Maganar

Review Topic Chapter 4 Xia, approx. 920 years after Great Cataclysm Guftivei shifted his spear horizontal. It snagged between the buildings and snapped, but slowed Guftivei down just enough to survive the fall. He immediately began running down the alleys behind the buildings, in the direction of a pier he knew about. He was in a rather dire state. He didn’t have any weapons and only a few explosives. Suddenly two Skakdi with modified Cordak blasters pulled in front of him. Just before they shot, Guftivei bluffed, “Wait, I got something your master wants!” Deciding to play with their greed he said “I’m sure he’d pay you extra for bringing me and what I have with me right now.” One of the Skakdi grunted, then gruffly replied, “So, you have something we need, now do you? Well, put your hands up, we don’t want trouble, now do we?” Guftivei obeyed, but when he lifted his hands, he held a bag in one. The same Skakdi noticed and grumbled “Throw that bag down. You probably want to obey, now wouldn’t you?” Guftivei gave it a glance, then apologized “Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” He tossed it to the Skakdi. On impact, it exploded. The Skakdi were too hardy to be harmed by it, but they were startled. It gave Guftivei the second he needed to dash up to the first Skakdi and throw him back into the other one, bowling both of them over. He threw an explosive at the wall as he sprinted past. The resulting pile of rubble buried the Skakdi long enough for him to make it to the pier. Once there he took the over-inflated price a Vortixx sailor gave him for a trip to Stelt (he couldn’t afford to waste time haggling), and got moving. However, the trouble wasn’t over yet. When he looked back he saw a ship armed to the brim headed their way. It had Kanoka launchers trained on the vessel Guftivei was in. It was easy enough to guess what effect they had: increase density. Things were about to get interesting. That is, if they didn’t turn deadly. Chapter 5 Xia, approx. 920 years after Great Cataclysm The situation was looking bleak. Yet another Kanoka disk slammed into the hull of the ship, increasing its density even more so. With a groan the body of the ship sank lower in the water. Guftivei estimated that they could take about a dozen more disks before it would all be over. The boat’s pilot was cowering in a corner. He certainly wouldn’t be any help, Guftivei noticed as another two disks smacked the vessel. Looking up at the rigging, an idea suddenly came upon Guftivei. As another disk hit the hull he began to swing a sturdy rope wildly. Suddenly, he latched onto the rope and swung across to the attacking vessel and boarded it as soon as three disks hit the hull of his hired transport. A Vortixx with a scythe charged at Guftivei, but Guftivei simply sidestepped and the unsuspecting offender flew overboard just as one more disk hit the ship. Two more disks hit the ship as Guftivei began wrestling with one of the gunners on the enemy craft. At this point, Guftivei would have to end this before the enemies could launch another three disks into the ship. The gunner, a gray-armored Vortixx, made a kick aimed at Guftivei’s chest, but Guftivei grabbed his foot and pulled his opponent in. The enemy thought quickly and held up an elbow intended for Guftivei’s face, but Guftivei blocked it at the last moment. As the enemy attempted to uppercut him, Guftivei grabbed his opponent’s arm mid-swing and redirected the blow to the left. While the enemy hesitated in surprise, Guftivei grabbed him around the shoulders and smacked the opponent's head into the Kanoka launcher emplacement he’d been using, knocking him unconscious. As one more Kanoka hit Guftivei’s vessel, he grabbed a crate with over twenty still in it and smashed it upside-down into the body of the vessel he was standing on. As a result, the disks all discharged their increase density effect into the enemy vessel. Leaping into a small scouting ship attached to the back of the enemy vessel, he pushed off and headed back towards his original ride, which still had a density just low enough to float. Guftivei watched his enemies fall into hysteria as they noticed it was too late to save their ship. Guftivei’s cowardly pilot sailed off as Guftivei listened to the fading cries of their previous prosecutors. Guftivei knew this wasn’t the end. The first thing he was going to do in Stelt was get a fast ship. He was going to sabotage the corporation responsible endlessly. Their disregard for other beings and the state of Xia itself would be their most grievous mistake. However, he had made it off Xia and they would not be prepared for his future incursions. He was more or less home-free for the time being. Guftivei was about to settle down for a life as quiet as one could be when one is always planning sabotage. However, it would not remain that way in the future. He would be part of something greater than he had ever imagined. Chapter 6 Small unnamed island to the east of the Northern Continent, approx. 