Journey to Done- The REAL reasons why Bionicle failed

[Laughter]

[Music]

a few days ago I didn't expect to be

making a Rand video and have a use for

these again but whatever I'm going to

address up appropriately for this one

that's better before I started writing

this one I was asked by user buxo art so

what should we expect a rage Fiel screed

towards Lego for what they've done a

somber but hopeful remembrance of the

franchise as a whole and what could come

in the future a plea to the fan base not

to go to war over this something else at

the time I answered B maybe a little of

C but looking at the way the script has

turned out I'm going with all the above

so sit tight as we touch upon everything

that's contributed in some way to

Bionicle most recent downfall

so bionical G2 has been canned I

suspected something like this could

happen but I hoped it wouldn't and I

ended my review of The Shadow Bas on a

positive note looking forward to

anything that may come about in 2017 and

encouraging others to do the same I know

some people don't care about these sets

but I think they're pretty good some of

them even pretty great sure there were

the odd balls like skull Scorpio and Kar

but that's the worst i' ever got and

there still only like two out of 35 sets

the line has been pretty solid the 2015

tow were kind of basic in some ways but

they brought back gear functions and

combined it with modern standards of

posability and different heights builds

and looks and such the protectors were a

good mure in stand in and made the

island ofoto feel populated these

figures were colorful and had an

elemental feel that took me back to the

early years the island itself while

essentially being a giant pizza made an

intense setting to set the new story in

the creatures help make the place feel

even more alive and diverse and it was

just great to see bionical animals

appearing again the skull villains were

so so but a feel Lumar and the shadow

Beast really raised the bar and the 2016

to were the bomb to me they all had

their quirks including a few mildly

annoying ones but they had almost

everything people said the 2015 to were

missing there were more detailed having

way more of that old school texture they

had better proportions in some ways with

their shoulders move forward and the

gear function moved down and they had an

even more intensely Elemental even sort

of spiritual feel with the emphasis on

trans pieces and whatnot which seems to

be what they were going for in the story

plus we got a lot of cool masks to

collect over these two years and now

it's over just like that there are no

more sets aside from a couple of poly

bags of combiner models that I don't

really care about for me to review and

there won't be anymore probably forever

I got to tell you this really came out

of nowhere like a punch to the gut the

writing was on the wall it was clear the

line wasn't selling that great and G2

stays were numbered I and many others

had accepted that bionico would be

ending next year and probably even with

just a good buy wave around New Year's

at that so at least I had that to look

forward to you know just just one more

wave I mean this line was really going

somewhere the playability of this year

sets was outstanding the creatures on

the toe United with all their added

functions and everything it really

elevated Lego's construction lines to a

whole new level like they raised the

ceiling of how much they could

accomplish with their buildable action

figure lines how much cooler could a

third wave of TOA possibly be maybe

aku's new body was a sign of things to

come like they'd create a completely new

torso build that seemlessly combined the

two previous years's functions in a

brand new way that didn't look nearly as

awkward or they'd have an entirely new

function that would blow us away and I

couldn't even imagine what they would

look like because the designs were so

fresh this year they'd probably have all

sorts of cool new armor and even more

pieces that brought ccbs and old school

Technic together they might look nothing

like they did at the start of G2 by the

time it ended it feel like the sky was

the limit but now it's just a dream and

I don't think everyone has quite

adequately grasped just how truly

shocking and insane this actually is

Lego typically plans to keep lines like

this going for 3 years there at least 2

and A2 during those years they plan out

their next theme and replace the current

line with that one once the existing

theme is ended so giving a theme six

waves or at least five has become pretty

standard practice that Rhythm they've

created is the way they do things now

that's typically the minimum that's what

they did with Ninjago first run and then

they did that with Chima which they

intended to be Ninjago successor to

paraphrase they basically said when you

see this next line you'll be like what

Ninjago so five waves each now Chima

