Write-in vote: I'm indifferent to Bionicle, and I'm indifferent to the set.

I am a bionicle fan and I LOVE the set :)

I think there might be something wrong with the poll results. There are 6 answers there, but there were only 4 options to choose from.

That being said, Bionicle fan here, and I absolutely love the set.

Where's the 'Why is everything a GWP nowadays?' option in the poll?

Can’t wait to get this! Also nice to see it’s apparently available with any $100 purchase. Initial leaks suggested it was going to only be valid with certain themes.

I think it’s great seeing a more modern, Mixelsy Tahu. If I can ever get the set, absolutely going to put him in the lava surfing pose the original was displayed in but could never reach!

Not a BIONICLE fan (my Dark Ages passed it by) but I quite like this as a pair of figures. Another nice way of creating posable figures, so good from that perspective.
I won't be actively pursuing it, though there is more likelihood of me getting it as a GWP (P>0) versus ever buying it if it was retail (P=0).

I'm glad most Bionicle fans are pleased. After collecting the entire run of Mixels and the occasional Marvel mech, this set doesn't do anything for me. I would have liked more direct Bionicle references like the ball on the chest. The faces were among the most distinctive elements of the line, and here we just get printed tiles, which is disappointing.

If this wasn't a GWP, I'd buy it for the fun, nostalgia, and novelty. However, since this is a GWP, I'll probably have to pass on it as there isn't much else by way of large Lego sets I want to buy right now.

IMHO Bionicle without the masks makes no sense

strange that Takua is not showed on the front of the box art.
I have nothing with Bionicle so this GWP will be passed.

Bionicle is probably one of Lego's worst ever themes.

This is Bionicle in name only.

@MegaBlocks said:
"Bionicle is probably one of Lego's worst ever themes."

Worse than Scala? Galidor?...
There are much worse themes.
(Apologies to fans of Scala and Galidor, if such people exist)

And what are you basing this on? The different construction techniques? Does that also make Hero Factory the worst? What about Technic?

Bionicle had its place and was popular back in its day.
Sure it may look odd and out of place especially compared to modern day sets, but that doesn't make it bad.

If it was offered in a normal manner I might buy it, but as it's a GWP I probably won't get it. I dislike the high barrier for entry and would rather just buy a set I want. Maybe from Bricklink if prices aren't too high

@MegaBlocks said:
"Bionicle is probably one of Lego's worst ever themes."

Of course you think that! Your username is “MEGABLOCKS” ? XD

@iookjj said:
"strange that Takua is not showed on the front of the box art."

Not that strange, looks like they are trying to replicate the original Tahu set box/canister art.

I'm a Bionicle fan and I like the set. But I'm also a Bionicle fan who doesn't have a spare £90 right now to buy enough Lego to be able to *get* the set, so...

It is what it is, and I'm still happy to see the theme acknowledged even if I'll likely never get to own it ^^

@bnic99 said:
" @MegaBlocks said:
"Bionicle is probably one of Lego's worst ever themes."

Worse than Scala? Galidor?...
There are much worse themes.
(Apologies to fans of Scala and Galidor, if such people exist)

And what are you basing this on? The different construction techniques? Does that also make Hero Factory the worst? What about Technic?

Bionicle had its place and was popular back in its day.
Sure it may look odd and out of place especially compared to modern day sets, but that doesn't make it bad."

bnic don't fall for the obvious troll!! they're just trying to bait reactions out of overly sensitive bionicle fans bnic!!! bniiiiiiiiiiic!!!!

I know some bionicle fans are weird about it ("waaah no ankles/too much system") but I personally can't wait to get it. This is gonna be my first visit to the official lego store since 2017.

@Ignore_Me said:
" @bnic99 said:
" @MegaBlocks said:
"Bionicle is probably one of Lego's worst ever themes."

Worse than Scala? Galidor?...
There are much worse themes.
(Apologies to fans of Scala and Galidor, if such people exist)

And what are you basing this on? The different construction techniques? Does that also make Hero Factory the worst? What about Technic?

Bionicle had its place and was popular back in its day.
Sure it may look odd and out of place especially compared to modern day sets, but that doesn't make it bad."

bnic don't fall for the obvious troll!! they're just trying to bait reactions out of overly sensitive bionicle fans bnic!!! bniiiiiiiiiiic!!!!"

Eh, I know.
Just bored enough to not care.

Not even much of a Bionicle fan to be an "overly sensitive" one. Had a couple as a kid I enjoyed playing with, but that was it. Not one of those mega fans who know all the characters and lore etc...

I like it and think that considering the limitations of it being a GWP (it being one is something that I do NOT agree with) it looks to be a pretty well done model. It has more articulation of the standard Ninjago EVO joint ones of about the same size.

And yeah, it's actually quite nice to think that Bionicle managed to actually be represented for the 100 year anniversary (despite it now being a year later...?).

I hope I will be able to get one from a second hand seller for a decent price (not Bricklink btw).

TAKUA!

I grew up with the theme and have since collected almost every Bionicle set. Sure this one isn't made from technic pieces and the masks are questionable but it's still great to see that this set exists (why a gwp though, such a shame). It's a great tribute to a lego theme many people grew up with. I'm looking forward to building my own.

I have yet to decide what to buy with the €100 threshold... maybe I'll head to pick a brick and purchase some 600 ball joints.

"surf on the rivers of molten lava that flow from the Mangai volcano"

So fun fact about BIONICLE, a lot of the terms from the early years were taken from Maori (some of which really should not have been) but some of the more fun translations have to do with the island's topography.

The Island of Mata Nui roughly translates to Big Face Island
Mangai Volcano roughly translates to Mouth Volcano
Mount Ihu roughly translates to Nose Mountain

These terms meant that if you followed BIONICLE and could actually speak Maori you'd have some clever foreshadowing that the whole island was just a giant robot's face.

Just carrying the fights from the first article into a new thread

Lego, by "disc thrower," do you mean Takua's arm? Snarking aside, I've been into Bionicle since *before* day one. There were images of upcoming sets in one issue of the Lego Mania mag, and Onua was one of them. I just thought he looked so interesting. So yeah, I'm definitely interested in adding this to my collection. I like the fact that the threshold to acquire it isn't two hundred or more.

I put 'not a Bionicle fan, and like the set'. So you can take whatever I say with a grain of salt I guess.
I didn't buy any Bionicle until years after it was discontinued, and I kind of regret that I missed out on it. The characters and story are really cool.
Honestly this set looks pretty good to me as a 'reimagining' with System techniques instead of (discontinued) CCBS parts, and I wish I could just buy it on its own. I will probably copy some of the techniques for MOCs.

Also, I have a serious question: everyone loved it and was making MOCs of other characters in the same style when they did the Classic 'tiny Tahu'. Why do people seem to have the complete opposite reaction to this set...?

@CapnRex101:
I just got off the phone with my local LEGO Store, and the assistant manager confirmed that it is restricted to in-house themes, specifically City, Monkie Kid, Ninjago, Friends, Classic, Dots, and Creator 3-in-1.

@Atuin said:
"On a side Note, is Takua's mask really Azure in this Set?

His original Pakari was 102 Medium Blue in both the official render of his 'McToran' form as well as in the Pewku Set.
So I Wonder Why they changed it? "

It was addressed in passing in the designer interview posted on BZPower (and I presume on other Bionicle fansites too), and it sounds like it simply came down to that the pieces they'd have needed currently aren't available in medium blue.

C'mon, they have never made classic Takua before! They have hard limits on what they can make as these small run tributes for true fans, and this is very heartwarming tribute which clearly shows the designer's passion for the theme. The stones, the packaging, the backpack from the online game... It's really awesome!

I disliked it at first but I kind of came around to it. I do legitimately like Takua and the base. Tahu isn't perfect, but after understanding a bit about the constraints the designers were under, I appreciate it a lot. In the end, I think I'll really like it as a one-off tribute to Bionicle. If we ever got a G3 with mixed parts, I think this might be a solid starting point to figure out what that should look like, but I'd still want it to be refined a lot more.

