) for an 01 toa was such a good deal on a high quality action figure
2. The movie era (03-05) efforts on consolidating all lore into one medium
3. Every time a mask got released in a new color after mask packs stopped being produced

[confused piraka]

thanks!

[Nato G]

21 hours ago, confused piraka said:

what were you top 3 favorite things about g1 and g2?

For G1:

• The 2007 set designs. I know some people like to lament the so-called "Inika builds", but I truly think Bionicle hit its high point in 2007, when that scale and style became the standard, but each set was unique, and they went back to using the Metru head rather than the Inika one. The only downside was the fragile lime green parts in some sets, but even that gets overshadowed by everything being fragile from 2008 onwards. 
• The lore growing with its audience. Obviously this somewhat depends on what age you were when you started following Bionicle, but I really appreciated the way the story grew darker and denser as I got older. 
• The themes. Bionicle had a lot of really fantastic themes that are applicable to people of all ages. Ideas of transformation and change, the focus on unity overcoming differences, and perseverance against adversity. 

I know you didn't ask for it, but I think it's worth noting a few dislikes as well.

• The nonsensical forced genders for most elements was dumb.
• There were too many villains, and most of them got away. While I certainly didn't want the Toa to become mass murderers, the fact that most major baddies survived at the end of the year meant that we got increasingly-complex side stories to explain where they all went, to the point where Greg started doing stuff near the end like throwing all of the Piraka in a blender to get rid of them. 
• Overpowered villains. There were so many Bionicle baddies who had insanely lethal powers, but rarely or never used them. Giving villains the power to instantly obliterate their enemies and then having them just... not do it... makes it seem like the villain is an idiot, or the heroes have plot armour. For a character as intelligent as he was supposed to be, it makes no sense that Teridax didn't simply take out the Mata/Nuva by teleporting to their locations and disintegrating them on the spot at any of the many times they were separated. 

For G2:

• Gen2 did a great job of recapturing the mystery and mysticism of the early years of Bionicle, at least initially. 
• Offering a (somewhat) clearer distinction between Earth and Stone.
• Providing a conflict-in-a-box by including stuff like the Skull Spiders and Shadow Traps with the Hero sets. 

[confused piraka]

thanks for your wonderful input(what this is really for is figuring out what people liked in order to appeal to the most people for a fan continuation and hopefully get at least some people on the same track.)

Edited November 7, 2022 by confused piraka

[Lorentz]

You're not Lego. You're can't make a reboot.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Lorentz

[Nato G]

On 11/14/2022 at 10:11 PM, Lorentz said:

You're not Lego. You're not going to make a reboot. Whatever you're planning, will fail.

I mean... you're probably right, but it doesn't hurt to have a more positive attitude? 

Even if a reboot is unlikely, the questions Confused Piraka's asking for are still a great starting point for a general discussion, and could just as easily be used by other users wanting insight into what audiences might like to see in a fanfic or something. 

[TERIDAX941]

My top 3 things of G1:
Mask collecting

Well written characters

the comic books

 

Top 3 things of G2

pieces that didn't break very easily (compared to post 2007)

new heads and mask functions

use of the Nuva symbols on the Uniters as a reference to 2002.

[Lorentz]

On 11/15/2022 at 2:08 PM, Nato G said:

I mean... you're probably right, but it doesn't hurt to have a more positive attitude? 

Even if a reboot is unlikely, the questions Confused Piraka's asking for are still a great starting point for a general discussion, and could just as easily be used by other users wanting insight into what audiences might like to see in a fanfic or something. 

I guess my problem is that I'm sick and tired of seeing the same exact topics posted again and again for twelve years straight. Bionicle is over. The G2 Reboot failed. 

Move. On.

Generation 3 already exists! It's all of the ongoing fan-projects. G3 has been here for years. Stop crying and whining online and try considering contributing to what's actually happening.

Edited November 29, 2022 by Lorentz
Dialed the tone down.

[confused piraka]

On 11/18/2022 at 10:12 AM, Lorentz said:

I guess my problem is that I'm sick and tired of seeing the same exact topics posted again and again for TWELVE YEARS STRAIGHT. Bionicle is OVER. The G2 Reboot FAILED. 

MOVE. ON. 

