G1's Audience Problem | BIONICLE Deep Dive
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- Опубликовано: 14 ноя 2024
- Bionicle G1 was a masterpiece in multimedia storytelling, but as the series went on, its massive story spread out over many places made it struggle to gain new fans, which led to its decline. So let's take a look at what happened, and how it could've been avoided. Part 1 of 3 in a short series looking at the story reasons why Bionicle ended to answer the question of what went wrong and what can be done to keep the series alive for new and old fans.
Wall of History: wallofhistory....
Biological Chronicle: crosswiredgeek...
BioMedia Project: biomediaproject...
This video falls under Fair Use
BIONICLE is owned by the Lego Group.
I'm a relatively new fan, started late 2021, I remember seeing the movie as a kid and thinking they were really cool but never finding out where to go for more of it. I think if it wasn't for the old fans who archived everything I won't have found the story now.
Great to see new fans! Yeah, the work of the fans who archived it on BioMedia, Wall of History, and other places is so invaluable. It ensures Bionicle can actually reach new people, and its such a good story it deserves to last
I fully agree that a TV series was the one big missing part of the content puzzle that made the success story of G1 incomplete. I've been thinking for a while now that if G1 had a well-produced, well-marketed TV show, it definitely had the potential to make the jump from niche content to mainstream pop culture, on the level of franchises like Transformers or Dragon Ball, where even non-fans can tell you a few of the characters' names and the basic gist of the story. With BIONICLE however, I've often talked to people that do know & remember it, but wouldn't for their lives have been able to explain to me what a Nuparu is. There really was this huge gap between die-hard fans and super-casuals as you describe.
To be fair, a TV show that manages to capture the full breadth of G1's story would have to be like 10 seasons and 200+ episodes, on the same level of scale as something like DBZ. To expect LEGO to just churn out something like without prior animation experience that would have been wildly unrealistic. They probably couldn't even do it true justice today.
Today the perhaps best we can hope for is that a few years or decades down the line, LEGO finally decides it will never do anything with brand again ever and sell the rights to an entity like Netflix or Amazon, which are always hungry for new IPs to turn into streaming content. Maybe then we could get like a run of 10-20 45-min episodes covering key moments in the story. But I'm fully aware of how much of a pipe dream that is.
I consider myself as a new fan, in fact so new and fresh that I just recently understood the difference between line and generation, and that I have bionicles from only the first line! And thanks for telling about these fan projects, hope to get invested into story, since Bionicle is the only Lego franchise that REALLY interets me.
I 100% agree there is an accessibility problem. I got into the series in 2004 and at the time the only story content I had access to were the movies and the online comics. By the time I got to the books I remember being so confused as to why the book's depiction of events were so different from the comics and especially the movie. Some of the books, especially in the metru years felt more like side story content. Stories like the Time Trap, the two whole books spent leaving then returning to Metru Nui or the Krahka book have nothing to do with the main story and would've likely been story serials if those were a thing back then.
I think the biggest thing is just how utterly tied to the toyline it was. Back in the day, the toys were the entry point into the story. When you buy a set, especially a canister set or bigger, you hope to see it do cool things in the story. The first few years was pretty good at giving everyone their share, but it got worse as time went on. I get not everyone is going to get their equal slice of the pie but just compare the screen time Onewa got in 2004 to someone like Vamprah or Vastus. I mean what the heck was up with Vultraz and Mazeka's story? They straight up destroyed their vehicles, the only reason anyone bought their sets, 2 chapters into the story. Don't get me started on the wacky 06/07 playsets. When you buy a set, you're often not just buying a bunch of plastic, you're buying the character that came with it, with the expectation that the story will deliver.
Another problem is that I don't think text is the best way to convey the Bionicle story. This ultimately goes back to the toyline problem, as toys are the driving force behind the franchise. Ultimately this makes Bionicle a very visual medium for a lot of people. I think this is why MNOG did so well. There is something about seeing Takua running around Mata Nui that brought you into the world. Same with the comics and movies, even if some of those designs were a bit out there. As time went on we also got more and more characters without visual depictions. They were mostly in side stories but it just made them feel disconnected. This is why canonization contests are still a big deal today. Visualization is a big deal for Bionicle, and the deeper you go the less of it you got.
Basically what I'm saying is we should've canonized the Splashy Barraki squids when we had the chance.
I agree, but Time Trap was definitely important to the main story, and in fact felt more like a proper ending to the Metru Nui saga than Web of Shadows did IMO.
Been there since the beginning and I was there for the end. Bionicle for life.
Same! Bionicle for life
I like your description of the concept of “medium fans”. I think that sums up my relationship with Bionicle rather well!
Nice, yeah! I saw your video on Bionicle and yeah it matches up. Love your channel btw!
@@heroranuva8295 Thank you! Same to you!
The decline in product quality and interesting gimmicks is also something that shouldn't be slept on. Everyone talks about 2008 sockets, lime joints, and the Inika build, but no one brings up the total absence of eye colors other than orange for villains and lime for heroes (not counting Blue Barraki eyes, because those were niche) or the fact that the gimmick from 2006 onward was a new kind of gun. Maybe things lit up or flexed, and the Glatorian had a whole game function, but that's not taking advantage of it being a BUILDABLE toy, because there's no variety or innovation in their engineering for the customer to lead how to make these functions happen.
