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.

Production
The concept of Bionicle was proposed in 2000. During that time, Lego was suffering a ten-year downturn. In 1998, the company suffered its first loss, resulting in layoffs for the first time with 1000 people being laid off the following year. In January 2004, Lego posted a loss of 1.4 billion Danish kroner (223.86 million USD/140 million British pounds). A few weeks earlier, in order to "stabilise its financial situation," another 500 jobs were cut.

Initially, the idea of Bionicle was faced with resistance from "company traditionalists" as Lego had "no experience of creating the kind of story-based, multichannel brand that was being proposed." Also, the war-like appearance of the Bionicle characters went against the company's values: "high-quality products, an emphasis on free play and encouraging the imagination, and no modern warfare or violence."

However, the Bionicle line soon became the "biggest of the recent hits" and the number one product of Lego in 2003. The series made its first debut in virtual form on the web in December 2000. In 2004, the sets accounted for nearly all of Lego's turnover. As the sets were produced, Lego developed the Bionicle characters online through "character bios and an episodic adventure game." The main storyline is developed by a team of eight people around the world, who decide "which media gets which bit of the story." Because the Bionicle story is told through multiple media (books, comics, and movies), the purpose of the website is to put the different parts together. The practice of making every Bionicle product "from toys to toothbrushes" promote the website resulted in web traffic averaging more than a million page views per month in August 2004. Another strategy used to promote the website was the use of "Kanoka points". Each toy packaging had special access codes that allowed users to earn the points ("the Bionicle equivalent of a loyalty scheme") that can be used to play web games.

Story
The 2001–2008 storyline arc of Bionicle was set in a science fantasy world inhabited predominantly by part-organic, part-machine beings with souls. The subterranean world is contained in massive underground domes, which reside in the massive robot body of Mata Nui. This world (dubbed "The Matoran Universe") and its races were once protected by a Great Spirit named Mata Nui, until he was cast into an eternal sleep by the evil Makuta Teridax and the Brotherhood of Makuta. The world of the Matoran eventually fell under the rule of Makuta Teridax. But a team of Toa called the Toa Nuva had reawakened Mata Nui. They soon realized that while Mata Nui was sleeping Teridax had taken control of his body. Now the Mask of Life that was stored inside Mata Nui, now containing his very spirit, was shot out of his body by Teridax, who had just gained control of the Matoran Universe.. The mask landed on the planet of Bara Magna, and the mask created a smaller body for Mata Nui.

2009 began a whole new saga of the story-line, leaving behind the previous years, and venturing out to newer possibilities as Mata Nui, after having been banished by Makuta Teridax, crash lands on a mysterious barren 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 and the Toa from Makuta Teridax's tyrannical rule.

2001 – Quest for the Masks
The story begins with six Toa Mata—Tahu, Lewa, Gali, Kopaka, Pohatu, and Onua—who arrive on the Island of Mata Nui in silver canisters, remembering nothing beyond their names and scraps of disturbing dreams. They discovered that the inhabitants, the Matoran villagers, face relentless attacks from infected Rahi, savage beasts controlled by the powerful influence of Makuta Teridax through use of Infected Kanohi masks, causing a period of terror which lasted about 1000 years, which the Toa Mata fought in for about a month to protect the Matoran. After searching for and finding numerous Kanohi masks, the Toa each received a Golden Kanohi mask with tremendous power and sought out Makuta himself. After challenging the ferocious Manas crabs and the Shadow Toa (evil doppelgänger-like illusional replicas of the Toa ), the Toa confront Makuta and, by uniting their elemental powers, defeat him. But Makuta was only testing their powers and would return.

2002 – The Bohrok Swarms
Upon his defeat, Makuta released the ancient Bohrok, robotic drones designed to "cleanse" the island of Mata Nui to its state "in the before-time". The Bohrok began to tear through the villages on the island, forcing Matoran to flee. One inventive Matoran of Earth, Nuparu, builds a powerful vehicle called the Boxor, made from parts of a damaged Bohrok in order to fight off the swarms. The Toa, unaware of the Bohrok's purpose, collected the Bohrok's Krana (mask-like creatures that function as their brains) to confront the Bohrok Queens, the Bahrag: Cahdok and Gahdok. The battle results in the queens' becoming sealed in a prison of "protodermis", created by fusing the elemental powers of all six Toa. The Toa Mata were then dropped into energized protodermis, which transformed them, granting them new armor, weapons, and a new name: the "Toa Nuva".

