Gathered Friends!
I’m here to show you my interpretation of Toa Tuyet for Fanon Contest by DuckBricks 
Main Photo:
Tuyet combines three different faces: the guardian of the city of Metru Nui and its inhabitants, the hungry for power Matoran murderer, and the ruler of the Toa Empire. That is why, as a point of honor, I decided to choose the pieces in such a way that the final result would represent all three faces of our heroine.
Let’s start with the legs. I wanted to make it easy to recognize that Tuyet was a woman just by looking at her. It quickly became clear that to achieve this effect, her legs had to be longer than those of the Toa Lhikan. For the calf, I’ve chosen the element number 53574 that best reflects this part of the body and filled it from the back so that the legs do not seem to have holes. To build her thighs, I decided to go for a custom build. At the same time, I wanted to keep a bit of the Toa Metru style, so I crowned the custom thigh with the 20475 brick, the lower half of which looks like the evolution of the 47299 brick. And the top half looks menacing ^^ This element is attached in such a way as to be able to rotate slightly, so that armor pieces do not interfere with legs movement.
About the torso, I decided to perform a procedure similar to that used in Lhikan and Norik sets, that is building the Toa Metru torso base in a two different colors, other for the main part and other for brick that legs are attached to. I’ve kept the Metru Blue bottom part, but the base of the torso remains black. This procedure allowed me to creatively personalize the torso, as many more bricks are available in black. To keep a slim, feminine figure, I decided not to cover her stomach with any armor. So I only added a few details to round the waist, and I crowned the breast with a red lamp representing the heart. I used a gearbox that allows you to move your right hand and on her back you can find an additional gear that allows you to lock the mechanism in a specific position. Of course, if someone doesn’t like gears on the back, the torso can be very easily modified to eliminate the mechanism.
When building her arms, I wanted to use a brick that will make them longer, as Tuyet is a Toa of Water, so she needs wide arms to allow her to swim. Toa Metru’s standard hands would be far too short. The arms are placed on ball joints, which ensures better articulation. I’ve covered them with the same armor as the thighs, and covered the empty ball socket with CCBS shells. Thanks to this, the whole structure looks elegant and menacing at the same time, emphasizing the duality of Tuyet’s character.
I finished the whole thing with the already known interpretation of her mask, but due to the problem with finding the filament in the right color, I printed it in black. While the result is not bad, I believe that if my Tuyet somehow wins, people who will use her in theirs stop motion animations etc. should change the mask color on Metru-blue, because in its current state, black is a bit too much predominant over blue. The figure is slightly taller than Toa Lhikan, but when you put them both next to each other, the disproportion is not that striking. Tuyet towers by more or less the height of hers head, but thanks to this, she looks better against the Takanuva from 2008. Still, her height does not exceed the threshold beyond which she would no longer look like a beleviable part of the universe, when you’ll compare her to the existing canon Toa. Her proportions are optimal in my opinion.
The biggest problem was the Tuyet’s barbed broadsword. I considered making a fish-spine like blade using a large amount of 24122 pieces as a base, but the figure’s arm only rests on one ball socket and too heavy weapon would obstruct articulation. Therefore, in the end, I decided to use 20480 sword as a placeholder, allowing, as with the mask, for the shape of the blade to be determined by others, as there is no LEGO element that has spikes curved in the right direction. Still, the brick I’ve chosen has hooks directed towards the handle, so it’s not so bad.
I’ve put a lot of work into the design of the hilt to make it look like a part of an aquatic Rahi’s body to suggest that it was a weapon belonging to the Toa of Water. I also used a technique that allows Tuyet’s broadsword to be hung on the belt behind her back.
I wanted the whole structure to be simple enough so that, if it won, others could relatively easily obtain the necessary parts to build their own copies. So I didn’t use bricks that were hard to find on Bricklink, nor did I use part-spamming.
The final construction does not use illegal building techniques. The images you see are real, raw photos, they are not idealized renders masking the imperfections of the build with various graphic effects so I think my Tuyet looks very good.
Finally, a bit of creative freedom: a cape and the levitating Nui Stone to emphasize Tuyet’s imperious nature as ruler of the Toa Empire:
Below you will find a link to the video where I present whole MOC from all sides:
How to build her:
Mask source:
Good luck, everyone
/Taohe Netrus
Edit:
Use grey version of tan piece used by me in the shoulders, looks much better
