No. In fact I spent the entire post giving reasons for why people shouldn’t whine about it, and also saying I knew it wasn’t going to happen and why that was. I’m saying there’s always another chance for Bionicle.
Hey man, if you want to quit being a fan, go ahead. The Bionicle community’s been through much, much worse than an Ideas set being rejected. Two cancellations, major fan sites disappearing into obscurity, and the Bionicle community being terrible to itself and everyone else for twenty years - this little proposed set is nothing in comparison.
This is the number one issue with Sokoda’s set: It really isn’t a marketable construction kit. It’s a spinning diorama, something that LEGO very rarely ever leans towards. Every set they’ve made has some sort of play feature and Sokoda’s model is, well, a display piece and nothing more than a display piece.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but when it comes to selling a display piece in a buildable toy company aimed almost exclusively at children… Yeah. It’s made more ironic that it’s a Bionicle homage.
I’m sorry if I sounded super pessimistic, I’ve just been burned out by Lego for years.
In my opinion, being a fan of Bionicle hasn’t been about buying new sets for a decade now, and that was only ever a part of it to begin with. To be a fan of Bionicle is to build new mocs out of what we already have, to share stories and art, to make movies, and so much more. We don’t need new sets to keep being active fans (though it wouldn’t hurt ).
just… I ran out of ideas. I’m in a moc block and I got nothing to work with for my story. I just want a another CCBS theme and just something to look forward too.
Then find something in this community to be excited for.
A LEGO Ideas set got rejected. In other news, water found to be wet.
The world keeps spinning, life goes on, and so does this community. I’ve said elsewhere we’re more alive now than in the past 5 or so years. Let’s analyze that statement:
The Biomedia Project is STILL finding obscure and forgotten Bionicle content to archive.
Litestone studios is finishing The Legend of Mata Nui, and making an enhanced version.
The Quest for Mata Nui game is nearly here.
Team Kanohi is making a game of their own.
YouTube is bursting with animators like Vrahno, Peri, and more.
We are currently voting on the appearance of Toa Helryx. I’ve seen so many jaw dropping concepts in just the first contest.
Christian Faber is…here too. Maybe.
We are still here discussing Bionicle on these message boards and on BZPower.
And much more on the different social media groups.
If you seek a spark of life for Bionicle, merely look around.
You understand one of the very models we got beaten out by was a display piece, right?
Granted, that’s a much more popular franchise, but water is wet. The problem wasn’t the fact that it was a display piece. It’s a display piece that nobody recognises (other than us) built in a way that probably wouldn’t appeal to the average builder (that said, it still bowls me over the sheer amount of stuff packed into that little diorama, props to Sokoda there).
Christ, I do think you’re right… And I don’t particularly like brickheadz so I don’t exactly like that fact. I’ve never really cared for these little chibi-headed nicknacks (and anything like them, funko pops included), it’s like they’re genetically designed to be tacky and shoved into the middle of an obsessed collector’s shelf. At the same time though, of course I’ll support it. It’s Bionicle, it’s kind of just what we do
G2 being a marketing campaign would be pretty strange considering that it didn’t have marketing.
Like, let’s not forget what happened to G2. The people who hated it for not being the G1 building style were always a vocal minority, and it had a huge presence here, on EuroBricks and BZP. It was always LEGO that screwed the pooch there.
They spent a silly amount of budget on those ridiculous gold masks, and a certain other theme ate the rest of it, so G2 became yet another theme to be sacrificed on the altar of Ninjago.
Sidenote, seems like this ended up coming true. Hope y’all aren’t too attached to Monkie Kid, folks.
G2 didn’t die because we hated it, because we didn’t. It definitely had flaws- the story was shallower than a kiddy pool and the villains were about as good as G1 Megatron- but the sets were great.
G2 died because LEGO kneecapped its marketing, and then expected the fanbase to sell it to people.
That being said, I do have some sympathy for the typewriter guy. His is perhaps the best set that won (Illegal techniques aside, they’ll probably fix that in the redesign phase), and the only one that’s not licensed merch based on 90s nostalgia, but it’s becoming the memetic face of everyone’s disappointment with LEGO Ideas, not just from us, but from the Zelda fans who’ve accrued something in the region of 50000 votes across multiple projects, the Futurama fans, Ratatouille fans, the aquarium supporters, etcetera.
I understand why LEGO made these choices. The previous two sitcom sets sold like gangbusters, even if they were boring builds, albeit I can confirm that both of those shows are massively more popular than Seinfeld outside of America. As someone who lives in the UK, I can guarantee that Seinfeld has zero presence here, meanwhile Friends is on at least one channel pretty much all day.
