I really want to like the BIONICLE™ Collector’s Sticker Book, I really do. It is big (8″ x 11″), colorful, entertaining, informative, and useful. But more important than all of that, it has BIONICLE™ stickers! But even with all of that going for it, I can’t help but feel disappointed.

The book itself is big, but the vast majority of the stickers are small. The images on the cover are misleading. Yes, those TOA NUVA images are on stickers within the book, but the stickers are about one-fourth as big as the images on the cover. What is more, each TOA NUVA sticker shows more than just the face shown on the cover, which means that the face is even smaller on the sticker. Here is a sample page:

There are several bigger stickers on other pages: the HAU/KRANA meld, TAHU NUVA emerging, the BOHROK symbol, the double-B logos, and BIONICLE™ logos. The image quality of the stickers varies from sticker to sticker. Some are very high quality, some are dark and blurry and pixelated ( e.g. MAKUTA), and most fall inbetween.

All of the stickers are full-color except for the six TOA NUVA symbols and one double-B logo. In contrast, all of the pages in the book are black-and-white. Of course, they are only black-and-white until you put your stickers in them. Most pages include a place for a sticker or stickers. For those characters with limited biographical information ( e.g. the BOHROK VA), small stickers + big book = mostly empty space.

Greg Farshtey, well-known BIONICLE™ comic author, authored the text in the book. Trivia pages are liberally sprinkled throughout. Pay attention, because there will be a quiz later. Think you already know it all? Guess again, because there is much here that is new.

At the end of the book are checklists for the KANOHI, KANOHI NUVA, KRANA, and KRANA-KAL. Sorry, no KRAATA checklist or stickers, but they do have one black-and-white graphic along with a discussion of infected Kanohi.

My biggest disappointment: mistakes. The most glaring error is the TAKANUVA sticker from the sample page above. It is not a picture of TAKANUVA, it is a picture of TAHU NUVA emerging from the protodermis. To make matters worse, it was the absolute first thing I saw when I opened the book because it is the biggest and brightest sticker on that page.

I have not gone through the checklists in-depth yet, by my first glance was also disappointing. If you look at the list for KANOHI MIRU above, you will be surprised to see “Copper” listed as a “Special Mask”. It must be pretty special, because I have never heard of one previously. Now, the TRANSPARENT FLUORESCENT GREEN MIRU is a special mask, but you won’t find it on this list. The GOLD and SILVER MIRU masks are also absent, despite all of the other GOLD and SILVER GREAT MASKS being listed. The COPPER HUNA (“Mask of Victory”) and COPPER KOMAU? Nope, sorry — not listed.

Bottom line? You can buy this book and enjoy it immensely if you take the stickers and put them somewhere other than this book. If that is what you want to do, I can heartily recommend it. Otherwise, I suggest you try to find a copy in a store and carefully look through it first before you decide.