ProfSrlojohn

I also have seen on several forums that a lot of people thought they would either A) have more time to order in the week when paychecks/time/ etc. were more available, or B) were at work and couldn't order immediately. I think what killed it for Bio, as well as some of the others like the PA, was the hard 5-set limit. Logically, if they know they need a minimum of 3000 in order to turn a profit on any of these sets, therefore it shouldn't matter how many do or don't reach it, it just needs to reach it. I understand an upper time limit, but a limit in product number only makes sense if lego is only giving them enough resources to do so. I don't think BL, or anyone else expected all 5 to fill up within a day, considering they gave us about 48 days to do it.

My poor, poor bionicle. Didn't have a chance next to a castle set.

Unpopular opinion: lego sets have too many pieces and have too much detail as standard, and thus raise the price, thus potentially pricing people out. If look at sets today so many of them are quite expensive, even on the low end. Yes, you get a lot of pieces, but that's still a high barrier to entry. You see this issue in the 40k world. For a while the model company GW has had these "Start Collecting" boxes, which gave you a functioning army (Usually. *cough* orks *cough) for around 75-90 USD. However, they're slowly phasing them out with new "Combat Patrol" boxes. These new boxes do come with more models, and allow you to build an army at a higher level (40k has levels of army sizes with different bonuses and losses for each) but also cost around 140-160 USD. Sure you get more content out of the boxes, but someone who wanted to play but only has 90USD is out of luck, since that option is no longer available. It raises that barrier to entry. I think Lego might be wandering into this territory as well. Their smallest sets are still 10USD+ (barring poly bags) when that price-point used to be reserved for mid-range sets with similar amount of pieces, but there were even smaller, cheaper sets down the line if you couldn't afford that. They still got you your set in your given theme, even if it's smaller down the line. Mars mission for example: On the small end of the line were sets like the MX-11 Astro Fighter: This set was only 5USD Retail, and as you went up to the 10USD bracket You got sets like the MT-21 Mobile Mining Unit: This was your somewhat larger, mid-range set. And I'm excluding the mini-box sets that were under 5USD as well as polybags. Ninjago 2020 on the other hand, the cheapest non poly-bag/non-minibox set is the Jungle Raider: While it is the same amount of pieces as the other Mars-Mission 10USD sets, this is as low as you can go. You can't get any lower without hitting polybags and mini-boxes. Sure, you're getting your money's worth out of it, but if you don't have those 10USD to spend, you're out of luck. However, Lego can't put the price lower without sacrificing profit margins. It simply raises the barrier to entry. Obviously, the 40k example is more extreme, but I'm personally worried about Lego going down that route.

I mean, 10$ is probably about right considering inflation, at least in the US. As for new molds, there would probably be about as many there were in the Nexo Knight mechs. New pieces for the weapons, some more stylized bits here and there for armor, nothing crazy. It's gonna be system, so it can be just as easy just build the armor up with system. Probably some new head and body pieces. Because it would be character focused, all the new piece budget that goes into vehicle parts and minifig parts, can go to armor weapons, etc. Price isn't a make-or-break, but it needs to be cheap enough to make it easy to just "pick one up" if you get what I mean. The protectors for example, were 10$ impulse-buy sets, but they weren't important to the plot. They didn't bring most people into the series because they had no real role in the series besides crowd fillers. (Excluding Protector of Fire, and he got like, 30 seconds more of screen time than the others so.. meh) So if they can hit that range, and make them plot relevant, it'll be fine. Also, yes, the Mixels combo gimmick would be lovely. Early Bionicle put a major emphasis on alt-builds to fill in the world, and the first 3 years also had several appearances of Kaita (3 heroes or villains combined into a giant... thing), and occasionally a "Nui" (6 characters combined, though this was used... twice. In it's entirety as a concpet). It's also popular for fusions to have anywhere from 2, to as-many-charecters-as-exist involved. Though it's similar to Transformer's combiners as they need to have enough mental and purposal unity for the combination to stay stable. This focus was toned down as the series progressed which... considering the socket-breakage problems of the 2008-2010 pieces (and the minor problems even earlier) is probably for the better. They mainly stuck to alt-builds, which, unless you *really* want "random animal number 7" are completely superfluous plot-wise besides world-filling, excluding a few examples (and these were usually sold in big fancy walmart/target exclusives as themselves, rather than the component sets I.E. 8626: Irnakk, or 10204: Vezon & Kardas)

