The zoomer slowly becoming the boomer... We love you Pohatu.

Almost got this set... but went for 8635 which is my favorite set of all time.

The lore for this one is that it's a speeder bike with all sorts of swords and spikes etc on it, ergo it is very cool.

I'm gonna make a system version for Dogshank. What do you think of "Dogshank's Revenge"?

Yay a bonkle on a flying bike.

Lore will come in a bit, but before it does I'd like to bring up a brief bit of LEGO news I don't believe Brickset has yet reported on. On March 1st Greg Farsthey announced he was fired from the LEGO Group, and the termination will take full affect this July.

For those that don't know, Greg Farsthey was one of the major story writers at LEGO, and Editor in Chief for their various magazines. He was a part of the story team for themes like BIONICLE, Exo Force, Ninjago, and HERO Factory. He was responsible for writing (though not drawing or inking) nearly every BIONICLE book, BIONICLE comic, Ninjago comic, and HERO Factory Book.

While Greg hasn't given an official statement on why he was fired it isn't hard to guess. Print media as a whole has been going out of fashion for a while now. LEGO no longer uses books to advance plotlines, preferring to do TV shows. In addition magazines as a whole have slowed down from LEGO, if I recall correctly they even went fully digital a few years back. Neither of his jobs are needed anymore, so letting him go is unsurprising.

However it has a nasty domino affect for the BIONICLE community. You see, Greg was gifted full story control for the BIONICLE franchise after its cancelation... so long as he remained employed at the company. Over the last few years Greg has kept BIONICLE alive. He wrote various online serials for the franchise, managed the Ask Greg message boards to clarify plot points, and helped host the recent TTV canonization contests to use fanmade MOCS and drawings to give book-only characters canon appearances.

With the other main story writers, Christain Faber and Bob Thompson, no longer working at the LEGO Group, it is no longer "legally" possible to add onto or change the original BIONCLE story. After 12 years of post-mortem development, BIONICLE Gen 1 is finally dead.

Of course, a franchise ending has never stopped fanbases before. Just one look at stuff like Neo Classic Space or Project Darkflame show that even if the company doesn't sign off on things, fans will take them to heart anyway. I'm sure headcanons of Gen 1 will become much more popular in the coming years, but it's sad in any case.

@GSR_MataNui said:
"Lore will come in a bit, but before it does I'd like to bring up a brief bit of LEGO news I don't believe Brickset has yet reported on. On March 1st Greg Farsthey announced he was fired from the LEGO Group, and the termination will take full affect this July.

For those that don't know, Greg Farsthey was one of the major story writers at LEGO, and Editor in Chief for their various magazines. He was a part of the story team for themes like BIONICLE, Exo Force, Ninjago, and HERO Factory. He was responsible for writing (though not drawing or inking) nearly every BIONICLE book, BIONICLE comic, Ninjago comic, and HERO Factory Book.

While Greg hasn't given an official statement on why he was fired it isn't hard to guess. Print media as a whole has been going out of fashion for a while now. LEGO no longer uses books to advance plotlines, preferring to do TV shows. In addition magazines as a whole have slowed down from LEGO, if I recall correctly they even went fully digital a few years back. Neither of his jobs are needed anymore, so letting him go is unsurprising.

However it has a nasty domino affect for the BIONICLE community. You see, Greg was gifted full story control for the BIONICLE franchise after its cancelation... so long as he remained employed at the company. Over the last few years Greg has kept BIONICLE alive. He wrote various online serials for the franchise, managed the Ask Greg message boards to clarify plot points, and helped host the recent TTV canonization contests to use fanmade MOCS and drawings to give book-only characters canon appearances.

With the other main story writers, Christain Faber and Bob Thompson, no longer working at the LEGO Group, it is no longer "legally" possible to add onto or change the original BIONCLE story. After 12 years of post-mortem development, BIONICLE Gen 1 is finally dead.