The biggest issue for Bionicle´s further success was the increased prices and lack of quality control of new pieces. Sockets for example were redesigned in 2008, which made them far more prone to crack and brake, and even before that in 2005 they introduced longer double socket pieces which are far weaker than the smaller double sockets introduced in 2004. Also depending on the color of the socket pieces, they would brake on you sooner than others (gray and black lasted longer, while lime was the worst). For a company that markets itself with having quality products, this was inexcusable and downright incompetent from Legos part. They also removed action gear features since 2005, opting for launcher based gimmicks that never really worked properly (besides the large ball shooters), not as much as the technic based gear functions the line started with (and nearly perfected with the Toa Metru in 2004). Not only that but they removed collectible mask recolors from production, removing yet another source of revenue for the line. Though to be honest, 2002 and 2003 with the Bohrok, Bohrok-Kal, and Rahkshi over abused the collectible aspect with too many samey cloney collectibles and products. Bionicle suffered a lot of clone set issues until the later half of its existence. It doesnt help that the visual design of the sets became more inconsistent since 2006, with the inclusion of more textures and patterns that clashed with the visual styles of 2001-2005 parts designs. The designers had issues with character appearances staying consistent throughout the years. You wouldnt know that the Inika were once the colorful memorable cast of Matoran we knew since 2001 since their designs didnt convey any of it. The worst was with the Toa Nuva in 2008, with their Phantoka and Mistika variants not looking anything close to the original Toa cast people started with. Slew of issues piling up from the toy product side lead to lower sales. To me the toys not being good as they use to is what ultimately killed the line, not so much the story per say. Quite the opposite, the story was actually getting better as years passed, so long as you had access to all the books and comics at the time, sucks if you lived in countries that didnt distribute them, only main Bionicle site, ads, movies, and video games for you.
When it comes to the reboot in 2015-2016, they really did not put as nearly as much effort as they did for the original line besides some set designs like the Toa Masters, and many of the design issues and set quality control issues of the previous generation reared its ugly head, on top of the complete lack of marketing and a story for the line and you got the result where no kid or even majority of the old fans knew the reboot even happened.
That's a very good point. Many of the sets had been relying on the same building style for a long time at the time it was canceled, and if the sets had managed to stay more innovative, there probably would've been more success, especially with more casual fans
Yeah, the increased prices was also a big issue, and even more so for G2 I'd say. And the fact that they'd break in late G1, was heartbreaking, I can imagine a kid or parent getting disgusted with Bionicle if it broke the very first time they built it.
And while I agree that the story did get better in terms of content and quality, getting into the story only became harder and harder, meaning that it couldn't help the brand since fewer kids were getting invested. The ones who already were invested were super loyal, but the core of loyal superfans weren't enough without being supported by more casual or newer fans.
Yeah, i agree. The dip in quality during 2007 to 2010 seems like the elephant in the room no one talks about when discussing about why g1 failed.
Maybe because the story was literally inaccessible to anyone from the majority of countries that didnt have Lego magazines (which came with Bionicle comics) or Lego published books in local stores. Most fans experienced the lore through the online site, ads, and video games which had a far more accessible reach internationally due to internet taking off at that time. It also helps that early years had promo CDs that advertised the lore and sets for the kids that didnt have readily available access to the internet, so you were still getting some lore (on top of local Lego catalogs giving you small glimpses of the story). Also for some strange reason, pirated content besides video games for Bionicle was hard to come by during G1s run. The lore got more accessible when pirates uploaded all the media through archival sites, but by then G1 ended.
Had Lego made it more accessible for kids to get into the deeper lore and not overspread the content through multiple different mediums that had unreliable international release patterns, maybe the Lore would have been easier to follow despite its supposed complexity fans often champion the line for. Visual media like videos, games, movies, etc. showed very early on to be a perfect method of distributing the lore in terms of accessibility. Ninjago took that method to stride with its TV show and it worked well for it, only depending on the quality of the writing and animation to keep fan engagement.
Yes, that is another huge factor, in addition to being scattered, there were many places where certain media weren't even distributed. Thank you for bringing up that point. It being so inconsistent meant that it was that much harder to gain access to the lore, and since the books became so much more necessary to understanding the story, kids from places they weren't sold were increasingly left out.
Its likely that there was so little pirated content because most Bionicle fans were kids at the time, and didn't know how/weren't interested in doing that. Especially since the only kids who could upload it likely already had it, and might not've been thinking about those who didn't. As the fandom got older, we've seen a much bigger increase amount and quality of fan made content to keep the series alive
The importance of medium/casual fans reminds me of a video I watched discussing how the public views different superheroes. The way that characters are depicted in movies may vary greatly from their comic or book counterparts, but the movie version often becomes the version that is widely known because more people watch movies than read comics.
I've literally been hyperfixating on Bionicle for a while because I love the complex and unique lore, but I'm still technically a medium fan because I haven't read the comics or like, blog posts explaining lore. I watch the movies and videos (like yours!) explaining lore, and sometimes listen to audio versions of the books.
I wish that in a reboot, Bionicle's lore was revamped to fix/get rid of aspects that were too strange, and add new ideas too. Since the lore is so BIG, a show would be a great way to do that, just like Ninjago (which I'm jealous of how many eps they got). They just dialed it back TOO much with g2 bionicle so that there was not enough intrigue left (and the animation is not my favorite). sorry for the mega long comment!!
Yep, I'm a super-fan now, but I was a medium fan as a kid. I got into Bionicle in 2006 (when I was 5 years old) and became fully immersed in the 2006-2010 media, but the lore prior to that was confusing to me. The only media I consumed from the first half of Bionicle was the movie trilogy (which was how I discovered Bionicle, along with the online comics), leaving a lot of gaps. It was only in about 2016 or so that I went back and truly read EVERYTHING.
