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G2 Mat-okotoan MOCing Revisited


Xboxtravis

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Back in late 2015, early 2016 I tried my hand at MOC building with the new CCBS system. One of the holes I saw left open in the new story was the lack of fleshed out villagers. I slowly came to love The Protectors and I wanted to see more of that, especially since CCBS offered lots of possibility in such a small frame. I expressed my interest in the idea of bringing over more G1 characters as villagers into G2 with two short stories I wrote in the forums back then; and I ordered pieces to build a Takua MOC. Takua was mostly complete, minus needing proper feet instead of the Bohrok Kal feet I had stolen for him as a place holder; I got started on working on a G2 take of Jaller and Hahli next. 
 

Then, well G2 got cancelled and it quickly drained the wind from my sails. Takua's "temporary" Bohrok Kal feet became permanent for three years. Hahli sat in the Lego bin half finished, while Jaller was even in a more bare bones state. Every now and then I would work on other Lego builds, and see Hahli and Jaller bouncing around thinking "I need to finish that someday..." but I never got to it. 

Then 2019 rolled around, and suddenly a Bricklink trip ended up with me buying several 2004 Vahki and different masks. Never had a Trans-Green Miru, Glitter- Avohkii Trans-Brown (black) KauKau, Brown Matatu or Blue Ruru before, so why not buy them as an adult? Started seeing a resurgent Bionicle fanbase on Facebook, and while I never joined the Bionicle Facebook groups I stop by and lurk every now and then. Then I discovered The Bionicle Archives on Facebook (I think he used to be Mask Collector here on BZ Power), amazed to realize one of the biggest Bionicle collections in the world is in my local Utah area. Next thing I know, I am buying Krana-Kanohi mask packs from him in his fundraiser and now I have a complete set of Silver Flip-Flop Kanohi and am halfway to completing my collection of Gold Flip-Flop Kanohi. Then I'm on Lego Ideas voting for Sokoda's project a few weeks later, shortly afterwards discovering a massive bin of Bionicle G1 and CCBS parts sitting in our local used Lego store Bricks and Minifigs...

Simply put, the Bionicle nostalgia bug hit me. It hit me hard. And between Bricklink and Bricks and Minifigs, I now had no excuse either not to complete Jaller and Hahli after all these years. Hey... if I already got Takua, and I'm doing Jaller and Hahli; why not start planning G2 styled takes on the rest of the McToran and Toa Inika? 

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Forgive my potato quality cell phone shot, but this is what I got so far. I need to invest in a proper photography rig one of these days, but suffice it to say I am having a blast building up these guys. I like trying to give them different gear that fits their personalities too... Takua has a rope and grappling tool along with a walking staff as a traveler. Jaller carries his 2006 Inika sword and a Thornax launcher befitting his role as Captain of the Guard. Hahli wears little armor, instead using her fishing hook when needed as a defensive tool. The latest of the bunch Kongu joins the three projects from 2016. While it took three years to complete the three other villagers, Kongu came together in a week or two. His shoulders are covered in leaves as disguise in the jungle bush, he carries a massive spear-axe thing and has on his hips two different types of blades for tools as hunting in the jungle.  

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I really dig the way these guys are filling up the rest of the official G2 set collection from 2015... makes me wonder what kind of small sets we might have gotten in 2017 had Bionicle not been cancelled again?

"I'm an engineer, not a poet... so I decided to name it something you'd remember."

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Now in progress, villager #5 and a personal favorite of the original G1 characters of mine;  Nuparu. I built a prototype for his body today, he needs a custom frame to fit on the original G1 mask. Again, forgive the potato cell phone pics. His design is as I said at this stage a prototype or sketch model of sorts. I intend to swap out the CCBS bones for more typical proportioned pieces, and use orange shells instead of the temporary trans-neon orange shells on the sketch model. I find it interesting that the original Tohunga-style 2002 Nuparu can't hold the Star Wars blaster he used in the Bohrok Animations as a welding tool, but the G2 style can easily hold it. The new Marvel Superheroes "effect pieces" even give Nuparu's tool a nice visual element. 

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Here is the sketch model with the prototype frame and also compared side by side with the 2015 Korgot set. I wanted Nuparu to be slightly taller and bulkier than Korgot, but still relatively close to the same size so he comes out in scale to the official sets from 2015. Again, hoping a final version of Nuparu can come together in a few weeks; and not three years like Takua-Jaller-Hahli did! I think for another accessory in addition to his welding tool, Nuparu is also going to get a Bionicle sort of lockout tag used by real machinists, miners, engineers etc. when working around machinery and doing repairs. I imagine if I were to take on someone like Taipu or other G1 miners updated to a G2 style they could use it all as a shared accessory of their profession... 

So yeah, wish me luck I guess. As I said earlier, I hope to have at least the Inika and McToran characters updated like this. I already have ordered masks for future Matoro, Onepu, and Hewkii figures; and want to do a Macku eventually too. The six Turaga of Mata Nui, Turaga Dume, Taipu, Ahkomou, and Hafu also sound really tempting too... G2 Characters like Harvalli, Maskmaker Makuta, and Narmoto's son are also tempting MOC ideas. Kind of fun fleshing out the background characters of G2 all these years after it ended! 