wasn't well received by everyone but it

sold well enough to finish its run even

if it kind of lost all its demon

relevance by the time the final wave

rolled out and was promptly replaced by

Nexon Knights which intern will be

replaced by another successor in a

couple years unless it proves popular

enough to keep running longer than Chima

did Ninjago became more popular than

Lego could ever have expected so that

theme was brought back becoming an

evergreen theme not unlike bionical G1

was for a time but there was still a gap

when the first run ended because Lego

needed more time to plan on its next run

so thanks to Ninjago unprecedented

sucess success they changed their policy

so now instead of limiting a typical

theme to 3 years if a theme can prove

itself to be viable in those early sales

figures it'll be similarly upgraded to

Evergreen status and continue as long as

it remains viable which Chima did so you

see these people do things way in

advance like years they don't just whip

up a set and then start shipping it out

the next month so even if Bionicle

didn't sell that well for various

reasons we can at least rest assured

that it would finish its three-year run

so all of LEGO's work wouldn't go to

waste how wrong we were this kind of

thing doesn't just happen guys the only

way Lego could do this is like this line

didn't just sell bad it had to tank it

must have sold apocalyptically bad right

at the gate the first winter wave must

have left shelves so slowly that

somebody Lego saw those sales figures

coming in during those first few months

spit their coffee all over their screen

and ran to this appears in a panic

screaming all the way holy crap you guys

we got to cancel this line right now

like tomorrow we're hemorrhaging money

but by then they'd already developed the

next three waves to their final stages

so they may as well release those and

try to make some of that money back and

now we've run out of whatever products

they were able to finish I don't know

what to think of this but I can guess

there are many things this could be

blamed on though I mainly blame Lego's

lukewarm marketing bionico was basically

de on a rival in that regard this whole

action figure thing is a much harder

sell for kid than it used to be the

world of Lego is a much bigger place

than it was in 2001 bionico can't be top

dog like it was back then because back

then Lego's other stuff wasn't

interesting or big enough to compete

with it I think there was a large part

of whatever factors made it easier for

the theme to be so successful back then

that is not the case anymore system sets

are selling great that's Lego's bread

and butter now as I'm sure no doubt many

brick Centric apals feel it always ought

to be with the popularity of Ninjago and

the pleasant surprise that was the

Fantastic Lego movie kids are crazy

about Bricks now and ccbs is a part of

this push too it's basically the closest

construction figures as we know them

will ever get to being built with

classic Lego bricks without actually

being made of bricks but these same kids

at least a lot of them don't really care

about action figures today's kid is born

with an iPad in their hands it's

starting to replace action figures just

like those replaced rocking horses and

wheel duckies that you'd pull around on

strings or the classic pushing a can

around with a stick Lego has found ways

to combat this with their system sets

such as Lego agent second run NEX kns

and most notably Lego dimensions and

this was working out for them but

Bionicle didn't fa so well now their

heart was in the right place everything

we didn't like about the 2015 animations

was designed to make it work in what

Lego clearly felt was the only way it

could in this day and age the art was

simple clean and defined making it easy

to watch on the smaller screen of an

iPhone and the episodes themselves were

very short bite-sized easily digestable

chunks that could be watched and

finished during a bus right to school

and it sounds like a more strategy but

relying primarily if not solely on this

to make bionico reach the kids of the

day just wasn't enough and by the time

they finally got around to releasing

books games and an actual show to

support it it was too late the damage

was done Lego needs to be much more

aggressive when they push constraction

on the kids of today yes I think they

should have given it a show in 2015 at

least like 10 episodes or 13 and maybe

Focus some of them on a certain toe or

other giving kids time to really get to

know them like we did back in the day

and the online animations Comics iPhone

games and what have you would support

that Lego evidently made a mistake by

expecting Our Generation us older fans

to market the current line to the new

generation for them Lego was banking on

our Nostalgia to carry the line long

enough for it to click with kids but

that clearly didn't work seeing how many

