The Toa Hagah (Canon Contest #3: Honor Guard)

[Toa-of-Onions]

Hello everyone! First time entering one of these - my MoC designs tend to skew pretty simple, so I figure this Hagah contest may be my best shot at making a mark on the canon. Hope you guys enjoy!

THE LINEUP:

BOMONGA:

I wanted to go against the grain a little with Bomonga and make him tall and imposing, suggesting the power of his Mask of Growth. He wears copper armor, harkening back a little to the orange accents on the Onu-Matoran from the early years. I think the side vents on the Hau shoulder armor make for some nice visual continuity with the eyeholes on his mask, which is one of my favorite designs from the GalvaPack.

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Breakdown

IRL Mockup (Photoshopped for Color)

GAAKI:

I wanted Gaaki to look especially regal, and picked her shoulder armor to match the trident design I’ve always envisioned for her spear. She’s got a lot of upward-pointed edges that give her a hydrodynamic feel and double as sort of crown-like imagery. She wears pearl light gray armor, partly to avoid the whole gold = psionics conundrum, but more so just because it contrasts nicely and has stronger ocean vibes in my mind.

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Breakdown

IRL Mockup (Photoshopped for Color)

KUALUS:

Kualus probably gave me the most trouble to get just right, but I’m really happy with how he came out. Pearl dark gray was an easy choice for his armor; I love how it pops against his base white, and it reminds me a bit of the sanctum guards’ black and white look from MNOG. I gave him some ankle guards so his legs wouldn’t look too scrawny compared to his arms, and together I feel like they give him a pretty cool winter cloak thing.

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Breakdown

IRL Mockup (Photoshopped for Color)

POUKS:

Pouks was the first of the gang I finished, which was definitely a pleasant surprise because I had the least idea of what I wanted him to look like going into this. I initally dismissed gold armor for him because I thought it would look muddy with his brown base color, but nothing else was quite clicking so I threw pearl gold on him on a whim and it just seemed to fit perfectly with his bold personality. He’s probably got my favorite shoulder armor of the group too.

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Breakdown

IRL Mockup (Photoshopped for Color)

HEIGHT COMPARISON:

Left to Right: Iruini, Kualus, Gaaki, Bomonga, Norik, Pouks, Whenua

Alterations:
I DO give consent for my mask to be altered in the final group art if the artist chooses. (I am a liiittle attached to the ones I’ve picked, so I’d like to request this only be done to prevent duplicate masks on the team. That said, at the end of the day it’s your choice)

I DO NOT give consent for my metallic color choice to be altered in the final group art if the artist chooses. (I put a lot of thought into these and think each just suits the character too well for me to change at this point, if it means an inconsistent ratio in the final team I’m at peace with that ¯_(ツ)_/¯ )

I DO consent for my spear tip to be altered in the final group art if the artist chooses for Bomonga and Pouks.

I DO NOT consent for my spear tip to be altered in the final group art for Gaaki and Kualus.

Links:
Drive Folder (with all images and stud.io file)
The BioPack
The GalvaPack

Hope these live up to some of y’all’s imaginations! Best of luck to everyone who entered!

[Kanohi_Cantri]

Solid builds with a great color scheme. Nothing too complex, but each one is unique appropriately adhering to a team dynamic. Very well done. Good luck in the competition.

[Gringat]

I really recommend SwampKryakwa’s colorpack for Kualus’ gunmetal. It genuinely just looks silver when you render it using the base Stud.io colours.

[Voxovan]

These gotta be my favourite ones so far, although I’m not a fan of how the metallic colors look in the rendered images. Other than that, these Hagah are pretty great!

[Atobe_Brick]

They look pretty good! My favorite is Bomonga.

although the heavy resemblance to someone else’s entry is a little sussy wussy

[Stuubh]

Your Gaaki and Kualus might be two of my favorites so far. They resemble @Synnova32’s (one of my favorites), but feel closer to the original two Hagah sets. It all looks great. Can’t say I like the HF hands though…

[Tsouk]

“That’s a bit sussy”
Though tbh when the entire competition is restricted to one build and aesthetic there are bound to be similar designs

[Toa-of-Onions]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I definitely have noticed some surprisingly close entries, but for the record I pinky swear I did have all these built in stud.io before the entry period started. I think like Tsouk said it’s just a matter of limited resources. I wanted to submit them sooner, but spent a lot of time messing with different lighting settings, laying out the breakdown shots, taking a few days to render the pics in the quality I wanted, and just being busy with real life stuff in between. But hey, if something that looks really close to one of mine ends up winning I’ll just be happy it’s close enough to how I pictured them lol

Also! Will look into that color pack. I cant guarantee I’ll be able to swap and render it quick enough to edit the entry, but it would be nice to have a darker gunmetal

[TheJerminator]

These are pretty good. They really fit with the existing Hagah.

I absolutely love the way Bomonga’s cheeks slits on his mask match the slits on his shoulders. Cool colour choice as well.

I’m still not a fan of the gold + brown combo, but you’re far from the first person to do this. (And the bright gold still looks better than flat gold)

[Synnova32]

Now that you mention it, our Gaaki and Kualus interpretations do look eerily identical, save the limb functions.

Best of luck in the polls nonetheless! Cheers to having similar tastes, my dude!