Poor Disadvantaged

Combiner models are real fun to do as they both challenge you to creatively apply parts and work within tight limits - it feels so gratifying if you come up with something even half-decent. Thanks! Pretty sure it would have been totally disqualified before it even hit voting, haha (and this certainly had nothing on Disty's Manas). Another time, perhaps. Thank you both! Yeah - now that I think of it, I could have tried purposing the Bohrok limbs as 'fingers' while using the Rahkshi feet as feet (likening to the original). Better yet, if I were to have thrown in Onua Mata in there somehow, that would have sorted both the arms and it's absence of Dark Grey. Thank you all! Not without photoshop, I can't, nope. I guess this picture of the original gives you an idea of the actual Tahtorak's length - this model would be substantially smaller (it's two Mata torsos to... what, twelve?). Hey, size don't mean everything, right? After quite the delay, I've uploaded this on MOCpages, and instructions are all there! Better late than never!

Yeah, I agree that the forearms are definitely the weakest aspect of this model. I would definitely do something along those lines - or something way more drastic - If only this weren't a combiner model and I had pieces to spare, haha. Thanks anyway! The Invisible Noob, on 29 Jun 2016 - 8:24 PM, said: Sorry, I'm going to ask you to elaborate on that. The tail? I couldn't get rid of the tail. That's my mistake, I skimmed the into post and didn't notice he was a combiner so I assumed the tail could be made with other pieces. On closer examination, the original Tahtorak has Rahkshi pieces as well, so you should actually add more grey to him. I think out of all the spares left over, the Rahkshi torso and shoulder were the only pieces that were dark grey. Both of which aren't exactly easy pieces to apply... Hey, I appreciate your (attempts at) constructive criticism all. Suggesting changes for Combi-models is by nature pretty wacky - oftentimes, it's akin to polishing a turd - so I'm just content that I can see the same stuff you guys do, really.

Thanks all! Sorry, I'm going to ask you to elaborate on that. The tail? I couldn't get rid of the tail. It's probably for the best it didn't make it in all honesty, if only because it needs to be judged by a completely different standard than the others, ahaha. Plan is to make a MOCpages page with the instructions in it - the interface is really buggy for me though, otherwise I would have done it already.

While I tried to utilise colour blocking/grouping with the red and silver, I agree that the chest in particular would do with a 'splidge' of red. Thanks for you constructive criticism!

Dayum, Savage. I did try using HF shells in his torso, but system was the way to go in order for me to get the shaping I needed. The arm length was an intentional reference to the proportions of the original set. The giant hands don't help; I'm triggured as well lol. Hey, thanks for the input.

The Tahtorak Youngling is built solely from the pieces contained in Lewa, Lewa Nuva, Lehvak, Lehvak-Va and Lehrahk. I originally intended this as a cheeky entry for the 'Gen-1 Style' BzPower Contest (perhaps this way I wouldn't need to send my entry overseas), but exams prevented me from completing this in time. More photos may be found here. Edit: After jumping through quite the few hoops, I've uploaded this on MOCpages, which has instructions!

Once the Zealous Leader of the disbanded Toa Mahto, Eyrain now walks alone as he searches for a refuge for his broken people. Much has changed since his ordeal - gone is the naive, arrogant Toa of Fire he once was - yet his purpose has been rekindled, and Eyrain will do whatever he must to bring salvation to those who ask of his protection. This bloke has been made up for a good few months, and once again I only managed to find the time to upload him now. Anyways, my aim was to 'revamp' the existing Eyrain into a Toa with a clear 'Fire' thematic. Very happy with some aspects (Axe, Tailcoat, Back, Chest), less so about others (Torso, Legs). More photos can be found here.