people rejected it as some herofactory

rehash whatever you think about it

personally Lego simply didn't give

children enough incentive to want to

have anything to do with Bionicle when

they have a wealth of other bigger safer

themes vying for their attention imagine

you were a little kid in December last

year or January this year and you just

saw the force awakens and thought it was

awesome let's say you go to Toys R Us or

Walmart the next day and you pass the

Lego aisle who are you going to want

when you see them on the shelves of

course you're going to want your

favorite characters from that awesome

movie you love they've got kylo Ren and

Finn and Ray and Po and fasma they're

all there why would you ever bother with

these what the heck is about iCal some

weird alien robot things that look kind

of cool but you've probably never seen

them before and you don't know these

characters very well so what incentive

do you have what reason has Lego given

the children of today to choose Bionicle

over their other lines oh hey your older

brother's told you about it once or

twice before because he collected things

like that when he was a kid oh oh yeah

that's a great selling point you're

really s me on that one Lego but you see

even in the case of Star Wars kids

aren't buying these because they like

constraction figures no they're buying

them because they love Star Wars that's

why this line is doing well and Bionicle

isn't because it's a bigger safer brand

that Lego barely even needs to put any

effort into promoting these are going to

sell no matter what Bionicle never had a

chance you know just today before I even

wrote this script I was at a family

gathering at one of our summer cottages

and I spent some time with this one

little cousin I haven't seen since like

Christmas and he told me without me even

asking or whatever that he likes

Bionicles kids like seven he probably

doesn't even know that it's been

canceled yet or even understand what

that means and I've heard of the people

who were there to experience G1 share

similar stories about their little

cousins or siblings getting into G2 or

even G1 but clearly these kids are a

very small minority compared to the vast

number of kids more interested likeo

other louder more aggressively marketed

and in their face themes and to be

honest it kind of makes me wonder if

it's even possible for a like Bionicle

not just Bionicle itself but anything

even vaguely resembling in some way to

ever succeed in this day and age or

maybe it isn't possible maybe too many

of today's kids are just too different

from us and don't like the same things

maybe the world and toys have change too

much for Bionicle to succeed like

construction itself isn't going anywhere

ccbs is still a viable building system

that Lego will continue to use in themes

like Star Wars but will we ever see

anything outside of that has the spirit

of Lego construction died who are

certainly not going to see bionico

replaced by another original Ip along

the line of nexo knights next year their

designers haven't had enough time to

finish developing a theme like that

going by their usual development cycle

so we won't see anything like that until

2018 at the earliest or at least that's

how we could have expected things to go

if bionico was even moderately

successful but now they sold so badly

Lego had no choice but to pull the plug

so prematurely will this make them

reluctant to release a new construction

theme will they play it safe and keep

releasing ing Star Wars and superhero

Ultra builds and just leave it at that

well they go back to the drawing board

looking at GTO as a cautionary tale so

they can know what to avoid doing with

other lines in the future and lastly

what's going to happen to Bionicle

itself well at least within Lego itself

I think we're good Bionicle is an

important theme to Lego nothing is going

to change that there are many people in

that company who have championed

Bionicle as the theme that saved Lego

and who tried their hardest to make

bionico great and are probably way more

disheartened than we are by what's

happened hopefully several or maybe even

many years from now enough people within

Lego would be inclined to take an

introspective look and realize wow we

really dropped the ball that time but

it's still a good theme with a lot of

potential for success so let's learn

from our mistakes and do things

differently this time even though there

are currently no plans to bring bionico

back when the subject of G3 came up on

Twitter a Lego representative plainly

answered that this possibility cannot be

completely ruled out even now Lego still

no doubt recognizes Bionicle as a

legitimate IP that could still come back

in some form for or other and is

deserving enough that they try again

someday retailers on the other hand will

be much much harder to convince see

stores like Walmart and Target and Toys

