Bionicle

This article is probably off-topic, but tolerated because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

Bionicle is a setting and toyline created by the Lego company. The story centers on some polynesian, element-themed, kid-sized robots* on an island, living under the shadow of evil, etc.; until some element-themed, adult-sized robot* heroes appear. And it gets unendingly more complicated from that. If the video game, Warframe, had a grandpa as a toy franchise, Bionicle would be it.

History

Hold on to your britches, all you ten-year olds out there. You're in for a ride.

Despite always being a popular toy line among children, the Lego Group in the late 90's was on the verge of bankruptcy. Most of Lego’s sets leaned heavily on generic themes like “knights” and “pirates” and quite deliberately had no lore or narrative behind them except for what kids made up in their head while playing with them. Star Wars was still their only licensed IP at the time, and while its sets sold like hotcakes by virtue of being fucking Star Wars, it produced limited returns for the company due to having to pay royalties to Lucasfilm. Lego, realizing that kids like stories, tried to obtain the rights to make other licensed sets, but were largely unsuccessful. By all market projections, they would have gone kaput within the 2000’s.

Lego’s answer came from within its “Technic” theme, funcional sets that eschewed bricks in favor of specialized pieces like gears, axles, liftarms, and – most crucially – ball-and-socket joints, which some dude at Lego discovered could be used to build some kickass action figures. The initial pitch by employees involved in marketing was for a voodoo-inspired theme, but Alastair Swinnerton worked with them on revising the concept over multiple drafts into a Polynesian-inspired story about biological technological chronicles, which inspired the name Bionicle. The end result was a VERY elaborate story which spanned multiple generations, full of plot hooks and creatures to make sets of. Bob Thompson led the team that grouped the story by medium.

After promising results from test markets in Europe and Australia, the first six sets (the OG Toa) were released with only mild advertising in North America in the 2000 Christmas season. They were an AMAZING success, earning the company more revenue than any line previously. Lego quickly scrambled to market it, making CG television commercials depicting each of the heroes as well as selling boxed sets containing masks molded in the shape of each of the six but in each other's colors.

Lego Magazine began featuring an ongoing comic series written by Greg Farshtey that contained most of the lore for the series, and was later published by DC Comics as an ongoing series. Tie-in video games also factored heavily in the series promotion, starting with Flash games on the official website, and later games for PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, etc. Four direct-to-home-video movies and many shorts were made, and a few musicians made a career just writing music for Bionicle (Rob Zombie was even on board to create a song for Bionicle at one point). Podcasts and novels were also involved in some of the storytelling, although they were largely sidelined in favor of the visual media.

The Bionicle theme (which is what groupings of sets under a given, well, theme are called in Lego) continued through multiple generations until 2010 when it was ended in favor of the newer original lines including Ninjago. Like most companies in the late 2010's, Lego resurrected the Bionicle line in 2015 to cash in on nostalgia and start a new generation with a Lego addiction the same as the last. As of now, research indicates 85% of American children know about Bionicle and 45% own at least one set.

Setting

Bionicle, as stated above, is based in Polynesian folklore.

Most non-plant life in the setting is actually organic robots (which is to say some of their tissues are mechanical while others are organic, sort of a "fully-integrated cyborg" if you will) who can lose or replace their parts although they can feel pain and suffer fatal wounds, eat and thus most likely excrete, and have genders (but not sexes). Compared to a similar work, Transformers, Bionicle is closer to the organic side of things. (How do they procreate, you ask? well that's a question that the writers impressively avoided having to address until almost the very end, see below).

An unfortunate fact about this universe is that it eventually got bogged down by a shitton of serials and plot near the end, which was already being forcibly wrapped up due to financial reasons, so thing may get really sketchy at parts.

