No that the series has been particularly punctual anyway, but I'm going to take a break from the Bionicle building for a bit. My thoughts and interests are going in other directions at the moment, so rather than force myself to build through, I'd rather wait until I'm back in the mood to have interesting things to say. Probably should have done this a while ago. I will continue the series, eventually.
Thanks for reading along thus far, and have a look at some of the other collections I write about.
Since I've dropped the ball a bit on this series, I'm going to play some quick catch up and do a two-parter on the beginning of the Metru Nui saga in 2004. As I write this, the Bionicle fan community is reeling from the news that Generation 2 is being cancelled. There's a lot of vitriol and criticism aimed toward Lego's handling of this new iteration of Bionicle, which I've come to understand is what fans do when they feel they've been wronged by a company or property. I get it, but I also think that the attitude that comes across of a company somehow owing something to the fans is a bit misguided. Yes, we buy and support their products, but these companies put the products out to make money, not to contribute somehow to culture, be it big or small. I'm happy to have had a bit more Bionicle, to have been given some new elements with which to build, and to have seen new interpretations of some of my favourite fictional characters.
One major criticism has been over the simplicity of the storyline, a criticism with which I fully agree. That said, at the end of the Netflix series Journey to One, we're introduced to a shadow realm within which Makuta is trapped, along with a number of Otokans, so I think that had the series continued, we would have seen some interesting cross-dimensional battle. And intimations of a coming Toa of Light were also pointing toward a more fleshed out storyline.
In Generation 1, 2004 is where the story really started to complexify. The revelation that the Turaga of Mata Nui had been Toa thousands upon thousands of years ago, in a city of great technological accomplishment to boot, began the movement of the series through its pseudo-fantasy beginnings and into a cool amalgam of fantasy and science fiction - an amalgam that I think I might equate, as I do with so much, with myth.
(Let me just apologize for the picture quality. I used my cell phone, and the lighting was a bit low.)
So what do we do with the fact that the Matoran and their protectors lived in an island city ten thousand years ago, a city located deep beneath the island of Mata Nui, and that they somehow were forced to migrate from that city to their far-less-technological island home? Coupled with that is the fact that not only were the village elders of Mata Nui Toa, but they were shepherded through their transition into Toa by an even older Toa, last surviving member of his own team. Four years into the story we begin to realize that there's so much more going on than simply a battle between Makuta and the Toa. These new/old Toa are far more unsure of themselves, and the shift of colour from the bright primary colours of the Toa Mata to the darker colours of the Toa Metru signals a shift in tone that resonates through the rest of the Generation 1 story. Even more interesting is that these Toa were originally Matoran, so we begin to question where exactly, or rather who exactly, the Toa Mata came from. The answer is not so simple. Further, these Toa are aware of the history of these heroes through a vast and proud history, and of the various factions around their world that oppose both the Toa and the Great Spirit, and who support the machinations of Makuta. Clearly by this point in the series' production, Lego had decided to let their creative team loose, and the team had jumped at the chance.
But what of the builds?
As I noted earlier, the Toa Metru are the first figures to allow for articulation of the head piece, giving us the ability to use that articulation to communicate emotion and attitude. It's a quantum leap forward for the toys. Not only this, but the arms now have elbow and knee joints, so action poses become a possibility - the toys are beginning their move from mechanical/Technic building to the portmanteau "craction" figures. We still have a gear system inside the Toa's bodies, which does make posing from the shoulders difficult, and it's a difficulty that was only ever solved by removing the gear systems altogether. Whether or not this was a good idea is something best left to individual opinion. The Matoran builds of this wave are only slightly better than those of the previous wave. They're not particularly wobbly like the 2003 Matoran, but they're also not particularly poseable, given the limited range of movement of their arms, legs, and heads. They are also only really nice to look at from the front. From behind, they are completely unfinished, which makes posing the characters in conversation with others a problem.
Off to the far right in that picture you see Toa Lhikan, last survivor of an older Toa team. His build is identical to the Toa Metru, and it's really his steed that is the interesting part of that set. The Kikanalo is a herd beast that roams the stone realm of Metru Nui, and represents one of the first non-Toa creatures to be given the same articulated treatment as the Toa themselves. This is the wave that introduces the Titan sets, which is where we'll pick things up next time.
Before we move on to the 2004 wave, and travel back tens of thousands of years into Mata Nui's history, I'd like to offer this consideration of Takanuva, the messianic Toa of Light. Takanuva shows up at a particular juncture of the story's history because it's necessary for him to do so. There is a prophecy about him, and the prophecy is fulfilled.
