Brickipedia News:Bye Bye BIONICLE

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Brickipedia News:Bye Bye BIONICLE

by Berrybrick
July 29, 2016

So, short story even shorter, BIONICLE has been cancelled again after its revival last year and an announced three year plan with the opportunity to go beyond that if expectations were succeeded. Apparently they weren't. The wave of sets coming to shelves now will be the last. You can read the official announcement below:

This is a description taken from LEGO.com. Please do not modify it. (see the source of this quote) Fans, today we have to share the news with you that we have made the tough decision to discontinue LEGO® BIONICLE® at the end of 2016. NETFLIX has just started streaming the final two episodes of “The Journey to One” the ending of which, will put an end to any speculation about the future of LEGO® BIONICLE®.

With the 2015 relaunch of LEGO® BIONICLE®, we set out to revive a childhood favorite of fans worldwide, and bring it to a new group of children who were too young to have known and played with LEGO® BIONICLE® Generation 1. From your wonderful feedback over the last year, we feel very proud to have performed that task. Currently, the last wave of LEGO® BIONICLE® products is launching in Europe and North America. These products will, however, not reach the shelves in Asia and the Pacific markets.

Next up is the #BIONICLEbuildmakuta Rebrick Contest, starting August 1st, that will give you a chance to compete for some unique prizes. All you have to do is to give us your best shot at the Evil Overlord himself. Through the rest of the year, we will keep sharing artwork and other things that may be of interest to you on LEGO.com/bionicle and facebook.com/LEGOBionicle

On behalf of the LEGO® BIONICLE® team we would like to say that it has been absolutely thrilling to work on a theme that evokes so much interest, dedication and emotion. We would like to thank you for taking in LEGO® BIONICLE® Generation 2 and sharing all your builds, stories, artwork, joy, criticism and praise. By doing so you have not only expanded the universe but also made the amazing BIONICLE® Community even stronger and more amazing. We are confident that you will ensure that BIONICLE® lives on.

The BIONICLE Team

Tags: BIONICLE

Comments (25)

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MonkeyjackAmateur

100 months ago

Score 0

Shoot.

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LEGOlasAmateur

102 months ago

Score 0

Dang it, I was hoping this theme would work out.....

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Edward NigmaMaster Builder

102 months ago

Score 0

I expected this to happen, but not this early. It's only been what, not even two years. Even Hero Factory lasted longer. Hell, Hero Factory ran from late 2010-2013. I had at least given them until early 2017. Looks like I was wrong again.

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Omega XAmateur

102 months ago

Score 0

Disappointed and sad. I loved Bionicle it was the first theme/set I got which introduced me to lego. However that has since been discontinued (with a very anti-climatic ending) and now this 2nd Generation is ending too...sigh. I dont see any theme around (not even HF) that could rival the charm of Bionicle, but yes i do agree that they didnt put enough effort into G2's story as much as they did for G1. It is really sad as there is so much more potential for G2 and even more effort put into this theme by the designers. Furthermore there isnt even a Makuta figure =(, at least end it off with Makuta..

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

Here's Faber's art

You bring up a lot of good points when I'm mostly seeing complaints about why it didn't work for someone personally (including my own comment :b ) or just blaming the advertising. But maybe it is also worth considering that, if the first wave didn't sell so well, LEGO didn't think it was worth advertising because of other issues they identified? I don't know. I'm not sure how far that particular thread can be explored productively. I might reply to the other points later, which I find more inspiring.

I do want to say though that while I generally dislike telling people that the way they feel is wrong, being relieved is kind of weird. It isn't a living breathing thing that has been put out of its misery. It's a toyline. It could have gotten better next year. And if the story is forgettable, it'll be forgotten. No damage done. But now that it's gone, there are questions of how and how quickly (or even if) it will be replaced because it would have been over by the end of 2017 anyway....

It sort of depends what era or aspect you are looking for. Polynesian mythology reminds me of some of the worldbuilding they did in the early years, and Disney has got a Polynesian princess on the way. Avatar has elemental warriors in a sort of Asian medieval punkish setting (more genre savvy people might be able to better describe that :P ) and good character development. There are probably plenty of fantasy and sci-fi stories which would sort of resemble the later years too, but none come to mind.

BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

It kind of did. People have done a fair job of picking apart why the marketing didn't work, though. I'm just not sure how good my or anyone's memory (or experience) of the advertising directed at the target audience last Winter was, but I guess my thought is that if it needed more advertising, they would have found other ways to do it.

Or maybe not. I don't know how flexible these things are. And the last nonlicensed theme I can remember not being some sort of powerhouse was Ultra Agents, and that also had a kind of shady end. So maybe they do have some issues to work out in promoting smaller themes.

I wrote and never published an editorial about BIONICLE and the Theseus Paradox which is secretly hidden here. I think you should be able to view the source. If I were to revisit now, I would talk more about not just how the story was simpler, but how it had nothing to do with biological systems when, at least in my opinion, if it is a Biological Chronicle, it should have something to do with biology. That, I think, is the most unsatisfying thing about the new story because even if it wasn't so obvious what game they were playing for most of the original run, you could tell that there was some sort of craftiness to it. Maybe instead of having the Toa battle cancer, they could have explored rehabilitation (or is that too meta? :P ) after a disease and gone into something about how merely having a prescription (the Toa) isn't going to make everything better. Does destiny make them great, or do they have to do something? Were the Protectors right to summon them, or were they being gratuitous and not doing their jobs? And what about Makuta? My thought is that he is the one that the Toa need to save this time (rather than Mata Nui) but maybe Ekimu doesn't want that because he is convinced that Makuta is beyond saving. Maybe that's all a bit more vague and less unified than G1's "Toa are medicine; Matoran are cells; Makuta is cancer; Mata Nui is you", but I'm sure they could have come up with something.

This is the version I fell in love with, though a lot of what I like might not have come out until I had to find a way to tie those two stories into one narrative for a project. There were also stories about Maui chasing the sun and discovering New Zealand in the textbook I read those in, but I'm not sure if those versions are on the internet, but some variations are. I know his death is, and that is really...memorable.

Moana's first trailer didn't do it for me, either, and it's more that its source material reminds me of BIONICLE than the trailer reminds me of BIONICLE. :P But I'm going to hold out hope. I'm afraid that they'll try to outdo Frozen and burn, but \_O_/

Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

But the villain is a giant crab! How could that not be good? Yeah parts of Moana are coming across desperate :P

BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

Moana is fighting Cancer?

She is BIONICLE's true second coming.

AwesomeknightBricktastic

102 months ago

Score 0

So wait Moana is killing herself?

BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

Yeah, if you make the case that Orion did.

CJCBricktastic

102 months ago

Score 0

Re: Stories and advertising - it probably didn't help that the tv show was a Netflix exclusive - and based on the screenshots Netflix shows for each episodes, looks like it was made using the same engine as the cutscenes from LEGO Island 2.

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Brikkyy13Outstanding Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

To be completely honest, I saw this coming. Everything I can say about the sets has been said already, but I want to comment on why I think this run failed. The whole marketing campaign seemed to just have the sets ride a wave of nostalgia and then dumb down the story to make it accessible to the target market. I didn't see any advertising other than the occasional Facebook competition. That was the completely wrong approach, as they seemed to only be targeting the existing fanbase while the sets and associated story materials were aimed at children.

It's a shame to see the line go, but I am kind of relieved. I wasn't a fan of the few sets from this year that I did get, they seemed a bit copy/pasted from last year. There wasn't the innovation that the original sets had. From the looks of it, this is the grizzly end for BIONICLE and I don't see it coming back in any form any time soon. I can't wait to see what LEGO does next, it should be interesting.

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

I can't just watch somebody else rant and not do it myself, so....

The first wave was good. Mostly. I have nitpicks and really dislike Tahu (mostly because he was a set made of those nitpicks) but thought that most of the rest of the Toa did a good job at giving the old characters a new feel, and it's pretty interesting how they inverted some like Kopaka, Onua, and Pohatu (the former being thin and getting bulked, the later slimmed). I definitely do prefer the old masks (especially Lewa's) and admire the simplicity the old figures had in their motifs. The last wave of Toa was okay as part packs, but I dislike the new torso shell and a lot of them just felt less lively and more messy. Aside from Gali and maybe Pohatu's, I do prefer these versions of the masks, but I am bothered by the character exclusivity masks already had in story, and the Nuva symbols and ugly crystal backing don't help.

