So with the Brickonicle contest over and me not even getting a passing mention [which I am well used to by this point, as contests in general go] I thought it the opportune time to show off my Bionicle mini-figure galleries. While I’m not so great at visually creating landscapes or even vehicles [at least at present] I do consider myself proficient in making characters to inhabit the otherwise unmade worlds. Originally I had started out with Vakama’s Forge and no real idea how to get a decent-looking minifigure, but after taking some inspiriation from DeviantArtist bonesii I improved upon both his Toa and Vahki design and just basically went crazy from there after, building up my mini-roster with boss villains until finally I had basically created the entire cast of characters from the first five years of Bionicle, minus Voporak and most of the Rahi [I’ll build Voporak eventually, and the Rah are going to take a while, yet]
One of the things I love about Bionicle is the novelty of building whole characters from a wide array of pieces. I feel that with traditional minifigures, a lot of that novelty is lost and the characters just don’t look as unique or cool, and kind of loses that otherworldy feel they had
These can be the matoran forms of the Toa Metru, but they can also work as Nuhri, Visola, Ahkmou [kind of], Ehrye, Orkham, and Tehutti, respectively. Also note how some of them have tools that will later become their Turaga staffs. I thought that would be a neat little easter egg
Someone suggested I use a bowcaster as Vakama’s disk launcher, and given that it is is at least to a degree a proper shape and that it can actually fire a disk shape, I decided why not, though I added a few pieces to the handle to make it longer, which I felt it should be given that otherwise compared to the other Metru weapons its rather teeny-tiny. It still is. Naturally, since this is the fist line of Toa I built their weapons all leave a bit to be desired, but I think I can safely say I like Onewa’s the best
Something cool you can do with mini-scale Bionicle is give vsuals for characters who before were left up to the imagination, like Nidhiki, Tuyet, and Naho. I especially like how Naho turned out
Now I admit, at first the Vahki were beyond a pain in the @$$ to figure out, I’d tried to copy bonesii’s head designs, but they were too perplexing to figure out and ended up just being too big, so I simplified the design and used the Toa body as a starting point, and from there I decided to utilize the Vahki design from the movie as it worked better for their 4-legged mode, and somewhere down the line I figured that those Hordika staffs would be excellent for Vahki staffs [we’ll get back to those later] No, they can’t fire disks, unfortunately
Making the Nivawk was a little bit difficult, the wings especially, but in the end I came up with something I’m satisfied with. Turaga Dume meanwhile [and by proxy the other Turaga] was relatively easy. I’m not entirely satisfied with how the Turaga’s heads attached or for that matter how Dume attaches to Nivawk, but I basically consider all of these builds to be more or less prototypes, anyway, so there are little details like that that I let slide
Ok, so building a fan-created character was tricky and in the end I don’t think he looks nearly as interesting as the real Dweller model, but oh well. Meanwhile, I had a blast building Nidhiki and Krekka, though I’ll admit upfront that the head design for Krekka is not my own but Doiboy35’s, I merely altered it a little. meanwhile Nidhiki is entirely original in terms of build design. Once again I was scoring for more of the movie designs as #1 its now with system pieces more possible to build a solid model that adheres to the movie designs, and #2 its actually simpler to build. I’m a bit disapointed that I couldn’t build a weapon function for Nidhiki, but oh well
So this is what I meant about Matoran Onewa technically being a stand-in for Ahkmou. I put him alongside Makuta Dume [both forms] because as far as I know he qualifies as a villain, and gave him a disk launcher because of his whole thing with the Great Disks. This Makuta was also the first I built. I figured since Nivawk, Nidhiki, and Krekka were as large as they were, it only made sense that Makuta would be as big, which also allowed me to work in some more movie-accurate details a less titan-y Makuta couldn’t have had
Ok, so for the Toa Hordika I figured since they were mutated, it made sense that they would be physically different from one another, so I modeled them after various animals that might inhabit environments of their respective elements; Matau is a lizard-bug hybrid, Whenua is a burrower, Nokama is aquatic, and the more creative ones I particularly like are Nuju and Onewa, the former a rhino-like beast built for lumbering through the ice and snow of high mountains, and the latter a sort of arachnid crawler that can scale rocks from almost any angle. Vakama, meanwhile? Best I could figure is some kind of lava-dwelling tiger, making him ironically sort of the ‘lone-wolf’ of the Hordika as his beast mode doesn’t exactly fit as well as the others. As for their weapons, I can see their elemental powers being focused into the Rotuka spinners on their backs, but weapons built into their hands? Not quite seeing it, so I decided to give them the Hordika staffs and say that they took them off of wrecked Vahki
These are just the beast modes in action with their Rotuka spinners flipped up. Not all that remarkable outside of Nokama and Onewa, but I am digging how I did the Rotuka spinners
