I'll end off with a brief look at some of the ancillary merchandise that surrounded the Bionicle line at it's beginning. One of the fundamental things I'm going to be looking at with the case studies in my dissertation, of which Bionicle will be a minor one, is the transmedial nature of these stories. They span numerous different media, from traditional narrative sites (comics, books, etc.) to toys, costumes, video games, and music. Here in Canada, a lot of the ancillary items were not available. I don't recall seeing the Halloween costumes or running shoes with interchangeable masks at the time, though I imagine that their production runs were limited, as was their distribution. I'm not entirely certain where I found the checklist that I use to keep track of these items. I was pretty sure it was over at BZ Power, but I can't find it there anymore. My most recent find as far as this aspect of the series goes came just a few months ago when I found a Vakama Hordika voice changer mask on Kijiji for $25. It's pretty great, and I'll include it when we eventually get to 2005.
Not much really to say about this. It's the Happy Meal bag that the McToran were packaged in. I only ever got the one, as I'm a vegetarian and McDonald's offers very little (or did at the time) to accommodate me. I probably got this one for my son. Instead, I would hit all of the McDonald's in my local area (probably 6 or 7) once a week to see if the new Bionicle had come in. It took a while, but I eventually got there.
I was very excited for the "Quest for Makuta" game, and it really is a cool little portion of the series, if not actually a great game. The board (which I'll perhaps put together and post as an interregnum) is cool, depicting Mata Nui but broken up into pieces that allow for some random world generation. The central temple piece is the top from one of the old canisters, and the character pieces are great little stand-ups of each of the Toa Mata. As far as game play goes, however, I think I've only played this game twice in the 15 years I've owned it. I guess just because something can be transmedial doesn't mean it should poke it's nose into all media. My assessment of the 2003 "Mask of Light" board game is pretty similar. I've not got my hands on the later game (Inika-era, I think).
When Bionicle first dropped, Trading Card Games were huge. Bionicle's attempt at a TCG was relatively short-lived (main series, and I think two booster series), though there's a later attempt at the form that comes in 2003 (?). I was very much into TCGs at the time, so I picked this up, but it's definitely a game geared toward younger audiences. One has to travel around Mata Nui completing challenges and collecting pieces of armour, weapons, and masks in order to win the game. There were three starter packs, each featuring two Toa. As with the board game, I think I've played this game only a couple of times since I got it (which probably means it's time to give it, and the board game, another go), but the map, which was double-sided, makes a cool poster of Mata Nui for my building corner when two of them are put together.
(Anyone remember when the kids used to use pens?)
I kind of love these pens. What you don't see pictured here are the various little blocks and beads with which one could customize each pen. I think my affection for the pens is the same as my affection for the Lego watches - they embrace the customizability that is inherent in the whole line. Though I've got each of the little masks (each about the size of a thumb nail) at the top, one could easily move them down. There are lots of other blocks, and if I had to make one criticism of them, it would be that they're not compatible with the sets themselves, as the watches are. It would be great to use the little Pohatu mask as shoulder armour, or the blocks on a Turaga staff or something. I think of all the pieces in my collection, these one are the ones that feel most like collectibles, in that the ink has long since dried up, so they can't actually be used as pens anymore. They're decoration now. That's an intriguing thought, that something can shift identities within a collection based on the combination of time and physical make-up. I was about to say that this is the only example, but then there's this..
Along with Kopaka, this is the oldest piece in the collection, the reason being that it was packaged with Kopaka when I first bought him. I can't for the life of me remember what's on it, though I think the Po-Koro interactive tour, identical to the one on the Power Pack, is on there, with other stuff. However, it, too, is simply a collectible now, in that Windows 10 refuses to recognize the data contained herein. It's very likely that the information on this disc is preserved at the Biomedia Project, so it's still available, albeit in a mediated form.
And, aside from the comics and masks, that's it for 2001. As sophisticated and malleable as the series and its elements become over the years, I still have a soft spot for these original Toa and the variety of toys, books, games, and such that spring up around them. It's like looking at one of the original Superman comics, and realizing that a lot of them were pretty bad, but that without them, we wouldn't have what we have today.
So now I'm off to dismantle a year's worth of Bionicle, pack it all back into storage, and begin the lovely task of building 2002. The swarm is coming, the Matoran begin to fight back, and the Toa become something....new.
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