The villain sets are bad. Except for Umarak the Hunter, they are all really sparse or awkward. And a lot of them are dwarfed by the Toa. Which reminds me of one thing I think is one thing Hero Factory did better: the pricing. Yeah, I know, inflation, but the heroes were the small sets then. Now we have things like the Protectors and Creatures which are okay, but sort of feel cheap if not in pieces, in story content. And the HF villains generally looked like matches (if not challenges) for the heroes. I actually think that LoSS was okay, but he felt like something rejected from LotR when they decided it was too much Technic for a System set. It just isn't BIONICLE.

I watched the animations and thought that those were okay. Not nearly as engrossing as MNOG or even Mask of Light, but they were pretty to look at. Not at all compelling or very interesting though. Nobody and nothing but the Toa have any semblance of explored character when the old series had a living breathing world. I did read spoilers for the Journey to One ending and though I am shocked that LEGO would do it, it's kind of depressing. Like 2008 all over again when I thought that they let the villain win so that they could go focus on some boring desert villagers instead, except that's the ending.

I definitely think that Nova has a point about the masks. Not even the collecting so much (though that exclusivity thing was a terrible choice), but "Mask of Strength" captures the imagination a lot more than an ill-defined "Mask of Creation". I don't know if it is because I grew up with these characters, but the masks felt like an extra power before, now they are the only power and something inextricable from the character, which it just feels like removes a lot of depth. Like, if you want to create a "canon" Toa of Water, they have to have a Mask of Water. Before they could have had anything, official or made-up. That's definitely not the only reason the story isn't as compelling, but I also don't think that all of the fault is on the story.

Very glad that it got a rerelease and very disappointed that it didn't work out, but very thankful to TLG for giving it another shot and letting the fans know that it's over. It would have been worse as a surprise.

I'll get my cape on.

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Albus PotterBricktastic

102 months ago

Score 0

I'm really not that sad that Gen 2 is ending. While I did buy a large portion of the sets I never enjoyed the story. I'll be happy to see a new constraction line from LEGO if they can pull it off.

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NovaHawkLegendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

Definitely sad for the people who collect it, but it doesn't bother me at all personally. I really tried to get back in to BIONICLE, but I only ended up buying 3 or 4 Protectors. I couldn't even bring myself spend that much money on a Toa.

To me, all of the characters felt and looked way too generic. Except for Onua, all the Toa just looked like exactly the same build, and the squished-in masks didnt even seem to retain their old personalities. Also, all of them had fairly similar weapons. Whereas in the first generation you had Pohatu as the one that has a gear on his leg instead of his arm, Gali with the transparent mask, Kopaka with a shield (that actually looked like a shield), Lewa just looked crazy thanks to his mask and his huge axe, Onua with the double-armed claw attack and Tahu was just the clear leader. Yes, the original builds were similar too in a lot of ways, but they were also a lot smaller and cheaper, and there was nowhere near as much of a range of parts as they have now- what they did to make them different was more than enough to give each Toa their own individual feel.

Having the silver and gold on the Masters already didn't help either I don't think- there was a huge leap from Toa Mata to Toa Nuva- a very significant change in masks and you got brand new silver armour pieces. They all just looked way more powerful. The Masters already had gold/silver armour, and there wasn't a huge change to the masks- some of them like the Uniter Kopaka actually look like a step down to me.

Also, even what little I knew about the story felt oversimplified (whereas the original one got overcomplicated after a while). The original story I thought was good- to defeat Makuta, after the Toa arrived they had to fight Rahi and collect all six of their Kanohi, then get gold and silver versions of the masks. Each of their Kanohi had actual powers (not just "makes their elemental power stronger) and names. There were cheap little Kanohi packs you could buy to collect the other five, unlike collectable minifigures where I just wanted a set of 16, I actually found these fun and didn't mind duplicates. The bad guys, which actually appear to be better builds, don't even really have names, it's just "Skull (function)" or "(location) Beast" which just makes them feel like generic one-off bad guys. They also don't seem to have any real functions- I'll never forget the Nui Jaga or Tarakava because of the awesome mask-disarming attacks they could make.

Anyway, basically I think this generation of Bionicle failed because it just wasn't executed properly. This is probably just me, but I think the sets might not have necessarily been badly designed, but they failed to capture a character's personality and abilities, and the story didn't draw me in at all- maybe it got better, but what little I knew didn't make me want to find out more.

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SamanthaNguyenBuilding Bigger

102 months ago

Score 0

Disappointed :/ BIONICLE was one of my favorite themes (if not my favorite) - haven't seen a theme as high as quality as this one, hopefully they can think of something better for the future

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CJCBricktastic

102 months ago

Score 1

BIONICLE was revived?

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AwesomeknightBricktastic

102 months ago

Score 1

I forgot BIONICLE was revived

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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

I'm actually really disappointed to see this line be discontinued, I would've thought it was selling at least as well as Hero Factory but obviously not. It's weird to see a Big Bang theme be discontinued so quickly, even Chima lasted an extra year and we all know that was a complete sales disaster. So City, Friends and Ninjago seem to be our only core non licensed themes which is so bizarre for the most popular toy company in the world. This isn't the end of constraction as there's Rogue One figures due to be released next year, though it will be interesting to see if we get a new theme or Hero Factory back next year.

On a side note I wonder if they brought the "minifig scale" BIONICLE sets back would they be popular?

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

I don't know about mini-scale BIONICLE, but I would love a system theme with some elements from it. Sort of like how we were talking about an Elves-like fantasy theme for boys yesterday: lush environments, bright elemental motifs, crystals, treasure, and tribal tattoos, but with punk influences and more monsters.

Sounds good to me. :P

LegosuperheroesfanNovice

102 months ago

Score 0

While I was sad to hear the news, and I do feel that the line is still incomplete, I think that the ending of Journey to One is actually a pretty good sendoff for the line, considering how rushed it must have been. It's got plenty of problems, but at least to me it finally felt like the BIONICLE I grew up with. And while I'm disappointed with the lack of Makuta, I also think that this final wave was pretty good, despite what many have said. It's definetly better than last year's summer wave. I hope that the revival of BIONICLE now, at the height of the Internet age, will ensure that the community will keep it alive.

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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

I wonder what this means about its sales for Hero Factory (which must have been fine if it lasted for five years)

This is pretty disappointing when I was expecting another year and a Makuta set. I wonder where it went wrong. I don't think that the sets were very good after the first wave, aside from as part packs, but it's probably more than that. Hopefully it will get a successor this time so that new parts are still released.

It's just a big "oh well" I guess. At least I can go back to spending more money on overpriced DC sets now. :P

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Soupperson1Legendary Brickipedian

102 months ago

Score 0

Get your cape on...

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Bye Bye BIONICLE +

ShopDescription

Fans, today we have to share the news with … Fans, today we have to share the news with you that we have made the tough decision to discontinue LEGO® BIONICLE® at the end of 2016. NETFLIX has just started streaming the final two episodes of “The Journey to One” the ending of which, will put an end to any speculation about the future of LEGO® BIONICLE®.</br></br>With the 2015 relaunch of LEGO® BIONICLE®, we set out to revive a childhood favorite of fans worldwide, and bring it to a new group of children who were too young to have known and played with LEGO® BIONICLE® Generation 1. From your wonderful feedback over the last year, we feel very proud to have performed that task. Currently, the last wave of LEGO® BIONICLE® products is launching in Europe and North America. These products will, however, not reach the shelves in Asia and the Pacific markets.</br></br>Next up is the #BIONICLEbuildmakuta Rebrick Contest, starting August 1st, that will give you a chance to compete for some unique prizes. All you have to do is to give us your best shot at the Evil Overlord himself. Through the rest of the year, we will keep sharing artwork and other things that may be of interest to you on LEGO.com/bionicle and facebook.com/LEGOBionicle</br></br>On behalf of the LEGO® BIONICLE® team we would like to say that it has been absolutely thrilling to work on a theme that evokes so much interest, dedication and emotion. We would like to thank you for taking in LEGO® BIONICLE® Generation 2 and sharing all your builds, stories, artwork, joy, criticism and praise. By doing so you have not only expanded the universe but also made the amazing BIONICLE® Community even stronger and more amazing. We are confident that you will ensure that BIONICLE® lives on.</br></br>The BIONICLE TeamBIONICLE® lives on. The BIONICLE Team +