Oh cool! Honestly, 2006 was probably one of the better jumping on points. Really cool that you dove back in recently!
I think it's very telling that pretty much all of Lego's subsequent themes (the ones that lasted, anyway) have focused their media support on widely-accessible TV shows rather than going for the multimedia blitz that Bionicle did. And when G2 attempted a lesser version of the same strategy G1 used, it didn't work.
The multimedia method certainly had its upshots. By putting out games, books, and comics, they cast a hugely wide net that brought in a lot of people. But there were issues from the off. It's less apparent now, but it really did take until _2003_ for us to actually see a structured version of the Toa's side of 2001.
Most of their side of 01 was supposed to be told via _The Legend of Mata Nui,_ which was cancelled. The comics didn't really show enough to properly put it together, and with _Tale of the Toa_ not releasing for another three years, MNOG was left to carry the entirety of 01.
Now, I would argue that this actually became something of a strength for the series early on. The Toa remains mysterious and powerful entities that we only got a fleeting glimpse of here and there- Tahu's establishing moment is a flashback retold by Vakama, Takua doesn't see anything of him besides that ominous over-shoulder glance until Tahu arrives at the Kini-Nui!- and it really helps sell the whole vibe of 01.
But by the middle years, it was becoming problematic. I never had ready access to the books past the first one. I got to see excerpts from Adventures titles on the website, but aside from that, all I had was the "Metru Nui News updates" from 04, and the second and third movies. I didn't get access to the 05-05 comics until I found Biosector01 and it had links to the archived versions of the pre-Ignition comics, along with the post-Ignition comics... which stopped at Comic 2 for 2009 and never went beyond that.
By the time 2008 rolled around, I had the comics on the website (which skipped _so much_ in 2008 and onwards), and the serials, and that was about all I had access to. I knew more about the lore of fanmade series like _The Hydros Chronicles_ than I did about the canon.
Bionicle had become inaccessible, and the parts that _were_ available were the least-useful of the bunch, at least until 2009, when suddenly everything concerning the characters I was actually invested in was crammed into a single serial. Reign of Shadows is a hot mess but I was finally able to read everything Tahu or Jaller were doing for once in my life. Everything else, I had to glean from Biosector, and there's only so far a wiki article can take you.
By the time I had ready access to the books, high school had already shot my love of reading dead and I still haven't been able to sit down and read them. Last time I tried, I got about as far as the first 04 one, and then stopped.
I swear I'll sit down with Wall of History eventually.
I'm like the reverse of you; I've read all the books, but I still have never read the pre-Ignition comics.
If Ninjago got 15 seasons then Bionicle shouldve gotten an animated tv show so the lore couldve been easily accessed.
Eastern european here who fell out of the deep lore around the Barraki saga, even gave my books to an old friend lol. I can only agree with inaccessibility from Legos part, and for me it was langauge barrier too. Not having been kinda good at english until 15-16yo I had to rely on tedious self translation or wait for the official one to come out online, IF it came out, because I remember the Barraki story SEVERELY lagging behind the english updates, so much so that I gave up on it around there.
I think I only checked in on the site once or twice a year after that, and with that I had a very hard time putting together wtf is still going on, and only around 2014 did i fully dive back again into the deep lore.
I’ve always been a fan but aside from 1 book I read in elementary school and the mask of light movie I never consumed any media aside from the figures and a few commercials. This video was very informative and I shall now go read all the story I can!!!
Awesome to hear! I recommend checking out BioMediaProject if you want to find all the story stuff, and either Wall of History, Biological Chronicle if you'd like it presented all in original reading order!
They can always reboot and reintroduce the original story with a mature/kid friendly show like how Star Wars Clone Wars was done (both the 2d and the 3D show blended mature and kid friendly tones and themes).
This is a great, on-point summary of a subject I find very interesting. The difference between how casual audiences and fanbases experience a media property is an intriguing an important topic in general because it sheds light on what certain franchises did wrong and how they could improve. I feel this sometimes gets lost among all the heated arguments of why Bionicle should or shouldn't, could or couldn't return. Fans should always look outside their fandom bubble and get informed of more outsider perspectives.
Star Wars can sell millions of spaceships that look like dull grey blocks, Transformers can sell similar toys of the same handful characters over and over decades after they were originally introduced, but even the most eye catching Bionicle model would probably mean nothing to the layperson. The lore side of the franchise left nearly zero cultural footprint beyond some people's vague recollection of the basic "colorful robots on an island" motif and the movies, and they mostly only remember Mask of Light anyway. That's also why most Ideas projects get nowhere, Lego realizes they'd have little marketability without strong media support.
I don't remember where I read it, but in the past I've seen people describe Bionicle's initial marketing strategy as "a movie franchise without a movie". The ads, the visual design, the emphasis on setting up the lore made it seem like Lego were promoting a big movie tie-in theme, yet most of the story was hard to access. And even when they did begin to make movies, they somehow allowed viewer interest to deflate and the story slumped back into a niche. Others have pointed out that the comics and books had little international reach. I think my country only got the first four novels and the first guide (all with mangled translations) and a single incomplete 2005 comic issue that was only available in one specific shop in the capital. The official site wasn't translated until 2007, and that too was riddled with errors and the comics still weren't translated. I had to scour BZP and other sites to get any morsel of info about the story whenever a new book came out. For the local fan community who didn't speak English, I began importing the novels and translating them (badly) alongside the story serials to help them keep up. But not every novel was available anymore. I only managed to read all them a couple years ago to fill in the last missing gaps of the story.
