I on the other hand think this would lend itself well to Bionicle, the adventure of the day potentially being: find another mask, help your Matoran friends with something or learn how to get on with a team mate more. And while this is happening, it’s building to the over arching plot, the same goes with Metru Nui…I can imagine some cool episodes.
Of course the action oriented, race for the McGuffin, latter years don’t work as well for that. But then again you’d be using Toa who already have been developed as Matoran in the more slow paced early seasons, we’d be now seeing them having to work as a team longer than that stint as the Chroniclers company, they’ll learn more about each other and find themselves out of their depth as they fight ruthless gangs, warlords and fiendish puzzles of the Great Beings…will they come out on top?
I’m having too much fun imagining my idealized head canon version of events…
Yeah! Just look at the old online animations that are so well loved today.
Right - in theory, I don’t imagine that it would have to be exclusively “adventure of the day” type serials. But keeping to that general template would offer a lot of freedom (and even comic relief without getting cheesy). A blend of episodic non-linearity as well as a story structure that permits building forward momentum.
But overall, keeping this delicate balance is one of the reasons I’m torn about the idea of a BIONICLE TV series. It could so easily become top-heavy on the story + character development… at the expense of maintaining the sandbox nature that BIONICLE can do so well.
I think if BIONICLE were to become its own full-fledged branch of the LEGO ecosystem, it would have to be much more open-ended in order to achieve long term staying power.
I’m thinking of it this way: Technic doesn’t have a TV series, LEGO System doesn’t have a TV series. But specific themes within those brands get airtime.
Recall how Technic has endured for so long alongside LEGO System. BIONICLE can and should do the same.
I think a future BIONICLE would be like System or Technic. It would encompass different things like System and Technic does. (More akin to Technic though. BIONICLE needs some form of unified cohesion, and an overarching story, but you get the idea.)
This type of BIONICLE should be able to exist independently of System and yet also be able to integrate with it. Again, like Technic. This approach would entail that - unlike last time - an entirely new, more fundamental and comprehensive building system would have to be developed, and expanded as time goes on. Now this would be a true BIONICLE revolution. And it would require huge innovation on LEGO’s part.
If I can see this, how can LEGO not see this? People, the potential and blueprint is there, waiting.
So… You want CCBS with some minor flavour difference right?
It was different from Technic and System given it was about action figures, it was open ended since there were 4 themes made with it, you could integrate it to anywhere (Lego still does it to this day), and the building system was very cohesive (some might say too cohesive).
There you have it. Lego saw it, used it, then saw it failing.
To your last line: no, I don’t get it.
There is no “overarching story” in Technic or System. Those are building systems and the cohesion is what is built with them: realistic wehicles, stylized buildings or wehicles, or action figures. The last one doesn’t depend on Bionicle, so it isn’t a reason to bring it back.
I also got some issues with your other comments:
And comic books. And magazines. Not every character had its own ad, or those little CDs, and only the flash games remained, but even then, the story was too scattered to not call it “muiltimedia”.
I really don’t get this one.
The Mata had two swords, a shield, claws, hooks, an axe and football shoes. The Inika had two swords, an axe, a crossbow, a drill and a harpoon. The Mahri had a shield, a sword, two claws, and a spear. Plus blasters.
Also, how does the Mata/Nuva “blend the strange features with instantly relatable signature appearances”? All I can think of is that they are humanoids. But this can’t be, since it’s true for every wave of heroes.
I really don’t like implication that the people az Lego are “”““soulless””“” unless the bring back Bionicle.
Also, Bionicle was made in frenzied reactionary phase, so I would reather stick with that one over holding Bionicle regardless of what the marketing experts say.
"Please Mr., speak for yourself, I, for one, cared much much more about the aesthetic of the character designs and art styles and barely gave a duck about the story.
Sincerely,
A (probably heretical) end user"
If I know it right, reboots tend to mean return to the roots. Or at least they don’t exlude each other.
Also, what do you think are the roots of Bionicle?
You mentioned that the story/lore should be simple amd rich. Now, what does a rich story/simple story/rich lore/simple lore mean?
You also really advocate for multimedia storytelling to which my response is a huge but repectful “PLEASE NO” with neon lights.
If you scatter the story into different mediums, the consumer has to find and put together these pieces. This might was fun for you, but tedious for others, or outright impossible, because 3/4 of the stuff isn’t translated. (Welcome to Hungary)
If the story isn’t scattered, it becomes redundant, and you waste resources that could be spent on refining one or two mediums. (Like books and some movies).
If I sounded cocky, arrogant or rude, it wasn’t intentional, and I’m sorry for it.
This is a good point, even as a fan getting into G1 in 2015 it was hard knowing where to find media and to this day there is comics etc. to this day I probably have missed. Multi media may be fun for some but it’s best limited to small media items such as the short comics etc. promoting one or two central story telling platforms such as a show and tie in game.
Well, this is what CCBS basically did for a while. Besides Bionicle G2, we also got Hero Factory, the Star Wars Buildable figures, and even the short lived Marvel and DC buildable figures. And it still ended up failing. We could go back and forth arguing about why that happened, but it still did. As it turns out, most casual LEGO audiences didn’t care about LEGO Action Figures as much as System or Technic (I sometimes get the impression that they don’t care that much about Technic either, but still).
