Small support for Bio-themed Lego Ideas projects

LEGO BIONICLE
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Don’t you think the fandom has been in a slump lately?

Yes, there are canonization contests going on right now, lots of fan games are being made, and more MOCs are popping up on the Internet every day, and if you type “Bionicle” into YouTube and set the video filter to the last seven days, the site will find us a lot of videos from less known channels.
Still, it’s hard to ignore the fact that projects on LEGO Ideas don’t get a lot of votes. The BIONICLE community is huge, but even so, the challenge is to find even ten thousand people who would vote for a given set within a year, which, after all, if released for production, would be purchased by many more people.
I understand that many people are not interested in sets that use system elements instead of technical ones, but the success of these projects depends to some extent on LEGO’s faith in the success of a possible third generation.

Yeah, Sokoda’s diorama failed. Yeah, GSR has already ten thousand votes. But look at this really good project, which was uploaded long before GSR and still barely passed half of the threshold:
LEGO IDEAS - Bionicle: Toa Head Statue

Or this small masterpiece which beats next year Tahu set:
LEGO IDEAS - Bionicle: 6 Heroes 1 Destiny

How is it possible for them to not get such minimal support from us? Those sets can be produced with use of pieces that are still in production, so they won’t be impossible for LEGO to make…

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Gonna be real, people like me, one of the younger generations that got into G1, have just, well, moved on from it. It feels better as a pleasant memory than exerting effort into keeping an old corpse alive.

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Honestly, I would support more of these projects if they didn’t seem to swing towards being either the expensive UCS sets or rebranded knockoffs. I like the dioramas and art, but they’re so expensive that I can’t see too many people paying $100 or more for them.

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cough yes I’m milking this post for all that it’s worth yet again

So with that block as context… Why is nobody supporting LEGO Ideas projects that will either bring Bionicle back or pay respect to the good ol’ days?

Because many of these projects simply aren’t Bionicle to a lot of people.

The individualized, uniquely-experienced adventures of tens of thousands of kids playing with action figures across the entire world don’t all look like this:

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And to be honest, I haven’t and probably never will vote for this project. It’s entirely unappealing to me, and the designs don’t, in my opinion, do a very good job of portraying any of the characters.

The Bionicle head statue is a different case, as it very accurately portrays a rather nostalgic piece in the original sets. But this model doesn’t target the younger Bionicle demographic, but the older one, the one which would most likely want to spend a good amount of money for a collectible bust from their favorite toy line.

And, like Chronicler said, most of those people have matured and moved on, viewing Bionicle in the mindset of it being a fun and fond experience from their childhood which keeps popping up every now and then. The ones that are left are very stingy about what is and isn’t Bionicle, universally dunking on the admittedly acceptable and sometimes downright superior (just my opinion) Generation 2 as not being really Bionicle for whatever reason.

It’s a miracle 10,000 Bionicle fans agreed on any Bionicle project, much less two in a row.

As for me, I would like to see Bionicle come back, but the only way it can do that acceptably is to defy the preferences of almost every Bionicle fan. System? I can name ten different old fogies in the community with prominence to their names disgusted at the concept. And so it’s difficult to believe any LEGO Ideas project centered around Bionicle with something as controversial as a new take on the theme will get anywhere with voters and much less so with the LEGO company itself, who knows the Bionicle community better than anyone.

The only one that stood a reasonable chance was Axelford’s GSR.

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Oh yeah definitely, to me it’s the only project that’s been put up on lego ideas that really shouts Bionicle.

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People keep saying this.

If you want to get out of the slump, then enjoy yourself. Don’t pin your enjoyment on others.

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Or get Bricklink to make @Axelford ’s GSR.

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I agree, G2 may not be the powerhouse of lore and nostalgia G1 was, but the sets are excellent. (Well, every set except Scorpio and LoSS anyway). They’re even better than the same old Inika builds we got year after year.

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Now, if only they could make the gearbox functions ratcheted to prevent figures from flopping around.

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I BEEN SAYING THAT FOR YEARS!! remember when people actually made G2 Mocs? good times…

oh yeah as for this topic I believe people are so Frustrated about Axelford’s GSR.not getting green-lite that they don’t want to support any other project in fear of getting disappointed again which is sad because there’s so many good projects on the site that could easily get up there with the support of the fans (but what’s what I think at least)

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While it is unlikely (given that they apparently didn’t wait with the GWP until then) that it will pass it is not impossible to be green-lit. We’ll know in a few months.

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I wouldn’t tie the Ideas project to the GWP; assuming the GWP is real, it’s been more-or-less finished for at least six months (likely going into production as a result of the 90th Anniversary poll), while Axelford’s project only Achieved Support in August. I doubt Lego would alter the release of a GWP to coincide with a relatively new Ideas project.

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ok call me dumb but I was thinking of Sokoda’s Legend of the Bionicle people were upset about not getting lit NOT axelford idk why I miss-remembered guess I didn’t Double check sorry about that

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To be fair, I think it’s because active Bionicle fan groups are pretty niche, like. I found about Bionicle sets on lego ideas, and this forum by searching fan creations and instructions for my stud.io and ttrpg mocs. It’s not in bright light, you have to find it. So I guess many Bio fans are not in knowlegde about the numerous projects about a brand they love(d) such as I before.

Like, I knew the canon contest was a thing with fan creations of Tuyet ! And I don’t even knew it was a canon character !

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