Here, have a Gelu. In this revamp, I strove to retain as many elements of the original set as I could (including proportions, the life-counter and those awful gen-1 limbs). At the same time, conversely, I took many liberties with his Chestplate, the positioning of his 'snowflakes', his weapons, and by nerfing his feet. Quite happy with this - the system-chest was a real blast to work on. More photos may be found on my Flickr here:

Two Male Matoran. Kohn is the Ta-Matoran on the left with the briefcase, Vystr's the Ko-Matoran on the right with the spear, shield and green. Name: KohnGender: MaleSpecies: Ta-MatoranEquipment: Strongbox of Medical EquipmentStatus: Alive Approximate Myers-Briggs Type: ISFJ ’Nurturer' (Introverted, Senser, Feeler, Judger) Kohn is a seasoned Ta-Matoran Field Medic who worked within the Overguard: the Matoran-conscripted military force overseeing Yerinn. Kohn was well known for his peculiar 'No Pain, No Gain' philosophy to his treatments: Once he was certain his subject was out of immediate danger, he would assess his patient's behaviour leading to their injury. If he found fault in him or her (the patient was careless around the offending machinery, for example), he would exercise brusqueness that severely reduced the pleasantness of his service; it was not uncommon for patients to be withheld painkillers, left larger than necessary scars, or at times turned away altogether - all in the name of 'building character'. Kohn would remain completely indignant while receiving complaints from his peers, and would grumble about his peers 'general lack of common sense' and 'innate incompetency'. For in fact, Kohn possessed a sincere and heartfelt fear that his nation's complacency would lead to demise when, not if, disaster struck. Just like he had done many times over, he was proven right when 'The Shattering' reduced Yerinn to a smoking, dying wasteland. His expertise in surgery was invaluable while gathering survivors (he exercised much more sincerity during this time), and though things have changed immensely, particularly with his alignment with Toa Alverh, he continues to serve much like he always has. Name: VystrGender: MaleSpecies: Ko-MatoranEquipment: 'Deep-Ice' Spear, ShieldStatus: Alive Approximate Myers-Briggs Type: ESTJ ’Guardian' (Extraverted, Senser, Thinker, Judger) Very little is known of the Matoran called Vylstr. He did not originate from Yerinn like the majority of those trapped on the island - in fact, he actually set arrived by some means after 'The Shattering'. Those that have encountered him have learned that he is vehemently searching for a single being, the one who 'must be brought to account'. What the lone Matoran hopes to accomplish when he finds him is anyone's guess. More images, including views of the masks and the opening Strongbox, are on my Flickr here. And if you're interested, my post for my previous two (lady) Matoran are here. Any criticism is greatly appreciated!

A Defender and Arbiter that may have origins from the time of the Mask Makers, this ARCH 7078-28 descends from the skies with a grace rarely exhibited by a machine. Equipped with a Repeating Launcher, High-Precision Rifle, Long-Range Boosters and Proto-Alloy Talons that have been known to rend Steel-Bark Trees, the ancient construction executes its tasks surely and swiftly. This creation may be built solely from the parts contained in 70788 Kopaka and 70782 Protector of Ice. Apologies for only coming up with this a full year past their release - I only obtained these sets a short while ago. Hey, my 2001-3 combiners were more than 10 years late, so that's progress. Though its status as a robot might make it a bit harder to integrate into the Okoto wildlife than a Rahi, I guess it could fulfill a role not unlike the rogue Exo-Toa from Gen 1? More images, including exploded views that may be easily replicated, can be found on my Flickr here. Any criticism is greatly appreciated! My Paint.net competence is pretty abysmal, so any pointers in that department are welcome as well.

Thanks all! I agree that the feet err to the small side, and especially for Tamahra the feet do look a bit underwhelming. Because Matoran are pretty much Toa chibis, right? Chibi = Big feet, not small feet.

