Basically, BIONICLE was my childhood, the 2 first years with the Toa/Bohrok/Nuva were the greatest in my opinion!
And now that BIONICLE is coming back, I feel the nostalgia kicking in, and learning about the Battle of the Mask competition held by LEGO across multiple sites, I just had to give it a try!
I haven't had much time, and been somewhat been restricted by parts/color shortage, so the result isn't as completed as i would want it to be.
Having to build a villain is the perfect theme for me, as I love to conceptualize and design such characters!
In this case, the initial idea was to build a character that would resemble the original Toas in their "protoform", devoid of element and color as they were until they put on their mask(referring to some of the first cg clips from 2001 where Tahu builds himself once out of the canister).
So it would in my mind have a very Toa like humanoid body, but with more details and functioning mechanics like pistons and a flexible waist.
The background story I had in mind was to have him as an ancient and powerful being, on of the very first bio-mechanical organisms to exist.
His story however would be a mystery, where did he get his powers from, why does he have a mask/face hybrid revealing teeth instead of a single mask, why are his arms different?
He may in ways be primitive, but still he has some elements that in some ways are much more sophisticated than the modern Toa, making you wonder how and why he came to be.
The entry picture, it's the one where you get the best impression of his silhouette, however, the head may be a little hard to make out as I had poor light conditions and not enough time to prepare a proper photo shoot.
He has some stability issues in his hip, waist and shoulder area, so posing him dynamically was challenging.
I wanted him to be a decaying character, both his mind and body is falling apart, something I tried to visualize with his fully mechanical arm and use of teeth, making him look more creepy with a twisted smile.
The head was tricky, as it had to include a movable jaw, keep a more or less unique shape, and stay solid, so this is the best I could do with the frame I built.
The eyes ended up a little higher than intended, making it hard to see them unless you have a low angle.
Some rotation to give you a better idea of the build.
I really liked the back to shoulder connection, makes it feel like a more credible mechanic operating the shoulder movement.
Likewise with the legs, I was short on time and had yet to make an appealing solution for the knees or something else to cover the gap at the joint, in the end, turning out to be pistons making them look more mechanical.
That's about it, wish I had more time to justify my vision, but this'll have to do.
Wishing all entrants the best of luck, and now it's just to await the arrival of the Toa next year!
-Ragaru
