Top Ten Years of Lego Bionicle
The LEGO BIONICLE construction toy line has been around the sun about ten times now, but has hit around 11 different years. But out of all these years, which is the best? The toys and story from all the different years make this a tough one, but what do you think?
2006 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2006th year based on the Common Era/Anno Domini designations. It is the 6th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 7th year of the 2000s decade. The stakes were high that year! The heroes were up against a pack of thugs led by a guy who's near-indestructible and both sides are looking for a powerful mask that can bend gods to its will. We got to meet and fight the mask's guardians while also getting an okay video game and some play sets made of Lego bricks. This year was plain exciting, and it deserves a somewhat decent spot on the list. 2006 was good, but the ones above it are better.
2006 was the year of change, it introduced a brand new style of build (the inika/piraka build) and the new piece count was surprisingly high. It intoduced the most reliable type of ranged weapon so far, the zamor sphere launcher, which never failed unlike the kanoka and rhotuka. The light-up functions were fun as well! This year brought a more serious tone to the franchise, kicking off the ignition trilogy, which was arguably the best era of Bionicle. The commercials were among the best of all Bionicle ads, only the '07 ones being slightly better.
Titan builds were revolutionised with the introduction of the new ball piece, not only being used in almost every titan set and custom MOC as soon as it was released, but also ended up being the backbone of the character and creature building system, which was used by Hero Factory and Gen 2 Bionicle as well.
Also, the Piraka were the very first Bionicle canister villains to all have individual personalities. Along with the Inika sets, ...more
The advertisements for this year alone were amazing. I will never forget the epic "Move Along, Move Along" commercial.
2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2007th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 7th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 8th year of the 2000s decade. This Is only Slightly better than 2001 for me. But it does slightly better because, despite not having the awe and mystery of the first year, the stakes were higher than ever, the story was gripping and the characters wonderful, Not to mention some heart wrenching sacrifices and just flat out cool looking sets. I love this and it was the first year I truly became a bionicle fan, and then later caused me to back track and look at the older years.
This year makes me hate lime green. The sets were pretty cool (I mean, who doesn't like an underwater theme? ), but if they had lime green joints, they're bound to crack. We got creepy villains, okay Toa, and a bunch of big, tough guys that looked menacing despite being made of plastic pieces. Who so low? We hardly got much of a story until the latter half of the year, but it's better than what 2015 farted out.
2007 was fundamentally one of the most important years for BIONICLE. This was the year they ended clones. (Until the latter half of 2009, that is.) Every single set was unique and a lot of care was put into their designs. The story was also great, and many fans still fondly remember Matoro. One of the few post-2003 years BIONICLE truly lived up to it's potential.
The toa Mahri and Barack were the first non-symmetrical sets in the series, which they kept throughout the rest of the series's history.
2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2001st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 1st year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2000s decade. Go up to any hardcore BIONICLE fan and ask them what the best year of the run was. Chances are, they'll say 2001, 2002, or 2003. Truth be told, 2001 was a perfect year. There are way too many good things about it to list, but I'll try my best to summarize it. Six heroes, mysterious island, murderous animals, 36 masks to collect, comics and chapter books, an epic online game, and a ton of advertising. This year was taken VERY seriously at the time and no other year got that kind of dedication.
While all three of the 'Golden Years' were fantastic, 2001 stands out as the best year of the franchise. It set the tone of mystery, intrigue, and the juxtaposition of technological people in a primitive setting - of bright colours and dark themes. It felt like a mature story idea, treated well, target at the right age group. While other years would try and do similar things, 2001 nailed the appeal, the story, the sets, and the success.
2004 was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2004th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations Such an unforgettable year. Six elemental Toa warriors up against bounty hunters, an army of robot police, and an evil giant with massive wings, claws, and teeth while in a massive city with danger around every turn and a movie that details some of it? Uh, yes please!
