Action figures were fun to play with back in the day (and of course still are). It was even better when LEGO came with its own—Bionicle. I fondly remember swooshing Tahu, which was my favorite, through the living room. It got even better when LEGO released Bohrok, a welcome foe. I never got into collecting the masks and the whole world building but I did love the use of all the elements. Just like Exetrius aka Mathijs Dubbeldam portrayed in this amazing tribute to Bionicle.

Marco: What an incredible MOC with a solid presentation of a theme that’s been out of production for a while now. Why did you make this MOC? Do you have a special connection or memories towards Bionicle?

Mathijs: Thank you! Yes, I grew up with Bionicle: I watched the Mask of Light movie a bunch of times, and also watched the animated clips on the small CD-ROM discs that came with some of the sets in the earlier waves. Those really drew me into the adventurous and mysterious world of the Bionicle. After rewatching Mask of Light once more some years ago, I felt inspired to make the Toa with system part. The announcement of the Bionicle category for the 90th Anniversary Contest on LEGO Idea s did the rest.

Marco: How long did it take you to build this, and do you have a particular process?

Mathijs: I started with one Toa, specifically Kopaka, as a proof of concept, in June 2020. I continued building the other Toa and their weapons as a very slow background project, until the Ideas Bionicle contest came around in July 2022. That’s when I switched gears to full-time building mode for a week.

Before the contest came around, I thought I could make a separate landscape or architecture vignette for every Toa, but for my entry, I figured I should put all of them together in one build for maximum effect. That meant figuring out a composition in the required 1:1 photo ratio. A challenge, with seven characters to display! I used the old brick-thick baseplates of various sizes to lay out a base structure and composition. Then, I made a sketch in color to set rough boundaries for each part of the terrain. After that I covered the base structure with terrain, working from left to right.

Marco: What was the biggest challenge while building?

Mathijs: It’s hard to pick one challenge that was the hardest. The process of creating a composition and base took more than a day of trial and error, and at some point I wasn’t sure if I could make the build as a whole work for the contest. I didn’t really feel that uncertainty with other parts of the build, except with the masks. I started over from scratch with Kopaka’s mask, Pohatu’s, Lewa’s, and overall iterated a lot. The terrain also posed challenges, like the many colour transitions, the streams, and a bit of forced perspective.

Marco: Which Bionicle is your favorite one and why? And would you improve anything in hindsight?

Mathijs: Difficult questions! As far as improvements go, I would consider adding wrist articulation and—for the ones that don’t have it—feet that connect directly onto studs. But generally I am very satisfied with them, I really poured a lot of thought and love into each of them. Takanuva, Pohatu and Tahu resonate with me strongly. Of those three, I think Pohatu is the coolest build from head to toe, but Takanuva is definitely the regal icon that he needs to be. That said, Lew a is the most fun to swoosh around. ;-)

Marco: Can we expect more Bionicle builds from you in the future?

Mathijs: Right now I don’t have any solid plans for future Bionicle creations, and I have lots of other projects waiting to be built, but I do have some ideas. If I return to Bionicle, expect another system-built MOC based on Mask of Light and the island of Mata Nui.

Thanks for putting my build in the spotlight at BrickNerd! I hope you enjoyed the insights I gave and I’m happy could share them with you!

Marco: You’re welcome—loved your insight and I’m looking forward to seeing more of your work!

Time to build your Bionicle! Even t he 90 Years of Play set shows it doesn’t need a lot of parts. Though you might need a few more though…

What Bionicle would you build with LEGO System bricks? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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