For starters, this is the only CD-ROM I’ve found that actually runs straight off the CD rather than downloading to your computer. It’s also the only one that I know of in the US that is bi-lingual.

The starter screen has a very stony-looking design to it, and there is a huge disc seperated into three segments. Each segment will take you to a different feature, and the names are ‘Products’, ‘Universe’, and ‘Digital Gear’.

PRODUCTS
When you click on this, you get a screen showing a bunch of different pictures…and then a large rock shoots up in front of them and another window pops open. The window contains the HUAI SNOWBALL SLING game that was previously found on the McD’s website in the area showcasing the Happy Meal TOHUNGA sets. Both copies are basically there to help push the GBA game, since you have to play the HSS at some point in your quest to help the TOA save MATA NUI island. Interestingly, if you don’t close it, the window will stay open even if you close down the main startup program. Oh, and one of the two pictures above shows one of the best scores I was able to get by just turning to the right and holding down the space-bar until the snow stopped flying.

After closing the stone backdrop, you can go back and look at the five pictures that were covered up. In the lower right, there is an image with GALI and POHATU standing side-by-side with no background. Clicking on that will get you instructions for the FIKOU spider that were originally released in the July-August issue of LEGO Mania Magazine. Not that the FIKOU has anything to do with GALI…

Above that picture is a shot of the mini-poster that comes with ONEWA, and clicking on that will get you to a series of production photos for the RAHI, TURAGA, and TOA sets.

Right in the center is the largest image, which is of the GBA box-front. Clicking on that will get you back to the HUAI SNOWBALL SLING game that you got when you first opened this section of the CD.

To the upper right is an image of what I can only assume was supposed to be the box-front for the recently cancelled PC game. Clicking on that will get you a bunch of very familiar images, including the various TOA mini-posters sans legal text at the bottom, the TRU Map poster (not that you can read the text, though) and ‘photos’ including, but not limited to, GALI lifting a PAKARI clear of the water, KOPAKA saving NUJU from falling into a deep crevasse (but not his ice-pick), and TAHU picking up a golden HAU.

Beneath that is an image of an INFECTED HAU with a tiny movie-camera icon in the corner, which will get you a video of ONUA’s landing. You can see the same video on the TOA mini-CD.

DIGITAL GEAR
This section is a bit annoying. Every time you access it, it will download the ONUA screensaver to your computer. Even if you’ve already downloaded it. Worse yet, my copy at least has some severe bugs with it. If you preview the ONUA screensaver and you keep seeing white PAKARI images pop up just before every image-shift, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The other five screensavers are there as well, but you have to click on the image of whichever TOA you want to download. Directly below the screensaver images are the six images used for the main photos on the TOA cans, and each one will download a wallpaper file for your desktop. (This is the only part of the CD that I haven’t tried, since I’m using George Lucas’ ” dancing umbrella-Fett ” for my wallpaper.

Directly below that is a collection of various musical notes and symbols, and clicking each one will get you a short musical piece, some of which should be very familiar if you’ve played the online game at all, but most of which I don’t think I’ve ever heard before.

UNIVERSE
Clicking this will get you to a somewhat familiar looking screen which has been harvested from the TOA mini-CD, but isn’t quite as feature-packed. All six of the TOA are standing around a SUVA shrine and a pair of arrows will spin them around so you can choose which one is facing forward. Surrounding the shrine are four pillars, and each one has an icon on it. The rightmost one has the ‘double-B’ logo, which can also be found underneath the character names on the TOA cans. Clicking this will get you a translation key for the 26 letter-characters in the BIONICLE™ alphabet. (Oddly enough, the only promenint use of the numbers is in the online game, and no official translation key has been produced that I’ve heard of)

Moving towards the center, the next pillar has an icon that looks like a few pages being fanned out. Clicking on this will get you the first of the three full-size comic books released in the US.

Heading leftward from there, there is a pillar with another movie-camera icon. Clicking this one will get you a video corresponding to the TOA standing directly in front of the SUVA shrine. These are very trimmed-down versions of the ones from the TOA mini-CD. So far, with all the different places I’ve found these videos, the only places I’ve seen the full-size versions all required you to unlock each one with the matching MASK-CODE.

Finally, all the way to the left, the last pillar has an icon of a paintbrush and palette. Clicking on this will get you three or four pictures related to whichever TOA is standing foremost at the SUVA shrine, just like the movie icon. This is the hidden gem of the entire CD-ROM, as it contains a lot of very interesting pre-production sketches of the various TOA, and one really sweet full-color painting of TAHU facing off against a giant dragonian creature that looks to be made of fire. The other five TOA all have images that look more like they came from a comic book or role-playing game than from a LEGO® design team. Oddly, all four of the TAHU images show him roughly as he shipped.