That could explain why they split Castle into so many subsections to begin with, to figure out which “theme” of Castle is most popular.
I do also find it a little hard to believe that Lego would be intentionally manipulative to that degree, though.
Also:
Oops.
It’s still such a shame though. We just got two perfectly valid castle sets last year, one of which was from the 18+ range anyway! I would’ve preferred any of the other themes over castle.
Huh, I expected Space. But castle probably aged better.
There’s still that rumored 90th anniversary gwp set that could have a chance of being something bionicle related
I also doubted they’d follow through with Bionicle. Its a lot of parts they simply aren’t making anymore.
A system set has lots of molds they’re still using. It was always against Bionicle
Nah Bionicle will just get a sticker in the castle set, like a sword or something.
Ah well, it’s unfortunate but I was bracing for it. Congrats to Castle fans. There’s a CMF for the anniversary coming so maybe something’s coming from that.
Hopefully the fandom isn’t too discouraged over this.
I can’t see why they would be. All this felt really inevitable.
I’m glad we got another Castle set, means we’ll have more money to spend on recolored technic parts that we didn’t get during bionicle’s run. Sometimes Castle has good minifig parts that have applications in constraction anyway. The armor, helmets, and weapons are usually good.
Well, I’m not surprised. Since the poll was announced I had kept my expectations low. I knew that, even with BIONICLE’s massive showing at the preliminary poll, LEGO had reserved the right to produce a set for whichever theme they wanted. If BIONICLE won, I’d’ve been pleasantly surprised, but in this situation I’m not even disappointed. I saw a comment that suggested that Castle was chosen from the start, before the polls took place, which I think is likely. It is more fitting to represent 90 years of LEGO, no matter how important BIONICLE is to the company’s legacy. Part of me wishes that this could have been an homage to all of LEGO’s history rather than just one theme, but I never had my hopes up for that. It was never more than speculation.
I don’t think I will buy this set. It’s a lot of money for a theme that I personally was never massively invested in. If this were a 350 dollar BIONICLE set, on the other hand, I would seriously consider it, even if it were made of bricks. But, given the response to Sokoda’s set for the BrickLink Designer Program, a 350 dollar brick-built BIONICLE set would have bombed hard. So, again, not hugely disappointed.
It’s important that we don’t make this a self-fulfilling prophecy. BIONICLE fans kind of have a reputation for being entitled a-holes. All we have to do is take this in stride. It’s not a backstab, it’s business. LEGO doesn’t hate the BIONICLE fandom, they’re just beholden to the market. They can’t sell a BIONICLE set at huge risk to their profits if it appears nobody will buy it - and, say what you will about LEGO’s marketing strategies and the specific contexts, but we’ve kinda shown them that nobody wants to buy BIONICLE. More than once. I don’t think any one of us can say they didn’t see this coming from miles away.
We were mentally prepared for it ever since the polls started. Bionicle was never going to win even if it did recieve most votes (which it very well might have).
that’s gotta be heresy or something
if i know the fandom some kolhi head is going to start saying something about LEGO hating bionicle even though it saved it or something stupid
im totally fine that castle won, I wonder what the castle will look like?
If Lego really had their hearts set on making a Castle set for the 90th anniversary…then what was the point of even having a poll in the first place?
I hope those rumors are true. If they are, then I’ll probably hunt down every figure from the CMF series-Bionicle or not.
Ajtazt put it best:
Wow. Now I feel kind of swindled.
there is near no company i wouldn’t expect it from
Yeah, part of me expected that this was how it would turn out. Part of me hoped for the best as well, but we all know by now how these things tend to turn out.
No, but I do suspect that at least one controlling party within LEGO is deeply embarrassed by Bionicle. Embarrassed that there ever was a time that the company was in such a dire state that Bionicle needed to be made to pull it out of the red, and that Bionicle got popular enough to last as long as it did. It’s why they just flat out refuse to acknowledge it’s existence outside of a few easter eggs that are mostly snuck in by the tiny handful of designers that were fans of Bionicle (of which there are less and less of each year).
At this point my only advice to whoever is still chained to this fandom is to find something else to be a fan of. Because at this point, being a fan of Bionicle is just going to bring you hurt and disappointment is you insist on staying.
What?
Why should being a fan of Bionicle hinge on something so ultimately pointless? Lego will do what it wants. We can’t control that. I don’t know why Bionicle fans should be so invested in Lego’s decisions that it overrides what they’re a fan of in the first place.
Maybe you see something here that’s still worth sticking around for but I’m increasingly not. The longer nothing new comes out, the more the fanbase shrinks and becomes more insular. I’ve seen how toxic and desperate fandoms for dead franchises become and I don’t want to be part of that.