BIONICLE Year Discussion No.6: 2009

LEGO BIONICLE
#1

Hello! I am Nyran. This is the sixth 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 2009. Now, this year is kinda reviled, be it for the mediocre at best movie, or the drastic location switch, resulting in "They Changed it, Now It Sucks"

I personally enjoyed it from a story perspective, but found the non-titan sets to be lackluster, if good for pieces!

I got the entire Spring Wave, myself, minus Tarix, and I got all the Summer canister sets, minus Stronius. For the vehicles, I got Kaxium, Cendox, and Baranus. I also got Toa Mata Nui.

I loved the vehicles, as well. And Toa Mata Nui was actually pretty good, contrary to what I expected. Not as good as Takanuva(08), but still good.

(Also, this is my 60th topic! 8D)

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#2

Kiina is best girl.

Wait. What are we talking about?

Okay, seriously, the sets were decent, but I didnt like the story too much.

#3

This is a year I didn't partake in.
I only ever got Vorox.
When the movie came out I wasn't able to watch it. (Until 2011)

To be honest, I believe this is the year that most people didn't get many of their sets. This was probably the cause of the cancelation of BIONICLE.

When I went back to this year to look at all it had to offer. I decide that this year had an interesting story to uncover with not so great sets.

I feel as if this year took a wrong direction in marketing and design. And, that's sad because in my opinion it had a rich story to be discovered.

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#4

story was okay
I only got mata nui
cuz he is mata nui
okay fine I was gifted the thornatus V9 in 2013 as it was on sale and my uncle got it as a present
this was in sicily
I nearly fell asleep building it

back on topic I loved the vehicles tho
I wish I got skopio

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#5

I personally didn't mind 2009 as much as other people, I actually liked legend reborn.

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#6

I personally found there to be just as much potential for creative content with the story as I did the MU.

If parts were more plentiful, I'd make many Bara Magna characters.

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#7

I thought 2009 was a good year personally, but that might have been because I was getting more into Bio Tube and watching Edictarts, Scotttjt, Kylernuva135, Spinaxfan4ever, and all those MOCing tutorials. All them tutorials tho...

Anyway, I got the entire first wave of Glatorian (Malum, Vorox, Gresh, Skrall and Tarix) as well as a couple vehicles I forgot the name of. And I also got the ...(sighs) Mighty Tuma.

Set wise, I loved them, and story-wise, it was alright up until Mata Nui landed. I liked the idea of a band of renegade heroes wandering the desert and defeating the Skrall against all odds, but alas, that was quickly put to an end. It wasn't until 2011 that I got around to reading the serials which probably could have added to that year.

I would rate it a 2009/3013.5

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#8

I got into Biotube in 08, but 09 was when it reached its peak, I feel. When there was the most going on.

I remember the days. Everyone liked "Rock" music, and we didn't know whether it was Nu Metal or what, everyone made crappy text stop motion series(some were okay, Scott's being good) but a lot were lame, and oh man.

MOCs were not as good then as they are now. Just in general, over there.

3 Likes
#9

I know, but it was my first experience into youtube. I loved the terrible stop-motion. I was into Bio Tube before, like in 2007, but this was when I really got into people's animations and stories. Do you remember Watatti? His stuff was the bomb diggity.

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#10

Bara Magna had SO MUCH potential, but they squandered it by trying to maintain the mystery of where it took place. They could've shown so much more of how the Matoran Universe came to be. Imagine if they had shown flashbacks to the Core War during the main story, and published it in ordinary books

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#11

This year had potential, sadly I think it was wasted once Mata Nui came on the scene. The story all started to go a bit downhill after that.
I got 3 sets this year, which is the lowest number I had gotten then any other year. I think it was mostly because of the lack of Kanohi for the helmets. I got Strakk, Metus, and Mata Nui. Well I also got Sahmad, but that wasn't until Bionicle was over and the set was on clearance stuck_out_tongue

1 Like
#12

2009 was actually the first year I really knew a lot about the story. I knew that it was a sort of different world, there were Gladiators, and that name I had heard so often as the BIONICLE God was stuck on a canister set with that mask that had so much story relevance.

