The first decade of site history was written by our founder Auron around 2012. Coverage from the year 2013 onward is written by emily.
2002 – 2005
In 2002, Auron comes accross a site named BZPower, and lurks on the site for more than a year before finally joining in 2003. The people that he meets and the events that occur in the next few years become an influential part of the BIONICLE community’s history.
In 2004, BIONICLE.com undergoes a huge overhaul, removing much of the 2001-2003 content in order to make room for the new content. By removing this chunk of our collective childhood, LEGO itself sets events in motion. The storyline is rocked for the first time with the departure from following the adventures of the Toa Mata and inhabitants of Mata Nui for the first time in three years, switching suddenly to a new tale with the history of the Turaga as told by Turaga Vakama taking the spotlight. The BIONICLE community wonders whether the story will return to the heroes they know, and when.
A BZPower member named Crystal Matrix starts to offer this removed website content for download on BZPower. His efforts flower into a whole new website, initially www.bioniclesector01.com and later www.biosector01.com after LEGO informed him he could not use the word BIONICLE in the URL. His website offered almost all the content that was on the BIONICLE website.
Due to his efforts, he became known in the BIONICLE community, especially in BZPower. His website becomes known colloquially as BS01 after a relaunch, with the new site promising to be everything the old one was and more.
Crystal Matrix eventually stops his work due to becoming busier with life, and his website fades away. Swert, a friend of Crystal Matrix, takes the BS01 name and creates a Wiki, the BS01 Wiki. This becomes the largest BIONICLE wiki on the internet. Auron, refusing to let Crystal Matrix’s efforts simply die, watches on hopefully to see if anyone else continues Crystal Matrix’s ideas.
BZPower software forum regular jetslandingboard discovers how to add the subtitles back to the 2002-2003 BIONICLE.com flash episodes, something that had previously been puzzling due to the multi-file nature of the 2002-2003 episodes as compared to the single file SWF videos of the MNOLG. Later, the BMP team would learn that these episodes acted more like “games” than “videos”, and as a result were tricky to deal with, being difficult to convert or stream through a conventional streaming player. The site is able to offer the 2002-2003 streaming flash episodes with the text subtitles working properly due to his discovery.
With nobody showing up as Crystal Matrix’s successor, Auron rises to the challenge and starts to offer archives of music, games – BIONICLE and LEGO, toyspins, and eventually videos. Work progresses to include his entire collection of Bionicle web content, and offers it on BZPower under the name of “Auron’s Downloads”.
Annotation by emily: The BS01 Wiki was Crystal Matrix’s project, with Swert actually being initially opposed to the idea. Separately, BS01 made the decision to stop hosting media due to storage limitations, during the period they shared a server with BZPower. I can attest that for a while, BZP was unusably slow at times. While it’s true that BS01’s decision to drop their media library left a void BMP was able to fill, it was a product of circumstance and not related to BS01’s leadership.
2006
BMP1.0
Auron’s work expands to a Google Pages site, with a Google-supplied theme. The site is incredibly small, both in appearance and in content, and offers only a few sparse download links. Auron uploads files to free file hosting sites like Filefront.
Meanwhile, in the BZPower software forum, an enterprising user named Biomaniac makes himself known with his releases of MNOLGII, known by his RC (Release Candidate) labelling, with the goal of both providing the game to be played offline and to fix the numerous bugs that plagued the game and prevented it from being played all the way through. Auron follows his efforts, releasing a VNOLG that could be played offline. Memorably, upon opening the launcher, the release also retained all of the LEGO website’s chrome (UI elements) around the game window due to Auron’s lack of CSS knowledge(which continues to this day).
Takua_Me takes Biomaniac’s work and improves upon it. A BZPower member known as JrMasterModelBuilder takes interest in Biomaniac and Takua_Me’s releases, and improves upon them, releasing builds to the BZPower community.
2007
BMP2.0
Auron meets JrMasterModelBuilder and Tronec, with similar interests of bringing back old BIONICLE content. The three of them eventually become good friends with a shared passion. The three begin on Google Sites, the relaunch of Google Pages. Auron stops working on game content entirely, leaving game content to JMMB, and instead works on media, which is regrettably easier. Auron decides to employ heavy use of MNOLG imagery on the site, using large images from the MNOLG to bring color to the otherwise excruciatingly white homepage. This results in a site that looks simple but very colorful, with Auron’s goal being to inspire nostalgia straight from the viewing of the site. The three continue to use Filefront to host files.
Biomaniac releases an alpha build of an ambitious flash-based project that brings together BIONICLE content through the years into one viewable interface, the Bio-encyclopedia Episode 1. It never gets finished.