Another barrier for new fans is that Bionicle really is a franchise that "you had to be there" to fully appreciate. Hunting for new releases, waiting for story updates like new pieces of a puzzle, interacting and theorizing with other fans was a huge part of the experience. The hype, the ongoing mystery and sense of community were part of the fun and made the story's shoddier parts somewhat easier to overlook (for some fans at least). Every new TV ad or website update was exciting. I spent hours exploring the promo CDs and rewatching the animations before I had internet access, just taking in the atmosphere and the worldbuilding that wasn't overstuffed with details but left a lot up to my imagination. A new fan who sits down to read the comics and books in order doesn't feel the same anticipation and most of the writing honestly isn't great. Even the fan favorite MNOG isn't that impressive unless you take your time to embrace the world it's trying to portray instead of focusing on the game's several limitations.
As a Lego theme, Bionicle was built around interactivity and the immediate experience, but the story it told was a lengthy, slow-burn epic where every new chapter would add new mysteries and never give you the complete picture (as also mentioned by others, the movie Legends of Metru Nui suffered heavily from this, being a prequel that kept hinting at even older prequel material rather than telling a complete story). I'll always believe Bionicle had a strong enough concept for its world, story, characters and a distinct enough tone that the franchise could theoretically work as a primarily story-driven property if told via well handled media. The official Bionicle media, as it exists, in its scattered, incoherent state, is not it.
I’m a pretty new fan, I had seen the movies as a kid but wasn’t ever a fan of the art style (and I’m still not, but I’ve learned to appreciate them for what they are), I only recently found out about the Biomedia project website a year or two ago and that’s how I’ve been able to really get into the story and become a huge fan
Always great to see newer fans!
@@heroranuva8295 Yeah, here’s hoping we can keep the fandom going for many years to come
@@lukestarkiller1470 I think we can. I really think we can. Over the past few years, it seems the fandom has been growing in both numbers and activity!
THANK YOU, you've summarized my thoughts so well!! I feel like I would have stayed more engaged if the movies continued for each year
You’re absolutely right about accessibility. I remember being priced out of a lot of the media and sets as a kid so I had to get by with the movies and a few of the books, always having an incomplete picture of the story, especially the stuff past the Metru Nui era. I’m going back and reading through the stuff now (just ordered chronicles books 3 and 4 actually now that I’m actually able to buy them for myself) and it’s really hard to get an actual reading order because of how scattered the story is.
Mm yeah that's another good point, the prices of certain media also hurt accessibility, and without all the context the story loses a lot. Glad you're checking it out again! If you want a good reading order, I highly recommend either Wall of History or Biological Chronicle, two fan made compilations that put together every canon piece of media in good reading order. There is also BioMedia Project that has every piece of media listed, and you can find all the books in their proper order!
I think this discussion of "Medium fans" is a really interesting - and important - angle that should definitely be taken into account. It's far too easy for us hyperfans to get too wrapped up in self-importance and forget that the bulk of the sales that drive these sorts of things are from people who don't share the same level of investment.
And similarly, I think accessibility is absolutely critical to any discussion of revival. As a personal anecdote, the confusion over Bionicle Legends #7 (originally intended to be Invasion, but then skipped ahead to Prisoners Of The Pit when the books were cut down from five to three per year) somewhat forcibly downgraded me into a casual fan for a few years, as I had been avidly following the books up to that point, but then my inability to find Invasion on shelves (and reluctance to skip ahead to Prisoners Of The Pit, which I thought must be #8, even when it was available instead) locked me out of keeping up anymore. I also wasn't really active in and only dimly aware of the online fandom at the time, with limited access, so that whole situation may well have been common knowledge to most, but I was in the dark about until much later. I finally figured out what had happened years later and caught up with the books - but by that point the line had already long since ended. Going from knowing the ins and outs of Metru Nui, to only experiencing events like Matoro's death and the monumental twists of 08 through the comics, created even more detatchment through its contrast, and made following along frustrating. When 09 rolled around and shifted to a new setting and cast altogether, my already-strained investment hit the last straw, and I stopped bothering altogether. In hindsight, of course, I can actually experience what I missed out on and appreciate the later years better, and it feels a bit silly that something like one book title getting dropped could have such an impact in the first place. I really do regret not having grabbed PotP back in 07 when it was staring me in the face, but it is how things shook out.
That is of course a very specific and unique example, with something like the unexpected book downsizing not being perfectly analogous to other aspects of G1's accessibility problems. But I feel it does still work as one example of how the line lost medium fans, and even some hyperfans like myself, as it went on, and highlight the importance of accessibility.
Biomedia Project and Wall Of History truly are the backbone of Bionicle's present fandom, and I hope more people discover them.
I got into Bionicle when my older cousins gave me two books, and some bionicle parts. I really got into the lore and bought more books, rebuilding a lot of sets. It’s funny that now, a lot of the figures I got are not only some of my favourite characters, from Pohatu and Kopaka, to Reidak.
Nice!
I remember first getting into Bionicle in '07 after watching the Barraki commercial and hyperfixating on it. I feel like I would've been a 'medium fan' if it wasn't for the fact that I had unsupervised access to the internet so I could watch the animations and movies on YT, read the comics and serials on the Bionicle story website, and fill in the blanks for everything else from BS01. The only books I had were Tale of the Toa and Legends 4-7 (the only other ones I've read were Adventures 2-4 since they were in the school library and 5 recently as research for my own writing). I had friends at the time that were into Bionicle, but I feel like I was the only one that got that deep into the story. I remember seeing other people talking about Bionicle now and then too, but it was pretty clear that they didn't know much either (apparently black is the color for the space element).
