My work on Project Mata Nui Rising (where I contribute as an environmental artist) inspired me to also make this. I’ll be making a few more cool renders with this guy, (hopefully collabing with someone who can do way better box-art). For this render I chose to copy the original set’s box-art (To make the background I took the original image and crudely blotted-out the LEGO set).
Between 2001 and 2003 Bionicle cannisters did indeed come with CD-ROMS inside. They were used to convey various lore details about Bionicle. Very cool.
That eventually stopped when Bionicle.com became more expanded than just a front-page advert. That year’s lore details, and animations, from 2004 and onward were viewable on the website.
If you really want a nostalgia hit, got to The Biomedia Project; they have archived all the Bionicle related things, including stuff that was thought to be lost media for a while.