Prologue

A long time ago, on a planet called Spherus Magna, a race of godlike creatures (who appear to be humans, although they are only ever shown in silhouette) called Great Beings, although whether naturally from there or if they came from someplace else is not clear; they had to tame the planet early on. Also living on the planet were other intelligent species, living in six tribes. Great Beings were creators at heart, although they ruled over their creations and saw to it that balance was maintained. In time they chose six individuals from the planet’s other native, intelligent species to become the Element Lords whom they infused with the power to control one of the respective elements, and whose sole task was to rule while the Great Beings created. This worked for thousands of years, during which the Great Beings attempted to build a giant race of robots with the prototype simply exploding. Eventually however, a shift in power left the Elemental Lord of Ice with a spring of Energized Protodermis, a substance from the core of Spherus Magna which was used by the Great Beings to create life and if necessary destroy it as well. He refused to share it, and the Core War broke out with each Element Lord attempting to destroy the others, and in the process of their mining the Energized Protodermis destabilizing the planet itself.

Knowing what was to happen, the Great Beings created a race of tiny robots called Matoran who in turn built a giant robot called Mata Nui out of Protodermis. The Great Beings busied themselves creating artifacts which their robots could use called Kanohi masks, which grant various powers when worn. Without a Kanohi mask, a Matoran will fall unconscious. The Great Beings then made final efforts to stop the destruction caused by the Elemental Lords, who refused to see reason and fought against all creations the Great Beings made to attempt to control them. They also created many McGuffins, from the Mask of Life to a mysterious device to basically kill all robots everywhere, all with the general idea "the solution to more potential for things to go wrong is more and more failsafes". Eventually the planet was split in three during the Shattering. One planet which was one giant desert, and two moons with one being simply a giant ocean ball and another as one giant jungle which was half frozen, among which where dispersed the remaining inhabitants of Spherus Magnus. Long before this the Great Beings had activated Mata Nui and sent him flying off into space, to return when it was time to reunite the three broken bits of Spherus Magnus. They eventually fucked off to who knows where, although one hid himself as a Matoran to live inside Mata Nui and see firsthand what they had wrought, and another hung around on the jungle moon doing nothing useful..

Mata Nui used an artifact from the great beings, known as antidermis, to create a species that would populate his body (“The Matoran Universe”) with animals, and who soon called themselves the Brotherhood of Makuta, lead by one of their number called Miserix. They protected the Matoran while Mata Nui explored the universe, and to do this they were given the power to shape the various mechanical lifeforms of the planet into "Rahi" which were modified servants. Mata Nui’s brain was based in a giant mechanical city called Metru Nui. In time the Matoran began to worship Mata Nui as their god, and a secret society called the Order of Mata Nui came about among the more powerful species of the universe. The Order chose the best of the Matoran to be elevated/upgraded into warriors called Toa which were patterned after ancient warriors called Toa Mata (more on them later).

Not long after Mata Nui created the Barraki, six "perfect" leader lifeforms who formed the "League of Six Kingdoms" because of the six divisions of Mata Nui's body one of which each was designated to guard over in order to contain the numerous threats which the feral creations of the Great Beings had begun to pose. They quickly raised legions of robotic organisms. They were instructed to never harm the Makuta, Matoran, or Metru Nui, and had a very uneasy alliance with the peoples that Mata Nui had created. As the Barraki grew more and more bold they coerced the robot peoples into aiding them in their plan to overthrow Mata Nui and veritably take their territories as their own (as they were only technically glorified wardens at the time). When it was discovered that the Barraki had grown bold enough to infiltrate Metru Nui while planning to kill Mata Nui himself, the Makuta finally declared war on them and formed an uneasy alliance with the Toa (whose origins the Makuta were not aware of).

After the defeat of the Barraki by the combined forces of the Toa (armed in giant robots (yes, a robot within a robot within an even bigger robot) called "Exo-Toa") and the Makuta, the Order of Mata Nui took them away before the Makuta second in command could execute them, trapping them rather than destroying them. Some among Makuta then began to plan to overthrow Mata Nui themselves while destroying all threats to Metru Nui (which increasingly became a police state). After a small war between two factions of Matoran over territory, the Makuta destroyed the combatants to the last in a spectacle for all Matoran to see. The Matoran, rather than be cowed, began to fear and hate the Makuta. Miserix responded by moving the Makuta further from the city, assigning his second-in-command Teridax to control Metru Nui itself from his skyfortress Mangaia. After a Makuta became aware of Teridax's own plan to destroy Mata Nui, the Brotherhood of the Makuta met to vote on the course of action. Miserix and the loyalists were in the minority, with Miserix sentenced to death but hidden instead by his executioners while the others had "accidents".