In terms of accessibility and media presentation, I think it says something that you'll occasionally come across people who are self-professed Hero Factory and Chima fans, two less popular story-based themes (in comparison to Ninjago and Monke Kid) that still had long-running cable TV shows that they relied on as their main source of storytelling. While things like commercials and other promotions could draw kids into the theme, like myself, w/o a clearly accessible story, there really isn't a guarantee that their interest will extend to anything beyond just getting the sets.
For that reason, projects like BS01, BMP, and WoH (plus other MoD connected projects like MnL, LSS, and RSG) have been a boon for a fandom that hasn't had any official content for six years now (and still focused on a story that last updated 11 years ago). It's amazing to see how franchises like Bionicle have resurged and thrived on the internet as their initial audiences mature and take up the mantle where their IP owners left off.
The films are not the best representation of the BIONICLE universe, but their production of them held it alive. Though I don't know whether I would prefer the later years if the story had to be compromised for more accessible films. Just look at how Bionicle The Legend Reborn pales in its worldbuilding compared to the other 2009 media. Mask of Light and Web of Shadows on the other hand managed to tell good self-contained stories that work s important pieces to the story.
Legends of Metru Nui is such a central cross-reference in the worldbuilding of Bionicle that it barely manages to stay self-contained and thus confused a lot of first-time viewers, despite being my favorite film of the franchise mainly because it is such a cool cross-reference. But most of the details in Metru Nui only became details after the release of the film because of post-release lore integration. Makuta mentioning his brothers became the Brotherhood of Makuta. Nidhiki calling Lhikan brother became the Dark Hunter War. Makuta's sculpture in Po-Metru hinted at a deeper connection between Makuta and the City of Legends. The loss of the Vahi spawned the Time Trap plotline, which completed Vakama's character arc. Lhikan also became a central character in other prequel story-lines. Not to mention that the Great Cataclysm is possibly the second most important event after Mata Nui Rising in terms of impact on the world of BIONICLE. But despite all of that, most people I've seen outside of the community don't have a clue about what is going on, because the movie itself does not give a lot of exposition and is somewhat cryptic on the showing side of the "show, don't tell" spectrum.
Could this movie have been so cross-referential if it was more self-contained?
I don't know. And I don't know whether it's just me thinking that this "everything is connected once you dive down the rabbit hole" approach was so intriguing.
If Bionicle wanted to be more approachable, things like LoMN had to be majorly streamlined, and my concern would be that it would eventually be a "Legend Reborn".
To most fans, the films were the major lore representation besides the video games (and we know that most Bionicle video games werent really "canon").
@@Bionickpunk I know. That's why I am conflicted. Movies have to be self-contained to be somewhat watchable for casual fans, which is why Bionicle 2 failed. Legend Reborn is very beginner friendly, but it undercuts the potential of the worldbuilding. Ignition is a way too long story arc to be reasonably fitted into films. So if films were a prominent element of the late Bionicle years the story would have been cut short at some points.
The movies are not the most accurate representation of Bionicle. They are the most popular. But they they have to compromise the worldbuilding to be self-contained stories. My concern would be if Bionicle had a constant movie series, it would be largely different, less interconnected, less intriguing overall.
@@Makutros Bionicle would have worked better with a TV show instead of movies...but not with early 2000s TV show CGI graphics, those were horrendous until the mid 2010s. Just look at how Ninjago looked in the early 2010s compared to now, night and day. When G1 was going on, only a 2D animated show would have worked.
2001 fan here. I loved the first few years due to how simple they were and how mysterious everything was.
Having said that I also ended up becoming the kind of fan who would scour the internet and to find out every little thing the likes of Tren Krom or Trinuma were up to, but I understand why that'd be too complicated or off-putting for younger fans.
Honestly, I loved it all and I'm not sad it's over because I'm glad it happened.
It's kind of bizarre when you think about it that BIONICLE had just about everything but a TV show. It seems like such a no brainer thing as it seems like most action based toy lines with some sort of story has one or children's action tv series receives action figures and/or other toys. And let's all admit it, most kids of any age or time period and even a good chunk of adults for that matter would rather watch or binge a TV series or movie then read through a series of books. It's just a far more stimulating and entertaining experience that doesn't require as much effort, focus, or investment to most people, especially children, and this only rings more true as time goes on. And BIONICLE, with a long, overly convoluted in some ways story with years worth of story, world building, and lore told across multiple different forms of media with tons and tons of characters, sub plots, and terminology would have benefitted greatly from a more singular and streamlined form of story telling in the form of a television series that would have been easier to digest for kids and more and stimulating and exciting than reading words on a page in a book and would have given much more breathing room for lore, world building, character development, and other things than an hour and 10-20 minute movie. So it seems rather strange in retrospect that BIONICLE, with all its myriad of different media was never given a tv series. It would have been far more engaging, digestible, and accessible to children, the target age demographic, than pretty much anything else.
I still remember and grew up with the first Bionicle storyline. An island where 6 heroes fight against a dark force who betrayed his brother.
The six toa mata,
The bohrok awakening
Bohrok-kal
The mask of life
The past of metru nui
The piraka and the island of voya nui
The race for the mask of life
Till mata nui awakening
Ah, it was so beautiful
The story needed a long running animated series that at the very least focused on the core tale from beginning to end.
