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Blue Results


bonesiii

3,419 views

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It took a long time, but we finally have the results of the Blue MOCs contest ready. This contest asked the members to post old or new MOCs that used the color scheme blue mostly.

Winning MOCs would either get featured in the upcoming Bionicle Paracosmos epic Endless Blue, about a sea quest by Bhukasa to solve the mystery of a ship-based enemy on Mata Nui that seems to know deep mysteries about the Paracosmos Matoran Universe. Many may also get used in a later story, since blue characters are more common in the Paracosmos than other colors (BTW, the reason for that could now be easily deduced from recent revelations, if anyone wants to get kudos for guessing right :P).

Originally we said the top four MOCs would get major featuring in Endless Blue; we have expanded that to six. In this blog entry, I will show only the winners, including the top six but also some other MOCs, plus brief mention of a handful of honorable mentions.

The results were originally written as a Powerpoint file, which is available for your viewing here. In the slideshow, since this contest had such quality, we have decided to honorably mention every single non-winning MOC! So view the slideshow for the rest of the honorable mentions. (The HMs I'm including here in the actual blog entry are the ones I plan currently to actually have much importance.) All the bios of the HMs are only in the slideshow.

I will start with the top six winners. We had two categories; Second Chances (old MOCs), and New MOCs.

Several of the bios are edited, including some of the names, species type, and moral type when Ojhilom and I deemed it necessary (especially, of course, for those the enterer left open for interpretation). If you want to know what is original text and what is added by us, see the Powerpoint file. Host comments were included in the powerpoint file, unless in brackets here.


Second Chances Top 3

These three MOCs are guaranteed major plot relevance and feature time in Endless Blue.

1st Place!
Member: Distorted
Entry name: Knife-Tail

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Species: Shvontuk (uk as in book)
Moral Type: Troubled hero

Knife-Tail is the nickname of this troubled centauroid hero on a small chain of islands dominated by an underwater Tarakava Nest. He’s one of several members of this fairly weak, humble species that has joined their heroic defense force, using Kuamor Spheres to defend against the Tarakava.

He has been a member of this team for a long time, and he’s seen many of his fellows die at the hands of these beasts. Wild Tarakava are dangerous enough as it is, but these Tarakava are now all infected by Makuta’s evil influence. They are the same Tarakava that Makuta sent against Mata Nui Island often. Knife-Tail, or Udmijok as he’s called by his civilian friends in their native language (Ud rhymes with good, and the “j” is only a slightly pronounced “eej” sound, so it sounds a bit like Udmyok), blames himself for some of their deaths. But beyond this, bouts of intense sadness come over him sometimes. The only thing that really distracts him from the sadness is the adrenaline of battle or practice sparring.

The power of all their Kuamor is called simply “Destiny”. They have inborn powers to sense destiny and alter it slightly. Similar to Rhotuka launchers, their launchers generate soulsong orbs with this power. The launchers use a secret method that the Kuambu also use to activate the inherent powers of Kuamor spheres (which normally do nothing except store copies of soulsongs), which is their greatest secret. Not known how they got it.

Recently, Knife-Tail was captured by the Kuambu and imprisoned in one of their Hunting Pens.

Host Comments: Knife-Tail is a brilliant MOC. He’s not even up to the average size of the MOCs entered in this contest -- although there were several tiny entries smaller than him – yet he is our top pick due to, quite simply, brilliant use of the pieces that are there. Cohesive, unique color scheme, something beyond mere humanoid (he’s centauroid, in my terminology), good use of “emotive building” that makes him look at the same time humble and yet strong, and the Bionicle symbol on the ammo is a nice touch.

What really did it for me is that this is a System Fusion MOC, but you wouldn’t know it at first glance. Other than the chest piece, the other pieces blend so well into the Bionicle style that it might take an expert on official sets to know they aren’t Bionicle pieces. When you look closer, you can spot some familiar System pieces, though – and the chest piece works too. This is the type of limb building that MOCers call “custom”, and it uses the tire technic that’s become a tradition in that style well. And, although this image doesn’t show it very well, the knife-tail of the character’s nickname gives him a cool, almost scorpion-like look.

Finally, the mask completes the set aspect of this that is why it’s a winner. The mask of light gives it an expression that fits what little story aspect Distorted included; troubled hero. Storywise, there wasn’t much detail, but the idea was cool enough it didn’t hurt the MOC’s ranking any, and to be clear, we judged mainly on MOC quality anyways. I mixed this character/species with a location Ojhilom and I had invented in 2001 planned to be a major locale in Endless Blue, and took the power idea from the logo symbol, and went from there for the bio I generated for him.

[unfortunately, this is the only image of him; I am trying to include multiple images of the best MOCs.]


2nd Place!
Member: Primus
Entry name: Cap'n Gar-Korr

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Species: A mutant Vortixx
Moral Type: Villian

After being horribly mutated as a young Vortixx, Gar-Korr left the Island of Xia to begin his career as a pirate. He is the Captain of the flying ship The Apax, and is known for his skills with his sword.

