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Wow, I am honored to be an inspiration for this MOC! This really makes my design look amazing, and I love the extra pieces you put over it. The back looks great with that Hero Factory claw, and it really completes the bare muscle look. The shoulder pads and elbow/knee connections really pull off the industrial look, and the waist subtly adds to it. The new feet are used to great effect here and look awesome. My only complaint is that one blue pin in the leg. ;)

 

Also, out of curiousity, have you seen my Piruk revamp? I used the newer Bar Holder w/ Clip pieces along with Exo-Force robot hands to make more posable claws. :D In case you were curious.

 

I can't wait to see what else you build with this, as well as the rest of the Mata!

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That is amazing, I demand you give the other Toa Mata this treatment immediately! Really, that is beautiful, I love it :D

The hunch, the claws, it's so very Onua, you nailed it. He looks very powerful, and the industrial-punk thing you were going for is definitely there. The little dash of color on his arms really stand out but aren't obtrusive, I think it was a great idea. He looks flexible too, not rigid at all.

It just looks fantastic, I dunno what else I can say about it ^^

Oh! I really wanted to also mention how great your photography is, I legitimately thought it was a CG model at first, I really had to look closely to make sure it wasn't. How exactly did you go about removing the background so perfectly? Was it just careful cropping, or did you do a green-screen sort of thing?

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Love how you incorporated the HF claw from the new line into his back, really streamlines it. Sometimes people neglect certain angles -- but then again, this is DeeVee, so...

Your fusion of system and constraction has always been appealing, since it's something I have yet to master, but you have once again done a marvelous job with it.

 

I gotta get me some more black HF plates.

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So very awesome! A few things that really stood out to me:

-The feet: I love the use of the new Hero Factory feet with the ages-old headlight brick, the end result looks great.

-The hint of dark green on the upper arms: it compliments the eyes well.

-The Toa Mata head: I mean, it wouldn't be Onua without one, would it? :P

 

Also, for those of you asking Pat to build the rest of the Toa, check out the Flickr gallery:

This MOC is going to be part of a project my girlfriend Maddison and I are working on, where I build the original Toa, and she is going to build them a vignette. Pretty stoked for it!

I really hope this is done for BrickFair Pat! Great job!

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I'm sorry, but one thing I just can't stand here is the chicken-lower-legs. Maybe I'm too used to regular Toa-mod designs, but the angle of the lower leg just doesn't look correct, for Onua anyway. I also think the thumb-claw is a bit off too, but I'll admit that it does look good in some pictures, and I'm not really sure how to improve on it. :shrugs:

 

Oh, and I guess there's some good stuff too. :P The torso is an excelent design, with the mix of sysytem, HF, and Bionicle / technic. The dark green is a nice touch too, and you should almost find a way to mix more in. And although this doesn't have to do with the set design itself, I like the way you got the eyes to glow in the picture. ;)

 

Awesome job, man, can't wait to see how you make the other Toa!

 

:music:

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Love the Earth Green details! The MOC itself is fantastic, but those elevate what would otherwise be a good but cliché color scheme into something that really stands out. The color suits the character (at least with the moderation this MOC displays).

 

The physique of the model really captures what makes Onua so cool. The hunched posture and thin forearms that end in enormous claws remind me of my first introduction to Bionicle—a teaser image of Toa Onua bursting through a cave wall from a late 2000 or early 2001 product catalog.

Are you planning to do any of the other Toa Mata in this style? I imagine some would be more difficult than others. For instance, Lewa was the last constraction set to make heavy use of Dark Green (Mata Green), and for Pohatu you'd either have to limit yourself largely to old browns or substitute his mask. But I'd love to see your take on any of them!

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I remember when you first told me about this project -- Onua looks awesome! Honestly the first thing I noticed was definitely the dark teal on the arms. They match the eyes well and add a good splash of color. I also like how the feet are more like what you would expect from an Earth Toa.

 

Nice work!

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Wow. Perfection.

 

Like, literally, the shape of the moc as a whole is really fluid and pleasing to the eye. The balance is very fitting for our favorite Toa of Earth. I really like the feet especially. And the hero factory pieces for the shoulder plates, with the edition of dark green pieces beneath complete him in my opinion. Spectacular job. I could only dream of building something this beautiful.

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I must say, that is an excellent MOC by all standards, though somewhat "odd" in some areas. I particularly like the torso construction, but don't feel as attracted to the legs as I do the upper body area.

 

Btw, how/with what did you take the pics? And how did you get the black-on-black to show so vividly? I kinda need the tips for a MOC I'm photographing soon. Thanks!

 

:tohu:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Dang... really good use of the shoulder pads and the "paw" pieces to beef him up. And man, the hands and feet are GREAT. Good job making them match. It enhances his whole look, makes him kinda like a... I dunno, a shrew or something.

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This is great design, love how it conveys Onua's strength and also his wisdom.

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Fantastic. I especially love the kneecaps and THE CLAWS. THOSE CLAWS.