Edited by Xboxtravis
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All aboard the hype train!

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh WOW, these are super-cool. I love how, even with almost a completely different set of parts from the G1 versions of the characters, you've got so much recognisable PERSONALITY into them all. I particularly like the little, personalised touched you've given each one, in their tools and colour schemes; and that armour piece you've used on their torsos is a really cool choice, as its design brings to mind the Matoran's movie designs.

I think Takua is my favourite of them, so far; the way you've arranged his colour scheme, in particular, looks perfect for the character. And I love that picture of Nuparu taking apart the Bohrok, too; he's been a longtime favourite of mine, too, and I enjoy the callback to the old Bohrok animations :D

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"New legends awake, but old lessons must be remembered.
For that is the way
of the BIONICLE."

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love these little guys! i've always liked the concept of doing g2 versions of the classic matoran and these look grand. definitely interested in seeing a finished version of nuparu, he was always one of my faves too

(and i feel that bit about the nostalgia bug, came to me out of nowhere recently myself)

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[BZPRPG]
(shout out to max)

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Thank you for your responses! A few small updates so far:

As for Nuparu... I decided to keep the trans-orange shells after all. Most G2 characters have some contrasting transparent colors, so it seemed in line with the style. He is though going to get the solid orange shoulder pads from the Star Wars sets like Captain Cody and Poe Damerron. I have one on hand, but need to get another one. Most of the parts for these are coming from searching the local Bricks and Minfigures used parts bins, with masks etc. coming off Bricklink. I also got two new orange Pakaris off Bricklink, one for the new Nuparu MOC to wear and the other for my original 2002 set version (the one I got in 2002 is a bit scratched up).

But while Nuparu is still a work in progress, I have almost finished another character in the meantime... Turaga Whenua! 75233933_560534104515470_6431761921451491328_n.thumb.jpg.dddf5266385ca0f63a2a4f2589f938bb.jpg

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This one is technically still a WIP too. The staff is a placeholder until I can build up a more drill like one (but I might tweak the design for another Turaga MOC someday), and the head will be swapped out to one using a dark bluish-gray head instead of the old light gray head currently on the figure. I am debating the feet... either I will pick up some black CCBS small feet, or attach to Slizer heads (the same piece used as the Nui-Jaga head) to the pieces I already have. Or I might keep them as is, since it does keep up with a shorter profile. The frame for Whenua is something I saw posted by Facebook user Taylor Angorve online, its just a Vahki torso back to back with a Metru Nui lower torso, still keeping very much in the CCBS style but with the nice touch of texturing those G1 pieces have. My headcanon take on the character, the Turaga of Okoto are the retired Protectors and parents to the canon Protectors we saw in the G2 story. So I imagine Whenua as the elderly father to his oldest daughter Korgot  (the canon Protector of Earth) and his younger son Onepu the cocky captain of the village Ussarly Guard.  

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All aboard the hype train!

 

 

 

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A few more additions since my last post... I started prototyping another Turaga moc, Matau! 

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Like a lot of fans, I was a bit confused when the 'green power' in G2 was changed from the original Air to the element of Jungle; but I gotta admit its grown on me a bit since then. Particularly in the MOC sense, because it allows me to just slap a bunch of random plant pieces all over the MOC's. I got 40320 Plants From Plants as a gift with purchase a while back, so its kind of fun using the plant based pieces in MOC's based on characters who have plant based powers. 

As for Matau, he is borrowing the placeholder staff I originally had built for Whenua. I want his buzz saw staff eventually, so that is a future build goal. I might shorten him a bit, and see if I can find a way to sneak in some translucent bone pieces to help him better match the G2 style. 

Now time for a group shot:

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I made a tweak to Hahli, swapped the trans-orange shells for solid orange ones. Better balances her colors in my opinion, since the transparent colors on transparent colors in the original build was a bit much. Nuparu is still a WIP, the gold shell will be replaced with a silver one of the same type, and he is still missing a shoulder pad. I found a Kongu Mahri head piece lying in a Bricks and Minifigures parts bin, and was able to use it to give Nuparu a mining lamp. Whenua's staff has been updated to better reflect the original character design,  I saw a similar design somewhere on the internet; but can't remember the source and who to credit it to. Jaller, Takua, and Kongu are unchanged since last time, however Takua has gained my new second trans-glitter Avohkii due to finding it in the same Bricks and Minifigures parts bin previously mentioned. 

As for the future characters... I am definitely getting a kick off the Turaga builds now. I have done a bit of research into their colors and how viable they are in CCBS. Vakama is likely the most easy, due to the abundance of CCBS orange shells (thanks Nex!); Nokama's light blue color is still in production with Lego, but has not been used in CCBS in what I could tell. I think I will use classic Lego blue, then use some hook pieces to attach a few detail parts in the original Nokama light blue color. Onewa's tan made it into CCBS thanks to Star Wars; but its a bit rare from what I can tell in parts bins so it might take a bit until I get the parts he needs.

