Greetings, all. It’s been a while since I posted my last MOC, but I’m back (fleetingly) to share my interpretation of Artakha. He’s been worked on on-and-off for the last two years, with some recent tweaks following the announcement of the contests. A special thanks to the guys at RSG for giving feedback and design suggestions.
Build
My Artakha is a hefty boi, containing upwards of 700 pieces and standing just slightly taller than the Brutaka set. My design process usually involves remaining reasonably faithful to the G1 aesthetic, with some extra stylistic flair; such as the occasional use of System parts, advanced functions, and a larger repertoire of part recolours.
Designing him, I wanted to give him an imposing, ancient and regal look. This led me to build a very broad and beefy upper body. The regality came across mainly through the loincloth (often dubbed a skirt, and sometimes even a kilt, in the RSG circle), while the occasional gear details reflect his status as a master crafter and inventor. It’s interesting how many other entries I’ve seen that have this kind of loincloth design.
And yes - those are Ultimate Dume masks on the shoulders.
Weapon
Artakha features a large hammer, which uses some Technic driving rings and standard gears to thicken and detail the handle. The face of the hammer uses a Kraata pack lid. Turns out I wasn’t the only one in the contest that came up with that idea.
The hammer connects to Artakha’s right hand via the open axle portion of the handle, which slots through a connector on the bottom of the hand. He can be made to grip the hammer loosely by folding his fingers.
Functions
Artakha technically features three functions:
- The first of these is the waist function, which works like the G2 Uniter sets. There’s usually enough clearance for the waist to swivel unimpeded by the loincloth. When the loincloth is in the way, it’s a simple case of repositioning it slightly.
- The right arm can also be turned using the cog on the upper back. There’s a ball and socket fitted behind the Jaller / Matoro Mahri armour which tightens the system, giving the arm enough friction to hold up the hammer. Sadly, a combination of very old and worn joint pieces in the upper arm, and the relative heaviness of the hammer, makes it difficult for the arm to be turned via the function without the shoulder joint flopping. Adding G2 friction extender joints can fix this, though given more time I’d have considered lightening the hammer.
- The third function is an experimental locking system, which uses a Technic gear shifter to lock or unlock the left arm, controlling its ability to rotate freely at the shoulder. This doesn’t work as well as I’d hoped, as there’s still a fair bit of free rotation that goes on while locked. If I made the MOC from scratch, I’d likely ditch this system in favour of a ball and socket friction system. If my set wins, I might consider doing this.
More about the functions (for the mechanically inclined)
I went pretty ambitious with the function complexity in this MOC. Doing so didn’t always work in my favour, but it was an interesting challenge nonetheless.
- Functions 2 and 3 work using U-joints, which let you transmit rotational movement across a non-90-degree angle. This is what allows the arms to be angled upward.
- Function 3 connects to a driving ring + gear assembly, which engages when you pull the lever on Artakha’s back downwards. When engaged, the red driving ring locks into the dark grey gear in the middle, preventing it from rotating. The light grey gear to the right is thus also prevented from rotating, which by extension means the arm can’t rotate. When disengaged, the driving ring withdraws from the dark grey gear, allowing the assembly of gears to rotate freely together, along with the arm.
You can see more of the inner workings here:
Mask
I’ve used Galva’s Mask of Creation for my build. It’s a bit small for the body, but hopefully that would be resolved if artwork were made of this Artakha.
Note to Shapeways users: don’t order this mask in the standard Versatile Plastic material. The resolution is too poor to properly print the runes on the crown. Take the photo above as a case in point.
Size Comparisons
Artakha>Average Toa>Modernised Matoran>03 Matoran
Artakha vs. Brutaka
Bonus Content
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Once we are there, my master will speak with you … or not … depending on his whim. He may open his fortress for the first time in millennia and welcome you in — or he may banish you forever without a second thought.
A while ago, I made a Ba-Matoran using my modernised Matoran build, and thought I’d use him as my interpretation of the Matoran that welcomes the Toa Nuva to Artakha’s island in the Toa Nuva blog. As an experiment, I integrated a gear function, at the expense of head articulation.
Breakdown Photos
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Torso
Chestpiece
Arm
Note: the Metru armour on the lower arm should be pointing the other way in this image. I attached the lower arm the wrong way
Upper Leg
Hammer
Inner Torso 1
Inner Torso 2
Inner Torso 3
Glad you made it through to the end of this sizeable post. Please leave your feedback below. There’s some great sets I’m competing against in this contest, but if I do win, I’ll definitely make plans to improve the set further based on feedback, and update the digital version of the build so you guys have an easier time building him.
Merry voting and such
-Hazash-
P.S.: If this MOC wins, I’d suggest that artists change the sand green pieces to something like dark grey, to prevent an overload of sand green in the colour scheme.
