If they don’t care about Bionicle, fine. LEGO appeals to a lot of people who like different aspects of what LEGO offers (or used to offer). But that doesn’t mean you should get annoyed at people for wanting the branch of LEGO that got them to enjoy the brand to return in some form. As someone who had been involved with mutiple LEGO sub-communites, I can tell you right now that people constantly asking for the return of their favorite theme against all odds of it returning is by no means exclusive to the Bionicle community. You will constantly see a bunch of 40-year old AFOLs on Eurobricks who want to see the return of “Classic Space” as a full LEGO line. Do I judge them for wanting to see the return of some anciet LEGO line that was purely a product of its time? No. But similarly, I’d expect them not to judge us for wanting to see the return of an experimental LEGO line that was also purely a product of its time. We really are not that different from the rest of the LEGO community in this regard, lets be real here.
Where, exactly, is Sonus demanding this?
That’s a bit of a silly comparison to make; they’re made by two different companies. Of course they’re different, and even look so. If they said they were the same systems they’d just be wrong.
For your BIONICLE comparison, it also doesn’t align well. Technic, which BIONICLE built off of quite consistently, is still compatible with the LEGO System as a whole. And it’s by the same company. Am I being pedantic here? Yes. But it’s a poor argument to bring a copycat company into it and in my opinion distracts from your other, much stronger point: that the BIONICLE community tends to be very demanding at times. However, this is by no means an excuse to have AFOL’s refuse to co-exist, especially when LEGO already has Technic and System co-exist and mingle anyways.
Technic is an extension of the existing System formula. Take a look at how it came about: bricks with holes for pins. They’re still very much the LEGO system.
But Bionicle is very much the newer Technic system rather than the LEGO system is. It’s a deviation of a deviation. It isn’t something like Jack Stone, where the LEGO system is taken to a bit of a weird extreme with concepts for assembly, but more Galidor, where in Galidor’s case the deviation is so gigantic it barely resembles a LEGO product anymore.
I think you’re misunderstanding it. How you view artificial LEGO is how AFOLs view Bionicle - alien, possibly heretical, and almost entirely useless. Couple that with the snotty, self-righteous Bionicle community and its ceaseless demandings, and you have… Well, the exact point I was making the whole time.
Any reconciliation on the AFOLs’ part to consider the system legitimate is drowned out by how many literal children are in this fandom. The AFOL community is not above fault by any means, but they are most certainly not wholly responsible.
Oh, and Galidor is also a Technic deviation, but that’s only because it uses pins. That’s also kinda how Bionicle is; Technic connectors on all the pieces, but the base system is wildly different - ball and socket. Action figures.
Buildable action figures with snap-together limbs being the same system has a much better argument going for it than buildable action figures being the same as building blocks. And that’s the point of contention for most AFOLs.
You’re as in the hypothetical Bionicle community reading this post.
I don’t need anyone’s approval to be an AFOL.
But I’m not demanding anything. I’m happy if Bionicle never gets any form of reboot and I’ve never said otherwise.
What?
I haven’t attributed myself to any group. I speak for no one other than myself. I have no personal attachment to the communities
I don’t care if I’m the exception or not. My point is there’s no reason for either side to be hostile to each other simply for their preferences in building systems. I love both and have seen some amazing builds. the creativity approach is absolutely what shows how pointless this divide is.
It doesn’t matter which side started what or what their excuses are. It’s immature behavior from everyone and I can’t agree to any of it.
Then they are being straight up wrong on both a factual and technical sense. No matter the attitude. I agree both sides can be at fault, but at the same time I find these arguments just poor. Also calling us “snotty” and “self-righteous” isn’t exactly winning you favors on trying to convince me on something I’m already well aware of. Please, seize the ad hominim, it causes arguments to become hostile and we don’t need that.
This morning I was thinking “Huh, I guess this topic won’t blow up the way I thought it would.”
Must’ve jinxed it or something
Nah it must be TTV’s fault.
Cool?
Well you are on a site for Bionicle fans and in a topic about Bionicle continuations arguing about the Bionicle/AFOL communities… Sorry for assuming.
I’d make a point about how TTV is hardly the Bionicle community, but now that we’re claiming ad hominem the discussion is over. Guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
You said “Bionicle Community.” Nor did I ever claim TTV was the BIONICLE community? If you meant TTV, please specify for the future. But yes, let us agree to disagree I suppose.
I have no control over what other people say and do, so I generally prefer not to associate myself with communities. I’m just one guy that likes putting blocks together.
Ever put blocks together as far as Coruscant?
I think for me, I’d just like to see official Bionicle media make a return, but I do have a bias towards its established incarnations.
That being said, I have weird ideas for a completely story-based Bionicle with a very heavy reboot. I’d call it a reimagining. I think if something were to come out that’s very different but still has Bionicle theming or essence I’d also be really excited for that.
Something like Afterman, but it goes somewhere.
We tried a reboot and it wasn’t good. Yes they can do it better a second time through, but it would mean the series would have to last a long time. It took more than a couple years to get the plot and world building started.
I think your comparison of LEGO with a LEGO Movie 2 lamp is a little exaggerated. Those pieces of LEGO merch aren’t even part of LEGO’s main product lineup… they are just that, merch based on the toys, and it usually goes under the “LEGO Gear” section.
