BIONICLE Speculation: The Real Reason for G2's Demise?

LEGO BIONICLE
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DISCLAIMER: None of this is actual proof. As such, don’t freak out, don’t spread the news, and certainly don’t take my word as gospel. Spreading misinformation is an awful thing.

With the release of The Lego Batman Movie, I’ve been getting hype for Lego’s sets associated with the movie. So far, all the sets have been excellent. Then we have the Lego Ninjago movie this year, which also will possibly have sets. So I’m guessing all these will have new sets for all these movies.

But I made an inquiry: why is Lego making a “Lego Ninjago Movie”? You’d think they’d make a spinoff of some other Lego Movie character, but instead they are focusing on one of their largest original themes. It’s really cool actually.

And then we have a small, “blink if you miss it” reference to our beloved theme, BIONICLE in “The Lego Batman Movie”:

http://image.prntscr.com/image/a87e62fb0e1849aba4c241cc41e96a63.png

In the background, it says “The BIONICLE M” and then gets cut off. Since it’s in a theater, it feels like it’s gonna say “The BIONICLE Movie.” OK, that’s cool, a reference to BIONICLE. The Lego Movie also did a reference to it.

But why would they make a reference to it being called “The BIONICLE Movie”? I just found it odd that they chose THAT to be the BIONICLE cameo. Sure the other titles are obvious parodies of movies, but BIONICLE feels so out of place there. So why do it?

This is where I get nuts: Lego is going to be actually making a Lego BIONICLE Movie.

This is where you can mute this page or call me crazy. Honestly, have fun. But lemme explain a bit.

When G2 was ended, it felt like it was so abrupt. It was obvious it felt like the ending was so horribly written and out of place. It felt like they hurried for something. Everyone said that BIONICLE was selling poorly, and honestly it makes sense. But could there have been another reason they ended BIONICLE so early, especially when there were still fans hoping for more and how the line felt like it would last for 3 years?

My hypothesis is that LEGO needed time to develop a BIONICLE movie after the success of the Lego Movie, and plans to create more films with their successful themes. Shoot, that’s what’s going on with the Lego Ninjago Movie.

We should note Lego never gave us an official reason why G2 ended. All we got was responses from Twitter like “BIONICLE was selling nicely” which we said was a lie. We knew BIONICLE wasn’t doing so hot. But maybe there’s a reason Lego let it die when it could have been successful!

I speculate Lego made plans for a movie right in the middle of G2’s development and was hush-hush about it, and then decided to kill G2 right when they realized it interfered with their plans. They sabotaged the line by not promoting it as well as they could have, lacked commercials, and obviously showed how low budget it was. Perhaps Lego INTENTIONALLY killed BIONICLE.

Golden Mask competitions. Hiring fresh companies to make their stuff. Giving us JtO albeit having it end so quickly when it felt it should have continued. Lego made a change of plans and then killed the line.

So why kill the line? I still question it myself, but my best answer is this: Lego wants to create a new BIONICLE line just for the sake of a BIONICLE movie and it’s associated merchandise and Lego sets. Not only could Lego boost BIONICLE’s popularity this way again, but they could make a renewed interest in constraction if a high-budget film was made for BIONICLE.

Or maybe it’s for a system line for BIONICLE. Brickonicle has made a big interest in the TTV community as of late, and maybe this is a way to change BIONICLE for new people to get interested in it.

Either way, Lego killed G2 midway. Why? To keep BIONICLE for a bigger project, to put more budget into it. To make a movie and revive mass interest in it.

But maybe I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. Do note I have no evidence for this, so take everything I said for a grain of salt. Still, I’m enthusiastic. Tell me what you guys think.

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Interesting theory. I can definitely see this being true, but something in the back of my mind is nagging about the fact that it seems too good to be true without actually coming up with actual arguments to back up this doubt.

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I am a madman, truly. The problem is, Lego gave us little evidence as to why they ended G2, and it bothers me. I wanted to add more facts into this but this small cameo is all I have, and then I just went into pure speculation mode.