The mutation was done by Oracle Industries, the famous company of the Oru-Vortixx. Gar-Korr was not an Oru-Vortixx, and was brought into the experiments against his will. Via unknown techniques, his essence was altered to share some of the “essence parameters”, as he remembers his captors calling them, of a Bohrok Va.

As such, he has a strange, subconsious mental link with the Bohrok Swarms, which haunts him in his nightmares, but doesn’t otherwise seem to give him any advantage or disadvantage in terms of his physical or mental abilities. One disadvantage does plague him, however – he lost the ability to speak or make any sounds. He is just as intelligent, and communicates with his crew via a form of sign language he has invented, but to strangers he must either have a translator, or use other methods to communicate. He can understand Matoran language just fine, and write it.

In recent years, he found an open sun-hole, and began pirating the Endless Ocean.

Host Comments: Picking the best of Primus’s three entries was difficult. We loved all three of his MOCs, but the brilliant story helped this one win out; plus we felt it a cooler looking and more cohesive MOC than the other two (which were both robots with little to no story bio). That was the easy part, but deciding between this or Wolf Rahi for the Number Two spot for this category was much harder.

In fact, we liked both MOCs so well, plus we had the same problem in the other category, we decided to expand the number of top winners to six, so three per category. That problem out of the way, we selected Captain Gar-Korr about half for the MOC and half for the story. Gar-Korr is different enough from a humanoid to make us very happy with it, although to be clear, humanoids were not ruled out for this contest. He’s also, however, a good example of a semi-humanoid done right. The limbs, torso, head, and hands and feet flow perfectly together, despite using what can often seem like wackily different styles of pieces.

For example, the blue pieces from the Bohrok handshields on the head and shoulders compared with the blue technic pieces on the arm have fairly different textures, but they’re used in a “descending order” of styles from elegant to practical. This effect is also carried down the torso and legs as blue become black… and then there is a larger blue piece on the feet to balance it out. This is near perfection in both color scheme tactics and texture tactics. And, the end result is, in my view, a character that feels like a pirate captain of an airship. Hard to explain, but it extremely works. In this case, the dark blue parts don’t quite work for me, but it’s okay.

Also, storywise, MOC fitting it or not, the idea of an airship captain villain, plus the Vortixx origin story, struck as one of the best story inclusions in the whole contest (though a few others compete). It’s not, granted, the most original concept ever, but combined in the way it is, I freakin’ like it. :) And that was enough. In my bio, I expanded on the short paragraph that was included, mostly just adding detail. Part of what’s in there is a major hint to some Paracosmos mysteries, though, which I plan for Endless Blue to first hint at. The Va part we added is, of course, inspired by the obviously Va-like head here, and partly just because EB takes place during the Bohrok story.


3rd Place!
Member: xccj
Entry name: Wolf Rahi

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Species: Rahi
Moral Type: Beast

Highly intelligent Rahi, the wolves live in large packs, usually headed by an alpha male or female. They rely on their strength and sharp teeth, but are also very cunning. Many experienced beings have fallen victim to a wolf ambush before. There was a pack of these wolf Rahi in Le-Wahi, but some may have been displaced overtime.

Host Comments: After sorting all the other members’ entries fully into win or “lose” statuses, this was the best remaining MOC in this category besides Knife-Tail and Gar-Korr, in our opinion. Now, we did feel that there were one or two better MOCs originally entered in this category, but all of them were dropped into the Honorable Mention status by an even better MOC by the people who made them. So, all that aside, this is still one of our top five or so favorites of the MOCs in this category.

It wins third place because of, on the plus side, it’s the best use of pieces to create the coolest look of the remaining winning MOCs in this category, we felt. The contrast of dark blue and normal blue looks striking, and the specific pieces of the limbs, tail, rib cage area, and jaws look awesome. Also of course it wins points for us for not being humanoid at all.

On the other hand, it wins this place behind the other two MOCs for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I don’t quite like most of the head. It’s alright, and the jaw, like I said, looks nice. But the chin piece, the Toa foot at the neck, and top of the head look clumsy to me. It does succeed in creating a wolflike head, though, so it was good enough. Another set nitpick is more of a technicality that maybe is unfair of us to bring up, since this is a fictional Rahi – but technically according to normal dog/wolf anatomy, the elbow and knee joints of the front and back legs are backwards. I don’t mind it at all with the back legs – an awesome alien animal look there, but the front legs’s knee appearance instead of elbow gives me an impression of this creature’s running style that is frankly quite silly. :P

Still, who says a top predator can’t look silly, as long as he takes the prey down? It could also contribute to the alien feel, so whatever. Didn’t hurt it too much. Also, it does appear that on this MOC, the front legs –could- bend like an elbow. More importantly for why it’s only third, as a mere animal without much extra given to it, we’re kinda limited in what story role we can use for it, so this knocked it down below Gar-Korr. But, it really doesn’t matter, ‘cuzza the whole six top winners decision. It should get just about as much story role as the other five top winners, in Endless Blue. There’s a particular chain of islands where we can make great use of them, plus they can get cameos in Le-Wahi.





