The Legacy Chronicles: Toa

[Jam Pot Studios]

So in 2008, I started writing my own BIONICLE story saga. Very basic at first, but as time went on and I got some inspiration, it exploded into this: The Legacy Chronicles.Well, it's been a year since I laid the story to rest, so now is probably as good a time as ever to do a MOC showcase.In this topic, I'm going to showcase my Toa MOCs from the series. Please note that these are all at least fourteen months old - some are even four years old - and I have no intention of going back and upgrading/rebuilding them. I'm merely showing you all what I spent a few years of my childhood on. For the Legacy Chronicles, and its many characters, this is the end.

IhuOriginal form, Pit Armour, First Upgrade, Sword of the Great Spirit, BlueSpace Upgrade, Final Upgrade, TuragaThe saga's main character. Ihu was originally killed in Ko-Metru by a Nui-Rama attack, orchestrated by Makuta Tyrex, who had a vision of Ihu becoming some kind of "super-Toa". Another Makuta, Locuz, collected Ihu's remains and secretly resurrected him, using a portion of his own life-force. Ihu was also made a Toa, but one with all of Locuz's Makuta powers, as well as being totally immortal. He travels from the Pit to Karda Nui, to Irania Nui and Bara Magna, and even into the middle of deep space to try and stop both Teridax and the Disciples of Vradok from fulfiling their "destinies".Ihu wears a Great Mask of Shielding and originally carried a Sub Zero Blaster, which he exchanged for two Energized Ice Swords. These later merged into a single blade. As part of his final upgrade, his Hau was fitted with an eyepiece which grants him telescopic, thermal imaging, atomic and X-ray vision.Upon becoming a Turaga, his elemental Ice powers and his Makuta powers greatly diminished, and he lost his immortality. His sword became a Staff of Ice.AmayaMatoran, ToaSome time after Teridax's takeover, Amaya, a Ga-Matoran, became a Toa of Water, and joined the Water Council.Back when she had lived in Ga-Metru (the first time) she and Ihu had been deeply romantically...involved, and she had been devastated by his death. Strangely, upon becoming a Toa, some of her memories from this time were restored, and so she had very mixed feelings when she met Ihu again on New Krano Nui, the Water Council's moving base. During their mission on Spherus Magna, to stop Vashkov from finding the Cavern of Eternity, they became very close again, but were almost separated when Ihu nearly killed himself trying to stop a huge nuclear explosion of the Cavern's power. However, things worked out well in the end, and Ihu and Amaya became Turaga together.Amaya wears a Great Mask of Mind Control and carries a Fishing Spear and a Protosteel shield. Upon becoming a Turaga, her powers greatly diminished, and her tools became a Staff of Water, her badge of office.KaraelMatoran, ToaOriginally a journalist in Av-Iarn, the Irania Nui District of Light, Karael was transformed into a Toa for his bravery in a battle against a malicious Matoran called Ikov. He would continue to battle Ikov, and his Toa-sized alter-ego Vashkov, from the time of the Rising until the reforming of Spherus Magna.He wears a Great Mask of Quick-Travel and carries twin Sun Sabers.And no, I'm afraid I couldn't find any better images.GelikMatoran, ToaTransformed at the same time as Karael, Gelik is a Toa of Lightning. In her first day, she managed to stop a rampage of a group of huge wild Rahi, and later defeated (and accidentally killed, by dropping a stone tree on) Kreix, one of the most powerful villains in Vradok's army.Gelik wears a Great Mask of Strength and carries a Lightning Scythe.HalokOriginal Form, UpgradeUntil the Toa Krano came along, Halok was the sole Toa of Irania Nui, and he exceled at his job. He as so skilled at using his element, Air, that he could practically fly, but used a jetpack most of the time to aid his flight. During the battle against Vashkov, he recieved an upgrade from Turaga Lome, the Turaga