The (Possible) Real Reason Everyone Hated G2

LEGO BIONICLE
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Do I even need to tell the story of Bionicle G2? Everyone on these boards already knows the story: Bionicle fans were mad that G1 got cancelled, so they launched a series of vehement protests, so Lego rebooted Bionicle, only for the fans to hate it. And then the line was prematurely cancelled.

Lego claims that G2 sold well, but if it did, then they wouldn’t have pulled the plug on it as quickly as they did.

This intro skit from Eljay’s Recent Review of the 2015 winter wave perfectly showcases the problem: Bionicle G2 just didn’t sell like G1 did. And everyone seems to agree that the reason for this was because Lego didn’t market it very well.

But then there was also the fan backlash. People were hating on G2 because of its watered-down story, and because the use of CCBS made it feel like a rebranded Hero Factory, and because it just wasn’t G1. Everyone was nostalgic for G1 and wanted it back, but that just wasn’t happening.

And herein lies what I think might’ve been a contributing factor in people’s dislike for G2. Bionicle originally ended in 2010, and it was brought back in 2015. In that time, the general public had pretty much forgotten about Bionicle, and many of the fans had moved on. See, when Ninjago was un-cancelled, it happened right after it was originally cancelled. The theme was supposed to end in 2013, but it continued into 2014 and beyond. So little time went by, Lego may as well not have cancelled it. Bionicle didn’t have that benefit. It was put to bed in 2010, and then five years passed, allowing for the majority of consumers to move on and leave it in the past.

Perhaps if Lego had revived Bionicle in 2011, or maybe even 2012, it might have had a little more of a chance. It would’ve been just recent enough that people could get right back into it like they did with Ninjago. They might’ve even been able to pick up where the original G1 story left off. But that did not happen. In the time it took for Lego to finally reboot Bionicle, many people had let go of it, so when it did come back, it felt foreign.

Oh well. G2 did have its good points. Sure, the CCBS felt different from the Bionicle we were used to, but at least it didn’t constantly break like the 2008-2010 pieces did. And, even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the 2016 sets, I did feel like the 2015 Toa got the series off to a strong start.

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I think it also comes from promotional media franchise problem

G1 had a lot of media franchise.
novels, comic books,Games, and 3D animation movies.

But G2 just showed…Argh! I CAN FEEL THE POWEEEEEEEER!!

I think the investment in G2’s media franchises was very small.

children Alreadywatched things like ninjago animation.I think it was very good.
Flash animation could not have attracted children’s interest.

Eventually, they make a movie in 2016, but it’s too late.

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I think this is a big part of it. I’ve heard quite a few people say that Ninjago took all of G2’s marketing budget, but Ninjago’s mere existence put G2 at a disadvantage compared to G1.

When G1 was introduced, it was a new thing for Lego. If kids wanted a story, they went to Bionicle.

But when G2 rolled around, a lot of Lego’s intended audience would have also been into Ninjago, with no reason to to switch over to what was honestly a pretty similar story.

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Indeed. The public’s interest had already shifted towards something else, so it really wasn’t a good time to bring back Bionicle. When Ninjago does end, it’s a possibility, but that’s not gonna happen anytime soon…

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LEGO never specifically said that g2 sold well.
Here’s the exact quote:

“Overall the BIONICLE products have been successful, of course some more than others with variations across markets. However, we do not share detailed information regarding the performance of the products”

The phrasing used seems to imply that they were referring to both runs as a whole, rather than G2 specifically.

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Not that Ninjago’s horrible, but to be honest Ninjago just exists to suck up all the money from other, more deserving, themes.

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Well, Lego DID try to replace Ninjago with Chima, and we all saw how that turned out.

But that’s an interesting parallel between Bionicle and Ninjago. When Hero Factory came out, a lot of people hated it because they saw it as a Bionicle replacement. With Chima, Lego actually came out and said that they wanted it to replace Ninjago, much to the fans’ anger.

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I, personally, almost feel as though it was the opposite - it came back too soon. Clearly there’s still interest in Bionicle given the way that the Quest for Mata Nui fan game exploded on the internet recently, so time alone isn’t what killed it. There’s plenty of huge franchises that have had much longer breaks than five years.

I think the fact that Bionicle was not quite old enough to be “Nostalgia” but not new enough to be “Current” was a part of it. The atrocious marketing was another - there are even Bionicle fans who weren’t aware that it came back, and in a lot of videos I’ve seen G2 is mentioned almost like a trivia fact because so few people were aware of it during the runtime.

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Lego was very careful about their wording regarding the sales in every official comment that I’ve seen. They always use the Bionicle name as a whole, and to my knowledge never said that “Bionicle G2” or “Bionicle 2015-2016” sold well. They’re saying that Bionicle as a brand was a viable one during some of its run - there’s nothing at all which I have read suggesting the reboot was financially successful in any way. There seems to be plenty of symptoms that the real situation was that it sold very poorly, in fact.

I’m happy to be proven wrong if someone finds a quote to the contrary, though.

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Nah, I gonna disagree with everything.
If G2 (with CCBS and bad story) was launched in 2011 - diehard fans wouldn’t like it. They wanted G1, and G2 is not G1. Also, exactly those not-diehard fans that left during 5 years, could have returned and like G2 because they are not-so-diehard fans.
I believe that Hero Factory just ended (because of low sells) and Lego needed to do some Construction and they’ve done G2 in hope it will sell as well as G1 did, though that was obviously impossible.

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Bionicle’s creators wheren’t a part of it, therefore it’s not Bionicle

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Honestly, it was just a marketing problem. Keep in mind that Bionicle G2 was supposed to be Lego’s next “big bang” theme, but then the un-cancellation of Ninjago happened in 2014 and sucked up most of the budget that was supposed to go to Bionicle. So yeah, Ninjago actually played a huge role in G2’s demise. Another reason for me to hate that theme :stuck_out_tongue:

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Well, Greg Farshtey was brought in as a creative consultant, and it’s possible others were involved.

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Details

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G2 was in development as early as 2013, which was just one year after Breakout, Hero Factory’s most commercially successful wave. I believe it was the other way around, Hero Factory was cancelled not because of poor sales, but rather because they wanted to make place for Bionicle to return.

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That’s not exactly my point. If Lego had relaunched Bionicle in 2011, then it could very well have been a continuation of the G1 story, which the fans would’ve liked.

Which reminds me of something…

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Can you give the source, please? If it is as you say, then I see no logic behind it… Just like with many other Lego actions.

Which would not be G2… I think I didn’t get it, forget it.

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Yep…they’re just too dependent on licensed themes these days.

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Every original story driven theme LEGO creates takes around 2-3 years to fully develop, that is a well-known fact (plenty of designers have stated it). On top of that, there were also a few Bionicle G2 leaks and rumors as early as 2013.

Why LEGO decided to bring back Bionicle after barely cancelling it three years prior is anyone’s guess. It kind of goes to show that G2 was kind of ill-conceived right from the beginning.

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One piece of concept art from the art book shows a golden HF 2.0 head, a piece that only saw use in 2011. That means it was most likely in development very early on.

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Aha! Gotcha! I liked G2, so therefore your argument is invalid!

It’s a possibility, but I don’t really believe there is a “real” reason G2 failed. If there is one, it’s likely a complex web of a multitude of factors, one of which I can definitely agree might be Ninjago overshadowing Bionicle in the 5 years between lines.

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