I feel it would have stuck around longer if it had a tv show
There's a good chance it might've
I was a medium fan. I was very into bionicle for a while, I owned a lot of sets (almost everything from the Metru Nui era) watched the movies, read a comic here or there, but a lot of it was inaccessible to us, and by the time of the Mahri arc had already become a casual fan. Now I'm learning a lot of the lore through channels like this one
I'm glad to hear you're getting into it again! Its an exciting time for the fandom, there's a lot of cool community projects in the works!
Interestingly, I was a 'medium fan' during its run. I remember loving the comics whenever I got around to reading them, and I remember frequenting the Bionicle website. But I didn't even know the books existed. And by the time of the Mistika arc, I was completely lost and sort had to just accept the theming as being surface level. I did manage to *start* to get back into the story around halfway through the glatorian arc... but then the stars came out and the series ended. And then I was in college when G2 came out, so I didn't even hear about its existence until after it was ended.
Story accessibility is a major part of why I didn't really stick with Bionicle after becoming a teenager. I really only had the movies. Now, I only have the movies plus the commentary from channels like this.
As a fan who was there from the beginning, there definitely was a major accessibility issue even for superfans (especially superfans with a limited budget...) as I didn't manage to get any of the books until well towards the end of G1, and even after consuming all of the media there are still massive gaps in my knowledge, like I didn't even know the Glatorian and Agori were the same species as The Great Beings (nor did I realize they were fully organic) until watching these videos simply because those facts weren't well publicized in the more easily accessible media.
Until now, I'd just assumed that the Glatorian and Agori were biomechanical beings like the Toa and Matoran (and Turaga and Rahi and Makuta and Rahkshi and...) but the reason they didn't use masks was because all of the masks of power were in Mata Nui's robot body so those left on Bara Magna were forced to utilize whatever they had to make their own headgear. It ... also didn't help that the movie designs of the Glatorian characters looked even closer to their toys than in the previous three movies, which gave them a far more mechanical/robotic look than the more bio-organic characters in Mask of Light, Legends of Metru Nui or Web of Shadows. Heck, even when Mata Nui defeats Tuma, it's by hitting a "weak point" on Tuma's armor that sparks like any of the robotic characters in the Matoran Universe, so there was no reason to assume the Bara Magnans were any more organic than the Mata Nuians.
It also doesn't help when people like Greg Farshtey establish canon lore outside of the official lore distribution channels. For example, a lot of canon on BS01 comes from AMAs on social media and convention panels, which a lot of people wouldn't know about if they don't follow social media or convention circuits (allegedly, it was one of those types of events that established the Glatorian were mostly organic with metallic skeletons and mechanical implants). So, thank the Great Spirit for resources like BS01, Wall of History and the others for bringing all those disparate and little known bits of lore together.
I'm born in 2000. I got into Bionicle when I was 5, I think my first ever set was Vakama or Whenua Hordika (don't remember which one) I also had the rahaga of water and fire and the blue visorak from '05. In '06 I got Jaller, Gahli and Nuparu as well as 2 Piraka; Vezok and Thok. Strangely i only got the green matoran in '07 even though I thought the underwater setting was really cool, but I was back at it again in 2008, getting Lewa phantoka and his respektive avmatoran, as well as the yellow, black and red makuta.
Although I loved the sets I didn't get into the story until way after gen 1 ended, maybe in 2013-14. I guess it partially had to do with my allowance being so low, only at 20 Swedish crowns a week (about $2), partially because I wasn't allowed to go on the Internet by myself until i was 10 or 11 (my parents were really overprotective of their computers) and partially because they graphic novels, comics and books weren't available in Swedish as far as I know, making it hard for younger kids to get invested here. You could probably order the books and comics in English, but as far as I knew, there were only the toys, a couple of flash games and the Miramax trilogy which were cool, but impossible to understand on their own
Love this! Such a well thought out video and made me understand where i lie in my knowledge of the series. I was super into the comics and movies as a kid, but only read a couple books and was confused by the online serials so I hardly gave them a chance.
I didn’t even fully comprehend the big twist of the story until recently thanks to youtube😂
Can’t wait to revisit and read the ENTIRE story for the first time!
I watched the movies and never touched the comics or books. I honestly have no regrets. For me personally, the mystery behind these characters really added to my ability to make up my own scenarios to play out as a kid.
Well you know that's fair, coming up with your own play is the core of what makes Lego great. That said if you're at all interested, I highly recommend the books and other story material, they're really good and dive into the world and characters in great and fun ways
the increasing prices of later wave sets coinciding with the mounting pressures of the 2008 financial crisis had a large effect on the series ending. times were tough and maintaining financial security for a family is more important for toys that were, along with everything, getting more expensive. that was my personal experience, and I imagine it's similar for others whose family's were hit especially hard during that period of time.
True, that's a very important point. The sets got inflated and everybody was feeling the burden of the financial crisis.
Your channel has helped me get back into Bionicle! Thanks so much!
That's awesome, I'm glad :D
@@heroranuva8295 ┌(・。・)┘♪
I believe I was a medium fan who really wanted to be a superfan. We did not have a computer at home during Bionicle's run. So all my knowledge of what happened each year came from the toy releases, films, and what guidebooks and novels I had. And that collection of novels is pretty patchy to say the least. Had all the Chronicles series and the Mask of Light novel, but only had Adventures 1-4, Legends 1-3, and Legends 5-7. I remember using the computer at my friend's house, school, and second-hand book store to try and get whatever tidbits of story I could. But that really amounted to just the Bionicle and Bionicle Story websites, since I didn't know anything about internet browsing. So yeah, I did not know what was happening from late `07 to the end.
