Bionicle

The set as a whole is a fun idea but damn...

This video does a pretty good job summarizing and celebrating the recent Bonkle phenomenon.

I hope the Lego group's seen the fan response and realize the market is ripe for a comeback.

• Sigh* I... kind of love it now.

I expected the community to respond negatively to this.

Its pretty sweet that they actually love it.

It's honestly quite beautiful

If nothing else, LEGO Ideas is holding a Bionicle MOC contest for the 90th Anniversary celebration.

There's some good ones in there such as Ragnarok, Omni, the Great Being (who reminds me of Necron), Avarice, The Cosmic Greed, a tribute to the Titan sets and even a Dukko Bird.

I made a reddit post of some ideas I have for a Bionicle fighting game.

After posting that, I decided to rework the roster and mechanics a little. I was unsure of how to implement the Mistika/Phantoka since they're the same characters as the Mata/Nuva but with completely different designs, so they wouldn't work as semi-clones. That was until I realized that the Nuva and Phantoka/Mistika are the same tier of power, and both are a straight upgrade over the Mata.

Some characters would still have the "variations" gimmick, I can't think of any other way to implement the Hordika and Mahri, but now the Mata characters have in-battle transformations into either their Nuva or Phantoka/Mistika forms. Also, I decided to include all the Toa Mata for popularity's sake (I can't deny they're popular, and this is a good way to make everyone happy, since every Mata is a 3-for-1). Had to cut out all the minor villains to keep the number at 20, but I'm now much more happy with the roster now:

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Aug 2nd 2022 at 4:01:05 AM

I'm reading through the comics now, both for the sake of finally experiencing the story in full for myself and for research into my fighting game.

I really, REALLY wish there was one single comprehensive source for the entire Bionicle canon. I'm up to the part where they make you watch the Mask of Light movie, and I really wish the comics hadn't skipped the whole Manas battle to try and force you to play their stupid online Flash game. And the comics skip over a lot of stuff anyway, lots of minor events happen off-screen, like the introduction of most of the Matoran and Turaga.

It is really interesting to see Toa of past and present make their first appearances in the Mata/Nuva era as Turaga/Matoran. Every time I see the Turaga, especially Vakama, I chuckle a little remembering their Hordika phase. The one that really threw me was Matoro being the very first Matoran introduced in the comics, my jaw dropped seeing that.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Aug 8th 2022 at 5:07:45 AM

The novels more or less took up that mantle for the 06-08 storyline and did a good enough job. I just wish they let Greg go back and do novelizations up to the Bohrok Kal, since the previous books by Cathy Hapka skipped over a lot by condensing the entire 2001 and 02 stories to 1 book each.

I was only ever a casual fan of BIONICLE but my lord I can imagine how much of a pain in the arse it must be to try and get the full experience. At least it isn't as bad as trying to read all of Homestuck (or so I've heard).

Makes you jealous how Ninjago and Monkey Kid got full multi-season TV shows.

Shame Bionicle never got anything like that, only a couple movies that cover a fraction of the overall story.

Edited by slimcoder on Aug 9th 2022 at 12:36:13 PM

And they try to make the movies and comics within the same continuity when they diverge so heavily. Especially with the Hordika, in the movie, Vakama leaves the team immediately, during the first night he's a Hordika. In the comics, he stays with the Rahaga and other Toa Hordika for a long time before eventually leaving. By the time we first meet Vakama Hordika in the comics after he's been mutated, he's already spent more time with the other Hordika and Rahaga off-screen than he did in the entire movie.

And the Hordika designs are so drastically different, too. In the movie, their weapon on their right arm is part of their body, and their weapon on their left arm is a hand-piece that looks the same for all of them. In the comics, their weapons on both arms are just that: weapons, which they hold in their regular hand-pieces and can let go of at any time.

The Hordika's attitudes are so different, too. Nokama loves being a Hordika in the comics, while in the movie, none of them love it. All of them are constantly on the verge of going feral in the comics, while that only happens to Vakama in the movie.

Not to mention how the comics have the Toa Metru go on several awesome Toa adventures, having already mastered their weapons and elemental powers, before they present their Great Disks. In the movie they discover a lot of their weapon functions after that and barely use their elemental powers at all. This is hand-waved in a comic as them having "exhausted their elemental powers" in the fight with the Morbuzahk.

They just don't fit, they don't line up with each other, no matter how many times the comics will go "if you want to see how this ends, watch the movie!", it just doesn't work, they can't be the same continuity.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Aug 9th 2022 at 1:56:10 AM

Fun fact: Onewa, in Hordika form, does NOTHING. In either the comics or movie. Literally nothing. They just forgot to give Onewa even a single focus scene in either medium. The only time he fires his Rhotuka spinner is at the same time as the other Hordika in the movie, and he never uses his Claw Clubs for anything other than swinging them at Visorak in the background of scenes focusing on Nuju or Nokama, again in the movie. He literally does not do a single thing in the comics.