of Irania Nui.Halok wears a Great Mask of Illusion and carries a whole host of weapons, from sticky bombs to zamor launchers, but his favourite and most commonly used Toa tool is a Laser Axe.JuulocMatoran, Toa, Helryx's bodyguardOriginally Turaga Lome's bodyguard, Juuloc accidentally became a Toa when Makuta Tyrex posed as a Turaga, acting while Lome was missing. The two of them engaged in a lengthy battle, in which Juuloc melted Tyrex's armour together and thoroughly trashed him. Juuloc later helped defeat Vashkov's forces in the lost city of Onu-Iarn, and eventually became Toa Helryx's bodyguard.Juuloc wears a Great Mask of Valor, which grants him shielding, strength and speed. Before becoming Helryx's bodyguard, he carried a sword, which he later exchanged for a staff and shield.Toa KranoFrucas, Toa of Fire, Miran, Toa of Gravity, Covoc, Toa of Stone, Kuro, Toa of Ice, Kurek, Toa of PlantlifeLed to believe that, fifty years ago, their island was destroyed and their people massacred, the Toa Krano were welcomed to Irania Nui, where they joined Halok as its guardians. Later, they would discover that their people had been taken hostage by a being called the Sygran, and so set off back into the Matoran Universe to the island of Isakrah, where they came face-to-face with the Bringer of Pain himself. Frucas was killed, but Covoc donned the Kanohi Aethra, the Mask of Protection, and was able to defeat the Sygran, leaving him for dead in the middle of some lava fields. They then set off on board the New Krano Nui, a ship built by the Water Council, and left for Bara Magna, where the Water Council were needed.KarahnGalleryWhen he was a Ta-Matoran crafter, Karahn boasted that he could recreated the Spear of Fusion. He succeeded, but upon becoming a Toa, it fused itself to his hand. Every now and then, the Spear goes a little wild, and he was cast out of his village for accidentally killing several Toa and Matoran using the Spear's power.Eventually, he learned how to control the Spear, and was drafted into the Water Council. He joined Ihu and Amaya on their quest across Bara Magna.Karahn wears a Great Mask of Stealth and carries a Spear of Fusion duplicate.VohanGalleryIn his universe, Vohan started as a Ta-Matoran called Vohon, who discovered the Vahi in Tahu Nuva' suva just before they all moved to Metru Nui. Somehow, it transformed him into a Toa of Time, and he was propelled acros the space/time continuum, until he reached the Prime Reality. Here, 40,000 years ago, he joined the Order of Mata Nui, but later "retired". He was drafted back in by Frydax during the Destiny War.Vohan wears a Vahi Nuva, a Kanohi Nuva Mask of Time, and carries a Staff of Time, as well as a zamor launcher that also allows him to focus pure elemental time energy into powerful blasts of energy.VolatileToa, Mid-possessionAn experiment by the BoM, Volatile was turned from a Ga-Matoran into a Toa of Water, Ice and Shadow. She also possessed the power to teleport, levitate and see in the dark. During a mission to Jydivia in the Destiny War, she was possessed by Vradok's spirit. She killed several members of the Order and Brotherhood alike, before being destroyed by Frydax, who used a special syringe given to him by Angonce to split Vradok from Volatile. Volatile was killed, but Vradok's spirit moved on...Volatile wore a Great Mask of Sight, which allowed her to see anything on the same terrestrial plane as her, and carried two Shadow Blades.Other ToaHelryx, leader of the Order of Mata NuiBojek, Toa of Light from an alternate universeChiron, Toa of Iron from Fort KohydroxVyleck, rogue Toa of FireThose are all the main Toa characters. Others were mentioned and stuff, but most of them were MOCs belonging to friends. Keep checking back for the next topic, which will probably be the Order of Mata Nui and the Water Council!-JREdit: Main image thumbnailed due to dimensions and file size. Please keep images in BBC to 640x640 pixels and 100 kB, and images in other forums to 500 kB.-Wind-