The Makuta became increasingly close to Mata Nui as they planned their betrayal, subjugating all beings they encountered to form their massive armies (using their already massive armies of Rahkshi, which were enforcer-like robot suits powered by organic worms called Kraata that the Makuta could synthesise from their bodies) with only the Matoran still revering Mata Nui and the Great Beings. This last unattainable symbol, the love of the laborers, was what drove Teridax to finally betray Mata Nui by messing with his on/off switch when he began to pull both the moons back together to restore Spherus Magna to its original state, as his 'brain' is essentially located somewhere within Metru-Nui. He was forced into a comatose-like state, collapsing on the watery moon that was Aqua Magna. Before all this though the remaining Toa of Metru Nui, Lhikan, distributed his powers into Toa Stones, giving them to destined Matoran, while Mata Nui himself manipulated Teridax into believing different matoran were destined. These new Toa would replace Lhikan and save the Matoran, foiling Teridax’s original plan. Through kidnapping and impersonating the Turaga (a Toa who has sacrificed their power, revered as tribe leaders (this one's a mayor)) of Metru-Nui Makuta was able to turn these Toa into outlaws in the minds of the Matoran of Metru-Nui, however the Toa with the help of Lhikaan discovered Teridax' plot to enslave the Matoran of Metru-Nui. The ensuing battles against Teridax and two members of the 'Dark Hunters' organisation (another conglomeration of robot organisms, these having decided they liked money and would work for whoever paid them) he had hired to help him deal with the new Toa saw the two mercenaries and Lhikaan killed or destroyed and Teridax encased in solid protodermis, though not before the Matoran were forced into mind-wipe chambers and turned comatose as the first stage of Teridax' seemingly failed grand scheme.

The new Toa team, dubbed 'Toa Metru' transported the Matoran out of Metru-Nui to Mata-Nui, which was the island formed on top of Mata Nui's gigantic robot face (which was slightly above the sea level of Aqua Magna) as part of his camouflage system. They then realised they forgot some and went back to Metru-Nui to find that it had been overrun by Visorak (giant robot spiders) who were being controlled by two Vortixx (a manufacturing race of robot organisms constructed to produce replacement/new parts for Mata Nui within Mata Nui, that like every other race of robot organisms that the Great Beings screwed up so severely ended up manufacturing weapons and selling them to anyone who wanted them), one with a strange fetish for Teridax, who had carved off a crystal piece of the protodermis that held Teridax and placed it near her heartlight (a mechanical light that beats to indicate that the particular robotic organism is still functioning properly). This Vortixx, named "Roodaka" planned to release Teridax (even she didn't know how, at least not until the Toa Metru came back). The ensuing war resulted in: the formation of the Toa Hordika (grotesque beast-like mutated versions of the Toa Metru after they were exposed to Visorak venom), the discovery of the legendary Keetongu (a healer? organism that cured the Matoran of robot sickness, disease and poisoning), the discovery of the Rahaga (previously the Toa Haga, mutated into small Rahkshi-like organisms by Roodaka, hence the contraction), hundreds of dead Visorak (animal cruelty), one renegade Toa Hordika, one nearly-dead Toa Hordika and 2 very dead Vortixx (Sidorak, Roodaka's partner, who wasn't that bad a guy, was crushed by Keetongu's fists. He was just tagging along for the ride. Maybe he fell for the wrong female robot, but seriously. What the fuck Keetongu.). It all went Just as Planned for Roodaka however as only the power of the Toa who made the protodermis seal could break the seal, and after the Toa fired all their combined powers at her (genius idea) Vakama (Toa-turned renegade-turned good again leader of the Toa Metru) killed her with his own Rhotuka blast, straight to the heart (which is where she'd placed the small fragment of Makuta's protodermis seal), and Teridax was free. But they got the Matoran so it was worth it... right? However, all the Matoran they had transported were still comatose (some had also been lost in the protodermis sea, but the Toa Metru gave no fucks as they were mostly the corrupted Matoran (not that they knew that)). The Toa Metru decided to sacrifice their Toa power and become Turaga in order to wake the comatose Matoran, and since they were mind-wiped the new Turaga taught them a pretty little lie to keep them in the dark about the truth of their origins in Metru-Nui and that they were living in a giant robot. Their mythology put Mata Nui as the creator and god of all things and Teridax, now merely named Makuta, as his evil brother, who out of jealousy struck Mata Nui down and was then free to unleash his darkness upon all of Matorankind. Meanwhile, the newly reawakened Teridax waited underneath the island at the gate between Mata-Nui and Metru-Nui (which was actually Mata Nui's mouth) while he watched his plan to control all of creation unfold.

And this is all the backstory.

Year 1: Hunting Masks

Mata Nui, like almost everything else in the Bionicle universe, is conveniently grouped into six dominant geographical features including coasts, jungles, volcanic areas, canyons, an expansive underground, and a snowy mountainous region. The Matoran quickly spread throughout them and lived lives full of suffering (other than the rare occasions when they could gather to play sports of course) as they were constantly preyed on by Rahi. Each Matoran tribe is lead by a village elder called a Turaga. During the time before the shattering, the Great Beings had created two robots designed to look after the Matoran. Karzahni was the being who controlled the facility which repaired the ancient Matoran, and in time in their mythology he had become known as a master of some vague horrible underworld. The other being, Artakha, was created to construct the Matoran and to upgrade them as needed; in Matoran mythology he is seen as a brother to Karzahni and rules over a divine realm where evil cannot enter. In time most of the knowledge of the ancient Matoran was lost to all but their seemingly immortal Turaga, save that Mata Nui is the loving creator, Makuta is his hated brother who forced him to sleep, Toa are ancient heroes of some kind, and that if you go out of the village without your Kanohi on a Rahi will eat you.

One day a traveling Matoran named Takua who was a storyteller unintentionally gathered six ancient stones and brought them to the heart of Mata Nui, called Kini Nui, which summoned six ancient canisters from the ocean to the island (these canisters are identical to the containers of the original toys and were intended to be used to play with). Each canister contained a fabled hero, called the Toa. They each burst from their canister in parts, and assembled themselves before setting off instinctively in search of their respective people. Each knew only how to speak and what their own name was. In actuality, they were the very first of the Toa; the aforementioned Toa Mata, who were never Matoran. The Toa Mata were created by Artakha and trained by the first Matoran warrior, all as a contingency plan in case Mata Nui was ever vanquished.

• Tahu, Toa of fire. Wields a sword made of fire, generic red-headed leader guy. His tribe of Matoran are Ta-Matoran, and are a disciplined people. All Ta-Matoran are male.
• Gali, Toa of water. Has hooks for hands and can breath underwater, chill as fuck until you piss her off. She's also the smartest of the Toa. Her tribe are the Ga-Matoran, an easy-going race of diplomats. All Ga-Matoran are female, and on Mata Nui are the ONLY females of the Matoran race.
• Lewa, Toa of air. Has a giant fucking axe,and is the cliche as fuck rookie character.When the writers need someone to get fucked up he's always the first choice. His tribe is the Le-Matoran, who are a race of less-annoying Kender. All Le-Matoran are male.
• Pohatu, Toa of stone. Has REALLY strong feet, and with his friendliness and joviality, is a pretty swell guy. His tribe is the Po-Matoran, who are craftsmen and huge sports fans. All Po-Matoran are male.
• Onua, Toa of earth. A tunneler with claws, the conscience of the Toa. His tribe is the Onu-Matoran, a race of historians and industrialists. All Onu-Matoran are male.
• Kopaka, Toa of ice. Has a sword and a shield. A complete 2cool4school loner who only likes Pohatu and Gali. His tribe is Ko-Matoran, isolationists and scholars. All Ko-Matoran are male.

The Toa initially fought against the Rahi, first gathering five masks each (the same as the others had, but in their color) which formed into a golden mask (looking like their own) which granted all the special powers of the masks at once, then gathering six Makoki stones to unlock the Makuta lair. There the six merged into two and fought Teridax's minions then split again and suffered through Teridax's trials until they could vanquish his body.

Year 2: The Bohrok Awaken

Well, we all know that insects give you superpowers when they throw their faces at you.

They then fought the Bohrok, old feral creations of the Great Beings who were controlled in a hivemind through mask-like critters in their heads called "Krana" (which when worn controlled the mind of the Toa or Matoran it was on). The Toa continued their gathering quests by collecting all six colors of the eight types of Krana to unlock the nest of the Bohrok and defeat the twin Bahrag, the queens of the Bohrok swarms. After the fight, the Toa Mata fell into some pits of energized protodermis, and were mutated into a new form, now known as the Toa Nuva. The final servants of the Bahrag, Bohrok-Kal, were freed when the Bahrag were defeated with the intent of freeing them in a contingency plan. The Toa temporarily lost their powers, fought amongst themselves, yadda yadda, used the Mask of Time to slow time and defeat them. No collecting shit this time though.

Year 3: The Mask of Light

Takua, the Matoran who had initially summoned the Toa by mistake, discovered the Mask of Light and with his pal Jala/Jaller (Yeah, legal issues meant name-changeroos. Who knew the Maori people would get pissed their language was used? This was later used to create an in-universe holiday called Naming Day.) went on a quest to find the legendary seventh Toa of Light while the Toa themselves fought Teridax's contingency plan of having been defeated (everyone seems to have one) called the Rahkshi, powerful anti-Toa controlled by shadow-slugs called Kraata. Takua was revealed to actually BE the seventh Toa, Takanuva, who would go on to defeat Teridax, merge with his corpse after falling into another pit of energized protodermis, and use the last of Teridax's power to resurrect fallen Matoran.

Year 4: Metru Nui

High tech city, futuristic guns and double wielding - Shadowrun in LEGO form.

The Matoran leaders, the Turaga, then summoned the seven Toa to tell them of the history of Metru Nui and how they themselves were the Toa in the final days of the island. They informed them the seventh Matoran tribe, the Av-Matoran (who are both male and female) still reside there. Metru Nui was essentially Mata Nui, but as a massive sprawling metropolis, so everyone had fancy tech.

See, the Toa Metru (Different name for different gen) were chosen to deal with some giant weed called the Morbuzakh, but as it turned out, that was all a front for a bigger conspiracy involving the Turaga being corrupt (and actually being Teridax in disguise) and hunting down an older Toa with the help of mercenaries. The mercenaries get assimilated by Teridax, Teridax gets beaten with the help of the Mask of Time (a macguffin that's appeared before-later), and the team had to evacuate the entire metropolis.

Year 5: Web of Shadows

The Toa must rescue the rest of the matoran, and to do so they must venture back into Metru Nui to complete their quest. Upon their arrival they find their beloved city has gone to shit, overrun by the rahi that escaped from containment after an earthquake caused by Mata Nui crashing into the ocean moon of Aqua Magna. This caused the archives to be breached, and allowed the Rahi spill out into streets to damage the city further. Before the Toa can make it back across the shore, their improvised boat sinks, with the Toa just barely making it across, only to br captured by the Visorak. They are paralyzed and left helpless only able to watch as we hear the sounds of the visorak and see a closeup of their meat grinder mouths. The Visorak are a species of four legged spiders that attack in massive hordes, usually destroying the ecosystem they currently inhabit, and for a kids toyline have some pretty horrifying powers such as fatally dehydrating their victim or inflating them until they burst.

