Roodaka Revamp v2 (+ "Goodaka" update + final update)

[MooCowsRock]

About six months ago I posted this Roodaka Revamp, which understandably garnered some criticism. Happily, much of that criticism was greatly constructive, and having taken it into account I now present a new version of the Viceroy of the Visorak.

Lots of details on changes, design choices, and overall thoughts

So the original goal was to revamp Roodaka with these ideas in mind:

• Accentuated feminine shaping
• Hands (I always found that scene in Web of Shadows where Roodaka splits Vakama’s Visorak-webbing bonds with her fingernail quite memorable, and thought it was a shame the original set didn’t have hands at all)
• Waist articulation (a grander goal based on never having built anything with it before, which I thought could apply well to Roodaka)
• Trans-blue highlights (because they’re cool)

My original revamp got the highlights, but everything else was out of whack. I wasn’t able to include waist articulation, I was too lazy to add hands by the time I finished it (=P), and the “accentuated feminine shaping” turned out to look just terrifyingly out of proportion and badly placed.

@Hawkflight gave extremely useful critiques on the placement and integration of the breasts. They were too high up originally and not recessed into the torso enough, and hence looked like giant globes tacked on the front. Very ugly and not at all in line with Roodaka’s smooth, sultry design/character language. This time I almost fell to the same error, but realized it before finalizing the torso and moved the Glatorian head connection point down and backwards until I felt they were at a reasonable height and depth. Also according to Hawkflight’s suggestion, I filled in the sides of the torso behind them with some convenient beams.

I debated stealing some silver Nuparu Mahri armor for her torso from one of my brother’s sets–an idea I kicked around a lot was giving her armor reminiscent of a corset. Ultimately I decided I liked the more bikini-esque color placement of the original and stuck to that. I thought about making the black Slizer foot between her boobs silver instead of black, but I’m pretty sure I only have three silver ones and they’re all used elsewhere in the build…

I switched out the usual Bohrok tusk bangles/side braids on her head for tubes because… tubes are cool. I also toyed with giving her significantly more hair, as I’ve seen other revamps do, but the Visorak foot is so recognizable and appropriate to her association with the horde that I decided to keep it and just add more tubes (you can never have enough tubes!).

Didn’t do anything fancy for the hands, partly because I didn’t want the headache and partly because I think these relatively straightforward, elegant-ish fingers work well for Roodaka. The scepter is reeeeeally hard for her to hold, though, so that’s why there’s only one picture of it with her. =P

I thiiiink I’d prefer if the Nuva shoulders on her rear were black, but I only have one of them and didn’t want her to have harlequin buttocks.

The friction extenders in her shoulders are primarily there to lengthen her arms enough to come to fall to a reasonable height compared to her thighs, but they also help with posing.

The shoulder armor falls off a lot. =P

But yeah, overall I’m pretty proud of this. Admittedly I’m not great with posing or lighting, but the pictures came out alright this time. And if you noticed that a half-bushing is missing on her right foot… I added the Bohrok eyes on the back of her high heels immediately before photographing and forgot to put it back on. =P The heels are pretty much unchanged from my first revamp, except they’re reinforced now by those curved liftarms.

This is the first MOC I’ve completed with waist articulation, although horizontal twisting is limited due to the Bohrok eyes I placed near the joint. She can stretch, though!

Here are the weapons alone. The forearm-mounted Rhotuka launcher is a modified version of one designed by @WholesomeGadunka. I originally built working Catcher Claws like the original to affix to her left forearm, but instead went for a shorter scepter look like in Web of Shadows.

Much thanks to @Hawkflight and @NOTaHFfan for their valuable insights on the original revamp. I’d say this is a significant improvement overall.

(Also, credit again to Toa Helryx (Canon Contest #1 Entry “The First”) by @chasekristianj for the basic chest design.)

Thanks for viewing!

[DuneToa]

I like the improved shaping here. The torso and legs are much smoother now.

[Takutanuva]

What a daring design.

