[daxterspeed]

Bionicle always had an issue balancing "re-usable pieces" and "one-of-a-kind pieces". The original single-piece torso[1] is a great example of a piece that has almost no other uses.

Things slowly got better with more re-usable pieces until the 2008 a of Matorans, which consisted of 2 feet, 2 hands, 4 limbs, 1 body piece, 1 translucent head, 1 mask, and some combination of single piece weapons - most put together with ball joints.

I personally think this move from technic like "composable" pieces to ball-joint only single purpose pieces was the downfall of Bionicle, but there's probably a thousand other factors involved ;)

[1] http://img.bricklink.com/PL/32489.jpg

[jacquesm]

Bionicle was one of the worst things to come out of Lego, with Ninjago a close second. Lego really loses its way every couple of years, and then somehow they go back to their roots and they prosper.