How did you get into BIONICLE?

[prentice1215]

I have some fuzzy memories of the Toa Nuva and Visorak commercials, and got Pohatu Nuva as a gift, but my real first experience with BIONICLE wasn’t until '06. It was my 3rd grade Christmas party at school, and everyone was instructed to bring in a gift to put in the pile. My mom randomly bought Hewkii Inika and put it in a sack for me to take. Once at school, out gifts were given random numbers and put into a collective pile. We all drew our numbers, and coincidentally I got the number of my present I had brought. By then I had a inkling of an idea of what BIONICLE was because of the Move Along commercial (chain link fences FTW), and so while I had a classmate build Hewkii for me, I just saw the commercial in my head.

With Christmas drawing closer, I asked my grandparents for BIONICLE stuff. I wasn’t really specific, so I had no idea what I would get. On Christmas morning I received three new items- BIONICLE Heroes for the GBA, Matoro Inika, and the final '06 book: Inferno. I ate it all up. Matoro was quickly constructed, Heroes was begun, and I quickly read through Inferno. Around this time I also went to the website and started to play the games and get to understand the story. It didn’t take long to get hooks in me.

Then in early 2007, the Winter 2007 LEGO catalog arrived at my grandparents house, and what image was I met with? The Barraki. From then on, I was completely in. I got Kalamah, Takadox, and Ehlek, and five of the six Toa Mahri (Hewkii was the only one I never got). I researched the story, watched the movies, and started buying older sets off of eBay. Around the same time my friends got into BIONICLE as well, and it quickly became our obsession.

Besides Star Wars of course.

[Random_great_being]

In my 1st grade classroom we had some old lego star wars technic sets and kopaka phantoka

later that year we went to legoland for my birthday and I got some bionicles

[Novel]

Iunno if I’m late to the party, but I just found this topic.

My earliest vivid memory ever (not just limited to bionicle - first memory in my life) is of me holding my brother’s 2001 onua. According to our parents, I was 3. My brother was old enough at the time to appreciate the things, but I remember holding it and staring at it for a while. I also remember dropping it, followed with me being yelled at (which is why I think I remember it). We’ve gotten almost every set since, and I’ve been a fan the whole time through.

So I can literally say, no joke, no exaggeration, I have been with bionicle since I can remember.

[YK97]

Well, when I passed my first bday in Canda ( I think I was 8 then, I’m not too sure. It’s all blurry.), my mom brought me to Toys R US to let select my own present. I had only played with bootleg lego bricks back in China (Surprisingly, they were really good quality.). I saw all these Lego sets which was like a dream to me but it didn’t caught my interest.

Then, there’s a stash of strange canisters stash in a space between a Lego knight kindoms display booth and a wall. A lot of white and green canister with pictures of weird robots with a flying helicopteresque laucher on their back. Toa Hordika Matau and Toa Hordika Nuju…
I was like hmm… and then I look at the price tag: on sale and they cost 7 CAD… WOW THEY WERE CHEAP!!! End of the day: mom was happy that she spent not much and I walk out with a white Lego set.

Because we didn’t have a very good income aka poor people, it 1 or 2 Lego sets per year and when we bought them, they were on sale but I appreciate my mom spend time with me stalking those price when they went on sales.

Ah the nostalgia…

[Ekimu]

It was the second grade in elemental school when I saw one kid in school had Gali Mata then later my classmates were messing with some Bohroks. One of them tooknthem apart in the class then built it again when the teacher was already starting the class. I remember how much catched my interest the Bohrok’s functions. A few days later I got my own Bohrok and it was amazing! I brought it with me almost anymore and I swear I was able to see kids having their own Toa oh bohrok with them as well. It was an amazing feeling. I knew I belonged somewhere… Somewhere big. Later I wanted some Toa too. Funny enough because of the bad quality of Lego catalogs, I always thought Gali’s eye slits were at the chin part of her Mask and Kopaka had one eye on the top of him Mask like a Cyclops. XD Ah Good Days

[Gilahu]

@Ekimu

I saw one kid in school had Gali Mata

Somehow this reminds me of an experience I made in 2001. I had perhaps three or four sets at the time and was invited into the house by some kid from up the street - and he already had all six Toa Mata and had combined them to Wairuha and Akamai. And I clearly remember thinking to myself: I want these so much. Those epic masks, those crisp fresh colours, no dust, no faded colours, no bent parts, no scratches.
Maybe this was the moment that really made me pledge loyalty to Bionicle once and forever. That need to get all of them…

[Rockho]

Quality and durability was definitely a factor that made me prefer Bionicle over any other toy/action figure that I was given

[Yveran]

2004, it’s my birthday. A kid gets me Suukorak, we get home, we build it. From that point on I became glued to the Bionicle.com screen while I drooled at the sets. And just like that, I was hooked.

