LEGO Bionicle Untold: Just the MOCs

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Schilvak

2011-09-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

Been a long time since I made a LEGO Bionicle MOC, and it'll probably be even longer before I make another! This one has been a very long time coming, though. The Schilvak is a predatory creature that lived in the Swamp of Secrets. Where it came from and what its motivation was remains unknown to this day. Learn more about it in the video...

Video - LEGO Bionicle MOC: Schilvak

LEGO Bionicle part, on an RC car?!

2011-09-24T01:25:00.000-07:00

I noticed something pretty funny while doing an RC car review for RCMania.com and thought I'd share it.

If you're interested, check out the full Fast Lane RC Street Trooper review.

Lego Bionicle / Technic bulk parts sell-off on eBay

2011-01-24T00:42:00.000-08:00

In my last post I previewed my upcoming excess parts liquidation, and today I'm happy to announce that it has begun. Items are already selling quite quickly, so if there's something you want, jump on it!

Bionicle / Technic parts for sale

Here's a quick slide show of the lots I've listed:

Epic PARTS! Lego Bionicle & Technic surplus sell-off

2011-01-04T19:03:00.000-08:00

It's coming! My first big Lego Bionicle & Technic parts liquidation will be on eBay under my items for sale.

Check out the video preview!

Update: ALL SOLD!

Time for a change? A BIG change?

2010-12-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

In 2010, Bionicle was discontinued, and Hero Factory was launched. I was sad for the loss of an old stalwart, but happy to see that I'd be able to use my mountain of parts towards a fresh new use with a lot of future potential. I happily adapted and hopped on the new bandwagon.

Now, it's still 2010, and second series of Hero Factory sets have been fully unveiled. These, for better or worse, are vastly more different from even the earlier-in-the-year series than the first HF sets were from Bionicle before them. Suddenly, a great portion of my mountain of parts is looking quite lonely and behind the times. I'm not so sure I'll be adapting this time. Instead, I'm very, very seriously considering making a very, very different move within the LEGO omniverse.

What do you think, should I do it? Should I pull the trigger?

Video: Bionicle? Hero Factory? System? A ramble on change...

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Lorne, Self-MOC

2010-11-30T12:24:00.000-08:00

My latest, arguably Bionicle-themed creation is Lorne, my first ever "self-MOC." For this creation I had minimal inspiration. I only knew for certain that I wanted it to be tall and not too thick & bulky. Oh, and I wanted to use some sort of translucent color. Since I had already made good use of orange in my Shadowed Vengeance MOC, I went ahead with the opposite side of the color wheel.

Lorne is an intergalactic law enforcement agent. Imagine the most elite member of Interpol, in a universe of which Bionicle is only a small part. He travels, a lot! He may have only one hand, but who needs two when you're equipped with a MARC-12? That's a Macro-Atomic Re-Configurator device, 12th production series. It briefly suspends ionic & covalent bonds in its target and changes the arrangement of all atoms in any object to create something new. The device is always used in a non-lethal way per agency policy, usually to disable key components of criminals' weapons or getaway vehicles.

This MOC was built over the course of about 4 weeks with a lot of gaps between building sessions. For around two weeks of that time it was standing on the coffee table all complete except for the feet. I had some temporary duds on it but wanted to make something custom. I attempted to start several designs but kept hitting a brick wall. Late one recent evening, I sat down with a good mood and some good music blaring out of the computer, and it suddenly all went together! Here's his little unveiling video:

Video: Bionicle Self-Moc Lorne

Zeyek leaves Bionicle, joins the Hero Factory universe!

2010-10-27T23:26:00.000-07:00

My transition to the world of Lego Hero Factory becomes still more complete today with the bold move of the Zeyek chronicler character into the HF universe. In this video you get to hear Zeyek's voice for the very first time, and see my very first elementary (i.e. terrible) attempt at stop motion...

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u6_Lfmfmwk

[Blogger's note: See my new creations on my unofficial LEGO Hero Factory MOCs blog and also follow my YouTube videos!]

LEGO Bionicle MOC collection videos!

2010-10-18T02:08:00.000-07:00

This past week I finally published quick video walkthroughs covering nearly all of my LEGO Bionicle MOC collection. You can find them all on the LEGOJANG channel on YouTube. The preview video I published earlier is shown above. Here are the shortcuts to individual narrated videos, one per shelf display:

LEGO Bionicle MOCs: Rahi, part 2

2010-10-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple underwater creatures, a deep-sea lobster from far off the shores of Metru Nui, and a Mahri Nui crab with asymmetric claws:

How about some forest dwellers? This flexible tree lizard and poisonous tree frog are common creatures that Toa Lewa grew up around. The blue & green Fikou tree spider, on the other hand, is a rare spectacle.

In the mildest climate zones around the Matoran Universe you might have occasionally come across a parakeet-like winged rahi like so:

LEGO Bionicle MOCs: Rahi, part 1

2010-10-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

At long last, the time has come for me to get caught up with posting my rahi MOCs! I'll start with this giant centipede. It measures 30" long and was built basically just to use up a lot of parts, since some of my parts bins were overflowing badly after a bunch of used collection purchases off eBay.

Next is a dog-like rahi that came about as a result of just trying to find anything really different I could do with an Ehlek mask. Paired with a Lerahk mask for a moveable jaw, it took on a new life, and the body basically sprouted from there, creating something I think has dog-like qualities.

What better to follow a dog with, than a cat? This was actually my very first rahi MOC, and it remains my favorite:

This next, hyena-like thing has no name or story behind it. I also made this in my early days of MOC'ing.

This next creature comes straight from the swamps of Karda Nui, where it wades through the deep marshland, prodding through the murky, weedy waters with its long tongue to search for sugar-rich rhizomes -- energy storage pods of certain plants.

LEGO Bionicle MOCs: Krana-possessed Matorans

2010-10-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

One day many, many months ago, I was going through my parts bins, sifting through various items, looking for inspiration for a new creation, and I paused to look more closely at my bag of krana. They're such cool looking things, especially when attached to a head and not just displayed in a Bohrok shell, and yet they're infrequently used. I decided to make a krana-possessed character and it it ended up being the Le-Matoran pictured above. I was pretty satisfied with how it turned out, and went about trying to come up with others.