2003 – The Bohrok-Kal Strike / Mask of Light
After the defeat of the Bohrok Queens, the Toa Nuva and Matoran begin to use the Bohrok to rebuild their villages on Mata Nui. However, six new elite Bohrok, the Bohrok-Kal, appeared with the purpose of releasing the Bahrag. Their presence was first noticed when the Bohrok swarms oddly returned to sleep in their hives and the Toa were no longer able to control the elements. The Bohrok-Kal had stolen the six elemental symbols that granted the Toa Nuva the ability to control the six elements. The Kal must use these stones to unlock the Bahrag from their prison, but as they began to place these keys, the Toa Nuva of fire, Tahu, used the Mask of Time, a powerful hidden mask that slowed down time long enough for the Toa to come up with the plan of focusing all their energy into the stone tablets. The stone tablets then began to give off power to the Bohrok-Kal, making them unimaginably strong and arrogant, with dreams of leading the Bohrok swarms themselves rather than freeing the Bohrok Queens. However, their newfound power exceeded their control as the Toa Nuva continued to feed it to them through the tablets. Eventually, each of the six Bohrok Kal fell victim to a horrible demise created by their own out-of-control powers, allowing the Toa Nuva to regain their abilities of elemental control and bringing peace at last to the island of Mata Nui. However, this peace would not last.

Shortly afterwards, two Matoran, Takua and Jaller, discovered the Kanohi Mask of Light. Vakama, Turaga (elder) leader of their village of Ta-Koro, tasked the duo with traveling across the island of Mata Nui to find the seventh "Toa of Light". Meanwhile, Makuta created and sent out six creatures called "Rahkshi" to find the mask and stop the coming of the Toa of Light. The Rahkshi tore across Mata Nui, destroying the villages of Ta-Koro and Onu-Koro. The Rahkshi were stopped by the Toa, but not before killing Jaller. Jaller's death caused Takua to realize that he was the Toa of Light, not the Herald, and he donned the mask to become Toa Takanuva. Takanuva went to confront Makuta and, during their battle, they both fell into a pool of energized protodermis, a silvery substance with the power to change or destroy a being, and became fused together into the being Takutanuva. Takutanuva then proceeded to open the door to the city of Metru Nui, allowing the Matoran and Toa through. Using some of his life energy, he revived Jaller while still holding the door open. However, the use of energy was too great and Takutanuva was crushed by the door, seeming to kill both Takanuva and Teridax, leaving only Takanuva's Mask of Light. Vakama, Jaller, and fellow Matoran Halhi manage to revive Takanuva, using his mask to activate the beacon to Metru Nui. Afterwards, the Matoran prepared to return to the island city of Metru Nui.

2004 – Legends of Metru Nui
As the Matoran prepared to journey to Metru Nui, the Turaga (village elders) revealed that they had once been Toa, fighting in Metru Nui against threats to the Matoran. They, as Matoran, were transformed into the Toa Metru by Toa stones containing power sacrificed by the city's previous guardian, Toa Lhikan. Their mission was to find the six Great Disks and defeat the Morbuzakh, a plant menace that threatened to destroy the city. When they did, however, they were betrayed by Dume, the Turaga of the city. Later, they discovered that Makuta Teridax had taken the disguise of Dume and taken control of the Vahki (law enforcement robots). His plan was to put the Matoran to sleep, wipe out their memories, and reawaken them "as their conqueror." The Toa fled, but were attacked by Teridax. Combining their elemental powers, they were able to seal Teridax in a prison of crystallized protodermis. The Toa traveled to an island far above—the island of Mata Nui, as it would later be named—vowing to return to save the Matoran. On their journey, they found many dangers, such as the long lost Matoran Mavrah, prehistoric Rahi, and the early prototypes for the Vahki—the Krahli. Before doing so, the Toa Metru hide the Great Masks of Power the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva would find in their time, as well as the six Toa stones that would later summon the Toa Mata; this leaves a timegap between the Toa Metru arriving at Mata Nui to the present.

