So the theme is: what articulation points should a G1 Bionicle figure have?
Throughout the Bionicle there were figures from Toa Mata, without head articulation, to Maxilos, with movable neck, shoulders and waist. Which amount of articulation do you think is enough? Which amount would be ideal? What points can be easily implemented using LEGO parts? What lack of an articulation point disturbs you most?
Personnaly, I really hate unmovable fingers I believe they are the reason why Toa do not shake hands, but rather clank their fists because they are really important to show expressions and poses, I think. And knee/elbow articulation is absolute must-have in every figure for me.
Maybe a Bionicle figure should also have movable eyes, huh? Discuss!
Inika builds have the bare minimum in my eyes - next priority is fingers, although some MOCs can pull it off without them. Waist articulation is also quite nice, if you can do it right.
in one of my builds I added movement similar to how humans move their shoulder blades, but that was a positive side effect of a building choice to allow for a different kind of articulation
It depend of the size. The Inika articulation in my opinion is perfect for a cannister build, head, shoulder, elbow, hand, hip, knee and foot articulation.
For a Matoran size set, the Voyatoran are perfect. Since they are not that big, they don’t need elbow and knee articulation. It also don’t bother the Mahritoran not having hand articulation.
For titans, again Inika articulation is enough. More will be better, but I don’t think waist articulation or fingers are all that necesary.
I just thought, that an in-foot/foot fingers articulation is also would be cool - like if you look at some of Bionicle feet, they have a some kind of pneumatic mechanism and a part that could’ve rotated. For examle in those:
Actually, in real life it would be really hard to casually walk for them without this one.
And, this way it will be better: What articulation points should a more-or-less standard Bionicle figure have?
I’d say, as others have mentioned, ignika build amounts is good for most moc, with the potential addition of fingers. I wouldn’t add waist articulation, unless it’s a titan sized moc or they’re supposed to be fairly agile. Same with most other points of articulation, but I feel that most others don’t add much.
2016 Ekimu demonstrated that, in terms of engineering, it is possible to get the 13 joints of an Inika build plus hip rotation and not 1, but 2 gear functions. Were the parts and part count scaled down, this could even be applied to something the size of a Mata build.
Additionally, you could theoretically make a perfectly viable hand with posable fingers and the ability to hold objects with just a few new parts. You could also move the neck joint to very high up on the head so that you could have a functional neck.
To get a working ball-joint waist, you’d need specialized pieces to cover it up and bend to accommodate the abdominal region, or else you won’t have a wide range of motion.
This is demonstrably false. They eat with their hands, so shaking hands would be like making out. I believe Greg even said as much.
I feel that waist articulation should be more prevalent amongst canister level sets, because in G1 Pridak (as far as I know) was the only canister set to have waist articulation. G2 only had the Uniters, Lava Beast, Ekimu, and Umarak.
Honestly, I think that the Mata build represents a minimum of what articulation they should have. It manages to be functional and posable without feeling too restricted. From there, I think that elbow, knee, and head/neck articulation (is there a difference between the two?) is nice, waist articulation is a bonus, and things like fingers, mouths, or… joints in the middle of the feet? (do any MOCs actually have those?) are just added flourishes.
@SirKeksalot and others, that was just joke about unmovable fingers, don’t take it seriously. Of course Toa can shake hands. @rainsong neck is 1 more ball joint in between body and head, somewhat Maxilos and Kulta, the Skull Grinder have. And I personnaly rarely seen toes articulation, but I just think it might be useful one, for something like this:
@Racie02 My english can be weird sometimes, thak you for the correction. And yes 2016 Toa’s added waist articulation is neat.
Many have said that ball joint waist articulation is cool, but I alwaus thought that it is really hard to make it beautiful/cover it with armor, so I persoannaly prefer only rotation variant - somewhat similar to 2016 sets.
I think your Inika (or maaaaybe Metru) demonstrate a good “bare minimum”. I think the Mata were a bit restrictive.
I think waist articulation is a bit underappreciated and is something that could easily have been implemented in more builds - one of my favourite things about the G2 Toa is that they finally brought a canister-size wave that accomplished this.
Fingers are a cool gimmick and fun, but not strictly necessary in my book. If it limits the ability to hold things, then it’s a no.
Then there’s the real minutia - shoulder blades, toes, mouth. This is where you start to risk losing stability, so it has to be very well executed to pull off.
I don’t mind, um, eye articulation as long as its not implemented in a gimmicky way. But again, it falls into the catagory of fiddly little things that aren’t “needed” and turn out best on bigger figures that can support stuff like that.
Lol, what?
That’s hilarious. If you manage to find the quote, please share it.
The Toa Mata were fine for their time, but I don’t think their level of articulation really holds up. Lack of knee, elbow, neck, and hand articulation is really limiting, even for their size.
For the sake of comparison, the Hero Factory 2.0 Heroes had around the exact same piece count as the Toa Mata and retailed for around the same price, yet they had pretty much the same level of articulation as an Inika build, despite being the size of the Toa Mata. So, no I don’t think the Toa Mata articulation really holds up, not even as bare minimum.
Yea, really elbows and knees are required to make a decent figure.
Like everyone else has said, basic Inika build points of articulation are the bare minimum. I agree with what some other people have said, though, in that the next priority should be waist articulation. The 2016 sets are the gold standard for constraction figure articulation, in my opinion.
I don’t really think fingers are as important as other things. For starters, a vast majority of G1 Bionicle sets don’t even really have “hands.” The Glatorian fists do their jobs just fine too, and since most Bionicle figures are usually holding a weapon of some kind, moving fingers aren’t strictly needed since a fist is the most common pose.
They’re a nice little bonus, but for a canister-sized set, with hands about as large as a Glatorian fist, they’d frankly just be too small and clash with the simplicity of normal LEGO pieces.
I know those 3D-printed hands exist, but I’ve never been a fan of those. They don’t feel like LEGO and just look really awkward.