I still need to get around to reading the Biological Chronicle mega story. I have not been able to find the time >.
Its good! Whenever you find the time I highly recommend
comparison to star wars is really make the point strong. +books were mostly not translated in other nation so a lot of fandom was very dark about story back then.
Yeah that's another huge aspect of it people have been telling me, so much of the story wasn't even available in other languages. I think there are efforts in the fandom to make translations, hopefully they reach a wide range of languages
I agree about not all fans having to be “super fans” and not shaming “medium fans” and “casual fans”
I admit though that my big fear was being upfront about the fact I myself was a “super fan.” When I did, the casual fans I knew weren’t impressed lol
I remember getting a black bioncle and trading it to a kid on my bus for some normal Lego minifigures.
I was a massive fan from the early days, felt the bars magma stuff separated the story from what it was too much but stayed interested. Hated the simplistic G2 stuff and the changes to things like the toa of air/jungle. Onua being simple was quite the off put too.
I think I’m a medium fan.
I remember playing with the toys from the Island of Mata Nui to Voya Nui, seeing all of the movies and checking the Bionicle wiki. I never became fully invested but I still love the lore
Nice! Glad to see fans from all levels of involvement
Honestly, I've been drafting and debating writing a massive breakdown of everything Gen 2 got wrong compared to Gen 1 for awhile now, in addition to figuring out what killed Gen 1. This series may provide some extra insight.
For the "large and complex" argument, I discovered BIONICLE in 2007 when I was seven years old, yet I managed to follow the story perfectly and it still holds as one of my favorites. I may be in the minority and not the norm, but the way stuff like the movies and comics condensed down the story made it very digestible.
This part of the comment might be better reserved for part 3, but I have a few ideas on how BIONICLE could be brought back. Right off that bat, I think that bringing back the full theme, even as a reboot, is a terrible idea. We saw how poorly G2 handled things, you simply cannot top G1's story, and the fandom can be pretty toxic on what toys count as "real BIONICLEs." Much like you I was more invested in the story, and so revivals with story leans appeal to me most:
A) Finish the epilogue. Velika's murder spree, the Mahri's imprisonment, Marendar's escape, and Takanuva's destiny all remained as unresolved plot points despite Greg having a few ideas on how to wrap them up. LEGO should just commission 1-3 more story serials and put a bow on everything.
B) Create an official tome of all the stories. Things like Wall of History and Biological Chronicle are great, but I would love LEGO to try their own hand at it and create a few massive books covering the whole story. Such books would include the aforementioned epilogue resolution, and could even include book adaptations of the unreleased stories originally for post-2009.
C) Legacy products. We're already getting this with the Tahu GWP, but LEGO Could go further. If a full line of BIONICLE sets could never live up to the original, just do one-offs! Compare how well Barracuda Bay preformed compared to the 2016 run of Pirates, or recent Castle sets to the last full castle theme in 2013. AFOLs tend to buy one off sets much more than full line-ups. Make a Kini-Nui set one year, a remaster of the Toa Terrain Crawler the next, ect. Would be a low-risk method of keeping products on shelves.
D) A TV show. You already mentioned it but it would be so sick. My idea for managing it would be to make 2 seasons, the first covering 2001 and 2002, the second covering 2003 and giving more story development to the Kohlii Tournament. If that does well, make additional seasons covering 2004-2008. If those do well, once again revive those cancelled stories like the original 2010 movie script and the biomechanical dinosaurs to make the Bara Magna arc flow better and have more time to breathe and finish up the tale.
E) More expanded universe content. Funny enough I was going to use Star Wars as an example too. If more stories were to be made in the G1 universe, they should follow a format more similar to Fallen Order or Mandalorian rather than the Sequel Trilogy. The Matoran Universe is big. Faber's estimate of the GSR's size puts it at roughly the size of Africa, but all we've really seen is Metru Nui which somewhere between Chicago and New York sized. There are so many unexplored lands and cultures and Rahi in the MU that you could craft stories around, and 100,000 years of history to squeeze them into. These stories could be anything, but I've got fingers crossed for videogames.
F) An official map. That Makuta's Guide one was so crap, and fans have made so many better ones. Getting a proper scale and layout for everything would be appreciated.
G1 did a lot of things wrong, but the sum of everything it did do right made it last longer than most Lego lines. Had it fixed its glaring flaws in lore distribution and accessibility along with product quality and care, then the G1 line would probably exist to this day.
G2 felt more like a dishonest cash grab trying to capture the old nostalgic demographic while completely being disinterested in engaging the new generation with more care. It tried to have its cake and eat it too, but ended up having none of it.
@@Bionickpunk this, so much. just compare the kind of atmosphere the early Toa Mata videos had, with the sht they pulled at the start of G2. soulless
I 100% agree with you about everything. I've always said that Bionicle had the potential that Star wars and other popular existing media out there, just solely based on the massive lore it has.
Oh yes, Bionicle definitely was amazing and had tremendous potential. In fact, I think it still has tremendous potential, there are so many amazing stories that can be told with the concepts of Bionicle. While we don't know if it will ever come back, I think that you're right in that just like Star Wars, it has a lot of staying power
The past few months I’ve been digging through the story and lore again for the first time in years and to this day there are little story threads and character details that I never knew about until watching videos here on YT and rereading multiple pages on BSO1wiki even tho I tried to read all the EU content back in the day. Will admit I got super lost once they moved onto the Bara Magna storyline and lost interest. I really wonder what would happen if the concept had first been released at least a decade later. Either way I wouldn’t trade my experience with the franchise for anything cause I loved it so much
Unironically if Bionicle re-released G1 (not a hard reboot; just some story refinery and revamped toys) the first thing they should do is centralize where you get all of the important information.
