More Art and MoC competitions for characters with no canon depictions?

There are many characters that never got any canon depictions, and I think running MoC and/or art competitions to represent some of them would be a great way to help keep the community together and active. MoC competitions don’t get as much attention as they used to, but having the winners become canon representations would certainly generate interest!

So, would you be okay with doing any such canonization? I imagine these as potentially being very much like the competition for Certavus, the legendary Ice Glatorian, i.e. MoC competitions with some artwork based on the winning MoC.

From what I understand of your position on similar issues (correct me if I’m wrong), characters with important, unestablished details (such as the Kanohi and Toa Tool they use) wouldn’t be viable, since those are story-relevant details that you would be reluctant to let fans decide. However, there are other characters, such as Lariska the Dark Hunter, Varian the Toa of Psionics, or even some of the named Great Beings (arguably), who already have their core appearance details defined.

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I think this topic might have a potential answer: Question on Canonization Potential?.

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Good find, LeKrahka, I wonder if that answer would all still apply though. That was back in 2017, and I think (I might be wrong) that the canonisation that Greg was hesitant to do was more along the lines of confirming specific unconfirmed story details. I’m just suggesting canonising character appearances through contests, which doesn’t really effect the story at all, it’s just a nice thing to have and could bring the community together more. I can’t really see people objecting to that.

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If the community was okay with this, I would be willing to do it.

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Heck yes boys! @Eljay, you might wanna see this.

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I’d love to see it happen, but there would definitely need to be a process for it. I don’t know if design criteria would need to be a thing, but it might be a good idea to avoid canonizing models for characters who wear masks we never saw in set form or the comics (i.e. certain members of the Toa Mangai).

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This would be an excelent way to still pump up some life into the fandom.

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I like the idea in theory, but I fear some might have issues with fan-made designs being canonized as it could interfere with people’s head-canons. It may also cause drama if there’s competitions for such a high badge of honor.

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do we really need to satisfy the minority that attacks the people behind the franchise because they didn’t do a thing as they wanted?
Like, jokes aside: its hard to please everybody, therefore some groups might have to be ignored. And I don’t think these people, that cry over something so simple as a design different of what they imagined, should be considered when making a change to the overall franchise. These are generally the toxic fans, that can very easily ruin the enjoyment of the story.
Look how many franchises were ruined by such toxic fans. Bionicle should not be one of them. Yes, some people would get upset, but would they really hold the grudge?

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What I think should be considered is how common custom parts, especially 3D printed parts, are now days. Should they really be allowed? Is it truly a Lego moc if they are? Would allowing them also designate the parts designed by the 3D modeler as “official” because the parts are used in a canon MOC, causing a monopoly on that certain element? Etc.

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Fairly sure the ruru on most official contests is “only official pieces”.
But then again, Charger's blades exist:

But I’d say only official pieces makes sense

I mean, there’s always the option to do what Krakua did: his mask is X, but the moc wears Y.

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What I would find tricky nowadays is the predominance of MOCs heavily utilizing CCBS and System. And it’s not like you can blame anyone for that given that this is mainly what we got during the last decade.

But could it truly be a satisfactory canon Bionicle character depiction if it wasn’t based exclusively on G1 and technic parts with minor System aspects? And possibly to be even more purist - only parts available in 2010?

I’m going to be honest, I would disagree with any MOC depictions made canon that don’t look like G1 characters. On the other hand such a rule would be kinda unfair for the younger fans since most of them likely can’t actually do this.

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I wouldn’t mind if my Helryx would have some CCBS in her. I mean, a moc can easily look like a G1 character even if it uses modern pieces.

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I ask you this - how do you feel about character we have already seen depicted that use pieces that do not exist at all, such as Nikila and Surel? BIONICLE characters have come in all shapes and sizes, and sure those those that can be created are preferable to those that can not?

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The way Greg worded his answer, “if the community was okay with this”, sounds like he might be leaving it up to community vote, so which version is most popular becomes canon. I think a good start would be Nidhiki’s Toa form, since we know so much about him, which makes virtually every MOC of him practically identical. If we can’t agree on a version of Nidhiki with all that we know about him, how can we agree on characters we know less about?

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Now that I think of it, its actually true. Sooooooohohoooooo many versions of Toa Nidhiki were made, that it’s actually questionable that there is no canonized version of it on a wiki or something.

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Though I don’t have the sentiment as strong as Gilahu, I think I understand it. It’s not a matter of pieces existing, as it is how they look. The CCBS system has a very smooth, refined look that is different from the piston/gear look of G1. Of course, there are exceptions, in particular the new piece G2 introduced.

If you look at Surel, even though the helmet and blade aren’t real pieces, they look like parts that would fit in with the style of G1 parts. And you can easily see identifiable bionicle pieces on the rest of him. With Nikila, it’s harder because the drawing is very stylized, but it still has a resemblance to ye olde bionicle parts.

Now, however, I shall counter Gilahu’s argument with this: as was brought up in another topic recently, bionicle sets (and by extension, canon mocs) are a representation of the character, not an exact 1:1 image of what they look like. Different art styles have reflected the characters differently – take for example The Legend Reborn vs the Miramax trilogy. is it such an issue if different build styles --G1/CCBS – depict a character somewhat differently?

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Speaking for myself, I see drawings as having more freedom than MOCs. A drawing is a cool depiction of a character. A MOC is something you should in theory be able to replicate yourself and put right next to your sets.

And to me it would just be weird to see a modern CCBS/Technic/System hybrid MOC next to the clearly very technic heavy Bionicle sets of old. This is not saying these modern MOCs don’t look awesome if done well - because they definitely do. They just don’t have the aesthetic I associate with Bionicle G1.

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This seems kind of relevant right now; someone on Reddit just made a fantastic Nikila moc that highly resembles the original art.

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We thread a dangerous part in here. I would vote against all CCBS-specific parts, such as add-ons with ball connector, addons to those addons with no technic connector, but new technic pieces and select weapons might be OK. The ratio between technic and system parts as in typical BS01 contests should also be maintained.
At all costs we shouldn’t validate the existance of CCBS parts in G1.

Masks made out of small system/technic elements might be a cool idea.

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