Hello everyone, it’s Sokoda!
This MOC… let’s just say, I spent a lot of time on it. I worked on this MOC since Oktober 2018. There were a lot of breaks in between though, waiting for parts, working on other projects and being stuck, when things didn’t work out the way I wanted them to.
This MOC had a lot of “first times” for me. It’s one of the first constraction MOCs I posted online, it’s the first MOC I used Bricklink for, the first time I made cloth accessories and the first time I ever used a 3D-printed piece.
Before I get started explainin the MOC, I would like to once again thank the people from RSG and especially @Muircat for the mask.
I won this mask at RSGs “A Song of Sound and Plastic” contest, but getting it to me was a bit difficult, so once again thank you for everything.
For those wondering, this mask is the RSG Vanguard Akaku in Polished and Bronzed Black Steel. I really love the mask and the quality and details are great.
First of all, to get this out of the way, this is my Self MOC Sokoda. I named it after my online name, not the other way around.
I had a couple of goals for this MOC. I wanted to combine system, CCBS and Technic/Bionicle pieces into one figure. I wanted to do that to reflect my own building style a bit, I love all these build systems and have often tried to show the use of constraction pieces in system models. This time I wanted to show it the other way around.
I also wanted to go for a gunmetal-grey and trans-bright-green color sceme, more on that later.
Another goal for me was the size and posability. I wanted a good range of motion, while staying in a size that’s not a lot taller than a Toa Inika.
About the character
Sokoda is a being of light from another dimension. After one day finding a Kanohi Olmak, Sokoda decided to explore the Multiverse, go on Adventures and solve the mysteries of the Multiverse.
Sokodas body is made of solid green light. He attached several armor pieces to his body to better blend in with the population of most of the universes he visits.
For those of you who like reading, I wrote a little backstory, I hope my English is ok
Sokodas Journal
Introduction:
If you are reading this, you have found at least one part of my journal. Keep it safe, it contains powerful knowledge, and should never end up in the wrong hands.
I have traveled many islands, even planets, dimensions and universes and I always tried to keep my eyes open and I have made it my goal to explore the mysteries and wonders of these places.
This Journal documents my travels, as well as the discoveries I made in chronological order. I normally don’t stay in one place too long, so this is not a guide to the multiverse and rather a personal travel report.
Chapter 1: What am I?
Now that you read my journal, you should know a bit more about me, who I am and how my journey began.
My name is Sokoda. Most universes and dimensions I have visited don’t seem to have beings like me. We seem to be quite a rarity. While most sentient inhabitants of the worlds I’ve visited were at least in some capacity organic, we are not.
It is said that a being called Brutaka, a fellow traveler of the dimensions, explained my home and my people like this:
“[…] a dimension full of beings made of solid light. Know what they eat there? Shadow. […], but I have to warn you – they’re always hungry. And they don’t close their mouths when they chew.”
I personally find that statement a bit derogatory. I mean it is true we are made of solid light and yes, we do eat shadow, but that doesn’t mean we are uncivilized hungry beasts. I personally enjoy sitting in the shade of a cave to satisfy my appetite.
While I do have to admit, that some of us could not resist eating a being of shadow, that’s not all of us! As I have learned in my travels, for every species I have encountered, there are nicer and more gruesome individuals. So, you can’t just spread Horror-stories about an entire culture if you have only met some of them.
To put it simple: My people have the power to manipulate light, form it and even turn it into solid constructs. We use this to construct our own bodies, but also our shining cities and complex machines. The life in our home dimension became very comfortable that way, there just wasn’t a lot happening.
Chapter 2: The beginning of my adventure
One day while I was enjoying a good read , without any warning, the space in front of my started to stretch and crack and an even for me a bit bright light shined threw this rift in space.
What I saw inside is hard to describe with words. I later learned it was the dimensional space, a dimension between the many universes and dimensions, but for me it was an opportunity. I was given the opportunity to peek into a world of infinite possibilities. An while I couldn’t understand all the portals, flashes of energy and the distorted space in there at that time, there were two objects floating in there, that looked like they did not fit into all this.
One of them had a shape like a person. But it wasn’t glowing at all and it seemed to be, well, incomplete. The other one was a weirdly shaped metallic golden object. It was crackling with energy and flashes of light burst from the object to the rift in front of me. It seemed like the rift was caused by this object. And I concluded, if I don’t take the chance now, the rift might just close again.
