Oof, that's a failure of a polybag right there. Still, it's Bionicle, and I want lore, NOW!

Anybody else remember the (very short) Singing Squid video from the Bionicle website Lego had?

...or is it just me?

I'm here to tell you that name is a horrible lie. "Squid Launcher Function"??? You can't put those words together, EVER, because the damn Squid Launcher never functioned. The worst launchers in BIONICLE's history. We got a great one later in 2007 with the Toa Mahri, but man, for the first 6 months of the year, all the canister sets (or larger) came with this stupid thing.

And now it is revealed that there was a whole set centered around this thing? I call BS. That picture, even for 2007 CGI, looks horribly suspect. How are those Piraka feet and Bohrok eyes connected to the launcher (a single piece, might I add, with only one axle peg connector)? How does any of that hold together? Did they airbrush a Technic framework of around 14 pieces out of this thing, because of those 22, I count maybe 8 in the picture.

This should be relegated to the parts bin of history. It doesn't deserve "lore" even if there is some. Too bad to be even a random prisoner of the Pit.

@MCLegoboy: Sure, it's Bionicle, but the squid launcher was easily the worst launcher function the line ever came up with, even if they looked cool.

I do want the Lore. Especially as someone mentioned something about NDA's expiring recently.

There’s nothing that says “Happy Valentines Day” like a squid launcher function.

I would personally love to launch some squids at random passers by, honestly. Unfortunately, Lego's "don't shoot it at people's eye" graphic leaves me worrisome.

@Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:
"And now it is revealed that there was a whole set centered around this thing? I call BS. That picture, even for 2007 CGI, looks horribly suspect. How are those Piraka feet and Bohrok eyes connected to the launcher (a single piece, might I add, with only one axle peg connector)? How does any of that hold together? Did they airbrush a Technic framework of around 14 pieces out of this thing, because of those 22, I count maybe 8 in the picture."

The parts list shows this part -- https://brickset.com/parts/4211865/2m-fric-snap-w-cross-hole -- so I assume it is connected to that and then some other Technic.

I actually kinda like this one. It takes a really useless part like the squid launcher and actually does something interesting with it, making some kind of tiny Rahi to populate Mahri Nui. The way the launcher is integrated into the rest of the model as a sort of carapace is honestly very impressive for the low piece count of the set, and unlike many other Bionicle polybags, it doesn’t look unfinished at all. There’s no open sockets or ball joints, and even some basic articulation with movement in the feet and tail.

It’s definitely one of my favourites of all the Bionicle polybags. It’s just cute, really.

@Murdoch17 said:
"Anybody else remember the (very short) Singing Squid video from the Bionicle website Lego had?

...or is it just me?"
I absolutely loved that video, and you can still find it. It's on BioMediaProject!
https://biomediaproject.com/bmp/videos/short-movies/
It's under Barraki and is the second video in the playlist.

Lore:

It's the shortest Bionicle "figure"

@Murdoch17 I cannot forget it. It is eternal.

Lore Time! This guy's not canon. Lore Time Over!

Although there is one thing about BIONICLE I do want to bring up. Christian Faber was one of the big people responsible for the early development of BIONICLE, and was the main developer of it's story bible. Recently another swath of his NDAs with the LEGO group expired, and now its fair-game for him to talk about and show off concept art for the ill-fated 2015 reboot.

So far he's only done one video on it, but there's three cool things about Gen 2's early concept and development that never came to fortition.

1 Mask of Time Theory was true. Well kinda. I can get into more details on what the original Mask of Time Theory was tomorrow if you want, but the short version is that in Generation 1 the Mask of Time was the bottom half of a mask. It covered the mouth, nose, and cheeks. In Generation 2 it was the top half of a mask. It covered the forehead, eyes, and temples. Many fans theorized that maybe at some point BIONICLE was all one big timeline, but at some point the Mask of Time was broken in half and split the world into two realities.