930 years after Great Cataclysm Emeder, a Toa of Air, was joking with Shom, the Toa of Gravity in the same Toa team. Their choice of timing was ill-fated. Suddenly, a bright sphere appeared. Emeder averted his eyes from its brilliance. Before he could react, a blast of pure, concentrated, light energy seared the building behind him. Falling rubble pinned him to the spot and hit him in the head, causing his vision to blur. Emeder could only just make out the form a Toa of Lightning being cleanly obliterated by a shaft of destructive light. Then everything went black and he heard nothing more than screaming Matoran and the sizzling of air heated to the point of being plasma. Slowly, the sounds merged, and then muted as Emeder lapsed into complete oblivion. When Emeder opened his eyes, his first thought was I’m stuck. It was only after shifting seemingly endless amounts of rubble off of him did he remember what had transpired. Suddenly he noticed Shom was dead, along with all the Matoran, and it was his fault. He had faltered when they needed him most. If he hadn’t been buried in the rubble he could have saved them or at least have died honorably beside them. He was a complete failure. He searched the ruins with a hopeless demeanor. He knew they were all gone. He was the only survivor. The failure of a survivor. Suddenly he heard Matoran voices. For a moment he let his hopes rise, before noticing it was a party of travelers. He couldn’t bear to let them see his face. They would find out he was the failure of the village. Emeder bellowed in rage then vanished into the forest. He could just hear the Matoran gasping in horror as he faded into the trees. Emeder travelled to the nearest dock. When no one was paying attention, he stole a ship and headed south of his homeland, the homeland he had failed to protect. He knew he was hiding from his duty, and, more importantly, his destiny, but he couldn’t put up with those memories of failure. He would eventually find himself on the Southern continent, where he would meet a certain Vortixx named Guftivei… Chapter 7 Barrier island of the Southern Continent, approx. 985 years after Great Cataclysm “I’d take that route. It’s shorter and more secluded.” Emeder suggested to Guftivei. They were hovering over a map of Xia. Guftivei wanted to see justice done to a corporation and Emeder wanted to forget his past so they made a perfect team for raiding Xian business conglomerates. They were currently planning the next sabotage. There hadn’t been nearly as many barrier islands as Guftivei had hoped for. He had settled for a miniscule sandy island that he could walk around in under five minutes. It was close enough to shore that the Southern Continent was clearly visible on the island’s shoreline. Rahi birds were the only wildlife that lived on the island due to its isolation. They would hide in the dense jungle around the three-room hut he and Emeder had built in the island’s center, a location chosen to avoid the entire abode being washed away in a storm. The central room of the hut sufficed as a decent living area. The room on the left was Emeder’s private area and the room on the right was the equivalent for Guftivei. An underground cellar just behind the hut served as a storage place for arms and ammunition as well as food and other assorted belongings. Guftivei studied the route Emeder had just proposed. “Well I had something more difficult, but more efficient to try out,” Guftivei suggested. He continued: “If we head that way we can jump onto one of Xia’s unique rail mass transit transports. We could use it to put great distance between us and any enemies and destroy one of the stations as well, to slow down the repairs. That weapon foundry will be in a horrid state after that.” With a sly grin he added “Matter of fact, it might just be in as bad of a state as this island after a storm.” Emeder sourly responded, “That’ll be tricky to pull off, but I can live with a challenge. Let’s start readying the supplies.” He ignored Guftivei’s weak attempt at humor. Personally, he didn’t care much for comedy…not these days, at least. They were two heroes intent on doing good, but one was running from his destiny. It wouldn’t last much longer.