Two Lady Matoran. Thanne's the Fe-Matoran on the right with the shotgun, Tamahra's the Bo-Matoran on the left with the grass skirt. Name: ThanneGender: FemaleSpecies: Fe-MatoranEquipment: Proto-gel Scatter-Blaster (Customized)Status: Alive Approximate Myers-Briggs Type: ISTP ‘Handyman’ (Introverted, Senser, Thinker, Perceivier) Thanne is a Fe-Matoran who originated as a sea-faring scavenger and ‘isolationist’ in the body of water surrounding the island of Yerinn. She, along with a couple of close friends, crewed The Minnow independent from the mainland, staying clear of the others who would hold her accountable, be they the Overguard, Pirates or other scavengers, with ease. Yet even off-shore in open sea, she was not exempt from that massive explosion that originated from the island. Ash and rubble were flung absurd distances in every direction, and the water around the island in all its immensity was displaced. Without warning, the vessel she resided in was capsized in a surge of water, and her Vo – Matoran accomplice perished as she was trapped within her cabin as it went under. However, Thanne and her Onu – Matoran ship-mate managed to locate and cling to their emergency safe, and together they endured in freezing salt-water for hours on end. They would have surely succumbed to their fate, were it not for the timely intervention of the Pirate-Toa Luciei. Upon chancing upon them, she extended the vast comforts of The Wavestrider towards them after a timely rescue. With nowhere else to go and no other option available, both the Onu-Matoran and Thanne took the offer to join Luciei’s Pirate Crew. Name: TamahraGender: FemaleSpecies: Bo-MatoranEquipment: Standard-issue repeating disk launcherStatus: Alive Approximate Myers-Briggs Type: ESFP ‘Performer’ (Extraverted, Senser, Feeler, Perceivier) Tamahra is a Bo-Matoran who served in the Overguard Scouts, a branch of Yerinn’s Matoran-conscripted military. She has always possessed an invigorated passion for her position that has never left her since her first day in the job, which thoroughly amused and perplexed her colleagues. Coupled with her unwavering aim with the Disk Launcher and her extensive knowledge in fieldcraft, she proved successful in missions that other Scouts would have dropped dead on halfway through. After surviving through the late island-shattering explosion without suffering any grievous harm, Tamahra was quick to spring to aid whoever she could. After a couple of days, she grouped with Eyrain’s Company, befriending Toa Gretiyra and the Matoran-warrior Ohyan with surprising ease, and continued to serve by completing assignments unfailingly and ever-willingly. With Ohyan, a previous Ko-Matoran Warrior. For more pictures and commentary, check out their MocPages page here.

Went with Taipu. His chunkiness probably makes him one anyway.

Man, I regret choosing such a terrible Main Picture. If any of you haven't committed your votes yet, I beseech you to briefly whiz by their MOCpage for a far more cohesive image of them both. I am sorry for potentially 'tipping the vote' by saying this at the last minute - I've just got the impression that (myself being the one completely at fault) my entry hasn't been represented for what it is due to 'false' reasons. And I'm definitely not saying that my thingy 'deserves' to win or anything - of course it doesn't.

Number #5 has my vote, though I must say that I quite like the Keetongu.

I love the way you managed to include the maw of teeth - he looks so much more ferocious and manic with them. Perhaps his torso could use a bit of love to fill up the gaps, but you've really done homage to not just the original model, but his character as well.

Pretty well done. I love your choice of using the 'greebled' Gunmetal CCBS pieces, which really make him look like a machine. It could use a bit of love filling up some of his gaps, as well as a bit of resizing in his upper torso and arms, but you've done quite well applying the CCBS system and incaptulating the original.

You have preserved her original look quite nicely, yet you also have managed to control her proportions and add a whole lot that really make her that ruthless manipulator and villian. While I'm not sure about your aversion of CCBS in light of the competition criteria (some black shells added strategically could really have added to that refined, sleek theme), it's a really nice MOC. Definitely one of the better Roodakas out there.

