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ToM Dracone

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  1. ToM Dracone

    Carapar Versus Hewkii

    By ToM Dracone,

    Now that I've built both of them, I can officially say that the two are a good contrast of a good and a bad set – both the yellow set of their groups, by an interesting coincidence... The same could be said of Mantax and Nuparu, actually, and perhaps Ehlek and Kongu, though which of the latter pair is the good one is bound to vary from person to person.
     

     
    :: Carapar ::
     
    His color scheme is not perfect, but it's still far better organized than Hewkii's. The biggest problem with it is that the pure yellow-orange always attracts attention to itself, and the waist and extremities are not where one wants attention to be drawn straightaway. Though the hips are the only really odd area. There's also the fact that his Inika torso is black, while nothing else in him is. But that's only really a problem from the back, since from the front it works perfectly with his chest armor.
     
    Oh, that armor. I love it. Thigh/shoulder pads included – great shape, and the color is much nicer in real life than a lot of pictures have shown. The blend with transparent dark grey is great... It would work better if he had old dark grey instead of the bluish kind, or, since that's not possible, iron grey, but the combination isn't bad at all.
     
    Besides, that means we get both Rahkshi feet and Inika legs in dark bluish grey. Though I wouldn't mind some more pieces in the yellow/trans-dark grey blend... His claw is a bit awkward in relaxed poses since his arm is long and claw huge, also because of the way it attaches to his hand, but it works. His biggest problem is the color stuff, really. And the squid. Excluding his one-stud-wide waist, he's nicely bulky, with all of his pieces contributing to that, and the result is swell and smooth.
     
    But then, in the same color in the latter half of the year, there's Hewkii...
     
     

     
    :: Hewkii Mahri ::
     
    Hewkii's color scheme is just horribly done. The yellow and black are distributed unevenly. On Carapar, silver was just an accent, through his mandibles and tools, but on Hewkii it's almost an accent – but then becomes a main color through his thigh armor. And then there's red splashed on top of that. Just... no.
     
    The yellow is concentrated and prominent in his upper right half, thanks to the Piraka arm, while it's obscured in his legs thanks to the thigh armor. As a consequence the black is uneven as well, again because of the yellow Piraka arm. The silver would have been nicely balanced if left to his tools, spikes, and breathing tube, but the spike ball halves upset that balance by dragging it into his main color scheme. Then you have the red Cordak stuff on his shoulders, his horn, and the axles in his left arm and legs, competing for attention with the yellow.
     
    When you throw all these together, you get something eye-searing to look at because there's little balance, contrast all over the place (not helped by the shadows within his Piraka body), and neither rhyme nore reason to the whole design. Oh, and the chains. They further increase the confusion. Not bad on their own, but when on top of everything else...
     
    If I could only change one thing, it would be to make all the red black. That still wouldn't leave the greatest color distribution ever, but with only three colors he would be far easier to look at. Fortunately, however, a revamp isn't limited to changing only one thing.
     
    Next is his build, on two levels: proportion-wise and as Hewkii. Going in reverse order, Hewkii was the powerhouse of the Inika – he doesn't need to be as bulky as Carapar, far from that, but if he just had the general robustness that, say, Jaller Mahri has, he would look adequately strong. Long, thin upper arms, short, slender legs, and a complete lack of a chest make him look scrawny. That's not a bad look in and of itself (except for the arms), and desirable underwater, but it's the opposite of strong-looking. And then he's missing his right hand!
     
    Then there are his proportions. Oh dear. Wide body, short, thin legs, and enormously long and thin arms – they do not go together. The sheer width of his mask doesn't help, either. There is a very big problem when his arms are so long they're three studs from the floor if left to hang – that means they're almost as long as his legs and body combined. Carapar doesn't suffer from this – he's evenly bulky and lacks the huge disproportionalities Hewkii has to begin with. He's also not a character expected to have human proportions...
     
    But despite all those things, he has wonderful pieces. Yellow-orange Piraka body, Piraka forearm, and black clawed Inika feet in the way of recolors are all excellent, then his various blades and the breathing tube are all nice pieces. (I love the aqua warblade, by the way.) His mask, too, has a nice shape, even if it's rather odd without the mouth attachment, and I've been wanting the spike ball halves for a while...
     
    Fortunately, there are poses where he doesn't look terrible, mostly helped by having his mask pointing downward. It really doesn't look good face-on, but from other angles it's quite nice... It's mainly his arms that make posing hard, since they're so disporportionately long...
     
     
    So, there you have it, the two yellow canister sets of 2007. Carapar, a very good set overall – he has those armor pieces for distinction, his unique (and mostly well-executed) color combination, and a smooth and streamlined design. Then Hewkii, who is generally terrible but saved from utter shame by his pieces. Uneven color scheme, awkward proportions, and, in contrast with the smoothness of Carapar's overall design, can be seen straight through all over the place, has an intricate "texture" in all his pieces, and is just difficult to look at. But he has nice parts.
     