This. Is. Awesome.I love the seamless melding of all sorts of different Lego construction media. HF, Bionicle, System: they're all there and the fit together with no indication they were originally from different product lines. I actually liked the brown, but I may be outnumbered on that opinion. I think Jinklemeister is the only person I see backing that opinion. Every body part looks deliberate and intentional: even structures you were forced to use by necessity still fit in and appeared cohesive. The "bicep anomaly" people keep pointing out is a bit distracting, but there are so many sleek and fluid features that my eyes wander off from the 'biceps' and on to the rest of this MOC. And you even made a sample ice core out of System studs! This is great.

It has a real MNOG Rahi feel to it. That's pretty cool, considering it does come from that island and time period. I can now envision it crawling around Po-Koro during that part of MNOG...Right. Anyway, it's simple but cool. The only real thing to help it out may have been a little something to cover the back as it feel kind of empty with the big head in front of the raw Technic piece infrastructure of the main body. Cool job.

I especially like the continuity of the armor. The Pohatu Nuva claw leg armor, arm-blades, and weapon all have a similar feel. That makes the character feel very real. The shading nicely emphasized the armor and such and (even if inadvertant) the lack of attention to the landscape places a focus on the character, who we actually want to see. As I said, I don't know if you did that intentionally or just went "I don't want to bother with drawing detail on the mountains!" but it worked well.Only real complaint is the aforementioned proportion issues, but it's really nice overall.

Wow, congrats on attracting this much attention while still a new member! Nice work. If anyone did, I think that the burnmad emoticon is suffice to say. Just look how appropriate it is: Fire and all.Anyways...back to the art. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the blackboard. Technic piece theory? That was really clever! And the shading was just as well executed as you implied. As for Tahu's size, it does cause a perspective problem, but it's forgivable. I'll keep an eye out for more of your work.

There was some stuff I felt like saying in the first post that I'm saying here, but I'm not editting the original at this time for the sake of simplicity. Hence, the length.Wow, I was going to PM you to let you know I had finally began posting this, but you're just to quick! You'd already found, read, and reviewed the entire opening before I even had a chance to finish my supper (the reason I'd walked away from my computer at the time).OK, now to address your points. I see you liked my central concept. That's actually how the whole thing got started. I got this wild idea about "What is evil chose the light?" Light has good connotations and there's no problem with having heroes 'defend the light' and whatnot, but there begins to be a slight suspension of disbelief when not a single villainous entity reverses the roles. I started to come up with a basic plot and just started writing some stuff. I never got through Part 1 at the time.Then, the end of Bionicle began to loom on the horizon. I decided I should probably join the BZP community if I planned on following through with my interest in Bionicle and that made me remember my epic I'd started. I looked back, patched up what I'd written with better style and more advanced vocabulary where necessary to flesh out vivid scenes. Looking at it now, I actually did a pretty good job at my 'house-cleaning' of the start. Maybe my disclaimer was unwarranted.Ah yes, my characters and their names. The names had me worried because I exercised my passion for terrible inside jokes. If you want to see what I mean, try rearranging the letters several times in each name. *listens to question* What was that? You're asking if it spells something? I didn't necessarily say that. Plus, even if they did, it could just be a coincidence... *Ahem* Anyway, if you think the characters are well-developed already, just wait. It gets better. Some chapters, even some of the longer ones from later on, are almost all dialogue. Of course, those are balanced with frenetic chapters of consecutive action, so you'll have to tell me as time goes on if the balance is good... You can expect to see plenty more of both characters that have been introduced at this point and there will be some others that you'll meet.For example, we're just about to meet *spluttercough* in the next wave of super-short chapters. At the end of part one, you'll hear about the last big member of the team that plans to *ah....ah....achoo* whose name is *hacking cough* Though not a member of the team, we'll also meet *powerfulsneeze*. Matter of fact he'll even <connection lost>. Gee, I keep sneezing and coughing. Maybe I have a cold or something.With those plot spoilers averted...I'll keep quiet for the time being. I'll release all of Part 1 - The Menace of Light in five posts, one a day. Once that's done, I think I'll start the aforementioned BBC and General Art topics. Sorry for the shortness, but it will be mediated within time as the chapters get longer. Glad you liked it, and your complimentary post allowed me a huge sigh of relief. Maganar, out.EDIT: Actually, I've reconsidered. I'll release all of The Menace of Light in four days. Parts 1 and 2 are both very short, but 3 and 4 are considerably longer. That's all.

Welcome to the revamped topic for Lightfall!This four-part epic spans vast tracts of the Matoran Universe in a wild search for a means to stop an ancient evil. Sound like a trite concept? Try reading the first couple chapters. You may be surprised.A similarly four-part sequel is planned and currently underway. I like to stay ahead of my posting to give myself time to catch proofreading errors.Thanks for any input you may give, and I hope you like the product of my efforts. These characters have to be introduced somewhere, and that's what Part 1 aims to do! Besides bringing most characters into play and describing the scenario, this part also includes some crazy action prior to the actual odyssey that the story revolves around.Character Pronunciation Guide:Tignioni – Tig-NYUN-eeGuftivei – GUF-ti-VAYEmeder – EM-uh-DHURImegna – Ih-MEG-nahNotes: Guftivei has a modified Cordak blaster. The schematics I sketched up are here.The journey begins! I regret that this part came out absurdly short, but there's plenty of revelations comparative to the number of words.Character Pronunciation Guide:Rynekaad – RIHN-eh-KAYDThe next step in their task will require an extensive assualt on a fortified location... and old enemies are slowly catching up.Character Pronunciation Guide:Chief Falkhan – CHEEF Fal-KAHNRayzan – RAY-zahnKrazann – KRAY-zahnMorgoz – MOR-gawzTol – TOHLThe Realm awaits! It is time for destiny to decide the conclusion of this lengthy battle.Character Pronunciation Guide:Divrok – DIHV-rawkSemitra – Suh-MEET-rahRogog – ROH-gawgCarnus – CAR-nusExo-Killer – Wait, do you really need help with this one too?Gorrelian Hounds – Gohr-RELL-yan HOWNDZI have MOCed certain characters. See them here.I had a related art topic, but the only related artwork I had at the time was some Lightfall stuff I'd made in order to experiment with making CG art. I will not be servicing, updating, or responding to that topic until I have had a chance to make some real artwork related to Lightfall and then revamped the entire topic. Thanks for understanding!

