Bionicle the Final Frontier

Building: Bionicle

It’s getting tougher to find the “LEGO®” aisle in toy stores these days. Traditional LEGO construc- tion sets are more often than not hidden behind strangely shaped canisters featuring robotic-looking creatures. Shoppers are more likely to stumble upon this “Bionicle” aisle before ever seeing another LEGO set, for the simple reason that LEGO Bionicle has been the company’s biggest selling product line for the last several years.

But what IS this Bionicle invasion, anyway?

To parents, it tends to be a complete mystery. Robotic warriors from a tropi- cal island or ancient city of legends. A lexicon so complex it has its own diction- ary. A layered story involving collectible disks and masks: Toa and Turaga, Makuta and Rahkshi, Vahki and Matoran. Bohrok and Bohrok-Kal. Video games, shoes, backpacks, and party favors. Even Halloween costumes.

To kids (typically 6-12 year old boys, for whom Bionicle is squarely aimed), Bionicle is a richly populated universe with cool LEGO sets, movies, books, an ever-updating storyline, Bionicle comics shipped with their LEGO Club magazine subscriptions (http://club.LEGO.com), its own official website (http://www.bionicle.com), and popular online resources such as BZPower (http://www.bzpower.com) and Bionicle Sector 01 (http://www.bioniclesector01.com).

Bionicle begins as a story set on the island of Mata Nui (recently expanded to the ancient city-island of Metru Nui) that pits several good guy Toa against bad guy Makuta and his minions. The Toa protect the other inhabit- ants of the islands, the Matoran, from the vicious Rahkshi and Visorak, among other nasties. Each is available as a set.

New and updated construction sets have been released at least twice each year since 2001, when Bionicle was widely introduced. The first six color-coded Toa of Mata Nui -- lava red Tahu, icy white Kopaka, sea blue Gali, stone brown Pohatu, deep black Onua, and forest green Lewa -- were an instant hit, winning awards and shattering sales records. Follow-up releases have also been strong, with updated Toa -- Toa Nuva, Toa Metru, and the latest, Toa

Hordika -- continuing the ongoing story. Of course, the Toa need something to protect, so there have been several rounds of Matoran sets released, the first in 2001 McDon- ald kids meals. Those poor Matoran often need help, from wild Rahi (animals) or Makuta’s Rahkshi “sons” to their own Vahki protector machines run amok.

Driving the story (and not coincidentally, LEGO set sales figures) are sev- eral media, primarily the Bionicle comics from DC and a popular series of books from Scholastic, most authored by Greg Farshtey (who also writes the comic). There have also been two well-received com puter-animated films released directly to video/DVD (“Bionicle:

Mask of Light” and “Bionicle: Legends of Metru Nui”), and a third is in the works. The official Bionicle website likewise provides storyline updates using text and animation, and has also included two immensely popular online games.

When you get into Bionicle, you’re not just buying a construction/action set... you’re entering a universe full of dramatic good-vs-evil action. There’s a lot behind those little canisters on the shelf, just waiting to be discovered.

To see many more amazing Bionicle-based creations, visit this creative forum on BZPower: http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=175513.

Kelly McKiernan is co-owner and administrator of BZPower.com, the largest and busiest Bionicle fan site on the web.

52 BrickJournal • Issue 1, Volume 1 • Summer 2005

Chronicle of the Seventh Toa

While the six mighty Toa roam the island of Mata Nui in search of  the Kanohi Masks of power, and prepare themselves to drive the evil Makuta and his creatures from the dark places in the land, the leaders of the six known surviving native Tohunga tribes meet in the sacred place.

Each of these leaders, or Turaga, is guardian of one part of the legend of Mata Nui, and as they relate their tales to each other in the sand of the sacred place with rocks and twigs as is their way, they discover that some ancient lore is emerging as they combine all the legends they know.  It is hovering on the edge of their consciousness, and they delve further and further into the past to the time when Mata Nui was still a paradise, before Makuta followed his brother, and the dark places appeared.

It is then that the Turaga Vakama, holder of the Great Firestaff and eldest among them, remembers the destruction of the ancient Rongo-Tablets Mata Nui had given to them which foretold the coming of the Toa from the skies, and showed the constellations by which they would know their time of waiting had come to an end.  Over time the Tablets had been pieced back together from the fragments scattered all over the Island, and the finest craftsmen among the Tohunga carved new Rongo-Tablets into stone.  Alas not all pieces could be found, and some had crumbled into dust, so they  filled in the missing pieces under the guidance of the Turaga of that time.

The new Rongo-Tablets where affixed to the base of the crystal telescope through which the keepers of the legend watched the skies for the red star to reach its foretold place among the constellations.  Yet Vakama and the other Turaga grew more troubled as they considered the missing pieces of information that had to be recreated during their restoration.  In the gaps thus left in the legend a more ancient malevolent shadow than even Makuta was hiding from their knowledge and perception.  Through the night and well into the next day the Turaga brooded over their legend and while they told and retold the ancient tales they slowly started to draw a new Rongo-Tablet into the sand.  In all their memories pieces of this legend were interwoven as an undercurrent, and they slowly fell into place.

As the rediscovered Tablet started to take on form, Turuga Whenua, protector of Onua's legend, recognized the symbol as something he had once seen in the rock quarry as a faded pattern left on the ground.  But who was that new Toa, which they for now named 'the Seventh'?  What powers did it possess?  And  where would this discovery lead to? ...

High above Mata Nui the ancient space station, that the Tohunga perceive as the red star, slowly rotates about its axis in orbit.  After what seemed like an eternity of silence the internal machinery had restarted, triggered by a signal placed deep within the heart of Mata Nui underneath the great volcano, long long ago.  The now busy humming of gears and pistons was only interrupted by a sharp explosion and the scraping of metal while the cylindrical projectiles where launched towards the island as the space stations rotation laboriously brought each launch tube into the correct position.  Six cylinders, containing the disjointed elements of a Toa each, had already been fired, and the Toa which thus awakened from their troubled dreams were returned to the land of Mata Nui to fulfill their destiny!

Yet one tube had not yet launched and many moons would pass before the station would be in the correct  position again.  In it the purple, black, and gray parts of the Seventh Toa lay, whose spirit was stirring restlessly, waiting to awaken like its brethren.  To be recombined into the most powerful hero yet: The 7th Toa, the Toa of energy!

The Seventh Toa

In his younger years, Tohunga Onepu of Onu-Koro had dug deep underneath the Volcano in the center of Mata Nui and found a purple Kanohi, the only one known in existence. He did not know, that he had stumbled upon the ruins of a lost city which had been destroyed and burried underneath the volcano in the time before time. No one knows if any Tohunga or their descendants had survived from this lost land. Their Toa, however, was waiting for his return from the skies. Waiting to avenge his people against the evil that had come to pass. Using the special powers of his Kanohi mask, and his mighty weapon, he would return to Mata Nui, and not rest until the wrong had been undone, and the remnants of the lost tribe were reunited, to take their rightful place as the rulers over the Tohunga. To rebuild their great civilization.

For he is Toa Voriki, the Toa of energy!