I usually start by figuring out what color scheme I want to use. Unfortunatley, my color schemes typically involve pieces I don’t have nearly enough of, so I supplement it with black and dark grey. I then seperate out the pieces of that color, and grab the sandwich bag where I store all my pins and axles.
Sometimes I start with a limb, other times with the body. Usually it involves grabbing the pieces I’ve seperated out and seeing what’ll fit together. If the MOC is to have some sort of transformation or alternate mode (which is really only five so far; four Slizers revamps and a long-since scrapped Vahki) then I try to take that into account when building it, though my success has… varied.
Usually once I’ve got the “complete” body, I’ll continue to work on and refine it over the next several days at least (some have been having this happen over the course of years, and I have a three-year-old one that I’m still refining!) and will oftentimes juggle pieces among my MOCs to get the right ones for the new installment without sacrificing the aesthetic or structural integrity of the others. This has also met with varying levels of success.
Someday I hope to collect enough pieces that I won’t have to do this, but since I almost never take apart my MOCs, my main collection has been in a perpetual state of piece-drought since 2012. (I also have a seperate collection at a family member’s house that remains mostly untapped, but I’m barely there enough to use it, and almost never have enough room in my luggage to transfer it back to join up with the main collection. This was where Lazadahki came from, though, thus her more coherent build.)
For some MoCs, I know exactly what I want to do, and I just go and build it. This is the minority.
For most other MoCs that I can’t figure out: I think about what the element and mask power should be, and get a rough idea of their personality. The I sometimes browse through the web to see if anyone has built anything similar, then do a mashup of some of their ideas and my own. Or I go and listen to music tracks that I have assigned to each element (this is why I always identify the element and personality first). Then I sit and imagine Bionicle in my head, and inspiration will strike…for about 2 seconds. Then I quickly go and build a rough MoC of the character and listen to the song again, but now I imagine the MoC that I just built… Inspiration will strike once more, and I will go and build the final (or almost-final) version of the MoC.
Inspiration from TV/video game/movie/internet/whatever
Grab pieces and try to recreate inspirational character
Spend hours trying to decide on a functioning custom build by throwing technic parts together and taking them apart, breaking some pieces in the process.
Once the torso is at least satisfactory, move on to legs, arms, then finally, head.
Go to sleep, then wake up.
Realize that the Moc is terribad and rip it apart again. Repeat steps 3 - 6
1: find lego parts
2: eat lego parts
3: wait a couple hours
4: reobtain lego parts
5: throw lego parts at a wall
6: punch them
7: ur moc will look gr8
8: ???
9: profit
The Pink Fluffy Bionicle’s Guide to MOCing and Life!
Release Date: Sometime in 2017 (maybe)
Chapter 1: MOCing
Skims through pages
HERE WE GO!
Step 1: Make a mess with previous MOCs, Technic parts, and CCBS.
Step 2: Get some of an idea, get the parts for that idea.
Step 3: Build idea.
Step 4: Make rest of MOC; modify product from Step 3.
Step 5: Mess around with product of Step 4 until satisfied.