A couple notes before you start to read:1. I started working on this a long, long time ago. I finished recently. End result: the writing style changes will change a bit as this goes on, but it is all pre-written and I've decided I've put enough time in so far that I'm ready to just put it up regardless of the fact I feel the beginning isn't as well written as the end. It tends to get easily sidetracked...2. Yes, the chapters (esp. early ones) are very short. Very, very short - too short for my own taste. That's why I'll post multiple at a time. I wrote this is one-chapter-at-a-time bursts and they all end at any point that came to my mind as a point I could leave off in such a way that the tension would keep running. I hope you don't have anything against lots of cliffhanger-like endings!3. Lastly, I have a sequel planned. That's the one I plan on making my truly great work, and I'm going to take advantage of any input I can get from this one. So, as soon as I have a review topic set up, I would appreciate any feedback. I will be utilizing critiques, so please don't decide it's not worth your time. I am continuing on with my writing and I will listen. That said, it's time I finally put this up. This is Part 1 of "Lightfall."Lightfall-The Menace of LightChapter 1 The Southern Continent, approx. 10 years prior to Great Cataclysm Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. The entire landscape seemed to be composed of them for Tignioni. As a veteran Toa of Fire on the part of the Southern Continent would one day be called Voya Nui, he was all too familiar with the endless rocks. His life seemed to be predominated by scrabbling over them. He felt…that, perhaps, he didn’t have a purpose a here. Despite this, he was obediently poised on a rock, staring out upon the vast, unending field of yet more rocks outside of a village constructed out of even more rocks. He was to await an important shipment of goods and was to make sure that no Rahi damaged it. Suddenly, there was a magnificently bright flash. Could this be the supplies at last? He cared for nothing more than the end to the monotonous wait. He activated his Kakama and sped off absentmindedly in the direction of the light, certain it was the Matoran convoy. Yet, when he stopped he saw nothing other than a massive hole. With a sudden realization he murmured, “Why in Mata Nui’s name is it so bright?” Noticing the light came from behind, he spun around but immediately wished he hadn’t. A dazzlingly radiant orb of energy, with a diameter as great as he was tall, was floating behind him. The sight almost blinded him instantaneously. In fear of some trap he activated his true mask, a Mahiki, and called forth an illusion that there were nearly a dozen copies of him present. Immediately upon doing so, the orb began lashing out at the illusionary versions of Tignioni with rays of energy, with which it was combing the area. Where these touched the soil they vaporized it for as deep as the eye could see, causing a sinkhole to form as the soil collapsed inward. Tignioni frantically raced his mind to try and make sense of the situation before he was obliterated. He thought: It’s trying to kill me. Maybe I can hide if… Seeing it as his only chance, and it probably was, Tignioni called upon his elemental energy to explode the whole surrounding area. The brilliant orb searched haze caused by the blast, but left, noticing nothing more an oddly shaped rock uncovered by that massive explosion… Chapter 2 The Southern Continent, approx. 10 years prior to Great Cataclysm Had there been anyone to witness the aftermath of Tignioni’s battle with the bizarre orb, they would have observed that an unusually shaped rock near the site collapsed into an unconscious Toa of Fire. Tignioni’s quick thinking to produce the illusion he was a rock and veil it with an explosion had saved his life. A short while later, he came to consciousness. Tignioni stared up at the sky, and then thought aloud, “I believe… I have a newfound respect for rocks.” He chuckled to himself, but stopped abruptly. Where had that thing gone? What if it had reached a village? Wait…there was a village right behind him. Tignioni craned his neck in the direction of the village. There seemed to be smoke, and wasn’t it a little lower in the ground… Tignioni suddenly felt a sinking feeling. A pit had formed when that mysterious source of light had attacked him as the dirt had collapsed inward. He reactivated his Kakama and sped off towards the village. Upon reaching the outskirts, his fears were confirmed. Buildings were destroyed, belongings knocked over, holes where concentrated light had burned through objects, and, most disconcertingly, no Matoran anywhere. “Is there anyone here?” Tignioni cried out again, though he knew it would be futile. There were so many questions. Had it simply obliterated the Matoran? Or had it absorbed them? Was it growing in power? Could it be defeated? Where would it go next? Tignioni circled once more, despite the fact he was sure nobody was in the area. He didn’t believe they had all died. He refused to. Yet the facts were overwhelming, and after six passes through the village and a fruitless hour searching, he surrendered himself to the truth. The village had simply been annihilated. Suddenly, Tignioni felt an urge to follow that thing, whatever it was, and stop it. He would have to get to work right away. He couldn’t stick around to explain to the nearby villages. They would just have to count him among the dead. Tignioni set off, toward the horizon, not knowing his current, or final, destination. He knew only one thing: He had found his destiny. Chapter 3 Xia, approx. 920 years after Great Cataclysm A Vortixx rounded the corner, only narrowly avoiding a volley of zamor spheres and Cordak blasts. His name was Guftivei and he was running for his life. He had always been disgusted by his society’s way of life on Xia. His near-fatal mistake was speaking up repetitively against one of the largest corporations in weapon production, and, if he wasn’t careful, it would be a fatal mistake. The company had no regard for anything except profit. Guftivei always hated them, but the final blow was when they destroyed the last stand of vegetation on Xia. It had hardly been more than a stand of a dozen trees, but it was all that remained on Xia as far as plant life went. Now it matched everything else on the island, a complex of gray buildings surrounded by hazy smoke. He couldn’t help it any longer; he protested to it, and now he was paying for it. Guftivei stepped aside into an empty alcove. He had to leave Xia, but where could he go? He certainly wouldn’t be accepted in one of those havens for Matoran like the Southern Continent or that metropolis apparently made by the Great Beings just for Matoran…What was it called? Oh, yes: Metru Nui. Well, with those set aside, where could he go? Zakaz would be remote enough, but he would probably be caught between vicious warlords in no time. Yet, returning to the concept of the Southern Continent, wouldn’t there have to be some sort of barrier islands offshore from the Southern Continent? They would be small and uninhabited. Yes, if he could survive on one of those, he would be safe… His thinking was interrupted by a crackle from a zamor sphere hitting a wall. He peeked out slightly. He saw two phalanxes of armed Vortixx advancing, one from each entrance. They had pinpointed him to this building, but didn’t know where he was. They thought he was unable to escape, but they had overlooked one thing: he could travel from one building to the next on their outsides because Xia was so industrialized and the buildings so close together. It was risky, since the ground was nearly fifty bios below him, but it was his only chance. He opened a ventilation hatch and climbed out holding onto a pipe on the wall. He grabbed a railing on the building next to him and began inching his way across the exterior of the building. Upon finding another ventilation grate, he pried it off with his spear, which he had slung over his back previously. Suddenly, his hand on the rail lost its grip. Since he had removed his other hand to grab his spear, he suddenly found himself falling towards the ground, far, far, below…

Even if it was only three chapters, I'm still surprised to find myself as the only reviewer as of yet. I liked the story and it had some great poignant messages. It was also wonderul to see some expansion into a largely undiscussed time period and, for that matter, world. The references to canon such as the Skrall shields made for nice little tie-ins and I always love it when there's a little nod to the established canon. My only complaint is this: with such a huge time period for unknown characters to be invented, Rappert was the only real unnamed character you invented. It would have been nice to see more. Then again, there wasn't a whole lot of room to characterize a host of new characters in such a short work, but I still think there could have been at least one or two other named characters of your own invention thrown in.Anyway, I liked it!