New MOCs Top 3

These three MOCs are guaranteed major plot relevance and feature time in Endless Blue.


1st Place!
Member: Ultimate_Kardas
Entry name: The Krulak

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Species: Rahi
Moral Type: Beast

A vicious amphibious fish creature, the Kuambu found it while searching for more beings to capture on a far away island. It was one of the smaller ones they found and they thought it would be amusing to have it as a guard dog so to speak. It now guards the bases of the islands and will try to rip apart any boat or being who comes by. Strangely, it will not attack the Kuambu when they come by. It can breathe air and water, but is very sluggish and slow on land.

Host Comments:
Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

… Wow. Can you tell I’m impressed? :P

This is pretty much the epitome of a perfect MOC, IMO/IMT. The heavy use of the glowblue contrasts well with the darker blue, the shape is unique but familiar (a big thing I always loved about Rahi), the story gets heavily into the world I put forward for the contest in a way that will be very useful for me… it’s all good. I’m sure I could think of a negative if I sat here staring at it for hours… Hey, I just might stare at it for hours…

[i love it so much, I "put it" underwater as an art pic for Endless Blue. :P]

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2nd Place!
Member: LORDS_tekneon
Entry name: Azh’yuuros, Guardian of the Sapphire Vault

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Species: Giant Glatorian
Moral Type: Noble guardian, good, but desperate

A lone Guardian guarding a very important, secret treasure. He's noble and moral, but works alone. He's suspicious and only trusts himself...

Was sorted by the Kuambu into the Darkminds half of a Hunting Pen by accident, and is furious over the insult. Desperate to return to the “Sapphire Vault”. Wields Blue Fire, the only being other than Hujo known to do so.

A mysterious incident in the Core War enlarged him, and made him seek this Sapphire Vault, to become its guardian. It ended up on Aqua Magna after the Shattering. Has an energy pack to store swords.

Host Comments: This is a great custom, very fitting, I felt, with the style of several Glatorian such as Strakk with the shoulders, and a nice take on a helmet-less Glatorian. And the Blue Flames are a nice touch. :P The choice of weapons is good. It’s pretty much all good.

We took some big liberties in adding to the story of this guy, since he fit so well in concept and appearance with some Paracosmos secrets, and because L_t had left some parts up in the air. And, I really don’t have much else to say – I think the pics pretty much speak for themselves as to how cool this guy is. ^_^

A few nitpicks – the feet could have been more inventive, depending on what pieces were available. The color scheme stops contrasting below the knees, which seems a bit off, but on the other hand, it could also be seen as boots, perhaps. A helmet may have been desirable, but I really think it works as is there. So… basically I bring these up purely to be objective; I don’t really mind them. Ojh likes the feet, BTW.




3rd Place!
Member: Potu
Entry name: R’yn

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Species: Matoran
Moral Type: Questionable, possibly leaning very very slightly to good.

R’yn is a fierce mercenary specializing in stealthy assassinations and dirty jobs. She will do almost anything for the right price and is currently working with the Kuambu. She is cold and clever, but respectful and is extremely resilient, completely determined to complete a mission. It is not known where she came from, but it is known she washed up on a beach in Kuambu territory, somewhat altered by an unknown mutagen.

She has no memory of her past, not even her real name, and without purpose, resorted to bounty hunting. She has many skills in survival, marksmanship, and can wield a sword. She carries two SHP (Super-heated plasma) Pistols and a Model 49 SHP rifle.

Host Comments: Another custom, this one small and pretty simple. Now, in this case, I must confess we biased towards storyline slightly. The next three MOCs were about on the same level of quality in technical terms, and are even in our tastes a bit cooler looking. But, we did NOT want to be biased against this one just because it was small. It’s probably the perfect example of a simple custom Matoran.

And, in story purposes, the next three weren’t as useful for us in Endless Blue. Since we upped the number of guaranteed-featuring in each category from two to three, this worked perfectly, and this character is actually the first of these contest winners to be featured in the story – right in the prologue, although not by name yet there. R’yn will be essentially the public face of the staying-hidden main antagonist of the story, leading the Kuambu’s opposition to Bhukasa’s attempts to discover their secrets.

We’ve also added a secret backstory that she has forgotten that is tied in with one of the most important mysteries in the Paracosmos. That, I plan to only hint at in EB.

Potu entered three MOCs, and we chose this of the three mainly for story reasons. His two other MOCs were also excellent customs, with excellent stories, which we do intend to cameo, but they were designed to go together, and we felt the best solution to avoid that problem was to go with this. Besides, this way we get a major character, not a side character.



Second Chances Other Winners

These MOCs will get fairly major featuring either in Endless Blue or in future Paracosmos story.