    As I've said before, what made the Barraki quite good was their unique molds that tied their whole design together – Hewkii lacks such a piece, which is probably the reason what he does have doesn't work together... Though one could say his shoulder spikes fullfil that, and they are his non-mask/tool distinguishing piece, they don't fulfill the role.
     
    Expect a full revamp tomorrow or so.
    ~ ToM
  2. ToM Dracone

    Project Nuva :: Wings

    By ToM Dracone,

    It isn't dead. Really, it isn't. I haven't done anything on the Nuva-tweaking side, since that requires a lot of editing colors that I'm not really confident I can do, but! I've decided to add a new side to Project Nuva. One that takes the basic adaptive armor designs of the 2008 Nuva and makes them look so much more like the Nuva.
     
    Unfortunately, I can't do this one via photos. Maybe Onua, if the ideas I have for him are compatible with his 2008 form, but none of the others, because they require pieces that simply don't exist. (And, so, technically, does Onua, but I can get away with using the original Nuva armor on him.) So the rest will be drawn and colored, since I can't build them.
     
    But I can at least illustrate some other ideas, so today I give you Lewa and Kopaka Phantoka's wings. (Illustrated by Kongu Inika in Defilak's Kualsi...)
     

    :: Kopaka Phantoka :: 

     
    ::
     
    This is, of course, just a rough approximation. Chirox's blades aren't a bad substitute (when widened and doubled), but the design I have in mind would be more like a Vahki staff in attachment. At any rate, it works; you have wings that can fold and have "feathers" of a sort but are still far more mechanical than organic in appearance... Because I still don't like Kopaka's airplane wings. Attached via Vahki hip so Solek still has a point to connect to...
     
     

    :: Lewa Phantoka :: 

     
    :: :: ::
     
    As I noted in the picture, the katana would be bigger so they actually work as wings... Though nowhere near as huge and spiky as Lewa Phantoka's sword, because that would be terribly unaerodynamic. Anyway, I do like the look of Matoro's blades over his shoulder, so that's still there, and attaching them via Hordika necks gives him the ability to position his wings. Haven't worked out exactly how Tanma would attach yet, though.
     
    So, there you go, designs for means of flight for Lewa and Kopaka. I'd keep Pohatu's propeller-claws, of course, since they're quite innovative... What do you think?
    ~ ToM
  3. ToM Dracone

    Bionicle Stars: Hahli

    By ToM Dracone,

    This is what I've spent half my time not studying/doing end-of-semester assignments doing lately, and some time when I really should have been working on those.
     

    note: this picture is actually a link now. I feel stupid.
     
    As I said last entry, I think star!Vezok's set is extremely boring and disappointing for a supposed "Star," and that Hahli would be both much more deserving of a place in the last Bionicle sets ever, and would also look a whole lot more interesting.
     
    So, this is her. She has Gresh's armor (thus, two Stars with that armor and two with Tahu's), and she also has her Matoran color scheme. I like the idea of her Star form having the lime of her Mahri set, but I didn't do that for several reasons – one, we have two Stars with lime already; two, the only ways I could come up with to incorporate lime would either result in too much of it and thus a bad color distribution, or would be too much like Gresh. So she got light blue. And for her wings, after much debate, I went with Mata Nui's blades. They were the only pieces with the real volume I wanted her wings to have, and I decided eventually that that was more important than their slightly more limited flexibility.
     
    Since the wings would attach using these pieces into the pin holes on her back. And by the way, if someone could take a photo of the Avotoran torso and Mata Nui's blades in that arrangement, I'd be much obliged. (I'm very far away from my collection, so I can't quite do it myself.)
     
    Also, clearly she still needs a tool of some sort. Suggestions are welcome. (the 25 piece count includes a tool.)
     
    And, uh, yes, I did have great fun designing the background. I'm also really pleased with how the lineart turned out as well; I was pretty much making the style up as I went. But I'll definitely use this for stuff like this in the future. (I uploaded it over here, if anyone cares for it.)
     
    Oh, on the subject of things I've been doing instead of studying: banners! Feel free to take some. Well, only one at a time, please. But anyway.
     
    Off to do some more studying, which – along with papers – has basically been my life lately.
    ~ ToM
  4. ToM Dracone

    The Color Of Stone

    By ToM Dracone,

    If you're wondering about the title ... I shall be discussing it in a review of Hewkii, followed by thoughts on Carapar.
     

    Toa Hewkii 

     
    :: Gallery ::
     
    The first thing everyone noticed about Hewkii was his color. He's not dark orange; he's not tan; he's not even brown – he's iron grey and yellow-orange. I accepted the other Inika's color schemes – dark red and bright gold aren't far from red and yellow; white and ice blue are ideal for a Toa of Ice, although I miss sand blue; Hahli's swirled pieces look great; and Nuparu and Kongu are at least still some shade of grey and green. But Hewkii isn't anywhere close to his old self. No shade of grey has been in a Stone set other than as a uniform secondary color. Yellow-orange is an extreme stretch from dark orange and tan and doesn't even slightly resemble brown.
     
