As much as a reboot would be nice, I’m personally far too attached to G1 to leave it, especially since there’s so many story possibilities that can come from it. I don’t just mean finishing it, but going back and filling the gaps. There is more than 100,000 years of history, and for Bionicle’s 10 year run, the main story took place over a year or so (minus the Toa Metru flashback of 04-05). There is too much potential in the G1 story for there to be a complete reboot in my opinion.
Unfortunately, I don’t think Bionicle will ever get popular enough in pop culture to be given a theatrical release or anything of the sort, but it doesn’t need one. Per Oomatu’s tweet, that game is fan made, and it’s far better than any game Lego made for the IP. Perhaps Bionicle is best left in the hands of the fans at this point.
Well said, Dag.
(Although, I would really enjoy more sets being released that I wouldn’t have to pay through the nose to get on amazon.)
This is why I really regret not buying more of G2. The only G2 set I ever got was 2015 Tahu. And if you think G1 sets are crazy expensive on eBay and Amazon…oh boy.
the only stuff I buy now is just bulk random parts.
edit: or I order specific stuff of Bricklink
Very true. And the sad part is, LEGO seemed to want to move BIONICLE away from the story that ultimately made it so popular during the run. I just recently listened to the GregF interview with Gathered Friends from last year, and my some of what he said was shocking.
I’ve always had this theory that something went wrong with BIONICLE in 2008 and that it was always intended to be the end of the story and move on to something else. Side thoughts on that were that Icarax was intended to be Teridax’s final form, Teridax takeover wasn’t planned, and all the “Final Battle” marketing was intended to signal to fans that it was ending. As a kid, I legit thought it was the final year of the line and was going to end. Turns out, I wasn’t all that far off. Per Greg, he went to a meeting in Billund to discuss the 08 story. The team, ADVANCE and most of LEGO hire ups had already made up their mind and wanted to end the story in 2008. They wanted to just use the BIONICLE name but in a completely unrelated location and characters, not linked to the MU story. When Greg protested, they said “No one cares about the story”, “no one will even notice if we change the location and stop connecting it”, “kids don’t care about the story”.
Greg lost the argument, but convinced them to let Makuta take over the universe and link the new location to the story via the Ignika/Mata Nui. But hearing that was telling. LEGO was trying to remove the stories influence, believe no one cared, and to make BIONICLE essentially the name for “constraction” much like system is a blanket for things like City. And at the end of the day, it failed. 09’s drastic change, abandonment of the heroes we followed for 8 years, and their lack of understanding on just how much the story was critical to its success. From this, it comes as no surprise why G2 went the way it did.
BIONICLE, ultimately, outgrew LEGO. The story became more important and popular than the sets, and in 08, most of my friends only cared for the story, and didn’t bother with any sets beyond the Toa Nuva - if even them. BIONICLE has staying power, it always has. Greg, in that same interview, even said that he could’ve been writing the story every 2 months for the last 10 years since it was canned, and wouldn’t be any where near its completion. BIONICLE can only come back and thrive as a story. And that’s not gonna come from LEGO, who uses story to sell a product. Maybe some day they liscence BIONICLE out to a publisher - it would thrive. But any other resurrection, or a LEGO produced G3 will have the same issues G2 will, and likely will fail again.
As for Biovival…Ya. Faber is being a bit too cryptic. If he is getting the liscensing rights to make a G1 story continuation, then I am more than excited. But I feel its just an advert for his next project - which I’d also support, but I just want to know what it is and not get hopes up. Time will tell the final tale on that though. We shall see.
EDIT: Sorry I wrote a mini essay. Tldr, Bonk was gonna end in 08. LEGO no like story. Simple good, complex bad.
-Sol
To be honest it might have been better for 2008 to have concluded G1, with Teridax’s final defeat and the Great Spirit Robot being a final twist reveal. It would have avoided the massive story bloat of introducing Bara Magna, only for everything to be wrapped up super quickly anyway.
