BIONICLE cancelled - no sets in 2017

fourstud

http://www.lego.com/en-us/bionicle/newsboard

"Fans, today we have to share the news with you that we have made the tough decision to discontinue LEGO® BIONICLE® at the end of 2016. NETFLIX has just started streaming the final two episodes of “The Journey to One” the ending of which, will put an end to any speculation about the future of LEGO® BIONICLE®.

With the 2015 relaunch of LEGO® BIONICLE®, we set out to revive a childhood favorite of fans worldwide, and bring it to a new group of children who were too young to have known and played with LEGO® BIONICLE® Generation 1. From your wonderful feedback over the last year, we feel very proud to have performed that task. Currently, the last wave of LEGO® BIONICLE® products is launching in Europe and North America. These products will, however, not reach the shelves in Asia and the Pacific markets.

Next up is the #BIONICLEbuildmakuta Rebrick Contest, starting August 1st, that will give you a chance to compete for some unique prizes. All you have to do is to give us your best shot at the Evil Overlord himself. Through the rest of the year, we will keep sharing artwork and other things that may be of interest to you on LEGO.com/bionicle and facebook.com/LEGOBionicle

On behalf of the LEGO® BIONICLE® team we would like to say that it has been absolutely thrilling to work on a theme that evokes so much interest, dedication and emotion. We would like to thank you for taking in LEGO® BIONICLE® Generation 2 and sharing all your builds, stories, artwork, joy, criticism and praise. By doing so you have not only expanded the universe but also made the amazing BIONICLE® Community even stronger and more amazing. We are confident that you will ensure that BIONICLE® lives on.

The BIONICLE Team"

CCC

I hope they don't stop doing the large figures altogether and this is just the BIONICLE brand that is ending (although tough for fans). One of my kids loves his Chima ones, and I thought the Batman, joker, Iron Man, etc ones they did a few years ago were pretty good too. I haven't got round to buying the SW ones yet (hoping for good prices on them).

SithLord196

I can't say I'm surprised. They didn't seem to be selling, at least around here anyway. I got a few of them on discount and had a hard time reliving my childhood love for Bionicle as I built them. 

CCC, the General Grievous figure was excellent in my opinion, and I had a lot of fun building that one. The only other one I have is Obi-Wan, which was a nice straightforward build to me. 

77ncaachamps

Tough call but the line was truly a love/hate line.

IMO, it doesn't fit the current Lego landscape.
Its a bit unrefined as opposed to the Constractions, with I hope they continue.

matticus_bricks

matticus_bricks

All grumpy cat memes aside, this is disappointing, though not necessarily surprising news for anyone who really likes Bionicle. I'm just sick of seeing them as the only clearanced LEGO items at stores around me. 

Bumblepants

I wonder if there was a 2017 line in development that has been abandoned. It will be interesting to see what they do next with constraction. Perhaps having the star wars figures out at the same time took sales away from bionicle.

SumoLego

^ I get the sense that the theme has run its course.  It was different and wildly popular 15 years ago.  Not so much now.

One could chalk up the prior success of Bionicle as setting a pretty high standard for the current iteration.  And despite some protestations of folks in this Forum, there isn't much of a differentiation with Hero Factory - so the theme may also be a bit stale.

Although (and this would never happen), I would be interested to see how Transformers Constractions would fare in the market.  Those Kre-O things were just beyond terrible.

Aanchir

SumoLego said:

^ I get the sense that the theme has run its course.  It was different and wildly popular 15 years ago.  Not so much now.

One could chalk up the prior success of Bionicle as setting a pretty high standard for the current iteration.  And despite some protestations of folks in this Forum, there isn't much of a differentiation with Hero Factory - so the theme may also be a bit stale.

Although (and this would never happen), I would be interested to see how Transformers Constractions would fare in the market.  Those Kre-O things were just beyond terrible.

I think the Transformers "Construct-Bots" might be a better comparison to LEGO constraction themes than the Kre-O sets, in terms of their piece counts and snap-together construction. And from what I've seen those didn't seem to perform too well.

The creators of the latest generation of Bionicle put forth a valiant effort to recreate a lot of the best aspects of Bionicle from over the years, and I definitely enjoyed the sets and story. However, I fully understand that its success depended not on how many old-school fans like me it could appeal to, but rather how much it could excite kids. I don't think there was ever much chance of it becoming a craze on the level that it was from 2001–2003, but I'm still disappointed by how quickly its momentum ran out.

Overall, though, I'm not as bummed about the theme ending as about the community response. Just like when the first generation ended in 2010, a lot of Bionicle fans have been playing the blame game in the wake of its cancellation, and acting as if LEGO didn't care or didn't spend enough on it or didn't try hard enough to make it a success. Never mind that the Bionicle in its first year was promoted about as heavily or moreso than LEGO Elves, which seems to be thriving nonetheless. I think the market is just a lot different than it was when Bionicle was at its peak.

WarmountShaliLin

I believe that Lego still has some great ideas about returning Bionicle or by creating new line of buildable figures similar to Bionicle, but that figures need to be more colorfull and not in only 6 color themes, but using more different colors on one hero or adjust colors to fit heroes in amazing way. This is what I'm creating: