I’m sure you’re all aware at this point about the situation with BIONICLE Masks of Power. It is a very unfortunate and saddening turn of events that none of us expected. Given how quickly and how far word of this spread from the outset, we chose not to directly report on the issue, but instead to wait and discuss what this means for the community as a whole moving forward. While this is somewhat out of the ordinary for our reporting style, and is certainly not something we’d hoped to have to discuss before all of this came to light, we believe it is necessary to make our stance known.

When the news first began to circulate, I saw the signs of what was to come. There was a growing resentment and disillusionment with LEGO over this. Behind closed doors, people were uncertain about the potential fates of their own creative works and felt betrayed by this heel-turn. Some are even considering leaving the community entirely, this being the last straw after a long string of slights from the company. I had hoped that this sentiment would be in the minority, but I knew that was not likely the case. As news spread across the entire community, I have only seen this get worse. There’s been a low-burning animosity towards LEGO for years throughout a large part of the community that has now boiled over.

Speaking personally, I don’t usually write a lot, much less news articles for the site. It’s not my strength or my priority. That’s more for Imatron and the other news folks. However, I have not seen anybody else talking about this aspect of current events, or at least not in a way that I feel embodies my own feelings on the matter. People feel angry, betrayed, hopeless, and they’re right to feel that way. Regardless of LEGO’s stance on the matter before this point, it has seemingly changed without provocation, snuffing out one of the brightest flames our people have ever lit. Now we are in darkness, unsure of where to go next. I’m here to tell you that there is still a light. LEGO may have created BIONICLE, but we, the community, are the only reason it is still talked about nearly 25 years later. LEGO may own it, and now be trying to enforce that ownership with an iron grip, but in my eyes, that should only strengthen our resolve. I have been a part of this community since 2004, but I didn’t really become this deeply involved until about 2014. Even just since then, I have seen our greatest achievements and our biggest failures, but throughout all of that, I have seen unity. Despite our differences, despite our hardships, both individual and shared, and despite LEGO’s continued apathy towards us, we chose to press on. Now more than ever, we need to stand together.

I began this article talking about what this means for us moving forward, and in the long term, I truthfully don’t know what it means, but I do know that we can’t let this break us. The BIONICLE community is one of the most tenacious and creative communities I’ve ever had the fortune of being a part of, and our ability and willingness to keep creating in the face of multiple cancellations of both official and unofficial projects alike is what makes us so special. That’s why Swert and I created 810NICLE Day in the first place. To give back to the community, and to give it another outlet to share their passion that LEGO was not providing themselves. Our greatest strength comes from our unity. It is the first of the three virtues we all grew up with, and the founding principle upon which this new iteration of Mask of Destiny was built. When we are united, our power to collaborate and to create is unmatched, and now we must do so in defiance of LEGO, to send them the message that we will not be broken. This article has been more of a personal opinion piece than anything at this point, but I think I speak for the entire Mask of Destiny network when I say that we are with you. As long as there is breath in our lungs, we will continue to support this wonderful community no matter the trials we may face, and one day I hope to look back upon this and say that somehow, we made it through. Team Kanohi and Masks of Power embodied the true potential that our unity truly holds. Let us continue to honour them and their legacy as we push forward and write our own legends.

That is the way of the BIONICLE.