Few fan projects have captured the imagination of old-school Lego fans quite like Bionicle: Masks of Power-so seeing it shut down mere months before its long-awaited demo honestly stings. As someone who grew up with Bionicle sets lining my shelves (and who’s regularly lamented Lego’s cold shoulder to the franchise), this was shaping up to be the game Bionicle deserved. But The Lego Group’s legal team had other ideas, and now, after eight years of unpaid labor, Team Kanohi’s passion project is officially over.
| Feature | Specification |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Unmasked Games (formerly Team Kanohi) |
| Release Date | Demo was planned August 2025 (cancelled) |
| Genres | Open-world Action RPG, Fan Game |
| Platforms | PC (cancelled), new IP TBA |
Let’s be real: this is hardly the first time a beloved fan project has been torpedoed by corporate IP enforcement. From Pokémon Uranium to AM2R, plenty of passionate devs have learned the hard way that “not for profit” isn’t a magic shield against takedown notices—especially when your project gets big enough to hit the Google front page.
What’s especially gutting here is how close Team Kanohi got. By their own account, the Masks of Power demo was entering final polish, and they’d even planned a shadow drop for this August. If you watched the full demo walkthrough (the only relic now), you saw a game that—bugs aside—felt more ambitious and polished than plenty of “official” Lego titles. The team never asked for money, followed Lego’s own “fair play” guidelines, and plastered disclaimers everywhere. Didn’t matter; the second their project was easily mistaken for an official product, the hammer fell.
This isn’t just about protecting brands; it’s about control. Lego’s been weirdly inconsistent with Bionicle—happy to let it wither in the vault, but quick to squash anything that might confuse (or outshine) their own output. That’s the bitter irony: fans are keeping the spirit of Bionicle alive, but the company would rather see nothing than something unofficial, no matter how respectful. It’s a story that repeats across gaming, and it’s not going away unless copyright law changes—or publishers finally see the value in fan-powered goodwill.
Fortunately, Team Kanohi isn’t folding. They’re rebranding as Unmasked Games and building an original title: Project Rustbound. That’s the silver lining—eight years of hard-won experience now fueling something wholly their own. My hope? They keep channeling the same creativity, and next time, no legal team can pull the rug out.
If you’ve ever dreamed of making a game about your favorite childhood universe, this is another sobering reminder: fan projects can be killed at any time, no matter how respectful or impressive. For players, it means another promising indie bites the dust before it even gets a fair shot. But don’t sleep on what Unmasked Games will do next—most of the best indies start as passion projects, and this team’s shown they’ve got the chops.
As for Bionicle? Unless Lego changes its tune, it’s staying on the shelf. But the community’s not going anywhere, and maybe—just maybe—this latest victim will spark a bigger conversation about how corporations treat their most dedicated fans.
Bionicle: Masks of Power is gone, but the passion behind it lives on. It’s a gut punch for the community, but also a fresh start for a promising indie team. If nothing else, this saga shows that fan passion is always one step ahead of corporate caution—even if the lawyers win in the end.
Source: The Lego Group via GamesPress