Since Bionicle G2 is out, I’m wondering what people thought of Bionicle G1 sets. Please post below pros and/or cons of Bionicle G1 sets. They can be on specific sets, a whole year, or the whole 10 years of Bionicle G1.
2001-2005
Canister sets:
Pros - Iconic designs, great masks, gear functions
Cons - Torsos were mainly just one or two chunks of plastic, generally lacked posability, (except with the Metru) clone sets everywhere
Titans:
Pros - great functions, unique designs, complex builds, lots of technic
Cons - sometimes looked abstract or blocky
2006-2009
Canister sets:
Pros - Posability, still has good masks, clone sets downplayed
Cons - Torsos still just chunks of plastic, no gear functions
Titans:
Pros - Complex builds, still some technic, look more cohesive
Cons - No functions, designs tend to remain restricted to humanoid figures
2 Likes
Strange that there wasn’t topic like that.
Well… It is not that easy to judge G1 objectively because of nostalgia.
But I will try. I will try to remember my first reactions as a child.
2001: I loved Toa. They were cool, proper looking robots, a little like Terminator skeletons. But, the articulation was lacking, especially with their legs and necks. Their story was also fun. Rahi were not interesting to me because I was never into animals, and Turaga looked stupid to me. I liked colored heads only.
2002: Bohroks were cool, colorful, but same. Toa Nuva were like OMG WOW. When I first saw Toa Nuva I felt in love with them, especially Kopaka. After that my favorites were always white guys. Titans were not interesting to me. I kinda liked Exo-Toa, but never got it.
2003: Bohroks Kal - okay, once again, pretty nice looking but boring. Rahkshi were a bummer. I didn’t like them. But, I bought some of them to have colored connector pieces and I loved articulated knees, but not ultra short arms.
Then, Takanuva was introduced to me. He looked like the best thing in a world, a completely white Kopaka (oops… it’s not Kopaka… never mind!). Al the other titans were also great to me, but I only got Jaller, no Takua, no Makuta. Matorans were also cool.
2004: AHHHH!!! THE BEST TOA EVER! - was my reaction. I loved their articulation and complete color. Arms articulation was disappointing though. Matorans were cool, but neck were bad articulated. Vahki… Rahkshi again, darn it. Titans were all great. Toa Lhikan was an event. He made an ideal Toa concept even more ideal. After that I started loving white guys and red guys.
2005: Visoraks were some stupid spiders. Rahaga were freaks. Roodaka was cool, but arms were bad. Other Titans… meehhh… Toa Hordika were also not good, ugly and all the same, even more same then Toa Metru, and they had no heads. This was a very bad year to me. It was a year when Bionicle was not important. Only the Toa Hagah were somehow saving the situation, because they were great.
That’s it. I will observe 2006-2010 a little later.
1 Like
I didn’t get a lot of 2001-2003 sets (except a box of the pieces), so that is a bummer.
2004: My first Toa was Onewa, because I liked the way he looked (now I regret getting him over Matau). Good function but limited articulation in the arms. I got the Vahki, thought they where cool (not much anymore), but didn’t get ahold of the titans. The Toa and Matoran (we only had Vhisola) where okay. (I appreciated the flexibility of the matoran!)
2005: This year was odd. We got all the Hordika, Rahaga, and almost all the Visorak. The only titan we got was Keetongu, and he was pretty epic. I personally love the Visorak, and this year was the year I really started collecting.
2006: A majority of the BIONICLE sets I have is from 2006-2008. So let’s begin. So, my first Piraka was Reidak, which I thought at first was a GOOD GUY. Then I learned they where the villains, but I didn’t care, as we got the rest of the Piraka and Matoran, and had some good times with that. Then the Inika came out, and I was impressed with how awesome they looked and their flexibility, becoming my favorite Toa. The titans this year I really appreciated, as they where the first ones I really got.
2007: Okay, so we got the Barraki (which I thought where cool because of the odd designs) as well as the Toa (which showed me how far one could go with the Inika build to make it look epic). Missed out on the titans, but got the Matoran. Also got good weapon pieces.
2008: Phantoka where rad, Mistika not so much. Icarax wasn’t much of the titan I thought he would be, but still fun. The joints broke, so we ended up using their pieces for later. Did bring a lot of good weapon pieces, though.
2009: Things went downhill. Only got Gresh, Tarduk, and Ackar, while my brother got Tarix, Skrall, and Mata Nui. I got a bit tired of the Inika build… I wished the Glatorian could have brought something new! Some of the re-colors where nice, though.
2010 STARS: Major disappointment. Missed out on Rahkshi and Takanuva. The stars where okay, but I thought BIONICLE’s last sets where gonna be something huge, not… small.
Overall, 2010 wasn’t so great. Although, I did happen to get a box of 2001-2005 BIONICLE pieces from my aunt, and I really enjoyed it when I found pieces to make Takanuva in there! (as well as other handy technic stuff) That box made 2010 better (besides the awesome Lego Indiana Jones biplane and war plane set. That was cool, too).
2001: A relatively good start for BIONICLE, the sets were bright and vibrant, and there was a definitive culture that could be seen with all the Rahi, Matoran, Turaga, etc. The only downside was that the sets were lacking in articulation which made them less dynamic.
2002: The first proper year of BIONICLE, and a definite improvement over the previous year. The Bohrok were easily some of the best villain canister sets we had gotten since their functions were so cool and the Krana were so collectible. The Toa Nuva were a definite upgrade of the Mata, conveying a very experienced look with the silver armor and masks. I don’t own any of the titans so I really can’t express my opinion towards them.