Thanks! I find it pretty funny how it's nearly purely the Mixel eyes that make the Ice Bull so endearing. I'm a bit new here, so the contest doesn't happen to have a complete ban on those bits, right? Because if I were the guy running it, I would make it my utmost mission to ensure that they must never see the light of day. I'm sorry that the pictures on Google Drive are so limited in both number and quality (the entry photo looks terrible - I have no idea why I chose those two ), so for a far more cohesive impression of them both I'd highly recommend checking out their MOCpages page here. I'm really looking forward to seeing who ends up on top in this one. I personally don't see any entries which are ridiculously outstanding (might be due to the short-ish time allocated), and I've identified about six which I think equally deserve a win.

Nicely done! It looks really machine... ey.... and really conserves the look and feel of the original model. It's interesting that you've decided to omit CCBS shells almost entirely - was this due to a lack of pieces (we all have known that feel), or was it an intentional decision? I think that your suit is better off without them completely dominating the entirety of it and contradicting its core as a junky, punky robotic exoskeleton. Though in my opinion it could definitely benefit from some shells being placed strategically as 'armour' - at least just to make the judges happy.

A really well done fellow Dark Hunter - choosing the fan-made stuff to build from really allows the builder's imagination to shine through better than a TLG set. Like this, we don't just reimagine a model - we reimagine characters. (Not to say that others haven't done the same, of course.) I love the way you applied a marauding, monstrous take on him, which is evident in all his portions. It could have been just another boring, humanoid figure, yet you've taken cues from things on the original like the Rahaga head, tail and claws, and your resulting model gives a genuinely authentic representation of who Ancient was. You have intentionally buffed his upper torso wide and thick, quite like the original was like. I especially love that excellent head and piece usage. - we're all suckers for those kinds of goodies. Though I have to say, the Old/Dark gold + Dark blue really shaped Ancient's identity, and it is a shame that you omitted the gold (and subtracted the blue as your pearl-gold went into position). I reckon the old gold would have done a better job of 'darkening' him, suggesting malice and ruthlessness that he would possess in his role as a seasoned Dark Hunter. Bright and shiny Pearl-gold does work against that aspect of his character, especially when used to the extent that you have (Although, come to think of it, Ancient did strike me as a lot nicer than some of the others in the organisation). I believe the Dark Blue Skull-Spider mask is literally the only CCBS piece that exists in either of his original colours (How much does your prized Skull-Spider mask happen to match Old Gold? ) , and you definitely would have been hard-pressed to meet the CCBS criteria for the competition if you were to use as much Gen-1 dark-gold pieces as you did Pearl Gold. Did you try combo-ing Black, Dark-grey or gunmetal? You wouldn't want to mix or clutter them together, but the amount of gold used would be much more minimal, and if it were blocked well it could have really worked. Maybe, just maybe, that should have been reason to apply this colour scheme to Brutaka, Toa Gaaki or one of the Toa of Psionics instead? I appreciate how you chose a less refined and well-known character, but at least in my opinion those characters would have flown the coloured flag better. And I think you definitely missed out on some brownie points by not giving him the 'levitation boots' that he had in the story. I guess you would have to resize his proportions quite a bit in order for them to not look stupid, but... levitation boots? Still, this is definitely one of the finest and most curated entries of the lot. It's big, as seems to be your forte, but in most areas quality and detail has not been sacrificed at all. You've quite obviously put in hard yards and no small amount of love into this beast, and you've done well to produce this in the very limited time period we were allocated. Well done again.

Wow. It's great how you conserved the look of the original so well, and not necessarily by adding Gen-1 pieces. Well done.

Woah, that could have been bad. Thanks for the heads up - it should be fixed now?

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzbiLSL4PKJAdTJoMjZsOGVmNGc/edit An Ice Bull, and his pet Tracker. I thought I’d build a less popular character for this contest. I have quite a limited selection of CCBS pieces (not to mention the new Bionicles aren't even out in my country yet), so I chose Tracker primarily because Gunmetal and White are the colours I have the most pieces of (‘most of’ just meaning pretty much every piece that is on them – count them with your fingers). Although when these started to shape, they really grew on me as pretty neat characters in their own right. I had such a blast building these, particularly the Bull. I usually avoid CCBS entirely in my creations, not just because I don’t have much of it, so this was an experience that I found educational and it’s one I’m glad to have had. However, old habits do die hard, and I’ll admit that my use of CCBS was pretty stingy compared to some of the others entries. Particularly on the bull. This guy wouldn’t exactly be something that leaps to mind by mere mention of ‘name’, so just to recap: Tracker was a fan-made model originally built for the 2005 Dark Hunter competition, and it was made canon by Greg and then given a place in the story, however insignificant. I don’t believe he was ever involved in any of the important events, and he didn’t get to say much. Such is life as a supporting character. Ho hum. “Tracker received his moniker due to his excelling ability to locate targets with his pet bull. Given a minute trace of the target in question, Tracker and his bull can discover them despite their attempts to hide or run away. Apart from his tracking skills, Tracker also has tremendous strength, and his bull's horns have the power to dissolve solid matter.” http://biosector01.com/wiki/index.php/Tracker Here’s my Model-specific Thought Process behind these two. I think I’ve said whatever else I have to say, so don’t feel compelled to read all of this if you’re one of those kinds of people. --------- As Tracker was originally a fan-made creation, I did take the liberty of refining some aspects of them to a greater degree than most others have; both so that they better reflect their core characteristics and so their construction is brought to the modern standard somewhat – something I’ll admit the CCB System is capable of doing very nicely. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzbiLSL4PKJARUJpSFc0RnQ5cGs/edit Tracker is at core a humanoid, but one who I tried to make animalistic and bestial. Aspects such as a flanderized upper torso (as he was described as ‘Tremendously strong’), long ‘chicken legs’ (hey, if his knees were inverted, that’s free licence for ‘chicken legs’ to become, amirite? ) and a reworked head were the main things I tried to incorporate in order to suggest that. Though it’s not that obvious from the photos, I used CCBS bones and torsos quite heavily in his ‘skeleton’. I quite like the control over proportions and angles that the bones can give without omitting structural integrity. Eh, to a degree, anyway. I refined his colour scheme to Gunmetal, black and dark grey, as I found that those are the ones that were the most dominant on the original. I think a sometimes massive part of conserving a Bionicle’s identity really comes with conserving significant parts, and thus I kept bits like the gunmetal Rahkshi shells, his ‘claw and two-bladed sword’, and the Guurahk spines, although I admit that I invoked a bit of creative flair with a few of them. He's has a few more Gen-1 Bionicle pieces than I would have liked, but if I count the 'bones' that I used heavily it actually works out to a 50-50-ish ratio. Think of him as an armoured gorilla-satyr who happens to be a professional killer. Scary. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzbiLSL4PKJAMXBoWkZkcUlDVzA/edit His bull really is more than just the bull that we mere mortals on this earth are familiar with. One: It is of floopin ICE, hence my applications to his tail, neck-scruff and hooves. Two: From his status as a ‘pet’ that I’d imagine would do his fair share of sniffing, listening and hunting, it would be more sensible for him to be a dog rather than a bull. And thus: He is an Ice BullDog. At core he’s still a bull: he’s got his horns and his hooves, and I tried to make him barrel-chested and thick around his forward section. But at the same time I pressed myself to keep his entirety compact and athletic, and spun some canine elements into his construction. And in my opinion the head is way more dog than bull, even with the horns. A Cryo Can-Bov-ine. With Mixel eyes. We have those, right? I quite like the contrast that both figures have. Trackers a hulking, marauding, intimidating beast-man, while the Ice Bull is lean, small, unassuming, and definitely has that 'cute' factor. Yet I think that's great! After all, Tracker is the Dark hunter - the Bull's just the poor thing who follows in his steps. --------- Criticism is more than welcome!