Earlier today I made some attempts to recreate the Toa Mata “sword arm” (aka “Bionicle Ball Joint 5 x 7 Arm with dual axle hole at 90 degrees”) using system parts in stud.io, These are the results of my experimentation:
V1:
These were my first attempts. they’re slightly oversized, and have some basic detailing. I’m not a big fan of the elbow construction on these.
VX:
These versions were created with the goal of being more size accurate to the original part. As you can see, they’re very gappy, and while they have a lot of detail (mostly thanks to the lightsaber hilts), the details aren’t accurate to the original part.
It might be possible to get an extra degree of articulation by twisting the two bars that make up the forearm (similar to a real human forearm).
V2:
this variation is the same as v1, but with a sturdier elbow joint and a mixel/towball balljoint instead of the standard technic one.
I also tried using a technic gear plate to recreate the ridged detail from the original piece.
V3:
These are my personal favorite out of all of the variations. I shortened down the forearm to a size more accurate to the original piece, and added piston details to the side. On the variation on the left I had to sacrifice the ridge detail for the sake of added stability, but the stability granted by the phone piece used for the piston detail on the variation on the left allowed me to bring back that detail, this time recreated with simple 1x1 slopes.
If you have ideas for how I could improve these, or suggestions for other bionicle parts/sets to recreate with system, let me know in the comments.
