Although BIONICLE is a fun subject to write about, the topic has overstayed its welcome on Palm City Life 2026. My quest to collect older BIONICLE sets still continues, as I will keep ordering more, but topic has lived its course. I will have another entry today, but it’s going to be the last one.
As you know, BIONICLE used to be very popular at one time, but after years of falling sales, combined with a failed reboot in 2015, BIONICLE was discontinued, and now, it’s more of a relic of the past. So those who grew up with it or are still into it today might be interested into this week’s entries, but everyone else might not. The franchise is mildly obscure, but not obscure enough to where I won’t even talk about it here.
As of today, there are five different eras of BIONICLE. They are:
- Mata Nui Era (2001-2003)
- Metru Nui Era (2004-2005)
- Mask of Life Era (2006-2008)
- Bara Magna Era (2009-2010)
- G2 Era (2015-2016)
Now what era do I like best? There are many different types of BIONICLE fans. One of them are the traditionalists, which thought the franchise was much better early on, as it went downhill as the years gone by. Another are the moderates, which thought the franchise was better during the middle years than during the early years or later years. Then we have the modernists, which thought the franchise was deeply flawed early on, but got better over the years. There’s also the G2 fans, which like the G2 sets better. Finally, we have the equalists, who think the entire franchise was enjoyable, regardless. I’m part of that first camp, which thought the series was much better early on. But remember, I’m more of a retro person, and it’s not limited to BIONICLE.
If you were a kid back when BIONICLE was new, and you’ve been collecting BIONICLE sets as a kid (remember, we do not pluralize the word or write it as “Bionicle”), you’ll probably remember how it was originally developed. It was set on the island of Mata Nui, where the Makuta was threatening the villages, sending Rahi to attack the villages while the Matoran (originally called Tohunga) fought to protect the villages. They kept doing this every day until one Matoran with the name Takua created a beam of light, bringing the Toa over. It was supposed to be a mix of robots, Polynesian culture, and organic material, showing how unique BIONICLE was at the time.
However, the BIONICLE story from the beginning was not the same as it was as the years went by. Due to the Māori language controversy, the raging successes of the initial years, and many other factors, the story line was expanded while the tribal themes were abandoned. You’ll eventually learn that there was a giant robot named Mata Nui, and his body was the entire universe of smaller robot-like creatures called “Matoran”. Mata Nui was created to fix the damages done by the Great Beings, but after the Makuta Teridax infected him with a virus, he crashed onto the water planet of Aqua Magna and fell asleep. And the island of Mata Nui as seen from the very beginning was created out of a malfunction from his mechanical features. The Matoran that inhabited the island of Mata Nui also came from a place called Metru Nui, which was inside Mata Nui’s head. They were trapped into Matoran Spheres and sent away.
Each of these eras highlighted different parts of the story:
- The Mata Nui Era was set on the island of Mata Nui, where the Matoran were much weaker and lived in tribes, where the island was always in danger, and where the Toa had to look for the masks to become powerful. During the first three years of the franchise’s run, the island of Mata Nui faced three threats. They were the Rahi, the Bohrok, and the Rahkshi. The main characters were the Toa Mata, which were Tahu, Pohatu, Onua, Lewa, Kopaka, and Gali. They hunted for the masks, defeated the Makuta Teridax and the Bahrags, evolved into the Toa Nuva, and saved the Matoran.
- The Metru Nui Era took place before the Mata Nui Era. This was about how Mata Nui fell and how the Matoran got weakened, which set up the story for the Mata Nui Era. The first half of the Metru Nui Era was about life on Metru Nui and the destruction of it, while the second half was about the Visorak Horde, which took over Metru Nui after the Matoran left. The main characters were the Toa Metru, which were Vakama, Onewa, Whenua, Matau, Nuju, and Nokama (who were the original Turaga). There were two other factions of Toa, which were the Toa Mangai and the Toa Hagah.
- The Mask of Life Era, also known as the Ignition Era, took place after the Mata Nui Era. During this time, Mata Nui was dying, so a team of Matoran worked together to save him. They have become the Toa Inika, and later the Toa Mahri. They needed to look for the Mask of Life, also known as the Ignika, to save Mata Nui. Each year during this era were set in different parts of the Matoran Universe. The first was Voya Nui, which was part of the Southern Continent before it broke off. The second was Mahri Nui, which was part of Voya Nui before it fell off. The last was Karda Nui, which was the heart of the Matoran Universe.
- The Bara Magna Era was the final era of the original story, which took place on the planet of Bara Magna. Mata Nui has died, but later came back to life in another form. As the shortest era of BIONICLE, this was where the Makuta Teridax was finally defeated for the last time.
- The G2 Era was set in a completely different place, completely independent of the original world. They used the same six Toa, but had different looks. The bad guys were the Skull Spiders and the Skull Warriors. The story was greatly inspired by the Mata Nui Era, but it was short-lived.
And now, here are my thoughts of each era:
Mata Nui Era:
As the franchise began with the Mata Nui Era, it was part of the Technic theme. Therefore, sets had more parts, but also simpler parts. There were some parts specifically made for the BIONICLE theme, but most of the parts were generic Technic pieces, such as ball joint and ball sockets, liftarms, pins, axles, and gears. There were also more clone sets, which were essentially the same figures, but with different colors and slight alterations.
In regards to the story, the story was simpler since they’re trying to reach out to children. Before it became a large and complex story about the Matoran Universe, it was a lot simple good vs evil story, where the land was in danger, the heroes come to save the day, and the heroes defeat the Makuta. However, the story was also repetitive, as nearly every story element from 2001’s story (Toa look for masks, Lewa falls under control, Takua explores the island, villages are attacked, Toa defeat the bosses) were re-used in later years. Also, the Bohrok Swarm had two lines.
My Opinion on the Mata Nui Era:
Out of all five eras of BIONICLE, the Mata Nui Era was the best era for BIONICLE. And the primary reason isn’t nostalgia, but rather how the sets were made. The sets at this time had more gears, more moving parts, more rubber bands, knockable masks, and more complex builds. As a result, sets frequently came with at least one action, if not, two actions, that you can use by pressing the lever or turning the gear. The Toa can move their arms or legs. The Turaga can move their right arms up. The Bohrok can pop out their heads. Titan sets and even smaller sets also came with their own functions as well.
The sets also had separate building instructions to build larger sets, like the Toa Kaita and Kuma-Nui. This not only encouraged people to buy more, but also encouraged more creativity like custom Toa and custom Rahi. If you were a collection master, you would not only collect all of the sets, but also collect each set twice to build the combiner models.
In addition to the sets, they were also better on the collectibles. In 2001, all six Toa had six masks each, which were different recolors of the same masks. The Turaga also had different recolors of the same shapes, made for the Turaga of the same color. In 2002, along with releasing the golden and silver masks of the Toa masks, as well as six new mask shapes, they also released the Krana, the Bohrok brains. There were eight different shapes, all coming in twelve different colors, which represent the Bohrok and Bohrok Va. They eventually released six new colors for the Krana to reflect the Bohrok-Kal. They also released the Kraata, which had six different colors in six different stages.
I would also like to praise the story on this part. It’s not just because it was simpler. It’s also not just because of how it went. One extra media as part of the Mata Nui Era was an old Flash game called the Mata Nui Online Game (previously called the Mata Nui Adventure Game). It’s a first-person point-and-click game, where you play as Takua to explore the island, collect items, and save villages. It starts with where you have to go to four different villages to solve their problems (destruction of Ga-Koro, illness in Po-Koro, darkness and unbreakable layer in Onu-Koro, and missing villagers in Le-Koro). Then you have to go to Ko-Koro, then collect the Matoran across the island, then defend the temple of Kini-Nui so the Toa can have an easy way out. They’ve later released a game called Mata Nui Online Game II, and the direct-to-video movie The Mask of Light.
I will have to say, after looking back at the sets, the next year wasn’t as good as the previous. The 2001 sets included not just the original Toa and Turaga, but also the Rahi, which were the best of the titan sets. 2002 had the Bohrok and other cool titans sets, but the rest aren’t as good. And 2003, despite having the Rahkshi, was the weakest. But they were still good.
Metru Nui Era:
After three successful years, BIONICLE finally got its own theme rather than being a Technic subtheme, allowing it to have more unique parts. By doing this, sets had more joint articulation and more unique looks. This was also when they had a change in theme, as Metru Nui was a future-city island. The new Toa of the era were the Turaga as Toa. They also used different shades of red, green, blue, and brown as part of being in the new era.
While transitioning to the new age, they still carried on the older concept of having more gears and moving parts. The sets from 2004 were more like what they had in 2001 to 2003. The sets in 2005, however, was when they started transitioning out of it. But as they tried going out of it, they started having new gimmicks, like pulling a blade to launch the Rhotuka Spinners like flying saucers.
My Opinion on the Metru Nui Era:
The Metru Nui Era was an age of contrasts for me. The first year brings some nostalgia to me. Despite no longer being part of the golden age, the 2004 sets show that BIONICLE still had its charm. I did think it was a good idea to make the Turaga into Toa. I also liked the new builds for the Toa, the new building features and other features that the original Toa didn’t have, the titans were pretty cool, and so were the disk shooters. The Vahki may be repeats of the Rahkshi, but they still had geared movements, and the ability to shoot disks.
The second year was when they started going downhill or were at least on the edge of going downhill. This was when they started to abandon the geared concept they had from previous years, as well as scaling back on the moving parts. They didn’t even look as good either. The Toa Hordika look like mutated feral versions of the Toa Metru, Titan sets were more humanoid rather than animal-like or machine-like, and other sets, including the playsets, weren’t as interesting as previous ones. I wouldn’t be opposed to collecting these sets, but still.
I could care less about the story since I’m more interested into the sets, but from what I learned about the story, I liked how they had a backstory of how the Mata Nui Era happened. I also noticed that this was when the series started making a darker turn on the story. The 2004 story looked like it’s going to repeat the original story, but the 2005 story took a new turn. As a result, the Metru Nui Era was higher than average at best, but it ended at an average level.
Now if there’s anything that did go downhill, starting 2004, it has got to be the collectibles. The collectibles in the Mata Nui Era were a lot more interesting since we got different recolors of the masks and others, which also have some meaning behind them. But for this era, all we got were just different numbered disks and different colored Rhotuka Spinners. They no longer had collectible masks. In fact, the masks weren’t even knockable.
Mask of Life Era:
The next era, which lasted three years, was when they really started changing the story and set concepts. They stopped having more gears and moving parts, while they had more focus on the shooters. They also had more variation among sets after years of having clone sets. Titan sets used less pieces. The story also got much darker and more complex.
According to the fandom, these three years were considered to be the franchise’s best years in terms of sets and story. They also introduced characters like Vezon, Hydraxon, and Karzahni. At the same time, due to the change in concept and more complex story, as well as the fad dying down, BIONICLE sales began plummeting at this time.
My Opinion on the Mask of Life Era:
In my personal opinion, in terms of entire eras and not years, this was when BIONICLE started going downhill. As I previously said, the reason why I liked earlier sets more was because they were more like action figures back then. But with the removal of gears and moving parts, they were more like models than action figures. Just having a single shooter is not enough.
I will say that it was better early on in this era, just not as good as previous eras. One advantage that both the Piraka and the Toa Inika had over earlier sets was the incorporation of lights. The Piraka had light-up eyes, while the Toa Inika had light-up swords. Also, having shooters as the main gimmick besides the lights wasn’t too bad when it first started. So the Voya Nui era sets weren’t that bad.
The next year was my least favorite year of the Mask of Life Era. I did not like the squid shooters, and the Barraki were the worst villain sets of BIONICLE. At this point, the declining concept has became a major concern for me. I even had in my plans that if I can extend my collection plans all the way past 2004, the last year of sets I would get are the 2006 sets. Well, this was after 2006.
The last year of the Mask of Life Era was a mixed bag. From what I learned, the worst BIONICLE sets ever were the Av-Matoran, which were released in 2008. We also seen the Phantoka and Mistika, both of which did not live up to the previous years of warriors. However, they did have battle vehicles, which were the high point of the year since I saw the return of the Technic-based sets.
As for collectibles, I already pointed out that the Metru Nui Era wasn’t that good. The Mask of Life Era was even worse. Now, there’s like no collectibles in the Mask of Life Era, throwing out a cornerstone of the original BIONICLE years.
Bara Magna Era:
The final era of BIONICLE’s original run took place on the planet of Bara Magna. Now out of the Matoran Universe, we see different kinds of characters like the Agori and the Glatorians. They continued the same concepts they previously used in the Mask of Life Era on the construction, but the story took a completely different turn. We now learn more about the actual BIONICLE Universe. It all started on a planet called Spherus Magna, which split into three planets, a jungle planet called Bota Magna, a water planet called Aqua Magna, and a desert planet called Bara Magna. Mata Nui was to restore Spherus Magna and put all of the planets together. We also see the very beginning of the BIONICLE timeline, as well as the end of the original story.
Because of years of declining sales, BIONICLE finally came to an end. Well, it got rebooted later, but the original run was over once they released their last line of sets in 2010. At the end, Mata Nui has won, and the Makuta Teridax was dead. But the Mata Nui robot was also destroyed, as all of the Matoran and Rahi, along with others, started living on a newly-reformed Spherus Magna.
My Opinion on the Bara Magna Era:
This era was the worst era of BIONICLE. As it continued going downhill, it reached the rock bottom. The original series ended with sets being at their worst, only to be followed by an even worse franchise (Hero Factory) in terms of set quality. The story was also worse, as some of the stuff they put in didn’t really make sense. It was more complete fantasy. Much of the BIONICLE fandom put this era at the bottom, and I’m no exception.
That being said, it’s not without its redeeming qualities. The biggest one was the battle vehicles, which they started in 2008 and continued in 2009. In fact, one of their battle vehicles released in 2009 had the most pieces in a BIONICLE set. Even more than Muaka & Kane-Ra (which had the most pieces to a BIONICLE set outside the battle vehicles category). This was also when they released the Toa Mata Nui set (which was a large titan). It’s available on BrickLink for over $500 (which is absurd for a LEGO set with the number of pieces included, but still awesome). If I had the money and consideration, I might buy this set and put it along Takanuva and Makuta Teridax (both of which were released in 2003).
Overall, since I would limit myself to earlier years, I’m definitely not going to recollect any of the sets released in 2009 or 2010.
G2 Era:
Good news! After enough demand, BIONICLE got rebooted, releasing new sets. Bad news! The reboot didn’t last long. In 2015, BIONICLE got a new generation of sets, using inspirations from the Mata Nui Era. But they were all set in a completely different land, using the same characters, but completely different designs. This time, the Skull Spiders and Skull Warriors were the bad guys.
Unfortunately, as previously said, this era didn’t last long. One possible reason was that they used the CCBS system instead of Technic pieces, which turned many away. Another possible reason, which almost everyone can agree on, is the lack of marketing, making many people unaware of the existence of the BIONICLE Reboot. So it ended after two years. Even if it did succeed enough to get a new year of sets, it would’ve only lasted up until 2017.
My Opinion on the G2 Era:
Compared to the last many years, despite using the CCBS System, this era was a huge improvement in terms of set quality. They went back to the old concepts, where they had knockable masks, gears, and moving parts, while also going back to simpler storytelling. In fact, the 2016 sets, which were not as good as the 2015 sets, were better than more than half the sets from the first generation. As a whole, I would put this era over the Metru Nui Era. While the 2004 sets were still better, I can’t say the same for the 2005 sets.
That being said, despite the inspiration, it does not hold a candle to the original Mata Nui Era sets. The designs weren’t as good. The masks were easier to knock off than they were in the early years. They still didn’t have collectibles like they did in the first couple of years. Also, I didn’t like the idea of changing Lewa’s element to “Jungle”. I would also like to say, and you know I’m going to say it, they looked a lot more childish than the original era.
My Ranking of the Years:
Now that I went over all five eras and what I think, I’m going to rank all of the eras from best to worst, followed by the years from best to worst. For entire eras and overall set quality, the ranks go as this:
- #1 – Mata Nui Era
- #2 – G2 Era
- #3 – Metru Nui Era
- #4 – Mask of Life Era
- #5 – Bara Magna Era
Based on its journey of how it went in terms of set quality, my ranking is no different to how I rank the 3D Mario games, where they were a lot better to begin with, then they went downhill, then had an entry at the end that was better than most, but still not as good as the original. As for how I rank the years in terms of sets, this is how I would go:
- #1 – 2001
- #2 – 2004
- #3 – 2002
- #4 – 2003
- #5 – 2015
- #6 – 2016
- #7 – 2006
- #8 – 2005
- #9 – 2008
- #10 – 2007
- #11 – 2009
- #12 – 2010
Giving you a walkthrough, it’s not a surprise that the first four years would be in my top four, and 2001 took the lead. They had better sets, better collectibles, and better marketing. The Rahi were very cool sets that I still enjoy up to this day. The Toa were appealing because of their colors and elements. The Turaga had better masks. And I certainly liked the Matoran. 2004 being better than 2002 and 2003 may seem out of place, but the declining quality in Titan sets each year, the many repeat sets in 2002 and 2003, and the Toa Metru sets were why 2004 was a better year. But 2002 and 2003 were still better than the rest thanks to the Bohrok, the Rahkshi, and the Titan sets of both years.
The big shocker is the G2 Era being put higher among the list, given how different it is to the original BIONICLE generation. But I had my reasons why G2 was better than most years. It’s because, despite CCBS replacing Technic, it had moving parts, gears, and knockable masks. When they first came out, it was like they’re bringing back the old concept that made them better in 2001. The 2016 sets weren’t as good as the 2015 sets, but they were still better than the rest of G1.
There’s a reason why I put 2006 over 2005 despite 2005 being part of the Metru Nui Era. It’s not necessarily that the Visorak weren’t that good or that the story was better in 2006, but rather the incorporation of lights. That was one thing the early sets didn’t have that I wanted to see in BIONICLE.
The bottom four were unsurprisingly the last four years of the original generation. Judging by the set quality of these years vs earlier years, they have gone downhill, and it’s like it’s not BIONICLE anymore. This can explain why they sold worse every year until LEGO finally decided to pull the plug to it. It was replaced with a worse LEGO theme (Hero Factory). And now, there’s no Constraction LEGO themes.
So yeah, my rankings aren’t based on nostalgia, but rather what I would like to see in a set. But if you interpreted this list and what my preferences are for BIONICLE sets, this can be applied to many things. I will have to thank BrickLink since I was able to get BIONICLE sets again after years of not having one. And I can even get the sets that I missed.
And that’s all for today. The BIONICLE franchise may make a comeback in the future, but we will never know.
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