    It's a reasonable argument to boost sales by changing the worst-selling set color, but ... you don't do it when you're using an old character everyone knows by his color scheme! Hafu isn't a logical choice for Jaller's team of Matoran, but black to iron grey isn't very far. All the other Inika use a standard color for their element, but Hewkii isn't so much as brown.
     
    And yet at the same time ... I do love both colors Hewkii uses. A plethora of iron grey is awesome, even if I prefer it on Jovan to Hewkii. Additional yellow-orange is nothing to scoff at either, as with Oohnorak, Keetongu, Balta, and Umbra (a cheaper source for some from the Battle for Metru Nui) there's now enough to make an MOC using the color well. They just aren't Hewkii.
     
    Aside from Technic pins and axles, Hewkii has exactly six pieces not new to the Inika: five sockets and a new ball piece. I'm not objecting, though – the stock of iron grey is great, with the notable new coloration of iron grey Vahki legs. His chain was also a large part of what made me get him. I still loathe the Sanok, but it would be very effective as shoulder armor. And I still wish his Zamor were red. The CGI pictures show them as bright red! His axe lights up red! Although they look good with the rest of his color scheme, they really should have been colored as advertised. Now they look like they're filled with orange juice ...
     
    Identity aside, his negative points are the same as Matoro's: his arms are too long, shoulders far too wide, and his chest armor is still terrible. It's far too flat, and also too square. It doesn't flow at all, which it would if Lego hadn't put the pistons on either side ... I still wonder why they did that; it doesn't work in the slightest ... And I maintain that clawed feet belong on the Hordika, not the Inika.
     
    Overall ... I like the set. Iron grey and yellow-orange are both great colors, and the chain complements the set well. But the chest armor is too wide, the Sanok looks like a tire tread, and it most definitely does not look like Hewkii in any way. It's a good set, especially in the iron grey; they just chose the wrong character for it to be.
     

    :: ::  
    And now to the title of this entry: the color of stone. Specifically the Stone-element sets. You just don't go and change one of the six principal colors of the storyline. Stone and its corresponding villains have always been brown. Stone comes in many colors, but in Bionicle its elemental color is assigned to be brown. Back in 2001, the principal colors were brown and tan, colors that matched the deserts of Po-Wahi and the village of Po-Koro. All of the characters matched their environments: although Air has no color, Lewa, Matau, and the Le-Koronans were bright green and teal like the forest they lived in. Tahu, Vakama, and Jala were red, orange, and yellow like fire, but some Ta-Matoran had black like volcanic rock. The Onu- and Po-Koronans shared some colors because Earth and Stone went hand-in-hand. The CGI animations of the Toa augmented this, as their colors surrounded them.
     
    When Metru Nui came around, the colors still made sense. Darker blue, green, and red in an industrious city, accompanied by the bluish grey of metal. The more earthen, lighter brown of Po-Metru worked well, alongside silver like the Silver Sea and the solid protodermis that made up the city.
     
    But now ... brown has been changed to yellow-orange. Velika was brown. So was Avak. Yet Hewkii has a secondary color of yellow-orange with no brown present, and Carapar uses yellow-orange as a main color. I've gotten used to Hewkii, but Carapar's canister picture made him look brown – and he looked great. Spiky, thick armor in a ... natural color for a shelled sea creature. Brown goes well with grey, which Carapar uses in his arms, shins, and feet – I loved how he looked; he just looked hard, as well as hard to defeat.
     
    But yesterday he was revealed to be yellow, the new replacement color for the ever-faithful brown of Po-Wahi. Yellow-orange doesn't work unless it's all the main color (like Keetongu) or all the secondary color (Hewkii and Oohnorak). But Carapar is half yellow-orange and half grey, a very awkward combination. Brown, being darker than grey, would have still looked great in that combination, but yellow is lighter than grey, and so it would only have worked were Carapar yellow-orange all the way through. He would have been totally awesome in brown, like my first reaction, but his armor looks odd in yellow-orange. Since brown is a much ... harder, more warriorlike color than yellow-orange, it fits the warlord (and impenetrable) nature of Carapar.
     
    And finally, one thing that's always been aesthetically pleasing about Bionicle was that the main colors all worked together and balanced out. There were six main colors, with secondary and tertiary colors to fit the element and setting. No one color drew attention to itself, partly because all the Toa had black hips and shoulders with grey gears and heads. But now there's no uniform color that works well with everything like those, and yellow-orange as a main color just stands out, particularly against the darkness of most of the other Barraki.
     
    It worked well on Oohnorak because all the Visorak had vibrant secondary colors, and it was even good with Hewkii's color scheme because it was contrasted by his armor. But it's just too bright as a main color on the Barraki, dark creatures from the deeps of the sea ... where the darker brown would have made much more sense.
     
    Yellow-orange isn't a bad color ... but brown is the established color of stone. Yellow-orange is just too bright to join the array of red, green, blue, black, and white ... especially not to replace brown.
    – ToM
  5. ToM Dracone

    Sawblades

    By ToM Dracone,

    :: :: 
    Kind of like Knives.
     
    Knives Chau, that is.
     
    Except his name's actually just Matau. Not Sawblades.
     

     
    There's also this one if you want an alternate view. He's still a WIP because his back needs filling in and I'm not 100% satisfied with the torso, but I wanted to post something before I'm separated from my pieces for six weeks...
     
    Apparently this is what happens when I finally acquire the Turaga's Kanohi. I don't remember how exactly the idea for his weapons came to be, but it involved the concept of the Toa versions of the Turaga having tools that resembled their staffs. And somehow that turned into giant buzz saw nunchucks of doom. Not that I'm complaining.
     
    Also, it should be pretty obvious that we're ignoring Metru Nui right now. This is a Toa Matau strictly from the jungles of Mata Nui.
     
    Also also, I go back to college tomorrow. Aaaaahh!!
    ~ ToM
  6. ToM Dracone

    Atrokan

    By ToM Dracone,

    A work that is likely to remain in progress (though not intact) for a very long time until I can acquire Antroz's mask and wing pieces... and a few other things I'm lacking; I only have two red Piraka thigh pieces and one Kalmah armor piece.
     

     
    Antroz is certainly the most formidable-looking of next year's Makuta (until we see Icarax), and a fairly good set, but I'm just not that fond of him. His mask is rather too spiky and toothy and such for my tastes, too.
     
    I also dislike his name, so I changed it... semiunintentionally using as a root the Latin word atrum, meaning dark. I like Atrokan better than Antroz, given that I prefer the original Maori-esque sound of names to the newer sound.
     
    But anyway, there's only so much you can do in a $10 set, and I thought Atrokan could do with a more even bulk to match the aura of shadowy power I'd want a Makuta to have. So I bulked up his legs a lot, gave him KK2.3 shin armor, claws, used Vahki leg forearms, and, since using his real torso isn't really possible right now, used an Inika-based design I had had sitting around for a while. (It was going to be used on Vezon, but there's no need to talk about him now.) And Kalmah armor, since it matches the color scheme and shoulder pads always help an armored look.
     
    Note the Kraata in the chest. Since the chest ball also isn't really possible, I replaced it with a pair of black/red Kraata and a red Zamor, so he could actually pull Kraata out of his chest... I also got the idea of the bright red being a representation of inner essence, like Makuta and the antidermis.
     
    ::
     
    Now, his wings. The Brutaka swords are just size representations of the pieces he actually has, of course. I thought he could have a pair of "shoulder wings," attached to his arms and usable if he just needs to stay in the air or something... But to actually fly, those would rotate to point below his arms, and he would point his swords backwards as well in a sort of feather-ish arrangement. (The Brutaka swords aren't half as good at this as his real wings and swords are, but bear with them...)
     
    So, once I do acquire his mask, swords, and wings, plus some more Piraka thigh armor and Kalmah armor, I'll rebuild and finish Atrokan. But what do you think so far?
     
    Oh, also, a poll. And I wouldn't at all mind some reviews for Quest for Lost Dreams (in the review topic, preferably), if you have some spare time...
    ~ ToM
  7. ToM Dracone

    Crustaceans

    By ToM Dracone,

    I've had this idea brewing in my head for literally a year. And since Kohaku agreed with it, here we go:
     
    We should assemble a massive army of Bionicle crabs at Brickfair.
     
    Seriously. Think about how spectacular that would be. If loads of us BZPers who came to Brickfair or sent MOCs brought along a crab or two each, we could very quickly assemble an awful lot of them. People can build Ussals in various colors, bring Hahnah crabs from Jaller Mahri, and maybe even a few Rock Ussals from the VNOLG could make an appearance. At the very least my rock ussal will be there:
     

     
    I feel like including Pewku from 2003 would just be excessive, since all the rest of the crabs are small and cute and then she'd just be this ginormous behemoth and it would be bad.
     
    I think we should totally make this happen. Masses of little technic crabs. Just for the hilarity of it and the confusion it would cause on the other AFOLs' faces.
     
    Who's with me?
    ~ ToM
  8. ToM Dracone
    Oh my god.
     
    Brickfair was basically the best weekend of my life. In brief. I'll be going into detail a lot more in later entries, but I think that will do nicely as a summary for now. I met so many awesome people and we had epic times hanging out and at Brickfair and dressing up in fancy clothes to go to completely non-fancy restaurants (with Steve Witt!). It was amazing getting to see all these friends I knew online in person, and their MOCs and art (had some fun sketchbook exchanges with Rayg and LehvakLah), and I'm really really sad that I had to leave and come back to my normal life afterward. I miss everyone so much.
     
    For now, I'm going to give you a statistical breakdown of my time at Brickfair:
    original 2001 Kanohi acquired: 37 awesomeness of Janus: 100% misprints acquired: 2 Lego sets bought: 4 Lego sets gotten for free: 2 total value of sets acquired: ≈$163 amount paid for said sets: $75 members met for the first time: 24 (I think) volumes of Scott Pilgrim read: 5 dipping sauce references made: at least 4 hours of sleep gotten per night: never more than 6 generosity of everyone I met: 100% birds sighted flying around the jetBlue terminal at JFK airport: 7 things people said that I wish I could write down because of how funny they were: too many amount of people who love Waffles: infinite hugs: too many to count. <3 More details will be forthcoming! ~ ToM
  9. ToM Dracone
    You thought I had forgotten about this, didn't you. Fortunately, I haven't! I -finally- settled my design for Lewa Phantoka a few days ago and started doodling, and subsequently finally got his mask down perfectly as well, so I'm working on coloring him now. And then the next day I started to redraw Kopaka – since I've decided that I want to draw all the Nuva from now on in the style I used for star!Hahli, that involves making a new image of Kopaka and also redoing Onua, since I've changed his design since I posted him ages ago.
     