I extended my arm and reached for the golden object. The moment I touched it, it felt like it was trying to draw the light energy out of my body. The portal grew larger, and the dimensional space started to shake wildly. I already started to feel the exhaustion, but I was determined to not let go. With all my remaining strength I pulled the object out of the portal, which started to flash and shake. As soon as I got it out of there, I let go of it and the portal collapsed. I too was completely knocked out by this little adventure.
After resting a while in the shadow, I regained my strength. The object still laying in front of me. I decided to start experimenting with it. I already knew directly touching it would consume all my power again. I had to find a way to better control how much power I would lead into it. So, I started to construct a metal device, that would shield most of my light-body from the object and only lead a little bit of my power into it.
After many tries, I finally made one, that allowed me to use the object longer than a couple of tocks. I felt the power build up inside the object and in front me there was once again a crack forming in the space. I started to feel that the object drew more and more of my power and saw how the rift in space grew bigger and bigger and I felt it pull me inside it.
After that I lost consciousness.
Chapter 3: Stranger in a strange world
When I woke up, the world around me was not what I would expect at all. I expected myself to fly around in the wild streams of the dimensional space, but instead I found myself on a golden beach. The golden object right beside me and still crackling with flashes of energy. And there were some smaller beings on the beach as well. They looked like the creature I saw in the dimensional space, but smaller and they had legs. Even though my light wasn’t very bright after the exhaustion of my travel, they still tried to shield themselves from my green light by holding their hands in front of their faces. Then I realized, they all seemed to wear similar objects to the golden one on their faces.
I tried to turn my light down a bit, not very successfully. I had to find a way to communicate with these beings. I projected my light in the shape of the face-objects on a nearby rock and pointed at it. One of the smaller beings made a sound, “Kanohi”. So, it seemed like that’s what it is called. I reconstructed my solid light form and tried to give it the function to produce similar sounds and repeated “Kanohi”.
I pointed at one of the beings and after some hesitation it said the word “Matoran”. I repeated once again. The Matoran seemed to understand what I was trying to do and maybe me repeating words and shining funny lights on rocks piqued their interest and took them their fear of my bright glowing body. They seemed very excited to teach me new words and I was a fast learner, motivated by the possibility of learning more about the Kanohi from them.
Over the next couple of days, I found out that these Matoran were part of a special Tribe called Fe-Matoran, that was very proficient in working with metals. I wanted to see their village and to blend in more, I asked them for some of their armor parts to construct a shell to hide my light-body. I used beams of my light to cut the metal and melt it together in a similar shape like the Matoran, but I kept my original size. I left some gaps in the armor, so I could still release some of my energy if needed and attached the golden Kanohi with a chain to my armor, so it could not drain all my power again. The Matoran still did not think I could visit their village unnoticed, so they also gave me a green cloak to hide my appearance and my bright glowing light even more. Although I initially didn’t like the idea and thought it would draw even more attention to me, I had to admit, the additional shade it provided was quite nice.
Hidden in my cloak they smuggled me into their Village, telling the other Matoran I was a “Toa” who was here to help. I did not know what a Toa is or what I should help with, but when I tried to ask, they gestured me to stay silent.
The Matoran lead me to a small hut, with smoke coming out of the chimney. Inside dozends of Kanohi lay around all over the place and another Matoran was working on forging a new one.
One of my two Matoran friends said: “This is the Toa we have been talking about, he needs a new Kanohi” The smith looked at me for a while. I tried to hide as much of my body as possible, but with a smirk on his face the Matoran said: “This is not a Toa and he already seems to have a Kanohi.” Relived that I did not have to keep my secret from him any longer I tried to explain as good as I could that the Kanohi drains all my power and that I got here from another world entirely.
The Mask-Maker seemed fascinated. “This is a Kanohi Olmak, the mask of dimensional gates. It’s a wonder that you were even able to use it at all. It is one of the most powerful and dangerous masks, we cannot let it fall into the hands of the Makuta.” I asked what the Makuta was and they explained to me it was a being of shadows that terrorized the island for many years. The islanders seemed to be waiting for the arrival of a Toa of light, that was foretold in an ancient prophecy.
