LEGO Bionicle MOC: Takanuva MEGA-Titan

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: Toa of Air

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: Proto-Toa, the TRUE first Toa

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

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

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)

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.

Bionicle MOC: Toa Nidhiki

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!