Generation 3 ALREADY EXISTS! It's all of the ongoing fan-projects. G3 has been here for years. Stop crying and whining on dead forums and try considering supporting what's actually happening.

why are you still on this forum @Lorentz?

also what is happening?

Edited November 24, 2022 by confused piraka

[oncertainty]

On 11/18/2022 at 2:12 PM, Lorentz said:

Generation 3 ALREADY EXISTS! It's all of the ongoing fan-projects. G3 has been here for years. Stop crying and whining on dead forums and try considering supporting what's actually happening.

Per what Confused Piraka said, it seems like these questions are in the interest of a potential fan project anyway?

 

As for the question, I liked about G1:

• That (early on, at least) it made reference to lots of stuff that remained unexplained. I'm thinking here about how it made reference to characters, creatures, and locations that we never saw in detail. I loved reading and re-reading the encyclopedias and guidebooks like Rahi Beasts or Metru Nui - City of Legends or BIONICLE: World when I was a kid. All these little details that didn't relate to the main thrust of the plot, and often were left largely unexplained, made the world feel so expansive and alive.
• I liked how willing it was to reinvent its setting. 2004's Metru Nui was so different than the Mata Nui of 2001-2003, in terms of tone and genre conventions, and pretty much every year after that did a place that was significantly different from where we had been before. Even though I ultimately have some preference for the first few years of the story, I think it's very confident and interesting to keep going new places.
• And yeah I have to echo Nato's comment about the themes: recombining very fundamental themes felt positively mythic, and allowed it to speak to people of different ages very effectively.

And for G2:

• It had a unique aesthetic which we hadn't seen in G1: Okoto wasn't just renamed Mata Nui, the City of the Mask Makers was a unique contribution to the franchise's visual vocabulary.
• It dispensed with some of G1's more regressive tendencies, like the gender restrictions on elements.
• The sets having gear features again was a nice touch, and they were incorporated into the design really well.

[Aderia]

Top 3 favorite things about G1:
 

1) This is kind of silly/specific, but I feel like the team dynamics between the Toa teams in the books helped me a bit, socially. I remember learning sarcasm and there were other characters in TV shows/books that used it, and it was funny, so I tried taking that on a bit. But I remember reading about the Toa Metru, and when Onewa and Matau were sarcastic and kind of rude to Vakama all the time, I remember feeling bad for him. It was a really minor paradigm shift, but as kid-into-pre-teen, I think it helped me see the other perspective from a vantage point (somewhat removed reader) where I could process the interactions more. tl;dr - I liked the characters. 

2) I also looked forward to new environments - jungle, city, rugged anarchy island, underwater, desert planet, etc. The created universe in the mythology was able to have all that variety in setting, and it didn't seem contrived or just shoehorned in for marketing, like "oh, all of the sudden we want to sell underwater sets so let's flood everything or something". A wide enough world where lots could happen, yet there was always room to discover new mysteries, if that makes sense. 

3) While I do agree that toward the end of G1, the storytelling mediums became difficult to follow (serials, multiple strings of guide books, all corresponding with books, movies, sets, albums, not to mention a whole city's equivalent of a fanbase across multiple online hubs), I do think that the initial sets, books, and then movies initially provided a reasonable amount of consumer variety that would appeal to a much wider audience than either of those alone. My brothers, who loved the sets, could do their thing, and I could read the books to them and feed them source material to shape more play time with said sets. We absolutely loved that song "What it Takes to be a Hero" and would jam out to it like the nerds we were (probably still are). So, ways to interact/consume media in multiple formats, but nothing too crazy. 

[confused piraka]

thanks everyone! so there might be a bit of confusion for what this is for. I thought if there was a unified push to finish/continue the storyline by expanding it.

[Lorentz]

23 hours ago, confused piraka said:

I thought if there was a unified push to finish/continue the storyline by expanding it.

Already happened many times, there's a bunch of fanfics that do just that. Also, I apologise for being harsh earlier. I edited the post to make it seem less aggressive. 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Lorentz

[confused piraka]

7 minutes ago, Lorentz said:

Already happened many times, there's a bunch of fanfics that do just that.

and your point is...

[Lorentz]

My point is obviously that you already have what you want.

[confused piraka]

4 minutes ago, Lorentz said:

My point is obviously that you already have what you want.

well in that case point me towards some thing I can contribute to!