ColdGoldLazarus' Overdesigned MoCs

ColdGoldLazarus · January 22, 2015, 4:56am

I want to start off with a disclaimer: My camera sucks up batteries at a truly absurd rate and thus rarely can last longer than fifteen minutes or so at a time. Thus, all photo-taking is incredibly rushed. You have been warned.

Now to start off, let’s take a look at Lazadahki, the Vortixx quality inspector. (She was named using Tolkein’s Matoran Dictionary - El-Za-Dahki, or “Seeking-Planning-Judgement” which seemed rather fitting for her job.)

Being a Ta-Vortixx, (Quick headcanon time: All races also have elements, but they aren’t as attuned to them and rarely segregate like the Matoran do.) she has a very basic power over fire, but she has not gone to much effort to cultivate this.

She has a monocle with slight telescopic feature. It helps her see cracks or other imperfections in the products created at her factory. Once I have a friction piece, I will replace her current neck with one of those on top of a ball socket. Also, I want to find the Nuurakh head to use in place of Nidhiki’s.

The monocle can swing back, but she wears it habitually these days.

Not much to say about her back other than to note the blue pin where her staff clips on, and the black “butt-skirt” thing that I also want to improve upon in future iterations.

Her secondary weapon is a wrist-mounted blade not unlike Sidorak’s - in fact, it is a somewhat older model. When I was building her, I’d built the arms first, so this became the most expendable section, as I often found myself ripping pieces off of here that were needed more in other sections.

Mounted on her other arm is a scanning device that also assists with her inspections. Very late into the building process, I realized I still had a metru chest piece I wanted to use somewhere, and that her other arm looked absurdly twig-like compared against her hugenormous legs. Thus, this awkward-looking device came about. Hand is the standard claw, robbing Minifigure Reidak, Hakann, and Jaller of their arms. The blue thing is where her staff attaches.

And here we have the main body. I wanted to make her look feminine without resorting to nuva-breasts or anything like that, but I’m not sure how well I succeeded at that. Other things of note - her green heartlight, and the shoulders, which were designed to resemble an admiral’s epaulettes.

Side shot. Not much worth noting beyond maybe her armpits, but I’m not sure that’s exactly a fascinating topic of study.

Closer view of her back, and the hair-chain-things on her head. Her ponytail can pivot back and forth a bit.

Dem thighs. Due to some miscommunication, I ended up with two or three ‘Vezon & Fenrakk’ sets back in 2006, which came in handy here.

The lower legs, I feel, are where this MOC starts to fall apart somewhat. I couldn’t find any shorter technic rack-thingies, so the legs ended up a touch too long. However, the big piston is genuinely helpful in keeping her stable, and I’m glad I was able to throw in a splash of Trans-Green.

The feet are very loosely based off of Roodaka’s, but modified to suit the slightly larger scale. Wrapping the gold tubes around the ankles was honestly a very spur-of-the-moment thing, but I like the “boot cuff” look it gives.

And some poses to finish this off! Your thoughts?

Edit (11/27/15)
Ardvesa, Gavla Revamp, & Updates
Slizers 1A & 1B - Heze & Meridionalis
Slizers 1C - Menkar
Slizers 1D - Terrabellum
Warrior Of Stone
Slizers 2A - Lesath
Slizers 2B - Dubhe
Slizers 2C - Antares
Slizers 2D - Meissa
CCBS Compilation 1
System Ship, Mech, and Updates
Vahki Legs
Vamprah ReVamp
Slizers 3A - Kaus
Slizers 3B - Mira
Slizers 3C - Nashira
Slizers 3D - Archenar
CCBS Compilation 2A

Middlefingerstudios · January 22, 2015, 5:08am

yes I love all the over-designing, it’s fantastic, I think the green on her upper arms is a little random

ColdGoldLazarus · January 22, 2015, 5:15am

Glad you like it!
I wanted to add in some more Trans-green to balance with her heartlight; thus two in the arms and two on her legs. Maybe I should add a bit more in other places, so it doesn’t look as random?

Middlefingerstudios · January 22, 2015, 5:16am

perhaps, I personally think it would look better if the dark trans-green was just dropped and it just stayed with her eyes and heartlight

ColdGoldLazarus · January 22, 2015, 5:19am

I suppose I could replace those with more gold Bohrok eyes… I’ll give it a shot and see how it looks.

EDIT: To-Do list:
Replace the light grey pieces with black or dark grey where possible
Replace trans-green with gold
Replace head with nuurakh head
Replace neck with socket and friction joint
Improve skirt: DONE!
Shorten legs

Leoxander · January 22, 2015, 1:25pm

I love it! It’s great!

StudentScissors · January 22, 2015, 1:30pm

Cool looks interesting.

Scorpion_Strike · January 22, 2015, 4:51pm

Very impressive, if a little cluttered, but the color scheme changes should help with that. As for the skirt, maybe you could try something like this:

It just requires a rubber tube and some technic connecters, doesn’t require a lot of connection points on the torso, and it can be scaled up with larger armor pieces or plates pretty easily.

