On Saturday 16th February 2002 Toys 'R' Us in Times Square, New York, held a Bionicle Bohrok event. Here back in the UK, from my journey to the US, is an exclusive report and pictures... I arrived at the event at 12.30pm hoping to catch the organisers and ask permission to take pictures and record an interview with the comic book team. Taking the escalator up to the second floor I noticed a number of people preparing and area of the floor for the event. I approached one young man in blue shirt who was very busy unpacking materials and directing others in the placement of posters and other give-aways. I politely asked for a moment of his time and as he turned to speak to me I could not help but notice the glimmer of gold which hung around his neck! This was my first glimpse of an item most of us have only ever seen in pictures ... a Gold Hau!

I introduced myself and stated my intentions. I was given a very positive response and the gentleman introduced himself as Colin Gillespie Assistant Brand Manager for Lego Americas. He told me I was speaking to the right person as Bionicle was the only product line he focused on. Careful not to prove a hindrance to his duties I agreed to speak with him later after the event and I left him hard at work organising the event.

I walked around the generous floor space allocated to Bionicle merchandise and pursued the shelves stocked impressively high with Bohrok canisters. In the middle of the floor space was a huge Bohrok figure suspended in it's ball-like state. On one wall was a huge relief of Tahnok clutching triumphantly at a life size Gold Hau. One table was being prepared with a collection of comic posters and another had been roped off in preparation for the arrival of the Bionicle comic creators.

By one o'clock a crowd of people was already gathering and the event began half-an hour before the planned time. Colin took up a microphone and invited the crowd to join in the draw for a Gold mask worth $800. No-one needed further persausion, and a wave of people moved forward to complete a draw ticket. Well organised staff ensured that only one ticket per person went into the draw box and the rules stated that only people who were present at the time of the draw were eligible to win.

Six draws took place over three hours and there were many faces with happy smiles that afternoon and even more with envious eyes!

Between 1.30-3.30pm Greg Farhstey, Carlos D'Anda and other members of the Bionicle Comic team were present to meet with the comic fans and sign comics and posters. They were kept very busy and almost ran out of stuff to sign, by a large never ending queue of people. I do not envy these gentleman and I am sure they must have suffered from writers cramp with the amount of singings that took place.

During the course of the afternoon I spoke to many Bionicle fans both young and old and other members of the Lego team. It was very good indeed to see that the popularity of this phenomenon spans a wide range of ages and I was relieved to find that I was not the only adult present without siblings. I was particularly pleased with the opportunity to meet and speak with Leah the person behind www.bionicle.com and David the event photographer who can be credited with writing the Bionicle Lexicon and a some great MoC's such as MuKau amongst other things. TRU staff were on hand to distribute free Kanohi and Krana, there were no unique designs on offer just standard Kanohi and orange flavoured krana, but there were plenty for all. As I was having such a good time I decided to spice things up by adding a few handfuls of Transparent Green Miru and Copper Komau into the mix - as we should all remember that there is pleasure to be gained from giving as well as taking.

At 3.30 Colin lead the Comic book team upstairs to a quiet room and invited me along to interview them. I had prepared printed sheets of questions for the team to review prior to the actual interview and they agreed to answer all the questions I had presented to them. I'm sure some of you Bionicle fans have many, many questions to that you would like answered that I did not ask - but you must remember that Lego needs to keep it's proposed line-up and stories secret or else they wouldn't keep us interested and the products fresh and new. I was allowed to see the new Toa Nuva - but I could not record any images - what I can tell you is that the prototype images, that you have seen on Kanohi-Power, absolutely do not do these creations justice. There are six, not three designs and Gali is one of the most impressive. They all have color co-ordinated masks that look more like Samuri war helmets (not white as in the prototype pictures) and fantastic new weapons and they will be included in the comic book saga at some point. They are in my opinion the most exciting designs yet in the Bionicle range, but for now you'll just have to take my word on this.

I'll upload the interview within the next few days as an .mpeg so you can hear the questions and answers yourselves and discover some more secrets planned for the Bionicle Universe. Until then I wish you all luck in your quest to find the power.

Resident of Mata Nui

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