4th Place
Member: Bitter Cold
Entry name: Blue

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Species: A Dark Hunter; Blue is her agent codename
Moral Type: Questionable

Blue is a Dark Hunter whose native island is far away from Odina in one of the Paracosmos Matoran Universe’s many underground domes. She joined the evil organization in a typical way, for the adventure – and had no moral qualms.

But when she was immediately hired by a secretive being to venture up onto the surface ocean to seek out the secrets of the Kuambu, she realized she could not stomach the moral ambivalence being a Dark Hunter requires. So ever since, she has been wandering from island to island, trying to survive… and stay far away from her former boss, The Shadowed One… or the one who hired her.

But she is not to be trusted – she still clings to some of her old tactics when she thinks she must.

Host Comments: Lemme get the “bad” news out of the way first. I was sliiiiightly disappointed that, after we selected out the multiple-entries-per-member the way we wanted them, this MOC was the best we could pick for fourth. It was much, much harder to pick the top few winners in the New MOCs category than here. But, if you think about it, this is really just the reverse of our last contest like this. In the Beasts MOC contest, the vast majority of good entries were in the 2nd Chances category, not many New MOCs. This time, it’s simply reversed. And that’s fine.

If you notice, none of that is really about this MOC, though. Now, true, it’s a humanoid, but again, we tried not to weigh too heavily based on that in this contest, and besides, it has wings. :P Also, the swords create a sort of single-claw, “ice-pick” look that goes well with the wings giving it an almost creatureesque look. Not really sure why the feet had to be cut off in this pic, but the rest of the MOC is high-quality, and overall creates a really cool Dark Hunter.

I especially like the heavy use of tubes here. They create a very detail-beneath-armor look, like a car that has only half its engine coverings, which is an awesome style, and very fitting of Bionicle. On the downside, most of the pieces aren’t used in very original ways. The upturned mask, creating the impression of a new mask or face, is a style I use a lot in my own MOCs, though, so although it might not be the most brilliant head style, it’s very Paracosmos, and at least it’s something unique, yeah?

Storywise, very little was given, so for the bio I added, I pretty much expanded on what was given, as well as using this character to fill a role that will fit into the EB plot background well. I also have another important background role in mind to be revealed later.

Overall, if you want a guide to how to do a mostly humanoid Bionicle MOC without getting too obsessive about radical originality or size, this MOC fills that role. This is what I imagine the LEGO set designers have in mind for the sorts of MOCs a target audience member would make (although they don’t often MOC, but I mean with the mostly snap-together easy style that uses pieces pretty much in the obvious ways only; the originality comes in the overall style and shape). And even better, it is the first MOC in any of my blog contests that has so well created that details-between-armor biomechanical look, and that is awesome.


5th Place
Member: -Zaxvo-
Entry name: Sikara

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Species: Lariska's species.
Moral Type: Dark Hunter. Ruthless. Evil

A ruthless, determined dark hunter who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Was fused with a Zatth at one point, can now summon rahi within a limited distance. Can also control them. Has limited control over the "poison" power.

Host Comments: Sikara is another good example of the Bionicle target audience style of MOC, mostly using snap-together pieces. This MOC doesn’t add anything as innovative as the detail-under-armor style of Blue, but it’s still a very cool looking MOC. I don’t plan to use it in Endless Blue, but it will be a nice addition to some future Paracosmos story.

Specifically, the head style, weapon, extra limbs, and Toa-foot leg armor are my favorite parts. The color scheme is very cool too, although I would personally prefer it lose the black pieces so there’d only be three colors (but there’s very few of those and the shapes look good, so I’m sure black was all that was available).

The thick torso design with the double Nuva armor pieces, combined with the thick up to thin legs, combined with the other four thinner limbs, creates a very cool “tree” style. Makes the character look “planted firmly” on the ground, like it’d be hard to knock it over. Also, the wide shoulder style combined with the double-Nuva makes it look like a “strong man”, so on both counts plus those nasty-looking extra limbs, this looks like a formidable enemy.

Storywise, it’s decent. We’ll find roles. Could even get very fun with the Rahi-summoning ability. My writing style can take that concept and go crazy with it. :P Plenty of other stories worked better for EB, though, so yeah.


6th Place
Member: Valenti
Entry name: (Bi)Polar (Shark)Ray
[We're calling it Sharkray; pic below is top view.]
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Species: Ocean-dwelling predator
Moral Type: Beast

Having been in Aqua Magna’s oceans before even the Shattering, sharks and rays underwent a mutual mutation, of some unknown type. This created the shark-ray. These evolved predators are highly intelligent and they know how to work together to take down their largest prey.

Host Comments: I’ve mentioned many times before that in these contests, we are aware of many different styles of MOCing, and all are valid. We try to judge them all equally. This MOC is a good example of what I like to think of as the 2001 Extra Rahi style. There’s a mix of very structural, non-stylish functional pieces combined in clever ways to create a cool impression of a shape (such as 2001 Ruki fish), and here and there a more stylish piece such as the Bohrok shields and Nuju Hordika tools (reminds me especially of the Maha goats).

