[BBCC 69] The Rahkshi

[Tesseract]

"Must I release those who should never see the light of day?"

 

 

The Rahkshi

"What are you, creature? Why does the sight of you chill my soul as nothing else has since... Makuta!"

 

 

 

Rahkshi of Fear

"Fear will keep them from their Destiny."

 

 

 

Rahkshi of Anger

"Anger amongst them will destroy their precious Unity..."

 

 

 

Rahkshi of Hunger

"Hunger will consume their Duty..."

 

 

 

Rahkshi of Disintegration

"Their Duty will be broken."

 

 

 

Rahkshi of Poison

"Their Unity can be poisoned..."

 

 

 

Rahkshi of Fragmentation

"Their Destiny, I must shatter." 

 

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Click the images below to view their respective albums!

 

Wow. Five years since the end of Generation 1. Ha! And we can call it that now - Generation 1! I still can't get over that. I grew up with Bionicle, and I'm very glad to see it returning. I haven't built in ages, but I have to say, it feels good to be back in the habit.

 

It's funny, actually - back when I first heard that Bionicle was coming back, it just so happened to align with when I managed to get my old Lego (98% Bionicle) collection back. The first thing I decided to do? Build Rahkshi remakes. I only completed Kurahk, given I had limited space; but once this contest came around, I had more space and quickly jumped on Bricklink to order a number of Constraction parts I've missed in the years since Bionicle ended. Kurahk got an upgrade to CCBS after I completed Turahk and Guurahk. I also grabbed Tahu and Pohatu (2015) this week, and you can see I used a few of Pohatu's silver parts for Lerahk and Panrahk.

 

I never realized how Lego abandoned classic green until now - but boy, it made building Lerahk tricky. I decided to use the old Toa feet for his (and Panrahk's) build since the end of the foot is somewhat similar to the shape made by typical CCBS armor. I only just figured out you could snap them onto CCBS limbs yesterday, and it really was the final piece of the puzzle in getting these guys built; just a little fine-tuning after that, and here we are.

 

Also, can I take this moment to rant about how terribly indecisive Lego has been for the element of Stone since 2001? 2001-2003 saw the dominance of classic Brown (seen above) and Tan as a secondary color, with Burnt Orange as a tertiary color. It was a great set of colors and reflected Stone well. But then 2004 came along, and suddenly brown was caramel? But by 2006, it was Gunmetal with a secondary color of Yellow-Orange. What even was that? And to follow that up in 2007 with Black and Yellow-Orange - when Black had been decidedly about Earth since 2001 - and then change it again in 2008 to be Orange, which clearly made more sense as Fire's secondary color. And then 2009, suddenly Tan was the color of choice, with tiny bits of Caramel highlights? I get that brown isn't a popular color, but goodness. And here we are in 2015 - and Pohatu is decidedly Burnt Orange. Needless to say, this was particularly frustrating when building Panrahk, but hey, I came up with something!

 

My favorites are certainly Turahk and Kurahk, though their builds were certainly aided by the prevalence of pieces in their respective colors (granted Vorahk and Guurahk were pretty straightforward, as well). I tried to reflect unique builds with each Rahkshi, as the cookie-cutter style of the original sets was not only impossible with the color palette and contest requirements, but also something I always found a little boring. I tried to reflect unique personalities in each build; hopefully that shines through in the final product.

 

Anyway, enough with my rambling. It's great to be building again, and I'm glad to be back on BZP!

 

-Tesser

[Sumiki]

I really love the use of the Miru Nuva as chest armor. I've tried using Nuva masks that way for years and never found a way to make it work.
 
Panrahk and Lerahk have those color gaps, but I totally get how tricky it is to build things in those kinds of colors. The most pressing concern seems to be the fact that those two—and Kurahk, to a certain extent—don't seem to be as CCBS-based as the others.

[tomdroidser]

I thought the original Rahkshi were thin, lanky, and meant to hunt from the shadows. Seeing remakes of them being more muscular is an interesting look. The only thing that bothers me is the three-segmented legs, but that's just me.

