Marendar, the “Salvation”
The name Marendar means “salvation” in the Agori language. A creature so named cannot look like a terrifying killing machine. In my mind, the design of this character had to reconcile two extremes: elegance close to divinity, which inspires trust in the native inhabitants of Spherus Magna, but at the same time a body adapted to fight in all conditions with many opponents. I didn’t want to make a half-meter giant that would make the Toa look like children, but rather something with the proportions of a Dark Souls boss like Ornstein, Artorias or Lord Gwyn. Ultimately, the choice fell on Shiva - the Hindu god representing destruction and rebirth. The symbolism of this deity resonates perfectly with Marendar’s mission to eliminate the Toa threat after Spherus Magna is reborn. One of Shiva’s distinctive features is his two pairs of hands. But a lone warrior who has to defeat many enemies will certainly need extra hands, right? Therefore, I decided that I wanted my Marendar to have four arms.
Main shot
Another important consideration was the color scheme. To be able to better reflect the fine details, I decided to use black as the dominant color, which I planned to contrast with the metallic armor, as the presence of colors such as silver and gold in the first generation always distinguished unique and important characters from the standard heroes like for example Toa. Since, thanks to the introduction of the Golden-skinned Being into the plot, there is already one unique creature associated with the golden color on Spherus Magna, I chose silver accents. But black and silver alone did not give a satisfactory effect, so I decided that Marendar would need another color. A dark Metru color that won’t distract from the silver armor. Dark Green turned out to be the best match with silver.
Shiva Pose
The last thing that needed to be planned before I started designing the build itself was the issue of Marendar’s most important weapon - a device created by the Great Beings so that the warrior they created would be able to block Toa powers. I wanted this device not only to be an integral part of his body, but also to be its decoration. For this purpose, I started constructing the MOC by creating a concept for the lower torso, trying to incorporate something resembling a glass tank filled with light blue energy, as this color went well with both silver and green. Once the lower half of the torso was ready, adding the upper parts was just a formality. I took the liberty of making my Marendar slightly hunchbacked so that he would not tower over the Toa too much and at the same time look unique compared to other canonical characters.
Front view
Next I moved on to the legs. I wanted MOC to be able to stand stably even on one leg and take various dynamic poses. The problem with most titans is a tendency to fall, have loose joints or suffer excessive stiffness. By using double ball joints in the thighs, I managed to find the best compromise between poseability and appearance.
Side view
Finally, it was time for something that always causes me the biggest problem - hands. I didn’t wanted them to be too bulky as they would interfere with each other, and I also didn’t wanted the MOC to be too wide in the shoulders. Therefore, I gave up on ball joints in the elbows, resting the structure of the arms on the long bars. The final design turned out to be very poseable and surprisingly stable. I finished the long and slender arms with the same hands as the ones I designed for my self-MOC. The location of the pin hole in the middle of the hand allows Marendar to grab various weapons without having to worry about how to keep them stable.
Back view
The only thing left to do was design the head. The head is an element that emphasizes the character of the whole. I wanted Marendar’s face to express cold calculation in the eyes of his enemies, but at the same time not be too creepy, which would detract from the MOC’s elegance. I found inspiration in the Clone Wars series, and specifically in the design of the droid known as General Kalani. What I particularly liked about the design of the tactical droid was the third eye located on the forehead, which is strongly associated with Indian esotericism and gives the impression that there is some hidden wisdom in these three shining points acting as eyes. I recreated his head with some modifications of my own to maintain the signature BIONICLE style. I also considered giving my Marendar dreadlocks, but because of the hunchbacked figure they clashed too much with the shoulders, so in the end I left MOC’s head “bald”.
Claw
The structure was basically ready, but I decided it was worth giving Marendar at least one more weapon. Originally I was thinking of a spear that he could wield with two hands, but I came up with a more interesting idea. I tried to visualize what it would be like for my MOC to hunt other Toa, and I saw that it would be useful to have a gadget that allowed him to climb while chasing down more mobile Toa. So I designed a claw on a chain that could serve both as an grapling hook and as a tool for piercing and pulling its victims.
Claw attack
Interestingly, it turned out that, together with the weapon, the entire structure uses less than 40 elements withdrawn from production, 1/3 of which are chain links. This means that the Marendar of my design would be relatively cheap to reproduce, as it does not use any expensive components.
Fighting Toa
Finally, all that was left to do was take photos showing Marendar in action. I used my Toa Dume design here. It’s true that these two would never have the opportunity to clash, but we can assume that it’s just a random Toa of Fire here 
Chocking Toa
How do you see this Marendar design? Share your opinions 
360° spin:
Better quality photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/102UQU6tpiN541A9qfwSSIInRMNCiegzq?usp=sharing
Instagram Photos:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx6P-YEriVe/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
~ Taohe Netrus ~
