Film graduate student Josh Smith, 24, was browsing the eBay in search of film needed for a thesis paper at a cheap price. While looking for “The Bionic Woman,” listings for the LEGO toy line “Bionicle” popped up.
Smith was 6 when “Bionicle” was introduced and it soon became his favorite childhood toy.
“I totally forgot about ‘Bionicle’ since the original series was discontinued in 2010,” Smith said. “I’ll never forget my dad yelling at me to stop crying because a 16-year-old boy wasn’t supposed to be crying over plastic. I would’ve told him to not cry about his sports teams when his favorite athletes didn’t even know he existed, but I didn’t want to sleep in the shed again.”
While going down a rabbit hole of old “Bionicle” sets that were available on the marketplace, Smith came across a set from 2006 that he dreamed of owning; “Vezon and Fenrakk.” When released in summer 2006, the set sold for $29.99. When Smith came across the 281-piece LEGO building set online 12 years later, the price increased to $399.99, almost 13 times the original retail price.
“I asked my mom to get it for me for Christmas if we had enough money that year,” Smith said. “I ended up getting another Piraka, Vezok, which ran for about $9. I get their names are off by one letter, but she could have at least looked for the circled set in the LEGO catalog I gave her.”
In the deep “Bionicle” lore, Vezok and Vezon were part of the Piraka, the series’ evil team for that year’s storyline. Another member of the Piraka shot a staff of fusion, which was set in reverse, at the blue Vezok, which ended up creating the gray Vezon.
As part of one of the “titan” sets, Vezon and his pet spider Fenrakk were able to combine with the other “Bionicle” titan sets to create a large dragon.
“All I wanted was to create Kardas,” Smith said. ” I didn’t have friends growing up, so my ‘Bionicle’ toys was sort of my friends. Kids would make fun of me for liking the toys, but at least I had cool build-able action figures that didn’t steal my juice pouches at lunch or cheat on me.”
Smith’s childhood dream of owning his favorite set will remain a dream in adulthood.
“When you’re a kid, $30 seems like a lot for a toy set,” Smith said. “Seeing the set now run for $400 almost gives me no hope.”