Soon I had covered all six main color schemes, and we had a party!

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Self-created Makuta?

2010-10-14T11:56:00.000-07:00

This 24" creation is my tallest Bionicle MOC. I was originally going to write a full story for it on Zeyek's Bionicle: Untold, but it never came together. The general idea is that when the Great Beings were doing their early creationary experiments, they were going through many revisions, making prototypes of new beings and casting them off or recycling their materials until they got it all "just right." One day they retired to rest after failing to create a viable Makuta prototype. In the protodermis pool they were working from, the spirit of one of their prototypes did not fully dissolve as planned, and it gathered bits of intelligence and designs from other prototype beings that had been experimented with from the same pool. By night, this being was able to form a rudimentary body for itself, and as it witnessed the glory of its success in creating its own physical self, it grew in confidence and strength and began to add more & more material to itself, eventually becoming a hulking, skeletal, robotic giant. As it was not part of any plan, the Great Beings decided this early Makuta could not be trusted, and could not be allowed to continue its life. They deactivated it, melted its body back into the protodermis pool, then froze and sealed the pool to ensure that nothing contained within it would ever be used or have a chance to escape again.

For transportation, this MOC could be fairly easily taken apart. I think it's funny that the head has feet.

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Bohrok-Kal Titan

2010-10-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

The Krana carried by the original Bohrok could be very powerful indeed, but when not under the control of the Baharag, most had little to no motivation. Not so with the Krana-Kal. This Krana Bo-Kal's bearer was damaged in battle, but it will was so strong that it managed to assemble parts from the battlefield and regain function as a larger, stronger than ever Bohrok-Kal Titan!

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Takanuva MEGA-Titan

2010-10-12T01:16:00.000-07:00

The Lego Bionicle creations I've published up to now have all ranged in size from sub-chibi to mid-sized titan. Oh, how things can change!

This Toa Takanuva MOC started its life as, well, a titan Takanuva set. I looked at the chest armor and saw that it could be used as the basis of an enormous mask with its two large eye-like holes, and soon I found myself building up some semblance of a head to see how big the rest of the model would have to be.

"Really, really big" was the answer, and the MOC ended up standing over 22 inches tall. Not my tallest Bionicle creation, but close. I built both the head and the body to be as light in weight as possible without looking too stringy, to try to minimize problems with load-bearing joints and posability. I wanted to make sure that even though it was a big model, it would still be able to pose halfway decently.

The whole thing was built at home, but for display somewhere else, so I needed to be able to break it down into smaller parts for easier transportation. The arms are attached by nothing more than a single-length bit of axle each, and the legs can be removed fairly easily as well. You can some of the high-level details of the construction in the video below. Please be sure to subscribe to my Lego YouTube channel!

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Taroah

2010-09-29T01:38:00.000-07:00

Taroah was a Rock Tribe agori in the Bionicle world of Bara Magna. He vehemently opposed Tuma's rule, and paid the price in the form of a viscious nighttime ambush that damaged one of his legs and one of his arms beyond repair. Abandoned in his crippled state far from any village or trading route, Taroah was astonishingly rescued by none other than Zeyek himself. Why Zeyek chose to intervene on this lone agori's behalf remains a mystery.

Taroah was flown to a far, distant, highly advanced planet, where he was given free medical attention and fully robotic replacements for his damaged limbs. He found work on the planet and saved up his money to purchase custom-fitted weapons, including a double-barrelled blaster that would attatch directly to his right arm, as well as a rocket-propelled mortar launcher. A patron at a tavern he began to frequent has said that Taroah was preparing to journey back to Bara Magna, just days before the planet was reunited into Spherus Magna.

He has not been heard of since.

LEGO Bionicle MOCs video preview

2010-09-24T04:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick camera pass over all of my Lego Bionicle MOCs (and Hero Factory too!) as of September 9, 2010. Most of them have been published here and on Zeyek's site, but some remain to be fully revealed. No worries, as I continue to transition to doing purely Hero Factory work, I'm in a hurry to finally publicize all of the remainder of my Bionicle creations. Slow video overviews of each shelf worth of MOCs will be coming, along with some spotlight videos on individual creations I particularly like.

LEGO Bionicle Moc: Green and white

2010-09-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

Green and white! That's all I can really say about this Lego Bionicle MOC! I wanted to make something Toa-like that was green and white. So I did. Yay.

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Ptah assassin & rahi mount

2010-09-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

My favorite creation from the Ptah series is this Assassin class warrior with a crossbow-like weapon, combined with an unnamed rahi that started out much smaller & with a completely different head, but ended up looking a little bit like a "Dewback" from the Star Wars universe.

LEGO Bionicle MOCs: The Ptah

2010-09-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

The newest Bionicle Untold posts introduce a species called the Ptah. This finishes off the discovery story about the origin of the Vorox and Zesk started back in August 2009. The MOCs were finished long before that, I just procrastinated a lot in posting them while also trying to figure out how the story would come together and also hopefully be plausible in the context of the canon background on the Great Beings and Bara Magna alike.

I really liked the Zesk mask when I first built the normal set and used it in my posing & photographing Bionicles post, and I decided to see what else I could make of it. This Ptah Guardian was the first creation to come out of those experiments:

The desert regions of Bara Magna made me think of ancient Egypt, so from there came the inspiration to create a tall, proud, gilded warrior. I liked the colors, so I then just tried out different ways to make similar characters. The backstory & names all came later.

After these I was running low on dark gold parts, so I tried what I then called a "commando" style with a larger figure, and then put bright gold pieces to use for my very first time for the Royal Elite.

Though I was left with almost no gold parts after these, buying all of those Zesk for their masks produced a surplus of tan one-piece arms/legs, and I had to put those to use too! The result was this pill bug-inspired desert Rahi covered with "scales" of minifig-scale Visorak from the Visorak's Gate set:

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Vakama, alternate universe

2010-06-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

Conceptually all I had in mind when building this MOC was to make something with an orange & gray theme, hopefully with an original body design. The result was this character I did decide to label as Vakama, from an alternate universe where he is evil. Here, he is in an in-between state between Matoran and Toa forms, held back by the other Toa from completing his transformation. He is a strong fighter and hot-tempered as in the familiar storylines, but he is unable to use any Toa powers as yet and is crowing quite impatient. Will he join forces with the heroic Makuta?