[timmytowntim]

McDonalds Hahli Inika was my first exposure, and I continued collecting the 2006 McDonalds toys because I thought they looked cool. I was into Exo-Force at the time, and I soon discovered what BIONICLE really was through the LEGO website and word of mouth. My parents got me Takadox and Mantax as birthday gifts the following year, and I was addicted. My friends were too, but they were pretty casual and only really knew about 2007’s story and sets. I was dedicated, and I needed to do some research, but my parents had strict rules about what websites I could access. However, I found a useful trick on the old LEGO site…

First, go to “Games”

Thanks Wayback Machine

Click on Hordika Spinner Challenge. You should be brought here.

You can now explore the 2006 website to your leisure. This includes a basic outline of the story.

Set images, among other things.

I clicked on that shady “Profiles” tab at the bottom there and

P-Prototype Reidak? That’s what I was exposed to as a child?

Anyway, I had a blast on this site. Most of my friends lost interest in bonkle, but I stuck around until 2010 and the original cancellation. In 2014, I watched the LEGO Movie with some friends, and the BIONICLE cameo struck up some conversation afterwards. I thought about getting back into it, but my Mom said she donated my sets. I was crushed, and whenever I was noticeably sad that I’d lost my old friends (So, quite often) she told me that they were just “baby toys” and that I needed to move on. That August, I was compelled to really get back into the lore, and maybe buy some sets online or something. This decision was made while on vacation, and my parents weren’t too happy that I was obsessed with plastic toys again while I was somewhere with hundreds of distractions and new things to do, but that didn’t stop me. This is also when I started to really watch TTV.

When I got home, I dug through the basement for Raid on Vulcanus, because it was the only bonkle chapter book I had and I figured it was down there somewhere. I didn’t find it until months later, but I did find my sets that I thought were donated, aside from Takadox and Mantax, who are still missing, unfortunately. Needless to say, I was overjoyed, and G2 was confirmed to be a thing a few weeks later.

[Ekimu]

Wow, thank you for the nostalgia blast here! How did you manage to reach the old site? I was looking for that Spinner challenge game for a long time!

[timmytowntim]

The Wayback Machine, an internet archive. Here’s their page for the LEGO site.
Wayback Machine

[SSJSquidward]

I think I got one of the Toa Nuva back in 2002, I was getting into it around 2009 but then it got cancelled, started buying Hero Factory instead. then in Late 2013/Early 2014 I learnt about the story and fell in love with it .

[ItsFrostbyte]

Most of us are gonna say we started at 2001. Same story for me.

I hadn’t really collected much till I bought my first Bionicle set, Lewa Mata. I didnt know much about him but the first comic (which I still have in a digital copy). I’m a millennial and even though its a toy, BIONICLE changed my life. I learned the story and when they released a new commercial for the new sets I just got nostalgic.

[Rockho]

Interesting how the ice guys are the thumbnail representatives for their teams as opposed to the usual red posterboys

[Jormad]

In like 2006 I read the LEGO catalog. And I didn’t get a set till 2008

[Yveran]

They were the only two to last through the beating their team took, so…

[BioKnight]

I think it was when my parents got me the Tower of Toa playset from 2005. I don’t remember anything earlier than that

[Miraku]

I first got two Stars sets when I was little, and didn’t care about socket breakage. I got Tahu and Takanuva, and had so much fun playing with them and acting out stories for them. My first introduction to the story was in 2012, when I stumbled across a site called Toy Brix and Blox. On the Lost LEGO Links page I found the product site and BIONICLE Story.com. I would spend hours reading up on the story of years prior. Around then was when I was first getting into YouTube, and found a home of creators with my same “strange” hobby. So when BIONICLE 2015 came around, I was jumping for joy. I then made my YouTube channel in 2016, and slowly started to involve myself in the community.

[Styrofoam]

I received Balta from one of my lifelong friends in a goodie bag at his birthday party, as he was already into Bionicle. He bought Piruk for himself, and we played for hours outside with the two of them. Since we lived across the street from one another, we did this a lot, and together we collected the entire Voya Nui resistance team. At the time, I wasn’t aware of the story too much, but the promotional images of the piraka and old YouTube clips of the Visorak and Toa Metru hooked me in to finding out more. By 2008, I was a lore god, and so I remain to this day, just as invested as I was in the days long past, climbing trees with Balta and Piruk.

[Maku]

I got Lewa Mata for my 6th birthday. The Toa Kaita instructions were enough to compel me to buy the other Toa, and after making my way to Bionicle.com and playing MNOG I was forever hooked.