With that said, comparing Bionicle with that makes no sense. If Bionicle were straight up “not LEGO” then we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.
For me personally, when I look at a pile of Bionicle pieces and a pile of system parts, I think to myself “LEGO” in both cases. Both can be used to build everything you want and express your creativity. If I were looking instead at a pile of Galidor parts and normal system parts, then yeah, maybe I could kind of get behind your feeling (although that doesn’t make Galidor useless in any way).
To be honest, I feel like most AFOLs have this opinion on Bionicle without having even tried it out for themselves. They just look one second at it, think to themselves “eww, this sucks, it’s not made from the bricks I grew up with” and then never want to have anything to do with it ever again. But funny enough, I know a couple of MOC builders myself who used to be system purists, who now quite enjoy building with Constraction, simply because they’ve tried out and ended up enjoying it.
You do realize CCBS was created with the mentality of being the “Bricks” for building Action Figures, right? Heck, they even said that when they revealed CCBS for the first time, and showed how each of the CCBS bone pieces were specifically designed to match the lengths of the standard system bricks. The G1 technic system may have been an outlier to that, but saying CCBS is also straight up not LEGO is something that really gets on my nerves.
Yeah, yet somehow our community gets an annual Bio-Cup contest + now a full range of Canon Contests (all fully organized by mature adults, mind you) filled with professional builders, and sometimes even a few system purist builders might be interested in joining (look not further than last year’s Bio-Cup for that) .
What does the Castle community get? What does the Pirates community get? I am not saying there aren’t any contests for those lines whatsoever, but if there are, they certainly haven’t reached the same level of popularity. If there was such a thing as “Castle-Cup” or “Pirate-Cup”, as the LEGO nerd that I am, I would probably know about them.
Ignoring most of the first paragraph since it’s mostly ignoring the argument I was making.
Yes, that’s
The point I was making before people began taking things personally
And while this is great (Bionicle AFOL builders tend to exhibit the most potential for building) it hardly disproves the rule that most AFOLs won’t touch the stuff.
Would it be great if they all gave it a try? Sure. Some might like it.
I am not advocating that Bionicle isn’t LEGO. If that wasn’t clear before in my arguments, I apologize.
For the average AFOL, it really is like comparing Bionicle to Neo Shifters. The two building systems are extremely different and understandably off-putting to the traditional system fan.
One of these is the LEGO System line of plastic bricks. The other is not.
Both are technically, realistically, aesthetically, architecturally, and quite literally LEGO by every definition of the word except the definition of LEGO System. In fact, the above piece is 100% incompatible with the 2x4 brick, and therefore there’s no reason to care about it if you’re the average AFOL who’s only ever used the standard system.
I dunno, some of those biocup guys seem sketchy
That’s a bit of a red herring. Just because some AFOLs really like Bionicle does not mean all AFOLs have the potential to. And given the reputation they’ve garnered for being opposed to Bionicle from the getgo, it’s safe to assume the majority of them disprove your point.
There’s a problem here.
Castle and Pirates are themes that LEGO has produced, with several different iterations throughout the company’s existence. Bionicle is also a theme with a couple of iterations.
But Bionicle is also an entirely different and unique building system developed specifically to be different from the standard LEGO system or even Technic. Castle, Space, Pirates, all that good stuff is completely compatible in every aspect with one another - Bionicle is, for the most part, not. It takes a great amount of effort to mesh a Bionicle piece into a system build for most builders, and when done well applause of NPU is echoed wherever it can be stated, but when the inverse occurs there is often silence.
Why? Because system going into Bionicle is nothing compared to Bionicle going into system. So your contest comparison is less Bionicle vs. Pirates and more Bionicle vs. Everything Else. Don’t believe me, nonspecific person reading this comment who is not necessarily the individual I am replying to? Look at any LEGO contest ever, official or otherwise - it’s either all themes* and systems or it’s just Bionicle.
So the reason you’ve never heard of a mega-popular Castle contest is because, well… The intense draw to BioCup is that it’s a Bionicle-specific contest, whereas any others are just… LEGO. Not because the other theme fanbases are united against Bionicle or anything akin to that, but because generic LEGO contest is pretty much the status quo. Bionicle has its own because it’s so different it won’t really work anywhere else.
Classic Castle’s contest is kinda cool.
*Ghid is aware there are contests such as the one listed above that are theme-specific. Ghid is paraphrasing.
I don’t even know what you guys are arguing about here
I can live with system based G3 but it has to be original, like Exo-Force and other series where cars aren’t the focus.
I mean, this still exists though…
Yeah, that is one of the main reasons why I’ve never been particularly found of the Bionicle as a system theme idea myself. If that were to happen, realistically speaking, it would be another vehicle-focused LEGO theme akin to Ninjago where the vast majority of the builds we get are just repetitive mechs, jets, bikes, and cars. At that point, would it even be worth bringing back Bionicle if it ended up being just a Ninjago re-skin?
Yes, and this is after years of Bionicle not having a translator brick.
Also, this proves my point, since LEGO had to create pieces dedicated to bridging the gap between the two systems in order for them to operate together.
Even before that, you could still have used a brick with technic hole in it and attach of ball joint to that via a Technic pin. The simple reality is, those two systems are not as hard to connect together as some people would like to believe.