Greetings, everyone,
As my first post on the TTV boards, I woould like to share with you my entry to the Toa Helryx CC#1 ‘The First’. When I read about Toa Helryx in the B lore, I’ve always pictured her as someone short of height, blue and medium blue color schemed (I tried to avoid the silver one, because there are already many silver pieces used in a lot of official MOC’s and sets, and the Glatorian wave showed us that return to the old solid colors make everything better), always serious or angry and all of her armour and Kanohi covered in spikes, you know, this kind of character who is strong in personality despite it’s fisical “weak” appearance. Helryx must represent “the Sea” more rather than water, and from all water bodies, seas are the oldest ones. Although I did not managed to depic the “frail” literal description, I’ve tried to follow my very own conception of the Leader of the Order of Mata Nui:
I made her look like an armored Toa Mata with blue and medium blue color scheme, using pieces with spikes or coral-texture within their designs. She’s spike-armored from toe to head with white spikes details puring all over. She’s the sieze of a normal Toa Inika (aprox. 21cm without Kanhi) and 14 points of articulation. I did not concetrated a lot in the Kanohi, since the will be another contest to define that. G2 Master Gali should do fine for now.
Let’s see a breakdown of the build for more details:
All of this beginning is just pieces to manage to get the Toa Mata foot to be used as part of her torso.
I added the final lower torso cover plate which is held in place with 4L axle with stop. Spike details can be added from this point forward.
With lots of Tehcnic pieces I managed to fully complete upper torso, which actually looks really nice for an old Technic building, but, hey, it is supposed to be the first Toa ever made and must use old techniques and pieces to my opinion, I even added the back gear from Toa Mata builds, and despite it spins freely, it does not power any function, looks cool, though. Bohrok eyes gives the final touches (I love that piece, can be used in so many ways).
Yes, people, NUVA BOOBS. I’m a little disappointed on me, because I’ve tried to get the Nuva shoulder armors over friction balls in sockects, but it was impossible without making the building bulkier, so I had to leave it like this. Anyway, I think Gahlok’s weapon covered the chest really nice. I had to make the neck with a double friction ball beacuse Toa Metru head or Mata head style did not fit with the entire building, and since it had to be connected to the socket from torso (which is crucial for shoulders to assamble correctly) I had no choice but to connect those 2 pieces from generations apart with the balls. It may not look nice, but I’m pretty sure a great, big spiky Kanohi design should hide it just fine. I finally added a stud on trans-neon green to combine with the brain color and it is a little detail we all took inspiration from the movies.
Feet must have that back support so the final building can stand and balance right. Lower leg combines Bohrok eyes and CCBS claw to make a 3 spiked armor. Upper leg must have this round shape like hips to go along well with the torso’s butt. And yes, I had to paint one Carapar armor because I only had one in the right color (did you spot the difference?). All together looks great as it suggests the S-shape like body most females present.
Arms came up really nice and simple. Foot on foot is something that came along good with the rest of texture and spikes, complemented with the white spikes which make a full semi-circle with the Toa Inika spiky foot.
Finally, weapons. I like to think, since Helryx is small, her shield must be a small one with elegant or null details, so she can move faster in battle. I was heavily inspired by the Sword& Shield weapon from the Monster Hunter saga. Shiled came along really nice with the spiky saw from the past Artic LEGO sets, combined with a dish from the JW Gyrosphere franchise and the final light gray dish just make it looks like it is made from Protosteel. For the mace, it must be spiky, small, and blue. I was trying to assamble something completely different when I got the final design and, oh, man, it looks so cool, it is way to simple, it combines really great with the texture of the Inika and Mata foot and it matches the right size.
What I like:
- All the pieces tune-in really nice, they all match the coral texture and spiky image I imagined
- Two foot armor connection, shiled and mace are some really nice techniques I’ve not yet seen before
- Nice color schme balance. No silver nor dark blue colors were used. Silver colors is a tendency that brought down BIONICLE, in my opinion.
What I dislike:
- I think torso is a little bit bulkier than it should be
- Neck connection could do some work, even if torso shloud be modified
- No specific Kanohi design. (it must be blue, spiky, has an angry expression and must be Kanohi nuva sized). Sorry folks, I have no more time to design it right now.
So, the final model came all together pretty good and, despite I know it may not be the best and has a lot to improve, it really satisfied me, I pushed myself over creative barriers I had and learned to used lots of pieces, it is really fun!
Hope you all like it and all comments are always welcome, please leave them below, I wish to hear your thoughts! If you think of a nice Kanohi that fits Helryx, please share it!
Best luck to all!