This right here is near exactly what I pictured for the art contest. These guys are guardians, so having a literal line-up at attention seems like the perfect composition. Beautiful stylization, layout, colors, just solid all around.
The only thing that throws me off is Gaaki having her spear be the only one facing down. That mask though is phenomenal, really looks like a proper war helmet.
Ohhh very nice! I know what Iâm voting for
This is easily one of the best entries, especially to have a 1-1-1-1-1-1 color split. I love green Bomonga, I really hope that that or purple ends up as his official color. The only thing that could have improved the piece would be Pouks in blue (or pink).
Also, that discarded Gaaki spear is sick.
Hey spectreL, thanks so much for entering!
Unfortunately, we did find a very small problem with your entry. We noticed your Kualus and Norik have their shields strapped to their arms instead of held in their hands.
While this technically doesnât break any rules of the art portion, it wasnât allowed in the MOC portion. You may be aware of the controversy about Bomonga that followed. In an aim to prevent future controversy and making that MOC contest rule futile, itâs been decided that all shields need to be held in hand.
If you make these changes within the next seven days, your entry will move onto the polls!
But not Bomongaâs shield though, since thatâs in the original entry, and while it would be consistent to ask for art entries to change his too, that would constitute a significant change to the original MOC, per rule 4e.
None of this is consistent, and while I get its because Double didnât follow the rules, it was TTVâs decision to let his entry through still. And as you said, âthis technically doesnât break any rules of the art portion.â I find it incredibly unfair to ask entrants to fix something that neither breaks the rules or is any fault of their own.
I donât harbor any animosity towards the contest moderators/auditors, but I think that slightly looser rules would lessen the workload for everyone, and just make the contests more enjoyable in general.
Does it really matter if the shield is a bit higher up on their arm? Is that really that big of a change? Rules like this are especially devastating for people who didnât use digital art.
Doubleâs MOC getting through is on TTV. It was their mistake. It should not be up to the artists to scramble to make last minute changes like this under threat of disqualification because the organizers failed to disqualify an earlier entry. For a nitpicky change like this, no less. I would be livid if I spent countless hours getting artwork done for the contest, followed all the rules, and then was met with this kind of response. This is honestly shameful.
Excuse me, but are you 'aving a laugh?
Shield straps have been a part of shield designs for literal ages. Infact, guiges and similarly designed straps were around 13-14th century BCE, meaning that they predate the literal jesus christ by an entire millenia. This is one of the most authentic way a shield can be, and has been, carried for over three thousand years, and now you want to spit into the face of not just a brilliant artwork but history itself?
Iâve been a fan of TTV for quite a while, sticking around and defending them to not only my friends, but the entire russian community at some point. Toa Hagah contests have made me reconsider my faith in their ability, but I still stuck around in hopes of betterment in the future. You, my friend, have put the nail in the coffin. The rules must be reworked, this circus cannot continue.
Donât be surprised when you start bleeding artists like you already have.
Yeah, this feelsâŚmassively nitpicky, Iâm sorry. Iâm glad TTV asked for help, but all this âto try to avoid controversyâ on incredibly minor details is more likely to, and probably already has, cause controversy than this detail.
I get it. Thereâs been a lot of issues that people have had with these contests, and you want to try and make things flow better. But Mando, this is not the way. Go too strict on these little details that really donât matter, and you risk chasing potential participants and voters away more than the detail will cause controversy. Idk how yâall decided this ruling, but itâs too much.
As others have said, shield straps have been around for ages and seem to be the most well known way to carry a shield, and for shields this big, makes more sense (to me) than trying to steady it for a blow just by holding one handle. Just because the Norik and Iruini sets specifically didnât show them, because of how they have to have the shield connected for the Rhotuka Spinner, doesnât mean they just held them in their hands. Bonus: it helps the Bomonga fit a bit better, despite my dislike of the model, because then they all hold it that way.
I mean, we know these things also canonically have heartlights, fingers, and organs that arenât shown on the sets, we just imagine them, so whatâs wrong with this besides âwe want to avoid controversyâ? Itâs incredibly minor, comes across as massively nitpicky, and rulings like this are causing more issues than the art itself.
