i’m more of a knowles guy really
… until someone tracks down the original authour.
Atleast weknow his Bs01 username (or was it BZPower)
Edit its BZPower. Last online 2012. 2014.So pretty slim chances contacting him on there
Oh yeah I can’t wait for another 1000-posts-long discussion about what color Varian should be, that will end up with TTV sending Greg a pointlessly long email asking him about that since we obviously couldn’t reach a consensus, and him not replying
5 Likes
final answer for varian debate:
just canonize gali master
2 Likes
This is a mindset that I like to use when I’m creating. I paint masks, and its always interesting to play around with unconventional color schemes.
I just recently put together a series of matoran for elements that I had already built, but in different color schemes.
Here are my interpretations of alternate color schemes!
This group of photos are 3 different Po-Matoran variants. The left is a more conventional color scheme, and the other two are what I would refer to as more regional variants, maybe coming from the mountains or a desert canyon.
This is a trio of Le-Matoran. The one in the middle is what I would consider the “standard” color scheme, while the other two experiment more with the Dark and Sand greens.
One of my favorite variants that I have done so far is an alternate version of the Ta-Matoran color scheme. The standard color scheme is on the right in this photoset. I imagine the variant Ta-Matoran would live near lava fields or other areas of volcanic activity.
This next group is a couple possibilities for Ce-Matoran. The left is a more typical color scheme, with brighter colors, while the right has the much more muted Metru Blue. Both are valid, but the possible combinations are interesting!
I also did two different variations of Bo-Matoran. Same concept as the Ce-Matoran, with the left being the more standard Plantlife colors, and the right being a brighter, more colorful variant. I imagine matoran of that color-scheme might live in a tropical rainforest setting, where their armor would match the surrounding colors better.
8 Likes
I’m one of those people who prefers to follow the defined colour schemes, though I do like to, as you said, push the limits.
However, this can also lead to confusion, since certain colour combinations can fall under the description of multiple Elements (blue and white could be Ice or Lightning, black and tan could be Earth or Stone, etc.). Additionally, the open-endedness of the colour scheme definitions can also cause problems; for example, is a blue Matoran a Ga-Matoran, or just a monochrome Vo-Matoran?
To that end, I’ve kind of come up with my own ideas for Elemental colour schemes. The biggest change is the requirement (rather than option) of certain colours on some Elements, eliminating the possibility of monochrome confusion mentioned above. Some are more restrictive than others, but I think I’ve balanced restrictive with open colour schemes, while also staying close to the originals:
- Fire: Any combination of red, orange, and/or yellow
- Water: Blue
- Stone: Brown, with the possibility of orange
- Ice: Primarily/entirely white, with the possibility of blue or silver secondary colours/highlights
- Air: Green
- Earth: Black, with the possibility of brighly-coloured highlights
- Lightning: Approximately even split of blue and white
- Magnetism: Primary gunmetal, secondary black; Toa have symmetrical blue/red highlights
- Plasma: Approximately even split of white and orange
- Gravity: Primary purple, secondary black
- Sonics: Approximately even split of gray and silver
- Plantlife: Approximately even split of green and brown (yeah, I changed this one)
- Iron: Any combination of gold, silver, gunmetal, and/or copper, with the possibility of highlights of other metallic colours
- Psionics: Approximately even split of blue and gold
- Light: Any combination of white and gold
Hopefully this set of colour schemes eliminates any opportunity for confusion without resorting to the specification of certain shades of colours; this should leave plenty of room to play around with the limits of each colour.
EDIT: I just realized that, with liberal definitions of certain colours, a purely teal Matoran could be either a Ga-Matoran or a Le-Matoran. Maybe mandatory white highlights for Air? Or yellow for Water?
3 Likes
i like
Or one could say that making a build with a color scheme that would leave it vague as to which element the character was would just simply not be allowed in the system, and the builder would have to accent the build with more obvious colors (such as bright green being added to the teal to so as to signify air, or bright blue being added, so as to signify water).
I considered that, but then decided against it, since I wanted to avoid policing exact shades, as well as leaving room for creativity within the system. Also, where do you you draw the line? Teal might be the only official Lego colour with this problem, but Bionicle characters don’t necessarily have to stick to that palette. There’s no set definition between blue and green.