In all honesty I think there’d be less vitriol toward the Seinfeld set if it wasn’t billed as the 30th anniversary. It being labelled an anniversary set just like the Bionicle one more than likely creates the impression that LEGO considers some 90s sitcom that’s faded from relevance to be more important than the theme that saved them, and, painful as it is, from a profit perspective they might be right.
That said I think immortalising Michael Richards in minifig form is pretty poor optics, especially given the current climate with regards to the… issues that cost him his career.
The Home Alone set I find much more understandable. Still 90s nostalgia baiting, but a significantly better build with the potential for all manner of play features. My one concern there is that the sheer size, combined with it being a licensed product, is going to push the cost through the roof. Well, not a concern as such, I’m not going to open my wallet for any of these, but whatevs.
In any case, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Things like this are why the only LEGO I care for these days is Star Wars.
At this point i’m thinking more the reason is that there are more parts to how LEGO works. Like when we see easter eggs to Bionicle in the form of stickers, it’s probably more something added in by the designers who more likely are fans themselves, while when LEGO receive stuff like the Bionicle Anniversary set, that’s when the higher up’s at LEGO storms in and tells the designers that it’s not allowed and to disqualify it.
It really makes me think more and more that the reason LEGO ever allowed themes like Bionicle to be posted on Ideas, was more because the higher ups “knew” that none of the ideas would ever score high enough to reach the reviewer phase, and if it did, it would be automatically disqualified because the higher up’s don’t want to spend money on said idea.
This whole thing has been a disaster. A good chunk of the community is in shambles, and I’m not just talking about us Bionicle fans. All the fans of Zelda and Ratatouille are ranting as well. There’s rants here, rants on Brickset, even rants on Lego ideas itself. I’ve seen comments about people leaving the Lego hobby forever because of this.
My youngest brother is 9 years old, yet he can still identify all the Bionicle sets, and he loves Bionicle as much as I do. In fact, most of the stuff he watches on YouTube are things like Noah Productions’ stop motions and the Bionicle DVD Movies.
There is no legit proof to suggest that Bionicle can’t appeal to kids born after 2010.
No one is saying that it can’t appeal to kids nowadays. Wimpykid’s claim was that, if you approach a random elementary schooler, they wouldn’t recognize Bionicle, which is most likely true. It’s a franchise that got cancelled for the first time before some of them were born, and that faded from the mainstream long before that. Unless they know a Bionicle fan, your average person, especially your average young person, probably wouldn’t know about Bionicle.
You have a build which is instantly recognizable to people who have watched the show, exclusive minifigures people will pay large amounts of money for, and while it has no play features, I imagine it’ll be played with far more often (or rearranged to replicate scenes from the show) than Sokoda’s would have been.
Were it a set with play intended it might have had a slightly better chance, but given that it had no play features, limited room on the model to actually play, and the only function was to spin the model, it didn’t have a chance.
Ahahaha yes we did. We reviled it.
However I never actually said that was the reason why it died, only that everyone after hating on it was shocked to see it go.
From a profits’ perspective they’re absolutely right. The anniversary set would’ve appealed to old G1 fans and no one else, and Seinfeld is an incredibly safe bet to make money on. Sokoda’s set is a massive gamble which, given G2, was almost assuredly not going to work.
Well, yeah. You could say that about a lot of licenses of ideas on the site.
LEGO can choose to reject any project they want, and they’ve rejected every project in a review wave before because none of them worked out. It seems to me like people are blaming LEGO as a company for “mistakes” and for “hating fans” when the decisions about the company (and specifically LEGO Ideas) are being made by legal counsel and majority stockholders who really don’t care about you or your Bionicle dedication. They’re here to make money, not appease the kiddos.
LEGO’s not here to provide dreams come true to people who think they deserve it. If the community’s upset, the most they will get is the community manager sending out a note of condolences. I don’t see why people think ranting and raving is going to change anything or “teach LEGO a lesson”.
…But, uh, if anyone decides to quit LEGO altogether, lemme know if they sell their collection for cheap.
On the topic of the typewriter, there is one thing I wanted to say which I’ve said before: a possible reason for why it ended up getting the spot might be that one of the designers over at LEGO found some genius way to make it actually function, and everyone jumped on board.
Think about it: A LEGO typewriter with fully functioning keys. That’s worth an IDEAS slot.
Note. This does not mean that LEGO Ideas will NEVER be able to launch a Bionicle-related product.
I have major doubts about that statement. Mostly because LEGO probably never expected a Bionicle related idea to reach the reviewer goal and more likely expected it to fail. So, they’d view this as a “once in a lifetime” situation and don’t expect it to happen again. And given the reactions and debates on this topic, i’m beginning to doubt this scenario will ever happen again.
).
