What Happened to Bionicle

Praise be Mata'Nui! I tackle the monumental task of explaining what happened to such a beloved toy series that made us fall in love with unique lore.




#bionicle #cartoon #nostalgia #cartoon #toys

[theshadynorwegian]

"Maybe we didn't buy enough bionicle"
Me: *looks over at my several chests of bionicle*
nah, it wasn't that

[ltb]

Chima didn’t actually fail. Three years is the standard for those kinds of LEGO themes. Ninjago and Bionicle were just insanely successful.

[duchi]

*"In the first Age, in the first battle there was Lego"*

*Doom Guy:* Finally, a worthy opponent

[JPOGTV]

Here’s an actual explanation on why bionicle failed:

LEGO has been known to cancel many themes when they weren’t selling to their standards. There have been some exceptions recently but before that, good luck if your favorite theme got another year. Chima is a good example of this, it was supposed to be Ninjagos replacement after LEGO was going to end it but it didn’t meet expectations and only lasted a few years. Other examples include: Rock Raiders, Atlantis, Alien Invasion, Dino, world racers, etc

Bionicle was declining for some time before it’s end in 2010 with understandable reasons such as fans getting older and losing interest, the lore becoming too difficult for new comers to access, the dumbing down on toy builds and functions that the previous years had more of and the pieces becoming fragile. There were plans to continue it but they ultimately decided to cancel it and start something new.

Hero factory was LEGOs attempt to revitalize the action figure building theme as they thought that a new approach would improve sales. Hero Factory was designed to be more accessible to people compared to Bionicle since it would be difficult to keep up the story if it had complex lore in it. Also it was the best opportunity to try out a new building system for action figures that had more durable and customizable parts. Hero Factory did mediocre in its first year but later did well enough for some time but internally, LEGO were seeing if their new building system for figures and the sales would justify bringing bionicle back. Also those TV specials weren’t a complete show, they were basically the animated movies for the theme similar to bionicles movies were it was the story at the time in an animated form.

That’s when the reboot happened. The reboot is its own separate continuity inspired by its predecessor. LEGO knew that just continuing the old bionicle was going to be difficult since they had left a lot open from the previous storyline so it was just better to start fresh. The reason why Generation 2 got cancelled was again LEGO cancelling themes that don’t meet their high sale expectations. This is entirely their fault though, marketing for the Bionicle reboot was done poorly and not to the same level as they did back in the generation one days. They seemed to rely heavily on old fans to spread the word of bionicle and didn’t bother getting new kids into it with their own advertising. We basically had to sell the kids these days on these toys.

Also Bionicle did indeed help to save LEGO back then. The licensed themes had large fees to cover so in the end LEGO didn’t make that much money from them to begin with and needed their own themes to boost revenue and fall back on if the license deals fell through.

I suggest if anyone is interested in bionicle and it’s history, there’s channels that discuss it in depth. The Three Virtues and NickonPlanetRipple are probably the best. The former which goes in depth with bionicle lore and other aspects of the theme and the later who talks about LEGO in general so you can understand how the company works.

[adriannaranjo]

It's honestly disgusting how LEGO has been treating Bionicle, the brand that saved them from Bankruptcy, in recent times

[StarboyXL]

Bionicle single-handedly kindled my love for deep lore settings. The history of the Bionicle universe is rich with secrets and treasures:


Axonn was once a conqueror who ruled over much of the main continent before being recruited for the Hand of Artakha and eventually joining the Order of Mata Nui when the Hand disbanded.


Mata Nui wasn't the first "God", that was Tren Krom, who held the position until Mata Nui was ready to take over.


The infamous "Bionicle Symbol" is actually a star map of sorts displaying the orbits of Bara Magna, Bota Magna, and Aqua Magna, three planetary bodies that were once one called "Spherus Magna" but was shattered by "The Core War" between the Element Lords, which was fought over Energized Protodermis.


The Red Star is actually a space station.


The Great Beings built Mata Nui to explore and observe the galaxy. It spent most of its time traveling through space with the purpose of the world inside it being to keep it operating.


The Makuta were created as both a species and an order to serve Mata Nui directly, until Teridax took power from Miserax and betrayed Mata Nui, putting him to sleep and causing his body to crash-land on Aqua Magna, causing "The Great Cataclysm".