But this got me wondering what would happen if he'd had to show up in different eras of the story. Or even earlier iterations of the kind of building lines that eventually led to Bionicle, and those that led from Bionicle. Here's what I came up with.
Slightly before Bionicle debuted in 2001, Lego tried the buildable figure /epic storyline tack with both Throwbots and Roboriders. Both featured robotic characters in conflict, sometimes with one another, but the set-up of both stories didn't seem to have an extended storyline in mind. So these are my suppositions of what would have happened had a Toa of Light-like figure showed up in these two stories.
As there's already a first-wave Toa of Light, I moved on to the Toa Metru era of Bionicle for the next models. Above is the Toa Metru of Light, accompanied below by his Horkida version, had he come into contact with the Hordika venom in same way that the Toa Metru do in the canonical storyline. I'm pretty happy with the Metru version of the character. There's a nice range of gold armour designed to use with this body build, so I was able to put together a consistent-looking figure.
I'm not as happy with the Hordika version. The body is pretty good, but I had to go with silver pieces, as the Horkida builds were never made compatible, really, with gold armour. I used the sparkly Kanohi Avhokii for this figure, too, to give him a definite personality distinct from all of the other models. The way I see it, once the Hordika venom begins swirling through his system, he ceases to reign in the light he can emanate.
The Toa Inika have never been my favourite build for the Toa, but their articulation, coupled with their pseudo-firearms, makes them excellent for Tarantino-esque poses. As I was building these variations on the character, I wasn't thinking of how I could make the builds better, however, but how I could adapt Takanuva into the aesthetic of each Toa variation. I think this one captures the Inika nicely.
Of all of the builds I did for this little experiment, the Toa Mahri of
Light is by far my favourite, and the only one who wasn't dismantled
after I'd finished. I love his trident, his armour, everything, really.
The Mahri were the wave of Bionicle in which all kinds of different body
builds were being incorporated into the line, a trend continued in the
Mistika, Phantoka, and Glatorian waves that followed. Though they eschew
the more mechanical construction of the earlier waves and, as I've
noted elsewhere, proceed from the mechanical to more biological (robot
to android, perhaps), this is the wave in which poseability reached its
apotheosis, at least for G1 Bionicle.
The Mistika/Phantoka wave of Bionicle actually includes an official Takanuva set, though it's a titan, and I prefer him as a Toa. I was able to go back to the dark gold armour, though if I'd been able to make his wings the same colour, that would have been great. Much of this is based on the Tahu build from this wave.
The Glatorian version of the Toa of Light is a little more sparse than his predecessors. Glatorian, and the whole Bara Magna storyline, smacked of post-apocalyptic society, so I wanted to make sure that the Toa of Light we had here was one that fit the setting. He's a dingy, banged-up Toa of Light, struggling through a barren wasteland to assist his fellow Glatorians.
These are two different versions of Takanuva as a Generation 2 Bionicle. I built the first at the same time I made all of the others. There's still much hope in the fan community that we might see a Toa of Light, but I suppose that will depend on where the G2 Bionicle story goes. The second model, made a few months later, was build after I received some paints for my birthday. The mask and the chest armour on the lower picture are custom paints. The paint I used matches remarkably well with the Pearl Gold colour of G2 Bionicle, so I spent some time with the hybrid Technic/CCBS system of G2 to try to put together a Toa of Light worthy of the new construction methods. I'm pretty happy with both versions.
To finish off, here's my take on Tara Knuva, a light-based hero from the Hero Factory line. These are versions of the character from the first four years of the line. I don't know much about the Hero Factory story, so I can't really give any details like that, but I stuck as close as I could to the build styles of each wave. Of all of them, I think the wave 1 figure turned out best.
So those are my Toa(s) of Light. Hope you enjoyed them. Next week we'll move forward to 2004, though backward through history, and begin experiencing the stories of Vakama, Onewa, Nokama, Whenua, Matau, and Nuju. The revelation that the Turaga were once Toa, tens of thousands of years ago, solidifies the mythic nature of the story, and the building innovations offer us some of the more memorable models of the series.
Okay, I lied slightly. Last time I said we'd have a look at the Swarm, but we're not. Not quite yet. First we'll look at the Toa Nuva, superpowered versions of our six focal heroes from 2001, and at the Tohunga/Matoran, who start to fight back against the threats to the island of Mata Nui.
(Note: the controversy over the term "Tohunga" stems from an appropriation by the Lego company of Maori terms for their own use. A Tohunga is an expert practitioner, often a priest, in Maori culture. Thus the Tohunga from 2001 and 2002 become the Matoran of 2003.)