    But while I was drawing Kopaka, I started sketching the new Nuva armor on the side, since I was bugged by the fact that the design I had for the chest armor looked too stretched and spindly, and the shoulder armor was slightly too small. I realized that instead of just enlarging and stretching the chest armor, it would look better to add another layer to it, which had the benefit of both making the piece look more natural and more fitting for the adaptive armor. And then I was toying around with ways to make the should armor to make it cover the shoulders more fully, and eventually applied the same design to it.
     

     
    And I'm pretty pleased with the result. I also added another connection point to the chest armor – under each top corner is an axle hole (in the manner of the axle holes under the Stars' feet), for more flexibility in torso design. The shoulder armor pieces still attach the same way as the old version, and the other connection points on the chest armor are still the same.
     
    Next up is Lewa Phantoka. Hopefully soon!
    ~ ToM
  10. ToM Dracone
    And now we come to another one of the best parts of Brickfair: what I got there! (Slightly after the epic people and memories in order of awesomeness.) And I got quite a lot.
     
    Might as well start with sets. I got the Medieval Market Village, the Deep Sea Striker (a.k.a. the giant scorpion from the Atlantis line), and Rotor for 50% off at Casual Shopping with the Bulls, then won the Shadow Crawler from Exo-Force in Bingo (it's the one with the lime Kodan claw, which is all that matters), and finally bought Skateboarding Pepper from the Lego Island Extreme Stunts series for only $5, which I've wanted since it first came out! I was quite thrilled about him.
     
    And then I got a lot of other stuff, which was just as awesome!
     
    First, a huge bag of 2001 Kanohi from Janus, which were his half of a trade that I haven't fulfilled my end of yet. But until I do I want him to know that he is super amazing and I love him! (and not just for this!) I'm also obligated to give him dipping sauce until I do.
     

     
    There's actually one mask in that photo that doesn't belong there. Can you spot it?
     
    That's because of the next trade I engaged in, in which I gave DV some brownies in exchange for a blue and a green Matatu! Most awesome trade ever.
     

     
    And some more pieces I got:
     

     
    On the left are a bunch of parts I bought from a couple stores at Brickfair – the pieces for Nokama, a bunch of noble Kanohi, and the heads and masks of the Turaga I don't have. (I decided to finally get my act together and just buy the pieces for the rest of them.) Plus an extra blue Tohunga body so I can have Maku and Hahli at the same time! And the gold is from a custom bricks store that I had a coupon for, so I just went there and thought "why not?" since they were effectively free.
     
    And then on the right is a mess of stuff that I got from Nikira! She brought a big tub of Bionicle stuff and Janus and DV and I went through it and took what was interesting to us. She's so generous! Thank you, Deb! <3
     
    I think I'll leave the photos of this for another entry, but thanks to Janus I am now only two Kanohi away from having all 36 from the original Toa! I just need a brown Pakari and a green Kaukau and then that'll be it! And thanks to him and that one store I'm also really close to getting all the Turaga's as well, but I don't yet have a complete set of any of theirs.
     
    Thank you Rob and Pat and Deb <3
    ~ ToM
  11. ToM Dracone
    Here we go again... ToyFair's come around, real pictures have been produced (I saw the leaked ones earlier), and in some respects I was pleased, in others disappointed. Mainly, the leaked picture of Gali made her look fairly cool (though not Gali-like), but in reality she has the annoying reversed Piraka chest and her mask looks, in the words of Janus and Toro, perfect for a Dark Hunter but dreadful for Gali. The leaked pictures also showed Tahu being quite distinctly normal red, but no, he can't even have that...
     
    Anyway, I'll go into everything in a later entry, once pictures emerge from more angles – preferably from the public exposition, because the preview night always has awkward poses and still has the prototype plastics, and often missing pieces as well. This entry is to show a general design for how I'd do Gali Mistika – it's not final, since I may decide to incorporate a few other features from the set (I want to see her back armor), but the overall shape won't change:
     



     
    If you can't read my messy handwriting (few people can), some of the annotations are:
    – A mask similar to Tanma's, but with a visor.
    – Inika-length arms (using the 7-long double-sockets) to reflect the long arms she had as a Toa Nuva.
    – For her tool, I thought a spear might work well; it would be reasonably similar to her axes... Then this evolved into a blade made from two pieces (both the same mold, though), which the shaft-axle would go through, so I could stick a lightsaber blade at the end of it.
    – ...and her cartoony-looking blaster-thing is the most likely part of her to be further adorned.
     