 

-Tomdroidser

[UnderscoreChronix]

Isn't it funny how the 6 Rahkshi Makuta made in 2003 just happened to match up with his evil speech. Was he practicing that?

"Density Control will increase the weight of their unity, Chameleon will make their duty invisible, their destiny can be teleported"

[Millennium]

These...they are just spectacular in my eyes. The buffed-up Vorahk is incredible, the use of Miru Nuva and those Nuju Hordika helmets as armor is stunning, as is your combination of old Technic elements (particularily the Bohrok shields on the sides) and the new CCBS (while, as Sumiki said, Lerahk and Panrahk suffer from the lack of pieces in their colours), as is everything else. So far, I am 80% sure your creations will get my vote.

[RahiSpeak]

I must say, Tesseract, these are incredible! You can be fairly certain to receive a vote from me.

 

All of your rahkshi are unique from one another and yet, at the same time, there are similarities between them like bohrok-shields being used in the shoulder-area and including all of those classic rahkshi-pieces. I love how you did that. Moreover, the way that you integrated the old technic building-system with the new CCBS system is marvelous; some rahkshi have more of on than the other but that just adds to their uniqueness. Really top-notch; I do not know what I could really criticize.

 

If I may ask, how well do these guys hold together? Are they pretty solid? They appear so.

[Tesseract]

Wow. This new MultiQuote business is very convenient!

 

I really love the use of the Miru Nuva as chest armor. I've tried using Nuva masks that way for years and never found a way to make it work.
 
Panrahk and Lerahk have those color gaps, but I totally get how tricky it is to build things in those kinds of colors. The most pressing concern seems to be the fact that those two—and Kurahk, to a certain extent—don't seem to be as CCBS-based as the others.

 

I tried a few different masks, and I kept coming back to the Miru Nuva; not only did it allow me to use the same piece on two separate builds, unifying them a little more, it also just fit the body shape rather well. I'll give you a little tip, though; classic masks that had that little mouthpiece (as opposed to the later axle) will happily attach to the old single-sided ball joint (the one found on the original 2001 Toa's chests). That's what I did here. It's not the most solid of connections, and not one I like using, but it is aesthetically pleasing.

 

I'm still slightly bugged about those color gaps, but my other option was using the off-color Bright Green and Burnt Orange versions of those pieces, and that felt even more off; at least the silver is muted enough to look like the blue-gray underneath. That's something I forgot to mention; all of these Rahkshi are using purely blue-gray pieces, as that's the new gray, as opposed to the gray of old that the 2003 sets were the last to use.

 

Certainly, they're not as CCBS-based when it comes to armor, but I tried to mimic the skeletal structure of CCBS as much as possible. It's not perfectly CCBS, but it was the best balance I could come up with. I intentionally kept Kurahk slightly less CCBS (but still moreso than Lurahk and Panrahk) to try and make them all feel more unified. Here's hoping that we see some more consistency from Lego regarding colors in this generation of Bionicle to make this kind of thing more feasible in the future; I'd happily revisit a few of these down the road if it became possible (especially Panrahk and Lerahk). I could have switched out those gauntlet pieces on Kerahk to be more CCBS, but I ultimately decided to leave them as they were because it just felt more fitting.

 

I thought the original Rahkshi were thin, lanky, and meant to hunt from the shadows. Seeing remakes of them being more muscular is an interesting look. The only thing that bothers me is the three-segmented legs, but that's just me.

 

-Tomdroidser

 

The original Rahkshi were certainly lanky, but I always felt they had unusually broad shoulders, so I tried to diversify them while keeping certain notes more familiar like that. You'll notice Guurahk in particular is more slender, and Turahk is probably the most "balanced" with the broad shoulders but more slender frame; I essentially was trying to blend in some elements of the movie's versions of the Rahkshi.

 

The digitigrade legs are an asthetic that I went with simply to make them feel less humanoid. I've always felt that it suits monsters rather well. Just a personal preference there, really, and I can see why some people might not like it.

