I would recommend one of the Lego sets, such as Lego Castles, or Mars Explorers, only because, once he is done with the instruction in the box, he can make whatever he wants, however he wants. I have owned many Bionicles, and there is a small amount of customization and redesign, but for the most part, what you see on the box is what you get. There really isn’t anything all that bad, but children at that age, I believe, should be given toys and items that force them, or at least, be absurdly creative. Sure, the Bionicle’s can be taken out of the box, put together in 2 minutes and the boy can be off, saving the jungle, but once he has used those toys, and they grow boring, he is stuck with them. Where-as getting him the Castle Siege Set. It will take him an hour to put together, then he can start to save the princes, but at any point, he can tear the castle apart and build a spaceship he designs, himself. The Castle idea is great too, because he can do it with his parents, as a bonding experience (As I would hope they are good parents and would want to help him.)
Some cons to the Basic Lego set: Cost. Bio’s are cheap, entire Lego sets are not (The Castle set I always recommend is 80$, but comes with a bad-ass Dragon, working catapult, and enough bricks he would build a small city with, and lot of mini’s too;) there is A LOT of work involved to get the castle built (for a 9-year-old boy;) there are a lot of pieces too, that can get lost, stolen… etc…
It comes down to what you think he would like the most. If he isn’t into building is own, custom things, get him Bios, if he is into taking apart ever thing he gets and making something new (whether it works or not is another story!) Then get the whole Lego set (There are cheaper set out there. For 20$ you can get him ether two Bios or one really big set of Legos)
The Bios are big and scary looking, Lego Mini’s aren’t, something else to considered.
As for longevity: The Legos could last him until college, if he really gets into them. I mean, most boys I know around the age of 14–16, still “play” with Legos in secret. I mean they don’t take them to school or nothing, but if you go to their house you can see they are still building things out of them. Where as I always come back to the fact that Bios only have, at most, 5 different combos that can be made, and still be manageable in size (I have seen some artist make life size Bios from the parts of hundreds of Bios)
As for my option on NeoShifters. They are kind of cool. But offer very, very, little longevity. Even Bionicle has more of a life span then those guys, that is why I didn’t even consider them in my rant. Not to mention, most of the boys I know, have no idea what they are, most think they are Bionicles you can’t take apart, and make something new with!
Anyway, in summery: I suggest buying him something like Lego Mars Explorers, or Castles. But if the boy has his heart set on Bionicles, get him a few of those, cause even if he has duplicates, he can use the parts to build mutant Bionicles! I am sure he would enjoy that.
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