Eoin's Bionicle Blog

Monday, 27 June 2016

The Bionicle Movies: Toy Liberties and story problems

The Bionicle Movies: Toy Liberties and Story Problems

As you all know; there were four Bionicle movies over the course of it's original run, these were:

Mask of Light
Legends of Metru Nui
Web of Shadows
And last, but certainly not least, The Legend Reborn

I like these movies for what they are, big screen versions of the Bionicle storyline seen in the toys, that's until I notice their two very BIG flaws:

The characters look NOTHING like they're original designs; "But Eoin, didn't the characters in the Fourth Movie not resemble the toys?" I hear you ask; well, yes they did; but this movie came out in 2009, ages after the first three movies did. What do I mean by "They looked nothing like they're original designs"; well, stick around to find out...

Let's start with the first movie; "Bionicle: Mask of Light" from 2003, this was a overview of the later part of this year's storyline. Now, let's look at some of the characters and compare them to their toys.

First is Makuta, this is his toy form:

And this is his movie form:

Monday, 2 November 2015

Eoin's Bionicle Files #1: Toa Mangai

Welcome friends; I am Eoin, keeper of the Archives here on the island of Metru Nui. Today, I open the files on the Toa Mangai; the team once led by Toa Likhan until they were disbanded.

Toa Likhan, the leader of the Toa Mangai

According the archives, the Toa Mangai were first assembled when Turaga Dume was first threatened by the villainous Dark Hunters; unlike the Toa that succeeded them, these Toa were a team of eleven. They fought many battles and missions...by then they were betrayed first by Toa Tuyet; the team's water Toa, who murdered several Matoran and then by Nidhiki, who joined the Dark Hunters. But after years of peace; Makuta, posing as Turaga Dume, sent the Toa Mangai off on various missions...missions from which they never returned, for they were killed by the Dark Hunters that were hired by Makuta and it came to the point when only Likhan remained. Alas; he was captured by the mutated Nidhiki and Krekka, but not before he could get the Toa Stones to the successors of his team...the Toa Metru.

A sad tale, isn't it? But look around you, my friends and you'll see that the Toa Mangai were brave heroes that are still honored to this day...

Unearthing the Legend

Today, I share some interesting trivia with you fellow fans about the Bionicle universe...

So, did you know...

That the idea of the Matoran Universe being set inside the Mata Nui Robot was actually a long discussed rumor before being confirmed?
That all of the Toa were originally going to be male, but Gali was made female at the last second.
The original concept of the toy-line was called "Boneheads of Voodoo Island".
That the Toa were originally envisioned as god like beings that spoke in dramatic voices and they would also have an age difference?
That the name "Gathers" was a name considered for the Bone Hunters.
That the two Toa Hagah sets, Iruni and Norik; were designed as the Toa forms of two completely different characters?
That the Toa Hewkii set was originally meant to be brown instead of gray?
That there was a Bionicle game planned for 2004 called "Bionicle 2: City of Legends"?

So there you have it folks, I have shared some of my favourite pieces of trivia about the Bionicle universe and the species that inhabit it.