A Golden-Red Horizon

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the Hero Factory building system and its commonly-perceived flaws.

Chief among these is the allegation that the builds are too repetitive. It's kind of funny to read this because frankly this was a major criticism of BIONICLE builds for many years as well, and it was far from rare even when people weren't complaining about it. Remember Inika builds? They were the default build from 2006-2009, and many people really and truly hated the repetition.

But repetition in BIONICLE builds goes back even further than that. The same basic canister set leg design (foot + ball cup + lower leg beam + upper leg beam + upper leg shell) was the order of the day from 2004-2009, and in 2006 the arm construction was also changed to this default style. It could be argued quite convincingly that all but a small handful of BIONICLE canister sets (specifically Gorast, Krika, and the Visorak) from 2004-2009 were functionally identical from the waist down.

But what about torsos, one might ask? BIONICLE fans have always had a somewhat bizarre preoccupation with the torso. A new torso construction is tantamount to a new build altogether. And in fact, sets like Carapar or Mistika Toa Onua who have a new torso piece, but the same torso construction as before, tend to get a lot more leeway than those that reuse an existing torso shell. Oddly enough, prior to 2007, it was rare for any sets in a canister set or small set series to have any meaningful differences in torso build between one another. Only Pohatu in his first two forms had any meaningful difference in torso construction from his teammates.

But Hero Factory models, despite using the same two torso beams in most cases, have mixed up the torso build considerably over the past few years. Small and medium hero sets generally have a very simple torso build, but when villains are brought into the equation, we have figures like Toxic Reapa, whose armor style is completely unique to him, Jawblade, whose torso construction is integrated with his jaw and is decidedly non-humanoid, Thornraxx, who does not even use a traditional torso beam, XT4, who introduced an entirely new torso beam, and of course the villain sets of the Savage Planet arc, of which only one (Waspix) had a traditional armor style. This year, we see even more variations as Technic is incorporated into the builds to a greater extent than before.

The same question springs to mind with this issue as in the days of the Inika builds. If you are so bored of repetitive builds, what better design can you come up with to replace them? Generally, this is where complaints about repetition tend to fall apart. People don't want something better, they just want something different. The issue is that variety for variety's sake is one reason BIONICLE stopped being financially viable over the years, and generally a torso element that varied considerably from the default humanoid torso design was obsolete within a couple years. Look at the various Vahki, Rahkshi, and Visorak torso pieces as examples. Most had very limited use outside of the function they were intended to support. They could be incorporated into more unique builds given a disproportionate amount of effort, but on the whole they were simply more limited in their application than the more generic humanoid torso elements.

The Inika build lasted so long partly because the Inika torso had extremely versatile connection points, a flat, unobtrusive design that allowed it to work with many styles of armor, the potential to work with sets of various sizes, and very little extraneous detail that would become visual shorthand for a particular series of sets. Very few other torso designs could boast this kind of versatility.

Similarly, the current Hero Factory torso beams offer most of these same benefits. I can think of one major improvement that would benefit Hero Factory sets these days, just as it would have benefited BIONICLE sets: the implementation of waist articulation, with separate armor shells for the upper and lower torso. It's not a desperate need, but it'd greatly improve the number of realistic and expressive poses a Hero Factory figure could be put into.

But it's understandable that this may be a long time coming. The only BIONICLE canister set to offer full waist articulation, Pridak, demonstrated one weakness that comes with this added feature: an extra point of articulation can sometimes make it challenging for a set to support its own weight. Jointed waists are also somewhat difficult to armor with a basic modular system. So on the whole I would not be surprised to wait quite a while before a simple, intuitive, versatile design for a waist joint presents itself.

Hey, BZPower. Sorry for not being too active this past month. Life's been kind of crazy for me.

I suppose before I jump into talking about fun things like MOCs, I should get the important stuff out of the way. School has not been going well for me. I'm in my second semester studying Industrial Design, but my classes have really been a huge source of anxiety, which has at times been crippling for me. I have a couple weeks left here in Boston, but after that I'm going to take a semester off to get some counseling and therapy, perhaps try and get a job, and take time to re-evaluate my life goals, which may not be attainable through the path I'm currently on even if I can get my emotions in check.

Now, I've gotten slight relief from various opportunities to visit with family and friends. As I announced in my last entry, I went to Cloudsdale Congress over Spring Break, and it was a phenomenal experience. I definitely plan to attend other My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan conventions in the future, because it was really fun and eye-opening (giving me the chance to interact with dozens of other bronies as well as to explore areas of the fandom I hadn't yet indulged in, like the fan music). I roomed with some bronies from my hometown, and I look forward to attending some meetups with them over the summer -- they're very fun people!