This style is probably my least favorite, but because we judge as objectively as we know how to here, its clever use of pieces, complexity, and cool impression of a shape made it a winner.

On the downside, if I got my hands on this MOC and had a fair range of extra pieces of the right color available, I’d balance out the metalblue pieces in the middle (top view) with a bit more white, also filling in gaps around those pieces, and also add a biiiiiit more metalblue on the thin part of the tail. And as cool as they are, I might go without the blue Pahrak shields in the middle of the MOC – the color just feels out of place to me. I realize that several minor pieces used it, probably unavoidably, and I didn’t mind that, but that big exception clashes IMO.

All that aside, picture this thing coming at you from undersea – it would be a terrifying sight. In a way, I almost think its style flaws (or what strike me as flaws in my tastes) make it cooler because it creates that monstrous machine-beast look that if you met one in real life, would be disturbing as well as cool. (Or at least you could call it cool if you were safe from its jaws. :P) Also, it’s hard to spot, but there’s a lower-jaw combined with a mandible effect in the mouth area, which I love.

Storywise, again as a creature there isn’t all thaaat much we can do with it, but it works for EB, and the origin mystery will tie in nicely with something we’ve been planning. Note that in the Paracosmos, we’re gonna call it the Sharkray, no dash.


7th Place
Member: Dwight Schrute
Entry name: Rembathsis

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Species: ?
Moral Type: Hero

Rembathsis has boisterous and friendly personality (think Alex Louis Armstrong from FMA). He is incredibly strong, exceeding both Krekka and Makuta in raw power. He can control water in all states of matter and influence the behavior of Rahi.
He does not believe in the use of conventional weapons such as swords and spears however in times of extreme danger he will take up his orange shield.

He has recently come to Voya Nui, after living on a strange undiscovered island somewhere between Voya Nui and Mata Nui.

Host Comments: It’s Bones Blog colors! Wheee!

That aside, this is a clever MOC. The best parts IMO are the double-Nuva-shoulder head, and the sort of Faun leg style. I especially love the view with the orange shield. Mostly blue with a sparing use of orange, and the hunchback “strong Faun” with a lizardlike head is a very original combination of features that you wouldn’t expect to flow well together, but it does, IMO.

As far as style goes, I would classify this as a rare type of MOC that I only know to describe as “Old School Bionicle.” All the piece shapes come from 2001-2003 with a few exceptions, and it uses the detail-in-limbs but not fully custom style that I associate with the sorts of MOCs that were most common back when I first joined in 2003. Turaga head, Rahkshi back, Bohrok limbs, etc. There are very few “snap-together” pieces in this; the shape is formed by combining many smaller parts in clever ways. Hence it is a winner.

On the negative side, we felt this and the Sharkray were about equal and not quite up to the quality of the first five winners in 2nd Chances category. I’ve gone back and forth and back and forth on which of the two to rank higher, but ultimately decided that the Sharkray was overall a more clever use of the “imply shapes” style that Bionicle used so much with things like Ruki, while this was, again, a bit more of a typical MOC.

Specifically, I would have improved the hip and lower arm parts, and while the lower leg design is clever albeit hard to make out, I would have opted for something more coherent and without the light blue pieces. And while this is admittedly sheer bias, I really prefer longer arms normally. To me, a hero with short arms is going to be very limited and looks a bit silly. If you imagine the legs stretched up to full height, the arms would look even shorter. To be fair though, a lot of people see things the opposite way, and why should there not be a hero with certain limitations? So none of these things were enough for it not to win.

Storywise, in terms of powers and fighting style, this is the best perhaps in the whole contest.

Now, because 1) we have so many characters in EB already and 2) I liked the pic of him next to Axonn (:P), we’ve decided that he not be in Endless Blue. Although our characters will be going around Voya Nui, we don’t plan for any of them to actually go there during this story. Voya Nui will play a flashback role in the story that comes after EB that’s already written (the title I’ve recently decided for it is Falling Sun, although that’s still tentative)… and then in the story after that which focuses on Onua (untitled so far), it would make sense to go here. Since Rembathsis was clearly not on VN in the Falling Sun flashback, which is just a few days before the present, we’ll say he went there just in the last days (yes, we’ll have a reason for the timing.)


8th Place
Member: Bfahome
Entry name: Slugg

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Species: Whatever
Moral Type: Uh… it's a slug… that's poisonous? ._.

Host Comments: Of a handful of tiny MOCs entered in this contest, this is the only one we picked as a winner. Why? Well, let’s back up for a second.

Among the myriad MOCing styles, there is a definite style of MOCing that goes purposefully small. In typical MOC contests, especially BBC, these MOCs do not win. Why? Because typically voters go for the most complex MOCs, which is usually either a heavily custom normal sized MOC, or a titan. But, in my opinion, the purposeful small MOC style is perfectly valid, and while I can’t fairly compare it with more complex MOCs, it deserves at least some recognition.