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Toa of Air

2010-06-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

This was a Toa of Air MOC I finished last year. I never came up with a name for him, but I do like the MOC!

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Vorox evolved

2010-06-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

Continuing the ominous Vorox & Zesk evolution storyline, the latest from Zeyek includes these two possibilities (same MOC) for the future, further evolved (devolved?) appearance of the Vorox. Zeyek believes the 4-legged stance is the correct one, and that this solves a longstanding mystery, which he will soon reveal. What will it be??

LEGO Bionicle MOCs: Mini-Rahaga

2010-06-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Continuing the mini theme, I realized I might be able to go even shorter by doing mini-Rahaga! Ha! Of course they're not canon Rahaga, just random creations.

LEGO Bionicle MOCs: The Minis

2010-06-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

This is just a series of little dudes I did in a quest to see how small of a Bionicle-based MOC I could come up with. They were pretty fun.

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Proto-Toa, the TRUE first Toa

2010-06-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

This post from Zeyek explains the creation, and the demise, of the peculiar creation that was the first Toa. Don't be quick to rush to the comment box, confident that I am an ignoramus, ready to spill your guts about Helryx this, Helryx that. Read Zeyek's post. Just read it. Now, back to the MOC...

This is definitely one of my favorite Bionicle MOCs, completed one year ago tomorrow. It has a lot of "solidness," a strong, well-defined figure, and a consistent theme. I can imagine it emerging from the protodermis pool, wet with liquid matter, drips falling off its prototype hands as if the fingers, themselves, are solidifying from those very drips. I couldn't think of a better way to use my one chrome Hau. No, I'm not really happy with myself for how this Proto-Toa MOC turned out, I'm just happy with the MOC itself!

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Toa Inika Nuparu, Bionicle Heroes edition

2010-06-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, in contrast to my Toa Inika Matoro MOC, I think this Toa Inika Nuparu MOC came out pretty well. Again drawing all of its influence from the Bionicle Heroes game, I wanted to make this Nuparu shorter & more squat and stocky than his brethren. This time I also did the weapons right, with his sword and awesome splash damage inflicting cannon that was perfect for the Vakhi bonus level. I dunno, I just really like this guy, and while many of my other MOCs are marked for disassembly once I'm caught up with posting them, I think I'm going to hang onto this one!

Added 6/28/2010: Here are a couple pictures comparing the released kit with my MOC.

LEGO Bionicle MOC: Toa Inika Matoro, Bionicle Heroes edition

2010-06-26T16:41:00.000-07:00

After playing the Bionicle Heroes game for the Xbox 360, I found myself really disturbed by the differences between the official Lego Inika sets and how things played in the game. For this Toa Inika Matoro MOC, my main desire was to equip a weapon that looked a little long-range, to better match his in-game sniper ability, and while I was at it, I just experimented with the body a bit to add some solidness and bridge the appearance gaps with his non-Inika forms. Then I added this whole "ice shield" thing which is completely out of left field. Oh well, definitely not one of my better MOCs, and definitely not accurate in any way.

LEGO Bionicle MOCs: Toa Nokama & Gali (Dark Mirror)

2010-06-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

One of today's entries from Zeyek introduces alternate versions, of alternate universe versions, of Toa Nokama and Toa Gali. These were actually two of my earliest MOCs, done over a year ago. They're simple, but I think they follow my intended visual theme. I specifically say "visual theme" because at the time I made them, I only knew I wanted them to be a pair of assassains who worked together, and I wanted them to be blue, and use cloaks of invisibility (which you can see mostly retracted on their backs). I just came up with the backstories for them today :)

See the other pictures of them and read the brief explanation of their place in the Bionicle Dark Mirror Universe in this Zeyek post.

Launched my Lego Hero Factory blog!

2010-04-05T19:31:00.000-07:00

I just launched my new LEGO Hero Factory blog with my very first HF MOC! Go check it out & bookmark it!

LEGO Hero Factory & the end of Bionicle

2010-04-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

Image from fbtb on Flickr

I may be a little late to the party on this one, but go easy on me. I only recently learned of the sudden cancellation of the Bionicle series. When I first saw the headline, I was devastated. As I began to actually read the full story, that devastation gave way to hope. When I then looked up the new Bionicle replacement series, LEGO Hero Factory, I was completely & utterly delighted. It wasn't long before I had jumped in head-first and started my own first LEGO Hero Factory MOC.

Bionicle had a good run -- a solid decade. In its heyday its popularity was off the charts, its fans completely loyal and dedicated. The stories were captivating, and the figures & parts just kept getting better with every release. Over the past few years, though, even some of the most devoted Bionicle followers have grown weary of recurring themes in the storylines, some truly bizarre plot spin-offs with the alternate realities, and (arguably) diminishing quality & uniqueness in the figures. The luster has largely worn off.

The ending of the figure series came earlier than planned, and it's sad, but LEGO made the right decision here. Fortunately, the official storyline will continue on the Bionicle site. We will still be able to follow along as Mata Nui fully re-ignites his powers, helps the citizens of Bara Magna re-assemble giant robot #2, and gets in it to go have an epic battle with the Makuta to liberate Aqua Magna and restore the Matoran Universe. What we won't have to bear with is seeing re-hashed releases all of the previous characters in toy stores as the story brings us back to them. We also won't be pacified with random newly-imagined Bara Magna rahi sets or additional forgotten tribe members (and their overpriced or not-so-exciting vehicles).

Instead, we will get Hero Factory figures, a series that continues to build upon the Technic foundation and welcomes the reuse of most of our Bionicle pieces. It will have a storyline, but it will more than likely be shallower and less rigid than what we saw with Bionicle; something a little closer to what they've done with System series. Like most folks who have commented to date, I think the names of the official Hero Factory "good guy" characters are lame and a disgrace. But I can get past that aspect. As a MOCer and big proponent of creativity in general, I like how the Hero Factory concept very strongly encourages fans right from the start to think up their own unique characters and have them interact with the story. Bionicle never really did that. The Bionicle universe had very little building & creation involved in it. All of the official characters existed before we were introduced to them.

