More Prerelease Sources!

I recently came across this coverage of New York Toy Fair 2001, featuring the Bionicle van, set photos, and everyone's favorite Bionicle GBA game:

Upscaled 2x. Special thanks to Peri for noticing the GBA footage.

Unfortunately, the original images weren't archived, so we'll have to make do with the thumbnails. The first one seems to show Takua in Le-Koro. It doesn't look like there are any other islanders present, but it's hard to tell? The second image appears to be of a body of water in Onu-Wahi. I don't think this image matches any map in the final game, but again, I'm not 100% sure of that. Interestingly, neither of these screenshots has a heads up display (or so I think). The third image is included because it shows the right side of the TV. Judging by the border around the game, I think this was camcorder footage of a GBA dev kit's screen, similar to the demo footage on the Power Pack.

But wait, there's more! Here's Nintendo Power Volume 146, scanned by Brickshelf user "ianc" in November 2001.

All 6 screenshots are totally new to me – I don't think they were used anywhere else! Frankly, I'm astounded that this file is still available, given Brickshelf/Maj's troubles over the years. (That said, if you own NP 146 or have access to a higher quality scan, please get in touch.)

On a similar note, both the Nintendo Power Advance and Nintendo Power walkthroughs show tame Ussal crabs in Onu-Koro, but they do not appear in the final game. In other words, Nintendo Power's copy of the game was a prerelease build. I haven't noticed anything else odd about their screenshots, but it wouldn't surprise me if something is staring me in the face.

Left: NPA 2, right: NP 148. Nintendo Power photo by Toa Nidhiki05,

who's done great work on this game's Wikipedia page.

Finally, Nintendo Power once uploaded gameplay footage of the Kofo-Jaga fight in Po-Koro. Unfortunately, the original footage wasn't archived, but the thumbnail was. I can't spot anything strange about the thumbnail, but I'm including it for completeness' sake:

Upscaled 4x.