For me, personally, it'd come down to 3 factors: 1) The most important, character-centric: Compared to sets of the time, and even of today, Bionicle (and it's successors, HF, Chima Ultrabuilds, etc.) was very character-centric in it's set focus. Each set was all about *that* character(s). As opposed to say.... a star-wars set of the same time. Those were focused on the vehicles/locations in question, and the characters that go with them. It's like the difference between buying a singular doll, and buying a doll-house. The doll is focused on well, the doll, it's all about that character (however a blank slate it may be), while if you buy a doll house, it's all about the structure, rather than the dolls within it. A star-wars battle pack would be a good example of a character focused set. It may come with some small vehicles or terrain, but the primary focus is on the characters themselves, and their gear. The individuals are the focus, while the gear and terrain are secondary. This is the most important one. They hit this, and any Bionicle-esque theme would do a good job in capturing that same appeal. 2) Poseability and structure: A decent level of poseability and action-figureness would go far in capturing the appeal. Obviously, constraction is gone, at least, as far as can be told, so the general vibe in the community is that something akin to the more recent Super Hero mechs would be more than acceptable. It hit's those same vibes in terms of feeling like an action-figure. In addition, the hyper-stylization both Bionicle and Hero Factory had would also go a long ways and cemeting this factor. 3) Price, price, price: On of the biggest factors in both Bionicle and Hero Factory's success, and one of the bigger factor Bionicle G2's failure, was price. The main heroes from 2001 were 7$ a pop, making them an easy impulse buy, and meaning you can get all 6 for 42$, taxes not withstanding. It was very easy to get all 6. The most expensive set was the Manas crabs, which was 2 palette-swapped models for 90$. They were RC controlled as well, which upped the price a bit. https://brickset.com/sets/8539-1/Manas So the biggest set in the whole 2001 range was under 100$ Bionicle, as a whole, was a very affordable line, especially if you were a collector. Hero Factory was a similar story. G2 on the other hand, the heroes were 15$ (for the smaller ones) to 20$. Not so much of an impulse buy, and to get all 6 toa it'd run you about 105$ Comparatively expensive. Obviously, inflation and such plays in with the pricing, but it's not a drastic enough change to alter the fact that the g2 toa were *not* impulse buy sets. The main characters weren't available cheap. The sets that filled those slots? Coming in at 10$ were the protectors. A group of 6 small, (at the time) nameless, who had all the plot-role and personality of a paper bag, barring a slightly more notable role in the Protector of fire. I think if TLG can hit these 3 points, Bionicle fans would be more than satisfied with the results (barring the usual fringe few that hate everything). Even if it's not Bionicle and rather some new theme in a similar vein.

I mean, maybe a hatchet would probably have been a better choice. That's where the term "bury the hatchet" comes from. Several groups would bury a war hatchet after hostilties ended to show that the matter was settled.

Random idea: Make boxed sets of cowboys and cavalry soldiers and such on the side and market it as a game. It sells well for companies like Games Workshop, or Warlord games, why not Lego? Not to mention of the handful of western themed minature games that exist, few of them are similar scales. As a wargamer, a wargame, heck, even a western adventure game, with lego's level of quality control, as well as the ability to kitbash like no other game, would be lovely. Not to mention it'd go over well with MOCers since they'd basically have massive western parts packs.

