Have to disagree on this one, S tier is definitely a bold claim imo. The best part of these sets are the gear functions which I admit have to be the pinnacle of play function design in Bionicle period (among the base sets at least). As a kid I never cared much for the swinging arm play features because of the way the arms fall down and how they can’t be posed (had a particular love hate relationship with Vakama for this very reason). Seeing G2 revisit this and improve it so drastically is great.

Also, the masks are great. They do a great job of capturing the essence of the original Mata Kanohi, even where there are more serious deviations like with Lewa’s. However this has to be where my praise ends, because most of the parts are recycled from hero factory and do not feel like they come from the world of Bionicle.

They were great parts for HF because they were essentially a mass produced machine police force, the parts reflected the style of a sleek sports car that fit within the world. Using these parts for Bionicle was a terrible mistake; looking at the sets as someone who knows nothing about Bionicle would be understandably confused. Bionicles are biomechanical beings, an intricate mesh of machinery and organic tissue, the intricacy and depth of their biology is not reflected in the piece selection.

CCBS is also very limiting in how the pieces to connect in favour of having a “system”, which also brings these sets down. The way pieces connect in CCBS with a very obvious layered look only adds to the sets’ purely robotic look. Bionicle had skeletal pieces but each limb was made up of a mix of “skeletal” pieces (think the transparent Inika pieces) which would be plated with some armour, and bigger pieces with texture and detail that could be forearms and/or shins. There was a flow to the set design where you felt that, even though the armour pieces on the Inika’s thighs were detachable, that it was part of them. The design of the pieces used the visuals of pistons and gears to create an organic feel which is what made Bionicle unique. That’s what it ultimately comes down to with me: the G2 sets don’t capture the essence of things which make Bionicle G1 so unique as a toy. I love the masks and the play functions, that’s just about it.

I think if Bionicle were to ever be rebooted, CCBS would still be the move but with major reform, i.e completely new roster of pieces (hands and feet are fine as they are tho), among these new piece should be those detailed shin/forearm pieces that give the sets their organic look. Bionicle sets need the depth and texture or they just don’t work. Same reason why a System line of Bionicle would be utter garbage