After that horror scene we're introduced to our two sapient villains, Sidorak an egotistical asshole who takes credit for other people's accomplishments, and generally likes to act like the big kahuna even though he's a coward. His right hand woman is known as Roodaka, and she prefers to work from the shadows, and even manages to seduce one of the heroes..

After being cocooned by the Visoraks and injected with venom they begin to painfully mutate, becoming more reptilian and developing animalistic tendencies, before they are dropped from the very top of the Metru Coliseum,. They are saved by the Rahaga, another group of mutated toa, who reveal to them they've been transformed into the Hordika: a mutant that is half-toa and half beast. The only hope of a cure lays with a rare Rahi called Keetongu, but after being told that they have to search for him their leader Vakama leaves the group and goes to rescue the matoran by himself and gets captured, allowing Roodaka to seduce him to her side in an attempt to free Makuta from his protodetmis cage.

In the end, the mutation was reversed, the rest of the Matoran were saved, and the Toa Metru became the Turaga of Mata Nui.

Year 6: Voya Nui - The Closest We'll Get to a Ghetto

"Holla's, pose fo the camera! Big grins ya'all! Look real tough an' ghetto!"

The Toa Nuva (save Takanuva) decided to scout out a new island called Voya Nui, but get kidnapped by some insane thugs called the Piraka, who had their own cheesy rap number. Oh, and they also apparently kidnapped the All-American Rejects, but who likes that band? Well, the deal is that they're looking for something and are only working together just so they can get the big prize and stab all the others in the back in reality-tv drama. With angry gangstas.

Regardless, a pack of Matoran (All major players with names and toys) take a voyage there and get transformed into the Toa Inika. While there, they realize that a) the Piraka are enslaving the populace. and b) The Piraka are looking for a major macguffin called the Mask of Life, which could save the island of Mata Nui. The issue with this is that the mask then goes underwater after the Toa beat all its contrived and press-ganged guardians.

Year 7: Mahri Nui - Under the Sea

You'd think robots don't need underwater gear, but what gives. Matoro is the guy out right.

The Toa Inika realize that they're now mutated by the dick...ridged Mask of Life and thus have to go underwater to retrieve it. Also, they get new tools and become the Toa Mahri. They discover the ruins of a civilization called Mahri Nui, now run by deranged marine warlords called the Barraki, who are still angry about shit. Also, Teridax is looking for the Mask too, but is disguised as a seemingly-dead robot. In the end, Toa Matoro (the Ice one) realizes that the island is dying and thus decides to sacrifice his life in order to empower the Mask of Life.

Thus, Matoro died an hero.

Year 8: The Toa Nuva's Comeback

Part of the upheaval Mata Nui's emergency CPR triggered further fractures in the bedrock of the sea floor, revealing the otherwise hidden land of Karda Nui; the bastion of the last-remaining Av-Matoran in existence (from where Takua/Takanuva had originally been plucked). As the name "Karda" suggests, Karda Nui was revealed to be no less than the actual heart of Mata Nui himself and it was besieged by lesser Makuta. With the Toa Mahri now short a man, the Toa Nuva take over the hunt for the Mask of Life. Lewa, Kopaka and Pohatu take to the skies to defend the Av-Matoran from the Makuta's predations and to find the Mask of Life while Tahu, Gali and Onua dive into the swamps below (formed from mixing Proto-Dermis and the seawater flooding in from the damaged roof) to find the keystones needed to unlock Mata Nui's core to genuinely revive him. Takanuva was... detoured, after having been attacked by a Makuta (becoming infused with Shadow by having half his Light powers drained), he was cast into a portal and found himself quite busy with extra-dimensional, alternate timeline escapades.

In the meantime, the Mask of Life itself had been inspired by Matoro's sacrifice and resolved to be a "Toa" just like him. To do this, it literally created itself a body, magicked up a hoverboard and started cruising around looking for Matoran to save and to perform other heroic Toa deeds. Of course, it didn't really know how Toa acted or understood that generally Toa don't go for the kill when possible, so its methods for dealing with enemies were rather... extreme (it dealt with one Makuta by reversing its evolution; returning it from it's gaseous form into one of meat and substance. While it was still in armor built for fluid substances). Eventually, after some awkward meet-n-greets with the Toa Nuva, they eventually convince it to relinquish its body and sense of self so that it can fulfill its purpose and fully revive Mata Nui.