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I always thought it was factory space and sales…

This is a interesting theory, I just don’t buy it.

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As much as I would like to see The LEGO BIONICLE Movie, I highly doubt this is the case.

Like yes, I do feel that LEGO is established well enough now after two hit movies to do their own original storyline, which is Ninjago, so I can see them doing more original lines as movies in the future.

However, I doubt this is why they cancelled G2 so early. If they had been wanting to make a BIONICLE movie, they probably wouldn’t have even made it in the first place. Sure, it could’ve been that they decided they wanted to make when the LEGO Movie proved successful and they were too late and G2 was already in full production, but I doubt they would cancel something they’re already doing for a movie that wouldn’t be made for several years at the least.

And even if this is the case, why aren’t they cancelling Ninjago for the movie? And Ninjago is even more popular than BIONICLE, so why haven’t they stopped advertising and can it for when the movie comes out? I think these would be basically the same case.

The main cause I subscribe to for BIONICLE’s demise is that LEGO simply couldn’t keep up on all these lines they had to produce and needed more space and room, so BIONICLE got the short end of the stick.

tl:dr: I doubt they would kill the line for a movie that most likely wouldn’t happen for a few years.

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its completely true, my uncle works at lego and he said it would happen

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I disagree.

Lego has killed BIONICLE early before, causing a rushed ending. This was in 2010. Lego killed it to make sure it wouldn’t have a bad rep in the future. So they waited 5 years and made a ton of concepts for G2. So why would they kill it again? To keep it positive in the minds of the consumers.

Do note I don’t doubt BIONICLE sold poorly. That’s apparent. I’m just saying, what if it sold poorly for a larger reason than just Lego having production lag?

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That’s an interesting idea, especially since Lego now has experience making hit movies, and are building their own cinematic universe, it may have been a possibility, but I doubt Lego would kill Bionicle G2 by poor marketing. It’s a lot easier and cheaper to just not produce G2 sets. As for Brickonicle, that seems more likely as an alternative series, as Constraction seems to be on the decline, and to make a new story, system might be better.

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So, I was literally this close to closing the page. Until…

Not only did we all get this feeling, some of the people who were informed in advance, such as the BZP admin team, were surprisingly not too unhappy. And they haven’t seemed concerned about the site’s future. Weird.

The thing is, G1 was considered a pretty faint star in TLG’s pantheon of themes by 2010. It was by no means a poor seller, but times were changing and it definitely wasn’t the best-seller that it used to be. Sometimes, a brand that performs alright isn’t acceptable.

To be clear, we really have no clue how Bionicle sold; if anything, a small amount of advertising is still pretty huge relative to the average toy company. TLG is the most powerful brand in the world, after all.

Is it likely? Nah. Is it possible? Hmmm…

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No

-Mesonak

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But what if making a BIONICLE movie could boost constraction into popularity again?

Thanks Meso. :slight_smile:

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No (problem)

-Mesonak

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You mean like the horrible resource allocation?
Seriously the money they wasted on those gold masks could have funded all 3 years of advertising.

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I just don’t get why they would cancel it and then immediately bring it back again.

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Why did they do that with G1?

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And here’s the thing; I sincerely doubt this is happening, and there’s pretty much no chance of it TBH; that said, we said the exact same thing back in early 2014, when some employee updated his page to say that he was working on a constraction line.

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If Lego is going to make a Lego Bionicle Movie I would lower your expectations because instead of being “the vast open world fill with many possibilities of Generation 1” it will probably be another Lego Movie. Basically don’t expect a Bionicle Movie to be like G1 expect it to be like The Lego Ninjago Movie.

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Right, and it’s hard for me to think Lego would be dumb enough to waste it’s money like that.

I’d be completely fine with that TBH.

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G2 had an evidently small budget put into it, which honestly makes it sound more like a way to please a fairly angry fandom than a serious theme. If G2 had more put into it, I’d see your point. But considering how little it had from the start, I truly doubt it.

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Uh, that sounds awesome.

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