R Us have to buy their stock from

manufacturers then when those products

are sold again through the store that

store gets a cut so they make them money

back when the product they've invested

and doesn't sell they're going to be

less inclined to buy any future stock

from that company when bionica was

canceled the first time it wasn't

selling badly but Lego saw those numbers

going down and stop production to

protect the IP and stop it from really

dying see at least if it ended while it

was still selling okay they could bring

it back at a later date a retailer would

look at those later numbers and see that

the theme was still viable and that they

could expect Bionicle to sell at least

as well as it did during his Twilight

years if not better that's why Lego was

able to bring Bionicle back because the

numbers in those later years were still

okay but if it's sold so badly the

stores like Walmart and Target are still

trying to get rid of last year's stock

and have grown so tired of the theme

that they aren't even accepting the late

latest wave making these sets

effectively one big toys rist exclusive

how reluctant do you think they'll be to

allow these things into their stores

again if Lego tries to put together a

generation 3 now or at any point in the

near future these store owners aren't

going to look back at G1 because it's

sold great at first they're going to go

by the most recent and most reliable

data to judge how successful they can

reasonably expect another Revival to be

they'll look at whatever Lego selling

them and think yeah sure because it

worked out so well last time right get

that swag out of here and this isn't a

stupid or short-sighted way to do things

these people can't just say yes to every

new product being presented to them

because oh it sold great for a while

that one time a couple of decades ago or

however long it'll be by then they have

to rely on the latest data on the most

relevant information they have because

that's the closest older products like

that come to in any way representing

current trends it's easy for us to say

from the comfort of our armchairs well

they should give Bionicle a chance

because of its potential and sure it' be

nice if they did but we can't reasonably

expect them to that sentiment isn't

going to mean anything to the people at

the top if they've come to know Bionicle

as that one particular Lego IP that

doesn't sell because it's toxic and the

kids don't like it stick to Star

Wars can you see why this line has

failed really actually failed this time

the only way bico could feasibly return

after g2's early wave sold as bad as

they must have is if the more recent

wave suddenly started selling like hot

cakes if journey to one became a smash

hidden Bionicle product started leaving

the shelves in much greater numbers a

massive turnaround like that this sudden

upward Trend would show how viable the

theme is Lego would get right back to

work on it with a new story and bring it

back in a year or two as some sort of

sequel to G2 and retailers would be more

eager to populate their store shelves

with these characters but we don't have

any indication that things are going

that way this is what worries me about

the future of the theme I just don't see

how it could recover from this but I'm

even more worried that this rotten taste

that's left in store owners's mouths May

create a sort of prejudice that could

extend to other potential constrction

themes that aren't guaranteed to sell

the way Star Wars is and also this is

going to upset a lot of people but I

need to talk about the fans for a bit

you know who I'm talking about Lego

expecting us to carry the theme into the

new generation pretty much by ourselves

was a stupid strategy no argument there

but I did my part I gave Lego almost

$600 for all these sets for crying out

loud that's no joke Jang did his part

TTV did their part we all tried to give

this line as much exposure and promotion

as we could because we believed it was

worth our time but on various message

boards and common threads you'll see

people who are saying this entire

complex situation all these factors all

of this can be attributed to one thing

the fact that Lego used Hero Factory

parts and I am so sick of seeing people

spreading this toxic crap insisting that

Lego never really had the gut to bring

back the real bionical and that they've

been trying to trick us all this time

into buying ccbs because you're actually

not supposed to like like it cuz it's a

bad system that you can't build anything

worthwhile with or some baseless kakami

rhetoric like that they basically want

Lego to bankrupt themselves by bringing

back all the new molds I'm not going to

say this very vocal chunk of the

bionical community was big enough to

have killed G2 themselves but they sure

didn't help I find it kind of insulting

that people could just pretend that this

line hasn't made big strides throughout

its run and is still comparable to Hero

Factory I mean Hero factor was a cute

idea and all but a lot of the later sets

were rubbish but I already touched upon

that my 2015 to a mega review so I won't

go into my reasons for thinking that for

a second time here these people aren't

worth talking about anymore than I

already have and they will never be able

to convince me that ccbs isn't a fun

system to work with or that these

figures are crap even when it comes to

G2 supporters though there's still some

blame to be found G2 story had some good

ideas but his execution was lukewarm and

nothing special I think we can all agree

on that to some extent but there are

some people who have enjoyed G2 a great

deal but were tend to Simply keep up

with a story and didn't actually buy any

of the sets and then they act surprised

that the line didn't sell well enough to

fund the story for another year

seriously like I'm not even going to

harp on these people I'm not mad at them

I'm just using this anote to illustrate

a point that just as there are many

different types of bionical fans there

are also many many many many many many

many reasons why bionico failed and it

Cann all be chucked up to any one easy

to bling thing like ccbs the worst it

gets is these people who are laughing in

our faces people in the bionica

community who are eating this up making

fun of us for being invested in a toil

line as if they themselves aren't the

people going why are you even surprised

of course G2 is going to fail it sucks

so hard Hero

Factory the kind of people who have been

kept awake at night for almost 2 years

by the idea that people are enjoying

this line that they don't approve of

people enjoying and who are happy Nate

rejoicing that it's ended because they

think the mere existence of G2 somehow

tarnishes G1 and they think they need to

avenge us somehow by killing G2 because

they don't want Bionicle to be like

Transformers where it can be remade over

and over and over again and be enjoyed

by new generations by people besides

them people who aren't worthy and aren't

true FS like them that it's sacred and

it needs to be their special something

that nobody else gets a touch because

they don't understand like that's so

selfish it's repugnant to celebrate G2

ending to act like this is somehow a

positive thing that is good that people

don't get to enjoy this thing anymore

yay other people don't get to enjoy

something that I don't like anymore Lego

friendly made a smart move by canceling

something that people could have enjoyed

without my approval I can't imagine how

miserable it must be to have so much rot

inside that you have to derive some sick

satisfaction from the very fact that

other people aren't able to enjoy

something in order to make yourself

happy to feel good because of that

because it is sick very people shouldn't

be This Bitter over a toy line I'm just

trying to imagine what sort of of ego

and at the same time insecurities one

must have to feel like something they

love is being attacked by the mere

existence of some new version of it that

this will retroactively hurt the older

thing they love by going back in time or

whatever that no they have to protect

the memory of it they must preserve its

Purity you know who you are and if

you're not well great on the other hand

I do greatly appreciate the people on

various sides of our community who are

being respectful about this Kellen has

been very critical of G2 sets and all

but his latest video was just what

people like me Nia to see and his dark

humor made me laugh much harder than it

should have I don't want to see g2's

canellation divide the community any

more than its existence already has

before I talk about how I'm going to

carry on from here though I want to talk

about journey to one itself for a little

bit journey to d as I like to call it

wasn't even that good I mean the first

two episodes were okay they were

acceptable but that last episode was

awful to qu Jang once again the graphic

style and quality was very good good the

writing though was truly terrible words

that come to mind include cliche

predictable repetitive low brow thin

shallow unive disappointing cringeworthy

sad and forgettable in fact it felt

almost insulting the wrap-up instead of

leaving open the imaginative

possibilities of a future of exciting

Adventures essentially renders the

entire franchise utterly meaningless

what an incredibly unfortunate way to go

out

dang that's a pretty scathing review

coming from a clean guy like Jang I'll

be sure to link the original blog entry

if you want to read his full thoughts on

how things have gone really though even

as dull and weirdly Pac as it was the

show did get a little exciting near the

end we got our first look at a grand

city with a scale unpar with metroui

this place that was clearly supposed to

be the setting for the entirety of 2017

we see shadowy aodin serving makuda not