@karrit:
Anyone who looks at the sort of MOCs that get posted in the main annual Bionicle MOC competition, and still says it’s not possible to build anything with Bionicle parts, needs to be declared legally blind. I’ve got MOCs that are old enough to drink, which still get lots of praise whenever I display them, and they look like bar napkin sketches compared to some of the stuff I’ve seen online in the past five years. I get not being comfortable building with the parts, but during the original run, anyone who had built extensively with both would pretty much agree that System was better for manmade structures, while Bionicle was much more suited to organic stuff.

@Atuin:
Of the four parts used to make his mask (1x2 plate, 2x3 plate, 2x2x2/3 curved slope, double cheese), all four were produced in medium-azure last year. Only the plates were produced in medium-blue last year, the double cheese not since 2017, and the curved slope not at all. Medium-azure was easier on the parts budget. And it looks like the backpack is a darker shade of blue.

@legoDad42:
It’s not a great representation of the actual sets, but it’s not a bad likeness of the Mata Nui Online Game’s Flash animation.

@Iceranger22:
For about five years, it seemed the company had stopped admitting Bionicle ever happened, and then it made the list of themes for the fan vote. Even before the polls closed, a lot of us had read the fine print and concluded that the Fan Vote model had already been picked out, or at least shortlisted. The vote got rigged after the fact, Castle (appointed first place) and Classic Space (third place) got these big fancy sets, and Bionicle got bumped down to second and…Sad Tahu. It wasn’t even the whole set. It was one of several models that could be built with that set. It’s fairly representative of the Bionicle community’s relationship with TLG of late, but it was also the first physical model they’ve produced since the end of the reboot.

I dunno. Somewhere between the absurdity of the set itself, and the fact that it’s the closest they came to commemorating the 20th anniversary of the theme, it struck a chord. However, if you really dig into the comments, the majority of people who don’t like this set don’t like Bionicle at all. And the few Bionicle fans who don’t like it can’t stop other fans from making sets based on this frame any more than they could stop them from making companions for Sad Tahu.

@LegoLover58:
Being a GWP certainly didn’t help. All three of the themes I voted for got GWPed.

@ozbrickcreator:
It wasn’t very hard, provided you lived close to either a LEGO Store or a LEGOLAND store. I never remembered to pay attention to them except when I walked in the local store, when I’d check the bin to see what they had. I almost missed one wave (got the last copy of one of them), and accidentally bought one wave twice, but I also got the entire run.

So I was in the middle of reading an interview with the designers of this set and I'm coming back here to mention something that I don't think was mentioned in the review. Takua has different hands. One of his arms ends in a vertical clip and one ends in a horizontal clip. This is because the original 2001 McToran had two different hand designs. Normally LEGO sets don't mix clips of the same color in the same bag because kids would get confused, but they pulled it off here for that extra authenticity.

Huh, funny, at the current time the number of Bionicle fans who voted on Brickset outnumber the number of non Bionicle fans.

I can see who some legacy fans might not be thrilled with the set, but I love it, far more than the Anniversary Tahu we got last year too.

This is the sort of BIONICLE set I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember, what a shame that it’s a GWP. The most common criticism of both G1 and G2 was that it “wasn’t LEGO” (whatever that means), I’ve thought for years now that any return to BIONICLE was always going to look like this in some form.

Takua looks basically perfect; especially considering that it's specifically his MNOG appearance per the backpack, which works with the reduced detail. Even better, he's very expressive with the amount of functional joints, which essentially gives him the same amount of expression Tohunga/McToran characters had in MNOG and the flash shorts. (The original sets of those designs basically only had two usable joints, swivels for each foot.)

Tahu himself basically couldn't be done much better under the circumstances but is unfortunately the low point of the set on his own. That said, combining Tahu, Takua, and the display stand really ignites that nostalgia. Overall the whole set together is greater than the sum of its parts.

It's kinda impossible to design a Bionicle character at this scale in System parts with the greeble-detail the original sets had unless it used a sticker sheet, but I do think it was the right call to go for less decorations in favor of printed masks.

I think that's also part of the reason G2's sets were divisive - not just people dismissing CCBS, but also that there wasn't any mechanical greeble outside of one armor attachment mold.