Final update: released instructional video
[Entry photo]
It’s been an obsessive past however long since I started making this moc and I think I’m just happy to finally be done. This moc is a bit weird to me personally in the sense that it’s somewhat counter to how I envisioned Artakha for most of the time before I built this; namely, lean and limber. Well this take obviously ain’t lean. Much of that began out of a need to accommodate an awesome but rather large custom mask (thanks KhingK, link somewhere below), as well as the idea of a more kingly theme carried over from my friend Kodiak, to whom I owe the gunmetal-sandgreen-gold color scheme and very choice of mask to begin with. But I think it all worked out in the end.
“Does Artakha carry a work hammer or a war hammer?”
“Yes.”
Front, Side, Back Profiles:
Scale:
Artakha here stands at around 12.5 inches total, 12 without the mask. To put another way, he’s literally 2 technic units taller than Brutaka if that helps. Most or all of my mocs are situated in the G1 universe and I’m fairly strict about my own internal scaling between them. Unfortunately when it comes to canon toa sets in particular, body types and heights run the gamut between 2001 and 2010, despite all toa canonically being roughly the same heights in-universe. I prefer the elegant solution of using Inika builds as the real life standard of scale for all mocs or sets and just scaling up shorter toa waves in one’s imagination for consistency. But I’m including a wild Tahu here for people that really, really like the mata build.
Articulation and Stability:
I have a video here that shows more of the moc’s features in depth, but the takeaway is that limbs keep to my own minimum of a 90 bend, arms and pauldrons work in tandem, fingers are a must, and the waist here can bend with the help of some classic piston-y goodness. I find I have less use for that last one than I thought I would, as most of Artakha’s poses lend themselves to more straight-facing, stoic types.
Tool(s):
Surely a hyperintelligent, advanced weapons crafter like Artakha wouldn’t just grab any old smithing hammer to a literal battle, right? Right…??
Maybe it just slipped his mind that day, but I always preferred to think there was a bit more oomph to his weapon. My idea was for a work hammer that can convert into a war hammer with some battle attachments and accompanying technological augmentations.
The handles for both forms attach from their open pinholes into the stud on the inside of his hand. It’s a surprisingly tight hold, and it eliminates need for any auxiliary lego pieces between the tool and the hand.
When you gotta break in the new matoran worker
And then his friends
Design:
There were two things driving this moc from beginning to end: elegance and mechanical harshness. If the only thing I managed to accomplish here is integrating the contrast between these two I’ll be happy. On the one hand, I’m not on the idea that Artakha is just your grubby, mmo-style blacksmithing character. For all the hammer and forge motif, the guy is making the most technologically advanced stuff in the universe. There is a distinctly transcendent mystique to his character and I wanted to portray with opulence. But at the same time, I wanted that to clash with the mechanistic side to this duality. The approach to the second was fairly simple minded - just lots of gears and radiator vents, all colored silver.
Instructions:
Video instructions here
Studio file here
Studio and all custom parts packs still don’t have the sports hockey skate so all hockey skates have been replaced with bohrok feet (part 44847 → 41668). Other than that, the file comes pre-rigged both for limbs and hammer pieces so he can be posed out of the box. But unfortunately due the waist pistons, waist articulation won’t be an easy pose in studio.
Contest stuff:
Breakdown photos can be seen here.
Custom mask is by KhingK and can be freely downloaded here.
Misc photos:
Anyway, that’s my entry.