Well the Bionicle universe doesnât really care about Human history now does it?
I can agree @Stuubhâs post can feel nitpicky but do remember that the way Hagah shields have been represented in any other media is as a handheld shield.
It should also be noted that Norik and Iruini was made as 50 years of the lego brick celeberatory items and the shields are therefore arguably inspired by the handheld Minifigure shields of the castle themes.
In conclusion should SpecterL change the shields? well yes it should because art that should become canon should represent how the mocs looks inuniverse. I donât know about you but personally having art that change a handheld weapon to a weapon mounted to the wrist ultimately feels a bit like retcon territory. You may say to that, that well your retconning Bomonga by making him hold it in hand, to which I respond well we are also giving him a rhotuka launcher so? your point is?
I think the response is mostly to the fact that Stuubh acknowledged that Specterâs entry does not break any rules, but that heâs asking for changes anyways that are ultimately unnecessary. We donât know how the Hagah actually hold their shields in-universe, just how Bomongaâs shield has always had a Rhotuka launcher in-universe, even if the MOC didnât.
Well the comic pretty much debunks this here:
and here:
also here:
and here:
and the nail in the coffin:
That last picture is the set, and the ones above it are from the comics, which are strictly based on the set appearance. At the risk of betraying my position on the fingers debate (which I only hold ironically), a difference in how these Toa hold their shields can be down to artistic expression. SpecterLâs style is highly realistic, and a single hand gripping these huge shields doesnât quite gel with that, I feel (and it seems he feels that way too, as he drew them with the shields on the arms).
That is how the set was designed. No argument there. However, I even addressed that, saying it seems more to allow the Rhotuka function. The problem with pointing to the comics is the comics were drawn to reflect what the sets actually look like, but are similarly lacking things that we know are canon. If you want to get to that point, then the art shouldnât allow fingers then? Or heartlights (though this one doesnât have heartlights)?
As was pointed out, this does not break a rule. Itâs being requested solely to âavoid controversy.â That is a problem to me. If it broke an actual rule, sure. But this is an artist interpretation and using the most common and, imo, logical way to hold a shield, and there isnât anything in the rules against it. These are sudden changes being requested because the auditors just got started, but these requests seem to be causing more issues for artists because of these little nitpicky things, that arenât against the actual rules, but are for the sake of a controversy that didnât exist before they started making these requests.
As a note, even if it was to reference how classic castle knights minifigs hold shields, it should be noted that minifigs only have 1 connection point on the arm for a shield, and imagination would likely lead one to assume how we typically view shields, at least imo.
Greg has stated that the closest approximation of their inuniverse apperances are the sets, disregarding scale.
I agree that their is always room for artistic interpretations but changing the way a weapon is held or used shouldnât count on that. I can concede that Bomonga can hold his shield on the wrist but Norik and Kualus should definately hold it in hand as per the moc, set and comics.
Here is another example if I were to draw a jedi I wouldnât draw his lightsaber to look like a gun mounted to his shoulder, right? Havenât I missed the point with a lightsaber then?
Thatâs apples to oranges.
Greg has also said that some have fingers, some have none, and has contradicted himself before. Even his first book, he brought in elements that would be in the MoL film, like heartlights. We know there are things that are done for the official sets that are due to piece limitations.
That lightsaber comparison, as wyatt said, doesnât work. Mainly because in the name is âsaberâ (as an aside, Charles Soule did include a gun that did use a lightsaber as its core, and that idea also made itâs way into the High Republic books, but they donât call those weapons lightsabers). So while you could do that, it wouldnât be called a lightsaber. What was done hereâŚthe shield is still a shield.
Bomongaâs shield is not being requested to change. Just want to make that clear.
No it doesnât. The auditor even said âthis does not technically break a rule.â There is no omission or addition, and it doesnât not change the aesthetic, at least imo. They have a shield. Theyâre even allowing people to mount the shields on the backs, from what Iâve seen.
If it âtechnically doesnât break a rule,â that also suggests evoke rule 4e is not on the most stable grounds for this. At least thatâs my read on the situation.