Cut back to the island of Mata Nui, now barren following the released Bohrok's cleansing. The entire island shatters and crumbles away, revealing a massive head. The scene then demonstrates the sheer enormity of the actual Mata Nui as he rises from the ocean. There, standing 40 million feet tall (yes, this is his canonical size) is Mata Nui's actual body. Yes, that means we're nearing Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan niveau of huge.

Unfortunately for all parties involved, this was exactly what Teridax had wanted ever since he induced Mata Nui's coma. During Mata Nui's awakening, Teridax managed to slip into Mata Nui's brain and highjack control of his body. Using Mata Nui's borderline godlike powers, he forced Mata Nui's spirit into the Mask of Life and fired it off into space, all but guaranteeing his newfound supremacy. At least, so he would believe...

Year 9 - Glatorians

Mata Nui ends up crashlanding on Bara Magna, a desert-like wasteland where tribes fight for survival by having their gladiato- Errh, Glatorians fight in non-lethal combat while also warding off a tribe of scorpion-people and roving bandits. So the Great Spirit decides to make a body while trying to find out what happened and along the way foil an invasion plot by the likely-evil Strakk. After killing their leader, Mata Nui discovers another-less stable body of massiveness which he orders back into shape so he can finish things.

Year 10: S.T.A.R.S - The End

Anything is better with giant robots beating up giant robots while robots within said robots beat up other robots within said other giant robot.

While Mata Nui was busy being a gladiator, Makuta's been busy making everything a living hellhole inside him. Matoran are slaves and Toa are helpless to stop an infinite legion of baddies. Then Mata Nui arrives in his fuckhuge suit and the two deities begin having an apocalyptic smackdown. The Toa meet the Glatorians, both sabotage the Makuta, more plot threads wrap up, and in the end, Makuta ends up 360-Noscoping his own dumb ass.

And that's the end of the Bionicle.

Year 11: REBOOT TIME BITCHES!

Then 2015 came around and Bionicle, which was pretty much abandoned since 2010, was brought back in 2015 as a reboot, now focused on an island called Okoto.

Now the origin involves two brothers: Ekimu and Makuta. Both made masks, but Makuta was jealous at how people liked his bro's masks, so he made one that was essentially too hax to exist. The brothers fought, Ekimu was sent into deathless sleep, and the world became infested by SKULL SPIDERS.

Prophecies mentioned that 6 heroes (the Toa Mata, now renamed the less culturally-insensitive Masters Apparently an arbitrary name. They're still called the Toa in story, and the 2016 sets call them "Uniters") would come to deliver them. Surprise they did. They had to dig up Golden Masks in order to max their powers out, teamed up, and killed defeated the Giant Enemy Spider (The Lord of Skull Spiders is killed later in one of the books. Apparently falling off a cliff wasn't fatal to it).

After all that, the Toa then went into an ancient city where Ekimu and Makuta used to live. They fought and defeated the army of skeletons which had infested the city (Not without being forced to work together after each toa was stupid enough to try blindly charging into fights alone and getting their masks stolen) and revived Ekimu. They fought the big bad of the year, a big evil skeleton named Kulta, defeated him and put him in skeleton jail (Which he later breaks out of in one of the books), and retrieved the first of the 3 MacGuffin masks of the reboot. There is more plot detail in the books, but most of it is simply world building, mostly irrelevant to the current toa's objectives.

