Hiya! Randomly I wanted to share my findings about Neoshifters; the Mega Bloks competitor to Bionicle!
In the early 2000s Mega Bloks, now Mattel’s Mega Construx, used to compete a little more with Lego. Their parts were more brittle and building was usually less interesting than Lego but Mega Bloks had their own themes besides just popular IP licenses like they do today. These included Dragons, Pyrates, Fantasy, Alien Agency, Mag Warriors, Plasmaverse, Legends King Arthur and others. Dragons by far had the most impact on Gen Z and Millenials, including me. I remember being totally obsessed with the Dragons and Pyrates themes when I was a little girl and playing with Dragons at my cousins house. I actually was a little sad looking on Mega Bloks website and seeing that none of these themes are still made, but oh well, kids these days have great toys.
But perhaps the most ambitious and unique theme Mega Bloks created was Neo Shifters. Like the rest of Mega Bloks, Neo Shifters has no fandom online today but it seems like some people remember it at least. Looking these toys up I recognised the boxes and logo because I saw them as a kid looking at Dragons and Pyrates on store shelves but I never had one myself. Bionicle is much better but its kind of neat to see what its competitor was like. Neo Shifters came out in 2005. It piggybacked off of Bionicle and Transformers at the same time, having aspects of both. Like Bionicle it had constructable characters who are mechanical with biological features, they can turn into balls like the Bohrok, some character faces resemble Kanohi, some sets basically had Rhotuka Spinners, it had a comic, 2 CGI promo animations and there was an online game MMORPG that had some lore too. Some people seemed to have enjoyed the game when it was online. Unfourtunately, this game is lost media like most of the online stuff that Mega Bloks had, including some Dragons games I remember playing.
Ill talk about the lore. Since I cant play the game, my best source for it was the comic illustrated by Vincent Morin, a lesser-known painter who funnily enough went on to make the Bionicle G2 comic. Only one issue was made. It was released in 2007. I don’t know how it was distributed but physical copies do exist.
All of the Neo Shifters are former research satellites created by the Hydraxxians which littered the skies of planet Hydrax Tor. Hydraxxian scientists created a life-giving virus called the Genêochrom which they were experimenting on inside an orbital laboratory. An asteroid hit it and released the virus in an explosion that sent the satellites to planet Skandar and infused them with its properties. From the rubble emerged the NÉOzomes, sentient artificial life forms. The NÊOzomes or just Neos, are the minifigures inside the chests of the bigger action figures, the Shifters. The neos built the shifters from the crashed satellites. The character Delta::Tek was made from a geology satellite and has stone powers, Cozma::Tor was from a telescope and has visors, Atlas::Raan was a repair satellite and can heal, etc. The neos and shifters formed a symbiotic relationship, the neos provide the brains and shifters create fuel from Hydrax; their word for water, which they drink and obtain hydrogen fuel out of. Both would die after a few days apart. Hydrax powered the cities they built on Skandar. But Hydrax began to run out so the leaders sent out scouts, including Alpha::Rex and Terra<>Sfear to find more. When they found some caves full of water, Alpha Rex’s neo exited from his shifter to reach it through the tight spaces but when he got lost and asked for backup, Terra Sfear ignored it and left him in the caves to die. Terra Sfear formed the Templars to control the water for power, wasted it and then convinced the masses to abandon Skandar. They invaded Hydrax Tor and enslaved the Hydraxxians. Hydrax was found deep beneath the planet’s surface, which the Templars mined. Hydraxxian scientists discovered that if a Neoshifter drinks too much Hydrax, they get Hydrax Toxic Syndrome which makes them greedy and wasteful. All of the Templars have this disease. The son of Alpha Rex, the charismatic, selfless, smart and determined Magna Rex formed the Paladins, a resistance whose mission is to investigate, report and prevent the catastrophic depletion of Hydrax, and thwart the wasteful ways of the ruling Templars and Terra<>Sfear, whose goal is to invade planet Earth in the next galaxy because its surface is mostly water. The Codex, the combined databanks of the Neoshifters and Hydraxxians, sent a distress signal to Earth to recruit digital warriors as part of the online game.
This lore is limited but I was surprised how
not-generic it was. I like the environmental message about not being wasteful or destroying your home and I liked how brave Magna Rex and the Paladins are. I also thought that certain panels in the comic and other artwork by this Vincent fellow looked stylish and neat, even if a bit rushed. Neo Shifters sold fine but it was discontinued at the end of 2008, so nothing more from the story would be seen. Like how Lego made Hero Factory after Bionicle, Mega Bloks made Neo Machines after Neo Shifters, which lasted until 2011.
I wasted time on this 
But yeah thats my little post about Mega Bloks and Neo Shifters.
I’ma buy a few after I get my Bonkles ^.^
sources:
*CGI Animation https://youtu.be/0LLlZ-BYgo4
*Read comic Comic Sample 1 by Randy H. - Issuu
*Game trailer VIDEOS NEO SHIFTERS MMO - FLASH ANIMATION on Vimeo
*Game review ti3n's blog: ADV - Online gaming Neo Shifters
totally. Its funny, I grew up with Gobots, my uncle had some. I liked how they were Hot Wheels size. My bf is still introducing me to Transformers.