[CyberSurferXD]

Biological Chronicle = Christian Faber, the art director, was dealing with a brain tumor and thought "What the medication fighting my tumor... was literally fighting my tumor" Weird starting point I know, but it built the foundations for the whole series. The Toa, the Bohrok, Makuta, Mata Nui, and even the damn packaging for the toys (no...seriously!)

Might've been a weird place to start but it provided the foundations for the franchise and I have to respect how far they ran with it~

[Timboman]

Ya, the lore definitely does NOT start with "The Mask of Light", it starts with the "Mata-Nui Online Game" (aka MNOLG) which was a flash based adventure game that that contained the majority of the franchise lore in the early days and was VERY ahead of its' time, receiving semi-regular updates the expanded on the game as time went on (2001-2002), with it ultimately leading up to the events of the Mask of Light movie (2003), which was widely disliked by the community at the time due to it making the previous silent stoic protagonist of the MNOLG, Takua, into an annoying WAY to talkative smart ass.

[pohretra]

"BIONICLE, a portmanteau of "biological chronicle", which makes no sense to me"

Most of the story takes place in the Matoran Universe (barring the islands of Mata Nui and Voya Nui, and the planet of Bara Magna), which is the biology of the Great Spirit Robot, Mata Nui. If you consider the Mata Nui robot as a person, then Makuta Teridax's "spell" is a deadly virus that has made the body fall ill (it's even referred to as the "Makuta Virus" in official material). And the protagonists are microorganisms fighting off the illness in order to save this dying body.
So the story is a chronicle of the Great Spirit Robot's biology. "Biological Chronicle".

[blitz-frenchman]

The fact that no movie came out during the 2006-2008 period was a darned shame. The happenings during that period - as covered in the books - were super interesting, and it was probably the point of the series where the writing was at its best.

[Achillez]

"I've never owned Bionicles"
You sir, officially did not have a childhood

[Obi-Wan_Kenobi]

I have to clarify that Bionicle was a significant factor in saving Bionicle from bankruptcy. It was not the licensed themes, those helped of course but Lego had to give a huge segment of profits from those sales to the lisense owner. They made Bionicle so they could have 100% of the sales profits and it was thus stable supply of revenue that secured Lego's financial future.

To say that Bionicle single handedly saved Lego is probably a bit of an overstatement. But to say it was the licence themes that actually single handled saved Lego is an even bigger overstatement.

[RaiJolt]

Oh hey! A bionicle. Video! (Only covers movies)
Me: cries

[Geekus]

Lifelong Bionicle devotee here: please do not judge the saga by the movies. The real story was a conglomerate of the comics, online games & clips, and the books. The movies... so much.

[thenerdbeast]

I absolutely LOVED Bionicle, the way it blends sci-fi and fantasy so well. What other series has MAGICAL NATURE-WIELDING ROBOTS?? It was so unique!

[busyak]

Bionicle has a very small, but incredibly dedicated fanbase. Beyond the incredible preservation efforts from the Biomedia Project and the Wall of History, there is an overwhelming body of amazing new work from fans, mostly focused on the original Mata-Nui storyline. Some highlights would be: Peri's animated films, done perfectly in the style of the Mata Nui Online Game, the definitive work in the original storyline; the restoration of the cancelled Legend of Mata Nui game from 2001 by Litestone; the fanmade Mata Nui Online Game 1.5, which aims to bridge the gap between MNOG1 and the Bohrok Animations; Team Kanohi's Masks of Power, a very ambitious open world RPG set in the original storyline and currently overgoing an overhaul, but playable in an impressive gameplay preview called Trials of the Great Spirit; and the upcoming Quest for Mata Nui, which is to early to speak on yet, but looks promising.

[taranbrat]

Not to be “that guy” but honestly the best lore came from the games and books/comics in my opinion. The 3rd movie was the only movie I liked to be honest. The toy adds to we’re great, the original ones still give me chills till this day

[MrTino]

As a kid, my dad bought me bionicle. And the lady at the store gave me a small bag FULL of bionicle masks they had laying around. I was so gosh dang happy.

One of the rare positive memories I have of my dad.

[ericgibson]

All this talk of deep lore and you barely dipped your toes.
The movies are a snowflake in the general vicinity of the tip of an iceberg.

[yiwoon_crs]

I am proud of the fact that Bionicle inspired more story driven merchandises such as Ninjago