Bionicle Instructions

About

Bionicle Instructions are images from the instructions of Bionicle sets from LEGO that became popular on r/Bioniclememes in January of 2019.

Origin

Jokes using the images in instruction manuals had seen use for several years, namely of those with Lewa Swinging his Axe dating back to at least 2015^[3] (see section below). On October 20th, 2016, the Facebook page "Hardly Rebooted Bionicle Memes of Bonkles" posted an page from a Bohrok instruction manual with a Fake History caption parodying the Black Lives Matter chant Hands Up, Don't Shoot. ^[8] (shown below) However, none of these individual examples lead to widespread variants prior to 2019.

Spread

Whenua Drill Edits

Whenua Drill Edits are edits of the last page of the instructions for the 2004 set Toa Whenua, showing how his weapons could combine to form a drill. In this image is shows his feet towards the viewer and appearing to lay down. On January 2nd 2019, Reddit user u/psychokitty444 uploaded the image to r/bioniclememes^[1] (below left) and jokingly titled the image saying that this was the correct way of posting this set and if you don't display him like this," you're doing it wrong." Two days latter, Reddit user u/Devalius uploaded a picture of the Toa Metru sets with Whenua in the same pose as shown in the instruction manual. ^[2]

On the same day and for several weeks to follow, many edits with Whenua in this pose were posted on r/bioniclememes.

Various Examples

Lewa Swinging his Axe

Lewa Swinging his Axe is picture from the instruction manual of the 2001 set Toa Lewa, usually edited with captions. The image demonstrates the set's gear function of twisting the gear on the back ausing his arms (and subsequently axe) to swing.

On August 15th 2015, Tumblr user oolongearlgrey uploaded a cropped and inverted copy of the image with the text "GET OUT" added to it in response to an ask saying "bionicle isnt even that good" (below left). In four years this post gained 4,000 notes.^[3] On January 1st 2018, Tumblr user valyou uploaded a reflected object labling version of the full page that oolongerlgrey posted with Lewa attacking "Negativity and bad shit" (below right). In one year this post gained over 3,800 notes. ^[4]

On January 15th 2019, Reddit user aesopamnesiac uploaded the original image from the instruction manual with the title "me chopping vegetables for my stirfry" In three days this post gained 760 upvotes ^[5]

Several posts with different titles, as well as edited versions of the image were uploaded on r/bioniclememes in the following days. On January 17th 2019, the image uploaded to the Facebook Group Bioniclemask Posting with the caption joking about medical practices during the American Civil war (Below left). This post gained over 1,000 reactions in less than ten days. ^[9] Later that same day, Reddit user u/AverageJoel9 reposted the image on r/MemeEconomy . In 21 hours this post gained over 6,400 upvotes. ^[6] The following day reddit user u/minecraftenthusiast6 uploaded an image of Lewa swinging his axe with text describing neutering a dog on r/me_irl (below right). Within 12 hours the post gained over 38,900 upvotes.^[7]

Later on January 18th, the image was posted to numerous other subreddits with different captions. Several of these held the spot of top treading image on the subreddit it was posted on.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References