Brickonicle G3: Should the Toa be New Characters? [Characters] [Pitch]

This is something we very briefly touched upon during the podcast and has come all the more relevant with the storm of opinions regarding potential gender swapping of pre-established characters.

Personally, I believe that there’s merit to introducing a completely new cast of characters to be our Toa front-runners in G3, but there is some concern that new characters may be too far of a step away from the concept of re-imagining Bionicle or that it would prove to be less interesting/entertaining for our viewers to follow in the long run.

What do you guys think? Should we introduce new characters? Or stick with the classic Toa?

  • New characters!
  • Stick with the old, but make some minor adjustments
  • Stick with the old and leave them as they are
  • Stick with the old, but let’s get a fresh new take
  • Other (please clarify in topic below)
0 voters

And most importantly, do you think new characters would diminish your interest in a rebooted Bionicle?

  • Yes, new characters would greatly diminish my interest in following a Bionicle reboot
  • Yes, I would be slightly less interested in Bionicle reboot with new characters
  • No, new characters wouldn’t change my interest in a Bionicle reboot
  • No, new characters would slightly increase my interest in a Bionicle reboot
  • No, new characters would greatly increase my interest in a Bionicle reboot
  • Other (please clarify in topic below)
0 voters

I want to emphasize that this is specifically in regards to who our Toa will be.

14 Likes

I’m all for new side Characters, but i want to see the Toa Mata as the main ones for the initial three year pitch.

To clarify, I voted other because I would follow an official Bionicle reboot no matter what Lego did, however, changing to new characters would make me significantly less interested in the G3 discussion as I feel it is something that Lego would never do because they wouldn’t want to give up the name recognition. I also feel that once you move away from established characters, you have made major changes to every part of Bionicle and you may as well just make a new IP.

10 Likes

While the Toa Mata are incredibly Iconic to Bionicle as a whole, having a new cast of characters would be just as awesome. Say if Bionicle decided to only have 4 Elements rather than 6, I would prefer new characters rather than just have Tahu, Gali, Lewa and Onua. Like I said, all 6 of the originals are Iconic, getting rid of 2 would change that completely.

2 Likes

i’d say new characters, which allows for individuality for the main characters, without being held to older versions by the fanbase

1 Like

The old characters would be more accessible for people who have known about the theme, but I think new characters would be more accessible for newcomers. I don’t know, I’m kind of evenly split.

i think that if one is going to make new characters, then make them after the original six if they are going to be the Toa.

if they are just going to be a part of the supporting cast and are not Toa, then im ok with it.

By the way, if the Bohrok are going to be the last foe the Toa faces of in G3’s three year storyline (not sure if they are, because that might have been dropped from the story), then that would be a good way to introduce the next wave of heroes, by leaving the fate of the original six unclear and have the continuation take place many years after the bohrok swarm’s attack. And if people feel that there should be only four elements and thus four toa, then the way to justify that would be by explaining that the two other villages were ither lost or destroyed durring the battle against the Bohrok swarm.

3 Likes

In my opinion if you change too much about the Toa Mata there is no point in having them. You cannot have the Toa Mata if you are going to drastically change the team (e.g. removing Pohatu)
Maybe a few tweaks here and there could make sense (such as changing Pohatu’s element) But I feel that if you meddle to much then you may as well go with new characters.
Basically here’s my opinion:
Keep the Toa Mata and change very little.
or
Entirely new characters.
On a similar note, if you were going to have new characters then you should go with different elements (otherwaise you might as well just use the Toa Mata)
Personally (and to solve this whole elements debate) Stick wth the classic Fire, Water, Earth and Air (and so have four main characters) and then branch out from there and introduce new characters. So you can have ice branching off water, stone off earth. etc. etc.

1 Like

I feel like if you add a new cast of characters, refrencing and including the original mata in sets or something would be a neat idea.

2 Likes

I’d like to see new characters, but not have a bazillion of them like G1, but have more than G2. I think some specific Matoran and Turaga would be cool, and having the lightning element could mean some entirely new characters.
But that’s about it.

2 Likes

If you remove the original Toa Mata, I feel like that takes away a lot of what Bionicle stands for. But introducing new characters would be really fun, which would turn a reboot into a whole new story.

1 Like

Personally, I’m all for new characters, as one it could help bring new people in to the community, but I don’t think the original six should be removed by any means. I believe that with new characters, you have the option for greater depth in the story, and you can explore everything from a new point of views, which for me would increase my interest overall. I think it could start with the originals, but then later add in more and more like G1 did, although, not quite to the same extent, don’t want to get too confused now do we?

2 Likes

What if we had new characters but the toa mata was still in the story as legends that the new characters looked up to.

2 Likes

If the original Toa Mata were switched out or heavily altered, I would be disappointed. I think they have an interesting base to work with but they were never fully fleshed out in G1. it would be a missed opportunity to discard them or drastically change their direction when we haven’t really seen the full potential of these characters.

2 Likes

Neat poll, I like how you guys always ask for our feedback.

Regarding the possibility of introducing new Toa characters, I think it would be a great idea, but only if done after the “standard” three year run. For the first part the original Toa would fit best with the environment in my opinion.

4 Likes

I think, and I do believe other would like this as well, that the the First Toa Team for G3, the Toa Mata, should be kept the same.

Other matoran, Turaga, etc., I feel, should change instead.

Too much change with the characters, and you wouldn’t have Bionicle anymore.
Keeping every single character from G1 and G2 combined (as some have wanted), and you would basically have a flat out rehash of those years.

We need a happy medium: Toa Mata, Mata Nui, and Makuta should be the same, the matoran, turaga, etc. should change.

2 Likes

I would want them to keep the old characters for a while, maybe a year or two, and then switch over to a new cast of characters whom we haven’t seen before. It would keep the story fresh, I feel.
Just my opinion, though.

1 Like

I don’t really get the need for new characters honestly.
Cause here’s the thing, for a young kid getting into Bionicle the characters would be new either way. It wouldn’t decrease or increase a kids interest in them.
All new characters would do is alienate older fans.

And you can’t use the argument of “we want to explore new grounds, do new things” because lets face it, Bionicle wasn’t exactly the most thought provoking character driven narrative out there. There’s still plenty of unexplored ideas and stories to tell with the Toa Mata, and definitely stories that deserve a second chance in a potential G3.

4 Likes

I’m all for seeing new characters, but the 6 main characters should still be Tahu, Kopaka, Gali, Onua, Pohatu and Lewa.

I honestly think Onua should be female, and then be the wise ‘mother’ of the group. Then, Gali should be made into a very headstrong and confident character (but not too similar to Lewa, i.e not being a prankster, perhaps having a personality more that she has something to prove). This change in Gali’s personality, would give her contrast with Onua, and in a similar way, Gali could also have a very competitive relationship with Lewa, always trying to one up each other and prove whom is better. (If you ever saw the Clone Wars, this might be a dynamic like what Anakin and Ahsoka shared, especially in the start of the Second Battle of Geonisis arc, where they counted kills, for example.)

1 Like

We don’t necessarily need to abandon the concept of old characters to bring in new ones. Perhaps it would work better to incorporate both- the old Toa having vanished years before the current predicament (Possibly in an attempt to prevent it) and newer characters filling their places out of necessity. This doesn’t mean that the characters are gone forever- it just allows us to bring in new characters without totally sealing off the old material. Depends on how the story would develop, but we shouldn’t limit ourselves as far as character creation goes.