2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2003rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 3rd year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 4th year of the 2000s decade. This was probably planned to be the last year of the run, so we got a bang that year. Dangerous lizard men with destructive powers, a gold-armored man on a flying vehicle, and a brute of a main villain made for an exciting year. We also got a mediocre movie to tie in with the sets, so this year felt complete.
This year was defiantly the best as far as collectibles go.
2008 was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2008th year based on the Common Era/Anno Domini designations. It is the 8th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 9th year of the 2000s decade. Bat people in the sky and bug people in the swamp? And all we have to stop them are air vehicles, guns, blades, jet packs, and little people that can ride on our backs? Suit up, boys. This was truly a great year. The sets were meh, but the story was enough to keep us hooked. This was the final battle before the final battle, and boy, was there hype. While the overload of gray and silver was a tad nauseating, 2008 had its moments and the good sets that secure its title of one of the best BIONICLE years.
2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2002nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 2nd year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 3rd year of the 2000s decade. Destructive machines, parasitic mask-faces, exo-suits, and twin T-Rexes. Need I say more? The year was topped off with the 2001 heroes getting shiny, new upgrades, so that's a plus.
While I personally wasn't old enough to know about or buy BIONICLE sets when this year debuted. I have gone back and bought some of the sets online as well as read some of the comics, and in my opinion, this was BIONICLE's best year, even more so than 2001.
The Bohrok were not only awesome and dangerous villains, but also the best canister sets we ever received with a great mix of functions. This years titans were amazing, there weren't as many of them as there were the previous year with the rahi but they were arguably better sets. And of course who could forget the toa nuva. This years toa greatly improved what we got the previous year with cool new armour, improved gear functions, and dual feature weapons.
2001 may have been what started it all but 2002 added so much more depth to the story and characters as well as the island Mata-Nui itself as well as having a somewhat darker tone while still keeping the colourful exterior that we know and love. I haven't yet read ...more
2005 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2005th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations. It was the 6th year of the 2000s decade. This year had a horribly rushed story, mediocre-looking Toa, and a movie so short, you'll need a mere hour of spare time to watch it, but it was awesome anyway. The meh sets were forgivable if you can just edit them and the good ones were definitely memorable.
This year was quite frankly was not necessary.
2015 (MMXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2015th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 15th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 6th year of the 2010s decade. After being a corpse in 2011-2014, BIONICLE returns with awesome new sets and a godawful story. The sets are nothing to sneeze at, but the story is the reason why 2015's so low on the list. That, and 2001 makes this year look like a slow start.
Cool sets, needs a better story, this has a lot of potential!
The sets are good, but the story lacks heart.
2009 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2009th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations. It was the 10th and final year of the 2000s decade. This could've been a whole new beginning to a new big story in Bionicle by introducing us to a new world with new characters and not to mention the awesome, colourful and easily breakable sets. But since the conclusion of the other story was very cliff-hanging, nobody could turn away. Just because this year doesn't have the original characters and bad pieces, doesn't mean it was bad, but it was turned down to fans demanding to see their beloved characters, which would also be one of the few causes of Bionicle's rushed and poor ending.
This was only here so I wouldn't have to include 2010. The 2009 sets looked interesting, but their socket joints were laughably weak and the movie that came out that year was even worse than the last three, which were obviously meant to be childish. The story itself had a ton of potential and could have rivaled 2001, but instead, 2009 ended and 2010 came with different plans and tiny sets, ending the original BIONICLE run in disaster.
Very bad year, horrible story, and a majority of the sets were just as bad.
2010 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2010th year based on Anno Domini/Common Era designations. It is the 10th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 1st year of the 2010s decade. This year was a horrible year for BIONICLE, but it's here in case people think it's better than 2009, which it's not. 2010 was a disappointing year with a whopping six sets, all of them small, and an okay story to go with it. BIONICLE's first run ended pretty nice, but left off a ton of potential to keep going. But what's done is done and 2015 leaves us with a shred of hope.
2016 (MMXVI) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2016th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 16th year of the 3rd millennium, the 16th year of the 21st century, and the 7th year of the 2010s decade.