If I'd have to say one thing that I might improve, it would be the ankles, as they look a little unstable. Other than that, though, it's amazing (and even that is a very small issue).

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This is a really impressive remake of Onua! I love how his hands and feet look. If only the actual set had hands like that. :P The only nitpick I have is that his head could be raised a little higher, like Fsnorglepuff said above. But aside from that, this MOC is awesome.

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I love everything... except the legs. Something about looks incredibly odd, and I think it's because they're a little spindly and unfitting with the rest of the aesthetic.

 

The feet are cool, though. :P

 

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As always, an excellent MOC by DV. I really love the overall look - I think it captures the strength and grittiness that one would want from a Toa of Earth.

I am, however, somewhat confused by the upper arms. I can see why you'd go for some dark green somewhere, and the color complements the eyes very well, but ... I really can't not see them as like, arm-bands or something. It's not bad - in fact, I wouldn't mind seeing a touch more dark green somewhere (though where, exactly, I can't fathom) - but it's a little strange.

A secondary nitpick would probably be the knees. From the right angles, they look really nice, and tie into the tough-guy look I alluded to earlier. But from other angles - specifically the one with the golden mask - they look like they're sticking out at a really odd angle. I don't know if this is just something that looks that way in one pose from one angle, and, seeing as you're the Photographer-in-Chief, I'd have to defer to you on that.

The rest of the legs are really brilliant. The particular leg design might be a little overused nowadays but it really works so well for Onua.

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On first inspection I thought this take on Onua was great minus the dark green which felt wrong at first. However looking at it further and thinking about it I like how it adds an organic kind of appearance to him - kind of like how they are meant to look. In that regards this feels like a more accurate representation of a Toa than the original sets, nice work! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh wow have I really never replied to any of these. Yeesh.

 

Oh! I really wanted to also mention how great your photography is, I legitimately thought it was a CG model at first, I really had to look closely to make sure it wasn't. How exactly did you go about removing the background so perfectly? Was it just careful cropping, or did you do a green-screen sort of thing?

I did a green-screen sort of thing. I say sort of, because it is exactly a green-screen except I did it with blue.

 

This is amazing! Enough said!

One question: How well does it pose if you were to play with it? After all, if you were to make a Lewa Mata revamp, at least one person would want to seem them fight. (Count me in!)

He poses extremely well. He has a ton of articulation points, and I'm debating doing a shot of them fighting at some point. I'll have to have a Lewa built first, but technicalities.

 

I must say, that is an excellent MOC by all standards, though somewhat "odd" in some areas. I particularly like the torso construction, but don't feel as attracted to the legs as I do the upper body area.

 

Btw, how/with what did you take the pics? And how did you get the black-on-black to show so vividly? I kinda need the tips for a MOC I'm photographing soon. Thanks!

 

:tohu:

I have an expensive professional product studio (a glorified lightbox), and I shoot MOCs on a blue backdrop. I do a four-point light setup, with two lamps lighting from the side-front, an overhead light, and a light on the front spilling onto one side so as to not blow out the highlights. I then shoot on a deep aperture (F22, I believe), and the exposure runs somewhere around 20 seconds per shot. I shoot on a tripod with a remote, and a shutter delay, to minimize any possibility of camera shake. After shooting, I also up the "fill light" in the Photoshop RAW editor to bring the details in the black parts back to a better visibility, though the need for that is pretty minimal after the shot setup.

 

Very impressive - but to preserve the original proportions (which are thrown off by a much larger body), try raising the head so that it rises above the shoulders as it did in the original set.

Technically this one does, since the actual shoulder joint is far below the top of the HF armour piece. However, I based a good chunk of the visual design off of moles, so the head being almost hooded into the top of the torso is intentional.

 

Dang... really good use of the shoulder pads and the "paw" pieces to beef him up. And man, the hands and feet are GREAT. Good job making them match. It enhances his whole look, makes him kinda like a... I dunno, a shrew or something.

Woo! Shrew is close enough to the almost mole-like look I was hoping for so yay!

 

Awesome revamped version of Onua! :) But there are a couple things that I am concerned about: why are his legs double-jointed, like an animal, and what's up with the green parts in his arms?

His legs are jointed as they are to provide better support for uneven terrain in the odd locales Onua travels. Imagine the ability to stand on two uneven sections of land in a giant cavern and still stand perfectly straight to lift a giant boulder or dig through a wall. The large feet then add surface and stability, and the claws on the end would theoretically dig in to allow for traction. The green parts serve as a visual interest- as popular as black and grey are, they lack any striking visual contrast, and the green in combination with the eyes serve to counteract that. There is a reason the most popular Batman suit design is black and grey... and then a pop of yellow.

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  • 1 month later...

Man, this is really, really interesting. Your execution of Onua is great, especially the claws and feet. Those are gorgeous.

 

However, I did notice that both your Onua and Lewa have slightly more humanlike proportions. It threw me off a bit, and it makes the lowered head look stranger than it should. Still, though, this is awesome, and I can't wait for the rest of the Toa Mata.

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