    She would, of course, use the same Nuva armor as the Phantoka had. I've come up with a working redesign of it, but haven't yet been able to properly draw it – I'll post that some time later, too.
     
    What say you?
    ~ ToM
  12. ToM Dracone
    I just realized I don't think I've blogged about my summer job at all this year. Huh. But then, I haven't blogged too much in general.
     
    Anyway! I did the same thing as I did last summer, working for NYPIRG (the New York Public Interest Research Group), canvassing again – going door-to-door, for those not in the know – raising money for environmentalism and other awesome things like that. The difference being that now I'm better at it, so it took me three weeks to earn what I did in the month and a half I worked there last year. I work on commission on what I raise, see. And if it doesn't come too close to bragging, I had three weeks this summer where I raised more than $1000 in one week – kind of a big deal. I didn't even know that was possible last year.
     
    But, now that I've done this for two years, I'm not sure how I'll ever be able to stand having a normal job. I really like sleeping in every day, being able to talk back to and make fun of my boss, and going out and having adventures for like two hours before we really start work.
     
    It'll be nice to eventually have hourly wage and maybe be home for dinner on weekdays again, but I like having a job where I'm out there actually making a difference and working for something extremely important. It's gonna feel weird if I ever work for some big corporation where I actually deal with consumerism or have a real boss or whatever.
     
    Also: this summer confirms that Boulevard of Broken Dreams is the perfect song to describe canvassing. You're walking down a street, all alone, facing rejection at door after door...
    ~ ToM
  14. ToM Dracone
    It's cold outside... not quite perfect weather for Kopaka, but it's close...
     

     
    Edited pieces: thigh joints to light grey, eyes to ice blue, and thigh armor to dark bluish grey. His shoulders and neck are also dark grey, continuing the dark accents.
     
    He too keeps the axles to attach his skates, and this time his shield is attached via a loose axle/pin plugged into one of the axle holes at the middle of his hand... (I tried the axle hole at the end, but that left too little room given the width of the Nuva leg.)
     
    The Rahkshi legs are there because they already exist in light grey, I liked the smooth look with Kopaka, and I also thought it might be interesting to make Kopaka taller than the other Toa. (For proportion reference, their new bodies would be one stud taller than the old due to the hip piece used – another way to make them taller would be to use an ordinary Metru hip instead of the shortened one I designed. I might do that for Gali.)
     

     

    :: Project Nuva :: :: The New Pieces ::
    :: Onua ::
     
    The Nuva symbols and Nuva Cube are two of my favorite things in all of Bionicle.
    ~ ToM
  15. ToM Dracone
    :: ::

    BULK!



    Onua Mistika à la ToM. He actually has the bulk that Onua mandates, a hunch (neck socket plugged into the topmost hole in the redesigned Nuva armor), and also actual armor. None of which the real set has, except for the bizarre pauldron. Actually, it was looking at that thing that gave me the idea for the legs – I liked the idea of using the Bitil wing piece somewhere on Onua, and it occured to me to put it on his legs, since I had already decided to use Vahki legs. It resulted in awesome armor.

    Some notes, which you absolutely must read:The Matoro claw/jetpack contraption is acceptable here because my version of Lewa does NOT use them as his means of flight, so it's not reusing a winter set design. I considered using the new jet engine pieces from the Mistika (a pair of them to each shoulder) for the sake of using new pieces, but I decided that they looked far inferior to the Avotoran jetpacks. I chose green as his accent color because A, it works perfectly with his trans-green eyes, and B, it's a bright color without being vivid like the set's red is – therefore, it doesn't look peculiar at his back the way the red does, but fulfills Onua's bright-color-requirement. With the neon green lightsaber blade in his blaster. Dark grey Metru thigh armor isn't listed under "recolored pieces" because my version of Lewa uses them, so they technically aren't recolored on Onua. I've been debating giving him claws. The new Mistika claws would attach to the outermost pin hole on the Vahki legs he uses as arms by means of a perpendicular axle joiner. This lets them hang over his hands, but leave him with plenty of room to hold his blaster – because the claws can go upward if he needs more flexibility. Think he'd be better with them, or would they add too much clutter while holding the blaster?
    Now that you've read those notes and hopefully had some questions answered, what do you think? Any suggestions? Claws or none? (Remember that he has to hold his blaster two-handed.)

    I'll post some real life stuff and that MOC I mentioned soon, I swear – I've had a much busier week than I had anticipated...
    ~ Mona Lisa
  16. ToM Dracone

    I Am God

    By ToM Dracone,

    Seriously. In my class's skit for Spirit Week next week, I play the role of God. I get to wear a white suit and a crown and sunglasses and it will be awesome. Those of you who know my last name will understand why this is particularly appropriate for me. :3 Our first goal is to be hilarious; our second is to avoid sacrelige so we don't get points taken off for that...
     
    And helloo again to all of you! I'm back. I have a variety of things to report on and a variety of things to show you all, like school and the yearbook and my own Avotoran and then Turaga Nuva. But those will all have entries nicely to themselves.
     