Another option: if you’ve got several Vezon & Fenrakk sets, maybe you could try using Vezon’s cape.

ColdGoldLazarus · January 22, 2015, 7:26pm

Thank you very much! I fixed up the skirt, and am uploading the pictures now.
(I also considered using the cape, but I wasn’t sure how to get it to wrap around the way I wanted.)

ColdGoldLazarus · January 22, 2015, 8:41pm

And here we have round 2! (feat. the Bohrok-Kal photobombing squad) I decided to take some of my worst MOCs and get them out of the way right at the start. Also due to their poor quality, I have attempted to make up for this with quantity.

But first, updates! As per @Scorpion_Strike’s advice, I have replaced her skirt entirely, and in the process realized I had no less than three Vezon and Fenrakk’s. Yeesh.

Unfortunately, I realized too late that I am all out of gold Bohrok eyes, so I’m going to have to do some piece juggling among my MOCs to get some black ones instead. But anyway, skirt!

Thinking of moving the tips of the tube down a unit, so the skirt doesn’t ride so high on her waist.

Now, for our first new entry - my blatantly tablescrap self-MOC who was built only a week or so ago: Ardvesa, the Bo-Matoran bard! (Name is, sadly, not Tolkein-esque and carries little meaning.)

She plays a curious instrument, designed specially by a De-Matoran and a Fe-Matoran of the Nynrah Ghosts. While it is primarily exactly that - a musical instrument, it can also be used to project a defensive sonic barrier if necessary.

Shot of the back, which pretty much shows how the build goes together. I started out with a Voyatoran-styled torso, but drastically expanded upon it as you can see here. And yes, those are glow-in-the-dark pieces on her shoulders. Said shoulders are somewhat uneven due to being connected to the claw pieces.

Due to an injury she sustained a long time ago, she wears a hip-brace. I love lime-green, I really do, but I had to be realistic about the fact that they can and will break, and that one in particular already had. Fortunately, in another MOC that you will be seeing sooner or later, I’d already devised an ingenious method with which to counter that, and so simply reused it here.

Closer shot of the instrument. I had originally intended it to look more guitar-like, but I couldn’t decide between the thornax shooter or the Vohrok staff, so I just went ahead and used both.

Salvaged from the great cavern once known as Karda-Nui, this Phantokan armour makes a snug fit. Closer shot of the chest; unfotunately, the claws are starting to warp. Not sure what to do about that, honestly.

On the subject of Karda-Nui, next up is the one, the only, Gavla! Built during a time of extreme piece-drought, (but then fixed up a bit since then) Gavla’s revamp may have been a downgrade in some ways; you decide.

The upper arm is a complete mess. I also want to replace her Ehlek Claws with Nuparu Inika’s, once I find them. Also, I hope to replace all her Takadox-Blue bits with silver at some point.

A closer view of the body, which has seen the most improvement over time. At least now I’ve got some suggestions of armour, where before she was a complete riot of colors with no cohesive shape.

Her sword-claw-things can clip onto her thighs. When they’re like that, her bear claws look a bit better, honestly.

Side view. Pretty simple build, really, but oh so frustrating.

Her back. The Karda-Nui bat wings are there mainly to “guide” the main wings.

And we close out on a bow. In a couple of days, I will present to you the first in a sixteen-part series of revamps, collectively titled “Remnants.” Bring your own disks!

Creep · January 22, 2015, 10:45pm

I think gray Vakhi head looks good, all i can think of as for improovements is making staff mouch more interesting (mabey make it look like wood, or some kind of staff oassed by generations? Hmm?)

ColdGoldLazarus · January 22, 2015, 10:50pm

I suppose I could try to replace the silver with some Burnt Orange from Pewku, perhaps…? (And what is ‘oassed’?)

Creep · January 22, 2015, 10:52pm

Oassed is passed, and since mu thumbs are big i accidentaly click wrong letters (im on phone)

Alsi i like gray becouse it gives me vibes of anthromorphic robots (ya know, gray in that ammout, with socket in same colour looks like skin, and those are biomechanical afterall)

Payinku · January 22, 2015, 11:18pm

[quote=“ColdGoldLazarus, post:10, topic:5519”]
bard
[/quote]has assassin’s creed flashbacks…

STAY AWAY!

seriously though, these are nice, though as you said, overdesigned, I prefer a paneled armour look when moccing, but these are alright, the builds are creative at least.

ColdGoldLazarus · January 23, 2015, 12:33am

Ah, okay; makes sense. Though I’m not sure the MU strictly has “Generations” to pass things down through.

Fair enough; I just think the head sticks out a bit as it is currently.

[quote=“Payinku, post:14, topic:5519”]

Heh, fortunately she’s got a sense of discretion… usually. XD

Eh, fair enough, but I definitely prefer a more detailed style. (Though there are a few more panel-y MOCs that’ll come up sooner or later that may be more to your liking.) And thank you!

