Bionicle - In the time before time (aka 2000/2001), LEGO released it own original IP that told. It told a tale of six heroes washing ashore a golden beach, each a biomechanical being wearing masks of power and wielding a specific element (fire, air, water, earth, stone, and ice). Their mission: protect the island’s inhabitants from the evil Makuta and awaken Makuta’s brother, the wise Mata-Nui, from his slumber. A simple story, it grew and spanned over ten years, with each year related to the heroes whose stories were being told. The story ended up being of such titanic portions(quite literally) that Bionicle had a special place for me and a few other (to get more info, I’d suggest to look at the YouTube link below). That being said, MAN did it get convoluted near the end. Not just story but the medium too. Bionicle was told in comics, books, games, and even movies, but all of them didn’t necessarily fit with each other 100%. Not to mention how much terminology was thrown out there by the end of its first run in 2010 it almost got confusing to some people. That being said, if I was ever get to Bionicle, the story would more or less be the same but everything would be more streamlined into a series of novels/movies/tv episodes so it can be more understandable and accessible to old fans and newcomers (something that the short-lived reboot failed to do).
Well wouldn’t you know it, I’ve been brainstorming a Bionicle reboot that basically streamlines the original story. I hope to make the terminology easier to follow, among other things. Planning to actually make it happen as a stop-motion film series. I’ve always wanted to shoot Lego stop-motion on location, so this’ll give me the chance to do that. I’ll need to acquire the sets though, as I was too young to have grown up with the series prior to Glatorian, and thus own little of it from that time. I’m thinking of using a single Toa team for the entire Aqua Magna portion of the story. I’m trying to reduce the character count overall. The series was made to sell action figures, so unsurprisingly there’s an insane amount of characters. Probably not cutting any Glatorian characters, though, since there weren’t that many, and it made sense for that setting to have a lot of them. In fact, maybe I’ll move some popular character axed from earlier sections to there. I’ll also look into incorporating G2 elements if there’s room for them, but my priority is staying true to G1. I want to give it better closure though, taking cues from what we know of the original ending before it was cut short. Not sure what to do with Bota Magna, though. Aqua and Bara Magna each have their own cast, so I figure I should have a new cast there too, but what’s the setting like (besides jungle, obviously)? Are there six heroes like the Toa? Or a vast array of warriors for hire like the Glatorians? I feel it should be neither of those two, but I can’t think what.