This MOC is the winner of the tiny ones in here, for most brilliant use of pieces. I mean, just look at the thing. Even without the construction pic (conveniently included too), it’s clearly innovative. The wrench pieces inside further back this up. Now, I could whine about the four colors, but one of those is eye-color which IMO shouldn’t count, and really, with so few pieces, color schemes aren’t that relevant, so I didn’t mind that.

Other than that, not much else to say setwise. Storywise, really nothing was included that helps us out, and we couldn’t think of anything. So yeah. It’s a slug. :P




New MOCs Other Winners

These MOCs will get fairly major featuring either in Endless Blue or in future Paracosmos story.

4th Place
Member: ~~Zarkan~~
Entry name: Nagurr Turtle (Rahi species)

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The Nagurr Turtle is a rare being, in that it can safely stay in the mutagenic sands around Kriitunga Island for extremely long periods of time.

By observing it, the Kriitunga have found that by floating on the surface of the sands, the Nagurr Turtle manages to avoid the ill effects of the mutagens. Its shell is incredibly buoyant, which has led some Kriitunga to create rafts with abandoned ones, for use in the river and occasionally along the coast.

They are not actually immune to the sands, so if a wind gusts, they could be affected, but only very rarely because their shells are immune. They have good sensory instincts and quickly retreat into their shells at the slightest wind.

Host Comments: Canister lid worked into MOC. Freaky cool feet. Contrasting style of head making it very turtlesque. And cool overall shape. This MOC has everything! Again, we had to rank 3-4 by story use to use in Endless Blue in the end, because all four MOCs are just so good, which is why judging this category was haaaard, man! But I ain’t complainin’!

There is a bit of room for improvement here, mainly the head could be cooler. But, it’s using a style that’s perfectly valid in Bionicle, established by many 2001 Rahi, the Turaga’s bodies (obviously), etc. So that’s minor. Zarkan entered three MOCs all of which were also good. We chose this because it’s a more inventive MOC. Also, one of the others was another humanoid, and the other was very small. The use of the canister is the best part of this IMO.



5th Place
Member: Veq?
Entry name: Torkax

veq_torkax.jpg
Species: Whatever
Moral Type: A guardian of sorts. So, I think questionable.

He guards... something. I'll let you decide if it wins. Torkax is a confused soul who seems to be a fusion of a mostly robotic biomechanical being from the Matoran Universe, and a fleshy biomechical being native to Aqua Magna’s islands. He does not remember his origins, but he knows one thing.

He must guard the Memory Stone.

He’s never actually seen this, but he believes it to be an artifact in the caves of the small, mostly barren island he now lives on. He believes the stone has the power to restore lost memories – a common affliction in the Paracosmos – but at a terrible cost. None may use it, he insists – not even himself. Especially not… visitors…

Host Comments: A Sah-Hweet nonsymmetrical MOC. Again, this MOC was chosen partly for storyline reasons. He ranks lower than the turtle because he is, after all, just another humanoid, albeit a very distinctive one. This MOC accomplishes the biomechanical look well, and the layered shoulder armor on the robo-arm is a nice touch too. Reminds me of the long-nose spy on Tattoine in Star Wars. :P I like how in the close-up view on the head, there’s a particular bump built into the piece that resembles an eye in the way the piece is used.

He too will have a major use in Endless Blue, although not with all that much total story time as far as I have planned. As you might guess if you know that the main character has lost his memories, this guy will be a major obstacle earlyish in the plot. As you see, I ironically also used the memory loss feature in his bio (since Veq left room for interpretation). Memory loss is a very common phenomenon in my fanfic universe, even more so than in canon – and yes, there’s a reason. This guy will be step one in finding that reason, though it won’t be found in EB. He could easily play a role in future BP story.

Not much to say in the way of criticism.



6th Place
Member: Blue Diamond
Entry name: Haywire

blue_diamond_haywire.jpg
(tail pic)
Species: Techno-organic virus
Moral Type: Villian

Haywire, is a microscopic, techno-organic virus, that invades biomechanical beings. Once in the system, he fuses with the mind, gaining complete control of the victim's mind and body. Haywire is extremely calculating with a vast intelligence beyond normal beings. This massive intellect allows for superb calculation abilities, extremely enhanced memory, and advancedunderstanding of mechanical engineering, bio-engineering, and other applied sciences. Haywire was originally created to better civilization, but his hunger for power & knowledge led him to commit dark experiments & crime.

Since Haywire is unable to perform anything significant with his small size, he must find hosts. He invades the body through water. Once inside, he leaks chemicals in the brain which slowly absorb life energy. After the host's body is no longer usable, he absorbs the chemicals with the new life force. If repeated periodically, it basically grants him immortality as long as he can find new host bodies and keep the host alive.

Note: the draining of the life force does not kill the host, but leaves them in a coma. Often permanent.

