I've browsed a lot of themes here when bored--but I've never seen this particular set before.

I've got screwdrivers (seriously, as the owner of several dozen, from cheap store brand to Wiha--why do I need any more?) and headphones that broke in a week, but actual LEGO, nope! That's a really good promo! They did some exclusive Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars I need to pick up.

lego with double AA batteries.

@kelano28:
Hey, at least one Bionicle set needed batteries. AA, I believe.

@cody6268:
Somewhere I’ve got a small screwdriver that looks like a Duracell AA battery. I’ve also got a 2” Craftsman adjustable wrench that’s stamped “Made In China”. It was sold as a keychain, but I once asked if the Craftsman guarantee would allow me to ask for a free replacement if it broke. I was told yes, but that they’d probably just give me the smallest adjustable wrench they had for sale if they’d run out of keychain wrenches.

Original name. REALLY original.

Finally a random set of the day which I own. :-)
I got it as a kid together with 7217, simply because my mother needed batteries and they came with them. ;-)
However, since I never collected Bionicle, was not really interested in these.

Awesome random set.

Ah yes, my favourite LEGO piece - 8 Duracell batteries.

Just imagine the product description: A complementary LEGO sets to keep the kids occupied.
...
Keep batteries away from children.

Hold on. I don’t get it. “Gold Good Guy” doesn’t contain a single A, let alone double!

I used to like these Duracell promotions quite a lot when I was a kid.

I am also a bit confused - I don't collect or even have any bionicle sets, but as far as I know, none of them need any batteries. So what are the batteries even for? Like a kind of "gift with purchase"? Some of the random sets don't really stand out to me, but this one is the most interesting I have came across so far!

Batteries included!

From the press release: "... comes with batteries!"

Unpopular opinion:
The appeal of Bonkles boggles my mind and they aren't real LEGO anyway.

Apparently he's good as gold.

Got in a massive BIONICLE mood yesterday so this is a welcome surprise!

Fun fact, out of all the Good Guy/Bad Guy promotionals this is the only canon one. It's supposed to be Lhikan in his Turaga form from the end of the second movie.

I have this set, and I love it :) That mask is awesome

@BionicleJedi:
Speaking from experience, information was a lot harder to come by back in those days. Most of the time, promotions like this would only become known about after someone randomly stumbled across a copy in the wild, or ad copy in a flyer, so details were pretty much what could be determined from that. Maybe the person who tipped you off could dig deeper for some concrete details, but often news like this was submitted by young kids. Even if you headed out to try to do some research on your own (as I once did with a Blockbuster promo), you're still dealing with cashiers who might have been earning minimum wage, or supervisors who cared more about running that store than any details regarding some random promo.

LUGs were still pretty rare at the time, and it would be several years before TLC started to build a two-way relationship with the fan community. Now, there's the rLUG program (and something equivalent for fan sites like this), the Ambassador program, press releases get sent out all over the fan community, and hi-res photos are provided along with them. Back then, they would only send out press releases for a few rare events (and the ones I remember involved physical press kits that looked very expensive to produce, and usually didn't include any digital material that was easy to post online). Now they often send out copies of the sets for review, but the only instances I can recall offhand of getting free sets shipped to me were the entire first lineup of basic Galidor characters (most of which are stuffed in a box somewhere, still sealed in their original packaging), and one randomly selected Rahkshi.

So, the reason you'd rarely hear about worldwide availability of these promotions is because nobody was presented with that info, and often nobody really knew who to ask. Info like that might have required contacting someone who worked for Duracell, and there's no way of knowing if you could even get access to that person if you just tried using whatever contact form they may (or may not) have had built into their website. Looking back on how things have changed, it starts to make sense why there was such a high burn-out rate amongst people running fan sites back then.

For once, I wish a BIONICLE set was ineligible to be selected as Random Set of the Day.

The canonization of this as "Turaga Lhikan" was totally a joke. Too bad there wasn't a GregF phone hotline back in the day, otherwise we'd have heard the sarcasm in his voice when he declared, "Sure, go ahead."

>_<

@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
I'd offer to ask him in person, if I ever see him again. However, I don't think he's attended Brickworld Chicago since they switched to a different artist for the event material, I can't guarantee I'd remember making this offer (in fact, I probably won't), and comments on this article will be locked sometime later today.

the man, the myth, the legend

@TheBrickPal said:
" @Darth_Dee said:
" @Huw - Is there a cross promotion tag that can be added to sets like these (and the Happy Meal sets, Sampsonite, etc.) It would be interesting to see all the weird promotions Lego has collaborated on through the years. "

That's actually a great idea. I'll see what I can do!"

I started a Bricklist with the most ridiculous ones. There are some older sets that were packaged with Crest Toothpaste, believe it or not :)
https://brickset.com/sets/list-34249

@xboxtravis7992 said:
" @bananaworld said:
"
Unpopular opinion:
The appeal of Bonkles boggles my mind and they aren't real LEGO anyway."

They saved your "real Lego" from dragging the company into bankruptcy in the early 2000's.

I'm honestly shocked this attitude is still around, its been 21 years since Slizer/Throwbots first introduced the ball joint system with it being incorporated into countless sets and themes since, ..."

Preach it! One day, this antiquated attitude will disappear.

@PurpleDave to make it less of a burden on yourself, if I was you, the next time I run into Greg, I'd just work it in to the conversation like, "Say, back when people would ask you questions about BIONICLE, were you always 110% serious with your responses? I mean, if someone asked if tiny, thrown-together nameless promotional set was an official character, and you answered in the affirmative...did you always mean it?"

@xboxtravis7992:
I've encountered people who complain about the shift away from tiny little 4-wide vehicles. I've had one person (only one, so far) come up to me and one or two other members of my LUG and lament the variety of "specialized" pieces that basically made a lot of the stuff our LUG had on display even possible. Besides Gary Istok, I've met people who expressed a preference for the vintage windows that you would constantly have to push back into position because the bottom edge would always kick out. People get attached to a particular generation of LEGO products, and an evolutionary shift in the products they offer often involves shifting away from what drew their interest in the first place.

I've found myself on the other side of that as well. While I loved the early Bionicle stuff, the later set designs just didn't have the same appeal, and I never developed any interest in the CCBS stuff. But on the other hand, I'm always still interested in seeing what new parts are coming out every year, even if I never use them. Every year something new comes out changes the possibilities for a MOC builder, and I've had several times when I was working on something and changed my plans because they released something new that worked better.

In this case, however, I could be wrong, but I read the wording and quote marks as indicating that bananaworld was being sarcastic.

Gold Good Guy?!? With Copper-Top Batteries?!?

Good memories of convincing my dad we needed batteries so I could have the polybag

@bananaworld said:
"
Unpopular opinion:
The appeal of Bonkles boggles my mind and they aren't real LEGO anyway."

Sets 6936, 6937, 8624, 8757, 8758, 8759, 8769, 8892, 8893, 8894, 8925, 8926 and 8927 say hi.

@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
Oh, if I was going to ask him I'd just come right out and do it. However, I have to confess that I just discovered I had him mixed up with another person. I was thinking of Greg Hyland (an artist who has also done work for TLC, doing all of the hand-drawn cartoon bits included with the original Batman theme from the mid-aughts), not Greg Farshtey. I _may_ have met the latter once, during my three trips to NYTF between '02-'04, but I really can't remember at this point. If I ever communicated with him by e-mail, it was with an account that probably got purged several years ago. I don't remember Farshtey really engaging the fan community back when I was active, so discovering that he's not who I was thinking of means the chances I ever interacted with him is pretty low.

I pieced this guy together when I got a spare one of those masks. No regrets. Pretty much set me on a path to piece together all the Good guys and bad guys.