So, a few days ago I was sitting down, building, and I thought to myself, ‘I’m wanna win the Marendar contest.’ Now, realizing that that would be highly unlikely to ever even get close to happening, I decided that I wanted to at least get past the first round, if not farther. So, I’ve decided that I’m going to post my current dude, and see if I can get some constructive criticism. So, be as harsh as you like. You think it’s absolute poopy? You tell me that! So, at any rate, here the big man himself is.
Yeah, that is what I was thinking when entering Artakha and Helryx (6 places in both first rounds). Good luck anyway!
Red areas I don’t like, and green I do like.
Shock absorbers are cool (always cool), maybe more should be used somwhere else, to make him more consistent.
Hands choice seems odd to me, they are too small for those forearms. A custom construction would fit more here, I think.
Head is a only a prototype, is it? Because if not, it is really weird.
The beam on stomach should be covered with something.
Also, shoulder blades (for lack of a better term) articulation is great.
Hope that was of any help.
Kidding of course. This actually looks quite good in general. The legs are quite nice, as are the arms. Technically the torso is really disproportionate, but the pistons supporting the arms/shoulder joint give the illusion of it being bulkier than it is.
The three-segment arm seems kinda off. The forearms seem a tad too chunky, and the middle arm conversely seems too thin, although that part isn’t actually as bad as you’d think.
I would suggest narrowing the shoulders so you can bring in the shoulder joint/top segment of the arm, making the gap between the piston and torso smaller and more natural. If you’re set on keeping the Inika torso, I’d suggest simply extending the shoulder segment/top arm into a bicep, and then adding a single forearm. You could then armor the back of the Inika torso to make a bulkier shoulder, something along the line of Rahkshi heads.
Final critiques
Keetorange needs to go. It takes away from the imposing design Marendar should have, and makes the black areas in between the keetorange and silver look jarring.
Head design, while a classic, is way too small on this MOC
Silver CCBS stands out a bit too much on the thighs and chest. As far as the thighs, I understand there isn’t much you can do if you want to maintain the color blocking, short of changing the armor entirely. The torso, however, really doesn’t flow well for me. I’d also suggest finding a way to cover the exposed liftarm. In fact, if you remove the Mata Nui armor from the hips, You could maybe armor the liftarm with a silver Inika thigh cap, which would help the silver on the torso flow better without having to remove it.
This is a pretty good moc. I like most of the shaping on the torso, same criticism with that beam and head, although I feel that the shoulders need to be a little bit big and the hands a tad bit smaller, the legs are pretty good (I am going to assume the they will be changed up a bit) the feet could custom but apart from all that this is looking great, I am looking forward to the Marendar contest
I really like the proportions here, it has a very striking and unique silhouette. The pistons, bulky forearms, and digitigrade legs are probably the highlights here for me. Still, I have a few criticisms.
For one, the upper arms being a single ccbs bone doesn’t quite work. I like that they’re slim, it contrasts with the bulk in the forearms and torso and highlights that more. However, just having it be the bone piece makes it feel too skinny and a tad unfinished. Filling it out with a bit of system or some tires or the like would really help.
Beyond that, the shoulders don’t flow well, specifically the joint between the inika torso and the shoulders proper. I get that this is probably done for articulation, but it really breaks things up and makes the shoulders feel kinda weird on second glance. Don’t really have any recommendations for that; I guess it depends on how much you want to keep that articulation.
Then there’s the abdomen, where I have a similar problem. The armor kinda breaks up and doesn’t flow as well there, so adding something to cover the liftarm would be nice.
And finally, the head. I’m not really sure how I feel about it. I definitely don’t hate it, the coloring gives it a sort of visor feel, and I don’t mind how small it is, but maybe something a bit more detailed could add a bit of extra flair to the build? Just a thought.
Overall, though, I love this, and I hope to see a lot of builds with this sort of vibe in the contest. Good luck with your building, hope I helped a bit.
I really like this! On a purely conceptual level, this is immediately better than what most people are likely going to make (a.k.a. those who will inevitebly follow the most obvious design choices based on the current paradigm I have critisized for so long).
On the MOCing level, it probably needs some added polish, but I cannot speak to this part, as I am not a MOCist myself.
I recommend to spice it up in such a way that would communicate to us, how does Marendar deal with the Toa.
First thing I noticed was the Brain Attack torso plate, in his, well, torso. Now, I’d say that’s out of place on most G1 builds, but it’s especially out of place here, with what you’re going for on the limbs and the torso.
The legs are rather an interesting concept. I rarely see those original HF armor pieces used. I’m writing from a laptop screen, so I have it scrolled down just to where I can see the legs and the claws, and it looks like some kind of eldritch monster. The foot choice throws that shaping and aesthetic off a little. I’d opt for one of the spikier Inika feet, if not some kind of custom foot that fits the aesthetic of the legs.
The torso appears to be a completely different aesthetic to the limbs. You’ve got some pistons there for what are presumably his shoulders, but they’re so
b r o a d
that they could pass as a bit of his arm. Those need to be better integrated, and the shoulders either made narrower or beter supported (beyond just a balljiont and a piston.) Exposed liftarm that ought to be covered up. Also, why is this the only part of his body with yellow?
Arms are okay, like I said earlier they fit a creature vibe more than they do the mechanical look in the present. Head is eh. You could have done worse.
So, as of right now what I’m picking up from everyone is this: the head, upper arms, and feet should probably go, I should thin out the torso unless I just can’t bear to let it go, in which case I should probably change up the limbs, and CCBS armour bad. Good advice, I’d say.
All of this feedback from everyone was appreciated, but there was one person I was kinda hoping to hear from. I don’t even know why, I just did. @Ghid, I summon thee from the depths. Rip and tear, until it is done.
Alright, so of course the largest complaint on my end is the heavy amount of prefab elements. The unique angle at a custom torso definitely helps the presentation, but so far this looks less like a powerful killer robot who can destroy any Toa and more like the crash test dummy variant.
The head is - putting it bluntly since you seem to want Ghid to berate your MOC - simply uninspired. The only real step down from this is putting a Rahkshi head in its place. Nailing the face of Marendar is almost as important as the rest of the body, and in order to do that I’d recommend looking at the custom masks/heads that Gilahu has done, or to a greater extent the bizarre and wacky faces made by Logey Bear or Djokson - speaking of the latter, I mean look at this zany stuff:
And that head - my lands that head is like candy it’s so delicious to look at with its illustrious parts usage.
“But Ghid, why are you demoralizing me by showing me MOCs way better than mine and telling me to ‘git gud?’ This doesn’t help.”
Ye, you’re right - it doesn’t really tell you how to make a MOC of that caliber. But the real answer is that it’s the kind of end result you want and that I can’t tell you how to get there. Everyone builds MOCs differently and ends up with different end products, and everyone is getting better at building as time goes on. All I can really say is use this and don’t use that, but the only thing you can really do with a limited parts pool is try to integrate things in ways completely unintended for them - a head as a foot, a foot as a ribcage, a gear as a mouth and lipstick for fingers. Also, small = mighty. The massive personalized pieces for torsos and buff arms aren’t going to be nearly as useful as the tiny pieces crafted together into a limb or nearly as appealing either.
So uh. I guess I’ll come berate the next update if you want me to.
