User blog:Maccy1949/V: My Story, and What Follows

Let's rewind: February 2nd, 2015. It's hard to believe that it was five years ago today that I popped onto the Custom Bionicle Wiki after being a longtime lurker, and let's be honest; that decision was one of the best things I've ever done.

So, I figured it'd be best if I just talk about how I ended up here, what happened next, and what happens after.

Part 1: The Matoran Universe is Dead
It was around 2008 when I got my first Bionicle set, and I mean a real, genuine set. I had gotten some of the McDonalds toys earlier, but never really got into Bionicle. I did like the McD's toys though, but I finally got a taste of what this line was when I got the Takanuva 08 set. It was after that that I found myself slowly diving into yet another obsession, one with biomechanical beings who try to save an ancient god from his jerk of a brother.

2009 hits, and the Bara Magna sets had dropped. I collected a few of these: some of the Agori, some of the Legends, and I watched The Legend Reborn. It's honestly not a bad movie, even if it isn't quite as memorable as the first three films end up being.

2010 hits, and the STARS dropped. I ended up with all of them except for Takanuva and Nektann, and 8-year-old me found those sets alright as well.

And then it ended.

Now what?

Part 2: Heroes in Plastic Shells
2010 marked the end of Bionicle G1, and introduced the underrated constraction line known as Hero Factory. I really liked HF, I thought the characters were neat and when the CCBS system got introduced in 2011, allowing for more customization, I was hooked. I can't tell you how much time I spent in that Hero Designer thing for Recon Team, although I never ended up getting any of my people I made.

And it was around this time, maybe 2012 or so, that I stumbled onto a wiki. Custom Hero Factory Wiki. It was full of unique heroes and villains, all set inside the same universe, with catchy designs and powers, as well as stylized builds.

One of these builders was our very own Bobdo. (Yes, Bob, you're pretty much to blame for getting me here whether you wanted it to happen or not. I hope you're proud of that.)

From CHFW came a look at CBW, and while I would just kind of roam around here, I never really did much about CBW. Meanwhile, HF was in full swing and I kept going after that.

And then, in 2014, it died too. Seems the hero core ran out of quaza, which was a shame because that year introduced minifig-scale sets. Perhaps if it continued, we could've gotten similar sets to the System-based playsets from G1.

But then something interesting happened.

Part 3: The Legend Reborn 2: This Time with CCBS
2015.

G2.

It was back.

And it was around here that I finally decided to join CBW.

I started to write stories, using characters that haven't been used since, and I wrote a G2 story, A New Legend, which recently got a much needed overhaul.

I broke the first rule of Bionicle fanfic, in which you Do Not say the word "Bionicles" ever, because I was still new to the whole lore aspect. I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but you idiots took pity on me and decided, "Hey, let's help this Maccy guy out."

"What could possibly go wrong?"

Part 4: Everything and Anything, and All That Occurred After
2016 arrived with the Uniters, Umarak, and the beasts. All of us were geared up towards a showdown in 2017 between our heroes and Makuta, and we eagerly awaited where the potential-loaded storyline was headed.

And, well, you know what happened after that.

G2 died after only two years.

We found ourselves asking, "Well, crap. Now what do we do?"

We just kept doing our thing.

In the meantime, I had been in the process of writing The Stories of Xhio, books 1 to 3, starring Siela and Neia, a femslash couple who end up getting involved in a struggle for the fate of the entire universe. I introduced a Toa Team, killed a few characters, drove a few insane, and got a bit dark in some places.

Steam was beginning to pick up, and I was having a ball.

After I wrapped up Book 3, I decided that I did eventually want to continue the storyline, but I wasn't in any hurry to do it, so I took a break from writing for a while and focused a bit more on my YouTube channel, Maland2016, a channel that I'm still using to this day. (I recently got over 530 subscribers! Super proud of that!)

It was a very, very long while.

During that time, I got promoted to and soon later demoted from Rollback, and made myself known on the Discord server as your local sandwich saviour with the ice-cream murder waifu as his avatar.

Finally, in late 2018, I released Drowned in Sorrows, a story surrounding Navlax, a female Makuta, after the events of Book 3. It was the first part in an anthology series, a group of stories that would lead into a straight-up sequel. A few are planned, such as one revolving around the Toa Xharios, Tazerok, and Siela and Neia.

But, for the most part, I've essentially slowed down a lot on here, and I've been mostly on the Discord, eagerly chatting with all of you. While I love talking with you guys, I'm definitely trying to aim to be more active here in the future. Keyword, of course, is trying.

And now, five years later, here I am typing all of this out.

Time flies, man.

But, I think it's best if I end this with a list of people who've helped me here, and just a list of people that I love.


 * BTD27, our loveable, Tollubo-torturing, Zero Hour-finishing Priest of High Thodeism. He's essentially, as I mentioned, the one responsible for me being here in the first place, due to his mocs, which I still enjoy to this day.
 * Chalk and Invader, whom I'm putting together for being a blast to talk to on chat, for being genuinely fun people to be around, and, well, for introducing me to RWBY. Thanks for that, too!
 * Gonel, for being an excellent G2 writer (same goes for Invader, ofc) and as well a fun dude to be around.
 * BC, for putting up with all of my antics and being a fantastic artist who always keeps me looking forwards to the next page of some dumb comic about the Toa Metru being pirates or something. Who the hell would even read that, though?
 * Cap, Pit, CL, Mott, Max and Fabio: A fine group of lads who are also absolute blasts to talk to on chat and who also put up with my antics.

And to anyone who I've forgotten: thank you. Thank you for making the past five years of being here an amazing time. To those who've sailed on to new shores, to those who've been on CBW since it started, to those who still want a sandwich that I'm never going to give you, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

It's... it's been... I don't think there's enough words in the dictionary to express my gratitude! I'm just really thankful for all of you, for helping me out, for being there for me when I need someone. I'm closer to a lot of you than I am with people in real life, and if that doesn't say something, I don't know what does.

I'm looking forwards to the future, whatever it'll bring. New stories, new twists and turns, new things to enjoy.

And I'm looking forward to enjoying it with all of you.

So, one last time, thank you.

Thank you, everyone. I'll see you around!

Sincerely, -Maccy1949.