Which Bionicle colours sold the best and why?

[Fulcrumfan91]

Essentially the question I'm asking. So of the six main colours, which ones have sold best (if possible, order them). I know that red and white are usually the most popular, and brown are the most unpopular. I'm also wondering where I could find official info on this...if that's even possible. So in order, I'd like to know where the green, blue, and black sets stand as well.

[xboxtravis7992]

I'd like to know official data to. Brown always struggled; it is interesting though that back in 2003-2004 Lego would sometimes release brown and black sets a month or two early to hype the rest of the wave. I remember as a kid on vacation in southern California that I bought the black and brown Rahkshi sets as an early release in Legoland California; especially since there weren't any Rahkshi of any color yet available back in my Utah hometown. (I actually regret that choice though since my parents offered to buy me Fort Legoredo (6762-1 version) or one of the other western sets instead, but as a kid I was determined to get those early release Rahkshi and some Bohrok Kal... Guess which one set I wish I had now!)

Anyway back to the subject... I think it was no accident brown sets were the first released; and that in 2006 with Hewkii the color was almost entirely removed from the Bionicle line. (The odd thing is I have all three "stone" sets from 2006, Vehlika, Hewkii, and Avak)

[Aanchir]

I don't think LEGO has ever released specific rankings of where all six Bionicle color groups fall in terms of popularity, just anecdotes about which colors sold best and which sold worst.

It's possible that the popularity of green, black, and blue sets simply can't be generalized as easily as red, white, and brown sets. So for instance, in one series the green set might've sold best out of those three colors, and then in the next series the blue set might've sold best.

[TwistLaw]

I've always had a soft spot for brown sets, mostly because I knew since I was a kid they were those who sold the worst; it's kind of an underdog thing I guess. But some of the sets I like the most (Pohatu '01 and especially '02, Avak, Pahrak Kal aka my first set ever) are actually from that colour regardless of this. Seeing the colour back in town with G2 made me so happy, because it meant LEGO wanted to go against historical sales data in order to be faithful to the original line.

Aside from that I have nothing to add to what Aanchir said: if colours like red, white and brown had a clear popularity history, shades like green, black and blue varied a lot through time. For instance I think Hahli and Takadox may have been the most popular sets from 2007, for obvious reasons.

As a side not, I've always HATED the choice LEGO made when replacing brown with *ugh* yellow. Orange is an ok colour, but yellow (and I mean the yellow Hewkii Mahri used, not the vaguely golden Mata Nui had) feels just wrong in the BIONICLE universe. This is a real personal opinion, but I've always felt that way since I was a kiddo. I don't know, it feels.. toyish? I guess, in a universe where colours were strongly connected to elements.

EDIT yay, my 500th post celebrates my favourite colour in BIONICLE :D this makes me happy.

Edited March 30, 2016 by TwistLaw

[GK733]

The discounting of Pohatu sends a pretty clear message that it's game over for brown again, might as well call the next one a toa of sand.

[Fulcrumfan91]

The discounting of Pohatu sends a pretty clear message that it's game over for brown again, might as well call the next one a toa of sand.

See here's the odd thing though....the stone sets this year and last year aren't even brown. Last year's was dark orange, this year's was dark tan...and I feel like the dark tan is worse (personally though...it doesn't look too bad on Pohatu...but I much preferred the beautiful burnt orange from last year) and maybe that's a factor as to why the stone guys aren't selling well. Also, I would be open to him becoming a toa of sand.....but...that would possibly mean more tan colours? I don't know if this does anything, but does sending LEGO an e-mail asking for a certain colour do anything at all? I'm gonna assume it doesn't because it's ultimately up to them...but please LEGO bring back the dark orange!

[Leewan]

It should be possible to get an idea through Brickset, by sorting each wave by the number of people who own the sets. Maybe Brickpicker and Rebrickable can provide some data too.

[Fulcrumfan91]

It should be possible to get an idea through Brickset, by sorting each wave by the number of people who own the sets. Maybe Brickpicker and Rebrickable can provide some data too.

Ah, thank you for the suggestion! :))

[Aanchir]

As a side not, I've always HATED the choice LEGO made when replacing brown with *ugh* yellow. Orange is an ok colour, but yellow (and I mean the yellow Hewkii Mahri used, not the vaguely golden Mata Nui had) feels just wrong in the BIONICLE universe.

Toa Mahri Hewkii was the same color (Flame Yellowish Orange) as Mata Nui and Keetongu, though... in fact, the only canister set that used actual Bright Yellow as a primary color was Bitil.

I didn't mind the switch to yellowish-orange for stone characters, because yellow and orange are basically how a lot of the Po-Matoran in Mask of Light and Legends of Metru Nui looked anyway (i.e. here, here. here, and even here and here). I had actually used Bright Yellow on a movie-styled Hafu MOC I built back in 2006 (if you can see it through the terrible, terrible picture quality), and if I'd had Flame Yellowish Orange in the same quantities I'd surely have used it. instead. Bright Orange and Flame Yellowish Orange are largely just brighter and more saturated versions of the Brick Yellow and Dark Orange that those Matoran characters already used frequently. Back in '01–03 brown was a bit of an odd duck since it was one of the only Toa primary colors that wasn't highly saturated.

It was ironic, though, that it ended up being replaced by brighter colors well after all the other primary colors had been replaced with darker ones. The original brown color from Pohatu, Earth Orange, basically has the same relationship to the Bright Orange from Tahu as Metru Blue (Earth Blue) has to Mata Blue (Bright Blue). So it was pretty weird in 2006 and 2007 with Jaller, Hahli, and Matau using these dark "Metru" colors and then Hewkii using a color brighter even than most of the Toa Mata colors. If he hadn't had so much Titanium Metallic and later Black to offset it, he'd have stuck out like a sore thumb.

Edited March 31, 2016 by Aanchir

[MrHerofan]

Well red sells the best because reasons. Now it could depend on what wave is being released, but generally red is the most popular. Why this is so, well nobody really knows. It could just be a more natural thing to be gravitated to red, or it is the most popular color amongst kids. Many factors could be at play here, though even in Power Rangers the red ranger is the most advertised and gets most of the cool gadgets for the year. Same way of how in Bionicle the red/fire toa gets promoted more often, even if in the story they don't get much love. Red just seems to be one of those things that is most popular, there might even be physiological studies as to why.

Now as for why brown does not get much love. Well multiple factors could be at play for that. For one it seems that they get less love compared to the rest of the wave, and they don't really pop on the shelf for kids. The color could also be less attractive for kids compared to the other colors.

[Darking]

I'm not really an expert at all, but I think it probably has to do with what we generally consider "basic colours". Red, blue, green, yellow, black and white IMO fall into this category, which are in fact the first colours that LEGO produced. Brown is missing in the list, but yellow, which replaced it from 2006 onwards, is not. So it's easy to believe that yellow sets would sell better than brown ones.

[Bigger Fish]

I wonder how well the blue ones sell, those have always been my favorite.