Bionicle (stylized as BIONICLE) was a line of contraction toys created by the Lego Group marketed primarily for 5-to-16-year-olds. Originally a sub-theme of Lego's Technic series, the line was initially launched in early 2001 in Europe and Australia and the following summer in North America and over the following decade became one of the Lego Groups's biggest-selling properties. The theme's concept is based on two earlier Lego themes that featured characters based on classical elements and incorporated a similar building system. In 2009, The Lego Group closed down the production of future Bionicle sets due to a lack of new sales in the product, and in the wake of theme's cancellation "replaced" Bionicle with Hero Factory; a new contraction series that carries Bionicle's legacy and features a similar building system. The Bionicle story is set in a science fantasy universe in a time pre-dating recorded history, featuring part-organic, part-machine sapient beings and is told on a vast multimedia scale through comic books, video games, website content, feature-length films and primarily, the sets themselves, among other media types. Between 2001 and 2003, the story depicted the events of six heroic beings called Toa Mata (later Toa Nuva), who with great 'Kanohi' masks of power and the ability to control different elements, protected the villagers known as Matoran on the tropical island of Mata Nui against an evil being known as the Makuta (real name later revealed as Teridax) and his many threats. The setting shifted in 2004 and 2005 to the futuristic city island of Metru Nui in a prequel storyline explaining the origins of the Matoran. 2006 began a new story focusing on the quest for the legendary Mask of Life; an artifact said to be able to save the Great Spirit Mata Nui (the god-like entity the Matoran worship) who was originally put to sleep by Makuta. The story culminated in 2008 with the revelation that Makuta Teridax had taken over Mata Nui's body - revealed to be a giant robotic humanoid vessel that houses the homelands of the Toa, Matoran and other known 'bio-mechanical' beings - and placed Mata Nui's consciousness in the Mask of Life, ejecting it into outer-space. 2009 began what was originally intended to be a new saga in the Bionicle story; the former Great Spirit Mata Nui crash-lands on the desert world of Bara Magna after being banished from his own universe by Makuta Teridax. There, he forges new friendships with the planet's Glatorian and Agori residents while attempting to find a way back to his homeland to save the Matoran from Teridax's tyrannical rule. After the announcement of Bionicle's cancellation, the 2010 storyline was changed to Teridax arriving on Bara Magna and battling Mata Nui as well as the former completing his destiny of reforming Spherus Magna; the once-plentiful planet that used to be Bara Magna. The story ended with Mata Nui retreating back inside the Mask of Life, deciding to let the Toa, Matoran, Glatorian and Agori build a new society together without him.