I'm hoping to see some Hero Factory kits come in bucket form, a la the Ultimate Creatures set, but with several suggested builds and encouragement to create more. I can see this going really far with some very serious worldwide contests. Online games where you can actually build your custom hero and then play as it would be awesome, too. Imagine a cross-platform game where you can build on a PC computer, upload it, then play it on an XBox 360!

In closing, I have to send a big "thank you" to LEGO for creating the Bionicle universe. As the company moves on, Bionicle fans will continue to move forward with our creations, many of us drawing on pieces from the Hero Factory series, and many of us moving on too, but bringing our buckets of Bionicle pieces with us!

PS: Be sure to visit my new LEGO Hero Factory MOCs site!

I live!

2010-04-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

Rumors of my demise have been, well, wrong :) Ok honestly, I don't know if there have been any such rumors, but I have obviously been embarassingly absent for the past few months. You see, I got into LEGO Bionicle building to relieve stress from a demanding job. Late last September, though, I actually quit that job and have since been giving most of my attention to the websites I've been running for almost 10 years in another hobby.

I'm happy to report that I'm all mentally recovered from work and things are going great with my other sites, so I'll again be able to do some occasional updates in the Bionicle world. Thus far, I've only published about half of my MOCs, even counting the Ardaberry Fikou above (when sitting on a leaf or green vine the legs are camoflaged and all you see is the body, which looks like, you guessed it, an Ardaberry). I have many things to share yet and Zeyek has more stories to tell! On top of all that, I still have 15 to 20 pounds of unused parts just waiting to be assembled!

It's both surprising and humbling to see that the the popularity of my two Bionicle homes on the web has actually steadily increased, so to all of my visitors, a hearty thank you for your support! I'm looking forward to the next chapters!

Bionicle MOCs: Lost Rahkshi

2009-11-09T23:44:00.000-08:00

Today I present two of my older Bionicle MOCs, both non-canon Rahkshi. The first is the Great Rahkshi Kluurakh. Kluurakh was formed from the exceedingly rare act of fusing a live Stage 7 kraata of Confusion into a Stage 7 armor. The unexpected result was a creature of extraordinary size, strength, and, to Terridax's dismay, intelligence. Kluurakh's will was strong enough that he was able to escape the Makuta's mental control, even in close proximity, and live as a free being. Not much is known of his life, though it is believed that he lives in deep caverns beneath Metru Nui to this day.

Here's a size comparison with the normal type:

Next up is Tierakh, pronounced "tee-eh-rock." Tierakh was raised & trained to be a personal bodyguard of Teridax. His most exceptional feature is his Shadow Shield, an intangible device powered by pure elemental shadow energy. It appears as a very small, shadowy field, but when an attack is inbound, whether physical or energy-based, the shadow force extends forth and concentrates ahead of where the attack is aimed, absorbing it and rendering it ineffective.

It is believed that Makuta Teridax absorbed the life force of Tierakh to supplement his own power in advance of usurping control of the body of Mata Nui.

Bionicle MOC: Shadowed Vengeance, leader of the Dark Hunters

2009-10-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

At last, this MOC is unleashed! You should of course read the brief Bionicle-world story of the rise of Shadowed Vengeance, but here as usual I'll just explain the backstory of the creation of the piece. I actually built this guy several months ago, but didn't have a compelling story for it. It was one of those MOCs that I started by getting inspired by a color (in this case translucent orange) and just going from there. When it was done (minus the staff), I realized it would make a good Dark Hunter, but I couldn't decide which one. It had wings, horns (which were slightly different at first) and a strong shield like Vengeance, but its overall appearance looked way too much like this drawing of The Shadowed One. It wasn't until last week that I got the idea to combine the two official concepts into one, but after that, the pieces really fell into place with ease. All I had to do was to build a Staff of Protodermis and slightly adjust the head, and I would be set.

For the staff I again referred to this pic from the Dark Hunters book, since I was really underwhelmed by the official version that was used in the combiner set.

The figure has pretty decent articulation and stability. The only thing that's really lacking is strength in the articulated right hand, which makes posing with the staff a bit tricky. The final head came out pretty decent, though.

Bionicle MOC: Toa Nidhiki

2009-10-23T02:21:00.000-07:00

This is my personal interpretation of Toa Nidhiki. Click it for a bigger view.

If you haven't long since read about it, Nidhiki, most commonly known as a Dark Hunter, was originally a Toa of Air before being morphed into his four-legged freak state by Roodaka.

Breaking from the way I normally work, I searched the Web for examples before starting on this guy because I knew wih the popularity of Toa MOCs, there were sure to be some previous attempts. Sure enough, there are some out there, but I didn't look them up for inspiration -- I looked to see what was already done to make sure mine wouldn't look like any of them!

I used the correct canon mask (per Farshtey himself) and included the breast plate that was preserved in the popular mutated form. Most commenters on previous MOCs have insisted that Toa Nidhiki must be built with a typical Toa Metru body, following the style of the Iruini set. Well, I briefly looked at that possibility, and I hated it. Looked very weak and spindly. Sorry, I will not rebuild this with a Toa Metru body! It's much better like this, trust me.

I used this Nidhiki picture as my main inspiration during the build to get the appropriate mix of colors. Since he was a Toa of Air, I wanted to give him wings, and the Mistika pieces looked just right. It was extremely tricky and took hours to get them mounted, because I wanted them to fold into a diamond neatly behind his body. I ended up setting them up on a beam that would slide straight down about 3/4ths of an inch to extend the wings, and move back up to keep the front profile heroic in nature. When the wings had a fixed mount low enough to fit under the arms properly, they looked all wrong when folded up.

Finally, there's the whole deal with the Air Scythe. I'm sure there are plenty of concepts about how this should look, but this is my simple take on it, using a piece from the TRU titan Toa Mata Nui set, mounted at an angle and with a curvy handle. In putting this together I just looked at pictures of real scythes and tried to find what would approximate that look without inspiring images of the Grim Reaper.

