My entry for the Canon Toa Helryx contest.
First of all I tried to stick up with a “frail” look, but frail doesn’t mean she misses the “warrior badassness”. So what I wanted to do is make her look thin as it was asked, but also work more on a Cleric type of character seen in D&D worlds. And what defines the cleric, more than the shield and mace, is the heavy armor. So I ended up searching for a more “Little girl in armor” type of char, which I thought fitted well and opened for inspiration from Brigitte in Overwatch.
Unfortunately, as pieces were not allowed to be modified, I definitely lost the “old soldier with lot of scars” look with that choice of a more paladin look.
The first thing I came up with was a V form for her Armor, and this came out with the Hooks as shoulder pads. This is supposed to be a throwback to the “she was not a Makuta” quote, which indirectly implied that, as she is not a makuta, she can be reminding them. This is why I chose to go with a dynamic armor that doesn’t really look similar to other toas One piece chestplate (The only one alike is Jaller Mahri… Who is basically mutated).
The problem is, those hooks are freaking BIG as shoulder pads…
It widens the upper body so much I couldn’t keep up with the thin design. So I had to come with an Idea of how to keep the dynamism with the chest plate and yet make it look thin…
Moreover, it is specifically said that it has to be an armor that Takanuva has never seen. So I decided to take a brestplate that has never been used in Bionicle before, and yet, could be used in a toa wave.
This is when I dropped on this marvelous Dragon headpiece
It gave me the exact V form I wanted, an heavy armor, while still making it look relatively thin…
So if there is one thing to keep in mind for this MOC, it’s the armor.
The choices were made.
Now it was time to try and build a skeleton which would apply to these pieces.
I did something pretty basic. Yet so much effective. Vahki hips with 100% Technic pieces and two ball joints for the arms… Here comes the build which match perfectly the chest piece.
I even gave her two tubes on the sides to make it look less squarish and empty.
There also were two things I wanted to keep with the build…
The Toa Size and Technic aspect.
So I didn’t covered up that much the arms and legs, which gave the size I wanted and added more to the thin design.
I ended up with more Human proportions than toas, yet the size is still average: approximately 24 centimeters.
Finally… the weapons…
The mace is pretty simple, I can’t say that much other than I love it, and that is a design I did a year ago.
Now the shield was much more of a problem because I came up instantly with those two vahki pieces, pretty basic, but I wanted it to be as flat as Lhikan’s one, to really make it look like a toy shield more than a big block of silver pieces that is supposed to look like a shield (something we see too often)
So, I had to implement the other pieces directly between those vahki blades. After few attempts, I came up with a relatively simple solution: pipes… more pipes. Then I added the little LEGO spear to make a sideline with the vahki blades.
Now the Toa is complete…
The mask is but temporary, cause I don’t have any other transparent blue mask. But I would change it instantly as I can. The only thing is that I want it to be trans-blue for the similarities with the bohrok eyes on the sides of the hooks, and because it looks better in my opinion…
The shield, as you already seen, can be place in the back… Little touch I usually like to add.
I think it’s all I have to say about it…
I leave you with few other photos.
I saw few other MOCs that are marvelous, best of luck to everyone, may the Great Spirit watch over you all!
Here is our beloved warrioress, Honor only equal to her Bravery and Might.
The First Toa, Helryx!