3 reasons. 1) It wouldn't be a reboot, it'd be a one-off celebratory set. There weren't a lot of people who were upset at g2 being a reboot anyway, (even though it wasn't for a multitude of complicate reasons I won't waste time on) they were generally just upset that the dangling plot threads left by Greg Farshtey when he was told by lego to quit the postmortem serials weren't going to be resolved. Can you really blame them? 2) It wouldn't really be expected to have a plot, as a celebratory set. It's not a whole new theme, it's just a one-off. Any plot it would have would be representing G1 (and maybe G2) plot, nothing more. 3) I would presume it'd at least have the level of marketing expected of a one-off celebratory set. We aren't expecting 3-year theme marketing from a one-off set. That'd be asinine to expect. The thing about g2 was that, for the niche it was filling, the next big-bang constration theme, it got none of the push or plot required to make that happen, especially compared to it's predecessor, the first big-bang theme. I never saw an ad for Bionicle G2 ever, on any website. I only found out about it by stumbling by the website when it was first revealed. The plot was rather sparse early on, and it did pick-up, a bit as things progressed, but the way it was done meant that it didn't draw people in. It didn't catch people. Especially when the first and only bit of media for the first 2 waves were animated shorts, voiced by one guy, that were released sporadically, at different times in different countries. It didn't even make it all 3 years. G2, more than any other big-bang theme or 3-year theme attempt, was a master-class in how *not* to market and push a new lego theme. Especially with big-daddy Ninjago in the background at one of it's highest points.

I'll be frank, I'm not sure about.... 75% of the Bionicle community cares at this point. We just want something from someone at lego besides Nick and Niek to acknowledge our existence.

I mean, the TTV message boards, one of the biggest Bionicle fansites, has an entire section dedicated to the G3 Brickonicle project, quite alot: https://board.ttvchannel.com/c/ttvchannel/brickonicle/61 Not to mention the Sokoda project that got to 10,000 in record time, plus plenty of system Bionicle MOCs out there. See, that's the thing. Bionicle has this odd quality that I don't think even Lego could replicate if they tried. A perfect storm of Lego's desperation, early 2000's culture, and an obscene amount of multi-marketing appeal, created something that bionicle fans get, but I'm not sure anyone else, not even Lego could duplicate. Bionicle is almost like warhammer 40k in my opinion. It's got a lot of very broad, open sections of the hobby, that allows people to get in at different entry points, and eventually cross-pollinate with other parts. Warhammer has the game, the modeling, and the lore. Most people get drawn in by one of those 3 points. Bionicle has the Set collecting, MOCing, the Lore, and the character creation (Which is an extension of the lore, but Bionicle is one of those few franchises built so that you can make an OC with D&D levels of ease. A distinct enough aspect I would split them) EDIT: I do second this, I'd be happy to have Brick-built Bionicle with mixel joints. (At least, I would if I cared at all for the model lego aesthetic)

What i think is more likely is that Bionicle will win, go to round two with some combination of Castle, Pirates, or Space. and either A) get crushed in round 2, or B) win in round 2, and Lego ignores the results (and no one will be the wiser) and does something else because in many ways Bionicle simply isn't viable right now. As for the bot accounts? I don't know. There may be a few, but I've been in the Bionicle community for years, and there's a lot more Bionicle fans than one might think. They just tend to stay in their little bubbles because of afore mentioned AFOL scrutiny and gatekeeping. EDIT: or plain old lack of interest in System themes on the by and large. EDIT 2: And as previously mentioned, most of the core bionicle fanbase do like system, but it's none of the themes mentioned besides Maybe Adventurers and Alpha Team. If Exo-force, Knight's Kingdom II, Mars Mission, Rock raiders, Power Miners, or Space Police III had been present, you would have seen plenty of Bio fans vote for those.

Hey, I'd take that. More than anything Lego's given us so far besides the cameos from Nick and Niek's sets.

FINALLY! Someone gets the Baseplate appeal.

Hence why round 2 is blind. We have no idea the actual results for round two when the come by. Now, coming from someone in the Bionicle community, it might just be. You have no idea the kind of ire that would be generated if Lego didn't at least acknowledge it's existence and influence. Bionicle, (besides the oft repeated point of salvation from financial ruin), is basically the pattern all modern plot-based themes are cut from. It all goes back to it. It was significant and most of the Bionicle community would be quite miffed if they weren't at least acknowledged.

