To whom it may concern,
Thank you for viewing my MOC. I have had several projects in the past that were so ambitious as to be ruined by my limited parts collection and turning a good MOC’s concept into a poorly executed mess. I’m only 14 but LEGO has been my life since forever, and I’m much more keen in building with System than CCBS, so please forgive this MOC should you find it mediocre at best, much like the lighting in these quick shots I took.
The idea of this MOC is toa Vakama from an alternate universe where the other Toa Metru are swiftly destroyed by Turaga Dume and the Vahki. Vakama roams the mutated wasteland of the island, succumbing to the mutinagenic effects of Makuta’s darkness and growing more evil each day. The Makuta eventually gain complete control of Vakama and puts him in a deep sleep. He is then transported far into the future of the regular Bionicle timeline on Mata Nui (after Makuta is intially vanquished) with his new cyborg body and equipment to revive Teridax, and make a clean sweep of the island, intending to destroy every last Matoran…
His equipment includes a jetpack, a “HyperTorch” flamethrower, a double pronged spear/sheild-like weapon, and heavy duty Tungsten-alloy armor, with its material stripped from our own universe during Vakama’s journey to future Mata Nui.
His proportions and build are inspired by the profile of covenant elites from the Halo franchise, with a large, hunched back, low shoulders, wide calves and large, toed feet, and a slouched neck. He is also meant to carry the zany proportions of the characters of Transformers: Animated with a thin waist but a wide torso. Initially, the character was supposed to be a shipmaster, with some armor to show allegiance with his troops but patches missing (hence the exposed red parts) to allow mobility and comfort and reduce weight.
My biggest goal going into the project was creating a body without the Inika build. This, for me, meant creating one with pieces from scratch, which was accomplished well. However, the cramped space in the torso’s build made it nearly impossible for me to create shoulders with articulation.This is when I began imagining hunched over, hulking warriors with great strength but lumbering movement. So I kept the forearms minimally consumed with decorative kibble and tried to make a fulfilling range of elbow movement. I’m certainly happy with the result. The figure accomplishes my vision, so playability was the last thing on my mind.
There really is no shortage of kibble on the MOC, but I feel it all creates an interesting detail and adds to the artificial demeanor. I enjoyed incorporating the hoses and tiny, nearly invisible gears wherever space would allow just to have no idea what they would do. The transparent green tube from the backpack to the flamethrower is obviously supplying flammable material for the flamethrower to spew out, but why are there valves extending from the shoulders? A good MOC should always make the viewer think like this.
Thanks for taking a look! I’m nothing special, but I would really appreciate if Ven took a peek at this even on his own time, just because of how much the MOC spotlights have inspired me to build. Hopefully random viewers appreciate this too. Its amazing what such a small amount of pieces can do.
-Bailey Lemire