Aside from the toys in the LegoBionicle franchise, Lego has also marketed a book series, several video games (mostly for the Game Boy Advance), and four animated movies which feature important plot points. A Bioniclecomic book was also published by DC Comics and made available free to members of the Lego Club with some issues of the Lego Magazines. Some comic issues were also posted on the official Bionicle website, Bionicle.com. There are also various other ancillary products available, such as watches, toothbrushes, and backpacks, as well as online adventure games. Much of the additional content for Generation 1 that was originally available on the now inactive official websites Bionicle.com and BionicleStory.com is now available on an unofficial website called BioMedia Project.
Two additional graphic novels, Power of the Great Beings and Journey's End, were planned but ultimately cancelled due to poor sales. They would have included the last two issues of the Glatorian comic series as well as new material.
A film based on Bionicle's 2001 storyline was planned prior to the franchise's launch, but never reached production.
The Legend Reborn was originally planned as the first film in a new trilogy, but its sequels were scrapped following Bionicle's discontinuation as a toy line. A screen treatment for what would've been the second film was released online.
Originally released in the console game Lego Bionicle: Quest for the Toa before being released online. Also included on interactive demo CDs released with select 2001 Bionicle toy sets.
Mata Nui Explorer(original)
2002
Unknown
The Battle of Mata Nui
2003
Originally intended for a 2002 release before getting was pushed back to 2003 due to technical problems.
Mata Nui Online Game II: The Final Chronicle
May 29, 2003–January 9, 2004
Templar Studios
Released episodically as 7 "chapters" documenting part of the 2003 Bionicle storyline.
During the first year of the BIONICLE toyline, in 2001, McDonald's distributed packets of cards with their 'kids' meals. There were five cards in each one: four regular, and one holographic or "special" card. The packet came with a mini comic that had an instruction booklet telling the person how to play the game. There was another card game that was sold (instead of collected, like the above) which included a board along with other accessories to play the game.
In 2008 LEGO also distributed the "Phantoka Trading Card Game", which were given away for free in little packages which included about six trading cards with a picture and information of one of the Toa Nuva, Makuta, Av-Matoran or Shadow Matoran. The package also included one holographic card, which featured the combination of a Phantoka and a Matoran. The packages were given away for free in many toy stores in Europe if bought in a Phantoka set.
Composers Paul Hardcastle and Simon Fuller produced the music for the Bionicle commercials used between 2001 and 2004, which also featured in the Mata Nui Online Game released throughout 2001. An official Bionicle album – featuring music from the bands Cold and Woven and singers Rob Zombie and Kenna – from was originally planned for release in 2002, but the project was scrapped when disagreements arose between the Lego Group and the label Interscope Records.
In 2005, the band All Insane Kids released the songs "Hero" and "Caught in a Dream", produced and written by Morten Krog Helgesen.[2] The latter is played in the end credits of Bionicle 3: Web of Shadows. Between 2006 and 2007, artists such as The All-American Rejects, Daughtry and Niels Brinck contributed songs for Bionicle commercials, but the success of the song "Creeping in My Soul", sung by Danish singer Christine Lorentzen for Bionicle's Barraki toy campaign, led to the formation of the rock band Cryoshell, who produced music for the theme up until its original discontinuation, and in its wake released their self-titled debut album.
Music for the first three Bionicle films – Mask of Light (2003), Legends of Metru Nui (2004) and Web of Shadows (2005) – was composed by Nathan Furst. Soundtracks for all three films were digitally released in 2017.[3][4][5] Music for the fourth film The Legend Reborn (2009) was composed by John D'Andrea, while Mike Raznick scored the 2016 series Lego Bionicle: The Journey to One.
Miscellaneous
Besides the films, books, comics etc., there are other ways parts of the Generation 1 story have been told. Much of this content is now available on the unofficial BioMedia Project website.
Reading materials
Bionicle.com had some information about parts of the Generation 1 story, including some character biographies.
BionicleStory.com had several sections containing information about the Generation 1 characters, locations, and more. Among the offerings were also story serials and "blog" chapters, the latter being each one or two pages of story text styled as a journal entry from one of the fictional Bionicle characters.
Audio
Bionicle.com had two downloadable MP3s (as well as two PDF files with the "lyrics" to the MP3s) that describe the rise the giant robotic body of Mata Nui out of its slumber and his exile from said body when Makuta Teridax took it over in the Generation 1 plotline.[6]
BionicleStory.com also had many podcasts recorded by Bionicle writer Greg Farshtey available for download in the "Latest Story" area of the site that tell much of the Generation 1 story.[7]
On the homepage for Bionicle.com, there was a collection of audio recordings, called the Mata Nui Saga, that told some of Mata Nui's story. Each one had a picture, text, and music with it. They were split into thirty-four "chapters", each narrated in-character by Michael Dorn (reprising his role of Mata Nui from The Legend Reborn).
There were also downloadable songs and other things on the website that were inspired by different sections of the Generation 1 storyline.
Notes
^This novel was released as Bionicle Adventures #11 in Spanish markets.
^This novel was published exclusively in Poland. The English version was released online through the Bionicle website in instalments.
