Bionicle

Bionicle (stylized as BIONICLE) was a line of toys created by the LEGO Group marketed primarily for 5- to 16-year-olds. The line was launched on December 30, 2000 in Europe and June/July 2001 in Canada and the United States. "Bionicle" is a portmanteau constructed from the words "biological chronicle". The concept is similar to Lego Group's earlier themes, Slizers/Throwbots and RoboRiders in that each of those lines had characters based on classical elements. Earlier Bionicle packages had displayed the Technic Logo, but it was later phased out, and Bionicle evolved into its own line. In 2010, Lego announced that they would stop making Bionicle sets "for the foreseeable future". However, while production of sets will stop, the story would not, as Greg Farshtey promised to continue to update it on the website. The story abruptly stopped in the middle of 2011, presumably to focus on other projects, ending the series in a cliffhanger. After production of the toyline ended in 2010, Bionicle was replaced by Hero Factory, which was released later that same year. Hero Factory is widely considered to be the spiritual successor to Bionicle.