A canister that inspired a legend

This post shows redrawn concept art from 2000
A lot of elements went into forming the idea of Bionicle but one of the most important one was the canister the heroes came in. The design of the packaging had to be changed from a seed to a canister to make it feasible to produce but the whole idea that became Bionicle had a lot to do with a thing as simple as the packaging. Based on the previous launches of Slizer/Throwbots and Roboriders it was natural to put these products in some kind of canister. I was determined that the canister should play a role in the story so it was not only a plastic tube you threw away after purchase because this was the ancient pod that delivered the parts of the hero. That sparked the idea that the un-build hero was going to arrive floating in a canister. This led straight into the idea that he had been in the canister for a long time and that he had a very important purpose. The seed/canister resembled a big pill or ampoule so that led to the thought that maybe this was the “medicine” that had to cure a very big patient. When pouring the parts out of the canister you were actually already playing out the story and bringing a hero to life, the legend had begun ...the rest is history.