The BIONICLE theme is series of sets based on modified TECHNIC pieces and ball-and-socket joints to create larger figures. Bionicles coincided with a series of comic books and graphic novels released during the set's run from 2001 to 2016. The theme was introduced in 2001 and originally discontinued in 2010, being succeeded by Hero Factory but additional sets were also released up until 2016 after it's break in 2010 to 2014. BIONICLE sets were tied together by an elaborate original storyline within the comic books and other multimedia that centered around bio-mechanical characters which are generally large, powerful beings that usually serve for good. The name BIONICLE is short for BIOlogical ChroNICLE.
2003 LEGO Sets
While 2003 proved to be a financial disaster for LEGO we did see a number of signification events that set the tone for future LEGO recovery and investments. Most important, LEGO introduced new realistic minifigure skin tones that affected licensed themes including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Basketball, Ferrari and Spider-Man, but kept yellow skin tones for all other minifigures. In 2003, the LEGO minifigure celebrated its 25th birthday with just under four billion minifigures being produced. LEGO that year introduced a number of new themes including Clikits, Designer, Sports which consisted of hokey, basketball and Gravity Games, World City and 4 Juniors which replaced the Jack Stone theme.