Violently grabs the topic you’re reading and forces you to look at me.
Hey there! Before I go on my usual story and lore rants, I’m going take you on a journey. So if you would, indulge for the moment.
Back on April 19th, 2023, an idea came to mind. I really enjoyed the Lariska builds that were combo models of Nidhiki and Krekka, so what if the Makuta of Stelt was made with the same method? A combo model of our two Steltian boys Sidorak and Krekka. Could be fun and not a direction most would take for the minor Makuta. After solving a minor problem of not having all the parts for Krekka, I started experimenting on April 29th, 2023.
First thing I realized very quickly was that, being old school Bionicle titans, they’re more Technic than Bionicle. Meaning, the most precious resources are 2L pegs, 3L pegs, 2L half-peg/half-axels, and 2L axels. Liftarms are, of course, also very useful but the connectors even more so in this case. An abundance of beams, a handful of pins and axels, and few Bionicle parts to armor the frame. And while normally my friend, the titan sockets proved almost to be too numerous for my limited inventory to shore them up. The first build below certain consumed too many of my precious resources.
If you couldn’t tell, I had no idea on what direction I wanted for the Makuta of Stelt. The black “limbs” there aren’t limbs but wings. At this stage, there are no arms and the options to finish out the legs weren’t great. However, I did think the torso was mostly neat.
Like with my HF Dragon Slayer Revamp, where the thought occur to take Fire Lord’s legs and rebuild it to operate sideways, I wondered what a sideways version of the traditional titan torso construction would be like. Initially, that was kept standalone, but it would have made any attached arms look weird. So the traditional torso build got smushed into it.
But getting nowhere with the design overall, I scrapped it and started over. This time, I decided I should focus on the head first and build out the body. Which resulted in…
…a cycloptic elephant. I thought the Metru head with the Vahki head looked like a Pope hat and was trying to figure out what to do for eyes. Which evolved into what you see there. I did briefly consider finishing up the elephant, but I don’t think it would have been possible as the combo model. That and I was trying to build the Makuta of Stelt, not an elephant. So back to the drawing board.
After tearing that apart, I would spend on and off weekends going back and trying my hand at the design. But if you’re paying attention to dates, not long was Biocup and that about fried me out for the rest of the year. That and the year was filled with a lot of other non-Lego projects, conventions, and traveling. But I figured, hey, I’ll just get it done next year.
Yes calendar, I see you staring at me because it’s almost the end of 2025 and not anywhere in 2024. So…what, happened? I did return to the initial build and made several modifications and variants, none of which were documented, and kept scrapping them. Between that, Biocup burnout, some more important projects, and a whole lot of life nonsense, I didn’t get far. The lack of direction also really didn’t help. Especially when most of the time I had to build is on Sundays, which I am completely dead from the week prior.
Due do how much more hectic things have been getting, as shown in 2023 and 2024, I figured some more formal project planning was in order. Start of the year, I was created a spreadsheet with every creative work I wanted to spend time on. If that project was not completed by end of year, it would be killed and dropped forever. This scared several of my friends, who are waiting on some other yet to be public revealed projects to be finished. But figured if that didn’t motivate me, what else would? And this was on the bucket list. Either it would be done or dead.
That spreadsheet was thrown out by March. I won’t disclose why, but there’s a lot more than just Brickworld and rebuilding a ton of MOCs as for the reason why I haven’t done a lot this year. But when the Spare Parts put up that shopping spree challenge, it did make me really reconsider finishing the combo model WIP this year. After all, both Sidorak and Krekka were an option. Aside from it already being a multi-year headache, I figured that wouldn’t be fair or truly participating in the challenge if I just resumed this build. So we got the Pit Mantis Shrimp instead, for which I’m very happy with.
And now, finally, it’s done. But they’re no longer the Makuta of Stelt, so let me introduce you do who it became instead. Say hello to…wait, hold on.
Lets go of the topic to resume our normally scheduled flavor text.
Wresorak, the Matchmaker of Stelt. So called as it is he who arranges and sets up most of the gladiatorial fights on Stelt. Tired of the constant in-fighting, Wresorak figured he would at least make some money and get entertainment by organizing these fight pits and swiftly grew into the largest ring on the island. Unfortunately for the clan leader, one of Wresorak’s best fighters became too enthralled in one match and ripped his arm off, killed all his guards, destroyed the arena, and eventually took most of the island to stop. Only for the Dark Hunters to steal his prized fighter. After getting his arm replaced, Wresorak swore payback on the Dark Hunters and would make a point to capture and enslave any hunters that came to the island.
Aside from these weak Dark Hunters, Wresorak and his underlings would often take advantage of refugees fleeing from Visorak conquered islands. Enslaving them and forcing them into his fighting pits. Even going to other islands on occasion to offer marriages and other alliances, only to take them as new slaves to die in the ring.
Until Wresorak finally met his end by the hands of the old prized fighter. The Shadowed One had enough of his antics and gave Gladiator a bonus objective while he investigated Stelt for the Visorak rumors. And just like in the arena, no mercy was given.
Before his death, Wresorak possessed the Enragement Rhotuka. It filled the target with blinding rage towards a specific being, forcing them to fight to the death. Only wearing off from pure exhaustion or being knocked out. His robotic claw could be fired at foes as a makeshift harpoon and had a Kanoka Launcher that was usually armed with Reconstitute at Random disks. His eyes were modified with special lenses that allowed him to see the strength of a creature/being, their weak points, and fighting skills.
Body Turnaround:
