what does lego think about bionicle? (warning: long)

[confused piraka]

to answer this question, I'm going to be looking at two primary sources. they are as follows:

-the two pages in absolutely everything you need to know (2017, DK)

-the LEGO BIONICLE article on the lego website (2024, The Lego Group)

so with that  out of the way lets look at the first source.

the two pages in the 2017 book are 58 and 59. Bionicle is referenced in small amounts throughout the rest of the book, as is hero factory. but those are where the figurative gold is at. 

to begin with, 4 facts and 5 definitions are given for bionicle.

fact1 BIOlogical cronICLE - nothing special here widely known knowledge

fact2 set in the 'time before time' - once again pretty surface level stuff. 

fact3 most toa are created with toa stones. - going a bit deeper lego is showing some less known lore.

fact4 toa corespond to a element (lego lists the 6 'core' elements) - blatantly wrong even in 2003 we knew this was false.

the definition section is headed by an image of Kazi for some reason.

the definitions are:

matoran, kanohi, turaga, toa, and weridly of all things, Makuta Teridax

I'm surprised they didn't just put makuta seeing the trend to far of only knowing about the early years

it also mentions that metru nui was the setting in 2004.

now we can get into the meat of the pages that being top 5 bionicle villains. this will probably surprise you.

they are:

#5 piraka

#4 umarak the hunter

#3 Rahkshi

#2 bohrok (no surprise there)

and weirdly #1 is visorak?

there are also random facts about bionicle such as there being 311 sets as of 2016, they battle of metru nui being the biggest set (is this true?) there being over 150 kanohi masks (again this seems wrong) Also intrestly lego considers the 2015 toa as RE-releases rather than separate sets. I wonder why?

the most important part of this however is probably that they put bionicle in here at all. it 2017 after all it had already ended.  

now onto the second sorce!

the second sorce can be found on lego's website right now. I highly recomend reading it (link https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/retired/lego-bionicle?CMP=AFC-AffiliateUS-msYS1Nvjv4c-3624890-1182088-10) 

the first interesting thing that pops out at me is that 2006-8 ,known by fans as the ignition trilogy is, in lego called the Toa Inika and The Mask of Life. weird. 

the next thing the acticle goes into is the Toa Mata as a part of the 'favorite sets section' nex (hah hf joke) to follow are the bohrok, Rahkshi, and Takanuva (2003) the battle of metru nui is also metioned (again?) as important.the section finishes with toa ekimu(2016) it closes with a few set recommendations. here they are in the original words of lego 

While the LEGO BIONICLE® line has been retired since 2016, the legacy of this iconic theme can be found in many other LEGO® products. The first elements used to create the BIONICLE figures came from LEGO® Technic™ sets. Love story-led lines? Check out LEGO® NINJAGO® or LEGO® DREAMZzz™. A fan of constraction-type figures? Dive into our collection of mech sets, featuring mechs from some of your favorite series.

what this shows to me is that lego holds bionicle close, while not knowing some of the deeper lore (toa tribe?) they still show a love for it and are happy to give us somting now and then. but what's up with visorak being #1 villain?

[Nato G]

4 hours ago, confused piraka said:

and weirdly #1 is visorak?

Makes sense to me. Rhotuka spinners were the best launcher gimmick Bionicle ever had, and the Visorak are arguably the best clone villain wave. 

4 hours ago, confused piraka said:

they battle of metru nui being the biggest set (is this true?)

Realistically, it's probably not the largest when it comes to the size of the completed build. But I'd guess whoever wrote that was going by total piece count, as it does use the most parts of any Bionicle set, at 856 pieces. That just barely beats out the Skopio, which has 849 parts. 

3 hours ago, confused piraka said:

there being over 150 kanohi masks (again this seems wrong)

This actually checks out. Bricklink lists a total of 155 items in the Kanohi category: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?v=5&pg=1&catString=235&catType=P

Some of them are a little iffy. The Glatorian helmets are counted as Kanohi, as is the visor piece used on some of the '07 masks. Some of the G2 masks also appear twice, as parts that come in different two-colour blends often have different codes for them even if the actual mould is the same. But "over 150" seems like a fair generalisation to make. If you took into account all of the different colours the masks were available in (especially in the early years), the total would be even higher. 

[Taria Pakari]

Honestly I'd place Bohrok over Visorak personally.

[Archius]

Visorak definitely deserve to be at #1. They were created solely for destruction and murder.

Edited February 14 by Archius

[Master Inika]

I can believe Visorak were the best-selling single wave of BIONICLE sets. The Visorak are pretty great, none of them are noticeably worse than the others, they look awesome all in a row, and there were plenty of combiner models to incentivize collecting them all. Plus, they came out in a movie year, while the Bohrok didn't.

[confused piraka]

what do you guys think of the rest of the villain lineup?

[(-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)]

There is one thing for sure. I saw it in a youtube video that back in 2003 lego were still not all ok with allowing violent toys except star wars. And yet Lego seemed to take a issue with Bionicle a main theme made by lego which was action themed and had violence and many supervisors and directors wanted to get rid of bionicle. The team that were responsible with bionicle designs had to defend their theme several times.