Lars Lusenberg Nielsen, Senior Toy Designer at LEGO's Concept Lab Denmark, provides a look into the making of Bionicle

"We make 3D sketches in Rhino or a similar digital tool. From there, we produced the first set of prototypes using rapid prototyping. This allows us to get a physical prototype in our hands quickly and analyze the ways the various elements can be used. Rapid prototyping is a cool process -- it’s like a 3D printer. Whatever we design in the 3D program can be printed out so we can physically test the building possibilities and functions." Read on