While I have yet to partake in such an act, I wholly approve of piece modification if done to achieve a specific aesthetic goal. That unsymmetrical sword always bothered me, but you dealt with that nicely with that piece modification. Of course, the crab is king here. Awesome usage of the vahki head...and it attaches! Very cool. It also look a lot more stable than the flimsy original.

Well, I don't know about you, but I actually kinda like it that way...XPLighting is superb. The green swirls have a little gap between them and the mask that makes it look a little disjointed. If I were doing this, I'd take into Photoshop, put the mask on one layer, the swirls each on their own layer below that one, and the background as the farthest back layer. Then I could just nudge the swirls intil the edge of the mask covered it up without a gap. Then again, if I were doing this, I doubt the overall product would look this nice. I don't know what you used to make this, but if you couldn't create layers on whatever program (I'm assuming not?), then that's about as good as it gets.

Yay, now I get to finally see what the February piece was! ...and congrats on the front page!On February: that bird is awesome. The whole piece is very well done, but the one factor that really sells it off as a great work of art is the usage of color. The all-invasive green just seems to reflect off of everything, even tinting the underside of the clouds. Also, the shape of the clouds, indicating wind flow to the right, gave some additional energy to it in a nice subtle manner. Cool stuff, 55555.

Yikes, I chose to follow this topic and next thing I know I have 13 notifications coming from it in a couple days!On topic now: Thanks, bones, I was reading this topic when I got a crazy outline of how to explain this and went off on a loosely-thought-out stream-of-consciousness explanation which turned into a deceptively officious-sounding post that was a complete load of nonsense to anyone who took the time to consider the market progression that was occuring parallel to the story progression. Your explanation cleared things up a lot and (I thank you for this) completely discredited my wild rant that bore no real canon references. http://www.bzpower.com/board/public/style_emoticons/default/tounge2.gif I wrote that dissertation late at night and my neurons were making connections I normally would prevent them from making...my apologies!Now for vacuum, I was under the impression that it would refer to only the vacuums in air just because the public reading it would be more likely to wrap their minds around that concept, even though I was fully aware of the actual significance of "vacuum" as the absence of all tangible material. However, looking at it as the negation of all elements puts a new twist on it and explains why Levahk-kal would have such a power. The Levahk were always combat-oriented and the Kal as a group were even more so, so it holds up logically that Levahk-kal would have the inverse of any combatant that could stand in the way - an element-controlling adversary.This time my brain is significantly less scrambled!

As far as I am aware, it is completely correct to consider Nikila a Toa of Electricity, it's simply a non-standard usage and not the name that, for example, she would use to describe herself. Matter of fact, I don't think any MU inhabitant would use the term "Toa of Electricity" as it is a terminology they have been indoctrinated against. If such a term was used, I could foresee a MU inhabitant simply replying "You mean a Toa of Lightning?" As far as I know, no canon character actually referred to Tahnok-kal as controlling the element of electricity; they may have said he controlled electricity, but not calling it an element. I haven't checked that, but I'm pretty sure of it. The simple fact is that the element is lightning, but the power can be called electricity, at least as I remember.Jungle/The Green is even worse, because you can add a third: Plant Life. I remember no distinction between Jungle/The Green/Plant Life as powers, but I believe that The Green is the element. It's all a bit of a mess, but that's how it seems to come across given the ways they are referred to in canon.So, I think that Lightning and The Green are the element names, but the power names are interchangeable. Ugh. Now my brain is scrambled.

OK, here's my take on this: On the main level, a Skakdi would progress through its mutations no quicker than a member of a different sapient species. However, succumbing to the venom is often characterized by fits of rage, so I could envision a preexisting fit of rage to similarly catalyse further mutations. Therefore, a Skakdi would have reached a final level of mutation quicker than a member of another species in the end, but only through accelerated mutations during their periods of rage, not due to a generic predisposition to mutate faster just because they are also prone to raging.Then again, I liked Tilius' explanation when I read it. So I could see that as an alternative possibility: that Skakdi progress at the same rate, but proceed onwards to a deeper and more drastic level of mutation in the end. To address the fact he considered his post to have made no sense - it made perfect sense to me. Maybe I'm just equally crazy.Anyway, that's how I see it.