After the convention I had some time to burn before my mom could pick me up and take me home, so I visited the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. On the way there, I happened to be on the subway with some of the folks from the fan project Double Rainboom, including PKEmi, who voiced Rainbow Dash (A bit of warning, I still haven't seen Double Rainboom, since I'm going to a meetup in Boston to see it tomorrow, so don't spoil it in the comments). We all had a great conversation, and Emi and I have managed to connect via social networks since then, which is great. Always nice to make a lasting connection at an event like this.

I spent just a couple days at home before I had to go down to North Carolina to visit my Nana, who has been in the hospital for a few weeks after having a fall. It was good to visit her, even though I'm worried about her. Then I took a plane from New Bern to Hartford, where my uncle from Connecticut picked me up to stay with him for a few days. My aunt and uncle have a fifteen-month-old baby who's a joy to spend time with, and it was great to spend the next couple days there before getting on the bus to get back to school.

Since then I spent last weekend with my aunt and uncle again to celebrate my birthday (March 29) and Easter, and I got to see them and my baby cousin once more just last night when my aunt came up to Boston for a conference. It's so wonderful watching my baby cousin grow up and learn to explore the world, and I hope even over the summer when I'm not as close by I can still find time to visit them.

Now, as far as LEGO is concerned, I've mostly been working with LEGO Digital Designer lately, since that had a considerable update recently. Most notably, it includes over 600 new decorations, including almost every decoration from Collectible Minifigures series 1-8! However, as is often the case, these were not mapped to the parts that use them in the software's code, meaning that I had to edit them into LXFML files myself. You can download my LXF of Minifigures Series 1-9 here. Note that parts from Series 1-8 which could not be decorated correctly are colored 294 Phosphorescent Green to differentiate them, and that some decoration surfaces like the Small Clown's hat and all decorated minifigure arms distort the decorations placed on them.

Additionally, I recently got some major progress reverse-engineering the stunning Hero Factory MOC by Christoffer Raundahl which I mentioned in this entry. You can see my results here:



LXF Download

Errors include six parts left off of the arms (two shells due to an illegal connection and four hoses due to being too fiddly and frustrating to connect correctly), four substitutions (the custom head, the square shell detail elements on the heels, and the speaker shell detail element on the chest), four parts within the torso build not connected correctly (the shoulder suspension beams, which were giving me a lot of grief, and the hoses that connect the legs to the torso), and finally some parts potentially missing from the back, including whatever parts are meant to connect the wings to the back -- sadly, I do not have any pics of the back of this MOC.

The final model would probably contain around 225 pieces and cost $50-60 as a retail model. I have managed to build a considerable portion of this model (the torso, one leg, and one upper arm) in real life to ensure that fiddly parts like the arm and leg suspension work correctly, and it's just as brilliant in its design as I imagined. It has, among other things, revealed to me just how narrow-minded I have been in envisioning uses for the 3M double ball cup (98565) introduced in Stormer XL, since despite its few connection points this piece is an invaluable structural element. Truly I would love to see this model, or a similar model derived from its design, as an official set.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for today. Overall, I'm doing my best to maintain a positive outlook and take each week one day at a time. It's been a bit rough but I'm confident that once I'm back home I will have plenty of time to work on putting myself back together and finding a path I'm willing to pursue.

Taking the bus down from Boston to D.C., then the Metro to Alexandria. Gonna be hanging out with the brony group from my hometown I recently learned of. It's gonna be tight.

Oh, I'm sorry, is my outdated slang bothering you? Let me reconfigure.

It's gonna be crucial.

Well, it turns out Kit Martello didn't perform too well in the BBC contest, only getting around seven votes in the first round of polling. I don't feel too bad about not winning, since there was a lot of talent in the contest, but it still bothers me that most of my feedback concerning Kit has been largely negative. Regardless, I think Sparkytron's Eris is due a round of congratulations for emerging victorious in the final poll. There are several things I dislike about this MOC, particularly the stand, but it's still a work of art in the end.

In other MOCing news, I've posted a topic of my various tablescraps over the past few months. Now, I don't mean "tablescraps" in a negative sense. I'm quite proud of these, and none of them are bare-bones Heromods. But compared to Kit Martello these were all fairly simple endeavors. I anticipate bringing Kit Martello and some of these MOCs (particularly my good buddy Bogwaddle) to Brickfair Virginia this year. I'm hoping to continue modding some of these in the meantime, and perhaps scrapping some of the more basic ones to open those pieces back up for experimentation.

One set I've been hoping to get lately, both for its MOCing potential and for its brilliance as a model, is 70500 Kai's Fire Mech from the Ninjago line. But frustratingly, none of the stores around where I'm attending college seem to have it. Still, I'm keeping a sharp lookout for it, and will not be afraid to get it online if double VIP points happen before I find it in a brick-and-mortar store.

So that's what's up on the LEGO/MOCing side of things. Schoolwork and other obligations have been keeping me from dedicating long stretches of time to MOCing or building, but I've recently started making progress on my drawing assignments again so hopefully I can get caught up fairly soon.