2005 – Web of Shadows
In the previously-unexplained timegap, the Toa Metru returned to Metru Nui to rescue the remaining Matoran. However, the evil king Sidorak and his viceroy Roodaka, agents of the Makuta, had been reigning in terror on the island, with vicious spider-like creatures called Visorak overrunning the city and mutating everything that lives. The Toa were soon captured and mutated into bestial half-Toa half-Rahi Toa Hordika. The Rahaga, mysterious beings who capture Rahi in a bid to protect them from the Visorak, rescue the newly mutated Toa from falling from their cocoons to their deaths. They explain that to revert to normal, the Toa Hordika must seek out Keetongu, a legendary Rahi rumored to be knowledgeable in venoms and their counter-agents. Toa Vakama, however, succumbed to his Rahi impulses and betrayed the other Toa to join Sidorak, who made him the leader of the Visorak. The other Toa confronted the Visorak horde in a great battle, during which fellow Toa Matau convinced Vakama to rejoin them. Vakama then ordered the Visorak to be free. Meanwhile, Keetongu killed Sidorak, whom Roodaka and Vakama betrayed. The six Toa then defeated Roodaka with all six of their elemental powers. Unknown to the Toa, Roodaka carried a shard of Makuta's prison within her armor. When the shard was destroyed by the Toa's elemental assault, Makuta's prison was destroyed as well, freeing the master of shadows. Having been restored by Keetongu, the Toa Metru, Rahaga, and Keetongu load up airships with the Matoran pods to bring to the island above. The leader of the Rahaga, Norik, thanks Vakama for letting him see a legend come true: the Great Rescue of the Matoran. On their way to Mata Nui, Vakama jumps out of the airship to retrieve the Mask of Time. After locating and repairing minor damage on the mask, Vakama is attacked by Voporak, a temporal-sensitive employed by the Dark Hunter organization. Vakama is knocked unconscious, and falls into the sea. Makuta finds him and rescues him, believing Vakama to have hidden the mask. To discover its location, Makuta casts Vakama into an illusion. After waking up, he eventually realizes flaws within the illusion and manages to free himself. He and Makuta, commanding a small troop of Rahkshi, form a truce to retake the Mask of Time from The Shadowed One, whom Voporak serves, and his bodyguard Sentrakh. During the ensuing conflict, which Keetongu joins in an attempt to kill Makuta, Voporak and Sentrakh are incapacitated and the Shadowed One crippled. Vakama steals the mask and attempts to flee, but the Shadowed One damages Vakama's jetpack with his eyebeams. Makuta pursues Vakama to the Great Furnace of the city's fire district. In lieu of Vakama's threat of destroying the mask, Makuta agrees to Vakama's terms of a year of peace with the Matoran and teleports Vakama to the island of Mata Nui, content to know the location of the mask. The Toa then proceed to awaken the Matoran by sacrificing their Toa and elemental power. Then, as Turaga, they christen the island and direct the Matoran to build the villages.

2006 – Island of Doom
The Toa Nuva learned that Mata Nui was not only asleep but dying. To save him, they must travel to the island of Voya Nui and seek the mysterious Kanohi Ignika, the Mask of Life. The Toa Nuva set out on this adventure but are quickly taken prisoner by six new and powerful enemies, the Piraka: Zaktan, Hakann, Vezok, Thok, Reidak, and Avak. They sought the mask for their own dark purposes. When the Toa failed to return, a group of six Matoran followed after them. Jaller, Hahli, Hewkii, Nuparu, Kongu, and Matoro escaped to the island in Toa canisters; as they traveled, bolts of lighting from the Red Star transformed them into the Toa Inika. Upon their arrival, they learn of the Piraka and how they enslaved the local Matoran by posing as false Toa, in order to make the Matoran build them a fortress. With the help of a small Matoran Resistance and the ancient guardian Axonn, the Toa Inika were able to free the Toa Nuva, find the temple of the mask, and battle the Piraka as well as the other creatures guarding it (including Vezon, on which the Ignika was fused to). They eventually emerged victorious with the Kanohi. But the Mask of Life possessed a will of its own, and in the last moment evades them all, dropping into the depths of the sea.