 

Isn't it funny how the 6 Rahkshi Makuta made in 2003 just happened to match up with his evil speech. Was he practicing that?

"Density Control will increase the weight of their unity, Chameleon will make their duty invisible, their destiny can be teleported"

 

I know, right? Though if I remember correctly, he chose them specifically for their opposition to the various Matoran principles (disintigration vs creation, etc). So I guess it could be chalked up to that?

 

These...they are just spectacular in my eyes. The buffed-up Vorahk is incredible, the use of Miru Nuva and those Nuju Hordika helmets as armor is stunning, as is your combination of old Technic elements (particularily the Bohrok shields on the sides) and the new CCBS (while, as Sumiki said, Lerahk and Panrahk suffer from the lack of pieces in their colours), as is everything else. So far, I am 80% sure your creations will get my vote.

 

Thanks! I'm glad you noticed the Bohrok shields; they were something that I happened to do with Kerahk when I first rebuilt him, and for some reason I really liked it so it stuck with me. The Hordika shoulders were an attempt to reference the old wide-shouldered nature of the sets, and it worked well, but wasn't really an option for the others (aside from Vorahk, but the variety of CCBS black armor was too tempting to ignore).

 

I must say, Tesseract, these are incredible! You can be fairly certain to receive a vote from me.

All of your rahkshi are unique from one another and yet, at the same time, there are similarities between them like bohrok-shields being used in the shoulder-area and including all of those classic rahkshi-pieces. I love how you did that. Moreover, the way that you integrated the old technic building-system with the new CCBS system is marvelous; some rahkshi have more of on than the other but that just adds to their uniqueness. Really top-notch; I do not know what I could really criticize.

If I may ask, how well do these guys hold together? Are they pretty solid? They appear so.

 

Thank you! I really felt like there were certain things that defined "Rahkshi" in my eyes; the head, the spine, the feet, and the staff (probably because those were the colored elements of the original sets). I'm glad you appreciate the balancing act of Technic and CCBS!

 

As for holding together, I always try to make very solid builds. The more-CCBS Rahkshi hold together especially well, though I have noticed that Lehrak's ankles don't always hold their position very well (I think it may be the age of the Green ball joints - there's something to certain colors and aging, probably why we have Bright Green now, and I know that's why Lego changed the old Purple out for the violet color we see now). Other than that, the only part that I'd say doesn't always hold on tightly is the Miru Nuva chestpieces; since they didn't have axles to connect by, they're naturally stunted when it comes to staying in place if they're bumped the right way. Granted, that's what the original masks were designed to do in the first place, so it's to be expected really. I have to say that Turahk is by far my favorite, as he holds up the best and has the most uniform construction - and I can't get over how elegantly the Kakama sits inside his chest. It really doesn't move around, held in place by the CCBS armor, but it rounds out that armor in just the perfect way.

 

 

 

Thanks for your posts, everyone!

 

-Tesser

[Aetha]

You wouldn't mind making up a list of parts you used to make each of these (or even just one) and PMing me, would you (no instructions, just parts)? These are really good looking and I'd like to try to replicate them for my own collection, but I can understand if that isn't possible. Thanks in advance.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Aetha

[SaikoRhythm]

Isn't it funny how the 6 Rahkshi Makuta made in 2003 just happened to match up with his evil speech. Was he practicing that?

"Density Control will increase the weight of their unity, Chameleon will make their duty invisible, their destiny can be teleported"

Now try the two Resistance Rahkshi and Quick Healing.

[Cwog]

 

Isn't it funny how the 6 Rahkshi Makuta made in 2003 just happened to match up with his evil speech. Was he practicing that?

"Density Control will increase the weight of their unity, Chameleon will make their duty invisible, their destiny can be teleported"

Now try the two Resistance Rahkshi and Quick Healing.

This very same topic is covered is this hilarious CinemaSins parody looking at Mask of Light. Trust me, this video is pretty funny, especially that part.