Marendar

[Pylonmadness]

I built this guy way back in the summer in studio. I was about half way through making it in real life and it’s turning out pretty well, but I decided I’m not totally satisfied with it, so I scrapped it and I’m going back to square one. This is not a canon entry at all. Am I going to make a Marendar for the canon contest later? idk I just wanted to build my own version of the thing. Maybe when I finish my Marendar 2.0 I’ll use that as an entry, but for now, I doubt I’ll be entering any canon contests.

Appearance
Since there’s no description on Marendar’s appearance, I took what I could from his other details, ie he’s a sentient, sapient being that hunts down and kills Toa. I decided to make it like the Xenomorph from Alien in its presence (not so much its appearance). It can think, hunt, has high intelligence, but is menacing and deadly at the same time.

Sentry Mode
I gave Marendar a little gimmick with the horns. When it’s not actively trying to kill something, it’s in what’s essentially its sentry mode, using its eye to track and search Toa. In this mode, its horns are at rest and simply uses its eye to track Toa signature.

Attack Mode
Once it finds its target, the horns on Marendar’s head will open up and attack its target. Of course, if it gets damaged or aggravated, it will go into a rage state and open up all its horns on its body.

Powers
The wiki for some reason points out that Marendar was made at the same time as the Toa power inhibitor. Whether this means he was made by the same Great Being that made the power inhibitor or was made coincidentally at the same time has yet to be settled, but I figured why not include that as part of Marendar’s innate power. Those two cylindrical nodes on its shoulders are supposed to be of similar tech as a power inhibitor. It doesn’t outright shut down the Toa’s powers, but it does make Marendar extremely resistant to their abilities to the point where it nullifies any elemental effect. ie a Toa of Psionics won’t be able to use telekinesis directly on Marendar or a Toa of Gravity won’t be able to render him immobile. He can still get hit by fireballs and whatnot, but it won’t do much good. He was made by the Great Beings to specifically kill Toa, so he’ll have a natural resistance to their attacks.

Other than that, he’s got immense strength and agility. I didn’t give him any weapons because it didn’t look as cool and I thought it would be way more dangerous and menacing if he killed Toa with his bare hands. That doesn’t mean he can’t use the weapons of the Toa he just killed or stole from.

Anyway, that’s my Marendar. Time to work on Marendar 2.0

[Atobe_Brick]

Cool MOC, but it doesn’t look very robotic to me. The teeth and horn pieces, as well as the color choice make it look more organic, in my opinion.

[Takutanuva]

Huh, I didn’t get that vibe at all. To me I got butcher alien robot. Although perhaps a little too alien for Marender’s description. Feels too far away from humanoid

[Pylonmadness]

I’ll disagree on the color since all of Bionicle is basically colorful robots, but yeah that’s why I’m making Marendar 2.0. I liked this moc a lot and it’d be a shame to not show what I built after all that time spent on it, so I wanted to give Marendar 1.0 its time in the light.

[WholesomeGadunka]

Beautiful

[Atobe_Brick]

Robots in bionicle can be all sorts of color, but the the dark red makes me think of muscle and blood, which are organic things. It’s mostly the teeth make it look organic though, in my opinion.

[Kardax]

The horns and legs make this look a little too organic in my opinion, but great moc!

[Voxovan]

@Atobe_Brick

Cool MOC, but it doesn’t look very robotic to me.

And why should it? Marendar isn’t a robot.

@Takutanuva

Feels too far away from humanoid

??? do you know what a humanoid is

[Atobe_Brick]

hmm. You’re right. I don’t know why, but I always thought that Marendar was completely robotic, but it turns he’s only partially mechanical. This Marendar still doesn’t look like how I imagine Marendar to look, but I’d like to redact my previous criticism of it.

Edit 2 years later: actually it’s grown on me. Very nice moc, @Pylonmadness

[Sabretooth]

The single Shockwave style eye is a perfect look for Marendar!

[Takutanuva]

Well last time I checked humans weren’t digitigrade

[Voxovan]

Humans aren’t, but humanoids can be.

[Takutanuva]

Its a good thing my opinion isn’t a fact then, eh?

[Toa_Good_Guy]

Its cool but I don’t see how he would kill toa. You should be able to visually see how he kills the toa. Like Gregs description. Also it feels too organic to me. Good job but I don’t see him as very Marendar-y.

Gl on 2.0 though! I am currently on my Marendar’s version 5.0!

[Pylonmadness]

With his bare hands.

[Toa_Good_Guy]

I imagine him using a variety of weapons and tools made for specific situations like a sentinel from X-Men. Love the build though!

[Pylonmadness]

Thanks. I’ll also point out, regarding the organic look, that Greg said at some point that Marendar isn’t helpless to toa of iron or magnetism at all, which means Marendar has something different going on with how it was made. I interpreted that to mean he isn’t made like a robot or like the rest of the Protodermans for that matter, otherwise someone like Zaria would make easy work of him. So that’s one of the reasons I made Marendar 1.0 look the way it does.

The rest is just cuz I thought it looked cool lol

Edit: also, he’s BIO-mechanical. Emphasis on the bio

[WholesomeGadunka]

@Toa_Good_Guy

You should be able to visually see how he kills the toa. Like Gregs description.

What description? Besides “humanoid” and “bio-mechanical”, the only mention I can ever find of Greg talking about Marendar’s physical description is how he doesn’t have one because Greg rarely envisions one before its set comes out.

[Toa_Good_Guy]

He has explained in ask Greg how he always imagined Marendar would be like a sentinel from X-Men. Go look around and see for yourself. Maybe it wasn’t ask Greg idk it was a while ago.

Plus bio-mechanical doesn’t necessarily mean 90% eldritch horror (no offense)

[WholesomeGadunka]

@Toa_Good_Guy

Go look around and see for yourself.

I did; I keyword searched “Marendar” in the greg archives and went through literally every post written by him, couldn’t find anything remotely close to what you’re saying. If you or someone else can link me to a reference to it I’d appreciate it.