Moku

One thing I found intriguing is that it was said that Ekimu and Makuta were left in endless slumbers. If that's the case, then how did Ekimu get up? Still, though, an Ekimu model is much welcomed, as is the mask of creation.  Overall I really do enjoy the 2015 Summer lineup.  The thin limbs are an odd choice, but considering that they're skeletal I can forgive that.

IC: Banar

"Oh, didn't see you.  We're back in Po-Koro, thankfully.  Now we just need to turn this Skakdi in and everything will be okay.  At least, as far as I know."  Banar said to the recently awoken Gerox.

IC:

 

"Here we are," Ashala said as she stopped outside her shop/home. She unlocked the front door before pushing it open and stepping inside. The bottom floor was all shop, full of herbs and remedies for healing.

 

"Upstairs is where we will sleep." she smiled at the other two.

IC: Nekka

By this point in time, Nekka was on the verge of falling asleep.  Nevertheless, she managed to walk over towards the upper level.

"I'm... gonna go ahead and... go sleep..." Nekka said, fatigue clouding her voice as she struggled to even keep her eyes open.

Jeez, all the Toa (except Lewa and Kopaka) are sort of jerks to the Protectors, just taking their weapons ._.

That aside, I definitely loved these.

IC: Banar

"I guess we could go and rest at my home.  It's just a small shack, if anything."

Banar forgot, however, that they still had a Skakdi they needed to dispose of.

"Oh, and the Skakdi.  Find someone to turn it in to.  I've no idea who, to be honest."

Banar began walking towards his home, leaving Johk with an unconscious Skakdi to turn in.

 

 

Oh yippee, more generic non-names!

 

(But a whole wave of villains is what I wanted, so actual yay for that.)

 

~|ET|~

They may be generic, but they're still pretty cool (if a little cheesey). Skull Slicer? Skull Basher? Skull Grinder? Sounds like some serious business.

Skull Grinder sounds like a death-metal band name.

Pretty much every brutal death(whatever core/metal/grind) band has a name like that , so I admit I chuckled when I saw that comment.  That said, I'm excited for the Summer sets .  Thank heavens there are only 5 of them; I'm still recovering money-wise from the ~$200 blow to my bank account the Winter wave brought upon me.

IC: Nekka

As Nekka walked through the streets of Ga-Koro, she didn't feel as if she was being judged anymore.  What Nekka didn't know was that nobody was judging her at all; it was simply her imagination.  Nevertheless, she would refuse to believe that had she been told so.  She felt a great deal of paranoia every since she renounced her old ways.

As Nekka followed Ashala and Londar, her eyelids started to feel heavy as her movements started to become dizzy.  She shook her head awake; she couldn't just fall asleep on the streets, and yet her eyelids still felt as if they were being dragged down by a great weight.  Nevertheless, she kept up with Ashala and Londar despite her fatigue.

These are beautiful.

 

If I could change one thing, I would make the feet of the two-coloured ones match the head and spine rather than the hand joints.

On the original Rakshi sets, the feet, head and spine were a different textured plastic than the cup joints, even though they were the same colours. I would make all the softer plastic parts match each other for Rakshi with two colours.

That'd certainly be interesting, however it is already said on the Wild Kraata Chart (where he got the colors from) that the two colors of a rahkshi are separated by head/spine and feet/hands.  In that sense, his rendition is faithful towards canon.  I definitely do see your point in separating by material, though.

IC: Savok and Moku

As Moku and Savok walked along the path to Ta-Koro, Savok noticed a shining piece of metal in the ground.

"Huh, wonder what it is."

He swung his battleaxe at it, though it did nothing but make the axe reverberate.  As it hummed in his hand, he lost his grip on it as it fell down into the lava river.

"Oh no..."

Moku noticed the event, saying to Savok, "I'm sorry about that.  Guess it's my bad luck that got you to lose that battleaxe."

"It's alright.  Now, let's just see what this metal object is.  And since I don't have a weapon..."

Savok headbutted the mask, which shook off some of the dirt.  It appeared to be a Kanohi mask of sensory aptitude, with it's distinctive lines running off it's eyeholes.

"A mask?  What kind is it?"

"It's a mask of sensory aptitude.  Something a clumsy guy like me needs."

He began to dust it off crazily as he pulled it from the ground.  He took off his Kakama and took a look at it.  It developed a large crack from where he headbutted it.

"Well, this is scrap metal now."  Savok said as he tossed his now broken Kakama away.  He put on the mask and started to activate it's power as he jumped around.

"Wow, I can see really clearly with this thing!  And I'm not falling over!"