Of course, a franchise ending has never stopped fanbases before. Just one look at stuff like Neo Classic Space or Project Darkflame show that even if the company doesn't sign off on things, fans will take them to heart anyway. I'm sure headcanons of Gen 1 will become much more popular in the coming years, but it's sad in any case. "

Man, I admittedly have not really followed the post-mortem canonization of things that he has been involved in, but hearing that he has been officially let go by lego still felt like the end of an era I didn't even fully know was still lingering, and a dear part of my childhood finally wrapping up....

Aw, now I'm sad

Karda Nui, the core of the universe, was a gigantic powerplant located in the heart of the Great Spirit Robot. Karda Nui was ravaged by electrical storms that incinerated anything that entered, expect for the protective chamber at its center. The Codrex.

Within the Codrex where various machines and regulators to restart Karda Nui in the event of a shut down, alongside three powerful vehicles to let the maintenance crew escape Karda Nui before it came back online. The Rockoh T3, Jetrax T6, and Axalara T9.

In addition, a team of six Toa heroes was assembled to prepare Mata Nui for such a start up procedure. The Toa Mata were stored inside the Codrex inside of Toa Canisters, and if anything happened to the Great Spirit they would launch out of Karda Nui, repair the damage, then return to the Codrex to reactive Karda Nui.

Among these Toa Mata was Pohatu, the Toa of Stone. A warm and friendly fellow, he could use his Great Mask of Speed to travel immense distances in the blink of an eye, and used his (relatively) pacifist nature to maintain peace among the team.

During the events of the Great Cataclysm, Mata Nui was cast into an endless slumber by the dark lord Makuta Teridax, and his titanic robot body crashed on the ocean world of Aqua Magna. The Toa Canisters launched from the Codrex. However, a malfunction caused the Canisters to remain adrift at sea for the next 1,000 years.

Eventually the Toa Mata where called to the island of Mata Nui. There they went on various quests for the Matoran living there. During these adventures Pohatu protected the village of Po-Koro in the great desert to the north, and became close friends with Kopaka the Toa of Ice.

The Mata's adventures on Mata Nui included collecting Masks of Power to challenge Maktua to a duel, halt the Bohrok Swarm from destroying the Matoran villages, keeping the Bohrok Kal from awakening their queens, and keeping the Rahkshi away from Takua (who would become the Toa of Light.) After this they rediscovered the Matoran's ancestral home of Metru Nui and helped them return there.

In Metru Nui the Toa learned Mata Nui was dying, and (with the eventual help of the Toa Inika) set out for the Mask of Life to revive him. They also reawakened the Bohrok Swarms, recovered the Staff of Artakha to repair the GSR, checked on the mysterious Red Star, retrieved the Heart of the Visorak, and received a set of Adaptive Armor from the legendary Artakha.

Eventually the Toa set off for their final quest in the core of the universe. The Toa scoured Karda Nui in search of the six keystones in order to open the Codrex, along the way fending off the Brotherhood of Makuta. The Toa were eventually informed of the energy storms, but after entering the Codrex saw the three great vehicles and assumed this a non-issue.

However, one of the Makuta, Antroz, had snuck into the Codrex alongside them. He stole the Jetrax, and so Lewa and Pohatu took flight in the Axalara and Rockoh to stop him and retrieve the craft, leading to a dogfight through the swamps of Karda Nui.

Eventually the Jetrax was recovered and taken by Kopaka. With the vehicles recovered, the Toa finished jumpstarting the Codrex to reawaken Mata Nui. The Toa raced out of Karda Nui on the vehicles, briefly considering to save the Makuta before the storms took full force until they realized it was too late.

The Rockoh and its sisters then assisted in the final fight of the Destiny's War on the coast of Metru Nui, which "Mata Nui" finished as he awakened. After leaving the craft, they were teleported back into the Codrex (why the Codrex couldn't just teleport things out of Karda Nui itself is beyond me, but it presumably involves Artakha's more advanced teleportation powers.) The Rockoh was likely removed from the Codrex when the GSR was dismantled, though weather it itself was dismantled or returned to service is unclear.

"Rockoh's Modern Life" is a hit TV cartoon in the world of Bionicle.

