Since G2 has ended, I felt I’d ask this question. I personally enjoyed G2 and most of the sets. What do you guys think?
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G2 was pretty good in my opinion, and it had a lot of useful parts.
The only parts I didn’t like were JtO, and some of the sets. cough cough ketar cough cough
Pohatu to me got the sort end of the stick set wise throughout G2.
In total I loved G2. Its no where near G1 but as it’s own thing it’s pretty cool. I was throughly invested in the theme. And I absolutely loved most of the sets. It broughy me into the community, and my Bionicle fandom had never been the same. For that I have to thank it. It had its ups in downs, but I really enjoyed it.
I thought it was great! It gave us what I consider to be the best Toa sets in BIONICLE history (the 2015 Toa), who had all of the articulation of the later years of G1 combined with the character, color, and functions of the early years. The story also hearkened back to the mystical feel of 2001, and relied less on convoluted explanations than G1 did.
It did have flaws, of course. The story wasn’t as fleshed-out as I would’ve liked, and it lacked the depth that made the later years of G1 great. I do also think that the team’s efforts to avoid the convoluted nature of the later G1 story hurt them in some respects, causing them to refrain from explaining aspects of the G2 story that definitely needed clarification.
I personally liked the media that G2 gave us–both the 2015 animations and JtO were things that G1 never really tried, and it was refreshing to see the team try out new methods of telling the story. They suffered slightly from their younger spirit, but I didn’t mind that as much simply because I don’t think that everything needs to appeal to every demographic that might be interested in it.
After thinking about it for a while, I believe there are too main reasons why G2 ended so quickly. The first is the lack of advertising–LEGO never really seemed to get behind promoting the theme, which forced the story team to basically turn the webisodes and JtO into semi-advertisements, which probably impacted their quality a bit. The second, and I realize that this might cause some debate, is the general attitude of the fans–I think that the amount of negativity aimed at G2 far exceeded the positive. I think TTV generally kept a good balance, but even we have to admit that hardly a day went by without someone complaining about some aspect of the reboot–and oftentimes it was multiple people. I think that far too many people told themselves in 2014 that BIONICLE was going to be exactly the same as it was before, and the changes that soon became visible prompted a bit of overreaction.
Granted, criticism is important and necessary, and many of the criticisms aimed at G2 had a basis in logic, but I can’t bring myself to forget some of the extremely illogical things that were said throughout the reboot, things that I think caused a general decline in interest right from the start.
To end on a positive note, I think that G2 had a great run, and I was happy to have it for the entirety of its duration, which made its cancellation slightly easier to bear. I also think that it laid a great deal of groundwork for a potential return for BIONICLE in the future, much more than G1 did, and that gives me hope that we might see our beloved theme return again someday. Remember, all endings are merely beginnings waiting to be born…
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Disappointing, seeing how hype-inducing it was. The winter leak season was always one of my favorite times of the year. I have good memories with G2, but not because the story was amazing, but because the community was amazing. l loved the raw, unhindered hype whenever set pics were leaking out, however it just kinda fell apart for me as it went on.
I don’t like a single thing about JTO, the voice acting is lackluster, the story is the worst I have seen in a LEGO line (And HF is my favorite theme) the music is bland, repetitive and lacks any soul. The characters are just cookie-cutter cardboard cut-outs you could find, but somebody used the most crude cookie-cutters in the history of the human race and lost any identity that they had beforehand go into the trashbin.
The animations were fun, I enjoyed watching them…even if they had pretty much the same problems as JTO, just on a much smaller, excusable scale. Many people found the music to get old fast, but that guitar riff in every battle scene was pretty hype-inducing. As someone who looks to be a voice actor in the future, the performance given to us in the animations was…lackluster, and the poor man who did it clearly was under-qualified…but I can feel the struggle that must have been, so I respect him. The voices were not bad (mostly) and I prefer them to the JTO voices, but that bar is so low it is pretty much sitting on the ground.
The ads were lackluster and bland, yadda yadda yadda.
The books and graphic novels were wasted potential incarnate, simply retelling the same stories over and over, rather then building the world (with the exception of a few random details strewn about. but it was nothing special in the slightest) Battle of the mask makers seemed interesting, but it was re-told horribly in the travesty known as JTO, rendering the entire book a total waste, seeing as the most important thing we got from it was a ugly looking mask.
The sets were…good? I enjoyed the pieces, and Lewa Master is one of my favorite Constraction sets of all time…but that is just because of mods. The sets all had severe and nagging flaws that led me to revamp them as quick as I possibly could before this line claimed any more of my braincells. Tahu and Lewa Master, as well as Onua uniter are the stand-outs to me, but all of them needed fixes.