That said, that account seems to contradicts the idea that G1 at one point had a 20-year story arc planned, with the location switch to Bara Magna always part of it. (Not sure where that idea originally came from though.)
LEGO has always failed to realise that it is the products themselves that killed “constraction”, not side stuff like story. G1’s decline began with the switch from Technic subtheme to “buildable action figure”, and no subsequent LEGO action figure line has been successful.
Re: Biovival. It won’t be a G1 continuation because 1. late G1 wasn’t really Faber’s story and 2. the “BIONICLE” that is culturally remembered is the '01/'02 stuff, when it was genuinely very popular.
The interview mentioned Bob Thompson’s “7 Books of Bionicle”. Greg assumed much of what happened in the story post-05 was repurposed from that, but Bob never explicitly said all of it, at least to Greg, before he left LEGO in 05’. For example, he speculated that Bob always planned for the 7th Toa, but Gregs role on the story team suggested it was a bit of a late edition. So presumably, Spherus Magna was book 5/7 by that logic. But it was never concrete. He said that most of those billund meetings, most of the story wasn’t even planned out and they decided stuff there, and the 08 meeting was a bit different than usual, where everyone save him had their mind set on ending and a Glatorian reboot.
But ya, a part of me always thought 08 should’ve been the end. Heck, as a kid in 08, I thought it was and was super excited. Just defeating Teridax and the Big robot reveal would’ve been enough as one heck of a conclusion. That and I always felt that Glatorian had staying power as its own theme and thought it would’ve been really interesting as its own setting, in the BIONICLE universe but not really connected to the robot, as was LEGO’s original plan.
-Sol
I agree that ‘Bara Magna’ should have had its own few years before linking it back to the main story.
In fact, wasn’t that the original plan? There was going to be a trilogy of Glatorian movies?
On that topic, I think there also could have been a few years of story out of Teridax’s Reign. Of course, that stuff was only written because Greg Farshtey was given more control of the story because Lego was discontinuing the theme, but still.
If Lego had been willing to commit to the story, maybe the set releases could have been back and forth, with the Winter waves being Glatorian, and the Summer waves being Teridax’s Reign.
The pre-billund meeting plan, was Glatorian was gonna be its own thing in the BIONICLE universe/with the BIONICLE Brand name, completely unrelated to anything in the MU with 08 ending with MN rising and a happy ending. They wanted a fresh scene and to toss off the story, as they believed it was both too convoluted and that “Nobody cares about the story”. Greg convinced them to let him make Teridax take over the MU and connect the story, do another trilogy, and then see how it went. 09 underperformed and they canned it, and Greg/Story team convinced them to do the Stars and 1 last book to end it quickly without a cliffhanger.
I’m glad we did get an ending that wrapped things up, but I feel like linking them ultimately ended up screwing over the idea of Glatorian as a line (which I still think had potential, such a cool concept) and BIONICLE as a whole. Heck, constraction as a whole. Glatorian, functionally, would’ve been the new constraction theme under the BIONICLE line (ala BIONICLE was under Technic in at first) and who knows what would’ve happened with things like HF and CCBS later down the line. Fun what if scenario.
And Ya, I agree. Greg believed that MN shouldn’t even rise in 08 and he had ideas for at least 2-3 more years of MU stories before raising him, but the folks up top were adamant that he needed to wake up in 08. Reign of shadows would’ve been a great line of sets and story, alot of potential there. Shame.
-Sol
Hero Factory was popular (in it’s early years, at least), and LEGO themselves have stated that. So saying that no constraction line post-G1 has been successful is bit of a bold claim to say the least.
Depends how you measure success, but the theme (and CCBS itself) was not able to maintain enough interest to become evergreen like Ninjago, Star Wars, City etc.
Even with a popular IP like Star Wars, CCBS was not particularly desirable. (A “successful” CCBS would have become an ongoing third branch of LEGO building, like System and Technic, but instead it has been shelved.)