@MeisterDad said:
"From where was that Zamor sphere launched? I don’t see a cannon or anything?"

right underneath the front of it is one of the 2006 zamor launchers, with two of the extensions holding more of them above just poking out on top so you can refill! They even put a special trigger for it by Pohatu's foot in the image, using a really simply little technic mechanism inside.

This was a really nice set, I always loved it and can remember getting it for the first time, so excited to get home and put it together! So glad they made the vehicle sets that year, those were so much fun.

My dear mother got me this for Christmas in 2008 even though I didn't ask for it and it wasn't on my wanted list that year. Coming home from a rough semester at college and the dark ending to the 2008 storyline, I wasn't in a particularly LEGO mood. But seeing this unwrapped on Christmas morning brought me a lot of warm fuzzies and was yet another reminder of why my mom is so great!

I have yet to build the set, much like most large BIONICLE sets I received between 2007 and 2011, but I definitely want to! While its relevancy to the storyline was minor, the Rockoh T3 looks cool. I bet I could plop an Av-Matoran or two on it for Pohatu Nuva to fly out of the Codrex.

@GSR_MataNui
That's terribly sad. I feel like Ninjago was the last time Lego came up with a good lore for a theme, and it feels like Ninjago has jumped the shark several times over the last decade.

For example, the movie adaptation is so bad and insulting to fans and the source material it makes Shyamalan's The Last Airbender look like a great adaptation of a cartoon in comparison. While the sets for the movie were amazing, the theme was still scarred due to the execs forcing character design changes because they were overly confident that the 3rd Lego Movie would be as well received as the first two.

Unfortunately it wasn't only the character designs that changed; starting in 2018 they began to undergo flanderization as well. "Flanderization" is a term that comes from describing the Simpsons character Ned Flanders, where a character devovles to show only shallow character traits and character development is thrown out the window. The character becomes predictable and irritating. Such an emphasis on character traits is usually intended to provide more comic relief, and that is exactly what the movie was going for.

In the movie and onwards, all the ninja are made more unattractive in both appearance and personality, except for Llyod, who gets a big glow-up complete with green eyes! Because apparently the Green Ninja still hasn't gotten enough special treatment! It is true that in Season 8 onwards the flanderization of non-Llyods isn't as bad as the movie, but it's still there. Many of the previous seasons gave lasting character development to one or more of the ninja, but it seems to have been discarded in favor of slight flanderization, not nearly as egregious as the movie, but still enough to hurt the characters.

I don't feel like saying more, the effect of the movie "poisoning" into the main canon is the most controversial and debated topic about Ninjago and I don't want to discuss it further. My point in bringing this up is I worry that without hiring writers like Farsthey and Tommy Andreason (the original writer for Ninjago who also stopped working with Lego recently) Ninjago, Lego's last-standing original story-based IP, will continue to go downhill and eventually fail. And if it fails, Lego won't be able to make a new big-bang theme to replace it without such writers.

I know about the World Builder collaboration with Tongal, but so far it seems to have gone nowhere. I thought I heard that Lego were looking for fans to create the "next Ninjago." Maybe World Builder is an emergency contingency if Ninjago fails since Lego doesn't seem to have these writers left to come up with a concept.

I wasn't into Bionicle in any phase of their production. I have to confess that, coming from classic ages, I down right rejected them, never knowing (or caring) about the lore or the fanbase behind it. Yet years had an effect on me I guess. Looking back, there are some truly amazing sets they had. I still don't know about the lore, but I see that it was a distinguished theme with wierd parts and even wierder creature designs. Nothing came close to resembling the Bionicle sets in recent years.

As someone who was never into Bionicle, I always thought these large scale vehicles were awesome as hell.

@Norikins said:
" @GSR_MataNui
That's terribly sad. I feel like Ninjago was the last time Lego came up with a good lore for a theme, and it feels like Ninjago has jumped the shark several times over the last decade.

For example, the movie adaptation is so bad and insulting to fans and the source material it makes Shyamalan's The Last Airbender look like a great adaptation of a cartoon in comparison. While the sets for the movie were amazing, the theme was still scarred due to the execs forcing character design changes because they were overly confident that the 3rd Lego Movie would be as well received as the first two.