The Matoran told me that they think, even though I’m not a Toa, I should face Makuta and free the island of his darkness. I wasn’t too sure about all that though. I did not really believe in their prophecy and I especially did not think it was talking about me. I’m sure the Matoran had their doubts themselves. They knew I was no Toa, but they were desperate. So, I agreed to at least meet with that Makuta-person. I mean what harm could come from talking to him…
The mask maker handed me another Kanohi. It had one big round eye and a dark metallic color. “This is my best work! A Kanohi Akaku, the great mask of vision. It allows you to see the invisible and will help you find Makutas lair. I attached the mask to my face and lead a little bit of my light into it. The mask seemed to focus the light in different ways and allowed me to see through objects, far distances and focus the light beams I used to see. It was truly a wonder and allowed my a completely new perspective on that strange new world I stranded in.
Chapter 4: My meeting with Makuta
As the Matoran told me I followed the secret tunnels underneath the island, which I could see using the Kanohi Akaku to a deep dark cave. While the darkness was very appetizing, the cave totally screamed “evil lair”.
A deep voice echoed through the caves and said, “What are you? You are no Toa or Matoran, what do you want here?”.
“I’m not too sure myself. I would like to ask you to stop terrorizing the Matoran, if that’s fine for you!” I answered half mockingly, half unsure how I got into this terrible situation. A maniacal laughter echoed through the cave and I heard it coming from all sides. “Could you please show yourself, so we can have a conversation?”.
“I am the shape in the shadows. I am the darkness in the heart of this island. I live in the dread stories told by the Turaga around the village fires. I am Makuta!”, the voice screamed. I had enough of this hide and seek game and shined my light as bright as I could all around me.
A loud scream echoed around the cave and in the corner of the cave I saw a tall winged creature. Before I could finish saying “so you are Makuta” he shot a beam of darkness directly at me. He clearly was not interested in a conversation.
I immediately adsorbed the shadow blast, attacking me with shadow probably wasn’t the best idea, as my light only got brighter because of it.
Makuta realized his mistake and started shooting around bolts of chain lightning and hot beams out of his eyes. The fun part of this encounter was over, I knew I couldn’t just adsorb these so easily. I formed a shield out of my solid light to block Makutas attacks and dodged a s many of them as I possibly could, but a heat vision beam hit me and threw me across the entire cave.
Even though this Makuta had made some mistakes in this fight by attacking me with his shadow powers he clearly was the more skilled fighter.
Using a sonic scream Makuta shattered all my hard-light defenses and slowly walked to my weakened body, his hands glowing from the heat of the plasma he prepared for a final strike.
“I am Makuta Zoriax, how dare you even stand against me. You are not even a Toa, are the little Matoran so desperate, that they think you are the Toa of light the prophecy spoke about. Pathetic. Maybe once you are no more, they will finally give in and see that being my servants is their natural place.” Then he stopped. Staring at the Kanohi Olmak a twisted grin formed behind his mask, trust me I saw it I have x-ray vision.
“Looks like our little meeting wasn’t useless after all.” Makuta said and reached for the Kanohi. Instinctively I grabbed the Olmak and lead all my remaining power into it.
The cave started to shake violently, and another dimensional gate formed between me and Makuta. Once again, I started to feel the portal suck me inside it. In my last moments before passing out, I saw a white being stepping out of the portal on the other side. Makutas eyes widened in shock. The world around me turned dark as I lost consciousness one again and I just heard the words: “I am Takanuva Toa of light…. Hey where am I, what is going on here”.
Well it looks like the Matorans prophecy was right after all, the Toa of light did appear.
Features of the figure:
Sokoda possesses a retractable blade on his left arm
Attached to his back there is an Energy-Blaster:
You can also attach a hard-light shield to his arm
Sokoda always carries his Kanohi Olmak on a chain, but he uses it to travel different universes and dimensions
The cape has built in wires, so it is completely posable
Here are some pictures without the cape
Close up of the mask
Size comparisons
The model ended up a bit larger, then I wanted it to, but I think it’s still in a good size range.
There was also a very special reason, I wanted this model to have a lot of transparent green pieces.
Sokoda is supposed to be a being of light. I wanted to show this by using the very special glow these pieces have if they get illuminated by a blacklight
Blacklight pictures
I also took some photos out in the Nature
So that’s it.
I hope you like my Self MOC, I myself am very happy how it turned out and I hope you guys like it as well.
I build a lot of digital models, so this was a fun challenge for myself.
Also, those of you who read the story, let me know what you think and if you are interested in reading more of it. I might write some more one day.
Greetings Sokoda
