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Bionicle (stylized in all caps) is a discontinued line of Lego construction toys marketed primarily towards 8- to 16-year-olds. The line was launched in 2001, originally as a subsidiary of Lego's Technic series called Constraction; a portmanteau of "construction" and "action figure". Constraction figures were introduced in the 1999 Lego theme, Slizer (or Throwbots in the United States), and are characterized by combining Technic elements, ball and socket joints, and stylized Lego pieces to look like traditional action figures. Over the following decade, Bionicle became one of the company's biggest-selling properties, turning into a franchise and subsequently becoming one of the factors in saving Lego from its financial crisis of the late 1990s. Despite a planned twenty-year tenure, the theme was discontinued in 2010, citing low sales, but was rebooted in 2015 for a further two years. A single new set was given out for free with large purchases in 2023.
Unlike most Lego themes, Bionicle was accompanied by an original story told across a multimedia spectrum, including books, comics, games, and animated films. It primarily depicts the exploits of the Toa, heroic "biomechanical" (part organic, part mechanical) beings with innate elemental abilities whose duty is to maintain peace throughout their world. Bionicle's success prompted later Lego themes to use similar story-telling methods.
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