2003: A revolutionary year for BIONICLE… minus the recycled Bohrok Kal. Not only were the Matoran improved in posability, but the Rahkshi introduced more fluent posability which is a plus in my book. The titans, though I don’t own any, were great, Makuta Teridax had a very menacing look though his lower section was fairly unfinished looking. Takanuva and the Usa Nui was a proper vehicle, though I wish Takanuva kept the trend of posability the Rahkshi introduced (especially since they both came out in summer of 03’!). Jalla and Takua’s sets were cool but nothing special.
2004: Hands down, best year for BIONICLE sets IMO. The Toa Metru were outstanding, demonstrating a perfect balance between form and function that previous and future Toa only contained one part of. The Matoran were great, though fairly open from the back, but still bearing more posability and featuring wonderful silver melded masks. The Vahki were alright and had a very intimidating appearance, not to mention some great functions. But the lack of moving elbows and hindered head articulation made them feel slightly downgraded. The titans were awesome, each unique and bringind different styles of building to the table, Nidhiki having an overall solid look, Dume and Nivawk had some great functions and was fairly intimidating, though Lhikan and Kikanalo is easily the best looking of all with two incredibly well designed figures. The only slightly disappointing one was Krekka since his functions were rather clunky in getting them to work though he still was properly brute looking.
2005: Though I didn’t HATE the Hordika like a lot of people, actually finding them somewhat bestial in appearance, they were fairly gappy in some areas and I wish the asymmetry was carried over more. The Visorak on the other hand, were incredible, definitely topping last years Vahki with a more solid look, cool functions, and more vibrant color schemes. The Rahaga were mere parts packs and really weren’t all that great looking, as opposed to the titans which had some really cool designs, though they were fairly generic humanoids and lacked that spice of variety 04’ had.
2006: Though I don’t own the Inika, they were fairly good looking (minus the strange looking masks) and had some cool weapons. The Piraka, though solid in design, weren’t really that interesting to me for some reason. The Voyatoran were cool in that they broke the clone trend, though they did fell more like parts packs than legitimate sets (I have my eye on you Kazi). The Titans were awesome, though still just being humanoids they had incredibly solid builds and were fairly unique and intimidating.
2007: WHY DO YOU ALL HAVE RED EYES?!! Seriously though, I thought 2007 was decent. The Toa Mahri had some pretty cool varying designs. particularly Jaller, though I wished they were SLIGHTLY similar, as to make them look more like a team. The Barraki had some cool designs too and I’m impressed that some broke from the traditional Inika build. The Matoran were cool, but there should have been the traditional 6 elemental types. As for the titans… they’re nice, Hydraxon is very cool looking though being pretty much a glorified Inika build, Maxilos and Spinax was cool, and Gadunka was okay.
2008: WHY DO YOU ALL HAVE GREEN EYES?!! Though it was nice to see the Toa Nuva again, they felt somewhat generic. The Toa Phantoka were easily the better of the two and Pohatu is easily the most unique (though his orange color scheme makes me cringe). The Toa Mistika on the other hand were not as great, they were incredibly bland and had no proper weapons outside of the Nynrah Ghost Buster. The Makuta were very cool and had some really unique designs, though the Titans and Vehicles released this year were some of the best large sets we had ever gotten in BIONICLE. The worst this year had to offer were the Av-Matoran in that their builds were not as involved as Matoran prior, just solid pieces of plastic for the limbs and chest.
2009: While a majority of the Glatorian felt like generic Inika sets coughcoughgelucoughcough, Some of the designs and overall aesthetic of sets such as Stronius or Strakk really stand out. The Agori are much better than the generic Av-Matoran of 08’ regarding how eclectic their color schemes are, especially Zesk who is easily the best set to use the Av/Agori build. The Titans were okay, Toa Mata Nui looked fairly wonky and had strange proportions (and almost no gold!), Tuma was cool looking, and Fero and Skirmix definitely improved on the Kikanalo concept by figuring a way to attach the driver to the steed. And the vehicles were outstanding, mainly Skopio-XV1.
2010: Though they had some nice parts, 2010 felt too unfinished and underwhelming for my liking.
6 Likes
Those green and orange eyes… It was cool when we had different eye color for all the Toa. I’m so sick of green and orange. That is also a problem with 2015 to me. Nice that at least some sets have blue.
4 Likes
See, when we first got the images for Bionicle 2015, I thought all of the trans-neon green pieces were trans-yellow. Meaning that several Toa had yellow eyes, and Pohatu had trans-yellow bones.
Sadly, I was mistaken.
1 Like
The eye stocks from the 06 to 08 sets were orange and yellow, not green.
I liked the techno feel of the sets instead of the plain look of CCBS but honestly I don’t have any complaints about them
I went to a friends house yesterday In his basement we managed to rebuild the mctoran forms of Hewkii and Matoro. (Oh and Nocturn too). As small as they are I still think that they are a prime example of what McDonalds toys should be.
4 Likes
Nevermind. It was neon green.
Yellow is on Gali Mata of Gali Nuva.
I hoped that it’s two blue, two neon green and two yellow, but nope.
2001-2003:
I only have three sets from these years combined, and I don’t like giving critique on something I haven’t touched, seen, heard, smelled, and tasted.
2004:
I loved the sets for this year. The Matoran we pretty good (I was able to make the Kavinika combiner, which I enjoyed), and the Toa were the best we’ve gotten (in mah humble opinion). The Vahki did their job as villains and the titans were glorious in my five-year-old eyes. The sets from this year were nice.
2005:
Again, I didn’t dislike this year as much as everyone else. I thought the Hordika were cool, and the Rahaga were nice, but I loved the Visorak! I never concerned myself with them being clone sets, so they were all awesome to me.
That’s all I can think of for now 
1 Like
Nope. LEGO classifies that color as translucent bright green, if I’m correct.
3 Likes
So just wondering. Does the Ga-Koro spear have an official name?
You mean Ta-Koro?