So the Rahaga toys had launching spinners, while the movie versions had… helicopter blades. I decided to go neither direction when I couldn’t figure out how to do either and instead turned their propellers into hummingbird wings [for lack of a better description] I think it works. I also kind of like how they’re not nearly as small compared to the Hordika as the original sets
Again, one of the joys of minifigures is giving us toys we wouldn’t have otherwise had due to it being harder to design and produce full figures. I decided to better distinguish them they should all have different secondary armor colors [it was never actually confirmed what the secondary colors of the other Hagah were]
I don’t exactly remember how big Keetongu is, exactly, but since the sizes seem to vary no matter what source you look to, plus the fact that he was a legendary rahi, I figured it would be cool to make him super-huge, adding credence to the idea that his species rode the Tatoraks like horses or something [remember, those things are big enough to flatten whole towers] Alas, I couldn’t figure out how to incorporate a flip-out Rotuka spinner into his chest
Ok; so now we’re onto the Visorak, and I’m really pleased with how they turned out. Not really too much to say on these, though, except that I can get them into a crouching position so it looks lie their firing their spinners, even if it doesn’t look like they have any
Since the Kahgarak had some story relevance I though it would be appropriate to build minifig representations. They’re slightly larger than the visorak and of course I included the gold elements as well as the white ones that don’t appear on the movie versions
Yes, I did it. I built a Zivon, and it does have multiple faux Rotuka spinners
These two I’m perhaps the least satisfied with, and with Roodaka that’s due to building limitations where the legs are concerned. Meanwhile with Sidorak, I just couldn’t get him to look any better. Both of them had stud-launcher Rotuka launchers, using the barbell weights to simulate the look of the spinners
Now this is one that actually gets me excited because I’m really pleased with this; I think I made the Shadowed One look even more towering and imposing than his combiner build set, even with the weird-looking third leg [yes, I firmly believe that that is a third leg and not a tail like everyone else seems to think. Maybe it could also be a clue to his origin and true name?] His spear doesn’t have a launching spinner, but I thought it cluttered up the weapon, so I just left it implied that the spear had powers. Sentrahk meanwhile was a little bit trickier, but both were relatively fun. While like the Keetorange on the Shadowed One, I thought it looked a little goofy on Sentrahk, who is technically a zombie, so I gave him a deader tone of yellow, which actually makes him look more unsettling [fun fact; I originally used to think that the hump on his back was his head because I couldn’t see the giant head sticking out of his chest]
Something I’ve noticed about minifgures is that you can take the exact same body and all you have to do is mostly change the colors to make them more diverse, so the Matoran were pretty easy to do, and their various tools were also fun
I think the Turaga could do with with special cape pieces that attach at the shoulders, otherwise there’s little else to say
I naturally like the Toa Mata more than the Metru, but that’s mostly due to brighter colors. I couldn’t figure out how to make bigger claws for Onua, so I gave him sais instead. I gave Gali Hooked Tonfa because I always felt the hooks would be cooler as bigger weapons than just hands, and I gave Pohatu nunchucks because I couldn’t make boomerangs that were the right size… and I forgot his feet attachments
Not gonna’ lie, these were seentially ripped entirely from bonseii’s Bohrok, though I gave them different legs and reworked the shoulders, as well as reduced the peice-count on the heads for simplicity’s sake. These can also role up without having to reattach any pieces, so that’s cool
These were also based off Bonseiii’s Bohrok Va, but again I changed them a little to make the designs flow better, and these don’t have Krana on their backs, I couldn’t figure out how to do that without making it look awkward
In the end I like how the Boxer turned out, although you will notice I couldn’t attach the controls to anything. Still haven’t figured out how to fix that, yet
Personally, I really love how the Exo-Toa turned out, although I couldn’t figure out how to make the punching arm… punch. The shield plate at the head actually has to be removed in order to place the Toa in, but otherwise I think it looks awesome
I think I’ve fnally figured out how to make the Toa Kaita look less awkward [but I just realized I haven’t built a Matoran or Turaga Nui] I decided to fuse the multiple weapons together and give them the gold treatment as well, and Akamai’s weapon is not only a broadsword, but it also loosens and becomes sort of a bladed nunchuku that can generate whirlwinds of magma and stone
Yes, Bonesii did these, too
These were kinda’ basic and obviously clones, but they were also fun to do
You’ve already seen these, so there’s little to say, however you’ll notice that Tahu now wields Toa Lihkan’s swords; that I did on purpose
Some of these were easy, others required more pieces and some fudging. Takanuva, meanwhile is just a version modeled after the original set, but also given his scythe from the movie. Never was a fan of either those design choices
The Rahkshi you also are familiar with, you might have noticed that hey can utilize a flight mode, and like the Bohrok these don’t need to reattach any pieces to get them that way, apart from the staffs
And finally we have Makuta, whom you all are likely familiar with. Not really much here to say, except that I’ve replaced his wings with his double-bladed scythe