From deep within the waters of a far away land, a new hero surfaces: Nalu, the Toa Ultora of Water. A tenacious and resourceful fighter, she shows no fear in any battle. Before becoming a Toa, Nalu was a matoran living in a land ravaged by Skakdi warlords. Determined to find a better life, she organized a plan to steal one of the Skakdi ships and escape with the other matoran, eventually landing on Ulta Nui’s shores as refugees. After becoming a Toa, she was equipped with the Staff of Cascades – built from an anchor repurposed from the ship that gave her freedom – and dons the Mask of Battalion, which allows the wearer to summon a multitude of clones into battle. Having lost her old home, she’s determined to protect her new one at any cost.
Background on this build: I was digging through my parts and found piece ‘44137’. It’s used to make the lower half of the 03 matoran’s torso, and really only appeared in those sets. It’s an easy piece to overlook since it’s such a weird shape with a niche use, but it’s because of that I wanted to try using it in a moc. The upper half of Nalu’s torso is built around that piece, which gave it that angle it has.
Ironically, I had no plans going in making this a female moc, but after I popped the slizer foot in that slot and realized I could hold it in place with rahkshi heads, I decided to lean into it.
Insert matrix of leadership here. A quick peak under the hood so you can see that weird matoran piece at work. It was a challenge getting this thing to work, honestly. The hardest part was probably figuring out how to attach a lower half to it. Lots of trial and error - mostly error. But I’m happy with how it turned out. Now let’s keep scrolling, it isn’t polite to look at a lady like this…
The inspiration for her weapon was an anchor. She’s a real warrior woman, so I wanted her to have a heavy hitting weapon, and an anchor ties that to the aquatic theme. Sure, looking at the shape, it’s not exactly an ‘anchor’ anchor - but it is a ‘Bionicle’ anchor, right?
I also imagine she can attach the blades from her staff to her arms like so, when speed and finesse is called for a bit more than just raw force. In my head I called this “rush mode” as I imagined it increased her speed somehow, but maybe it only works that way underwater.
Searching for her next opponent. The shoulder pads don’t obstruct arm movement, at least not as much as you might assume. They’re attached so they can move up, and the extra ‘bohrok eye’ is even attached with a rubbery part that allows it to fold up into the pad when the right arm moves up.
A couple final aesthetic notes: I’ve been experimenting with asymmetry lately, and might as well here since the mask is asymmetrical anyway. I also tried to color code the build in a way that sells the idea that the silver parts are actual armor worn over the other biomechanical bits. The black parts are the most sub-armored parts, kind of giving the illusion she has an exposed midriff. Even though she’s this serious warrior with a lot of resolve, I like to imagine she also has a sporty fun side as well. You can’t be all serious all the time.
That about sums it up, unless I’m forgetting something. I don’t want to blow my own horn too much, but I think she looks cool - frankly to the point where I feel like a lot of my previous mocs I made just kind of look like chumps now next to her. Frustrating - but also rewarding. Like I’ve said I only got back into moc’ing late last year, so I’m always trying to push myself to do something a little different each time.
So, that’s Nalu for ya - hope you like her.