So there you go, Toa Nidhiki!

Bionicle MOC: Valtys, Fire Titan of Bara Magna

2009-10-15T02:10:00.000-07:00

If you haven't yet seen the story of Valtys, you can check it out here. What was my inspiration for this MOC? Basically out of nowhere I wanted to do another being that would tie into the Bara Magna storyline, and the first things that came to mind were the colors red and yellow. This is how most of my builds begin -- a random spark of inspiration, which leads me to start pulling parts out of bins and spreading them out on the floor.

Now, we've already had some official Fire Tribe releases from LEGO, including two Glatorians, and Agori are pretty easy, so I decided to go with something on the larger side, and the idea of an original Glatorian titan emerged. Here's the direction I was going at first:

I felt like this had too much Mata Nui in it, though, plus the Brutaka mask, even with the Bara-esque translucent shadow-Matoran head underneath, didn't really feel right to me. I think mostly it was just too large, making the whole figure seem smaller. When I substituted Mallum's head, it was perfect, making this guy look really tall and buff, and I rolled with it from there.

The horizontal part of the shield actually can be pulled out slightly and rotated parallel to the vertical part for carrying. I don't have a good picture of the left hand but I set it up so it looks like he's holding a real shield handle with his clenched fist, rather than integrating a ball socket into the structure of the shield itself. The axe uses two Axxon axe halves back to back, forming parallel blade edges. There's a hand & wrist guard only on the right side for a little extra protection -- he didn't need one on his shield side because, well, there's a shield there!

Valtys has a little bit of twist available at the waist thanks to one of those sturdy two-way rotating joints from the original Makuta Teridax set, buried deep in his lower core. Yes, I use a Zamor launcher as a Thornax launcher. No, it doesn't really shoot, but visually I think it fits together nicely, especially for a shoulder-mount where proper Thornax launcher jaws would be pretty long and unwieldy.

Well, that's Valtys for ya! Hope you like 'em!

Bionicle MOCs: Rilovian history adjustment

2009-10-07T22:22:00.000-07:00

In Zeyek's introductory post about the Rilovians, there was one photo that bothered me a bit. It was this one:

The thing is, though I had tried hard to mix up masks and equipment to both ensure good variety between all of the Rilovian MOCs and also to keep them from looking like Matoran analogues, I accidentally failed at the latter part with the elders. I see some serious commonality with a couple of like-colored Turaga in there! Matau & Nokama anyone? Argh. Today I got a package from an eBay seller that helped me to remedy this embarassing predicament like so:

Voilla! Now I feel much better. Here's the whole crew with the updated old dudes:

Bionicle movie: The Legend Reborn

2009-10-02T23:18:00.000-07:00

Saw the new movie, Bionicle: The Legend Reborn this week! No spoilers here, but as you know, it follows the story of Mata Nui as he comes back to life on Bara Magna after his spirit is expelled from his mighty mechanical body (itself taken over by Makuta Teridax) within the Ignika.

I have to say, I liked this movie the most out of all of them so far! The storyline was pretty direct and straightforward (though there were a couple twists to keep it interesting). It was easy to follow and the renderings of the Glatorians and Agori were very good and their personalities were represented well. You can't go wrong with the authoritative voiceover work of Michael Dorn either (Star Trek: The Next Generation's Lt. Commander Worf) -- he spoke for Mata Nui.

The first three movies, which I've seen thrice now, still strike me as being a little hard to follow in terms of the whole timeline. The fact that they're out of order, yet still have some overlapping characters, leaves me confused to this day, no matter how much I read about them and try to put things in order in my mind. The Legend Reborn, on the other hand, fit right into what I expected... with just one exception. In the opening sequence, they show the Ignika leaving Aqua Magna and heading out into the vastness of space. Directly behind Aqua Magna is another planet, as close as a moon. However, it's not Bara Magna. The Ignika shoots off into the vastness of space and seems to actually exit not only the solar system, but the entire galaxy, before finally finding its way to a far, far away Bara Magna. That just doesn't make sense to me, since Aqua Magna supposedly orbits Bara Magna.

Oh well. Other than that, good Bionicle movie. I definitely recommend it! Makes you want to buy the whole Glatorian & Agori series of Bionicle kits!

Bionicle MOCs: Hordika (not Toa)

2009-09-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

The latest from Zeyek tells the story of the Hordika in an alternate reality. Technically it does start with the Toa Metru and quickly breeze through their Toa Hordika phase, but it really focuses on the fully-devolved Hordika who are no longer Toa in any way. Haven't you ever wondered what real Hordika would look like? There was an official LEGO fully-mutated Hordika Dark Hunter built by a fan, but I don't at all agree with the direction he took it. From proud upright humanoid Toa Metru, the mutation seen in Web of Shadows takes our heros to a shorter, slouched-over form that clearly suggests that they're mutating into 4-legged animals. With my Hordika MOCs I just tried to follow the progression to a natural end.

To let you in on a little secret, this whole mini-project came about because I had way too many large claws and wanted to figure out a way to use up a lot of them at once by inventing a claw-bearing species! I guess it worked, because I used up 24 claws. I still have too many extras, but at least now I can close my "feet" drawer a little more easily.

I don't recall how or why I came up with the idea of Great Hordika, but I was really happy with how Vakama turned out.

Great Hordika Onewa was the last of the series that I did, and I think the body is a pretty decent up-scaling of the original, but I feel like the head is way too small on the enlarged body, especially viewed from any front quarter.

Can't win 'em all I guess! At least it's not so bad from this angle though.

Bionicle MOC: Milethi

2009-08-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

The latest post from Zeyek is up and features a new character named Milethi, my first female Bionicle creation.

Milethi is as much of a lone ranger in her field as Zeyek is in his. Needing to give her some special equipment to match her unique status on the universe-wide playing field, I realized I had finally found a perfect recipient for my purple-hued sun-damaged copper Huna. Literally everything was built out & down from the mask, focusing on decent height (about 9 1/2"), confidence, and femininity (even got heels in there). Most of the structure is completely custom, with a Mistika Onua front piece giving just the triangular shape I wanted for the middle of the torso (doesn't show up so well in this photo). I'm not entirely sure what she has in her hand. Let's just call it a ceremonial scepter, shall we?