Moku stood in awe as Savok tried out his new Kanohi.  "Awesome!"

Savok started to slow down as he deactivated his Kanohi, unfortunately resulting in him falling over in a display of clumsiness.

"Guess you might want to keep that Kanohi, huh?" Moku said in a playful manner.

"Yeah, I just might." Savok said as the two began walking back to Moku's house, which was only a couple hundred feet away.

IC: Nekka

"Okay.  As long as they see the note they'll be fine..."  Nekka said as she got up.

Well, as long as they've got the note they'll do something, right?

 

 

EDIT:  Love the improvement on the Blocko Mask- The stretching to cover the head was a well-needed improvement.  Good job!  Now I can't tell if I want that or the Mask of Sensory Aptitude!

I tried stretching the previous model on and off for several hours... gave it up as a lost cause and started from scratch.

Well, I'm certainly glad you did.  It definitely does look significantly better than the original.  Glad to see you're improving on these!  I bought a Mask of Sensory Aptitude for one of my MOCs.    Maybe later I'll buy the revised Blocko Mask.

Wow, this is amazing!  I love how a lot of the models are represented by their physical builds and are yet still presented as "alive".  The addition of Ekimu knocking the MoUP off of Makuta is just icing on the cake, as is the Okoto/MoC in the middle.  Well done!

Wow man, you've been on a roll with these!  It's great to see you still making interesting stuff here!  I'd definitely buy one of these in a heartbeat (in fact, I just might!).  I'm really impressed by the Mask of Sensory Aptitude in particular, though that could be because I love the shape of it.  The Olisi is also really impressive.  A shame that quite a few of the masks don't fit on Toa heads just yet, but I bet I wouldn't be able to fix that, let alone actually make these!  Well done!

EDIT:  Love the improvement on the Blocko Mask- The stretching to cover the head was a well-needed improvement.  Good job!  Now I can't tell if I want that or the Mask of Sensory Aptitude!

IC: Banar

Banar looked at the Skakdi running away, contemplating on whether to chase him or leave him.  Well, we both stand no chance against him in our current conditions...

"Maybe we oughtta let him go for now... There's not much we can do with our current physical conditions."

Well, these guys look pretty nice.  I actually saw all the Series 4 Mixels at one of my local Targets, so I might pick some up.  That said, I've already spent ~$200 on LEGOs this month (2015 BIONICLE), so I'm guessing these'll be something I get later on.

PS: Am I the only one who's thinking of a Zubat/Golbat model built with these pieces?  No?  Okay.

IC: Banar

Despite the lack of subtlety regarding the Skakdi's attempt at escaping, Banar still hadn't noticed.

"Yeah, I do agree.  Hopefully when we're more well-rested and prepared.  There's bound to be something in there."  He said to Johk.

IC: Banar

"We're almost there... finally!" Banar said in excitement as he saw the gates of Po-Koro.  Finally I can relax...

Something was wrong, though.  One of the Skakdi had woken up, though Banar did not notice.  It would prove to be a problem, though.

IC: Banar

"I've got nothing." Banar said.  "I guess it's plain and simple; we've just gotta get back to Po-Koro.  If only we could just abandon these Skakdi and get on our way, but that'd leave the problem of these two punks running rampant and causing trouble for more travelers.  So I guess we've got nothing else to do."

Wow, I'd definitely say this is the most "baby-like" of all the renditions of this little guy.  And I mean that in a good way.  Well done!

IC: Banar

"Well, we can probably turn them in somewhere." Banar said.  Somewhere's the true question, though.  I've not the slightest idea of where to turn in these bestial punks.

Banar noticed that Johk was limping somewhat.  "Are you okay?  You look a bit exhausted."

Simple, straight, to the point, and I like it!  I do agree with using the shorter arms to maintain good proportions, even if they do restrict poseability.  It does look like an accurate depiction of what a standard villager would be in Gen 2.  Calling it a Protector, however, may be a bit inaccurate story-wise, but it's a minor quibble  Besides, Gen 2 doesn't have much of a story yet.  That, and the use of daggers justifies the term.  Overall a great and simple MOC!

Well, I saw this one coming when people noticed that the Protector mask looked like an Arthron (even though the resemblance is only subtle in real life).  Still, though, seeing Vakama, an old staple of Gen 1 depicted here really does look great!  The use of the Arthron as well as the tails for a beard really does go for the "old" look you were going for (even if it does derive from his original Huna, though it fits even more with Gen 2)!  I also really appreciated the use of dark red rather than traditional red here; it really does hearken back to the Toa Metru/Hordika Vakama.  I do wonder if they'll name the Protectors later on after the original Turaga... (I really hope they do, even though it's quite unlikely at this point, seeing as they weren't given the original Turaga names from the start)

Overall, excellent job recreating Vakama!