2007 – Sea of Darkness
Chasing after the Mask of Life, the Toa Inika descended into the waters after receiving the mysterious clue "save the sunken city" from an unknown Matoran, who had saved Hahli from drowning at the cost of her dying from decompression sickness. A burst of energy from the Mask of Life transformed the Toa Inika into water-breathing Toa Mahri. They discovered the inhabited village of Mahri Nui that had broken off from Voya Nui and sunk a thousand years ago. The village was threatened by ancient warlords known as Barraki that had been mutated by the nearby mutagenic waters of "the Pit". The Toa Mahri faced off against the Barraki to survive. However, by the time the Toa retrieved the mask, the Great Spirit died. Realizing there was still hope, Toa Matoro rushed to the core of the universe and revived Mata Nui by wearing the Mask of Life—a suicidal act. In his last moment, Toa Matoro used the Mask's power to teleport the Toa Mahri back to Metru Nui and allow them to breathe air again. The Great Spirit's life was saved, but remained asleep—a state that the Toa Nuva would soon break.

2008 – The Final Battle
After being equipped with new armor and weapons by Artakha, the Toa Nuva arrived at Karda Nui, the core of the world glimpsed previously by the late Toa Matoro. There, they find the "Brotherhood of Makuta" trying to turn the population of Av-Matoran – Matoran of Light – into Shadow Matoran. The Toa Nuva were helped by the arrival of Takanuva, now able to control light and darkness because of a shadow leech attack; and Toa Ignika, a Toa-like manifestation of the Mask of Life itself. The Kanohi Ignika had made a body for itself because it wished to see what it was like to be a living being, and because it was inspired by Matoro to become a hero. With their combined forces, they reached a structure in the center of Karda Nui called the "Codrex", where Toa Ignika had to sacrifice his new body to awaken Mata Nui. Takanuva, with the help of the remaining uncorrupted Av-Matoran, returned the Shadow Matoran to their previous states. Shortly afterwards, the Toa escaped the core before the energy storm caused by Mata Nui's awakening could destroy them; the Makuta, however, failed to escape, and were all killed. Back in Metru Nui, Mata Nui's awakening was celebrated, but celebration was cut short when it was revealed that Makuta had taken over Mata Nui's body. Trapping the spirit of Mata Nui in the Ignika, Makuta shot the mask into space, so that the former Great Spirit cannot interfere with his control over the universe. In the epilogue, the Ignika is seen flying through space, with Mata Nui inside, thinking only one thing: "I will return."

2009 – The Legend Reborn
Following Mata Nui's banishment from his body by Makuta Teridax, the arc starts with the Ignika crashing onto Bara Magna, a vast, mostly-barren planet. With the exception of a few wildlife species, Bara Magna is a desert planet which only supports few resources, so each tribe on the planet has a few warriors, called Glatorian, to battle for them. These resources, such as food and water, are distributed accordingly. The villagers of this world are known as Agori. The Agori together make up six different tribes, each affiliated with a region. After the Ignika lands on Bara Magna, it creates a body for Mata Nui to use. Mata Nui then teams up with a few Glatorian to defeat the combined forces of the Skrall and Bone Hunters, two major threats to the villages, and look for a way to return to his body. With the help of his new Glatorian and Agori friends, he exposes a traitor but does not know who that traitor is until they defeat the Skrall and Bone Hunters with help from every Scarabax (robotic bug like creature) also every Glatorian led by Tarix .Mata Nui helps the villages of the world to unite, taking all of the giant pieces of robot and linking them into a large prototype robotic body, a body like the one the Matoran Universe resides. Then, Mata Nui, using the power of the Mask of Life turns Metus, the traitor, into a snake.

2010 – Journey's End
After defeating the Skrall and seeing the rest of the villages unite, Mata Nui stands against the challenge of taking back his old body from Teridax. He learns that he was created by the Great Beings on the planet of Spherus Magna, which is now divided into a jungle moon (Bota Magna), an ocean moon (Aqua Magna), and the remaining desert planet (Bara Magna), as the result of the Core War. Mata Nui also learns that before he was built, there was a previous robot, which the Agori use as their home. Tarduk, an Agori of Tesara, helps Mata Nui by showing him an ancient, yet unstable power source that can power up the old robot.

In this final journey, two heroes return to finish the fight: Tahu, returned to his original form to wear the powerful Golden Armor, and Takanuva. They are aided by Gresh. They fight off the Skakdi Warlord Nektann, to defeat Makuta and his army; hordes of Rahkshi, armed with heat vision; and Skrall.