Turns out the original plan for G2 was very similar to this. The idea was that a villain from Gen 1 (it was never specified who) would get their hands on the Mask of Time. They then traveled back in time and "Back to the Futured" the past, causing everything in the present to subtly change. However, the Mask of Time also split in half thanks to this. 2015 was going to parallel 2001 much more directly, with the intent for audiences to go "wait that's not how it happened" when things subtly changed. Eventually our heroes would get the two halves of the Mask of Time back and time travel back to restore the Gen 1 timeline.

While this is much further speculation and not at all cannon, I am going to guess that Voporak and /or The Shadowed One was the big-bad they were talking about. Gen 1 ended with Voporak bringing the bottom half of the Mask of Time to TSO as a cliffhanger, and the top half of the Mask of Time could've easily been in one of the Great Beings fortresses on Bota Magna.

2 The Skull Spiders once had a much larger role, and they almost paralleled the 2005 story. Originally the Skull Spiders were going to capture Matoran and lock them inside of pods deep underground, and the Toa would have to travel bellow to rescue them. Visually the pods greatly resembled Visorak webbing, which when combined with them being called "Matoran Pods" harkens back to The Great Rescue plotline of Gen 1. Except... apparently the Metru never succeeded in this timeline. If I remember correctly this did play a role in the second Gen 2 novel but it never showed up in the main plot.

3 Robot Dinos. Okay so like, way back in the day Greg Farshtey revealed to us some of the original concepts for the Bara Magna story before the line was cancelled and they rushed out Journey's End. Originally the Valley of the Maze wasn't going to be a brief comic book but a full fledged story year of Mata Nui and co. facing off against the Elemental Lords as they searched for a power source for the Prototype Robot. In the end things went wrong and the power chamber ended up being blasted to the jungle moon of Bota Magna. The 2011 story was going to feature Mata Nui and co seeking out the Great Beings to try and get some sort of teleporter or spacecraft to take them back to Bara Magna. Then like 6 more years of unspecified content was going to happen and *then* we'd get Journey's End. The big hook for this 2011 jungle moon story/toys was going to be "Biomechanical Dinosaurs." Originally the big bad of Gen 2 was going to ride around on a cyborg T. rex as a tribute to this scrapped plotline, meaning that in a-round-about way Gen 2 was going to pick up right where scrapped Gen 1 content left off.

@Randomness said: "I would personally love to launch some squids at random passers by, honestly."

Forget the Lego. You can always go to your local seafood market and do this, the old fashioned way. It's a lot of fun.

Or so I've heard.

*whistles innocently*

@GSR_MataNui said:
"Lore Time! This guy's not canon. Lore Time Over!

Although there is one thing about BIONICLE I do want to bring up. Christian Faber was one of the big people responsible for the early development of BIONICLE, and was the main developer of it's story bible. Recently another swath of his NDAs with the LEGO group expired, and now its fair-game for him to talk about and show off concept art for the ill-fated 2015 reboot.

So far he's only done one video on it, but there's three cool things about Gen 2's early concept and development that never came to fortition.

1 Mask of Time Theory was true. Well kinda. I can get into more details on what the original Mask of Time Theory was tomorrow if you want, but the short version is that in Generation 1 the Mask of Time was the bottom half of a mask. It covered the mouth, nose, and cheeks. In Generation 2 it was the top half of a mask. It covered the forehead, eyes, and temples. Many fans theorized that maybe at some point BIONICLE was all one big timeline, but at some point the Mask of Time was broken in half and split the world into two realities.

Turns out the original plan for G2 was very similar to this. The idea was that a villain from Gen 1 (it was never specified who) would get their hands on the Mask of Time. They then traveled back in time and "Back to the Futured" the past, causing everything in the present to subtly change. However, the Mask of Time also split in half thanks to this. 2015 was going to parallel 2001 much more directly, with the intent for audiences to go "wait that's not how it happened" when things subtly changed. Eventually our heroes would get the two halves of the Mask of Time back and time travel back to restore the Gen 1 timeline.

