BIONICLE Playsets is a sub-theme of BIONICLE. Unlike most other BIONICLE sets, which are made of almost exclusively TECHNIC pieces, the Playsets were mostly made of System bricks while still featuring many characteristic BIONICLE parts like blades or masks. The theme was first released in 2005 with a few sets and continued through 2007, always following the characters and storyline of the BIONICLE main theme. It has not had any appearances since due to the theme's discontinuation and will probably not be recontinued, since the whole BIONICLE theme has by now been discontinued. The sets included minifigure versions of various BIONICLE characters.
Instead of the usual Minifigure model, The 2005 BIONICLE Playsets included Toa Hordika minifigures made of a single piece (plus weapon), which had a 2x2 base and looked otherwise much like a smaller, mono-colored version of their larger counterparts (lacking some details due to the smaller size). Each Toa had a unique weapon in form of a staff with two handles and a special weapon-head. The Visorak minifigures were also made of a single piece in the colors of black and glow-in-the-dark green, featuring different pincer designs and a hole for a TECHNIC peg in the back. Each set included all six Toa Hordika minifigures along with a number of Visorak.
From 2006 on, a new model was used for BIONICLE minifigures. While still different from the classic minifigure, these no longer consisted of a single piece. Instead, they were built of one leg piece into which a torso was sticked that had tubes to stick two arms and a head on. These minifigures could therefore be articulated at the neck, hips, shoulders and wrists. In addition, the Piraka minifigures had a hole in the back of the head to fasten a "spine" piece. The Toa Inika heads also had that hole but did not use it. The 2007 minifigures kept that model, but used new heads as well as a new arm piece.
Carapar was the only Barraki never made into a minifigure.
Each set released in 2006 or later includes one set of twelve weapons found in no other theme. Despite being physically twelve different pieces, these weapons all share a single serial number.
While each Toa Inika and Piraka had their own head piece design in 2006, only six different pieces were created for the eleven minifigures released in 2007, therefore only about half of the Toa Mahri and Barraki minifigures had a head actually inspired by their large versions, while the other half re-used those heads, but in their own respective colors. For example, while Kalmah had his own head design, Ehlek also used Kalmah's head piece but in green.
In the two Promotional sets released for the theme in 2006, the included Toa Inika and Piraka minifigures still used the weapons designed for the Toa Hordika.
Gallery[]
Promotional set including two 2006 BIONICLE minifigures
