For some reason, it seems that most members of the Bionicle community became fans in Generation 1. I’m surprised to see a relative lack of G2-only fans around…but my sample size and perception may be lacking. So, to correct my possibly erroneous assumption, this is a check poll.
When did you get into Bionicle, and what version of the franchise brought you into the fandom?
I became a fan of Bionicle during G1’s run, and G1 brought me in
I became a fan of Bionicle in the intermission (2010-early 2014) and G1 brought me in
I became a fan of Bionicle during 2015-present day, and G2 brought me into the fandom
I became a fan of Bionicle during 2015-present day, but I was brought in primarily by old G1 things
I became a fan of Bionicle during 2015-present day, and a combination of G1 and G2 brought me into the fandom
Other
0voters
If you are primarily a G2 fan, how much do you understand about G1?
I’m a G2-only fan. I don’t know anything about G1 at all.
I understand some things about G1, but I’m not really into it.
I understand G1 pretty well. After getting drawn in by G2, I wanted to understand G1 and what it was all about.
I was drawn in by G2, but after researching G1, I’m way more into it now.
Other
0voters
Which version of the Bionicle franchise do you like better?
I grew up with Bionicle but for the majority of my childhood knew almost nothing about the story. All I understood was what was presented in the movies. Around four or five years ago I started reading the comics a lot. Soon after those came Watching TTV and reading the books. After that my friend told me bionicle was coming back.
I got into LEGO in 2010, when G1 was just ending. I grew up with Hero Factory, and when G2 came around I became a Bionicle fan and also started researching G1, and became a fan of both G1 and G2.
I came really, really late. 2013. 4 years after Bionicle had ended. I was introduced to it with Ackar in 2011, but I actually started to like it when I got a bag of a few 2008 bonks inside. Sealed Kopaka, sealed Pohatu, and opened, falling apart, incomplete Chirox.
G2 came around a few years later, and I found out via the inside cover of a Lego Club magazine. I wasn’t really interested at all, and used most of G2’s run to build up my G1 collection. I acquired a lot of my G1 sets during this time. At one point I had all the Rahkshi except Kurahk and spent I think 2 months looking for him until I found him.
That’s another thing, availability probably affected my views on the two eras. Despite coming in so late, G1 sets were surprisingly easy to find at car boots. A lot of the time, people would have massive boxes filled to the brim with canisters and titans for around £15. Finding good deals was not hard if you knew where to look.
On the other hand, G2 was pretty much non-existent. The sets were never stocked anywhere, apart from abundant amounts of Korgot and Vizuna. The only way to get them was through Lego itself. I think I ended up with Kopaka, Pohatu and Izotor by the end of 2015. Kopaka was a taster, and I wouldn’t even have tried to buy Pohatu if not for one of BionicleNP’s Brown Poblin skits. The only place I could consistently find sets was an obscure garden centre which only ever stocked a combination of Gali, Mask Maker vs Skull Grinder, Skull Warrrior and Skull Slicer.
Any 2016 sets larger than creatures were never stocked anywhere in my area. I think stores had already lost hope in the theme. Even then, the only creatures stocked were Ikir, Akida and Uxar, so not even the full range. The only 2016 set I ever got at the time was a single Pohatu that I found at the back of a shelf in John Lewis.
It really surprises me how I got in so late, but here we are.
I got into Bionicle when it debuted in 2001. There was no G2 or Hero Factory. There were Throwbots, Roboriders, Technic Competition and Technic Star Wars. I have very faint memories of Technic playsets before Bionicle and I do remember seeing Blaster, Millennia, and the Pit Droid at Toys R Us but that was way back.
The first bionicle media I was exposed to was the first comic that came with lego mania magazine. Trying to pronounce bionicle names as a first-grader was difficult. I followed the comic series, owned the four movies, and had a bunch of the scholastic chapter books in elementary school. Bionicle was popular with my classmates in elementary school from 2001-2004. After 2004, we all grew out of it and moved on to more adult things.
Well I had always wondered if I was the only one like this. I got in to Bionicle late 2008, but 2009 was what sealed the deal. Seeing the world of Bara Magna was amazing and the story of the brave glatorian warriors struggling against the mighty skrall army really drew me in. I wonder if 2009 drew any other fans in, people ask if you are a 2001 fan or a 2006 fan but what about the 2009 fans?
No, I started really researching the lore after wanting to know more about the character of my only 2008 set (Makuta Vamprah) and discovered BS01 and the rest was history.
Lol, this a subject I feel ashamed of, I remember (in what I’d call a heroic effort) playing the 2008 battle for power games at the meer age of 4 and in 2010 seeing the stars but that’s about it. I also remember getting clutch powers from the DVD store and seeing there was ‘other’ LEGO movies… but the bionicle movies were pretty weird so I wasn’t interested. Skip to 2015ish and me and my brother finally noticed the bionicle section (we had heard about G2 and were confused) in one of our LEGO books-the bohrok caught my brothers eye and the rest is history… a.k.a binging old biotube videos and building Rahi and mataron from bulk lots.
Yeh I feel bad for not out about finding bionicle sooner.
I was introduced to Bionicle in mid-2006, halfway through the Inika waves, but my first sets were actually donated Golden Age sets.
It’s weird because my gateway to the series was through the sets and story of '01-'03, but three years past their prime. I practically skipped all of '04/'05 and was caught up with the current sets by '07.
I actually became a fan of Bionicle in 2005 reading 2004 story, so I’m also a bit of an oddball. It took me several years to understand why 2001 was such a big thing for a lot of fans, and the standard everything got compared to. Picture me reading the Hapka books after reading Time Trap. Yes, I actually read 2004-05 before I read 2001-2003, because obviously 2004-05 came first chronologically and I didn’t know any better. Then I read 2001-03 and finally understood the introductions and epilogues to each of the Adventures books, which I basically skimmed on the first read through and ignored. So that’s my “lolz, early fan ignorant fail” story.