In this first episode of our BIONICLE documentary series we reveal the untold struggle of pitching the concept of LEGO Action Figures (constraction) to the LEGO Group.
This is a story we uncovered back in September 2021, when we had our exclusive interview with Andrew Nagel. Previously it had been thought that Christian Faber's Cybots concept was the origin point for constraction, but we now know that Collector & Evolver were what internally led to the development of LEGO TECHNIC SLIZER / Throwbots and later BIONICLE.
Andrew was granted permission by the LEGO Group to be able to share his story and never before seen concept sketches for our documentary series. LEGO, BIONICLE, and TECHNIC are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor or endorse this project.
Huge thanks to Andrew Nagel and Christian Faber for their help and support of this project! The sketch in the thumbnail was drawn by Andrew Nagel. Thanks to Pakari for drawing the scenes depicting the story, and thanks to Mid Blue for advising on this video.
For further reading on this story check out DEVELOPA's website:
developa.dk/projects/lego-success-constructable-action-figures/
Ole Vestergaard Poulsen, the former creative director of LEGO TECHNIC mentioned at the end also wrote an article on Linkedin about his involvement with DEVELOPA and the development of SLIZER: www.linkedin.com/posts/ole-vestergaard-poulsen-b457903_lego-legobricks-design-activity-7007662331283316736-DVv8/?
Christian Faber wrote an article on his blog about Cybots: faberfiles.blogspot.com/2012/04/beginning-birth-of-ball-joint.html
TRACK LIST:
The Theat Of Kapital by Halted Instant
Pulsing Drone Ambience - patricklieberkind
Silky - Alex Figueira
Waiting On The Nite by Derek Stephens, licensed with permission from the Independent Music Licensing Collective - imlcollective.uk.
Strange Bop - contreloup
Vibin Sneaky by Jonas Hipper, licensed with permission from the Independent Music Licensing Collective - imlcollective.uk.
Pulse - Sioum
Les Portes Du Futur - Bill Vortex
Hallon - Christian Bjoerklund
Snatching at Statues by Sleeping Boats, licensed with permission from the Independent Music Licensing Collective - imlcollective.uk.
The escape - Marc Ferry
Fast Action by Jonas Hipper, licensed with permission from the Independent Music Licensing Collective - imlcollective.uk.
Jams - HolzinaCC0
Dream by Nul Tiel Records, licensed with permission from the Independent Music Licensing Collective - imlcollective.uk.
Getting Paid Right Now - Gagmesharkoff
All tracks sourced from freemusicarchive.org
You can listen to them here, th-cam.com/video/kZ1tmc74clE/w-d-xo.html
Behind BIONICLE is a series produced by Modularity, th-cam.com/users/Modularity
Thanks so much for watching!
This has been a project that's been in the works for a very long time, with me coming up with the idea in late 2016 and trying to get it off the ground since early 2017. Though Slime and I really got solidly working on it starting in May 2020.
Honestly I never thought it would see the light of day. It was a lot of failure, with a few slivers of progress. Even now I look at it and think I could've done much better since its kind of blurry in places, I should've probably not zoomed in so much... maybe once the whole series is out I'll combine all the episodes and re-edit it with feedback.
I thought the conclusion of the video shouldn't be that success is all up to chance. I really believe that it was the result of all the attempts prior; trying out new designs and ideas. I think it can be easy to chalk it all up to luck. So I hope that for whatever you're working on right now, that no matter the struggles you face, you'll be able to perservere through them! :D - Waj