mk7.13

Man, it's been a while BBC. But I'm back, and ready to get back into it! To start, here's a Bumblebee MOC I put together in LDD some time ago! Bumblebee! Torso Detail Back Gallery, when public Feel free to check out my other MOCs in my gallery when it's public! Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll get a chance to go to my parents' house and pick up all my old Legos so I can show off some real MOCs again. I think my passion has been reignited. Enjoy! Comments, praise, and criticism appreciated!

This isn't a bad adaptation, to be honest. I think it's a bit of a stretch to try using only Hero Factory parts to recreate the Toa Mata, but I would fully support revamps the integrate the system. There are plenty of useful pieces in the HF line, many of which I've used myself in LDD to make some fun MOCs. The Matoran bodies don't work, to me, only because the legs seem too close together, but that seems like more of a technical limitation than a design flaw. Kudos for doing what you can with a limited parts selection, though. It's frustrating looking for just the right pieces, especially when they aren't included in the list.

Ahhh, I love seeing MOCs like this. It makes me want to dust off my old Bionicle sets and piles of pieces, also. Personal anecdote aside, I think this is a fantastic piece of work. I really love how simple, yet complex the whole thing looks. The black, yellow, and silver color scheme is really well done, and I commend you for finding connector pieces that aren't red or blue. Sometimes that's all you can find, but they really throw off the whole look if you're not careful. From what I can tell, it looks like the tail also acts as a stabilizer, which is pretty clever in my opinion. Unwieldy or not, it's pretty snazzy. I'm assuming the Pohatu Nuva claws are supposed to be some sort of crown? I could be wrong, but that's what it looks like to me. Whatever they're there for, it's a very nice touch. The only thing that throws me off about the whole thing is that the legs just seem slightly too long, at least at the angle in the photo. I'm sure from another angle they look perfectly normal. Maybe in a different pose, even. As a comeback MOC, this is inspiring and encouraging. I've wondered if I could pull out my old Legos and still make MOCs like I did in my heyday, or if I somehow may have improved over my years of neglect; browsing through your old creations in your gallery (most of which are very cleverly done), this MOC is definitely an improvement, which gives me hope. I have no idea if the contest is over yet or not, but good luck, and enjoy your renewed interest in MOCing!

I absolutely love the callback to the original version while still doing something fresh. The whole MOC looks no more complicated than it needs to be: there are obviously more pieces in the legs for stability, but it's not trying to overcompensate for the lack of pieces on the arms. The tail and wings are just perfect. Almost makes the Makuta himself resemble one of his many Rahi minions from back in the day. The only thing I have in the way of criticism is that I think the staff could be just a little bit bulkier, perhaps using two Takanuva staffs like on the original set, but that could just be a personal preference. I do like that the blade is curved, though. It adds a sense of menace, in a way. I think this is a pretty solid redesign of an older set, complete with some of the pieces it originally included. I have to admit, I've been a huge fan of revamps for a very long time, and it's really cool to see they're still a popular thing to do even after such a long time. I'm definitely excited to see what other MOCs you have in store for the future.

Ahhh, small, yet purposeful. I dig it. Particularly the clever use of the Huna and the Hero Factory cores. It's always impressive when people come up with inventive uses for parts that had one intent when they were first created. I've always really liked the creativity inspired by scaling down the size of the MOC, though. Each piece becomes either essential or unnecessary at that size, but in this MOC's case each piece is absolutely crucial to the overall design. Tactically Corpulent, indeed. Great piece of work.

In bigger MOCs like these, there's a tendency for parts to seem out of place or hastily added, in an attempt to pad the size. With this particular MOC, however, each piece looks as though it belongs where it's placed (the Toa Mata arms as fingers = pure genius). It gets tougher to maintain a sense of cohesiveness as the MOC gets bigger and bigger, but you pulled it off very well. The arms could have had clutter reduction, but I'm still thoroughly impressed. The torso could use a little bit of work, in my opinion. More specifically, it just seems too large in proportion to the rest of the figure. I do understand the aesthetic sacrifices required to maintain the structural integrity of something as large as this MOC, though, so I applaud your inventiveness. What I am most impressed by is both this thing's posability and its ability to stand upright on its own - two very difficult things to do, the larger your MOC gets. I like how the addition of a Turaga in one hand (let alone the fact that the arm is away from the center of gravity) doesn't look like enough to topple the whole thing over, which is something to consider with a MOC of this size. Overall, I'd say this is a fantastic piece of work. If I spent too much time looking at all the pieces individually, I'd miss the intended, awe-inspiring effect. Large MOCs are really hard to do right, but this one was done fantastically.