When it comes down to it, System and Technic are two products largely unique to LEGO, with a near monopoly on their market. “Constraction” tried to move into the already-packed action figure market, but lacked the qualities to succeed against all that extra competition.
this includes Bionicle, correct?
From my recollection the evergreen system was introduced after bionicle ended.
Ninjago was the first story theme to be put on the list.
Yes. What I’m saying is that Bionicle was not able to maintain interest, which is why is was cancelled/
I personally think that something neat for the final battle would’ve been for the Toa Nuva to have ventured back to Metru Nui whilst communicating somehow with those on the outside, resulting in a coordinated attack against Teridax from both within and without, with the aim of the Nuva’s mission being to poison Teridax with the same (or at least a very similar) virus to the one that he himself used to put Mata Nui to sleep in the first place, bringing things to an epic full circle moment (one that rewards both the fans and the Toa by winning the day with the knowledge they’ve learned of the story/world that was originally just a mystery on a golden beach). The virus could have come from either 1) Melding Universe Teridax, causing his multi-serial storyline to have a great and meaningful climax, as well as providing another ironic-yet-full circle ending to the story in seeing him team-up with the Toa Nuva or 2) from the Shadowed One, causing the case of viruses he obtained to actually end up having a story conclusion, or maybe 3) a combination of the two, the viruses that the Shadowed One has are an ingredient that Melding Teridax needs in making the one to put evil Teridax to sleep. The thing of them communicating with those on the outside also could have been said to be an ability gained by Tren Krom doing what he did in the Core Processor, also giving that storyline more of a purpose.
Bionicle can’t have a succesful return because people just want G1 to return. But, If it does come back then the fans will be mad because 1, either the story or sets are different from G1 (what happened in G2) or it could be with system sets but then people would argue that it is just normal sets with the bionicle branding on it. What I want to know is what you would want from a G3 if you would want it at all.
I’ve taken the stance ever since G2 imploded, that I don’t want a G3, in any form. And that’s not because I don’t want BIONICLE or care about - it’s because it is abundantly clear that LEGO doesn’t. Its no surprise that G2 ended, and not only did BIONICLE go with it, constraction as a whole died out a few months later. Its been something near 3 years since a single constraction set was even released (Darth Maul) with many other cool Star Wars figures - one of the single most popular LEGO liscensed themes for decades - got cancelled. Which is the biggest shame, as its the only LEGO building style I loved and it cut out an entire building style and its fanbase.
LEGO doesn’t sell story, they use a story to sell sets. BIONICLE’s story became expansive, grand, and frankly outgrew LEGO. They tried a dumbed-down and use a simplistic story, and it fell on its face. Even Hero Factory managed to get 4 years. G2 got canned before even its 3rd - heck, based on LEGO’s cancellation cycle, they canned it sometime near the end of the skull villains. Internally at LEGO, they seem to have noted that constraction just wasn’t working, and even bringing back BIONICLE wasn’t enough. Any reboot they bring in for G3 just won’t do it for me. It won’t have the expansive story I love, it will likely be system, of which I have never and will never be a fan of that building style, and it just won’t be BIONICLE. I’m all for commemorating it (as evidenced by my reinvigoration due to the canon contests), but I only wanna see a G1 continuation as a story only (which isn’t going to happen, I know), cause frankly LEGO just doesn’t want constraction or BIONICLE at this time. And that’s ok.
-Sol
I personally don’t want a G3 at all. The only thing that I might remotely want is some sort of legacy series, limited time rereleases of the old sets, to commemorate the 20 year anniversary.
I would also like that as a little commemorative. It’s a pipe dream, but maybe re-release 1 set from every year. Or even just a limited re-release of say, the Toa Mata. Something for the 20th (which I think is next year, not this year but I may be wrong) would be nice - but unlikely.
-Sol
Yeah. Maybe just all the OG Mata plus a Teridax updated model. Ah well, one can only hope.