#bionicle fandom

[bionicle-baby]

Lies (featuring Onua and Pohatu in the MNOG art style)

It took a while to draw this is it good?

[malwarewolf-mocs]

Happy twentieth birthday to my favorite year of Bionicle.

[dreamcatcher-faux]

Had a silly thought that was basically: What if The Makuta's Life Force that resurrected him influenced Jaller's Toa Forms? And as you can see, I had fun with it :3

Below the cut is my Makuta Teridax design for comparison :3 (I need to redesign him but you get the jist)

[a-thread-of-green]

A real treat from r/bioniclelego.

[furmewolfy]

LEGO is just crack for autistic people

[knightofthenewrepublic]

When you search for the tag:

[crosswiredcrafts]

I'm running a 25% off sale on all cosplay Kanohi masks at my store!

https://crosswiredcrafts.etsy.com

[spiritproductionsart]

Werewolf-ified OC for Blackbelt! This one was a hella fun commission!

[crystaltoa]

Thought experiment: In an alternate universe where Bionicle recently got a wildly popular reboot and now has a MASSIVE following on Tumblr...

...What's the most annoying thing that the fans are doing?

[bionicle-baby]

bionicle masks of power looks amazing but…

The demo looks awesome. Everything they have planned is awesome. It’s crazy how it’s just an indie dev team who have permission from Lego as long as they don’t make money off the game.

eventually, when it comes out, the YouTubers will play it and it will get as much attention in media as the average triple A game.

the problem with that is…

when something gets popular…

certain people will find it…

Certain people that mostly reside on twitter…

People who were born near the tail end or after bionicle ended who take pleasure in “canceling” things and people because it makes them feel like heroes…

they are the farthest from heroes you get before you reach criminal territory. /srs

what do you think will happen when they find out about bionicle? They will research bionicle. And, what do you think will happen when they research bionicle? They will find out about early bionicle. And what do you think happens when they look further into early bionicle?

havoc.

chaos.

Barely escapable, ever consuming darkness.

all by the hands of outsiders of the bionicle community who don’t have as deep of an understanding of bionicle as us.

we need to stop this darkness from escaping somehow…

any suggestions?

(I have to say here that I have nothing against people fighting for what’s right, it’s just… some of the people who think they are heroes were actually villains all along.)

[malwarewolf-mocs]

Watch in horror as I deliberately destroy the value and integrity of a 22 year old happy meal toy just so I can store it better.

[dreamcatcher-faux]

"The evil on this island is about to learn that justice can be very... cold."

Honestly I feel cold just looking at this-

Below the cut are the flats and a version without the hood and belt :3

[guttergator]

I don't know much about SCP stuff but I feel like Bionicle has enough cosmic and body horror themes that it would be thematically appropriate to make a series of like Onu-Metru archive journal entries about the Rahi they were studying. If anyone who knows more about the SCP Foundation wants to do something with that idea please go ahead.

[kanohivolitakk]

I don't know if I ever said this before, but one of my most steadfast believes with Bionicle is that you cannot put into traditional categories of "objectively good" or "objectively bad". Not just because Bionicle itself is all over the place qualitywise with very high peaks and abysmally low lowpoints, but also because of what Bionicle fundamentally is. A toyline.

Sure, there have been a lot of toylines that have their own stories just look at Transformers or Masters of The Universe instance. But a core difference between those and Bionicle is that most storydriven toylines have the story and toys be fundamentally separate. Even if the toys were made first and the story just exists to sell toys, the story still exists as a separate entity with little connection to the toys. The toys mainly exist as to be memorabilia of characters the kids can recreate the plot with rather than having a concrete purpose.

Meanwhile with Bionicle it being a toyline is a large part of its identity largely thanks to it being a Lego product. Legos entire brand is all about creativity, to let kids come up with their own ideas with imagination as the only limit. Sure, they do have themed sets but the themes have always been more of a suggestion than a demand. And this mindset applies to Bionicle as well. Bionicle is ultimately a creative sandbox, a springboard that gives the base concept and set up kids can build their own adventures around.

And heck this translates to not just kids but even teens and adults. As the audience got older they got to affect the story more what with those MOC contests, story contests and what not. Not to mention, a lot of the canonization Greg got critiqued for were less his ideas and more kids headcanons he just gave a seal of approval (because lbr at some point we fans clearly cared more about the worldbuilding than Greg ever did). And then there's all the stuff we are now doing as community, with all our fanfics, projects and headcanons to expand on or play with this world and characters we all love so much.

Because sandboxyness and creativity is a major aspect of Bionicle's identity, it cannot be judged as a traditional story. Trying to judge Bionicle as a traditional story that has a "set" beginning, middle and end removes a huge aspect of what makes Bionicle work as is. Yes, you can (and should) critique the "canonical" story, but judging Bionicle from that alone isn't smart. It'd be missing the forest for the trees essentially.

[sapphicslaylist]

Remember: Your Art Is Radical (yes, even that one)

Realizing that this isn’t common knowledge, so I’m here to spread this message as far as I’m able. I’m sitting here, working on my fanfic right now and fretting over the fact I need to properly portray book burnings. Then kind of realized a methodology for rebellion which isn’t often used to its full potential.

Your art is political - yes, even that one. Even your Shrek Fanart and Bionicles meta-analysis. Fanworks are seen as vapid and purely derivative throughout many circles, and therefore aren’t going to be put to the test on world criticism like many other forms of media. Good. Use that!

Remember that fandoms consist of a variety of people from different backgrounds, races, and cultures, all of which can be educated off of one another. No one is going to be aware of all the different elements of Human Justice, and we can learn a lot from each other. Art itself is an act of politic because for many if not most of us alive, our existence itself is political. And, as funny as it is to imagine that the government is going to read through 12,000,000 pages of Erotic Harry Potter Fanfiction, that’s not a likely reality.

Fanart is a much more covert way of examining current events which can and WILL be capable of helping shift tides. Remember: you were drawn to that media for a reason; may be passive enjoyment, may be something deeper. Fanart is a form of creation which is safer, as it won’t be heavily monitored or scrutinized (both because it can’t be and most older folks aren’t super aware of it). It goes under their radar. Help bigoted nerds unlearn what they’ve been taught, because knowledge is the enemy of bigotry. Even one fic or one piece of art will have a ripple effect and encourage others to create their own.

For those with degrees, I encourage you to add elements of scholarly queer studies and disability aid in your worldbuilding. Disabled people, show, not tell how different means of mobility function and the history which has been repeatedly hidden from us. Expound what knowledge you have, and capitalize. Write characters of different racial backgrounds & culture shock when their societies meet. Draw acts of defiant historical violence in your OTPs and add in the source of the event. This is not derivative: it’s using one media source to explain a narrative. Simply adding in elements of your shared experience or coding different parts of literary theory into your work in a more digestible manner is already letting others see your depiction of the world.

I mean this full-heartedly: your creation is an act of defiance no matter what form it takes. Doesn’t matter if you’re “a bad artist” or “not a good writer.” Your experience is unique and not only deserves to but NEEDS to be shared more than ever. So if you’ve always wanted to write that deep feminist She-Ra work or Warrior cats analysis on systematic ableism, the time is now.