Helryx (Canon Contest #1)

Helryx

“She was not Makuta, but she was indescribably ancient and disturbingly frail in appearance. Her mask and armor were pitted and scarred from a thousand battles.” ~ Narrator, Swamp of Secrets

The first Toa, former member of The Hand of Artakha, and founding member of The Order of Mata Nui. She aided in the construction of Metru Nui and informed the Toa Mata of their destinies.

helryx action

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This has been in my top favorites for the contest since I first saw it on BZPower. Best of luck!

I mean, yeah, she definitely fits that description. I love the use of the pen piece for the pommel of the mace, and just the mace overall. The skeletal look also work really well, especially with HF thorax launcher bottoms for the upper arms and legs.

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I mean, it is quite nicely done and all that, but it is kind of a shame that you didn’t pay just a little more attention to Helryx’s canon descriptions. Helryx’s mace is given in Chapter 2 of Dwellers in Darkness as a “spiked mace,” and your mace design, while fantastic, doesn’t have any spikes on it.

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While fantastic looking on its own, I think the build is a bit physically too tall to represent a canon toa in universe, especially Helryx.

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I’ve always loved your aesthetic man, which is why I hate to admit that I don’t think it really fits in that well with Bionicle as a whole. This is a work of art, but probably not what I would go for when it comes to the canon interpretation of Helryx.

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I seriously dig this.

If nothing else, you went above and beyond with your interpretation, and it really shows! This is a Toa design unlike anything we’ve ever seen, and my personal favorite entry so far!

Amazing job!

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This took me a bit of looking at to get comfortable with, but I must admit it really works and fits respectably as a canon design. As Helryx, it is growing on me the more I look at it.

I’ve got mixed feelings on it’s artistic direction as the canon interpretation, but it definitely matches her description really well and it’s a very technically impressive build.

Who is to say that the spikes don’t, like, pop out during combat or something? We’ve seen similar stuff for toa tools (Varian’s arm blades come to mind) and Greg often had to create similar explanations for set/story inconsistencies. While spikes would have been cool on the MOC, I wouldn’t consider this an entry-crippling error at all.

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I’m pretty sure that was Varian using her Psionic powers to hide both her and Norik’s weapons from ‘Grey,’ not the blades actually sprouting out of her arms.

Do you happen to remember any of those? Because I can’t think of any right now.

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Oh, that’s actually pretty cool.

Jaller Inika had two swords in canon, and Carapar had two claws. Each set only had one, though.

Nuparu Mahri also had an Aqua Blaster Blade in the books, but the set had a shield. It had to get explained away as him having both.

And Tarix’s blades could apparently shoot water before he got his powers from Mata-Nui, although that’s an inconsistency created by a fan story rather than a set (in other words, a contest, like this one, that warranted a canon explanation).

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I remember seeing a couple people say on the questions thread that mocs with custom masks/weapons were more inclined to win because of their custom parts, but this completely blows that argument out of the water. I could be wrong, but it looks like the only custom thing on this moc is the printed Three Virtues symbol on her mace (which is a really neat touch). I commend you for showing you can do amazing thing with normal parts!

EDIT: I saw your post in the other topic and didn’t realize the Three Virtues bead was from an official Lego product. That just makes this even cooler!

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regarding the spikes on the mace. I knew the mace needed spikes but I didn’t want to overdesign the morning star. If, by chance, this wins then whoever does the artwork after the mask has been chosen can draw the spikes on the mace

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Nice work! I really like the chest design and the placement of the thornax launcher halves.

One of the best so far- nicely done CheesyQ!

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This one pulls the fragile look off extremely well! Really good

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Thanks! The thornaxx launcher parts were the main inspiration behind this moc. I liked the texture of them and wanted to see if I could make it a consistent design motif. I think it came out well in the end. I find that texture is hard to get right so this was a real challenge for me.

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Really? I always figured Helryx would be taller than the average Toa, just given the presence she exudes when she interacts with The Shadowed One and the Toa Mata.

Just a matter of conjecture, though, I’ve got nothing to back up my position.

On the MOC:
While I really like it, I feel like the skeletal nature goes a bit overboard at the waste. Maybe it could be just one module thicker? I only say this because what’s currently there, although it looks splendid, makes her look like a pure robot- I can’t imagine many organic components hiding under that waste armor. It also seems lime there should be a bit of light blue in the legs or feet to complete the color scheme.

These are minor complaints about a nigh perfect model, though.

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Also don’t forget that there are other examples of disproportionate toa and how toa sets constantly changed in size throughout the series run. Nuva, Metru, Inika-build, and Stars Toa are all pretty wildly different. And then you got my main man here.

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Wait Jaller has two swords?

They did try to justify that in canon anyway though, and the contest’s suggested scale kind of follows what would make sense for the most sets overall.

His prototype has two, so that was what was written in the books, before the final sets came out and contradicted this. As far as canon is concerned though, yes, he has two swords. Inika Jaller anyway.

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