Unfortunately it wasn't only the character designs that changed; starting in 2018 they began to undergo flanderization as well. "Flanderization" is a term that comes from describing the Simpsons character Ned Flanders, where a character devovles to show only shallow character traits and character development is thrown out the window. The character becomes predictable and irritating. Such an emphasis on character traits is usually intended to provide more comic relief, and that is exactly what the movie was going for.

In the movie and onwards, all the ninja are made more unattractive in both appearance and personality, except for Llyod, who gets a big glow-up complete with green eyes! Because apparently the Green Ninja still hasn't gotten enough special treatment! It is true that in Season 8 onwards the flanderization of non-Llyods isn't as bad as the movie, but it's still there. Many of the previous seasons gave lasting character development to one or more of the ninja, but it seems to have been discarded in favor of slight flanderization, not nearly as egregious as the movie, but still enough to hurt the characters.

I don't feel like saying more, the effect of the movie "poisoning" into the main canon is the most controversial and debated topic about Ninjago and I don't want to discuss it further. My point in bringing this up is I worry that without hiring writers like Farsthey and Tommy Andreason (the original writer for Ninjago who also stopped working with Lego recently) Ninjago, Lego's last-standing original story-based IP, will continue to go downhill and eventually fail. And if it fails, Lego won't be able to make a new big-bang theme to replace it without such writers.

I know about the World Builder collaboration with Tongal, but so far it seems to have gone nowhere. I thought I heard that Lego were looking for fans to create the "next Ninjago." Maybe World Builder is an emergency contingency if Ninjago fails since Lego doesn't seem to have these writers left to come up with a concept. "

Wait, Tommy Anderson left LEGO as well? Has he given any reason as to why he decided that? This is the first time I hear this. Ever since the Hagemen Brothers (the original Ninjago writers) left in 2017, he has been basically the heart and soul that has kept Ninjago alive. I am afraid that without him, Ninjago will probably die very soon.

As for the Tongal World Builder Platform, speaking as someone who actually submitted a project to it, I can safely say that platform is a huge scam, meant to get cheap labour from fans. There have been som truly wonderful ideas for new themes submitted, and they picked precisely the most generic and uninteresting ones. From what I can tell, the purpose of that platform is more so to just create YouTube shorts and other promotional media like that, rather than something serious like a new LEGO theme. So I personally wouldn't have much faith in that platform either.

Unfortunately, this truly seems like the end of a era. With no more good original themes left standing and all the good writers behind them now leaving, I unfortunately think LEGO will never be the same from now on...

@ShinyBidoof said:
"Wow, a Bionicle set that could almost (though not quite) be mistaken as a Lego set."

Dude, this IS lego. And in this case it's almost completely lego technic!
Constraction has been around since 1999 you know. You've had 23 years to 'realize' it's lego. How is this so hard?

@GSR_MataNui
That's sad to hear, but at least Farsthey got to stay for 12 more years. The canonization contests were divisive anyway. Maybe ut's best to be glad for what we got.

Brickset was down for over half a day, spanning the time new RPotD/RSotD get posted, so looks like this gets an extra day.

@LegoDavid said:
" Wait, Tommy Anderson left LEGO as well? Has he given any reason as to why he decided that? This is the first time I hear this. Ever since the Hagemen Brothers (the original Ninjago writers) left in 2017, he has been basically the heart and soul that has kept Ninjago alive. I am afraid that without him, Ninjago will probably die very soon."

I misremembered about this, sorry, I should have fact-checked before commenting. I think I must have believed some clickbait that Tommy was "leaving". I searched to see if there was any video/social media post that I would have seen, but couldn't find any. I wouldn't put it past some Ninjago fan desperate for clicks to make up fake news, and then later wipe it from the Internet. I am grateful that even though Brickset was down I have a chance to correct myself.

Okay, everybody remember that March 10th, 2022 is the day that a Random Set of the Day never took place due to the site being knocked out. We need to remember to be grateful such a blessing is bestowed upon us daily.