     
    For the moment I would love it if someone could tell me who or what this is. I got the idea completely out of the blue as usual and I'm still not quite sure who he is...
     
    ~ ToM
  18. ToM Dracone
    :: :: 
    Brought to you by too much Scott Pilgrim and friends who like Pokemon.
     


    • YANNI learned SASS
     
    • YANNI learned FLIRT
    _____-> CHARM INCREASED
     
    • YANNI completed mission: CANVASSING
    _____-> EXPERIENCE +999
    _____-> RESUME +1
     
    • FRIENDS +7
     
    • BZP MEMBERS MET +24
     
    • YANNI attended BRICKFAIR
    _____-> AND HAD AN AWESOME TIME
    _____-> AND CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT SUMMER
     
    Days left until I leave for college again: 1.5
    ~ ToM
  19. ToM Dracone

    2006 Revisited

    By ToM Dracone,

    So, Sméag and I and then Janus and I were talking about this the other night, and I figured I'd make a blog entry about it, because goodness knows I'm not going to get around to writing a story about this any time soon.
     
    Anyone remember back in 2005, when Greg told us that 2006 would be returning to a more "tribal" feel? And then how there was actually none of that at all in the 2006 story? I mean, sure, the Matoran lived in a village by themselves, rather than a city, but that was just about it. There was no culture to it.
     
    However! The Piraka looked distinctly tribal, especially in the early leaked photos we got of them (Reidak particularly more so in prototype, with his glowing third eye and longer tail). Their faces just looked deliciously like wild, scary, tribal masks, and then of course the spines added a lot more in the way of wildness.
     
    So I was thinking about this the other night, how tribal the Piraka could have been, and that made me think – what if the Piraka had been the native species of Voya Nui? They would have existed as a more primitive culture than the Matoran, hidden in the depths of the forests of Voya Nui or inhabiting the various mountains on it. I would see them as not stupid, but having a social system such that the lower Piraka were deeply, deeply obedient to the higher ones. These higher ones in the social system would be shamans of a sort, controlling the lesser Piraka with an elaborate system of myths and legends and cautionary tales to keep them in line.
     
    The Mask of Life, hidden in Mount Valmai but known to the Piraka, would be a deeply significant object of legend to them, something the Piraka would be willing to die to protect – it would no doubt be the center of all manner of stories, and probably be attributed the property of protecting the Piraka species from Mount Valmai's eruptions. That, then, would be why they fought so hard against the Toa Nuva when they arrived to claim the Mask of Life.
     
    And I guess that's where the Matoran come back in. The six we got would probably be the few who had actually dared to explore further inland, sneaking through the forests and finding out both the lay of the land and about the Piraka, and thus they would help the Nuva on their quest for that reason.
     
    But! The Nuva would still get defeated, of course. But not by some awkward scheme of "well the Nuva are the most powerful Toa in the universe, but we have to get rid of them anyway, so we'll just give the Piraka way too many powers and pretend they're strong enough to defeat the Nuva." Nothing like that. The Piraka would defeat the Toa Nuva simply by better knowledge of the land, by setting booby traps for them in the forests. They would separate the Nuva from each other and then capture them one by one by ambushes, sneak attacks, traps, and poison darts.
     
    And then the Inika come along as usual.
     
    And hey, even Vezon would make a bit more sense now. He'd be a lone daring Piraka who ventured into the heart of Mount Valmai to find the Mask of Life, and was rewarded by being made its guardian. Perhaps he himself would be legendary among the Piraka – either that, or everyone assumed he perished in the attempt.
     
    Gods, I'd have liked that so, so much more.
    ~ ToM
  20. ToM Dracone

    Maku And Huki

    By ToM Dracone,

    The original and forever delightful Bionicle couple... It was raining last weekend (and is right now, in fact), so I was outside as usual, and I got the idea for a few shots of the two of them:
     

     
    Maku by herself, sitting on the wet deck perfectly at ease...
     

     
    Huki, meanwhile, is cowering underneath using a leaf to stay dry.
     

     
    This was actually the first picture I took, Maku looking down at Huki where he's hiding out of the rain...
     

     
    She convinces him to come up, and they share Huki's umbrella. How romantic!
     
    (Yes, I'm feeling a little bit silly right now. There's Ellengo if you want something more serious.)
    ~ Shipwreck
  21. ToM Dracone
    It's been a long while since I've gone out and taken photos of Tohunga around my yard. I miss it. I mean, partly it's because I've been at college and all that, but it's also been because of a lack of new Kanohi from which to make new Tohunga. But I have some now!
     
    First up is Shenyu, whom those of you who have been with me for a loooong time just may remember.
     

     
    He's the reason I've been craving a dark blue Miru since 2003. He's a Ga-Matoran (and yes, male) who goes on a series of adventures with Hahli way back before Metru Nui (please pay no attention to canon right now), and was transformed into a Toa of Water by Mata Nui to save her from drowning in a storm, after which she never saw him again. I originally had him as a Toa of Gravity, but eventually decided I like water better.
     
    Next!
     

