Toa Zaria
Hello there, I present you my interpretation of our best known Toa of Iron 
I feel like my idea of what a Toa of Iron should look like has always been different from how most of the BIONICLE community portrays them. I imagined them as lean, almost skeletal warriors who, thanks to their metal-creating power, didn’t need bulky armor, since they could craft their own armor on the fly if need be. And of course, I’ve always held to the principle that canon Toa should use the Metru Torso. But from what I’ve seen, the fandom prefers Zaria as a Toa Bomonga-style build - a wide, bulky colossus wearing massive-looking armor, and as I’ve seen in recent DuckBricks contests, Metru Torso MOCs aren’t supported by too many voters.
Therefore, I decided that instead of submitting my original Zaria design (which I will link at the end of this post so you can compare the two designs), I’ll build a new version, adjusted to the community’s preferences. I’ve started with a custom torso, of course. As always, I wanted to build it using some unconventional solution, so as a brick around which I’ll build the rest of the torso, I’ve chosen… a good old cannon. At the stage of covering it, I had to pick a consistent color scheme. I decided that instead of trying to build a MOC using a lot of elements that appeared in only 2-3 sets, I’ll try to create a build that will be easy to recreate and won’t cause the prices of elements on Bricklink to increase. Therefore, instead of adapting to the fandom’s unnecessary complications, I decided to go with a common orange. I added some gunmetal accents, and built the base from easily available black elements, leaving only the spine dark gray to break up the uniformity a bit. After all, gunmetal tends to blend in with black.
I designed the legs to look suitably massive, while also providing good poseability and stability. I feel like this is the part of the MOC that turned out to look the best.
For the hands, I used the hand design I came up with back in the Bomonga contest (which I ultimately didn’t enter due to size restrictions), only modifying the arms so that they wouldn’t clash with the shoulder pads from Hero Factory.
I wasn’t sure what mask to choose, but in the end I decided to support iylv by promoting his extremely creatively thought-out design. Unfortunately, I haven’t any gunmetal filament or paint, so my MOC uses a black mask, but if my MOC somehow wins first place, I’ll draw art showing my Zaria with the Kanohi in the right color.
As for the weapon, I simply moved the scepter I designed for my previous Zaria, as its design fits both of my MOCs.
The final result achieved exactly what I was aiming for: the MOC looks massive but good, is stable, poseable, and you can collect all the parts you need relatively cheaply. Apart from the mask, it doesn’t require printing or painting parts, doesn’t use any rare bricks, scales well with Orde and Chiara, who won in previous contests, and is consistent with them stylistically.
I hope this design will be well received by fans 
If you want to see photos of this MOC in better quality, check out this link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qlUbnoh2Y7tC6a06bF6V1mM-LSuv1ZHB?usp=sharing
Here’s a link to the 3D model of the mask I’ve used:
(MonoSiphon version)
360° spin video:
Building timelapse video:
Previous version of my Zaria:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsCFFl9rC5a/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
~ Taohe Netrus ~
