Just chased up everything for you - hopefully this will give some answers. The Lego Customer Support person was very helpful and surprisingly insightful into the workings behind the customer support interactions and how ‘in the loop’ they are, managing to give more answers to the delays and explaining a bit about the process behind things.
Basic transcript of a phone call today - some aspects removed or condensed as it was quite a lot of to and fro;
LCS - “How can i help you”
ME - “Hello, i was enquiring as to the availability of Lego Bionicle sets - in particular two sets that were supposed to be released at the start of this month”
LCS - “Ok, what were the names of these sets?”
ME - “Lego Bionicle Umarak The Destroyer and Quake Beast”
LCS - “Alright, will just check for them for you”
-Checks-
LCS - “What were the names of these two sets?”
ME - “Umarak the Destroyer and Quake Beast…”
-moment of silence while they check again-
ME - “They were supposed to release 5 new Bionicle sets in this wave, however only three of them are on the site”
LCS - “Yeah, it does appear they are not on the site”
-moment of silence-
LCS - “I’ll put you on hold while i check with the shop team about possibly delays”
-five minutes later-
LCS - “Thank you for holding, its going to take about five minutes for them to respond - is it alright to call you back on this number”
ME - “Yeah, that’s fine”
-five minutes later-
LCS - “Just calling to respond to your enquiry about the Bionicle sets, the shop just got back to me. Apparently the sets are delayed and should be arriving next week”
ME - “Thanks, I’m a little confused though, could you clarify why they were delayed?”
LCS - “The delivery trucks have been delayed”
ME - “Just wondering also, why aren’t the sets on the website? I’ve checked on several Bionicle boards and it appears that this appears to be an issue for other locations also”
LCS “I’m unsure, i didn’t know this to be an issue. Might just be problems with the website. However, for here, they should be added to the website when they are available next week”
ME - “Alright, thanks for all your help. Just one last thing, I’ve heard rumours about the line ending this year instead of next year, I’m wondering if you’ve heard anything about that?”
LCS - “I have not heard any rumours like that. We’re not really in the loop about that. Only time I’ve heard about Lego doing that was with Chima. I believe they’d put something on the website if something like that happened”
ME - “Its ok, thank you for letting me know”
LCS - “No problem, hope you enjoy your weekend”
ME - “You too, thanks again, bye”
#TLDR;
-
Bionicle sets are just delayed, as i mentioned before
-
It doesn’t appear to be anything to panic over
-
They haven’t heard any rumours about Bionicle being cancelled
-
They also mentioned that they (customer support) were unlikely to get information on cancellations before a public statement on the website
-
The delay appears to have been caused by delivery trucks
-
This may just be the reason fro the UK delay
-
Sets should be available on the website when they have them available
-
However, some locations are experiencing site problems which may be the reason for the lack of UtD and QB