Hi, so, I’ve been doing an obsessive amount of research on Bionicle G2 for about three months now, and I’ve hit the point where to continue, I want to truly understand what the fan response to G2 was like. To that end, I’ve made a google form.
If you have a few minutes and experienced G2 directly, I would ask you to fill it out. Nothing I get is gonna be used in a commercial project, I’m working towards a youtube video but I don’t have A Channel or anything, I’m just trying to crowdsource an opinion here.
I’ve found Biomediaproject to be invaluable. The shorts are still on YT and last I checked Journey to One is still on Netflix, TTV’s youtube channel and the BZPower Podcast both have some cool interviews from people working on it at the time. Less and little from first-party Lego employees, but still, it’s something.
I’m very much still compiling the info, but I can tell you one thing I’ve found very interesting is that Umarak is easily the most popular character, followed by Lewa. It’s a trend that established itself very early and has remained true, and I just find that fascinating considering Umarak is only actually in Journey to One.
I get Lewa. Although I am not a big fan of Lewa sets usually, Lewa to me was the only character that didn’t feel like a superficial caricature or betrayal of the G1 character.
But Umarak? Well, speaking for him is that he is probably the villain with the most lines in G2, has a good set design and a cool powerset. He is also the villain that interacts the most directly with the Toa. Kulta and Makuta are more fixated on Ekimu, LoSS overall is forgettable.
So most Toa and Makuta can’t live up to their G1 counterparts, LoSS is a lost cause, the protectors were never rememberable, the creatures didn’t talk and a lot of people probably are not aware of Kulta’s role in the books. Add to that the weird writing of Ekimu and then there’s only Umarak left. Umarak has no G1 equivalent, looks cool and has actual relevance to the plot and the Toa.
Also he is the only villain exploiting the weaknesses of the Toa, thus showing that he took notice of their capabilities.