I love (Bionicle) Goooooooold!

2009-08-27T22:17:00.000-07:00

This week I received a beautiful set of the '02 gold Bionicle Mata Kanohi masks.

Well, one thing led to another, and soon I found myself photographing a whole bunch of gold Bionicle stuff side by side.

As I kept digging, I found even more.

Then things got completely out of hand.

After taking this shot I realized that I had forgotten to raid one of my bins, and I missed all of the Takanuva armor & shoulder pieces. Why do I have so much gold? Basically I needed a lot for another original "species" I've invented for my next upcoming epic. However, I certainly didn't need this many. The bling just got to me -- it corrupted me! Now I can't get enough! Somebody help, make it stoooooppppppp....

Posing & photographing LEGO Bionicles

2009-08-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

For me, Bionicle MOCs are used as creative decorations where I sit at work. No matter where you keep your Bionicles or how you use them, if they're out where they can be seen, don't leave them in boring standing poses like they're suspects in a police lineup. Sometimes half of the personality of a Bionicle creation is in the pose itself! Check out the difference between these two shots of the Agori Metus.

In the first, he's a little swashbuckler pumping his fists "Rah! Rah!" during a pep rally before a big battle. In the second, he's a seasoned, calculating warrior stalking his opponent, carefully protecting himself while waiting for the perfect moment to strike. It's the exact same guy; not a single part was changed. All I did was alter the pose! Try it with your favorites! Don't look at the canister or box art. Instead, just look at the figure itself and experiment. See if you can find its personality, and come up with a pose that really brings that personality to light.

Here are a few more of my Agori representatives (before I stopped following instructions and tore these guys all apart). First is Atakus, ready to parry any attack and strike a devastating blow no matter what move you make against him.

Next up is a gorilla-inspired Tarduk, sitting proudly, wondering why you are bothering him.

Here's a very amped-up and ferocious Solek. You can almost hear him taunting, "Come on! Bring it!"

One more angle for effect.

I close with a Zesk in an exceedingly dramatic pose, one shoulder dropped way down, the other propped up, one claw slowly rising off the ground as he inches up on something (or someone) that he reeeeally doesn't like. Ever get the feeling pain is just a few steps away?

Bionicle MOC: Toa Inika Jaller - Chibi!

2009-08-19T00:07:00.000-07:00

Just having a little fun with this one. I really didn't like the Inika series a lot, but after playing Bionicle: Heroes on the XBOX 360 I decided to try a few of them out. I had a couple sets of the masks from my eBay raids and figured to help break my visceral dislike of the blank-eyed rubber blobs I'd make fun of one with a chibi (mini) attempt. Here's the result, Jaller in under four inches!

Fun facts about the Rilovian storyline

2009-08-10T03:21:00.000-07:00

The name "Thedon" came from a line in the trailer for the movie "District 9." A lady said "They don't belong here," but with her accent (Scottish I think?), it sounded to me like "Thedon belon-giya." So, from that I extracted three names for future Bionicle story use, Thedon, Belo, & Giya. Good Bionicle names are hard to come up with, so I'll take inspiration from anywhere I can get it.
The 15 main Rilovian MOCs (Giants not included) were built simply because I was getting bothered by how many parts I had collected. Even with four, 3- and 4-drawer storage cabinets of decent size, I was still running out of space. Some of the drawers wouldn't even close without careful shaking and pushing the parts down. Sadly, even after building all 15 of these MOCs, my (separate) drawers for full legs, small legs, torsos, feet, masks, and common weapons all remained full to look at, but at least they could close without a hassle.
The root of the name of the sun-worshipping group "Rallo" is actually "Ra," the ancient Egyptian sun deity.
Rilovia's Syanic Sea is phonetically named after the color cyan. The water of the Syanic is a bright, almost fluorescent greenish-blue due to dissolved copper compounds and tiny plankton-like creatures with hemocyanin in their blood. Also, what color do you add to blue (light) to get cyan? Green, the regional color of the sea-worshiping Nofi.

Bionicle MOCs: The Rilovians

2009-08-10T03:16:00.000-07:00

The inhabitants of Rilovi were the second complete race that I conjured up from scratch. You'll see the first uneviled later down the line, after I take a break from this epic storyline to do some smaller reveals.

It was important to me that the Rilovian race have both depth and breadth of variance, so I created both a class system and regional distinctions. Regional affiliations would be indicated by color, like in the Matoran universe, but I took care to not use the traditional, Earth-inspired Matoran/Toa elemental colors. (I also went with 5 regions instead of the original Matoran 6, just to be different, but later realized that Lego & Greg Farshtey had beaten me to the punch with the five main tribes of Bara Magna.) Rilovian class membership would primarily show up in size.

All Rilovians would share high, wide shoulders and a neck position that's forward of and below the typical humanoid anatomical detail. I also took care to minimize sharing of mask types between characters, just to make them seem that much more varied.

In each of the photos below, the representative individuals are lined up by region -- left to right, the Tiallo (air), Foran (rusty earth), Nofi (bright green inland sea), Rallo (sun), and Mikau (forests/wood).

Warriors

After Gelaeus, these guys were first Rilovians to be designed, and coincidentally, the order I built them is the same order they're arranged below, from left to right. I tried to make them as distinct as possible. Only the blue & red individuals have similar weapons (swords). The yellow guy has a counter-balanced spear which you can't see here, but shows up clearly in The Lunacy of War. The blue and yellow individuals share the same basic construction, but the rest are unique. The silver-streaked masks represent double-forging, something afforded to the best warriors after a certain number of victories in battle. Behind each mask is a Metru head. Yes, the Telluris mask is mounted to a Metru head too.

Regular citizens

I think I spent more time coming up with the design for these guys than any of the other classes. They're all constructed basically the same, with the exception of the Rallo & Mikau legs. I spent most of the design effort figuring out the right amount of color and the appropriate mix of light vs. dark.

Elders

These guys were easy; they practically designed themselves. I'm guessing this torso design has been arrived at by quite a few people before me, as it's really straightforward, based around an upward-pointed Bohrok foot. The fun thing with the construction of the elders was coming up with their ceremonial staves. Most use Bionicle minifig parts, and my favorite are the Mikau and Tiallo ones. Character-wise, I went contrarian with the Rilovian elders by making them "simple-minded" rather than incredibly intelligent, reversing the Matoran theme. In doing so, though, I was able to expose an unexpected form of wisdom, better explained in Colors of Life.

Giants
Ah, the big guns. I didn't want to make a lot of Giants since they're rare on Rilovi, and to be honest, I also feared that I'd have trouble finding enough invertable masks to form different heads. I could have just used Gelaeus, but I wanted to wait to introduce him, so I used this Mikau example in the beginning of the storyline. Again going against the grain of typical Western fantasy, I made these big hulks gentle giants of exceptional intellectual capacity. Rather than being menacing warriors, they're the super-geeks of Rilovi!

Bionicle MOC: The Unknown

2009-08-10T02:58:00.001-07:00

The whole time I was writing the first half of the Rilovian story, I hadn't thought for a second of what extra-terrestrial enemy Gelaeus's creations would battle against. After completing Chapter 5, I actually got stuck with a bit of creative block while trying to figure this out. To break free of that block, I opened up a bunch of my parts storage bins and just started grabbing at random items with both hands. Eventually I ended up with a Mantax head in one hand and his shoulder armor in the other, and the build began.

I again wanted to stay distinctly non-Matoran with the design, so I again went with reversed leg joints and made the arms and wrists fold up when at rest like a praying mantis.

I knew I wanted to use one of the masks with a mechanical eye since the first Unknown contacts would be with surveying scouts, and luckily I had a black Akaku that fit the bill perfectly. I also figured that for this species, the general soldiers would all be identical (perhaps cloned), but leader units would have a different color of mask, possibly even a different specific type, but always including that mechanical eye feature.

Bionicle MOCs: Gelaeus's robots

2009-08-10T02:56:00.000-07:00

Quadriped walker
When I did this build back in April, I was just starting to explore what very different, non-Matoran/Toa creations could be assembled with Bionicle parts. I actually started out approaching it as a sentient creature, perhaps centaur-like, but for some reason I changed directions after the legs & arms were all fitted and made it into a ride-on mech. This has actually ended up being one of my favorite creations to date. The rider is intended to be a robot, himself, and he was built separately and can be removed.

Mini mech
For this build I started by courageously picking up the Metus torso and convincing myself to do something with it. The light blue color was difficult for me to find a color counterpart for other than white, and that had left me worrying that I would come up with something that looked like it whould be related to the Bara Magna Ice Tribe. Fortunately silver was far enough away from white, while still not contrasting too heavily against the light blue. I first did the head, then the legs, and by that time it was obvious that this was going to look like a mech, so I skipped doing hands and went straight for guns. Argh, yet another robot that didn't fit anywhere in the Bionicle universe. Thank goodness Gelaeus came along.

Mini Maxxa
This was the last Gelaeus-bot I built, to support an unveiling & final confrontation with the Rilovian elders in chapter 5, without revealing the (soon to be) existance of the potentially highly controversial full-sized version.

Micro mech
This little guy was one of my earliest builds, but the last to be revealed in the Rilovian storyline. It launched a real-life quest for me to see how small of a humanoid Bionicle I could create while still allowing articulation at every joint. More on that quest later!

Bionicle MOC: Gelaeus

2009-08-10T02:48:00.000-07:00

When I started building this guy, all I knew was that I hadn't done anything with exceptionally broad shoulders, and I needed to fix that. So, the Vakhi head-based shoulders came first and the rest built in from there. When I got the head figured out, but didn't have the legs done yet, I realized that the placement of the neck was unique enough to treat this creation as something from outside of the Matoran universe. When I started building the legs, I was hoping to make everything fit together, continuing the non-Matoran theme with reversed joints. However, what I made looked rather robotic, so I rolled with that and decided that this would be a creature who had lost his legs and gotten robotic replacements.

With the legs being robotic and their design thus not being at all limited by biologically-based ideas, I figured I'd go crazy and make them more useful than normal. Oh, and they'd transform too. With wheels. Why not, right?

The end product was a scientist/engineer character who had modified his own prosthetic legs basically because he could. I didn't come up with his name until I actually started writing his op ening post in the Rilovian storyline.

Bionicle MOC: The Maxxa

2009-08-10T02:07:00.001-07:00

Well, now you've seen it, the 16" tall Maxxa. I'll be the first person to admit that it's not the most impressive Bionicle around, but this MOC does have quite a lot of significance to me, as it was my first! Why did I choose to start with a big build rather than something simple? I don't know. Honestly, it would have made a lot more sense to start small and work my way up, but I wanted to really dive in and attack a challenge.

Interestingly, the way this MOC ended up is nothing like what I planned. I started out with the upper thighs, which I wanted to use to represent some shoulders for a sort of robotic lion, shades of the old Voltron cats. As I added more height, it became a biped. As I learned more about the world of Bionicle, I realized that this thing couldn't fit in with any of the storylines, so I decided to call it a robot. Not until I had done a couple more robotic creations did I build Gelaeus, and only then was I able to make a the connection and give the Maxxa a home, so to speak, with the development of the Rilovian storyline.

The one thing I do particularly like about this guy is his head, obviously using a Nuva chestplate for the face and Mantax shoulder armor around the back. Who knows, maybe some day I'll redo the rest. In the meantime, here are a few more photos.

My Bionicle-building style

2009-08-03T02:34:00.000-07:00

While I did jump into Bionicle building suddenly and head-first, I've actually set a few parameters or guiding principles around all of this activity to make sure there's some method to the madness.