A topic about Matoran forms in S&T inspired me to try making some Matoran on LDD.

Then I remembered that the most consistent post-2003 Matoran forms (i.e. the ones I tend to consider standard or near-standard in my headcanon) have extremely restrictive proportions. Very unrealistic, though in an almost comical way.

Then I decided I'd try making some Toa. But Toa don't even get the "comical" excuse. Any post-2004 Toa proportions tend to be quite unrealistic.

It's funny; I always quite liked the consistency post-2004 Toa designs tended to have in many respects (shoulders about 11 modules wide, with some wiggle room; torsos between 10 and 12 modules tall from neck joint to hip joint, legs between 11 and 14 modules long). And in retrospect, I still like a lot of Toa designs like the Toa Metru, the Toa Inika, the Toa Mahri, the Phantoka, and even the Mistika. But this is no longer the kind of model I really enjoy building.

Today I prefer more realistic, human-like proportions when possible, and thankfully the Hero Factory "character and creature building system" helps facilitate that. Ironically, the 2.0 Hero sets were almost identical in proportions to the Toa Mata, albeit with lots more articulation and nowhere near the same limitations imposed by their parts palette. It's not totally realistic, but it's a bit refreshing after the chaotic proportions of some later BIONICLE sets.

I don't know what this change in preferences signifies. Growing up, and seeking to express my creative impulses in a less cartoony fashion? Growing as an artist, and learning to recognize when proportions are "off"? Growing more creative, and not feeling constrained to rules put in place by sets? Wanting to move on to a different sort of challenge? Or just adapting to what's available?

In any case, I get a lot more fun out of Hero Factory building than BIONICLE building today, regardless of the parts I'm using. On that note, be sure to check out one of my latest MOCs, Kit Martello, and consider supporting her in BBCC63! (Link to poll) I have some other MOCs I've built this semester photographed and just need to unload them from my phone before I share them... they'll probably end up sharing a topic since a lot of them are basically tablescraps, but I still used some creative building techniques I think people might appreciate.

Before we proceed, let me say that this model is NOT MINE. It was created by LEGO Group designers (EDIT: The designer was Christoffer Raundahl, one of the inventors of this building system whose BIONICLE design credits include the original Tahu and Kopaka sets), though it is most likely a MOC and not a set design (if it is an unannounced set design, though, you are free to celebrate at your leisure). The painted variant was detailed by Søren Westborg, a Danish artist who seems to specialize in painting tabletop gaming figurines, as a commission for LEGO Systems A/S.


Original model (photo taken by Flickr user Teabox at LEGO World in Copenhagen)
Another pic of the original model
A pic of the painted version
Gallery of Westborg's commissioned work (also includes a lovely painted Raw-Jaw)

I've built the leg and foot of the model on LDD (minus the heel piece, which is not available on LDD) and it's quite brilliant how they go together. I hope that some of these techniques wind up in sets eventually. These models have all the complexity of Witch Doctor and then some, and yet it comes together into a model that is far more refined and cohesive in design. Truly this model demonstrates that the Hero Factory building system is far from infeasible for "titan-sized" models. It just takes some very clever use of parts and a custom skeleton to create something every bit as incredible as many of BIONICLE's greatest titan models. And of course, as far as set design is concerned, a sufficient price point and age range for such a large, complex model.

Visit the topic

...In another show altogether.

Turns out they are voiced by Brian Drummond and Tabitha St. Germain. You might know them better as Mr. and Mrs. Cake from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Of course it's already well-known that voice acting can be a tightly-knit community, but it's still fun to find amusing little coincidences like this.

P.S.: I am not at all suggesting any sort of relationship between the actual voice actors. That would be a little bit weird.

P.P.S.: Feel free to substitute Onewa and Nokama, if that's your OTP for some reason

Discovered some pictures, element IDs, and design IDs for forthcoming minifigure parts through Brickset and service.LEGO.com. Click here for a list.

I don't really ship it, to be perfectly honest. The only Mane Six ships I really have much support for are Flutterdash and Twidash, and both because I think they're cute rather than because I have any interest in seeing those relationships develop into romantic ones. Rarijack is cute but at the same time I'm really enjoying seeing how Spike's relationship with Rarity is developing. With that in mind, I'm not a Sparity shipper in that I would be severely peeved if it turns out that he and Rarity don't really work out as a couple, since relationships are dynamic and it can be just as interesting to see how certain relationships fail to work out as to see how others succeed.

But back to Twinkie. I don't really see how Twilight and Pinkie Pie have very good chemistry. But feel free to list examples. I'm sure after this weekend Twinkie shippers might have a lot more fuel for speculation, since Twilight and Pinkie are supposed to be key characters in the upcoming episode.