Uniter Nikuu & Kuzzar (United Elements)

[ajtazt]

And the G2 Marathon continues! This week, Stone begins!

And for those interested in entering in the marathon, you have one week left for Fire

Inspired by the Toa, who have since left for the stars, the Protectors decided to find their own creatures to pair with. After getting some modifications from Ekimu, each found a critter blessed by one of the Element Creatures. And with the rising darkness from Skull Caster and other new foes, this partnership could not come at a better time.

Nikuu & Kuzzar:

Poses will come at the end of the marathon, evidently. I did not get the number of hours planned on and needed for more fun photos yesterday.

Uniter Nikuu:

Designer’s Notes: Not many changes from his set counterpart. I had considered adding Pohatu Master’s secondary weapon on as a flail to the end, but decided against it. The blaster was fine enough. Ended up removing the feet spikes since I didn’t think they were really adding anything and exaggerated the arm bones because I think it’s more fun. Like with Narmoto, added a Vorox armor piece to make them seem more in line with the Toa Uniters.

Also, I’m so glad the eBay lot I got well over a decade ago at this point had a mostly complete Gukko. It’s the only set that has the Technic parts in the colors needed to create the illusion of the CCBS beneath the 2015 armor add-on. Not sure what colors I would have used in its stead.

Kuzzar:

Blessed by Ketar for leading him to a safe oasis while he was hunted by Umarak, this vulture has been a long guardian of the Stone Region. Kuzzar especially disliked the invading Skull Spiders and would demonstrate to them how an old bird would obtain brain worms to munch on.

Wings Flared:

In Flight:

Designer’s Notes:

If you’re wondering why the back/body is built like that, it wasn’t meant for a bird-shaped body originally. I was taking the basic function Ikir and several others shared and inverting it so the two gears swept side-to-side rather than the forward-and-back motion. But then I added some armored shells on the front of the body, realized it could look like wings and it sort of had a bird stature. So it became bird…A functionless bird, since the gear mechanism no longer made sense.

United:

Three down, three left to go. As always, comments and criticism are welcomed.

[Ghid]

Like with the last two, it looks like Nikuu has a weird backpack rather than a creature that’s actually united with him. I quite like the creature, but the lack of a proper face makes it feel very uncanny and threatening, which may have been the intent. I also don’t know how in the world you got it to pose leaned so far forward without keeling over, so I will assume that you are using magic in all of your photos from now on.

[ajtazt]

If it was magic, I wish it also perfected lighting and made it so when they’re shrunk to internet friendly sizes they weren’t in worse quality.

Believe it or not, it was leaning even more prior to photos. But it needed a hard and flat surface for that. It’s still on my to-do list to obtain a table to set my lightbox on, so it’s resting on carpet. And fighting the fickle nature of carpet on the smooth plastic surface of the background? A weird pain. Sometimes there’s no balance issue with them facing towards the camera, but then I turn them for a side shot and they can’t stand at all.

And for anyone wondering, I free hand all my photos. There’s no tripod, no stand. When I need something more than the ground for video portions, I grab the nearest box-like object and use that. If I’m not cross-legged and hunched over taking photos, I’m on my stomach or lowering the camera down and taking the photos blind because of the lightbox’s front lip. With how big the box is, you wouldn’t think I would need the camera so close to the entrance for most of my shots, but for some reason it works that way a lot.

As for the face, it’s half intentional. I wanted to give proper eyes, but couldn’t find a solution I was happy with. It was still supposed to be threatening, because vulture, just not a blind terror.

[Zhyndea]

I like the protector upgrade–part 69858 looks really good underneath the Vorox armor. Kuzzar is definitely the most clear of the new creatures you’ve posted so far, although I agree with Ghid that the unification once again adds little to the Protector. I like the way you attached Kuzzar’s wings!