Wanitama - The Red Titan (Gilahu's BP Makuta revamps)

Name: Wanitama
Kanohi: Hau, Great Mask of Shielding
Assigned region: Rusa
Status: Dead

Backstory:

Unlike most of his brethren, Wanitama was more interested in studying and creating the plants of the universe, rather than Rahi. Especially the fact that many plant species predated the Makuta, while only few Rahi did, fascinated him. Wanitama spent many years traveling the universe and collecting plant species, the results of his work being an extensive herbarium on Destral, and the establishment of a botanical garden on the island of Rusa, once the island had served its role as a testing grounds for new ecoysystems.

Wanitama contributed more plant species to the universe than any other Makuta, and it was said he had close connections to the Matoran Bo-tribe who were the preservers of all plants in the universe. In general Wanitama was one of the most friendly Makuta, supporting anyone who showed genuine interest in botany, no matter who they were. Wanitama’s fellow Makuta looked at this waste of time with slight amusement, but even they found it hard to truly dislike Wanitama. It wasn’t uncommon for Wanitama to recommend lab assistants to other Makuta, if he liked them and thought they were up to serving the Brotherhood. The more traditional Rahi creators often took on these protégé’s of his, and indeed often found their talents useful. Other Makuta insisted on picking their own assistants, however, and disapproved of giving actual scholars potential access to some of the Brotherhood’s most close-guarded secrets.

As Wanitama had mainly been working on Rusa for a couple hundred years already, he was quickly assigned to the uninhabited island after the end of the Matoran Civil War. He cared for his botanical collection there for many more centuries, until on an excursion to the southern islands he came across a new plant species which proved to be fatal. Taking a specimen with him back to Rusa, the plant turned out to reproduce rapidly, and the more plants there were, the more spores filled the air around them. Unbeknownst to Wanitama, these spores - while seemingly harmless - built up a latent poisoning in those who breathed them in. Thus one day, a visiting Bo-Matoran found Wanitama’s corpse on Rusa, lying right where just before his death, Wanitama had been carefully trimming his prized collection.

When the Brotherhood learned of Wanitama’s death, many were shocked that such a mundane fate could befall one of their number. As they did not find someone willing to take over Rusa, and feared spread of the toxic plant species, it was decided to sell Rusa to the Vortixx, who soon destroyed the entire island in a weapons test to gain better access for their ships to Metru Nui. The creation of new plant species by the Brotherhood fell into neglect afterwards, though Teridax himself accessed Wanitama’s notes again for creation of the Karzahni, and later the Morbuzakh.

Size comparison and poseability:

Just saw that apparently it’s been over a year since my last Makuta revamp… I blame the canon contests, though private matters certainly also played a role.

Anyways, here we have the revamp of @darkbrick999’s Makuta Wanitama Makuta Wanitama

I based my revamp on the original, but if you want to see a revamp by darkbrick, see here.

So, what’s there to say… I wanted to build something in Mata red, which is not a colour I often use - which was the whole motivation of why I did Wanitama and not some other Makuta I deemed more in need of a revamp. I also thought more yellow would go well with it, so had the chance to use a second colour I hardly ever use. And of course the bulk made for a challenging, but also refreshing change from more human-proportioned builds. What I specifically wanted to do was get similar feet to the original without using the part used there. And also finally I could use those red Axalara shields for something. As the original had gears, I wanted to incorporate some into my build as well. Unfortunately gears don’t really work well with keeping a build free of gaps, but overall I think I managed fine.

Ah, and before I forget it - Wanitama is number 18 of my planned 100 Makuta revamps… if I counted correctly. Links to the others and the originals can still be found here.

Guess that’s it from me for now. Hope you enjoy, C&C appreciated!

40 Likes

The one critique I’d have is that the mask kinda blends into the rest of it - everything in the neck area is the same color, so it’s hard to make the mask out. Maybe adding a bit more black and yellow into the area could help, or maybe changing the next to give the head a bit more of a distinct silhouette.

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This is a really cool backstory detail.

This entire build is really impressive. The colour scheme is very consistent, and I especially like how it’s distributed in the legs.

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I’m honestly awed by how great an adaptation this is. Even though I prefer the light blue to the yellow, this looks excellent! Some of my favorite elements are the claw, which manages to make the design nice and slim, while keeping it larger than the other, and the use of the hockey chest plate (if I ever get my hands on one, I’m going to try and work it on to a future permutation of Wanitama).

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Funny thing about that hockey chest plate is that I had a blue one lying around for ages, never managing to use it anywhere. Then last year I got that red one in a random parts haul. So I thought “great, another one of those to gather dust”. Then I discovered it worked kinda well with a Rahkshi foot and that Wanitama had the bulk for it.

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Mata Red is such an excellent color, and the addition of yellow makes this really eye-catching. I like the asymmetry of the forearms, too. Great work!

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I like the little toes he has.

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I feel like his mask needs to be more mutated.

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