As I mentioned last time, I'm not a huge fan of the protodermis-mutated masks of the Toa Nuva. Some of them are cool. I really like Gali Nuva's mask, though I wish it had been transparent blue, like her old one. I think my main problem with them is that where the original masks and original Toa were designed together, the Nuva bodies are only very basic redesigns of the originals, yet the masks are radical redesigns that, in my opinion, are far too large for the older bodies. Now, having said that, the addition of the early armouring goes some distance toward fixing this problem, but, as I've said, not enough I think.
The various Toa teams straddle an interesting line between originality and cloning throughout the first decade of Bionicle's existence. In some cases, the Inika series for example, there is so little differentiation (aside from colour) that the figures are amongst the least popular of the series. Their second form, however, the Toa Mahri involves perhaps the most diverse range of builds that the Toa ever see. In this, we see an important delineation between the ways we can think, and how collectors think, about these series. On the one hand, we can talk about the models from the perspective of what kinds of different flourishes, different armours and weapons, a model possesses, and on the other we can talk about them from the perspective of the complexity, or novelty, of the build. It is the sets that do both that are often the most popular and lauded.
In the 2001 series, it was the Rahi that provided this novelty of building, and for 2002 it is the proto-Titan models that do so. For today's post, these novel builds are represented by the Toa Nuva combiners, and the two variations of the Boxor. I've already waxed lyrical about the Wairhua Nuva combiner, who is sadly obscured behind a clock in the picture. Akamai Nuva, our other combiner, is a very basic redesign of the original Akamai, and, if I'm to be honest, is not really that interesting. The Boxor, both versions, on the other hand, offer both a novel build and a cool aesthetic design, which makes them one of my favourites of this wave. The creator of the Boxor (which, rather macabrely, is built from destroyed Bohrok) is the Tohunga Nuparu, who eventually becomes one of the aforementioned Toa Inika. He's interesting, in that of the Inika, he's one of only two who is not based on one of the 2001 McToran figures. The Boxor is one of the last gasps of truly Technic-style building for the Bionicle line. The main model features a punching motion that is activated by pushing down on the model and making it walk. The gear assembly for this model is really great. The secondary model (over to the far right in the picture) isn't quite as interesting, but certainly offers some variety in a wave that is, sadly, overly clone.
That's enough for today, I think. I'll move on to the Swarm next time, and then the Rahi zoo of the Master Builder Set.
(Okay, so perhaps it's only going to be once a week for this blog ;P)
So we'll jump right in with a consideration of the "good guys" in the beginning of the series. The section of the collection that I'll be focussing on today includes all (I'm pretty sure) of the official models and combiners that represent the villagers, leaders, and heroes of the BIONICLE saga's first year. Of note, I shall be linking to the website BIONICLEsector01, which I consider to be the most comprehensive of the Bionicle wikis online.
BIONICLE (I'm going to stop capitalizing it for the balance of these articles. I know that's the proper way of writing it, but it's a pain in the ass) offers a really interesting post-apocalyptic science fiction story that starts out as a fantasy parsed mechanically. By this, I mean, that the original six Toa who started the story (seen above, left, and below) are the most mechanical-looking off all of the Toa that we encounter through the first 10 years of the series. At this point in Bionicle's history, it is still considered an offshoot of the Technic line, and as such is compatible with pieces from that series. Before Bionicle's release in 2001, LEGO/Technic had experimented with action figure-style sets in the Throwbots and Roboriders series, and the elements that make up Bionicle are fully compatible with those forerunners. Indeed, two of the earliest official combiner models, the Ranama and the Kirikori Nui rely heavily on elements from these earlier series. In the "Prolegomena" to Lego Studies, Mark Wolf describes LEGO as a "mediating substance through which ideas can be expressed" (xxii) in reference to the creative potential that comes from a building material that is infinitely combinable and compatible with every other element in its range. The compatibility of Bionicle elements at this early stage argues for its inclusion in this notion of a mediating substance, or, more simply, a medium.
To return to the idea of fantasy parsed mechanically, the initial mythos of Bionicle is a mystical one. Six prophesied heroes wash ashore on a mysterious island, discover a connection to elemental powers, and to a sacred mission to protect and reawaken "the Great Spirit" Mata Nui. Yet these heroes, and the villagers they protect, and even the beasts that threaten them, are mechanical in nature, not just in the elements that make up the sets, but in the narrative itself. It was this juxtaposition that I found initially so enthralling; a line of technical Lego aligned around a story of spiritual fulfillment, around the three virtues of Unity, Duty, and Destiny. In this opening phase of the tale, there was really no inkling of the post-apocalyptic undercurrent that would eventually eclipse the more spiritual side of the story. This was simply a tale of the fulfillment of a prophecy, one told using machines.
