BIONICLE

BIONICLE was a line of toys created by the LEGO Group marketed primarily for 5- to 16-year-olds. The line was launched on December 30, 2000 and 2001 in Canada, Europe, Australia and the United States. “BIONICLE” is a portmanteau constructed from the words “biological chronicle.” The concept is similar to Lego Group’s earlier themes, Slizers/Throwbots and RoboRiders in that each of those lines had characters based on classical elements. Earlier BIONICLE packages had displayed the TECHNIC logo, but it was later phased out, and BIONICLE evolved into its own line. In 2010, LEGO announced that they would stop making BIONICLE sets “for the foreseeable future.” However, while production of sets will stop, the story would not, as Greg Farshtey promised to continue to update it on the website. The story abruptly stopped in the middle of 2011, presumably to focus on other projects, ending the series in a cliffhanger. After production of the toyline ended in 2010, BIONICLE was replaced by Hero Factory, which was released later that same year. Hero Factory is widely considered to be the spiritual successor to BIONICLE.

The BIONICLE story is set in a science fantasy world and is primarily told through the book series BIONICLE Chronicles, BIONICLE Adventures, BIONICLE Legends, and BIONICLE Super Chapter Books, as well as through comic books published by DC Comics. Four films have also been made. The 2001–2008 BIONICLE story arc was set in a world inhabited predominantly by part-organic, part-machine beings with souls (most notably the Matoran) on planet Aqua Magna in a time predating what we know of history. The first four seasons of BIONICLE took place on an island called Mata Nui, dealing with the Quest for the Masks, Bohrok, Bohrok-Kal, and Mask of Light story arcs. This was followed in 2004 by two seasons of prequels on the futuristic utopia island of Metru Nui. In 2006, Lego launched a 3 year trilogy of new stories focusing primarily on the newly discovered Mask of Life, what would end up becoming the vessel that held the soul of the great spirit Mata Nui himself, culminating in a great swamp battle in the core of the Mata Nui Robot, where the dark villain Makuta tricks the heroes into placing his soul into Mata Nui’s true body. 2009 began a new saga of the storyline, leaving behind the previous years and venturing out to newer worlds. Mata Nui, having been banished by Makuta Teridax, finds his way to a mysterious planet called Bara Magna. Here he becomes the center of the story and makes new allies as he tries to find a way to save the Matoran from Makuta’s tyrannical rule.