Did any of you ever use the Chibi Maker created by DeviantArt user “gen8” back in the day? I know I did. I became quite obsessed with it in high school, making (humanized) chibi versions of all the characters from Transformers: Prime as well as most of my real-life friends and acquaintances. At one point I created a chibi version of my (short-lived) BZPRG character. But I never realized my vague ambition of chibifying all the major canon characters from BIONICLE…until now. Of course these are all humanized interpretations, which I know is not everyone’s cup of tea. But if you would be interested in seeing a massive number of BIONICLE characters interpreted in super-deformed anime style, stay tuned. I’ll be posting these periodically over the next few weeks.
Admittedly I’m not sure whether this really qualifies as “artwork” exactly, as it 1) involves the use of visual materials originally drawn by someone else, even if combined in new ways, and 2) it is incredibly inane (By the way, I am capable of creating real artwork using my own hands and drawing/painting supplies! Really! Check out my DeviantArt account under this same username if you don’t believe me!). Nonetheless I could think of no better forum in which to post it. And a BIONICLE community seems, to me, almost uniquely suited to appreciate the type of creativity that involves assembling images of characters from a limited array of preexistent bits and pieces which must occasionally be interpreted in unexpected ways.
Calm, friend. I have a reputation to uphold; nobody is actually out for blood. Sardonic boards humor is often prevalent.
Oh. Well, okay.
I do think Lewa would be better served with an Axe, as opposed to Scythe.
I completely agree! However, the Chibi Maker does not include any axe elements among the various tools a character can hold, so I had to make do with the next closest thing. I have had to make similar concessions with many other characters, which I will try to explain where they occur.
On to the next set: The Turaga of Mata Nui. I’m afraid that all of them besides Vakama are missing their tools, of which the Chibi Maker had not even vague equivalents.
Vakama. The long beard felt appropriate both as a signifier of his role as the archetypal old wizardly mentor and as a visual representation of the thing sticking out of the bottom of the Noble Huna.
Next up is the Chronicler’s Company. One rule I’ve come up with is that in this hypothetical BIONICLE anime universe, Matoran mostly have normal human hair colors, but these change to fantastical colors associated with their elements when they transform into Toa. I didn’t adhere to this rule too strictly, though. A few Matoran have oddly colored hair if I think it improves their design (Kapura, for instance, since everything about him MUST be red). Also, Av-Matoran are an exception because they can change their hair color the way canon Av-Matoran can change the color of their armor.
Kapura, looking relaxed as one would expect. I gave some of the other Fire characters spiky flame-like hair, but his is meant to recall dripping lava, sort of.
Jaller. I had an idea early on that the Ta-Matoran would wear special armored boots to protect against the heat of rocks floating in lava, etc. and you can see them here, as well as on the Tahu chibi. I think I forgot about them after making Jaller, though…oh well.
Here are the Toa Nuva. The Chibi Maker allows you to add one of a handful of types of facial tattoo to a character, such as these silvery blue markings, which I imagine are veins of energized protodermis shining through the Nuva’s skin. I gave most of them slight Expository Hairstyle Changes as well.
I haven’t done any of the 2001-2003 villain sets (Rahi, Bohrok, Rahkshi…) other than Teridax, since they’re all so animalistic that I feel I cannot really represent them using this extremely humanoid-focused Chibi Maker. So the next post will start in on 2004.
And also Mavrah! In a bathing suit with goggles, with one of his sea beast friends sitting on his head. Told you I’d be getting a lot of use out of that octopus.
I gave him the same circlet as chibi!Teridax…maybe that means that chibi!Teridax took chibi!Dume’s crown when he replaced him, or maybe it means that this chibi!Dume is already Teridax in disguise.
The Shadowed One himself, complete with the Dark Hunters book that he’s working on…Y’know, it just occurred to me that the book element in the Chibi Maker appears to have a transmutation circle from Fullmetal Alchemist on one of its open pages. Huh. Well, maybe that page explains how TSO made Sentrakh.
Speaking of Sentrakh, here he is. It was hard to figure out how to translate his design into a humanoid chibi form, but I think I did a decent job of it in the end? Hopefully his pallid skin and vacant stare adequately convey his weird undead status.
Now for the Toa Hordika. My options for giving a character animal-like traits in the Chibi Maker were limited, so these are probably the worst in the series, and barely look like animal-human hybrids. Then again, the actual Toa Hordika were some of the worst sets we’ve gotten, and they didn’t really look like the animal-humanoid hybrids they were supposed to be, either…
It was a real struggle to figure out how to portray Keetongu in chibi form, and I almost gave up, but eventually I came up with this, and now I think it’s actually my favorite out of all the BIONICLE chibis I’ve made…the blue skin is admittedly a significant departure from the official set, but I think it contrasts well with the yellow and does a good job of conveying how different Keetongu is from the rest of the characters.