Year 12: RIP (again)

Skip to year two. Major upgrade in story vehicle, rather then the simplistic 2D flash animations on the website, now there is a netflix series!. Starts largely the same, Toa need more golden masks, need to find Really Important Mask no. 2, though, there are a few twists:

1. They also need to find elemental creatures, and befriend them.

2. The villain is, instead of a big spider with a lot of mooks, a "Hunter", who works for Makuta, named Umarak.

This goes as expected: Toa get masks largely without issue (Despite Lewa getting into an incursion with the aforementioned Hunter, he managed to hold his own against him). Afterwards, they mind-meld with the creatures by taping them to their backs, and go to a fuckhuege maze. However, Pohatu apparently hates his creature after a traumatic encounter with some Skull Scorpions he had last year, since his creature is, incidentially, a scorpion. So, apparently having the pre-reboot Kopaka's personality, decides to largely try to fly solo. This ends badly, with Umarak managing to exploit the gap in Pohatu and his creature's bond, and allowing him to steal the aforementioned Important Mask no 2 (Makuta's mask of control). After Pohatu learns the power of friendship and saves his creature's life, Umarak goes back to his secret meeting spot with Makuta... who then forces him to put on the Mask of Control, turning him into a hideous monstrosity now under Makuta's control! Just as planned.

The remainder of the second year seems to be focusing on Makuta trying to get his body back, as well as retrieving the Very Important Mask no. 3, but very little is known about it at the moment, and the release date for the other two episodes of the netflix series isn't until the 29th of July.

The last 2 episodes of the Netflix series came out! And well, shit. The first one was OK, the Toa basically just fought a bunch of golem monsters and then confronted a mutated version of Umarak, who now looks like some kind of jacked up demon. Then the 2nd episode was a clusterfuck which ended with all of the remaining questions just being hand waved, and the toa going back to the stars, for some reason.

Turns out, Lego had decided to cancel Bionicle last minute, forcing the writers to write in a proper ending for the series last minute. So, yeah, no more Bionicle. Likely ever, this time. We aren't even getting the final mask or the main villain (Makuta), in set form, so that's fun.

At least Lego has the decency to take a bunch of detailed pictures of the model they used for their netflix show, so if you need Makuta, you can build him yourself!...sans his mask. Oh well, hopefully some tool will make it on shapeways or something

RIP BIONICLE (again): 2001-2010, 2015-2016

That's Great And All, What The Fuck Does This Have To Do With /tg/?

There have been many tabletop Bionicle games, an official RPG, multiple unofficial RPG's, and Bionicle is a popular subject for Quest Threads on /tg/.

Besides, it centers around deep lore that is designed to help sell plastic toys that you must assemble yourself. Is it any wonder that it is popular?

A fan wargame perhaps

I mean it could be possible as some of the toys backstory give them a war game like status like the Bohrok being akin to the Necrons, and the Visorak being akin to Tyranids who wouldn't want a game like that it would be bad-ass, hell Lego already confirmed that their are alternate universes so it could be set in an alternate one.

Give the Matoran a Imperial Guard or Squat load out and let them blast apart Rahkshi and Makuta who have a loadout similar too chaos.

TG get your shit down!

Red Star Games

The fan group Red Star Games has made a fan D20 TTRPG, and is fully ready to go. It's a somewhat generic blend of 3.5 and 5e, with skill points, feats, and a generic proficiency bonus that scales to your level. You have levels in archetypes, which new, sequential abilities at each level, up to level six. Each archetype belongs to a supertype, which gives its own abilities every three levels. Later archetype abilities sometimes key off of early supertype abilities. Doronai Nui's weapon system is retardedly complex, but lets you design a huge range of possible weapons, and can replicate any of the elemental, combining, multiform weapons from the toys, which is pretty awesome. Dozens of masks of power have been statted out, at the Great, Noble, and Nuva power levels. You can play as Matoran, Toa, and Turaga, along with a dozen or so other species such as Vortixx and Skakdi. In addition, they have released Barranai Nui, a Tabletop Wargame set in Bionicle's world. They also released Heroes of the Stars, a D12 system set in Bionicle g2's world.

links

Doranai Nui by Red Star Games:

https://www.redstargames.org/doronai-nui

Barranai Nui by Red Star Games:

https://www.redstargames.org/barranai-nui

Heroes of the Stars, set in G2 by Red Star Games:

https://www.redstargames.org/heroes-of-the-stars