Hi folks!
Do you know what time of the year it is? it’s biocuping time
And that gives me a reason to bring out my collection of Bionicle pieces for the first time in like nine months or something and build something silly.
And oh boy build something silly I did. Here it is:
The theme of the preliminary round of this year’s Cup was “Villain”, so that finally gave me a chance to build this guy. I’ve been wanting to build him for over a year, but only now did I find a good reason to do so.
“But who is this guy?” you might ask. Well, that’s Bondrewd the Novel aka best dad aka master of dad jokes aka that one guy with 70 alt accounts from the anime show and webcomic “Made in Abyss”
“But what is made in abyss and who is Bondrewd?” you might ask (and you have all the rights to because MiA is not a very well known thing, as far as I know).
Well, let me explain
Made in abyss is a series that has, in my opinion, one of the best applications of the cosmic horror genre in modern media, that juxtaposes the innocence and naivety of a child’s mind against the harsh reality of the incredibly cruel and dangerous world, toying with the concepts of loss, abandonment and death, with the setting inspired by Dante’s Inferno. Like most horror stories, it does everything in its power to unsettle and disturb you, but unlike most horror stories it actually does it really well, often being very painful to watch. But that’s the kind of pain I enjoy
This particular character, Bondrewd, is one of the major antagonists from the series (basically the only antagonist who is human and not some eldritch entity, which doesn’t make him less scary), a charismatic explorer and scientist who uses the most horrific and cruel methods in his studies, but whose discoveries and inventions help that world’s humanity progress so significantly that the governing forces turn a blind eye to his actions.
Basically the theme of this character is the moral dilemma of the question “Do ends justify the means?”
This guy’s shtick is the juxtaposition between his unspeakable actions and his eager, sincere desire for knowledge. He isn’t devoid of emotions and feelings, yet they have been so distorted and twisted, becoming completely inhuman, that you can’t possibly empathise with him. He isn’t afraid to sacrifice anything or anyone for the sake of science, including himself. There’s no malicious intent behind his actions, just pure curiosity and desire to learn, making him a very frightening and unique villain.
So, he isn’t one of those morally grey Disney villains with a sad backstory justifying their actions who you’re supposed to sympathise with, yet he isn’t pure evil. He exists in that unique area of villainy that’s not explored often. Honestly, this guy is kind of too complex (trying to analyse his character and motives gave me a couple of headaches back in the day) for my vocabulary to handle, but hopefully I’ve been able to get my point across.
nobody is going to read all that, right?
So, about the build itself.
In many ways it was a first time experience for me, because I 1)have never built a human character with realistic human proportions out of Lego, 2)have never tried to recreate an existing character in Lego (I usually come up with original designs), and 3)never tried building clothing out of Lego pieces.
It is probably one of my most complex MOCs and is definitely one of the biggest In a while (it’s the same height as Brutaka and three times as heavy)
This MOC mostly works as a statue that’s not supposed to be messed with and doesn’t really have much articulation. There are no knees, while ankles and hips are basically locked in place to provide maximum stability (the MOC is very heavy), but with the tail and backpack attached even those measures are not enough, so he needs two separate support structures to stand.
Originally I was planning to give him a much more complex and detailed tail design, but the MOC was getting so back heavy that I opted for a much more simplistic option that doesn’t use many pieces and is comparatively not heavy. Now I think that the simplicity of the tail works in the MOC’s favour because it doesn’t distract from the main focal points of the build.
Also, since I was sharing my progress on this MOC with someone, I have a big backlog of work in progress pictures, so why not utilise it in this topic?
How it’s Made: cosmic horrors
May 23rd: head design
May 26th: simple mockup of the body to establish general scale, proportions and shaping
May 28th: leg
May 30th: second leg and scarf
June 1st: backpack of happiness and kindness (aka “the forbidden chug jug”, according to the person for whom this photo was originally taken)
June 2nd: failed torso design (no picture taken), utter disaster and panic 
June 3rd: successful torso design 
and limbs
June 4th: it’s finished 
I think that’s all I wanted to share… boy is it a big topic, why am doing this to myself, I am insane
But I did promise to do that more often and it’s kinda fun, so…
Well, that’s it for now.
This has been NOTaHFfan, thanks for viewing and good luck to everyone participating in this year’s BioCup!