[DuneToa]

I just realized that the torso shaping makes it look like Roodaka has a giant version of a Metru torso. Pretty neat!

[MooCowsRock]

@DuneToa

I just realized that the torso shaping makes it look like Roodaka has a giant version of a Metru torso.

Oh, huh, you’re right! I have to admit, I didn’t even notice that. =P

[Chronicler]

I like the efforts to take some of the design from the movie. I really liked how the film interpreted the set design.

[Hawkflight]

My immediate first impression when comparing the two is that this is a lot better photograph. The grey background complements her cooler colors more.

The chest design is definitely better this go round, with the added armor in the neck and extra beams on the side fleshing it out. If you want to keep iterating on this, I think the slizer foot on her neck being black throws off the “silver clothing, black/trans-blue” skin a bit. Silver slizer foot would have fixed that, but you could also try recessing it a little, so it doesn’t look like she has an extra fold of skin over her breasts. Or do let her have that, she’s not a human after all.

I like the Roborider head-based thigh design, though the claw piece looks weird from a few angles. Abdomen looks better as well with the slizer foot adding some smoother angles. Overall, pretty happy with this update!

[MooCowsRock]

UPDATE:

I had the idea some time ago to make an alternate version of Roodaka like Melding Teridax–“Goodaka,” if you will–but seeing as I don’t have many white pieces I just armored up this version instead.

There actually are some other alterations as well. Most notably, I attached her breasts one hole below where they were on the advice of @iylv. Took some fiddling with the internal structure, but I think it does look better, after all. I also switched out the claw pieces on the sides of her thighs for Visorak feet, which I think suits her usual character.

(I’m not very good at posing. =P)

[Minethuselah]

Looking rather fire if I may be so bold to say. The build is very unique, really captures her look very well. I like how smooth you managed to make her using primarily G1 parts.

I think my one complaint is her shoulders feel a bit too high and gappy. Try bringing them inwards and downwards so she doesn’t look like a thinner Krekka.

As for Goodaka here, I’m a really big fan. The white CCBS shells on her shins are a neat touch - they make the build look like she’s wearing armor or clothes or something. Not sure how the trans-blue works with the white, but black and white pair nicely together. Almost looks like a penguin or a fancy suit.

[MooCowsRock]

Thanks very much!

@Minethuselah

I think my one complaint is her shoulders feel a bit too high and gappy.

I think you’re right–and now that you mention it, it might be a consequence of moving the chest down, since there’s less general bulk near the shoulders. I’m not totally sure how I’d fix that, as the shoulder attachments are currently affixed to some structurally crucial beams, but there’s probably a way.

@Minethuselah

The white CCBS shells on her shins are a neat touch -

Thanks! I just got 'em recently and thought they’d work pretty well for something like this. Admittedly, their forward curve leaves a big gap near her knee.

@Minethuselah

they make the build look like she’s wearing armor or clothes or something.

I was shooting for something of a White Queen aesthetic, so I’m glad it worked!

@Minethuselah

Not sure how the trans-blue works with the white

It works okay for this purpose, but my original idea for Goodaka was to use trans-yellowish-green (like Berix’s head) and lime green for highlights instead of blue. Might still have to try it.

[MooCowsRock]

FINAL UPDATE:

So I decided to attempt to follow @Minethuselah’s advice to

@Minethuselah

Try bringing [the shoulders] inwards and downwards so she doesn’t look like a thinner Krekka.

Turns out it wasn’t as easy as I expected (although I didn’t expect it to be easy), and I ended up rebuilding pretty much the entire torso three times over. If you’re interested, you can read about the process in the spoiler below. Otherwise, enjoy the well-lit photography. =P

Summary

In the “Goodaka” update, I successfully moved Roodaka’s chest downwards without too much fiddling. The main trouble this time was that moving her shoulders down meant her chest would be, relatively speaking, in the same place as it was in the first version shown in this topic. Moving the shoulders down also meant moving their attachment points (the angled beams) down, which, since said beams were integral to the entire structure of the build, meant reworking the torso’s inner workings.