The story continues as the forces of both the Matoran Universe and Glatorian face the oncoming onslaught of Skakdi, Rahkshi, and Skrall, as Mata Nui uses the body of the Agori robot to fight Teridax in Mata Nui's body. The golden armour, scattered by Makuta's blast is collected by Tahu, Gresh, and Takanuva from the many enemies. Tahu defeats Nektann, then dons the armour, which incinerates every Rahkshi Kraata on Bara Magna.

Teridax claims that he will destroy Bara Magna with gravitic energy, until Mata Nui forces his arm upwards, causing Teridax to send the energy wave to the moons above. When Teridax wants to continue the fight, he was momentarily weakened by the destruction of his Rahkshi legions. Mata Nui took advantage of the distraction, pushing Teridax back into one of the onrushing fragments of the moon Aqua Magna, whose impact destroys his core processor, killing Teridax. Mata Nui then mourns the brother that he could have had, in his mind.

The finale concludes when Mata Nui uses the last of his strength, and the power of the Ignika, to bring Spherus Magna together once more, to heal those who were mutated by Pit Mutagen, to bring life back to the planet, and to reconstruct destroyed geographical features. The strain of the power core destroys the prototype robot. When the Glatorian and Toa discover the Ignika unscathed in the location where Mata Nui was, Mata Nui speaks to them from within the mask, telling them that the future is their own to build. He then remains dormant in the Ignika. The Agori, Matoran, Toa, Glatorian and all others begin a new life on Spherus Magna.

The End And Replacement
The Bionicle toyline drew to a close and after the 2010 sets were finalized for release, Originally, Lego Ben 10 was possibly Bionicle's replacement, it got a replacement in 2010 called Hero Factory, a Lego theme compatible with Bionicle sets. But despite this, the story was continuing in serials written by Greg Farshtey online at BIONICLEstory.com, until Greg temporarily stopped writing due to being occupied with family obligations. BIONICLE.com and BIONICLEstory.com were shut down on June 19, 2013. After this a website called Solis magna announced that it would be continuing the story on its own, it seems to have plans to sell sets, create serials, and continue the legacy.

Reception
The Bionicle franchise has been well received, with one reviewer describing the sets as "good combination of assembly and action figure" and first-year sales of 100 million British pounds (161.7 million USD). Bionicle had received a Toy of the Year Award for Most Innovative Toy in 2001 from the Toy Industry Association.

Māori language controversy
In 2001, several Māori tribal groups from New Zealand threatened legal action against Lego for allegedly trademarking Māori words used in naming the Bionicle product range. In response, a Lego spokesperson stated that only the term "Bionicle" had been trademarked. Lego agreed to stop commercial use of the Māori language after sending an executive to meet with Māori representatives in New Zealand. Some Māori terms used by Lego were changed, such as "Tohunga", which was changed to "Matoran". Within the fictional Bionicle universe, these changes were explained by the introduction of a "Naming Day" holiday, in which characters who have done heroic deeds for their village are honored by having the spelling of their name changed (though the pronunciation remains the same). However, a number of Māori terms such as "Toa", which means "warrior", "Kanohi", which means "face", and "Kōpaka", which means "ice", were not changed. Since this controversy, Lego has not made any more names that are common terms in other living languages (with the exception of some names that are real names in some languages, for example: Tahu).

Impact
The rapid success of Bionicle has had a major impact on the Lego company. According to Stephanie Lawrence, the global director of licensing for Lego, "We've created an evergreen franchise to complement the many event-based properties on the children's market. An increasing number of category manufacturers want to tap into the power of the Bionicle universe, and the key for us now is to manage the excitement to stay true to the brand and the lifestyle of our core consumer." According to one source, Bionicle has changed the way children think of, and play with, Lego products by combining "the best of Lego building with the story telling and adventure of an action figure line," and that 85% of American boys age 6–12 know of the Bionicle brand and 45% own the toys.

Music
Paul Hardcastle and Simon Fuller produced the first soundtracks for Bionicle's commercials used in 2001 to 2003. Music for the first three Bionicle films featured a more classical tune, rather than the techno-like beats used in the ads and animations, composed by Nathan Furst. In 2005, the first official Bionicle songs were released. LEGO contracted the rock band All Insane Kids to produce the songs "Hero" and "Caught In A Dream". Further down Bionicle's history, more songs were used to help advertise their sets, most of which were produced by Danish band Cryoshell, as well as songs by other artists, like "Crashed" by Daughtry and "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects.