I wish this day could be more celebratory in its tone, but unfortunately that is not the case. For those who have seen the news, the Hawaiian island of Maui is currently suffering from a devastating fire that has cut off access to ports, communication, and emergency services. To pull the curtain back a bit, I have a friend who lives in Maui.  Solidarity is an important part of LANCER's message, so I want to say that if you wish to help the people of Maui, the following link may help explain what you can do: https://weather.com/news/weather/news/2023-08-10-cash-assistance-aid-how-to-help...

This is not a sponsored message, nor do  I get anything from this. All I can say is that unfortunately there are going to be people trying to take advantage of this, so if you donate to anything, please make sure it is a reliable and trusted charity or relief foundation because otherwise those funds might just fatten someone else's pockets, instead of going to those who need it most.

In Solidarity,

- Max

-=-=-

This post was originally written to celebrate August 10th, also known as 810nicle Day for those using a MM/DD/YY calendar (which is pretty much just the United States).

It may not be immediately obvious, but the during the one-shot that would result in the creation of KIE, it was commonly joked that it was "just Bionicle". A group of biomechanical cyborgs, forced from their homes due to a great cataclysm, and battling an evil, shadowy force attempting to take them over?

I grew up with LEGO as a major part of my childhood. The first Bionicle sets my siblings and I got was, if my recollections are correct (apologies it's been 21 years), the Bohrok and the Bohrok-Va of the 2002 wave. We would also get the Toa Nuva, the Bohrok-Kal, the Rahkshi, etc. in the 2003 wave (including the Makuta set, which was the only one of the "Titans" we got from that year).

I'm sure a lot of people from my generation have the same story of getting a Bionicle set and being hooked on the lore and story. The amount of books I would beg for my mom to get me during the Scholastic Book Fairs - both the Bionicle Story books and the guides such as Bionicle World- were as fundamental to my love of storytelling and fiction as Star Wars or Transformers. The Ignition comic books and graphic novels were a large part of helping me adjust to a new paradigm when my family moved to another state and again when my parents got divorced.

But all stories must come to an end. When the toyline was cancelled in 2009, we got most of the Bionicle Stars sets, and that was it. To be honest, I had no clue that the story serials were a thing, let alone some of their plot "revelations" (some random matoran from the 2006 wave was actually a Great Being in disguise? Really?) That's not a knock against Greg Farshtey, more just about the circumstances regarding the cancellation of the franchise.

For those who have delved behind the scenes, Bionicle was not meant to last more than a year like the previous constraction toylines like Throwbots/slizers and Roboriders. Its smash success in 2001 resulted in this being extended to 2003, where the Great Spirit Robot would have been revealed.

But that didn't happen. The franchise managed to keep going on for six more years, with the reveal of the Mata Nui robot- something planned since the beginning- occurring in 2008. Seeing that reveal as part of an animation, with parts of continental shelves falling off this absurdly large robot, was akin to seeing Cybertron transform into Primus in the Transformers Cybertron 2006 cartoon. It was shocking, and it was awesome.

What Bionicle meant to me was more than just the toyline or the story, but the idea of using Science Fiction to create high-concept storylines in a method other people could digest.

When it was rebooted in 2015, I was a much different person. While some believed the magic was gone, I figured this was just an opportunity for a new generation of children to grow up with a new island and new characters and new concepts. But it was cancelled one year later, the promotional cartoon rushed out the door. As far as I can tell, the reason was not because it was failing, but rather that poor executive decisions led to LEGO investing too much in the Lego Movies, which did not perform as well as expected and they needed to "trim some fat" off the budget.

But Bionicle did not end there, nor did it end in 2009. Rather, Lego took the lessons it learned in how to tell stories and applied them to different spiritual successors: Ninjago, Chima, Hero Factory. One of these was more successful than the other, with Ninjago and its elemental-based ninjas being on shelves for even longer than Bionicle. I fell out of that franchise during the "Final Battle" arc, but if children and adults are still enjoying that franchise, more power to them.

But it wasn't just Bionicle that gave me a love of giant robots. Exo Force (which was unfortunately cut short and we haven't had a mech-based theme since) was also one of the big things in my childhood, even if I never got into the anime franchises that inspired it (yeah, I know, how dare I not watch anime but play Lancer). Power Miners, Mars Mission, Atlantis, and pretty much any other theme with a giant robot build was something I ate up like the literal child I was back then.

I did not necessarily fall out of buying LEGO sets or transformers because I was "grown up", but rather that my priorities have changed (and, well, I'm getting back into it bit by bit, as my ever-growing collection of transformers desk toys has something to say about that).

I am not the same person as I was when I was a kid. None of us are. Nostalgia is a powerful drug, and it can blind us to what we really thought at that time. It can twist the past into something more mythological than it truly was. It can create figures of legend out of those who were just people.

Such themes are present- if subtle- in the lore of the Field Guide to Jovo and KIE. 

A single story can mean a hundred different things to a hundred different people.

I commissioned this piece from Pablo Costagliola, AKA Raigmann, the artist for KIE, to celebrate 810nicle day and what the Bionicle story meant to me, to represent how its building blocks have been used in the creation of my own fiction. While not exactly "canon" to Khepri Industrial Equipment and Field Guide to Jovo, it doesn't need to be.

“Gathered friends and young ones, listen again to the story of our people. In the time before time, we were carried to this world by the Great One, and here we lived Unbroken, in the light of the Sun. But the Sun became envious of the Great One and its children, and in its rage, it unleashed the Flare.

“When the Flare ravaged our world, it broke us. We retreated to below the surface, away from its harmful light. We lived in darkness, but not without hope, not without a future. The Maker fixed our bodies, gave our minds purpose, connected our hearts with one another.

“But what happens when the one who fixes, the one who makes, becomes broken? A great shadow loomed, taking away our purpose, our connectedness. The ones who escaped the Maker’s tyranny became Severed, alone, lost.

“Our salvation did not come from the earth, but from the sky. Warriors- nay, Liberators!- of unparalleled skill and power, bodies forged from stars themselves. They battled the Maker’s forces, and brought its reign to an end.

“And then, our Liberators were gone. Perhaps they are still out among the stars, helping others in need. Perhaps they had a singular purpose, pulled from a past or future to save us. So we remember them, even if we cannot remember it all.”

- Hivespeaker Ximon Wayde recounts Rubblefolk oral history to a group of neoborns, 5094u

Stories are meant to be told. I am privileged to be in a position where I can tell mine.

(And, in terms of development, we are very close- about 99% done- to releasing the next patch, we just have a few bugs to iron out. That's not a pun.)

Until next time,

- Max