Scorpion_Strike · January 23, 2015, 5:16am

Nice job on the skirt

Ekorak · January 23, 2015, 9:42pm

These are pretty darn cool! The first one is still the best, but the second two are nice and compact.

ColdGoldLazarus · January 23, 2015, 10:56pm

Thanks, to both of you!

ColdGoldLazarus · January 24, 2015, 4:08am

(Another double-header due to low quality, but I promise after this one we get to some of the good stuff!)
I was too excited to wait two whole days, so this happened. But first! Some background.

In 2010, I got into Slizers, the precursor to Bionicle and Hero Factory alike. It wasn’t long before I came up with my own interpretation of the story, a rather more… political take on the whole thing. It soon grew beyond its original bounds to become something pretty awesome with some real-world themes and issues. Unfortunately, I never wrote it due to one simple factor: The ending. I just couldn’t come up with a good ending that wasn’t completely cheap, or else was satisfying and realistic, but at the cost of completely undermining the main theme I had carefully woven in to the narrative.

Still, between the summer of 2011 and the summer of 2012, I went through and systematically made MOCs of sixteen of the eighteen characters. (The last two I would make as well, but both have color schemes comprising almost entirely of rare colors in Constraction.) Now, all of these MOCs have sat on my shelves since then, so they’re going to be a bit dusty. Still, I hope you can appreciate the builds! (Once we get past the bad ones first, though.)

Remnants
Part 1A: Heze

Relevant Music 1 and 2

Story: Heze is a riderian monk, and embodies many of their best aspects. Humble, patient, wise, one could be forgiven for believing him to be completely happy. Unfortunately, he died believing himself a failure, mostly due to his Nephew, who was most distictly not on a righteous path.
Despite being a pacifist, Heze wears an ancient set of armour and carries both a powerful blaster and an experimental “energy blade” weapon. After all, unless he tells them, people don’t know that he wouldn’t hurt a fly, and on top of that, holding the only copy of such a powerful sword means that those who would use it less… responsibly… cannot.

I spoke badly of Gavla before, but as much as I like the personality I gave him in-story, his MOC is one of the worst things I’ve ever made. (This broken color scheme has been brought to you today by the absence of Gadunka and Spinax.)

Case in point.

The legs are a little bit better, but… not by much.

The body is the worst part, though, simply by virtue of using the Piraka torso.

And the back. Another example of having too many of certain sets and not enough of others.

Remnants
Part 1B: Meridionalis
(Ultrarex)

Relevant Music: 1

Story: Meridionalis was once a promising cadet in the Polar City’s navy. She had friends, she seemed well-off enough, and there was no trouble. Then one day, she just up and vanished.
Five years later, a dangerous assassain going by the codename “Rex” had become one of the most feared individuals in the underworld. Hired by corrupt politicians to silence their political opponents, Rex was not one to hold back, completely unfettered. What was worse, they wore a facemask fashioned after one of the Riders of Myth themselves - the traitor Dust.^ Nobody would think to connect this terrifying killer with the disappeared Navy Cadet, and her former squadmates still wonder what happened to her…
^I know it’s Onyx’s, but screw the rules I’m writing this. In-story, Dust is basically like Judas.

I’m a lot happier with her build than with Heze, but I won’t deny that she looks like a bit of a mess.

Show some posture there, young lady!

And the back. Very spikey.

All of her removable weapons. Not pictured are the back-spikes and her spiked chain. (Are you sensing a theme here?)

Sans weapons, she may be a bit easier to see. The decision to go with blue arms and red legs was actually deliberate, as I wanted to give her armour somewhat of a cobbled-together appearance.

Back, sans weapons; the Piraka foot behind her neck is supposed to look like an absurdly high, frilled collar like those on certain cocktail dresses. She may be a brutal murderer, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have class! Also, I used the glow-in-the-dark teeth from the Piraka Fortress to give the implication that the spikes are slightly irradiated.

Side view. The collar looks less like a collar from this angle.

Leg. Also rather spiky. Why is it double-jointed when Heze’s are single-jointed? When you’re a cyborg, there’s a lot you can get away with.

Arm. Figuring out how to attach the Vezon heads was a pain, but I’m happy with the result.

Torso, which I’ll let speak for itself. Removing the arm for the side shot was a tricky proposition, given the Vezon head.

Progression of weapon use. If she loses her long spear or the weird can-opener-thing, she switches to the saw. Once both of those are gone, she pulls out the folding scythes. If she loses those, she’ll resort to the chain.
…Friendly woman, isn’t she?

Pose as a team despite having incompatible ideologies and never even actually meeting in-story, because business just got real!

Next Time: Better building and brown; you’d best believe this guy is canon! (Though I wonder what the kid who originally designed him would have to say about this revamp.)

Risebell · January 24, 2015, 1:41pm

Those Bohrok in the back are a bit distracting.