BIONICLE G2 Discussion Topic

2015 Animations, when they awaken Ekimu - inside his tomb;

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Hi ThatchMac, thanks for taking an interest in my story - http://www.frankihobson.com/family/lego-reinvented-meet-bionicle.
I’m sorry it didn’t make sense to you. You are not my usual audience. Parents of young children are.
To clarify a few things, the story was written in 2016. I’m unsure where “…back in 2002…” came from.
Yes, this was a “craze” with my son’s friendship groups at school and out of school. (It’s been superceded by Pokemon now, though!).
No. I wasn’t paid by LEGO.
And to clarify a few of your friend’s points - the infatuation with Bionicle was so fast that none of the parents knew what it was about. Hence why I outlined (my understanding) of it. Please feel free to ask me any other questions. I’m more than happy to answer.
Best, Franki

@TeslaEffect

just to clarify: no, I was not paid by LEGO.

Although I have written several stories about LEGO from a parent’s view and interviewed child developmental experts which also included LEGO mentions. It might be worth asking them if I can go on their payroll… thanks for the idea!

RE: your comment “She is a very simple minded person…”
Well, that’s completely up to you to decide - based on reading one story I wrote aimed at parents - not G2 fans.
RE: your comment … “has a very low view of kids intelligence…” Not true. But you are free to think and say as you like.

RE: your comment “You don’t recall any kid doing this in recent times…”
I’m not sure how recently you were in a school ground, in what area, or how often you mix with seven-year-old boys, so I can only speak on behalf of my own experience.
And I can assure you with 100% certainty that this was my experience as a parent and step parent of two 7 y/o boys.
Please feel free to ask me any questions and again, thanks for taking a keen interest in my parenting story about Bionicle

@Tarvaax
Thanks Tarvaax - you nailed it :slight_smile:
Franki Hobson

Edited for Triple Post.
~Chronicler

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Hey Franki.

Just so you know, double and triple posting is against the rules of the site. I’ll edit your posts into one so the responses are still there.

Thanks.

~Chronicler

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sorry @Chronicler - I’ll check out how to join multiple responses. thank you for your help!

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No problem ma’am. :+1:

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Hello Franki,

First I need to apologize. The discussion didn’t really go where I meant it too. You see, here in the BIONICLE community, we have developed a very specific view of BIONICLE Generation 2 (the name given to the version of BIONICLE you were talking about). Generation 2 was the return of BIONICLE, from its origanel cancellation in 2010. Generation 2 was just recently cancelled. It’s looked upon as an utter finiacial failure in this community. So when I found your article I was surprised to see such a story. I wanted to provoke a discussion in the idea that not everyone views it the way we do. But it didn’t go that way as you may have seen. Truthfully I was surprised to see you describe it this way, so I grabbed on to some conclusions that were not valid. So I apologize for that. To be 100% honest you’re article was a really nice breath of fresh air.

(The 2002 comment was about the origanel Generation 1 of BIONICLE when most people in this community agree it sold well).

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But it “sold well”.

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I wouldn’t say financial. It sold as Lego expected it would, they said so themselves

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Sorry if I seem to be bombarding you with questions but I’m sure many of us would be curious as to what extent this “craze” reached…were the kids exclaiming how cool they were to play with just as action figures, or were they actively engaged with the story, characters, and atmosphere; discussing the plot amongst themselves?

Also, do you know how did they play with them? Did they keep the characters built together, roleplaying different scenarios and adventures, or did they more often than not take them apart and create their own characters?

Finally, do you think kids gravitate more towards traditional lego or are they inviting enough for constraction figures to be included in their lego collection as well?

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Chronicler
I hope I have done this correctly! I am trying to respond to multiple people

@Rockho
Hi, the craze lasted for around 3 - 5ish months - until the next craze came along.
The LEGO characters were the initial starting point. Then we bought/read the books and watched the series on loop simultaneously.

For my son - who is learning to read - the ‘complexity’ came while reading the books. The characters names, the locations in the story etc are quite long (and unfamiliar words) for a child learning to read while following a story line.

The first BIONICLE my son was give was Gali. When my son realised it was a ‘girl’, he quickly customised it with Clone Trooper (ball and socket) LEGO arms/legs etc and transformed it into a ‘boy’ BIONICLE, renaming it. He left his other ‘boy’ Bionicle’s in tact though.

RE: their creative play. The kids grasped the overall plot of the brothers, the masks, the ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’ and improvised on this story line.

RE: LEGO play on the whole, my son is very happy to dissemble, customise, pain, modify etc LEGO sets and competent enough to put them back together. His big pieces (mainly Star Wars shuttles, AT-AT, Chima Castle etc), he will play with regularly and leave in tact. But he’ll often make slight modifications. He does not believe in kragle!

@ThatchMac
Apology accepted! Sorry to bombard your forum. I dont claim to be an expert for one minute on G1 or G2. It was moe a ‘bluffers top level guide’ for parents to get their head around this ‘craze’ that swept in (and swept out) so fast.

Thanks for explaining how the forum works :smile: I’ve learnt a load!
Best, Franki

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Yeah you’re good.

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Why did Lego dumb down G2 so much in the first place? Like I look now that it has ended and they are trying to fix the storyline and make it closer to the original now that they don’t have to appeal to new people. But why only do it when its gone? What was their idea with removing the deeper plots, the new words, and other things? Are kids now too dumb that they wouldn’t understand that stuff? Like I said before, Lego should’ve tested the return with something else like they did in G1 but even so there’s also the question I just asked. Why did they make it so simplified? I know its a post/question out of the blue but I was watching JTO and it came up, so I decided to ask for opinions on it here.

Because for some reason LEGO didn’t really have any faith in the line.

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Now I think back, and realize. G2 did teach kids something…

Be sure if you want to do something before doing it.

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Dont get too attached to things because they all are just going to die pretty quick

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The idea is to appeal to a wider audience.

Honestly, it’s similar to the Fallout franchise. At the core of Fallout, you have the side characters and the world that’s built around them. That’s the way a Fallout game is supposed to be made. With Fallout 4, you have a main character driven narrative, and everything that happens is centered and focused around you and your quest most of the time. If you take a step back and look at New Vegas, Fallout 3, and the first two, you see worlds that have interesting characters with interesting dilemmas. Their character depth brings life to the world, and thus helps build the world, and that’s what makes the consequences of your actions during the main quest matter so much to you.

With the first three years of G1, you had the exact same thing. None of us really knew where the heck the story was going. We just knew a few basics, but even then Makuta was pretty much treated as some type of eldritch horror that attacks the Matoran psychologically. The main focus was always on the characters. Not just the Toa, but everyone around the Toa. That’s where a majority of MNOG’s world building came from. It was all in the interesting characters and their woes, their lifestyles, and why you should care about them. It’s because you were forced to have an emotional attachment to them that the story itself felt dire and important. Lately, modern media focuses more on the plot itself rather than making characters that make everything that happen matter to the viewer. BIONICLE was pretty much guaranteed to follow this trend, because that’s what you see in the market right now.

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Oh wow

yes that is edited

again no mention of bonkles or even constraction anywhere.

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Lol apparently the cancellation of Bionicle wasn’t just newsworthy, but a “highlight”.

Burn.

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That picture… it cuts deep man.

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Inb4 2017 Highlights will have “Dimensions made it to 99 Cent Only Stores.”

Ftfy.

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