RuukaRiou

Thanks for the input, Sergei. I'll definitely agree with you that the proportions are off, especially with the feet (they're my least favorite part of the build), though with his arms I think it's because the Vahki limbs and Protector hands are small compared to everything else; I feel inclined to justify their simplicity with the idea that as a creator, Artakha needed to have dexterous hands for meticulous tasks. They do look rather small though, so that could be a future improvement I could make in addition to the feet. As for the Mask of Creation, while its color was never specified other than having a metallic appearance, the other Legendary Kanohi (Vahi/Ignika) were both gold (excluding the Vahi's rust/Ignika's countdown), so it's entirely possible that it was actually a gold mask. I feel similarly about it, though - it would be pretty cool to have a non-gold Mask of Creation, if just for the sake of matching Artakha's armor color.

G1 Artakha ----------------------------------------- "The world began to blur in front of Tuyet's eyes. At first, she thought that Helryx must be choking the life from her. But then she realized that everyone was looking toward the chamber's entrance, where space itself seemed to be warping. The next instant, a massive figure stepped out of the distortion and stood before them. "You... imbeciles," the figure said, in a voice both old and young at the same time. "You ignorant stone apes... is this how you try to save existence?" No one in the room had ever seen the newcomer before. But there were some who knew his voice, and all felt a chill of fear at the sound of it. Only Helryx had the presence of mind to give their visitor a name, and even she spoke it in a whisper. "Artakha."" -Reign of Shadows, Chapter 9 ----------------------------------------- Hello everyone, Ever since Artakha's arrival in Reign of Shadows, I was enamored with his appearance in the online serial, and subsequently disappointed when BIONICLE ended in 2010 without giving him an official set. This year's reboot is all we could have asked for and more, however, with the Mask of Creation finally having an official appearance along with the return of our favorite six heroes. (Lewa never ceases to amuse us with his antics.) Of all the characters in the G1 Universe, I feel that in addition to being a cool character, Artakha (and his mask) represented the BZP Community as a whole - people who create and are creative in nature, at least in the vein of LEGO's awesome toys. I became determined to build Artakha at the beginning of the year, but didn't have the chance until now due to being away from home for college. It's been a long time since I last created a MOC; my previous MOC (and the first I posted to BZP) was made some six years ago for LEGO's Glatorian contest. Anyway, pictures... Front View http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RuukaRiou/Bionicle/G1-Artakha/img_0278.jpg Pose 1 http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RuukaRiou/Bionicle/G1-Artakha/img_0279.jpg Pose 2 http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RuukaRiou/Bionicle/G1-Artakha/img_0287.jpg Back View http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RuukaRiou/Bionicle/G1-Artakha/img_0288.jpg Pose 3 (Lead Image) http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RuukaRiou/Bionicle/G1-Artakha/img_0291.jpg Pose 4, demonstrating torso/chest armor articulation http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RuukaRiou/Bionicle/G1-Artakha/img_0292.jpg Pose 5 http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RuukaRiou/Bionicle/G1-Artakha/img_0294.jpg Artakha with Phantoka Lewa, Gali the Master of Water, and Ekimu http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RuukaRiou/Bionicle/G1-Artakha/img_0298.jpg In Artakha's story appearances, he's referred to as having a voice that sounds "old and young at the same time"; this gave me the impression that he's an eternal being of sorts, and I wanted to reflect that in his design by using parts from 2001 all the way through 2015, aside from the MoCr itself. His known armor color is supposed to be gray-green, which I would have liked to use, but the only sand green BIONICLE parts that exist in popular previous sets are Zaktan's limbs; I tried to make do with a mix of grays, Metru/dark green, black, and silver. Parts-wise, other than the MoCr, I wanted to make use of the new "skull armor" add-on - Artakha is described as having intricate patterns on his armor, which the skull armor add-on has, but still looks usable on things other than bony skeletons. With his build, I wanted to give him the "tall, imposing figure" he's described as having, even though I felt that the Mask of Creation might be a tad small for larger MOCs. His build has references to certain Titan sets; you'll probably recognize them if you own those sets yourselves. He has thirty points of articulation total, eighteen of them being in his torso/ shoulder and hip armor, and twelve in his limbs. Hammer Pose http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/RuukaRiou/Bionicle/G1-Artakha/img_0285.jpg With the hammer, I wanted to reference both Ekimu's rapid shooter Hammer of Power and the warhammer belonging to Tom Dracone's official MOC of Alternate Teridax, while still resembling an actual hammer tool. It's kinda big for a forge tool, but it looks the part nonetheless. (Let's all pretend he decided to carry around that one over-sized hammer that he never uses...) While I feel I did my best capturing Artakha's appearance, I feel obligated to self-critique. His feet are big, his hands and maybe his waist are small, and his thighs are rather bare. Some might consider his color scheme to be all over the place, and due to his foot design, he's also incredibly unsteady, though I feel I'd be able to fix this if I had more of the right parts. Overall, however, I'm satisfied with the result. Full Gallery http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=558434

This is pretty cool to see as a fellow student at UCLA. Glad to see you're getting some publicity for BIONICLE and Lego, it's quite a treat.