Because, as i detailed earlier in the topic, with something like Bionicle, Lego found themselves in a no-win situation. So, they made sure that they had a opportunity to dodge it if it comes up. Nothing horrible, just lamenting it's bottom-of-the-list situation.

More or less what I expected. Then once Bio reaches round 2, it'll either be swept by Pirates, or lego will pass it over, (since the votes are blind), because, let's be realistic here, it's not exactly able to satisfy enough people at once. Also, poor aquazone

perhaps, but at that point, is it really the same thing anymore? The whole idea of Bionicle was to break away from the Brick system to find what works and diversify, if you go the other way, it simply feels like a step backwards. EDIT: Note, I'm not saying that one system is superior to the other, simply that it goes against the point of the system.

I mean, it was 11 sets, none of which were that good. Not to mention, the figures look nothing like the characters barring a few exceptions, or are just odd. See the 2005 figures. So they're not exactly the best reflection of Bionicle.

I'm not say they've anything against Bionicle in particular, I just think they know that if they didn't include it, people would complain, but if it won, people would complain, including decent sized portions of the very group they're trying to satisfy by it's inclusion, because it would not be what one would expect. It couldn't be traditional Bionicle pieces, and while they might be able to CCBS that has it's own problems. If they go system, while I think a decent portion of Bionicle's fan-base would be fine with that, there's quite a few that wouldn't like that. It was a no win situation. Though again, the picture of the whole canister, as opposed to the box art is still odd to me.

Maybe I'm an absolute madman, but I have a sneaking suspicion myself that the whole reason the second round of voting is blind is mainly because of Bionicle. Trying to make something that will satisfy the several different groups of people will be much harder for Bionicle than maybe any other theme on the list. I'm fairly certain it was on the list to throw the Bionicle fans like myself a bone, rather than have any real plans. Not to mention, why in the world did they use that mediocre picture of the canister when plenty of high-quality images exist of the canister art. It's baffling. It just suggests to me Bionicle was either A) A last minute addition so people wouldn't complain, or B) they want to discourage it from winning. (Which, to be honest, I can't blame them)

Bonkle time boys! I'm seriously resisting getting on my soapbox to rally. 1. Bonkle 2. M-Tron 3. Aquazone

No problem. The bionicle community can be something of a enigma to outsiders. If you want to know something of the game plan for a good portion for the community going forward, I suggest you find the "TTV Channel" on youtube, and watch the " 'Nak and 'Jay" episode titled "Lego Ideas & Bionicle: What happened". While obviously, they don't represent the entire community, they typically have a pretty good read on the pulse of the community.

That was NOT the reasoning for the support. A few people may have believed that, but for the most part we supported it for 3 main reasons. 1: We wanted to show Lego that we are still here. That we're still willing to buy stuff related to franchise, even if it's not constraction. From what I can tell, a good 80% of the fans, while they like the figures, were more about the story. We were trying show that we would support Bionicle, regardless of physical form. Lego doesn't want to risk constraction? Fine, give us system, we'll be content with that. 2: We wanted Lego to do something for the 20th anniversary. August 10, 2021 will be the 20th anniversary of Bionicle's US release, and we wanted to try and see if Lego could be convinced to do something for the 20th anniversary. It, (along with Star Wars) Saved the company in the early 2000's, and we were hoping that Lego would be willing to help us celebrate that. 3: It was a really high-quality project for our favorite Lego IP, wouldn't you do the same?

Okay then. Guess I know the popularity internationally I suppose. Have you heard of the show Fuller House on Netflix? That's a sequel of sorts to Full house. I mean, I'm 18 going on 19, and I watch the Beverly Hillbillies, but I can see how it wouldn't be popular internationally.

Lego "Keeping Up Appearances" anyone? Seriously though, why more "adult" sitcoms anyway? Things like Home Improvement, Full House, or heck, even the Beverly Hillbillies would be nice, and would hit a wider audience in terms of age range, since they were aimed at a more general audience.