The gear-functions were…cool I guess, but I only liked them because I got more technic parts for MOCing. I don’t care if a set can flail its arms when I turn a gear, because that gear and the ugly box ruin the look of the set already. The entire system fell flat on me, but I can see why someone would enjoy it.
The Creatures and Protectors felt…awkward, too compact for me. For ten dollar sets they felt like they all lacked…fun. They did not feel like a standalone set I could have hours of play with, but more of a paperweight to fill a spot on my shelf.
Now I have never owned a G1 Bionicle set, but I grew up on HF. I feel that the simple eight dollar sets from HF can do so much more then anything in BIONICLE. I don’t care if Nilkuu’s staff can shoot, because I would just end up losing a bunch of pieces and making the set look incomplete. I don’t care that he can have his mask fly off, because that just makes it frustrating to pose. I don’t care that Ketar can unite with Pohatu, because I wanted a good set now, and not whenever I scrounge up fifteen bucks to buy another lackluster box of disappointment and regrets.
Now let me compare this to HF. I could buy Breakout Evo (Which I did) and sure his back is open, but he looks good, he poses well. He has a sweet blaster that can shoot easy to find, bright red balls of plastic at the villains, not easy to lose studs. He had the Hero Cuffs, which not only can look pretty cool in poses, but can be attached to almost any villain. Now as many of you are likely aware, HF used the Breakout line to market two sets together, a Hero and a Villain. Now of course you would always want the complete pair, but you could be satisfied with your purchase, even if you only had one of them. Each set felt like a complete package, rather then 2016’s unity feature making incomplete sets that might look better if you stick one on the others back. 10-year old me could enjoy his one set he got, without needing to work up more money/the next birthday or Christmas to feel like he had his complete set.
So all in all, G2 was a letdown of spectacular proportions, and contributed to my current state of being afraid to get my hopes up, and the downfall of one of my favorite properties ever.
(Sorry if I was a bit rambly and/or ranty, I am currently sick and I just got caught up writing nonsense.)
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The story was trash, the Toa sets where good, the villians not as much.
It was really great! Many potential chances to make it even better were left out. All in all it was really enjoyable to join the main Bionicle community once again but this time more prepared for awesome things and stories awesome things and stories which didn’t always happen to appear through to run of Gen 2 and some of either the story and the marketing were a major dissapointment but on the bright side, the sets were great and I happen to discoveries that CCBS isn’t that bad after all. Not that a great building system and also overused with it’s casual parts but it is good.
I believe what really led the whole Bionicle community, was the Hype Train. Everyone joined aboard and we flew high above on the Sky of endless hapiness and possibilities where dreams come true, just to later discover our trip wasn’t that flawless.
I recently read through all the comments of the 2015 Discussion Topic because I missed a lot there. I also read through the 2016 one once again for the “nostalgic” feeling when Hype was over 9000 for the New sets. I was thinking a lot about which leak season brough more Hype to the fans and I came to the conclusion to name the first leak season where everything began. Where we were all over hyped about Bionicle is coming back and it seemed to present us a safe and fun Journey at least for 3 year… 3 year of beauty and legenda to discover, oh how marvelous would have that been. And now here we are. Broken, confused, and dissapointed. Our faith in Lego is lost but our community is never! We shall keep going on our own oath to keep up the Legend and spirit of Bionicle what we gained over the years of the previous generation and what always taught us what is the real way of the Biological Chronicle and more important we could discover the true miracle behind it! We, the fans were one and we still are one in both heart and spirit. Many of us have discovered their Destiny by Bionicle and I believe we shall keep going on this path. Who knows? Perhaps in the future, we can get to discover and enjoy another Legendary and mythical story which will bring happiness and warmth to all of our hearts once again. But until then, old lessons must be remembered to keep the spirit and the spark of our must Beloved theme what led us on theway to who we are now. Unity. Duty. Destiny. Never the End.
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I feel like I can sum up my thoughts on G2 pretty well:
I enjoyed the experience of BIONICLE’s return more than I enjoyed the product itself.
For me, the highlights of G2 were the abstract moments, the moments that I got to enjoy with my friends and all of you guys. The mystery and hype before its official return, the launch party at NYCC, the theorizing and speculation, the release of a Netflix BIONICLE show and watching it with the others in TTV… the concept of BIONICLE was what I really enjoyed. That feeling that, for the first real time since I joined the internet back in late 2008, I was living in a world where BIONICLE was a thing and getting to share those experiences with like-minded people.
However, when I took a closer look at what BIONICLE G2 was actually presenting… it started to crumble. Lack of depth, minimal worldbuilding, sub-par quality of storytelling, no advertising, missed opportunities with supplemental material, long content droughts, plot inconsistencies, red herrings, dropped plot points, contrivances, lackluster summer set waves, bizarre release schedules, etc. The sets for G2 were the one thing that never let me down. I enjoyed basically every set I ever got aside from Ketar, and they rank among my favorites in my Lego collection. Seeing as how Lego sells sets, not stories, and the sets are their core focus, I find it hard to be TOO disappointed in what I got from G2 in that aspect. At least, in that regard, it’s left me with a pretty positive feeling.