Host Comments: Brilliance. This is the fourth of the four MOCs we had trouble ranking, and I put it here because, as brilliant as it is, you do have to admit it’s a simple MOC compared to the other ones. But it’s a very nice concept that will probably play a big story role in EB.

I don’t have much else to say about it. It’s awesome, and it speaks for itself. :P



7th Place
Member: Kayru
Entry name: Data Sora

kayru_data_sora_3.jpg
Species: Unidentifiable - unknown technology.
Moral Type: Hero

A shifty fellow - he appears to be looking for his friends. An error in an extremely distant world led him to be transported to this new world, and his physical composure was turned into a projection built entirely out of data. As this is a technology completely unknown to the world of Bionicle, few can grasp exactly what this means.

Sora is good-natured and will help whoever he meets in need - but his ultimate goal is to find out how he got here, and how he can escape and return back to his normal self.

His weapon is called the Keyblade, but no one knows what exactly its power is - it can only be called and used by Sora.
Unbeknownst to him and most others, his appearance here was tied in with a deep secret about the Paracosmos, but in what some see as a minor way.

Host Comments: A very cool Fusion MOC between Bionicle and System pieces. Kayru entered two other MOCs, and we chose this one for being a better MOC than the undersea creature MOC, and the other wolflike MOC was too similar for our purposes to the wolf MOC ranking 3rd in the Second Chances category. Plus, this one fits in our story better. However, we don’t plan to use him in Endless Blue. Not yet sure where we will use him, but his bio fits in perfectly with a major Paracosmos secret, so he’ll be important!

He ranks down here mainly for being humanoid and because there were just so many awesome MOCs in this category.



8th Place
Member: Toa Bors
Entry name: Johke (pronounced JAH-kah)

toa_bors_jokhe.png
Species: from Stelt
Moral Type: Questionable. (Will fight heroes or villains.)

Johke (pronounced more or less JAH-kah) is purely a fighter. He worked on Stelt under a relatively unknown smith, and at the end of his apprenticeship, he was allowed to forge himself a weapon to take with him (his master knew he never would have stayed as a smith). He ended up forging twin "hooks," as he calls them.

He has no desire to be either good or evil (the mix of gunmetal vs. silver armor is supposed to symbolize this). His skill in fighting is all that matters to him. One thing is for sure: he hates feeling hunted. And he will do anything to get back at his captors. His constant urge to fight makes others extremely wary of him.

The Kuambu captured him via their random “reach out and grab” teleportation Kuamor sphere power, and imprisoned him on one of the Chain Islands. He has tried everything to escape or fight back when the Kuambu come, but failed always.

Host Comments: A fairly simple MOC, but it’s well-made. I especially like the tools. He will play a medium role in Endless Blue. The torso design is pretty nice. The limbs leave a lot to be desired, at least compared with the previous winners, so that’s why it ranks here. But again, that’s okay – for the simple snap-together style, this is an exceptional MOC.

Specifically, the Pohatu Nuva claw pieces on the back of the legs seem out of place to me. There are no such gaps in the construction of the rest of him, not counting the tools. Perhaps if they could have been flipped around, but they may not have fit that way.

9th Place
Member: Maxilos.Bolso
Entry name: Heria (Mutant)

maxilos_bolso_heria_beast.jpg
Species: female mutant repaired matoran
Moral Type: Beast

Strong. Agressive. Can fly short distances. Still intelligent, this mutant Voyatoran is trapped in the Lightminds half of a Kuambu Hunting Pen. But don’t let her good morals deceive you; she’s a beast now, and she can get very angry very fast.

Host Comments: Two versions of this character were entered – one was a Matoran, and one was this mutant. The mutant is far more interesting, and is a complex and definitely monstrous “Rahi” MOC. I especially like the “antlers” on the head. The wings are a bit incoherent and may have been better left off, but that’s okay. We have a use for her in EB.


10th Place
Member: Kanohi Zatth
Entry name: Kwadrika

kanohi_zatth_kwadrika.jpg
Species: ?
Moral Type: Villain

An unknown remain of a failed experiment of the Great Beings, Kwadrika tried to earn respect in many lands for millennia. Its appearance made all shudder at him, making it hate all living creatures. Was a General in the army of the Barakki. Escaped soon after, never to be seen again.

Left vowing to make all creatures that shunned him suffer. Has four arms, which can be used to climb walls or as front legs. Bulky and not too silent, but very powerful. Seems to work for Kuambu.

Host Comments: Probably the worst of the winners we chose. But we like it. It’s clearly of the “snap-together” style, not a more traditional MOC. What it has going for it is being the only four-armed guy, and looking like a cyclops. I heart cyclopses. (Well, apparently six-armed, but yeah.) Will have a very minor role, not sure if it will be in EB or not, but probably. Might get a somewhat expanded role in the story two after EB.



Honorable Mentions

These are only a few of the non-winning MOCs we commented on in the Powerpoint file; these are the ones likely to get cameos either in Endless Blue or in future Paracosmos story. Here I am only mentioning them and summarizing my comments; full bios and comments in the slideshow.

