>>10572692The sets flopped because they failed to sell to the general audience of kids they were aiming for. The existing Bionicle fanbase can’t carry an entire theme alone and kids didn’t give a damn. Ninjago was at the peak of its popularity after Hero Factory’s last wave bombed and Chima’s constraction figures made in the same system tanked so badly they couldn’t be released in the US. Lego was selling the same system against themes for both The Force Awakens and The Lego Movie in the same year, and the SW constraction sets also sold like shit.
The timing for the reboot was way too early for a nostalgic pull and had to compete with the biggest themes all at once while nobody cared about the building system.
I remember when the teaser was first revealed and kids in the replies on Facebook and Google+ actively rejected it for more Ninjago and Star Wars, a good amount of annoying 12 year-olds claiming Bionicle “barely counts as Lego”. It was a mess for anyone who wasn’t already a fan