One of my other (indirect) favorite things about G2 is the ripple effect that it’s had on the community. All these projects coming out of the woodwork that just have such a great grasp on what makes BIONICLE great. Pereki’s Trial by Tahu, Metru Nui Legacy’s Okoto Origins… I’ve loved watching those and I feel that neither would’ve happened if BIONICLE hadn’t become relevant again.
-Mesonak
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I was about to write a several paragraph wall of text, but Meso hit just about every note I would’ve. 
Some of the sets were pretty bad cough skull scorpio and Gali, Uniter of Water cough but G1 also had some bad sets (like Hewkii Mahri) but, it also had some stellar sets like the “United” Tahu (Tahu+Ikir) and Gali, Master of Water, and in my opinion some of the sets look downright better than some G1 sets. The two Kopake sets also made my favorite character from G1 look really good, even if the added gold to the color scheme threw me for a loop at first.
All in all, I loved G2 and am sad to see it go.
Overall, I enjoyed the concept of G2. I enjoyed the sets and most of the story, but, it was poorly executed. The story was pretty good in 2015, despite being a little childish, and the concept of 2016 was cool, but was probably one of the worse years of BIONICLE.
The visual media and the sets is pretty much where G2 had it right. The sets were some of the best we’ve seen from BIONICLE and the art was incredible, like the concept art, the 2015 Animations and the Journey to One.
But of course, it had its short-comings, like the character development and story progression, and well as how characters were portrayed. The Toa were shown as basically children as opposed to the heroes of our childhoods. And I don’t like how Ekimu always had to bail the Toa out at the end of the year. One year was fine, the next year wasn’t and he probably would’ve done it in 2017.
But alas, I’m glad that we got G2 and the awesome sets and artwork it brought with them. Even though it’s gone now, I’m glad I saw it from start to finish, something I hadn’t been able to do with G1, and that I’m thankful for, especially since I got to spend it with all of you here and my friends on the Custom BIONICLE Wiki.
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I felt Pohatu (2015) was pretty good. I didn’t like Pohatu (2016). He felt like he wasn’t supposed to move and you could barely position him!
it was an experience, not the best, especially in some bits and with the abrupt end. Maybe if they handled it better… but what’s done is done. It had fine sets and parts, and overall inspired(briefly) a new generation and reinvigorated some of us…
I love the sets
enjoyed the story up until the 4th episode of JtO
and I came here because of it, wasn’t all bad
Great sets, lackluster story.
Really stunk the see so much great potential flushed down the drain in the latter department; there were a lot of neat concepts at work, most of which never really got the kind of limelight(or at least proper explanations) that they deserved.
To be a bit more specific, I really enjoyed the web animations in 2015, although they should’ve gotten longer run-times per episode(at least 2 minutes).
The novels(save for the first one) and graphic novels were absolutely fantastic, the only problem with them being their poor advertising and distribution.
Journey To One was a massive disappointment to me, having suffered from severely lacking dialogue and pacing- not to mention being the medium of the line’s awful ending.
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I found G2 to be a rather hit or miss experience.
On the one hand, I did greatly enjoy the designs of the sets. Besides a couple duds, I thought they were visually appealing and integrated CCBS and Technic in neat and creative ways, all the while having phenomenal posability. Although I wasn’t too certain about it at first, I came to like the direction the theme seemed to be moving towards by blurring the lines between CCBS and Technic.
Some of the concepts brought up throughout the line were interesting, such as the Elemental Creatures and the Skull Raiders
On the other hand, I fell the story had a lot of lost potential and left many ideas unexplored. There seemed so much to the land of Okoto left unexplored that that ruined greater world building. The inclusion of the protectors and animals was a step in the right direction, but aside from that there was very little substance.
Speaking of the protectors, the characters felt bland. The protectors had next to nothing in terms of personality and the Toa just feel unrelatable this time around.
Overall I can’t say I’m disappointed in G2, but I can’t say I’m blown away all too much.
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The sets, polybags, and exclusive masks are awesome. The storyline is not. Especially when parts of it remind me of those Care Bears episodes my siblings used to watch. CoughNetflixseriesCough
G2 was alright/10 I got most of the things except expensive foreign collectibles
I feel the same as Mesonak. I really enjoyed the experiences G2 brought to the community. We have so many fun jokes from Bionicle and so many good times were had that I can’t help but enjoy it. I really don’t like how it ended, but at least it makes completing a Bionicle G2 collection easier
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