Keepin' it original. While there are a ton of very talented Bionicle MOC'ers out there who do some amazing work, I respectfully make a very conscious effort to ignore every one of them. I strive to make every single thing I create (not just in the Bionicle world) truly unique. To help with this, I seek inspiration not from other builders, but from nature, everyday objects, and individual Bionicle parts themselves. Many of my creations, in fact, were designed & built around a single piece that I randomly looked at and decided I had to use for something, anything. If you see a torso or foot design in one of my MOCs that looks eerily like someone else's, take my word for it, it's pure coincidence. I can't copy what I haven't looked at!
Keepin' it Technic. With the probably tens of thousands of System parts Lego has created over the years, it's posible to create some stupidly amazing MOCs. Collecting, organizing, & storing a huge variety of System parts, though, can be incredibly expensive in both time and money. Frankly, I'm not committed enough to take that deep of a dive, so I'm trying to stick to Bionicle & Technic pieces only, with the very rarest of exceptions.
Bionicle world only! To maintain a little bit of focus, I'm sticking to building things that feel like they could be Bionicle "canon." I'm avoiding medieval lore-derived dragons, Anime-styled mechs, and reality-inspired vehicles like the plague. Perhaps when/if I get a little bored with the Bionicle stories & styles I'll consider branching out, but that surely won't be anytime soon.

Welcome, fellow Bionicle lovers!

2009-07-31T01:26:00.001-07:00

Greetings! Thank you for stopping by! Zeyek's BIONICLE: Untold is my latest Internet venture, a log of fictitious stories I created to breath a little extra life into my newest hobby, building Lego Bionicle MOCs ("My Own Creations," literally just custom builds). Speaking of stories, allow me to tell you the completely true story of how I got into Bionicle building to begin with.

I originally played with Legos as a young child. In fact, the very earliest set I remember having was #6383, Public Works Center, at the turn of the 1980's. I did a bunch of tinkering, but eventually moved on to bigger & "better" things like slot cars and HO scale trains. It wasn't until the turn of the 21st century that I made a long-overdue return to the wonderful world of Lego, using over 12,500 parts to build a long cityscape display along a wall at my place of work. You can see more about all that at my homepage. I pretty quickly took the plunge into Technic, eventually buying two original Mindstorms sets and several of the add-on packs to mess around with autonomous vehicles & walkers. Just when I was picking up steam with the 'bots, though, again I took a detour, this time getting into pro-level radio-controlled (R/C) racing & engineering (more about that on my numerous RC sites). All of the Mindstorms stuff went up on eBay, and my remaining System parts went into buckets to collect dust in the garage while I went off gaining a little bit of fame & fortune in the surprisingly vast & vibrant RC world.

In early 2009, I was working as a senior designer at PayPal. You know, PayPal, that site you can use to pay for stuff on eBay & thousands of other places, or to send money to friends & family online. I had taken on the task of designing small pieces of web pages (we called them "standards") that could be assembled together to build complete pages and even whole new PayPal products. It was kind of like designing Lego blocks, and teaching people how to use them. Well, there came a point where I had to give a big presentation to over 100 people in my department to explain what I was doing and why it was going to make all of their lives better. Rather than doing the usual boring, dreary, endless PowerPoint slides full of text that just put people to sleep, I decided to use a Lego theme and present almost exclusively with colorful pictures that I'd narrate in free form. Out of the garage came the buckets of System pieces at last, and I even made a trip to Toys R Us for some newer additions. I created & photographed all of the scenes for the presentation over the course of a weekend, and it was a raging success.

One of the lessons I wanted to teach in this presentation was that for a building block system to work, all of the blocks have to be from the same system. To put this in picture form, I made a couple of scenes featuring parts & creations from different construction toy sets, including Lego System, Duplo, K'Nex, and Magnext. I also threw in a Bionicle set for kicks, because it was cheap and, to the untrained eye at least, its parts clearly wouldn't play well with the others.

I actually took some evil pleasure in poo-pooing on the idea of Bionicles in addition to the other non-Lego System parts. You see, I always hated Bionicle. I hated the whole concept. I saw the original sets in stores back in 2001 and they infuriated me with their special parts and departure from the classic interlocking brick setup that made Legos, well, Legos. To me, any Lego product that wasn't strictly based on the brick system was blasphemy, taking creativity out of one of the most creative toys ever devised.

The particular Bionicle I picked to use in my presentation was the Agori Atakus, from the Bara Magna storyline. I got Atakus in particular because at least the assembled figure looked pretty cool, if you could ever get past the fact that it was a Bionicle and thus a disgrace to the world. It looked cool enough, in fact, that after the presentation, I brought it in to work to add to the decor of my little area of the office. Bad move. Within a few weeks I had bought yet another one of these evil things, Solek the Matoran this time. Then I picked up a Zesk. When I next bought Tarduk, I recognized that I had the start of a collection on my hands. At the same time, my originality instinct started kicking in hard-core, and I itched to create some custom Bionicles, though at that point I had never so much as heard of the term "MOC."

My next Bionicle purchase was on eBay (and paid for with PayPal!). This time instead of buying a set, I bought five or so. Pounds. It was the partly-assembled Bionicle collection of some kid who had already outgrown them. Then came another 5 or so pounds, and another 3, and another 7. By the time I slowed down purchasing these big lots of parts, I had more legs, heads, and ball socket pieces than I thought I would ever be able to use. In the meantime, I had disassembled all of my pre-built sets and done my first dozen or so MOCs, and the rest was history.

As of this writing, I have nearly 60 custom creations ranging in height from 2 inches to 2 feet. Some of these builds are my own personal takes on official ("canon") Bionicle characters, but most were completely made-up, so it was only natural that I would create unique back-stories for them. To avoid conflicting with any of the official storylines, I've devised some new planets and new timeline events, and you'll be seeing some well-developed new civilized races as well as species of Rahi, all told from the viewpoint of Zeyekti-Iiloptinous Mazzourel, the oldest of all Bionicle chroniclers.

I hope you enjoy following my work even a fraction as much as I enjoy doing it! Please do leave comments! I'm unfortunately an unusually busy guy, so I won't always be able to directly respond to individual comments, but I can assure you I'll read every one, and you'll definitely be seeing some responses and follow-ups appearing in future posts.

Just be aware of one thing, though. If you post on Zeyek's site, you'll only ever get responses from Zeyek, not me! ;)