Tell me what you think! Likes, comments, and C&C highly appreciated
Also cridit for Tahu’s head design goes to @1000Purse30 for his mixel eyes head how-to, who I guess gave credit to @Omega_Tahu, so thank you both.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison with the last version
This looks great dude. I don’t believe they’re an improvement uo mine, no, they look like entirely their own thing and take the proportion and posture into a different direction. Actually, strangely, an opposing direction in some areas, and then additional extremes to the creative license I took. For example, the posture of the shoulders and neck, my design has an inherent hiccup that I actually like, where the posture of the back bending backward still maintains a relaxed look in front because the chest is at a flat diagonal. Yours is bent back but actually shows posture change in front and in back. The hips being wide are the most noticable proportional change (I mean, amongst everything else as the proportions are all different) change, but, again, it’s an opposing extreme; mine are too thin (purposely – the mod allows me to set them however I please)
Do I think it’s more accurate? No, but several of the details are. The aesthetic as a whole, so proportions and what’s filled out aren’t. And do I prefer it? No, but I still really like what you did and look forward to the rest.
However, the most interesting thing here is the shoulder design, because the setup for the internal shoulder joint is close to identical to a MOC I did this january, but only showed to friends as I never finished all of its accessories. Gallery here:
Wow, you’re right, the shoulders are basically identical, which I find funny since I hadn’t seen this until now.
As for the hip width, I see that also. The mixel joints I used wouldn’t allow for me to reduce it. There is a peice I could have used, but it would have compromised the pistons, which I feel are the main feature here, to be completely honest.
As for everthing else, certainly valid criticism. I completely understand you liking your own moc over mine, (after all, I still like yours over mine anyway) and I really appreciate you taking the time to review this. You don’t know this of course, but your work (not just on the toa mata, but in general) really inspired me in working with proportions and articulation, as well as posing, so seeing that you see this is really refreshing to me.
I’m glad that I inspired you. dude. I’ve been doing a lot of unpublished work that focusses on different proportioning styles, so that’s a neat coincidence.
Are you going to work more on proportions here or are you going to just go right ahead and start on the other toa?
Do you also plan on making physical renditions of the figures? Seems like there’ll be a lot of problems with colors.
Yes, actually as of now I’ve finished all of the toa (I’ve moved to stud.io where they actually have Kopaka’s sword and Gali’s hooks), but I can still change proportions. Also, I do plan on making physical renditions, but I’ll be painting parts that don’t come in that color (I just hope I can find the right colors of paint) I’ll say the one thing about this design I’m happy with is that you can easily mod it to work for pohatu, but the back posture problem you mentioned really shows on him, since now his back is really oddly shaped.
Keep in mind you’re using plenty of parts that are all different plastics. The piston setup, for example, is comprised entirely of polycarbonate pieces (bottom piece may be ABS but I doubt it), also the towball piece on the waist joint is polyamide, while every joint MADE for the mixels sets are polycarbonate.
So make sure to find the right paint for each. I don’t see you using any POM parts, which is good, as POM is near impossible to get a proper paint coat on.
Good to know. I’ll have to look into what paints go on which type of plastic. (I’m also going to see if I can thin up the waist and reengineer the shoulders so I have a second design with narrower shoulders, so some of them will have wide shoulders and some narrow, like the original sets, and I kind of have an idea for that already.)
Just so I know, how do I tell the difference between the two plastics?
Also, one last thing, I’ve never actually worked with mixel joints irl. How strong would you say the friction is, and would paint lower the friction or increase it?
Here’s a generic non scientific guide that I’m making based on personal experience with plastics. The final statements following a semi colon are only examples I know for certain are the plastic, they are not a full list of everything in that material.
PC (polycarbonate) pieces don’t show stress marks, should sink in water; almost all bionicle joints are polycarbonate, all mixel joints are polycarbonate
ABS shows stress marks, breaks much easier on purpose compared to everything else here (although it’s very rigid); all normal bricks without extensions are ABS
POM (polyoxymethylene) snaps when you take a knife to it and bend, toughest plastic of the group; all axle rods are POM
PA (polyamide or nylon) you can dent with your nail, only piece I know for sure is PA are some grey technic pieces and the towball you’re using for the waist here. There’s a lot more PA bricks but they’re hard to distinguish from PP
PP (polypropylene) is like nylon, but often has a glossy finish; any soft bionicle masks and weapons, or ones you can dent with your nail, are PP.
Mixel joints stick (squeak if you prefer it, it’s all “stick and slip”) the same way bionicle joints do, at least modern ones. I don’t know what paint you’d use but often any material that isn’t the same plastic will reduce the coefficient of friction, so I assume paint would do the same. I also doubt you’ll be able to get any paint on there that’ll stay on with all of the wear from moving the joint, so try to just paint everything other than the ball.
