“We know where you are, so stop pretending that you can hide. You’re not leaving this cave, none of us are! So come on, join the rest of our brothers in the sky.” - Stalkaz
A brave and foolish Av-Matoran warrior, Stalkaz refused to be a groveling pile of Rahi-bones in some crevasse waiting for darkness to pass. After the Makuta raided their villages again, Stalkaz chased after them, refusing to let them get away. When he disappeared in the fog, most assumed he was dead. Yet he would return to them in a form neigh unrecognizable. Drained of light and mutated, Stalkaz was among the first waves of new Shadow Matoran servants used by the Makuta to hunt their Av-Matoran kin.
Unknown to the Av-Matoran left behind, Stalkaz had successfully followed the Makuta to their base. If he had chosen to turn around at any point, or escaped in time, perhaps he could have given valuable intel to the other Matoran. Alas, the Makuta revealed that they were merely toying with him and let him get so close to see how far the gnats were willing to go and captured him. For being so annoying, Mutran gave him mutations so that Stalkaz would, indeed, “never crawl and scrape.” Or at least, not do so easily now that he was forced to talk around on those stilt-blades.
Turnaround:
Designer’s Notes: And there we go! My actual Shadow Matoran entry! My best idea will come eventually, that is taking more time to get the design right. But for now, enjoy inverted Vican!
Figured I’d use my color-study lessons from Exo-Force and do something similar to the Blotted Sapper. Largely dark colors having the different body parts separated by a brighter color. . . But you know, with the much chunkier Av-Matoran parts.
Originally, the body plan was closer to Radiax…again. But then I was staring at the legs really hard and realized something obvious - Radiax’s hindlegs are backwards. Based on where they should be bending, the knee spike needs to be pointing down and not up. I already was using Kopaka’s bayonet the Blizzard Blades for the front arms/legs, but using them for the legs felt too tall or weirdly posed when positioned like Radiax. Flipping the legs to the correct orientation, where it would be stilts attached to hands and toes, looked much more sinister in body language. Just slightly off, just something a bit wrong but close to correct.
But let me know what you think! As always, comments and criticism are always welcome.