In his final project before his departure from BZPower, Biomaniac releases a teaser screenshot of MNOLG-styled Nui-Rama in a never before seen MNOLG-inspired landscape with buildings in it, looking like a city enclosed in a canyon. This project is also abandoned and the public never sees what Biomaniac had in mind for it.
Later on, files start to be deleted due to inactivity, not having been downloaded often enough to merit space on the Filefront server. The team considers whether they are willing to pay for a dedicated server. Auron and JMMB say they are fine with Filefront, but Tronec disagrees. Tronec proves his belief in the cause and pays for a dedicated server.
2008 – 2009
BMP3.0
Hosted on Tronec’s own server, we were extremely grateful to receive our own dedicated space to work thanks to Tronec’s generous donation. We used a simple, narrow layout and the old lewa banner. Our layout was basic, with quick updates to content made possible with lists of links to downloads.
JMMB and Auron worked together to maintain the site. Work was hard and incredibly slow going. Auron constantly states his belief that he could work on the project full-time and still have work to do. The site occasionally goes for long periods without updates, and the two of them get the closest they have ever been to giving up on the project.
Unbeknownst to the early BMP team, jetslandingboard also started work on a BIONICLE archive website in 2008. Screenshots can be seen here, but the project was eventually dropped.
Staff member Nat joins the team. A competition is held between Tronec and Nat for the future of the site’s layout, with Tronec offering to create a beautiful custom theme and Nat offering to install and support Drupal. Both options appear to be appealing, but in the end Tronec bows out of the race due to becoming busy, and decides to retire from the staff. Nat wins by default and installs and configures Drupal, signifying the first major change in the site’s appearance for two years. There is much to explore and learn, but ultimately the site becomes easier to manage than the old one due to Nat’s efforts.
2010 – 2011
BMP4.0
Still on Tronec’s server. With Nat’s support, we moved to using Drupal for content management and more user-friendly features like accounts, quick messages via the shoutbox, comments on news stories, a new banner and favicon, and affiliation with KanohiJournal.
Early on, Mints97 joins us and starts to work on games, and over time learns to work closely with JMMB. The two form an effective team, compiling a massive archive of BIONICLE and LEGO site game content. He learns much about how online games can be saved locally, so much so that he is interviewed in a Russian computer enthusiast magazine to describe the process. During this time, Mints97 signs on to the staff googledoc daily, and becomes the most active staff member.
It was at this time when we started becoming more well known in the community, and we were pleased to add Leynok, James, Vice753, MagnumVSRockford, Marcel Camaret, and TheSkeletonMan939 to the staff. We appreciated their help, but in time they disappeared.
One staff member who did not disappear was Captain Tayz, who joined us to work on media. After Auron worked on his own on the media for so many years, it was nice to have someone to help him out with it. Captain Tayz’s first significant contribution to the site was in the form of updating Auron’s MNOLG wallpaper archive, which was screenshotted at only 1280×800. Captain Tayz took his screenshots at a resolution of 1600×900, making the screenshots usable as wallpaper for all but the most high end laptops as of 2012. More recently, Captain Tayz completed on his own the transition of streaming serials from PDF to HTML pages, a time consuming, repetitive task, allowing mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to read the story serials on the site without requiring the use of a browser PDF plugin.
Nat retires from the staff. Auron, observing the web design of other high-profile BIONICLE fansites like BZPower, the BS01 Wiki, and KanohiJournal, becomes unhappy with how the BMP site looks so far behind and outdated, and brainstorms ways of improving the web design and layout of the site. The team realizes that something must be done to improve the look of the site in order to become credible in what’s left of the BIONICLE community. Without Tronec, Nat, or an experienced web designer, and with Drupal’s limitations, we realized that we could only do so much.
Auron pleads with Nat to return briefly to help with a major Drupal update which the team has no idea how to do properly, and Nat agrees to help. When all the files are deleted, Synan saves the day by restoring the site’s 50GB of content from a backup made days before. The site gains a new default theme, Corolla, a favicon from JMMB, and a new banner from Lunekk. Synan leaves the team.
Under Auron’s impetus, JMMB’s CSS expertise, and the staffs’ voting, we successfully transitioned all the site’s pages from lists of links to grids of tiles, which was a huge achievement and milestone for the team. The Metro UI tiles brought forth a new paradigm to the site, with much improved readability, color, and organization. The site still doesn’t look anything like the more high profile BIONICLE fansites, but it was a huge improvement and gave the site a unique appearance.
Staff members Hakann, Pirok the Va-Matoran, and Guurahk204 all joined us in late 2011.