In short, the modifications shortened the portion of the torso above the waist joint, which made it quite difficult to fit in the Nuparu Mahri armor and the Glatorian heads without serious squeezing. I tried various configurations, but either the shoulders looked too gappy, the breasts looked too high, or the chest as a whole jutted out too far. I explored different ways of attaching the shoulders, but ultimately the neck area looked strangely barren and I decided to force the beams to work. The torso is now constructed substantially differently than it was, incorporating more stability (something I felt the previous iterations were lacking a bit) at, I think, the cost of some aesthetics.

I have to say, I’m not entirely thrilled with this version. For all the work I put in to try and incorporate all the various and extremely helpful critiques and feedback I received, it doesn’t look very different to me than the original version in this topic.

You’ll notice I chose to restrict the trans-light blue highlights to solely her breasts and hands. At some point I decided I wanted to aim more for the exclusively black and silver color scheme of the original, so hopefully this isn’t too odd of a middle ground.

I think I’m least happy with the back. Unfortunately, I had to move the shell covering her back downwards compared to previous versions, and I don’t think it looks as good. There’s a gear up near her neck now to provide a little bit of framing, which is a bit out of place but pays homage to the BIONICLE feel for me.

I also would have liked to improved the hair a bit, maybe attach the tubes in some curved manner, but by the time I finally got the torso to a reasonable place I was pretty tired of working on the whole thing.

(Sassy pose. =P)

The main improvement here is in the waist articulation: I used a Glatorian neck instead of a Hordika neck and cleared out some details around it so it can now rotate more freely.

I do feel like her breasts are a little high again, but let’s just say her armor is the Vortixx version of a push-up bra. =P

---

I’ve had this MOC assembled in some form or another for about a year now, so I think this is where I’ll stop iterating on it. The process was definitely helpful. It started as an admittedly cheeky project in which one of my aims was indeed to accentuate Roodaka’s “feminine shaping” i.e. give her bigger boobs and booty, but the challenges I encountered, combined with the feedback of board members, transformed it into a learning experience.

Thanks again to @Hawkflight, @NOTaHFfan, @iylv, and @Minethuselah for their constructive critiques, and to everyone who took the time to view the various versions of this MOC.

Cheers!

[Minethuselah]

@MooCowsRock

it doesn’t look very different to me than the original version in this topic

Hard disagree. I think it’s amazing. The very first iteration was pretty gappy and like you said later in your post was a little too exaggerated in certain areas, whereas this feels much more proportionate.

The shoulders are excellent, sorry my recommendation had you spending so much time on it It looks much more cohesive now.

@MooCowsRock

I do feel like her breasts are a little high again, but let’s just say her armor is the Vortixx version of a push-up bra. =P

I can see why you’d say they feel a bit high, but it’s not problematic for me. It still does look realistic, or as realistic as black-and-silver biomechanical lizard spider mommy can look.

Gotta say, I think your efforts paid off. This is easily one of my favorite Roodaka revamps. Nice work on her!

[MooCowsRock]

@Minethuselah

Hard disagree.

I meant the v2 version as shown in the pictures at the top of this topic, not the one I linked to–that was a disaster. =P

@Minethuselah

The shoulders are excellent, sorry my recommendation had you spending so much time on it

It was clearly a good recommendation, just tricky to execute. But that’s often how my building process works anyway–build a poor approximation of the goal, then iterate and integrate the best parts of each version. The problem here was that the torso has a very specific order to its assembly, so every time I wanted to make a change I had to remove another piece or three. =P

@Minethuselah

black-and-silver biomechanical lizard spider mommy

Best description of Roodaka ever?

@Minethuselah

I think it’s amazing.

@Minethuselah

Gotta say, I think your efforts paid off. This is easily one of my favorite Roodaka revamps.

Thank you so much for your kind words, and again for your input!