In general, the Hordika feel very underbaked between the comics and movie. The comics give each of them (again, except for Onewa) one or two scenes focusing on how elementally powerful and wild their Rhotuka spinners can be. The movie ignores the Rhotuka and reduces them to generic energy blasters (same thing Movie 2 did to the Kanoka disks, actually), but it does utilize half of the Hordikas' unique weapon functions.

Okay, for the sake of my fighting game roster, I have to make a decision for the secondary Air, Water, and Earth characters. Do I go Matau or Gresh? Do I go Hahli or Kiina? Do I go Whenua or Naparu? Option A is Matau, Kiina, and Nuparu. Option B is Whenua, Hahli, and Gresh, Hahli.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Aug 10th 2022 at 6:13:58 AM

The Hordika arc was very transparently trying to stretch out the Metru Nui setting for another year, hence the lack of significant characters. It’s also hilarious how the Morbuzakh hardly cameos in the second movie when it was built up to a city-threatening crisis in the comics.

Also there’s how many characters were introduced or developed in the Online Game/Webisodes. Someone hadn’t seen them or never finished the games might have no idea who Takua, Hahli, etc, were in the movie.

And the book adapting the 2001 arc doesn’t even cover the showdown with Makuta, which was hastily crammed in a cutscene in the online game because the PC game was canceled.

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Aug 10th 2022 at 12:01:55 PM

Scalding hot take: the Glatorian era is better than the Inika, Mahri, and Phantoka/Mistika eras. At least in terms of dialogue writing, the comic's dialogue took a small but noticeable step down with the Metru and Hordika writing, and a more significant step down with the Inika writing onward, but the dialogue in the Glatorian comics is fantastic. Especially Tuma, he's kind of a blowhard in the movie, but comics Tuma is downright Shakespearian with his dialogue.

As far as the comics go, you can really feel that the Glatorian era is something they have a lot of passion and love for and a great desire to flesh out. The Hordika-era to Phantoka/Mistika-era comics felt rushed, like the writers needed to hit a certain deadline in the story by a certain comic so they needed to speed through or skip some events (such as Toa Ignika's introduction, he's born and then two comics later he's just part of the team with no explanation, he doesn't even get any dialogue before his big sacrifice scene).

But the Glatorian era feels a lot slower-paced and more patient with its lore and worldbuilding, you can feel that the writers are happy to get a break from the overarching story and just flex their creative muscles with brand new characters in a brand new setting with brand new conflicts.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Aug 10th 2022 at 12:45:21 PM

The Glatorian era is where the novels were significantly cut down to 2 (Raid on Vulcanus and the movie novelization) so the comics were back to being the main means of telling the story.

Ahhh, that explains it.

I can't express enough how much I want there to just be one form of media to consume for the entire Bionicle story. Give me an 8-season tv show, covering everything.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Aug 10th 2022 at 3:01:12 AM

There really should be some kind of massive remake that tells the entire story in one go.

As said its a shame this all came too late before Lego started giving their products TV shows.

Edited by slimcoder on Aug 10th 2022 at 3:51:01 AM

8 seasons:

1. Toa Mata vs Rahi and Bohrok

2. Toa Nuva vs Bohrok-Kal and Rahkshi

3. Toa Metru vs Vahki and Dark Hunters

4. Toa Hordika vs the Visorak horde

5. Toa Inika vs Piraka

6. Toa Mahri vs Barraki

7. Toa Phantoka/Mistika vs Makuta

8. Mata Nui and the Glatorians

Considering what lead to the end of Bionicle is partly due to stagnating sales, a major multi-media product like a big TV show could have helped with that

Keep in mind Ninjago is going at 11 years now, it has lasted longer than Bionicle now with a TV show that spans 15 seasons

A show probably could have prevented the Glatorian era from being cut-short as it did

Bionicle only got 4 direct to video movies which only covered a small portion of the series with the Inika/Mahri and Mistika eras being completely untouched in animation.

Edited by slimcoder on Aug 10th 2022 at 5:19:03 AM

What would your ideal voice cast/talent pool be?

Ocean? LA? British and European actors?

God, this conversation is taking me back.

My first Bionicle sets were the Toa Metru back in 2004. I was only six years old and had Mask of Light on VHS. Hell, the first chapter books I read were the Bionicle tie-in books.

This shit is making me feel old.