So no, I don’t think an overarching story is what is gonna sell LEGO Action Figures in general. I think you need something to make it feel more like what buyers traditionally associate with LEGO, so non-Bionicle fans would want to give it a chance as well.
I wouldn’t call it minor, no. Maybe it’s just me, but CCBS never quite seemed like a complete system - it was missing something that standard LEGO has and Technic has. A new BIONICLE system would need to capture that missing element. What that would look like in reality is beyond me at the moment. But that subject is certainly not beyond the purview of LEGO designers. It would require innovation, which is what BIONICLE began as.
Please understand: I am not targeting anyone in particular when I emphasize the “soullessness” of modern LEGO. As a corporate entity, however, to me they can be criticized guilt-free.
When I see a dominance of pop-cultural and licensed themes and sets today that chiefly derive value from generating a quick buck (rather than offering original, imaginative, “soulful” content), I do not consider it unreasonable to question if LEGO is becoming “soulless”. Nor is it unreasonable to imply that they are soulless if they continue on the track they are now on, while neglecting BIONICLE and other original themes like it.
I think we may have to agree to disagree on the multimedia. If the story is spread out (not too thin, mind) across a reasonable core variety of multimedia, it could work. But yes, I agree with your suggestion to limit the spread among small items. Keep central media elements, and smaller peripheral media elements that contribute different amounts of story/lore.
Right - and no, not a story for action figures in general. But BIONICLE: yes.
Technic has such great integration with LEGO and educational and functional applications, which is one of the reasons why it has remained a steady fixture.
I partially agree with your and others’ observations that CCBS did act as a new system for a while. But I also disagree because: CCBS was not as intricate or universally functional on the level of System and Technic.
So I still see a difference there. And that is what I am referring to when I say that a future BIONICLE could have a huge impact if it introduced a brand new building system - on par with System and Technic. It would no longer so easily be classified as an exclusively “action figure line”.
Ninjago isn’t episodic, but rather seasonic – instead of episodes that focus on developing a character or two and add little to the plot, you get seasons that focus on developing a character or two and add little to the plot, especially after season 10.
I’d argue that in the earlier seasons, all four of the main ninja got character development. You had Kai learning not to be such a reckless hothead, Jay’s love story with Nya, Zane being oddly “different,” and Cole…well, okay, he didn’t get as much development. But at the same time, I do kinda like the later seasons having a “focus ninja.” Season 3 was about Zane, Season 6 really developed the Jay/Nya dynamic, Season 7 (for all its shortcomings) was about Kai and Nya and their parents, and Season 10 was about Lloyd’s relationship with his newly twisted father.
Season 11 did have a lot of filler, unfortunately. But in the midst of it all, I did like the conflict between Kai, Wu, and Aspheera. Kai was mad at Wu because his actions had essentially created the villain Aspheera, who stole his elemental power. Wu knew Kai was right, and he was really guilty, but then Kai got over his anger and forgave Wu. I really love the quote that goes something like “You may have made a mistake, but handing yourself over to Aspheera would just be another one.”
Season 12 onward is…better, with not as much filler, and the stories are still enjoyable. But with the exception of Season 13 and possibly Season 14, there doesn’t seem to be as much character development. Plus, it doesn’t feel like it’s building up to anything anymore. There are rumors of the whole “Vengestone Arc” thing, but I have doubts. The ending of the 2020 storyline left a lot of people thinking that the Vengestone buyer would show up in 2021, but nope. That didn’t happen.
I haven’t really taken an in-depth look at the Ninjago TV series, so it is interesting to see the observations of ya’ll, about the character-centric nature of the “arcs”. Not sure how I feel about that personally. I tend to appreciate broader brush strokes in a story rather than emphasis on character development and exposition.
I agree, I’d love to see Bionicle come back. I’d just love to get more sets and see a reimagined story, what the new world would look like, etc.
I admit Lego might see it as too much of a risk but it’s just what I would want, I admit it might not be realistic but I still have hope for it, or something like it, to return one day.
I think if something like Bionicle did return, a video game could help a lot. Not only would it be really fun and expand the universe, it could also boost the popularity of the franchise in general.
video game wise i wondered how a 3d mnog style point and click game on mobile would do in terms of appeal to modern audiences. maybe give it some fun mingames and make them replayable
yeah I mean have you seen the bionicle jam fan game “onu koro cave in”? I played it like a couple days ago it was really fun and has that kinda energy similar to what im describing. short game tho
I always thought lacking a big MNOG-style game on mobile was a big missed opportunity for G2. I have no idea how much that would have resonated with the kids, but I am certainly sure it would have had a bigger impact than the generic fighting games we ended up getting.
An actual “OOG” (Okoto Online Game) could have done wonders in terms of getting people more invested in its world and characters. Especially if it would have used the same artstyle used in the Web Shorts, which IMO actually looked pretty good.
I’m having too much fun imagining my idealized head canon version of events…