     
    This lovely lady does not have a name yet. And no, I don't actually own a dark blue Matatu. It's from Six's big bag of prototypes; I brought down Hahli's body when I stayed with him for ToyFair expressly for the sake of taking this photo. I wish it were mine, but hey, I have a dark blue Miru at long last, I can't possibly ask for more!
     
    But she does still need a name. Please suggest one. Keep to 2001 naming standards. If I see x's and multiple consonants in a row besides ng, nk, and nt I will bite you.
     
    And finally – no more photos because I don't like the ones I took – I also need a name for a Ta-Matoran with a yellow Komau, red body, and yellow feet. I think he's a lava farmer for some reason.
     
    This came about because I was at one of my friend's houses recently going through a big plastic set of drawers he has filled with his old Lego stuffs, among which were a bunch of Bionicle sets. He had the Manas and let me keep their masks, so now I finally have the yellow Komau and an orange Ruru!
     
    It also made me realize how drastically I lack the Turaga's Kanohi. I need to work on that.
    ~ ToM
  22. ToM Dracone

    Kumquats

    By ToM Dracone,

    » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «Briefly, they are what I think of when I look at the new Ignika. 
    Seriously.
     
    Small, round, oblong, and yellow-orange when less than ripe. All adjectives that most unfortunately describe the new Ignika (minus the ripeness part). Basically, it's been truncated, compressed, shrunk, rounded, and in other words made less interesting in every possible way. Gone is the dramatic, sweeping shape of the 2008 Ignika. Gone is the crescent at the back of the top, and now the three ridges there just curve very uninterestingly back into the mask. Everything's been flattened into a tiny, round shape only slightly larger than a Glatorian head. Which means it's really tiny.
     
    And boring.
     
    And yellow.
     
    Why not gold? Why not the old Ignika? It's gold in the movie. (So is Mata Nui, but that's for another entry) The Ignika's only supposed to be gold, silver, or black, anyway. I still don't see any reason why it -has- to be a new mold in the first place. The old version with a normal Metru head (I'd hope still ice blue eyes, of course) would be delightful. Heck, you could even orient the Glatorian head like an Avotoran one and it wouldn't be that terrible. And I can't help but think that it would cost Lego a lot less.
     
    Small fruit are not what the Great Spirit himself, given a set form after eight years, is supposed to be reminiscent of.
     
    We'll discuss the rest in a later entry, shall we? For the moment I'll say that I'm rather underwhelmed by the group as a whole.
    ~ ToM
  23. ToM Dracone

    Brickfair: Peoples

    By ToM Dracone,

    Prior to one week ago, my repertoire of BZP members I had met consisted of only two: Black Six and HauNuva (if anyone even remembers him).
     
    That has changed now, and so I shall list everyone as a sort of thank-you for all the amazing memories they provided me!
    Smeagol4 (attacked me as I got out of the airport) Janus (see above) Darth Vader (protected me from the above two) Hahli Husky (Disney singalong <3) Senjo (is a spectacular cook, and can do just about anything!) Nikira (is beautiful!) TwingDing (we became friends after about two days and <3) LehvakLah (one-letter-difference name!) Friar Tuck (is highly responsible and highly cool) Rayg (gives excellent art advice and is a sexy fellow) Nuju Metru (dude, why have I never talked to you before? We need to sing together!) Kohaku (<3) VampyreAri (is cuddly) Primus (is a really cool guy and we had an awesome conversation while waiting in line for an hour and a half at the Lego store) Nukaya (was looking dashing in her polo shirt and explorer hat, and is super adorable and cute and and and) Sisen (is quiet but neat) Arpy (fun with posing for photos) ChocolateFrogs (those mosaics were epic. cc: Nukaya) Vezok's Friend (is a good artist) Waffles (pretty sure the entire BZP staff wants to adopt him) Kanohi Zatth (Janus and I spent a good while looking through an enormous tub of Bionicle pieces for sale with him and Waffles) Stubbed Toa (didn't get to talk to you much, but your art is cool and you know it dablackcat (no one's ever asked to take a photo with me before!) Spink (wishing we had hung out more) Disky (see above!) And lots of these lovely people took equally lovely photos, which I can't wait to see because they're all better than mine. I like this one a lot (thanks, Arpy!) of the ones that have shown up so far. And can't wait for the Hahli Mahri and Hahli Mahri shots that I know a few people took. :3 
    ~ ToM
  25. ToM Dracone

    Her Imperial Majesty

    By ToM Dracone,

    :: :: 
    Here's a guessing game for all of you guys. I've been doodling this figure for the past couple days in the edge of my history notebook, a human rendition of a certain Bionicle character, and I'm wondering if you can tell who she is. I started it while trying to get her face and hair right and doodling such all over everything, then it progressed to be a rough image of her battle armor (sans helmet).
     

     
    Brief information that won't help you at all: she's black, she has bright green eyes, she's rather short, her hair is quite long but she keeps it in cornrows for battle... And if I told you the color of her armor it ... actually probably wouldn't help that much. Those who have read my stories may remember certain bits of description.
     
    So guess away! I'm curious what people will say, and how long it will take someone to figure out who she is. No hints.
    ~ ToM
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