Old:

Gahlok Va by Distorted. We will either just use this as the BP version of Va, or as a special Blue-only type of Va; we haven't decided yet.

Pulsar by Primus. We'll use it as a crewmember on (our version of :P) Gar-Korr's airship.

"Lavabot" by Primus. We plan to use this robot to tie in with a location we invented in 2001, and also ties in with one of these other MOCs by in a secret way (one of the top six). ("Lavabot" is what we're calling it, probably to be a nickname given it by observers who do not understand what it is for.)

Meeka (Rahi species) by Kayru. We plan to cameo this species here and there in EB.

Iza Wolf Rahi by Kayru. We will probably use this as an important leader of the Wolf Rahi of xccj's 3rd Place winning (old) MOC.

Heria (Matoran) by Maxilos.Bolso. We will use this in Bhukasa's flashbacks as the non-beast-mutated version of the beast character who is later involved in the present-day EB story.

New:

Krutuska by Zarkan. We'll cameo her somewhere; a mutant Kriitunga.

Crazolga Slug by Zarkan. As his bio said, we will use the slime of this slug as what causes the power-dampening effect of the Kuambu prisons' wooden fences.

Ekieigo and Razor Cat by Potu. We plan to have an island inhabited by these guys where Bhukasa will go.

Mytaht the intelligent Cyaho Crab by the Bionicle Hamster. We are saying this Rahi species (before this one was mutated to become smart) is related to our Fawa crabs.

9 Comments


Recommended Comments

Just so you know, the pic for Haywire is wrong (I think): you have the tail picture given and then linked to. Presumably you wanted to use an image of the entire MOC, then only link to the tail one.

 

Anyway, all of the winners are great MOCs. Good job selecting those, and congrats to the creators of those MOCs!

 

~B~

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Sweet! This is actually my first contest I've won!

 

Thanks for the comments Bonesii. They make me feel good.

 

Also, that underwater picture looks so epic!

 

~U_K~

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I'm quite excited about Cap'n Gar-Korr, what with the sign language. I don't know how much the creator knows about sign language, so I will make this offer just in case: if you want to be able to describe his signing and be able to write with a good understanding of what sign language really involves, then don't hesitate to ask me. My first and third languages were Signed Exact English and American Sign Language respectively, so I have a lot of experience with the opposite ends of the "signing spectrum." SEE was invented by hearing people and thus is very artificial, but ASL evolved naturally in Deaf society. Perhaps Can'n Gar-Korr's sign language would be a bit in between since he invented it, but probably has been refining it over the years.

 

Really cool! I'm excited. :) And that's right, I don't think I actually made the connection between Caroha and the multitude of blue characters. Or maybe I did; can't remember well. :P

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Just so you know, the pic for Haywire is wrong (I think): you have the tail picture given and then linked to. Presumably you wanted to use an image of the entire MOC, then only link to the tail one.

 

Anyway, all of the winners are great MOCs. Good job selecting those, and congrats to the creators of those MOCs!

 

~B~

Thanks for pointing that out; Haywire pic is fixed.

 

Sweet! This is actually my first contest I've won!

 

Thanks for the comments Bonesii. They make me feel good.

 

Also, that underwater picture looks so epic!

 

~U_K~

I'm glad you like that pic, heh. It wasn't easy to make (although it didn't really take that long).

 

I'm quite excited about Cap'n Gar-Korr, what with the sign language. I don't know how much the creator knows about sign language, so I will make this offer just in case: if you want to be able to describe his signing and be able to write with a good understanding of what sign language really involves, then don't hesitate to ask me. My first and third languages were Signed Exact English and American Sign Language respectively, so I have a lot of experience with the opposite ends of the "signing spectrum." SEE was invented by hearing people and thus is very artificial, but ASL evolved naturally in Deaf society. Perhaps Can'n Gar-Korr's sign language would be a bit in between since he invented it, but probably has been refining it over the years.

 

Really cool! I'm excited. :) And that's right, I don't think I actually made the connection between Caroha and the multitude of blue characters. Or maybe I did; can't remember well. :P

(FTR, the sign language idea was mine, added to the original bio.) Yeah, it's pretty obvious I love having all kinds of different languages or styles of language, so I thought this would be interesting. And yes, any insight you can give would be great; I don't actually know any sign language except yes and no, lol, so I'm venturing into uncharted waters for me, heh.

 

And just to confirm, yep, the commonality of blue is due to Caroha's role in the Event. :) (It might also be partly because chronoserum itself is blue, but not that I have planned.)

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Heh, I figured my Nagur Turtle would do well with you Bones, since I remembered after posting it how much you heart turtles. :P

Also happy that the other two are part of the Paracosmos now, and that the bios are still canon. Overall, this was another great contest, and I'm glad to have entered it. :)

Now, when are you going to get the winners of the Bohrok Kool contest up? :P

~~END~~
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