Hello! I am Nyran. This is thefourth of a series of 10(for now) topics that I’m gonna make for the sake of discussing a various year of Bionicle as a whole.
We’ve had big overall topics, like whatever, but few if any topics focused on specific years, outside 2015.
So, I wanna know some aspects that you liked/didn’t like/stood out to you about certain years! This topic’s gonna be 2003, because what with the movie, the books, and etc, this year was sure to be Bionicle’s big push, getting a lot of new fans, no doubt. And it was the last year of the so-called “Golden Age”
While I technically got into it in 2002, 2003 was the bigger year, I got all the Rahkshi outside Guurahk, and I got Takua and Pewku, Makuta, as well as Jaller and Gukko, Takanuva, got all the Matoran outside Hahli, so yeah.
Big year for me, saw Mask of Light, all that good stuff. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but what about you guys?
2003… what to say… the story was good. The canister sets were just okay, with six just recolored bohrok. The movie sets were pretty awesome, esp. Takutanuva. I love that thing. Mask of Light was a good movie to start the trilogy with, and it gave us the familiar, childhood inducing theme. So for me, it was a good year. (Even though I really only knew about this stuff in 2006 =D)
2003 was okay. The Bohrok-Kal did little to nothing for the series except for recolors and punching bags for the Toa Nuva to show off before the MOL saga. They did co-introduce the silver we all hate so much into BIONICLE, alongside the Nuva.
The second half of the year introduced the Rahkshi, which set some precedents for future sets, including large amounts of dark grey, a different method of gear function (repeated by the Vahki sets and Krekka), and KNEES! Plus the Rahkshi heads which have a mixed response (mainly due to their use in BioTube.)
There were the Matoran remakes, which were okay sets, but I don’t have much opinion on.
Going back around and concerning the story. The Bohrok-Kal arc I believe was superfluous and only served the purpose of introducing the Toa Nuva. The MOL arc, though, was nice, as the fan favorite (Takua) became a full-fledged Hero, and the Makuta himself got a set appearance, plus we unraveled a further layer of the BIONICLE story with the Avhokii’s appearance, and ultimately the revelation of Metru Nui and the “first Toa”.
I personally aren’t a big fan of the style of the series in 2003, but it was a good year nonetheless.
The Bohrok-Kal seem like good silver parts packs. The Mask of Light sets seemed quite good (I only got a few Rahkshi). The movie itself had it’s problems but it was still the coolest thing ever when 8-year-old-me saw it. On the other hand, I was extremely unimpressed with the Bohrok-Kal and MoL books/novelizations.
Well I wasn’t really into bionicle in 2003, but it still affected me, as now I own every set from 2003, excluding a few matoran and Takutanuva.
Story wise, the year was fantastic, the epic conclusion of the battle between the Toa and Makuta, or so we thought.
The sets weren’t half bad, the matoran were great, the rahkshi were incredible, and the bohrok kal were alright too. And the titans were very impressive.
If bionicle 2003 was a movie, I would rate it 4 out of 5 stars, would watch again.
I got into Bionicle in 2003, Pahrak-Kal being my first set. I remember cracking open the promotional CD and watching the MOL teaser on it and thinking. That’s gotta be cool! I learned a great deal about Mata Nui at that time, however I only have one other set from that year, Lehrak. Either ignorance or lack of money prevented me from buying more sets. The best thing about this year was that good 'ole Greg Farshtey wrote his first Bionicle book.
I’m an 03er so yes this was an important year for me, in fact if it weren’t for it, I might not have been here typing this message at this… very sec… ond… The thought is horrible!!! But yes indeed 03 was one great ol’ year fro a lot of us. I mean besides the fact that I didn’t get most of the sets, it really had some great ones that I regret not getting. ~Pyrox
Personally, I think 2003 was a solid year that did a good job of rounding out the Mata Nui Island saga.
While many consider the Bohrok-Kal little more than recoloured Bohrok, I feel that, as characters, they were quite interesting, and did a good job of showing us that the Toa were far from all-powerful - stripped of their elemental abilities, they became quite weak.
However, their primary purpose was just so serve as filler until the main event of the year: Mask of Light and it’s related sets.
MoL’s an interesting case, really. It seems a little disconnected from the rest of the Bionicle story, with it’s talk of awakening Mata Nui then and there, and sort of finalé feel to it.
That said, it was a fun movie, and probably succeeded mostly just because it afforded the opportunity to see the Bionicle universe in film for the first time ever.
The sets based on the film ranged from good to outstanding, and the Rahkshi’s contribution of knees to the Bionicle world was welcome and impressive (at the time).
There was a feel to these sets that we’d moved away from the skeletally robotic forms of 2001 into more armoured, refined, advanced forms. This slight stylistic ■■■■■ worked well to lead into the more techno-themed Metru Nui arc.
If the year had a major fault, it was probably over-reliance on the movie to tell its story (really, I have no idea how Takanuva returned to life).
Other than that, this was a good year.
When you think about it, they were actually good guys that served Mata Nui. Imagine their surprise when the Toa Nuva attacked them. That’s the only real reason I ever liked them.
That’s one of the aspects about them that interests me. It’s what I’ve always liked about the Bohrok, they’re just as much a part of the Mata Nui Robot as the Toa are. I liked the Kal because they provided a real challenge to the then-new Toa Nuva, and were the first threat they faced that seemed really credible. Silver Bohrok they may be, but very useful silver Bohrok that were cunningly used to show character development.