Edited February 13, 2012 by Lord Jam Pot

[Sumiki]

I'll try to respond and critique as many of these as I can.Ihu's original form is pretty basic. I'm not a fan of the proportions, and that's a pretty simple fix - swap the upper-arm part for the upper-leg part on either side. You also might want to consider replacing the lower arms with smaller parts like you did with his Pit Form, which I like much better. You might want to think about eliminating some of the colors on the Pit Form. Not much to say on his first upgrade, except that he kind of looks like a hunchback in all of these pics, and that problem stems from the neck's position on the Piraka torso.Ihu's armor upgrade isn't yet public, so I can't see it. His final Toa form has the same issue. The BlueSpace thing looks interesting. You might want to add some smaller parts to flesh out the upper torso, and also eliminate the too-huge lower arms for something a tad smaller and more proportional. I don't have much to say on the Turaga form, except that I'm surprised you went for the oft-overlooked Mahritoran build.Amaya's Matoran form is really nothing all that special, so I can't give you much critique on what's essentially a set build. Her Toa form is not yet public.Karael's Matoran form is, like Amaya's, not much to write home about. I'd get rid the clashing color of the mask if at all possible, either by combining a golden color in the rest of the body or changing it to a tone that's less visually obtrusive. His Toa form doesn't have that great of a picture, so I can't give you that much critique, except that he looks like he has clashing colors again, so consider my advice on his Matoran incarnation to be valid for his Toa form as well.Gelik is the most interesting yet. I'm kind of liking those strange feet, though they give him a sort of odd bow-legged look. His mask looks a little too big for his body, so you may want to increase the size of the body a bit. Not sure what that random clashing dark green Bohrok eye is doing attached to his back ...Gelik's Toa form has way too many colors. Really. Silver, dark gray, black, orange Keetorange, Carapar brown, trans-ice blue ... if at all possible, eliminate at least half of these. Other than the color scheme, I personally am not a fan of the backwards Inika torso look, but I prefer it over the Piraka torso look. Also, that armor on the back of the upper legs looks really vestigial, and ruins any semblance of flow they have. Get rid of them, at the very least.Halok ... well, interesting photography on the first pic, but I can't see much of the MOC, other than that his arms are a little too long. The upgrade form is a little easier to critique: mainly, get rid of the blue pins. Hide or replace as many as you possibly can. You can do this in part by replacing those Technic armor parts, which are really jarring and ruin flow. Those drills on his arms are interesting, though.Not much to say on Juuloc, except that I like the custom arms you made for his upgraded form. The gears on the Metru build always bothered me.From what I can tell, Frucas looks like he has a minor too-many-colors issue, plus those seemingly random back parts that look like extreme shoulder blades. For Miran, you should completely rebuild the arms. The double-jointedness is distracting and rather unrealistic. Plus, I'm not sure of what use the hooks coming out of his arms are ...Covoc has a very interesting torso build, though he looks combiner-ish. For a Toa of Stone, I'd get rid of as much lime as possible ... plus, why would he need gear that looks like he needs to fly through the air?Kurek, like some others, suffers from over-colored syndrome. Mainly, I think you should replace the blue parts with green ones. The chest armor actually looks kind of good.Karahn's folder is not yet public.As some of your other MOCs, Vohon has too many colors - at least five in the gold-yellow-orange spectrum, not to mention the silver, black, and blue. The lower arms should be replaced with a joint that bends correctly at the elbow. I don't know what those claws are doing on his upper arms, but they look like they'd get in the way. I do like the way you tried to build a custom Vahi Nuva, but I still kind of see a Krana there, and I don't think I'd know this was a Toa of Time if I hadn't been told. If you have a Vahi, I suggest you use it.Vohon's lower torso is just too empty. There are a lot of unused connection spaces on the torso, so I suggest you use other parts to fill in that gap. I don't have much to say on the legs, other than that they're just too big - they'd be alright for a titan, but for a Toa, they're big. Not horrendously big, but nonetheless an issue that you should address.Volatile's Toa form certainly has an interesting mask. Are those silver Kopaka blades supposed to be hair or something? I've never seen them used like that ...The mid-possession photo is very interesting, and kind of a cool effect - though might I suggest saving it as or converting it to something that is not a computer-slowing .bmp? Those things are vicious on even the quickest of computers.I see you've taking a different route for Helryx than her canon form, which is frailer and has a mace. Her lower torso looks a bit bleak - and overall she's not really all that female - but other than that, I don't see many problems with her.Bojek's photo is pretty blurry, so if you could get another photo of him, that would be great. From what I do see ... pretty basic build. Personally, I prefer weapons with hilts, but that's a minor qualm.Like Bojek, Chiron's photos suffer blurriness. I'm not digging the blue-red color combo, as it only leads to clashes. Plus, as a Toa of Iron, it's not really that indicative of his element. I like his weapon, though.Vyleck has a nice picture. Like some others, his legs are shorter than his arms. Swap them out and see what it looks like - I can almost 100% guarantee he'll look a lot better. Aside from that, you may want to upgrade his weapons from something a little less small, and give him a smattering of black so his mask and hands don't stand out as much.... whew! That's it. Hope I gave you some good information and critique here, because I must have been typing this for upwards of half an hour.

[Jam Pot Studios]

A lot of these photos (mainly Bojek, Chiron and the original Halok) are very old, taken back in 2007 at the very latest, when I had no interest in photograpy and was using...well, I wouldn't even consider it a camera. It's just a thing with a basic photoreceptor. If that.As for the rest, yes they're very basic a lot of them, and I appreciate your criticism, and I hate to say it, but I have no interest in changing these or rebuilding them. Honestly, I'm leaving the Legacy Chronicles, or at least of much of it as I can, behind, so that I can move onto new stories with new characters. I'm just posting them here because I can, and because it's all a part of me laying the story to rest.Now, onto some of the smaller stuff.1) Unfortunately, I don't have a Vahi. I keep trying to get one, but it's either out of my price range (or more than what I would consider a mask to be worth) or I'm outbid. I thought using the Krana might be a bit different, and people so seldom use them as anything besides Krana that I thought it'd be worth a shot. I guess I shot and missed the target.2)Yes, Volatile's "hair" is Kopaka blades, and the mask is just a Volitak - nothing special. The possession image was actually a still from a truly terrible animation series I did a couple of years ago called "Ambush on Jydivia", back in the days before I got some proper VFX software. This was done in Photoshop.3) I'm glad you liked Gelik's feet. BTW Gelik's a girl, since she's a Matoran of Lightning.4) For Karael, I was originally going to repaint one of my dark-blue Metru-Matoran bodies metallic gold and use that, but I decided against it. I thought the whole gold and silver thing was a nice touch for an Av-Matoran - both bright, shiny colours, very light-esque, if that's a word, which it probably isn't.5) The gears on the Metru build always bothered me too.6) The blue pins are a pain, and they do look horrible, but I only have a few black ones left. The others seem to have disappeared.I hope you don't think I was trying to brush your comments off or anything like that - hopefully I'll be able to use what you've said here to help making any future MOCs the best I can make them. So yeah, thank you for slaving away for half an hour.-JR

[Freezer Burn]

These look really nice! They are all pretty simple, but I like the way you combined parts and colors and such to make original characters. First off, I absolutely love Helryx. Like really love. The shoulder armor is great, and the pipes look awesome. Also, the colors on the toa of iron just look fantastic. They are distributed nicely and work really well. One more thing, the editing on the first form of Halok, along with the moc itself, look great. Nice job on all of these!