Needless to say, Mata Nui was the first 2009 set I got. Followed by six other canister sets from both waves and 1 Agori.

My thoughts from five years later? '09 certainly had a less foreboding appearance, more welcoming (as welcoming as a desert can be) and more designed for new fans to like. 2009 might have made a good book. But as a BIONICLE wave -- eh. BIONICLE was supposed to be about OP robot guys with elements and masks. We didn't have that this year.

From a set perspective, it was good to see a lot of diversity in colors, especially brighter colors like Mata Red and Mata Blue that we hadn't seen in good quantities in five years (and then the years and Furno and Surge remakes gave us more than enough of those.) The sets gave me a pretty diverse set of colors. The downside to those sets is the weirdly overspecialized armor pieces that attempted to give it an elemental feeling. And when I say overspecialized... I mean much more so than other pieces. Vastus' shoulder armor is a prime example. It's a real detailed piece, and it's good to see that level of detail, but it's terribad when it comes to being reused, unless you're using it on a lime green plantlife MOC with a connection to snakes.

Overall? Okay idea, diverse sets. Just not what we're used to as BIONICLE.

(plot twist: Glatorian story arc became part of Hero Factory)

#13

This was the year that did Bionicle in for me. We had this amazing culmination in the Matoran Universe and BAM, we're gone. That's it. While Greg nobly battled on with the serials, the jarring location change and the lack of any meaningful development in the MU meant I lost a lot of interest. The fact that this year ultimately ended being the one that finished it doesn't help.

To be honest, I REALLY didn't like the Glatorian or the Agori, or the premise at all. It just didn't work.

Did like the Toa Mata Nui set, but that was it. Not many fond memories sadly

#14

I really loved the idea of gladiator-style characters fighting without elemental powers. I just like melee combat stuck_out_tongue

The first wave seemed pretty solid to me (I only got Gresh, Tarduk and a Vorox). The Legends seemed pretty "so-so". I loved the look of Gelu (seriously, one of the few sets I still really want to get) but I hated tiny-mask Mata Nui. The vehicles were pretty cool though (Skopio!).

I remember watching TLR when it first cam out. I really liked the animation style though the story does seem a bit lackluster when I look back at it.

Overall, I liked it. I really don't understand all the hate from most fans (I do remember @Mesonak saying at one point that he really liked the year set-wise though).

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#15

I can tell you Gelu is Incredible. He is the whole reason I bought my only two (for now) Bionicle sets back in 09.

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#16

2009 was "meh" for me. It had quite a bit of interesting world-building, and the concept of Mata Nui finally becoming a character in his own right was mind-blowing. However, this is the year some of the serials started to get out of hand (IMO), there was only one novel, and TLR was very disappointing (I don't think I've watched it since the day I bought it). I had mixed feelings about the Agori/Glatorians; on one hand, they were just Matoran and Toa with lesser abilities, but on the other hand, I think it's a really neat and logical idea that the Matoran and Toa were inspired by "real" beings. Overall, I think 2009 was designed to set off a new story arc that never got much time to develop thanks to the cancellation--I especially think this because, IMO, TLR actually got really interesting in the last 5 minutes or so, where they were basically plugging a sequel. As a result, I think I would look back on it more fondly if the original plans for 2010-2011 had come to fruition (if you haven't, go read the screen treatment of Bionicle 5 that Greg posted on his blog way back when--it could have been incredible).

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#17

But melee combat with super elemental flaming swords and electric shields is cool too. And a lot more melee oriented than shooting explosive fruit.

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#18

I liked this year a lot. The atmosphere reminded me of 2001 for some reason. And I definitely liked the movie better than MoL.

Also: The canon insists that glatorian were organic, but the sets just reused the inika builds which had mechanical features on them. And in TLR, the way Berix talks about "reparing himself multiple times" insists biomechanical. I may not have seen the movie in a while but I'm pretty sure a couple of nuts and bolts were tossed around when fresh was getting fixed

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#19

Another reason TLR was the second worst of the movies.

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#20

I didn't mind the movie but didn't had the best ending but I enjoyed Ackar and Mata Nui sets

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