Side stuff like the goings-on of some side Matoran can be relegated to filler episodes in animated skits or as NPCs in games, but the core of the story needs to be centralized in one spot.
More movies also need to be made, so as to better summarize the details and garner more interest. The fact that the Barraki arc just got ignored despite having one of the best settings and villain designs still depresses me.
I was a medium fan started with the Toa Mata, years later I got deeper into the lore, only knew the story from the movies(legend reborn was meh) and commercials, but the story of g2 was so bad, still think the figures are great new interpretations of the Toa Mata and Nuva. still haven't read the books but completed and restored my Collection
You know i think we can call the accessibility issue the kingdom hearts problem cause honestly prior to the hd remixes alot of kingdom hearts complexity complaints are really accessibility problem
Love your channel man
Thank you!
Yeah sometimes the plot was hard to follow because of all the media sources spread throughout. Even the novels would omit things that happened in the comics although both were canon.
Yeah, it really made sifting through it all to put the whole story together a lot of work, which not everyone feels like doing
To be honest, when I was a kid in 2008 and very first discovered Bionicle and became a fan, I had NO IDEA that the comics or novels even existed... or the majority of the games. Only story I knew of was the movies and Bionicle Heroes.
But I still thought Bionicle was awesome and get very very interested in the entire thing.
This whole argument of the story being too complex I think is a bit misjudged, Kids don't care, they just want the cool robots with the cool universe. If the story is simple it doesn't mean much and if the story is too complex then they'll just latch onto what they do know about the story and slowly learn more as they get older.
I hardly think the story would play a large roll in future Bionicle success seeing as how story was only ever fed in crumbs since the earliest sets. If anything a *focus* on story is entierly the wrong approach. Bionicle capitalizes on skirting the minds ability to theorize and connect ideas. If lego really wants a new Bionicle gen, which I doubt, then they have to go back to using the gearbox system and adding functionality to the figures. They're toys first and foremost, and some of the greatest sets were the most creative.
If anyone would tackle a Gen 3, the my core advice would be map out the vision. Give pieces of the story with each set and slow drip feed it. Honestly the approach Gen 1 had can still work in this day, using the internet was always the secret ingredient. But they can't use the same story beats, that part is where it gets intimidating.
Battletech has the SE problem 90 percent of the lore is on books
Interesting video. I'm started in 2015 thanks to Bionicle G2 animation's.
Oh that's really interesting! I was never sure how many new people really got into the series from G2, its nice to know it got people interested! I'm curious, what are your thoughts on G1 having started with G2? And how did you feel about how G2's story went?
You mean those short animations or the Netflix series?
Great insights🎉
Thanks!
Medium fans rise up!!
On my side I'm a very strange category of fan :
-invest in the story : over 9000
-invest in the toys : [an actual depiction of the void]
I'm literaly creating a fanmade tabletop RPG for the series because I love BIONICLES story so much but I admit I had almost no interest in toys.
Are you part of Red Star Games or are you making one on your own? Would be awesome to find more Bionicle based TTRPG
@@C03-T3 nah I'm making my own
@@baronmachiavhell8677 cool! Hope to see it around when you're done.
@@C03-T3 since I'm a french, expect at least a few months before it!
Lmao, interesting! Honestly, I think there should've been more room for fans who enjoyed the story more than the toys. Hasbro proved with both My Little Pony and Transformers that media franchises based around toys can have highly profitable shows and movies that appeal to people who didn't even get the toys. I honestly believe that Bionicle could stand as a story on its own, even without the sets, even though I love the toys dearly
Do you know that you placed the whole point of this 16 minute long video right on a thumbnail, don't you?
Um, yes? I use the thumbnail to tell people what the video is about
story, story, story. hate to break it to you but i think bionicle died because each set looked worse than the last. when i was a kid i took one look at that first set and thought they looked so cool. when they stopped looking cool i stopped caring. it had nothing to do with story and im sure the same could be said about alot of casual consumers.
That may play a part in it, but I doubt it was everything, and I am certain that the accessibility of the story played a big part too. Not everyone agrees with you that they stopped looking cool, in fact there's many people that say their favorite sets were from the latter half of the series. Its pretty natural that as things changed, people who have different tastes would have different opinions, especially since people tend to like the ones they were introduced to more. But since the story was more difficult to keep track of casually, newer fans who often did really like the later sets would have a harder time getting immersed and becoming more invested fans. Cool toys draw people in, but they don't necessarily create consistent fans, as you proved yourself since you were only interested in the cool toys. Those that got into the story often stayed longer, and since it was harder to get into the story, fewer kids became devoted superfans compared to before.
@@heroranuva8295 i had to look up the specific set that steered me away because i can tell you care more about this stuff. it was the "piraka" set that i saw in a walmart display. i dont know if that was what the set was called or if that was just the name of a toa or something but im sure you know what im talking about. that set looked like an abomination, im sorry if you liked it. i liked how the earlier toa had a sleek simple sci-fi robot knight aesthetic. the longer the franchise went on for the more they over complicated the designs and made them look more like alien creatures. if you like that its fine but a massive shift in art direction is always risky. also i did have the gba and the ps2 game so i did know some of the story. but im gonna dig my heels in here and say that a great story can be wasted if the characters don't have appealing designs. i don't doubt that everything you talked about in your video played a role in bionicles sales decline. just feel like the story issues are something that bothered the dedicated fans, not the general mass consumer.