While this is much further speculation and not at all cannon, I am going to guess that Voporak and /or The Shadowed One was the big-bad they were talking about. Gen 1 ended with Voporak bringing the bottom half of the Mask of Time to TSO as a cliffhanger, and the top half of the Mask of Time could've easily been in one of the Great Beings fortresses on Bota Magna.

2 The Skull Spiders once had a much larger role, and they almost paralleled the 2005 story. Originally the Skull Spiders were going to capture Matoran and lock them inside of pods deep underground, and the Toa would have to travel bellow to rescue them. Visually the pods greatly resembled Visorak webbing, which when combined with them being called "Matoran Pods" harkens back to The Great Rescue plotline of Gen 1. Except... apparently the Metru never succeeded in this timeline. If I remember correctly this did play a role in the second Gen 2 novel but it never showed up in the main plot.

3 Robot Dinos. Okay so like, way back in the day Greg Farshtey revealed to us some of the original concepts for the Bara Magna story before the line was cancelled and they rushed out Journey's End. Originally the Valley of the Maze wasn't going to be a brief comic book but a full fledged story year of Mata Nui and co. facing off against the Elemental Lords as they searched for a power source for the Prototype Robot. In the end things went wrong and the power chamber ended up being blasted to the jungle moon of Bota Magna. The 2011 story was going to feature Mata Nui and co seeking out the Great Beings to try and get some sort of teleporter or spacecraft to take them back to Bara Magna. Then like 6 more years of unspecified content was going to happen and *then* we'd get Journey's End. The big hook for this 2011 jungle moon story/toys was going to be "Biomechanical Dinosaurs." Originally the big bad of Gen 2 was going to ride around on a cyborg T. rex as a tribute to this scrapped plotline, meaning that in a-round-about way Gen 2 was going to pick up right where scrapped Gen 1 content left off. "

wow. I hope in some alternate universe, this actually was released. I wish I lived there!

Hm, what does this image need? (Cranks saturation and contrast to 100%) ah that’s better.

Squid Launcher! Oh yeaaaaah!

I believe Vector (in the Gru's movie Despicable Me!) had a squid launcher gun.
(I guess @Trigger_ is referencing that)

@HOBBES said:
"I believe Vector (in the Gru's movie Despicable Me!) had a squid launcher gun.
(I guess @Trigger_ is referencing that)"

What’s your Vector victor

@Kynareth said:
" @HOBBES said:
"I believe Vector (in the Gru's movie Despicable Me!) had a squid launcher gun.
(I guess @Trigger_ is referencing that)"

What’s your Vector victor"

Do we have clearance, Clarence?

@MCLegoboy said:
"BioMediaProject!
https://biomediaproject.com/bmp/videos/short-movies/"

Smack in the middle of my 30+ year dark ages, I was the producer of an in-box Lego promo CD-ROM. That Bionicle vid site suddenly made me remember that I think there was a Bionicle video on it. But I can't find it on that site. I'd love to see it again.

It was the year 2000, and I'd never heard of Bionicle (presumably because it hadn't quite launched yet). But I have this memory of a canister floating on waves. Can't remember anything else at all, other than the rendered vid we received from Lego to include on the CD had a glitch - I think it was a short repeated section, maybe of lights coming on on the canister. Bit of a panic when we spotted it not long before launch (actually shortly after I'd left the company).

I had great fun coding a whack-a-mole game to go on the CD, with minifigs rising out of, I think it was craters, or something. The game had the uninspiring title of something like "Catch the Character". We had to get all the translations in for all of Lego's different markets, which were all perfectly mundane, apart from Italian, which called it something splendidly Italian like "Rapido Presto!".

Wish I still had a copy of that CD. Not that I think I own any hardware which can play a CD-ROM these days.

@GSR_MataNui said:
"Funny enough a few beta copies of the game leaked. 3 or 4 years ago a bunch of people in the fandom managed to fix some of its bugs and make it playable. From what I hear things like the final boss fight were super unfinished, but it's still theoretically possible to play through a cancelled LEGO Game around 20 years after it was canned. "

Gotta love the commitment of those Bonkle fans.