I want to hang on this for a moment. The Bionicle figures are machines, as are all of the models in the Lego Technic line. They're not even simple machines, but semi-complex combinations of axles and gears and levers and wheels. They function through rational principles that have been described through the centuries by physicists. But, at least initially, they embody qualities that fly in the face of the rational: destiny, spirituality, faith and belief. It's a rather beautiful combination, a practical application of the principles of physics and the principles of faith, combined in a toy that is, at its most basic level, an infinitely iterative device. Is this telling us something important about a combination of the rational and the irrational? Can such a combination lead to infinite novelty? In the case of Bionicle, I think the answer is yes.
To conclude with my mechanical meditation, the irony of the line is that as it progresses further and further from fantasy into the science fictional realm, the figures become less and less mechanical. Poseability and articulation are far superior in the 2009 line of figures than in this inaugural one, but the story becomes almost wholly mechanistic and rational. What is fascinating, then, is the combination of the two that emerges in the 2015 reboot (which, actually, may or may not be a reboot proper.)
Let's spend a bit of time, now, on the actual models.
Most of what you see in the above pictures are the standard models to have been released in the initial wave of Bionicle. A trend that continues until at least 2006 is the inclusion in each instruction book of alternate model sets. For the Toa, these alternate models were two beings known as the Toa Kaita, combinations of three each that amalgamated the powers and personalities of the individual heroes. These are relatively well-known combiner models, and also make brief appearances in the canonical stories surrounding this era of the series.
These kaita are, however, the only sets in the 2001 figure wave (as opposed to the creature wave) that include such combination instructions. Both the Turaga (village leaders, the figures with small staffs in the upper pictures) and the early Matoran (the "McTorans" or Tohunga) have combiner models but not published, at least in pamphlet form, instructions.
The McToran combiner models (so named due to their inclusion in Happy Meals from McDonalds) are fairly simple to build, due mainly to the number and nature of parts involved. Each set is simply 7 pieces, and all are fairly large and fit together in only so many ways. Consideration of the pictures on the instructions included with each set is enough to build both versions of the Matoran Kaita and the Matoran Nui.
Instructions for the Turaga combiners require some searching. Though the picture of the Turaga Nui (pictured at right with the Bronze Huna) appears in some official LEGO publications, instructions for the model were never released. The model in the picture was constructed using fan-made instructions, and, for the completists, is also missing Nokama's noble kanohi Rau, which is replaced with a light blue Huna. This is one of the problems with collecting enough to create all of the official combiner models - early sets such as turaga Nokama become more and more difficult to come by. We'll see this again when we get to the Kirikori Nui and its make-up. The Kabaya Sweets promotional Turaga Kaita does have official instructions, packaged with the toys when they were released in Japan, one assumes. Though similar to the Turaga Nui, the Kaita is less-robust a model. Both arms on the Nui are attached to levers on the back, allowing for some stability in those limbs, whereas the Kaita's arms swing free. The Kaita is also quite difficult to balance properly. I've noted before that the aesthetic of the Japanese combiner models is somewhat different from the European or North American combiners, but this one is an exception to the rule. The Kaita really just looks like the Nui after a diet.
One last figure set deserves some attention before we finish.
The Bionicle Power Pack was an early experiment for Bionicle and LEGO in transmedial storytelling. Not only does the package include another Matoran and a mask that, ostensibly, is worn by one of the above Toa Kaita, but the CD included with the package has a map of the island on the liner notes, and includes both an interactive tour of the stone village on Mata Nui and three music tracks ostensibly composed by the Toa themselves. The interactive content, sadly, is not Windows 10 compatible, so I've been unable to install it on my system, but it can be found at the archive of the BioMedia Project here. Hafu, the Matoran who comes with this set receives an upgrade in 2003 as part of the Mask of Light tie-in Matoran, and is representative of a strange choice on LEGO's part to not release Matoran from each village in that year. But we'll look more to that when we get there.
Before we finish for today, then, here's one of the songs from that disc, the track called "The Bionicle Music." Whether this fits with the fantasy/jungle aesthetic of the early series is a good question. In some ways it enhances that strange mixture of the scientific and irrational by providing a soundtrack that one cannot imagine the inhabitants of the island of Mata Nui composing. Enjoy. Next time, we'll have a look at the Rahi of the island, the Toa's first challenge in reawakening the Great Spirit.
