Nothing has made me feel more ancient than Toy Galaxy covering something from my childhood. He-man? '84 Transformers? Voltron? Those were the older kids stuff, my brothers things, hand-me-downs. But Bionicle? The thing I played with on the bus? Stuff that I found in Toy R Us? Unthinkable until now. 😂
I was hitting teenage years when they IP sets really took off, so my time enjoying Lego as a kid was with the much simpler sets. I remember thinking that the newer sets seemed to have way to many specialized pieces. And also that it must start getting expensive to keep making more and more molds for said pieces. I wouldn't find out till I was an adult that I had caught on to one of their issues.
Not really there is the cost of materials to actually make lego blocks they also didn't use to have every license for everything under the sun to pull in the 40 year olds....The customers could probably even force Lego to lower their prices, if the dumb people stopped paying $700 for a Lego 89 Batmobile or $1000 for a lego star destroyer Lego, $100 for a small Ecto-1 they would probably have to lower their prices, stop passing the cost of licensing onto the consumer and might not be able to monopolize the market anymore.
Bionicle was my jam. It helped me get through bullying, a tough move across the planet, the transition to highschool, and was a wonderful world to escape to. While I am still sad it's gone I am super happy to see it getting some form of love this year and hope they do more in the future.
Bionicle was one of those things where I only dipped a toe into the shallow end only to discover how deep it goes years after moving on. Loved getting Bionicles in my Happy Meals and I can see it as something I'd get ensnared in if they revamped it.
Hey, remember when the Lego Happy Meals gave kids (gasp!) actual Lego elements instead of useless, flimsy plastic gimmicks with stickers on them? Good times. 😒
"Prequel-ing even harder" sounds reasonable to an outsider, but to someone who knows the story, it's absolutely insane with details you can't hope to sell to kids
Oh I've been waiting for this one. It is still crazy to me that the Bionicle team hid a giant robot under our noses for nearly 8 years before we noticed it. ALSO, huge shout-out to Greg Farshtey for his commitment to engaging with Bionicle fans on a daily basis during Bionicle's run. He would answer dozens of repetitive fan questions a day on message boards (some of which were mine) and canonize fan suggestions once in a while if they didn't conflict with official story. For Bionicle fans during Gen 1, our relationship with Greg felt almost collaborative at times. Did this directly contribute to the lore bloat? Absolutely, but we can't blame Greg for giving the fans exactly what they asked for. A lot of us were kids who just wanted to see our favorite Toa element show up in story at some point. Thanks for the memories, Greg!
I worked at a Lego store at the time, and one of my fellow employees really got into it so much, he got a 'Bionicle club' going at the store, and was able to work a call with Greg so the kids could ask him questions directly over the phone..
Man, I was DEEP into the lore of bionicle, especially in the 2005-2009 era. I’m still amazed by how much depth and lore they put into something that was essentially just a toy line. Seeing Mata Nui/Makuta awaken at the end of 2008 blew my 10 year old mind so much.
I went down the rabbit hole of Bionicle to the tune of several hundred dollars….but strictly as a parent. My eldest son loved the line, and spent several years engaged with it. I was happy to Indulge this mainly because in my mind Bionicle was the closest my son would get to playing with something like the beloved Micronauts from my own childhood. It was a great line of toys, and I really wish Lego would consider another revival.
Bionicle was what introduced me to LEGO and one of the first sagas with a serialized story that I fell in love with. No joke, it is one of the pillars of my childhood. I love it dearly and the nostalgia is strong with this one
Yeah my first set was in 2009 so I was super late to the party. I still loved it though. And the reboot in 2015-16 and hero factory. Hero factory was good
GATHERED FRIENDS! The defining story of my childhood, even more so than Star Wars, and the reason I got into customizing action figures and model kits. Glad you could do justice to such a unique franchise.
I know right?! Those commercials always gave me chills as a kid. I remember the Bohrok ones were some of my favorites. The Toa going into the Bohrok's nest was one of my favorite parts of the early years.
LETTING YOU ALL KNOW: BIONICLE is getting an anniversary set with Tahu, Takua, and representations of Mata Nui and Makuta. The catch is, it’s a Gift With Purchase for $100 in other sets. So if you want it, you’ll have to get $100 worth of something else.
For those interested, there IS a five hour recap of the entire Bionicle storyline on RU-vid. I don't fault Dan for not wanting to go into the storyline.
When I was a kid, I always knew Bionicle existed even if I wasn't a fan. Every kid in my school likewise knew what Bionicle was which is a testament to how popular the theme was. I did eventually end up becoming a Bionicle fan in 2008 and (with the benefit of hindsight) would have given anything to be fan during the early days. Some of my first forays into RU-vid were watching the older Bionicle music videos and animations as I yearned to have been able to collect some of those older, amazing sets. You talked about the massive lore being a hinderance to new fans but in my experience, it was less of the existence of so much lore and more that there was no way for new fans to access it. As a kid, I knew there was older content that existed but the problem was I could not locate any of it since Lego removed it all from their official website. Many years later I accessed fan sites and the wiki that collected all the lore to learn about the greater narrative but there was no way I would have been able to discover these website as a kid as I was just figuring out how the internet worked. That's the problem Boinicle had, not the existence of lore but rather that there was no official and easy way for new fans to access the lore. If Lego did something as simple as archiving all the old comics, animations, and serials on their main website, it would have done wonders for growing and retaining Bionicle's fanbase. Thankfully, the modern Lego themes have learned from the mistakes of Bionicle and go to great lengths to make the older content accessible to newer fans. Ninjago's the best example of this as the main story is told in the tv show, a show that's easy to watch on any streaming platform. Lego even uploaded the first seasons on RU-vid in numerous languages so any kid with an internet connection and permission to use the site or the app can access Ninjago and enter the story. Lego has even rereleased older sets for newer fans who were not fans when the sets were initially released, they really care about giving new fans all the entry points and backstory they need to become fans.
Many countries didnt have access to the books or comics during the lines initial run, so most fans didnt even knew about the deeper lore until the line ended when it was all uploaded on Biomedia Project site. Lore and media preservation is the biggest contributing factor why the fanbase survived for long as it did despite two toyline cancellations.
As someone who was born in the middle of bionicles origanel run and discovered it years after it ended i cannot thank the people behind the biomedia project and biosector01 enough for allowing me to experience this masterpiece of a narrative. Im currently reading the novels for the first time and discovering elements of the story i didnt even know existed and having a grand time doing so.
Some of the story bits are genuinely fantastic, the way they present this spiritual story of light vs dark and slowly peel back the layers to reveal it was actually a full on sci-fi story with "grounded" (at least, as grounded as magic-science mask robots can be) explanations behind said spiritual elements was really well done. And the mixed media elements were also fantastic (except the movies which are bad in a fun way) as well, with MNOG being the obvious highlight (genius idea to make you play as a side character instead of the main 6 Toa, keeps them feeling like mythical heroes and also really lets them dive into the themes of what it actually means to be a hero that they like to cover).
Honestly, the reveal that Mata Nui was really a giant robot that the characters all lived inside actually hurt my opinion of the franchise as a kid and still does. I preferred the more mystical and wondrous ideas they were presenting before hand. Going full sci-fi was weird and made it necessary to scour the internet for every nook and cranny of the lore to make things make sense.
I don't think anyone will ever understand how monumental Bionicle really was without being in the thick of it as it was happening. Even looking back, I keep finding new lore that I never knew about
Bionicle was my childhood, I was so into not only the Lore, but I have every single figure in my spare room. I was, and still is to an extend, obsessed with this franchise and I hope it returns someday. Bionicle for life.
Maaaan, I really haven’t bought much in terms of Lego sets since Bionicle and Hero Factory ended…I used to get exiled for new sets from those themes, now I walk down the Lego aisle at Target and just feel…forgotten.☹️
I had the first gen blue one, and it felt like the obvious improvement over the awesome Technic figures. Alas, in 2002, I was shamed by my friend group for still liking Legos at the age of 16. Too kiddie. How the times have changed.
Bionicle was one of the major parts of my childhood, I was a little young for the franchise when it first started but my parents gave me enough credit to get them for me and I followed it through its entire lifespan and honestly when they cancelled it in 2010(ish) I was heartbroken as a part of my childhood was killed off but looking back now in my 20s even I (who had been too young for the series when it started in 2001) had aged out of it by the end. Still the best story Lego has ever told and remains an influence on me on how I observe and consume fantasy to this day
The problem was twofold.. the ones that started with it were getting older, and the older kids were really into it, or as what happens when kids get older and change interest from toys to girls.. the second problem was that the storyline was getting so complex, it was hard to bring new kids into it, which hurt sales of new collectors.
@@tahutoa yeah, by that time, I had a fellow employee that was way more into the storyline, I let him be the product expert.. and he did a great job with the kids, too.
With Tahu's inclusion in the 90th anniversary set, little references hidden in other sets, and the new gift with purchase set of Tahu and Takua, Lego certainly does care about Bionicle and its legacy
@@chheinrich8486 I used so much more imagination and story telling of my own playing with the generic sets. I wasn't boxed into a story or theme with something like say a licensed star wars set
Bionicle G2 mainly failed probably due to how much they cost. Whereas all G1 original toa were 7.99 a piece, the G2 Toa were 14.99 to 19.99. Big difference
Totally remember when these first came out, didn't even realize Lego was not doing well when it happened, looking now you'd never guess Lego was ever in trouble 😄👍
I dedicate a good portion of my creative life to Bionicle. I am one of those fans who still remembers his first glimpse of Bionicle, having no idea of the lifetime's journey it would take me on. I feel in love with stop motion thanks to the pose-ability of the Toa sets from 2004 onwards (I was 10-11 then), they have, and still do, make for excellent models for animation! My very first video uploaded was, indeed, a stop motion test of the Phantoka sets of early 2008, uploaded shortly before my 15th birthday. In the years I have been on RU-vid, or any other website for that manner, anyone who talks about Bionicle is instantly a friend to me!
It's sad how Bionicle literally saved the company from the jaws of death but now they treat the IP like poison and refused to even let the reboot finish its last year and cancelled it early
I still remember seeing my first Bionicle at a store as a kid. Little did I know how much money I'd end up spending on them over the years. Still wish Lego would relaunch some of the older kits so we could collect them again, now as adults.
Yes, i second this. I would wish for the medieval sets. But the thing with lego nowadays is, they cram coloured blocks into the sets as much as possible. The COLLECTOR SERIES star destroyer for example, has a fully coloured interior, to the point where you can see it from the outside, because they left enough cracks .... My only hope is to find a older model
I would love a return to Castle in full force! I think they would be successful by going the full fantasy route with how popular fantasy and ttrpgs are nowadays (Heroica was truly ahead of its time)! Actually they could totally use Heroica to make their own full fantasy theme complete with rpg rules. And now that they partnered with D&D for a design contest (granted it’s happening in the middle of a war between the players and D&D corporate so not the best time to happen) they could totally have an entire line or sub-line of castle be dedicated to D&D sets and perhaps even a way to formalize LEGO + ttrpg miniature play! I still miss the late 2000s early 2010s castle with all of the trolls and goblins and dwarves. Still regret not asking for the dwarves mine as a gift when I was a kid, but I got the troll castle! As for BIONICLE that was literally my first Lego line, ever (perhaps save for duplo but I don’t remember it so it doesn’t count) and it really needs to come back, either with a continuation of gen 1 alongside legacy set redesigned like Ninjago is doing, or we get a gen 3 that strikes the perfect balance of lore and accessibility while also going way harder on the old-style commercials and advertisements like from gen 1 since gen 2’s big failure point was the marketing.
I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have LEGO sets of some sort. And Bionicle was such a huge part of my teenage years that I still occasionally have dreams about new waves of sets coming out. Its always fun, until I wake up and remember that Bionicle hasn't been around for over a decade... Bionicle, Hero Factory, Throwbots, or even something completely new, I would love it if LEGO would make another Technic balljoint based figure line again.
I already had a couple of Lego sets when I first encountered Bionicle as a kid but that first chirstmas gift changed everything, I love the line and it story and I was one of those that went deep consuming all the lore and trying to get as many sets as I could. While the line was being released it was the staple of every birthday and christmas for me, and as a matter of fact I write this comment from a room where the several dozens sets I collected are still being displayed.
I didn’t have any connection to the Bionicle lore, but as an adult LEGO enthusiast I used the Bionicle parts to make Battlemechs. Pretty awesome that it helped save the company!
I have a couple plastic bins full of bionicles in my closet. These were awesome when I was younger. It's crazy to think they came out about twenty years ago. Good times.
My son grew into into more advanced Lego around 2018. By then many Bionicle sets could be found at discount stores. He enjoyed them very much but for a relatively short period of time, about a year. But while he was into them he was crazy about them. I have many fond memories of playing with these sets together with him.
Bionicle was my gateway to lego. Had the whole first wave and a lot of the 2nd. Little disturbing/ cool the containers were designed after his cancer treatment
BIONICLE is what made me pursue writing and it eventually spawned my youtube channel and website where I reviewed every Disney movie over quarantine and review a bunch of action figures. Thank you for sparking my imagination, BIONICLE. Unity, Duty, Destiny!
I loved bionicle, still got my figures from the first set. The browser point and click game on the Lego website had me hooked. Is that still playable anywhere?
I wanted Bioncles so badly when I was a teen. I kept asking them for Christmas but never got 'em. I got one at a Lego store in Florida while on vacation but never got the others due to just not having money. Watched some of the shows, but as I got older I started playing Everquest and other online games.
A brief mention of Throwbots and RoboRiders. We had those. Obvious precursors to Bionicle. My brother was really into Bionicle, at about the time I was phasing out, though I have to admit, I was enamored with Cahdok and Gahdok, the red and blue dragon looking figures. They were great.
To all you BIONICLE lovers... I owned my 1st LEGO set in the early 80s. This was a small pirate set & I'll admit; I never once bought any Bionicle sets. That being said, I am very grateful for all who supported the BIONICLE line and assisted in saving the company from disaster. I still fully support the LEGO brand to this day and often buy their products as an adult for my kids and myself. Even though I missed out on the BIONICLE era, its place in the history of the LEGO Group reflects value both to the company and the fans.
I got the first two series of basic figures, but never had the bucks for the larger stuff. I also got a book that featured a Bionicle alphabet. It was so nicely designed that a person could train themselves to read it fairly quickly. More Bionicle videos, please!
Oof, Bionicle.. I bought every toa, most of the bigger, technic sets, and as many of the tiny sets and mask packs as I could find (unfortunately not many), from the very beginning of the series to the end of themetro nui era... I still have all of them, in a box in the basement, and the movie dvds, and a couple of the game boy games, and the xbox one too. I also spent an inordinate amount of time on BZPower, the forum where I prowled the MOC section, building more and more original ideas and characters...it actually was the start up page in my browser! I remember fondly trying to piece together the flash minigames, and the cryptic animations on the lego website with the purchase codes... I loved lego since childhood, but my early teen wit bionicle certainly cemented it oh so much
Great video! I'm really loving how much attention and appreciation Bionicle has been getting recently. I've been a huge Bionicle fan since I was a kid, and the story and lore continue to inspire me.
I have a tote filled with these still. The great thing is that they grew with me for a while. As I got older the parts became a complex set of my own “Toa” so to speak. So even as I got into my teens, the enjoyment of kitbashing allowed me to have fun, even though I was different.
I miss this lego series. I would have loved to see more of the movies to fill in gaps that the comics filled in between/after them. I actually got in on the throwbots after my long hyetis that started in late 80s/early 90s.
God, Bionicle was such a huge part of my childhood. Hell, it's probably what made me into a collector in the first place; I remember always being frustrated, not being able to find full sets in the small towns I grew up in, and would trade other toys with kids so I get obtain said full sets lol. I watched the crap out of the movies, and while the games weren't _great_ , they were still charming in their own right. Also man, I never woulda guessed the idea for these little dudes were inspired by a man battling his illness, but I guess in retrospect it makes a lot of sense considering, you know, the entirety of the Vizorak arc lol. Literal spider cancer. Never thought about it like that.
Bioncle was my crack when I was a kid. I loved them and collected just about all of them with the exception of the more expensive sets. It was also the first comic line that I collected since the comics came free with the Lego Club magazines every month. I even bought the movies with my chores cash.
Awesome video guys! Thanks for showing Bionicle so much respect! I know you guys mostly cover the history of the brand, but I would LOVE a dive covering more of the lore. That lore is what made me a Bionicle fanatic as a kid. It was so crazy in depth.
Love this 😊 It reminds me of a part of my childhood. My Mom worked in accounting at a LEGO Factory and I distinctly remember when this came out! She brought home a few of these and I remember being so enthralled with them - it’s such a fond memory.
Bionicle was how I maintained my Lego Maniac status as a broke college kid. I loved the lore of the franchise up until the gladiator line. Side note, Lego technical sets were initially designed to be partially compatible with Erector sets
Who knew that a Happy Meal would be the gateway to an ongoing fascination with a fictional island and its residents. Along with a Lego collection that comprises 80% of the sets produced and the ongoing search for the rest.