PS: Vakama likes pulling jokes on villagers?  That's not the Vakama I remember!  Still though, that actually sounds like a good trait for him, as it helps distinguish him from the PoF, who seems to be the Gen 2 replacement for Vakama.

IC: Banar

Banar began walking with Johk, carrying Gerox over his shoulder, who was as far as he knew still unconscious.  Poor Gerox, maybe I should've sucked it up and gone without healing...

"Here's hoping that nothing else gets in our way." Banar said to Johk, who was dragging the Skakdi by their feet.

"What are we gonna do with these Skakdi once we reach Po-Koro?" Banar asked.

IC: Nekka

As Nekka waited with Ashala and Londar for the Akiri, Nekka began to yawn.  Soon her eyelids became too heavy for her to keep up, and within a few minutes, she was asleep.  She didn't snore or make any noise, though, so it was doubtful that Ashala and Londar would be alerted to her falling asleep.

As she slipped into unconsciousness, she began to dream.

"What?  Where am I?" Nekka said as she walked through the uneven lands of the dreamworld.  She started to walk towards a light that kept bothering her when she saw what it was.

It was a Kanohi.

"A Kanohi??  I need to get that!"

As Nekka started running, she noticed that she was going nowhere.  In fact, she was going backwards!

"No no no no no no..."

"...no no no no no!"

Nekka had woken up, presumably alerting Ashala and Londar.  Her face started to turn red as she felt embarassed by her outburst.

"Sorry... just woke up from a not-so-good dream."

IC: Moku, Savok

As Moku walked through Ta-Koro and all the sights surrounding it, he felt a strange sensation of curiosity take over him.

I wish I could save these images permanently into my head... Moku thought to himself.

Meanwhile, a Toa of Plasma known as Savok was also walking through Ta-Koro, returning from his travels throughout Mata Nui.  He looked relatively strong for a Toa, having a broad body with strong proportions all covered by his orange and white armor.  He carried a large battleaxe in one hand; his weapon as a Toa, and he wore an orange Kanohi Kakama, the Mask of Speed, yet even with all of this he was simply walking through Ta-Koro.

He spotted an uncomfortable looking Ta-Matoran walking through Ta-Koro.  The matoran was apparently sightseeing, though he still looked out of place as if he was in a dark and evil cave.  Savok decided to approach him.  "Hey, are you okay?"

"Um-um yeah, I'm fine!  Why do you ask?"

"Well, you do look nervous.  Are you scared of anything around here?"

"Wha- No!  I'm not scared.  Well, maybe a bit, b-but what kind of person walks up to someone and asks them a bunch of questions??  Speaking of which, who are you?"

"I'm Savok, a Su-Toa.  And I was only asking because you looked uncomfortable.  Are you sure you're alright?"

Moku closed his eyes for a moment, imagining a possible scenario involving him confiding to this stranger.  

Can I trust him...?  Well, he is a Toa, and Toa are supposed to be heroes, so...

"Okay, I'm not fine.  I'm really uncomfortable around others.  It's as if I become paralyzed when they talk to me." Moku said to Savok.  Moku wasn't looking him in the eyes, and though that's usually a sign of being disrespectful or untrustworthy, in Moku's case it was simply because he was scared of others.

"Well gee, I'm sorry for putting you on the spot like that.  I just wanted to make sure you were alright." Savok said to Moku, who looked a bit more comfortable now that he had told him of his true thoughts.

"Well, that's very kind of you, sir.  My name's Moku." Moku's expression turned from a scared look to a more comfortable face.  It wasn't quite a smile, but it wasn't a flat face either.

"That's nice, are you from Ta-Koro?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"What a coincidence; I'm from Ta-Koro too!  Maybe we just never saw each other?"

"Yeah, I bet that's what it is... I don't talk to people often at all."

"That's a shame... But you must feel horrible when put on the spot."

"Yeah...  Look, I'm just sightseeing here, but when I'm done, would you like to come over to my home?"  Moku had never invited anyone over, so it genuinely must have surprised Savok, even if they had just met.

"Sure, that sounds nice!"

Moku and Savok started to walk all the way to the former's house.  True, Moku hadn't walked far, but it was still quite a distance.  As they left the cluttered streets of Ta-Koro and into the rural area, Moku sighed a sigh of relief.  He was almost home to his comfort zone.