I often find that Knights' Kingdom pieces can end up breaking up the flow of a MOC or messing it up in some other way, but I am really digging those greaves. It is true that lime green would be welcome on the lower legs as well, but I consider the sacrifice of not having it worthwhile in order to keep those KK legs. Now, for that System thing on his abs. I like it, but it pokes out just a tad too much IMO. It gives his chest a sunken-in appearance. Personally, I would keep the Nuva armor and swap the abs. Fsnorglepuff appears to recommend the reverse, so I'm not sure. Either way, it seems like that could be an improvement point if it can be dealt with without forfeiting the level of continuity it currently has. Other than that, the rest of the MOC leaves me going "Cool, cool, and more coolness." Great overall; I can totally envision Mutran taking this form during some of his pre-Phantoka days.

Really? I wasn't so sure about the visor, but I'm glad it turned out well. As I said above, I hope to one day get the pieces to fix up the color scheme, but at least the thing is functional. I'm glad you like the model, though.I agree on with this on the visor. I thought it looked cool and was really creative. No need to worry that it looked out of place. As for the simulated gunfire noise, that's awesome. I always put aesthetics first on something like this, but you also squeezed in a cool little functionality on a nice-looking weapon. Only other thing that comes to mind is the color scheme, but that's not really a valid point considering you've already taken note of that and you were just throwing together some spare Technic pieces in the first place.

Yes! That's the description of Durgolund I was waiting for! This entire island seems to be a humbling experience for him. In previous serials, he's ended up in some really bad spots before, but that's usually late in the game as his berserker charges go awry in the face of enemies that plan ahead. This time, he's already abandoning his chosen method of attack and still finds himself heavily disadvantaged. A bit of a role reversal compared to earlier parts where he simply overpowers anything that rises up in front of him. I like this dark mood.Now, about Bugface. I am intrigued, but await further info. His appearance seems rather convenient (considering the ultra-low population of Durgolund combined with Tobduk's desperate need of aid at the current time) and highly unexpected. I suppose we'll find out, but I am currently wondering whether "the Empowered" is the name of Tobduk's race, a title, or what exactly. It a rather impressive-sounding name, though! http://www.bzpower.com/board/public/style_emoticons/default/tounge2.gif

Now that I can see the detail, some of these are even more impressive. The weapons as a group are very impressive. Keep building them the way you have been. One quick fix, get rid of those gray feet on Lenfark if you have better. They add an otherwise almost-non-existent color to the MOC. That should do all lot to unclutter the color scheme despite the difficulties you have had due to lack of homogeneously-colored pieces. Also, the Exo-Suit looks way more frightening in detail. It seems to fit over Jehu so seamlessly, it's amazing. Very cool on that.

Nice. Not a whole lot of people use paint as their medium these days. That said, these are really nice and take full advantage of the opportunities that paint/paintbrushes present (e.g. splatters, rough strokes, washes, etc.) My only complaint is in accordance with Aibohphobia; the Matoro one fades largely into a sketch. If this was done intentionally for dramatic effect, it was a little over-exaggerated. If you just weren't finished, then disregard what I've said. Obviously, you simply needed to finish it in order for it look as good as the others!

It is really strange, I always seem to find this sort of stuff completely randomly on Brickshelf before I find it here. Honestly, this is the third time I've had this happen. And I spend very little time on Brickshelf and loads here! ...confused. :blink:Either way, I somehow missed out on this until now, in March. I am definitely going to check back on this monthly for the updates, as the artwork looks great so far. MatoroIgnika's "Alignment" is aesthetically pleasing and the archetypical calendar art. The overall gradient is nice. I'm a tad confused however; what exactly is in "Alignment?"Just as a note about how I found this on Brickshelf first: what I ran across was VF's January drawing. I ran across it randomly and I looked at the file name confusedly. Why would it be "calendar.jpg?" Well, now I know!

Waaaait...HOLD ON! I've seen this before! I was randomly browsing BrickShelf and then I saw this folder on the "Recently Added" bar reading "RoodakaHead." When I saw all the system chains hanging down I said to myself "This I have GOTTA see!" So I did. And looked through every single picture. I was blown away. As for this: ...this is a true testament to dedication paying off. This screams volumes for the effort you put into it and it is clear as day in the finished MOC. At first, I felt the fingers where a little too blocky, but then I decided that a classic sort of Roodaka pose would involve clenched fists and the macro-hands you made make fists perfectly. In the end, that had been the only thing that came to mind as a potential complaint, and putting that aside, I decided this was my latest favorite MOC/modification. 10/10.