Nuju is the killer one... Like Whenua, Nuju's primary color is based on one of the old gray tones. Fortunately, the white Noble Matatu makes a good replacement for the original old light gray mask; just like how I replaced Whenua's mask with a solid black one. Unfortunately... the white Noble Matatu is a bit of a collector's piece due to being a misprint. As such Nuju's construction entirely depends on when I can afford to order the rare mask for his figure. 

 

 

 

 

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All aboard the hype train!

 

 

 

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Oh wow, love what you've done with Matau! He just feels so right for the character; the use of those leaf pieces is perfect, and the gold piece on his torso complements the lime shade surprisingly well, particularly with the black frame behind them both. I like the loose-limbed posture you've given him too, it really captures Matau's characteristic sense of energy ^^

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"New legends awake, but old lessons must be remembered.
For that is the way
of the BIONICLE."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Gathered friends...

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Vakama was always one of those characters I had wanted to tackle with this project. A few years back there was a Gen 2 style MOC of Vakama I saw that used a Kanohi Arthron; it was absolutely stunning; and fit into the G2 design very well since the Arthron has an uncanny resemblance to the Protector masks. I can't find that MOC for the life of me right now, so if anyone remembers where it was I'd appreciate that.

But, I didn't want to just copy what I had seen before in MOC's; so I wanted to create a Turaga more in line with his original 2001 model. Okay, then the next question was how to tackle the frame for this one to make sure Vakama had a distinct silhouette compared to my Whenua and Matau models. The next thing I decided to not include... were the famous robes from Bionicle Mask of Light. Many revamps and Turaga MOC's I see online have the robes from the films; but since my Whenua and Matua already lacked them; and I didn't want to go chasing down the Jakku Rey CCBS set and her robes either... I decided omitting robes was a good choice for Vakama. Keeps him more in line with the other Turaga, and if I over were to give a Turaga robes it would set them out from the revamps of the original six 2001 ones.

But I did decide that without the robes the outline of the Mask of Light Vakama was key to getting this MOC right...

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Notice something funny about the frame of the Turaga in MoL? If you strip off the robes from them their body resembles less the Turaga sets and more a Bohrok Va... I always wondered if Creative Capers had modeled a Bohrok Va for MoL; and while the Va were cut from the final film they must have reused their rig to set up the Turaga models... The distinct hump back of the Va where their Krana holder was is consistent in all eight of the Turaga we see in the Miramax trilogy. 

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So I decided the frame for my Vakama MOC should be that of a modernized Bohrok Va shape, and the rest just flowed from there! It did take a bit on figuring out how to bulk up the body, but I was able to get a CCBS shell in front of it to also limit the range of motion when he is hunched over. Hunched over, he is about normal Okoto-villager height but when he is stretched out to "full height" he is only a bit shorter than a Toa Metru set from 2004. Seeing the hunched over stance is his default display stance, I am not to worried about the height he gains if stretched out.

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So there we go, three Turaga of Okoto; three (four?) more to go... 

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Also Matau got his buzz saw, yayyy! 

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My gathered G2 'Fire' villagers so far. 

The current to do list for the MOC's: 

Vakama is complete, but is loaning some of his pieces right now from some of my official sets (mask, Vahki Hips, eye stalk). Likewise both Whenua and Matau's heads need to be replaced with a light bluish gray one; and Matau needs a new mask so I can stop stealing it from the original 2001 set. Nuparu still needs the detail shells I previously mentioned to finish him off. 

 

 


 

 

Edited by Xboxtravis
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All aboard the hype train!

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Okay holiday season is over, time to whip up another figure... Another addition to the Turaga, a remake of Onewa.

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Full line up of the "Turaga of Okoto" I have built so far, plus Ekimu for comparison. 

Onewa was... a slow gestating one compared to the other Turaga. I had all the parts for him long before I completed it, but I ended up sort of sitting around with a half finished frame in my Lego parts bin for Onewa with no clue how I was going to finish the model. I thought using the Vorox shells, one of the few pieces to be used in both G1 and G2 was a fun addition to the character, but I didn't have enough to create a symmetric model. Fortunately, the Protector of Stone and Pohatu Master of Stone are both asymmetric designs, so it made sense to copy that in Onewa. I didn't know what to think of the big tan shell from Grievous as a body though, until I started to see how it looked once I began building the asymmetric arms and I finally felt like it clicked for me 
 

I guess to characters though from other media ultimately got channeled into the final Onewa build; Kuiil from everyone's favorite Baby Yoda show The Mandalorian and Rashid from the novel series Dresden Files. With Rashid a phrase that was used to describe the character for some reason stuck with Onewa... "that old desert fox." I can almost imagine it in my head; Onewa and his son the Protector of Stone leading a wandering tribe in the wildernesses of Okoto; having been cast from their village by the treacherous Ahkmou sometime after the events of Journey to One; with Onewa using every scarp of knowledge he has to survive the desert and lead his people to safety while being hunted by Ahkmou's loyal... Its a type of lone wandering story with parallels to Moses that just seem like the perfect place for Onewa in a G2 world. 

 

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All aboard the hype train!

 

 

 

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