*Eljay walks alone into the midst of a massive field of littered BIONICLE parts, with an empty canister in his hand. Terrible cries and wails occur."
Eljay: What happened to 2006?
Random Matoran: Haven’t you heard? It got Stormjay’d.
cue intro music
Hello, and welcome to critique with Hawkflight, aka Stormjay aka Steven, the show were we mercilessly rip apart MOCs or (in this case) official stories. At least that’s how people consider this show.
Given, I don’t know as much as some of you because I never actually invested in the story or the sets while the line was running. My parents didn’t approve of me following the line, possibly because of the darker visuals and such, which stands as its own testament to the tone of the year. (The decision was made when I got into LEGO in 2004, if it had been 2001 things might have gone differently. I will say that the rule was somewhat relaxed in 2009, which still says something.)
Anyway. 2006. 2006 gave us a lot of things, the most important of which was TRANSLUCENT BONES a new storyline in a different world, but told from the point of view of characters that the fans had already bonded with via MNOG. Looking at it that way was a good story concept, similar to that which was done in '01, but with more time to actually learn how the characters would behave in given circumstances. (That could apply for '04 except that the Toa Metru were nothing like we knew them as Turaga.)
I’ll return to the Inika when it comes to sets. By 2006 LEGO had already established the basis of BIONICLE, and was beginning to mess around with some possibilities – a primitive island of villagers, but now under enslaved circumstances, beings mysteriously arriving, but in this case villains. The Piraka’s introduction is something I applaud, instead of going for with the traditional evil-and-mighty character, LEGO gave us villain characters that had more original personalities, more unique interactions, and an element of likability that isn’t as easily accessible by dark lord characters. Their introduction could have something to do with the aging of BIONICLE’s original audience – in 2001, they could have been children, five years later they were older teenagers who wanted something a bit more to their liking in the BIONICLE storyline. The Piraka were part of LEGO’s attempt to keep their audience vested in the story (alongside the return of Matoran as the Inika), although they could also be picked up by newer kids since their personalities remained embedded in 30-second animations.
Although, the whole situation was not as simple as that. Since 2004 we knew that there was a much larger scale involved. There was Teridax’s presence always looming among the Piraka, there was the Order’s presence, the relationship between Axonn and Brutaka. And then there was Vezon, a cult character to rival Roodaka.
Concerning the builds. The 2006 Matoran, among who was my very first BIONICLE set (Piruk) were unique builds, and again took a subset of BIONICLE (the proper Matoran build) and stood it on end via the Karzahni tinkering plot device. The Piraka and Inika – eh. The Inikabuild isn’t as horrible as some builders make it out to be (excluding the terrible torso proportions), but I would rather have had sets continue to have gear functions (maybe a piece connected to the gear for shoulder articulation) and have articulation retained in the elbows. Come to think of it, an “Inika Build” that was actually an upgrade to the Metru build could have gotten us waist articulation.
However, dwelling on the Inika Build and how it should have been won’t get us far. As a MOCer, I’m very much for 2006 sets. I don’t use many Inika build parts in my MOCs, but then again I don’t use many Metru build or Mata build parts. The pieces I am looking for – armor parts chiefly – are not disappointing in 2006. The colors remained much the same as in 04-05, excluding the removal of brown (although admittedly I’m more likely to build in Hewkii’s colors than in brown.) The Inika masks were a bit of a downer, but we did some regular masks this year, including Toa Metru masks returning, plus the Rode and the Olmak.
So there’s my two cents. Story I like, and the direction LEGO was going makes sense to me. Sets are meh, but then again most LEGO sets never live up to be perfect.