Bionicle was a gem. I miss some of the Toa Nuvas that I had. One day if I can find any I may pick one up. Break it down and rebuild it again. Something about putting it together then playing with it just felt like achievement in itself. I even remember collecting some of the ones that came from McDonalds. Core memory unlocked. Awesome video Secret Galaxy.
Gathered friends, listen again to the Legend of the Bionicle. In the time before time, in Lego's darkest hour, six heroes came together to start a journey that would one day save the greatest toy company in the world.
I still have the stack of comics somewhere back at my parents place. The artwork was phenomenal and the novels were way cool back then too. My cousins were the ones that got me into them and we would get all our Toa out to fight whenever we saw each other.
How far down the rabbit hole? I passed the center of the Earth 3 years in now i'm just yo-yoing up and down. What sticks in my mind is the multimedia blitz the theme had from the beginning. I remember it (or misremember) as being a 'right place, right time' with the internet being common in enough homes and finally fast enough that watching a 30 sec commercial or playing a flash game didn't break the internet. It was also around to birth one of the first online communities. Folks shared their creations. Lego encouraged it with contests and challenges. Everyone speculated on the next batch of sets every few months. Sure it seems obvious now, but at the beginning it was a wild ride.
I was obsessed with Lego in the 70s/80s and even now watch a crazy amount of Lego builds on RU-vid, yet I had no idea this line was remotely important, much less saved the company
Same, I didn't get Bionicle at all. My kids took after me because despite growing up in the 2000s they didn't get the hype. They still liked building the classics, creatures, and of course Star Wars, not to mention working on all the LEGO bricks & kits I had from the 70s & 80s. Now that they're grown, I'm the only one that still wants to build anymore. Maybe the grandkids will get back into it at some point. lol
I moved on from Bionicle, but not by choice. Where I live, we never had a Lego store, but we did have a line of toy stores that had an entire floor dedicated to all things Lego. I don't remember what year it was, but I'm pretty sure it was about 2010 when the owner went bankrupt and closed all of his stores, taking Legos along with him. Afterwards Legos were only scarcely available in a few supermarkets, but were few in numbers. Had this not happened, I probably would've still played with Bionicles at the time.
It's funny I had several Throwbots (oddly not 1 complete set to at least build the combined ones) but I just was at that right age to completely miss Bionicle
I worked at LEGO Imagination Center at the Mall of America when Bionicle first came out. The over all attitude most of us had, looked down on this new series because we felt it was a downgrade of what Technic was (there was a lack of Technic at the time)… we were wrong. When we carried the official Bionicle shoes… that’s when things got weird.
My first Bionicle was a water villager I got from a McDonalds happy meal as a young child, and from then on it was a wrap. Bionicle is easily one of the major pillars of my youth and I look back at just about all of it with great fondness
Bionicle was a once in a lifetime experience, you had to be there at the right time. It was and still is more than the sum if its parts, its true strength comes from all of us, being inspired by this great sandbox that Lego created: we aren't just consumers buying products, we're also storytellers, set designers etc. Lego gave us an incredibly rich canvas and left our imagination run wild. That's its core, more than the great official sets, warriors, creatures, villains, more than its amazing cast, more than all the games and comics, more than experiencing arguably the greatest plot twist I, and many others, will ever see, even more than the touching story from Faber's personal life. All these aspects give new and deeper meaning to Bionicle, which, by the way, was also (mostly) a very cheap and affordable line. I am who I am thanks to Bionicle and the many experiences I had and still have thanks to this toy line.
I missed the Bionicle line entirely, having gotten out of Lego around '95 and not returning until almost 20 years later when Nexo Knights were introduced. I'd seen the Bionicle kits and various other assorted media, to be sure - the line had an inescapable ubiquity such as only a company like Lego could build (pun intended). But through my late teens and 20s, suffice to say, I had other concerns and pursuits taking up my time and resources. As such, it never occurred to me the dire straights Lego was in leading up to Bionicle's development. The company itself seemed ubiquitous - I mean, it's Lego! It's the toy that can be literally any other toy! I'm sure I'm not the only one who believed Lego to be "too big to fail," and I suppose it would be a whole other decade before we discovered the folly of such thinking. Even so, I'm certainly glad they rebounded, and have continued to bring joy and creativity to new generations. I've certainly enjoyed sharing them with my own kids - even if I still don't know what a Ninjago is. 🤪 (Kidding!)