Eventually we started working on streaming content, and with some difficulty we managed to set up streaming games, videos, and music. Streaming allows users to view content without having to download it first, and being able to view old content on the web again can be extremely nostalgic when the last time the content was viewed online in this way was almost a decade ago.
2012
Staff member Hakann went on hiatus in early 2012.
In March 2012, we added a background image of mud cracks, a picture that was intended to be reminiscent of the dry landscape of Bara Magna.
BMP4.5
On April 13, 2012, we reached BMP4.5, realizing our dreams of making all types of streaming content a reality. Synan later went on hiatus once more, and ArthurB joined us to work on the media archives.
In September 2012, Mints and TheSkeletonMan start collaborating on a Flash Wrapper system for the archives, for easier browsing of archive files.
On September 4, 2012, we complete our installation of WordPress and JMMB’s custom WordPress theme.
We launch our forum on September 19, 2012, providing a place for users to interact with BMP staff, as well as a place for extended discussion of BIONICLE Media. Synan also returns as a full staff member.
2013
On January 12, 2013, we complete our domain transfer from Tronec.org to Biomediaproject.com. At the very end of the year on December 31st we mark BMP 5.0 finished with the completion of our transition from Drupal to WordPress.
Several staff members come and go in this period, including Fastcar800, Fastcar900, Meiko, and XONAR. XONAR makes the first effort to build a restoration of the 2001 BIONICLE.com site.
2014 – 2015
After some 8 years and an incredible amount of work and dedication, Auron makes the decision to retire, remaining only in an advisory role. This leaves BMP uncertain in its direction for the future. Initially, Xefey takes up the role of manager in Auron’s place, but this is only temporary. With the official BIONICLE product line dead since 2010, the impetus among remaining staff to continue the project wanes significantly. There is some uncertainty as to whether the site will continue to exist, or whether the archive will be moved to a static Google Drive, with active updates ended.
In order to prevent this fate, Vahkiti steps into the manager position despite some trepidation. He is eventually joined by JrMasterModelBuilder, and through the two’s combined efforts the site continues along.
When the BIONICLE reboot makes its surprise debut onto the scene in the fall of 2014, JMMB, Vahkiti and TheSkeletonMan work to add the new content and maintain the archive.
BMP staff connect with that of Mask of Destiny, the longest-running BIONICLE fansite. They make the decision to combine forces, while still maintaining independent sites for the time being. Work begins in the background on a new website to end all new websites, that will merge BMP and MOD into one.
2016
As G2 of BIONICLE slips into its second year to general disdain, archival work takes a backseat, with no updates for the entire year. The focus becomes the new website and the merge with Mask of Destiny. BMP staff dwindles down to solely the two admins, Vahkiti and JMMB. JMMB spearheads the new site design.
2017 – 2019
After a history of contributing content since 2012, I (emily!) formally join the BMP staff with the goal of filling in the blanks of G2 content. In the ensuing months I work on a ‘quality pass’ for all the content in the archive, doing my best to ensure what we have is in the best available quality, and sourcing as many missing materials as I can. We expand to include BIONICLE books and movies, among other things previously beyond the archive’s scope.
In 2018, the unimaginable happens and the long-lost cancelled Legend of Mata Nui PC game is donated anonymously to BMP. Vahkiti and JrMasterModelBuilder are joined by others to form Litestone Studios, which works to repair the game and develop a remastered version with new content, The Legend of Mata Nui REBUILT.
More staff begin to join in this period as well. Hexadecimal Mantis and ShadowDraikana contribute to The Legend of Mata Nui, and Hex also researches Bionicle: The Game and its cancelled sequel, City of Legends, unearthing lots of behind the scenes content and test builds. joint-dogg arrives and contributes their knack for finding many a unique and rare BIONICLE oddity. Foulowe59 adds their expertise in locating uploads of TV ads, commercials, and promos.
In the background, the new site continues to take shape. Several new faces add to this effort, including Encry, and Piruk, and longtime contributor PlanetPerson.
MOD and BMP welcome the Wall of History, run by JSLBrowning, into the group of sites now living under the MOD umbrella.
2020 – 2022
The new Mask of Destiny finally arrives, and along with it comes the announcement of our team-up. The task is not over yet, as BMP still needs to actually be migrated to the new website.
My updates pass on the archive is completed in 2021 with a wholly revamped pictures section, based on the work of PlanetPerson.
2023
The BMP homepage makes its transition to the new site. MOD staffer VootCaboot suggests a new logo featuring the Vahi, to reflect BMP’s position as a time capsule of BIONICLE media. I design the logo based on this, with input from the rest of the staff.
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Wow! You made it this far. As a treat, here’s some legacy stuff from the history of our website.
