Dont get intimidated by other MOCers and their creations. Their MOC babies maybe more detailed, more complex, and or a lot larger, but remember that your MOC baby is YOUR BABY, cerish it and love it despite anything. Nurture it and help it develop, one day that baby might run for MOC President or be a MOC Astronaut.
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AMEN TO THAT:pray:
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just do like me and use cloth to hide the gaps and bad build of the mocs
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In my time MOCing, I’ve changed a lot. I’ve gone through different phases. At one point I hated the hand peices they introduced in the glatorian series. At another I thought it was herecy to mix ccbs with bionicle parts. But something I’ve learned is that generally speaking, you want a good system parts to technic parts ratio. Typically, my MOCs look better the fewer ball joints and armor plates they have. For instance, here’s a couple of MOCs I’m getting ready to upload to the boards (the one on the right isn’t finished yet.)
Personally, I’m happier with the one on the right so far than I am with the one on the left, primarily because it’s extremely difficult to go beyond basic only using bionicle/ccbs parts. You can do some creative things if you have an absolute MOTHERLOAD of parts or you buy stuff on bricklink all the time, but I don’t have that option, and neither do a lot of beginners and amateurs.
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Oh boy yo know it. Also makes nice shapes that you otherwise wouldnt get with just the pieces.
I also suggest using branches of plastic xmas trees. They are easy to shape due to the metal that makes the twig and its really nice for foresty sets and mocs like Umarak.
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If you’re going to build a Self M.O.C and you don’t have a fully formed idea yet, I’d suggest building a crappy version or several crappy versions, just for the purposes of developing the idea, before you try anything crazy or complicated. Personally, I made 4 complete versions of my Self M.O.C, Un’Jaguk, before he was even decent.
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A lot of my Mocs I might just build a simple ccbs figure first just to test colors / general design and move on to the real moc after I find something I like. Just messing with ccbs parts alone I find is really good when you don’t have any solid ideas for a real moc
Same here
Those are gorgeous, I dig the upper leg design on the second MOC.
You just replied to a 5 year old post. Kahi isn’t even on the site anymore.
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Hi all, I know this thread is pretty old so I’m not sure if anyone will respond.
However, I am getting back into making MOCs in 2020 and have 2 main questions.
1: Please can you give advice on what structural pieces are most versatile? These can be technic, CCBS, or old school Bionicle system parts. I’m just wondering what is best to search for in order to use these parts multiple times for different creatures.
2: Please can you advise on how to make cool customer functions, especially using gears?
Thanks very much
*custom functions
- it depends on what you are using the peices for. While CCBS is designed to be used on different models and still look cohesive, it’s kinda restrictive on the idea for the individual bones. The old-bionicle parts might be even harder, but the technic pin holes add a bit more versatility comparatively. The most versatile is definitely the technic/slizers/roboriders system, but it needs to be combined with the others to reach full effectiveness.
TLDR; CCBS is the most stand-alone, but all three need to be blended for maximum effect.
- can’t help you much here, but one thing that helps me is digging through the building instructions. Particularly those for the G1 Rahi, and for technic sets, particularly the medium sized ones. From there, you can add or drop components to fit the function you need the model to have. I took half of Skull bashers function, added some of Skull Scorpio’s, and added some bits to make a fully functional tail once, as an example.
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I’m not sure how to answer your specific questions, but I do have some general advice: if you’re just starting to get back into it, do “studies”; essentially, try replicating other already-built creations that you really like.
This could be an official Titan set that had cool functions (instructions here), or an official combi model (including the more obscure ones seen [here]. (Sets/Combiners and Alternate Models - BIONICLEsector01)). You can even try recreating cool MOCs from your favourite builders in order to learn some new techniques.
Doing this can serve as a really great starting point that will help to get you thinking about how pieces can be put together in different ways. If you’re like me, inspiration will strike and you’ll start tweaking, modifying and changing the base you started with until it’s completely your own.
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This.
So much this.
You will go from baby builder (like me) to professional builder who knows all the cool techniques and stands with some of the best MOCists in the world (not me).
Don’t ask how I know this
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Hey, you can only improve
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If you want to become a MOCer, I would highly recommend watching Ben Cossy’s Bionicle Inspiration Series. There is so much stuff you can learn from it!
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Agreed, also get a parts lot off of eBay and see what you can find, heck, you might even find a old, unfinished Moc that you can either use as inspiration or finish it yourself! They’re pretty darn useful.
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Thanks very much for all your replies! Very helpful advice 
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You could use six studs shooters as breasts for your female mocs if you dont want to use nuva shoulder peices. it would help not only in looks but also in functionlity