First of all, let’s just get this out of the way. The BIONICLE™ album? The one featuring Rob Zombie, Cold, Sev, and Woven? The one that was scheduled to be released on September 17th? Not gonna happen. That’s what Brian said when I talked to him on Friday. It seems The LEGO® Group wanted to go in a different direction with the album than the record label, and they decided not to release it after all. Brian wouldn’t go into any details on what those differences might be, though.

I also had a recent exchange with the webmaster of another LEGO® news site who expressed his concern over the wide array of licensed BIONICLE™ product that has been popping up, and the possibility that The LEGO® Group might be overmerchandising the line. I mentioned this to Brian and pointed out how the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace market was oversaturated to the point where there are still warehouses full of neckties and promotional restaurant toys. His response was that The LEGO® Group was one of the few companies to emerge from that situation in good shape, and that they are very careful about picking potential licensing partners that reflect the same values held by TLG.

Finally, I asked him when we should expect to see the next wave of BIONICLE™ sets, since we already know that the TOA NUVA and KANOHI NUVA packs were the last new sets of the year. They should be out late in the first quarter, which would be February or March. A few years ago, the only two scheduled release times were January and July, but Brian said that with the growing number of big-selling themes in their lineup, they’ve had to start staggering the releases a lot more than just twice a year.