Besides, Water and Air are already the two most monochromatic Elements, so it wouldn’t hurt to give one (or both) of them another colour.
(Also, they’d be different genders, so there wouldn’t be as much confusion. Not in-universe, at least.)
1 Like
My Toa of Plantlife uses green, dark red, and brown, like an old thorny plant.
This one’s not so far out there, but my Toa of Psionics has blue, black, and silver rather than blue and gold.
1 Like
Going off of some other ideas I’ve seen here, previous set color schemes, and some of my own ideas, I’ve devised a suggestion for a color guide. I will be adhering to this for my own alt universe storyline, as I believe it has distinctive color scheming potential with some that may be previously unseen. The rules are simple. One primary color MUST be selected, a secondary color can be either from the secondary color options, or an unused primary color. Tertiary/accent colors can be from either pool. Black and dark grey can be used structurally regardless of scheme as long as it’s not dominating the color scheme, similar to the way sets from 01-05 use them. Additional metallic colors in the context of armoring, similar to the Hagah and Nuva, is exempt from the coloration rule when used as a tertiary color. On to the colors.
Fire: Red/Dark Red Primary. Orange, Yellow, Burnt Orange, Keetorange Secondary.
Air: Green/Dark Green Primary. Lime, Teal, Sand Green Secondary.
Water: Blue/Dark Blue Primary. Light Blue, Yellow, Orange Secondary.
Ice: White Primary. Light Grey, Sand Blue, Light Blue Secondary.
Earth: Black Primary. Purple, Orange, Keetorange, Dark Green Secondary.
Stone: Brown/Onewa Brown Primary. Orange, Tan, Dark Tan, Burnt Orange Secondary.
Lightning: Blue/Dark Blue Primary. White, Purple Secondary.
Magnetism: Gunmetal Primary. Black, Dark Grey, Dark Blue Secondary.
Sonics/Sound: Dark Grey/Light Grey Primary. Silver, Red, Light Blue Secondary.
Gravity: Purple Primary. Dark Red, Red, White Secondary.
Plasma: Orange/Keetorange Primary. Yellow, White, Light Blue Secondary.
Psionics/Psychic: Yellow/Gold Primary. Blue, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Purple Secondary.
Iron: Burnt Orange/Silver Primary. Gunmetal, Gold, Dark Red Secondary.
Botany/Plantlife: Teal/Keetorange Primary. Lime, Brown, Onewa Brown, Green, Dark Green, Dark Blue Secondary
It almost seems like everybody has a code. I like @TheThirdOlmak and @TheJerminator breakdown of color schemes. It goes to show how much liberty there really is in the matter. I’d rather not reiterate the specifics of my color scheming but in my MOC’ing I ran into a snafu when attempting to build a Toa of Plantlife. Long story short he’s Sand Green Primary and Dark Blue Secondary with Pearl Silver “Armor” color. Them jungle colors are odd and personally adding brown to that canonical palette would be fine in my book. You can fudge those “physical elements” with naturally occurring colors.
1 Like
Personally I think an easy enough justification for an unusual color on a Toa is to just have that color having been purposefully applied by the Toa in question to honor a past teammate.
So for example A Toa of Gravity will of course sport purple as his primary color, but his secondary color is metru-green in memory of his teams former leader who was a Toa of Air.
3 Likes
I recently remembered a dream I had many years ago, which featured a strangely-colored Toa of Stone, so here he is. He was completely grey except for some transparent red insets in his armor. I also opted to give him glowing red gears in his chest for the render. ProneToDrift suggested to me that this color scheme could work for Po-Matoran living near a volcano.
EDIT: Here are those Matoran, by the way, one of which is utilizing ProneToDrift’s Matoran frame.
12 Likes
That toa of stone actually looks really creepy to me.
1 Like
But it doesn’t look bad, right? I thought it was really cool.
3 Likes
No it’s not bad, it just creeps me out.
Ok, I was just having a discussion where the insinuation was made that all grey is a boring color scheme.
Oh ho ho ho this is so ominous I love it. I really need to try this.
4 Likes
I think it works here though. These don’t just seem like gray Toa, they look like Toa of volcanic rock.
Also:
not true, the pins are black.
I know what you mean, I’m just being sarcastic.
2 Likes