Zorrakh

Thank you. The legs are a little thin, but the length is correct: legs plus feet are supposed to be a little taller than the head and torso, when put side by side, which these legs are. The turbines on the back give it the high speed. This armor is essentially a "lightning bruiser," which is something that is very fast and hits very hard, like a tank with the speed of a racecar. I'll clear that up in the main post. Thank you. the gun is a little bit inspired by the guns from the Transformers movies; I'd thought it'd be cool to give Stormer a weapon similar to what he had in his 1.0 form. I also think that the silver is a nice contrast to all the white; it gives it more of a robotic feel.

Yeah, I can see the Space Pirate inspiration, especially in the legs. The torso looks EDIT: good (yay for formatting ); I really like the silver dragon head on the back and how the tubes connect to it. The tubing, more specifically where it goes through the Technic plates, looks a little thin, but it still looks fine. The system plate on the front, however, seems a little out of place because it's flat, compared to all the angles on the rest of the MOC. I also think that the torso could use a little more trans blue on the front to balance it out.I think my favorite parts are the arms; the visors look very cool and create nice shoulder armor, even though it does look like they stifle some articulation in the arms. Do the shoulders have much movement? The silver Inika shoulder armor pieces work well, too, and the Mahri plating on the back of the Vahki leg piece looks good. I really like the use of the Glatorian heads for "hands."The legs look good for the most part. The lower legs and feet have a nice thickness to them, as well as a good color balance. The upper legs, especially where the legs connect to the torso, seem a little thin, and the silver Piraka armor looks like it's too high up, making the trans blue leg connector sparse. But otherwise, the legs look good.Now, for the head. The crest reminds me of Megabyte from Reboot, so that brings back memories for me. I like the fixed position of the mouth, but I'm curious to see what it'd look like closed. Also, it doesn't look like there's much articulation in the neck, which somehow reminds me of the Juggernaut from X-Men: Evolution, but that lack of articulation kind of detracts from the MOC. I do really like the use of the Silver Crast, and I really can't tell if the eyes are trans blue or trans dark blue, but it looks good.Overall, great job. There's just a couple of things I have a problem with, but they are only minor things. Thanks for posting this.

I was thinking the exact same thing when I played through Nightfall Incident a couple of months ago. There could be PvP, team against AI, that'd be fun to play. I'd love to talk with you about getting some ideas for this if you're interested.

Be warned, I made this about a year and a half ago, I've finally been able to take pictures of it. This has been on display at Bricks by the Bay Conventions 2011 and 2012.OK, you've been warned. Onto the pictures!FrontLeftBackRightPose 2Pose 3"You feelin' lucky, punk?" Thanks for looking and please post your thoughts.

Lego's primary audience is still children, however. The things approved have to be buyable by kids, otherwise it is not profitable.Adults already decide what sort of toys are sold to kids anyway; for example, Bionicle was created by adults who worked for Lego. Cuusoo is just opening up the creative pool to allow more adults to use their creativity to make toys for kids.Yes! Thank you for that, fishers64. I couldn't have said it any better (which would have been very difficult on my part ). That was why I was so excited by the idea of Lego Legend of Zelda sets because it's a viable, and potentially awesome, product. Cuusoo is a marketing tool, not a place to decide what would be cool to see in Lego (that's what MOCing is for, is it not?). LEGO is giving people a chance to give their own ideas for a viable product that the community, both children and adults (mostly children) would buy.

OK, so I looked into Firefly a little bit, and I found the premise for the show: Gee, I wonder why LEGO rejected it... I'm dissapointed with people who believe that a show based on that premise should have Lego sets based off of it. At least in Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc., there are good guys fighting bad guys, instead of criminals being the main characters of the show and their crimes being the main focus of the show. What kind of a reputation would be set by LEGO if they did that? I would question my own faith in the company, and I certainly wouldn't let my children, if I had any, buy any Lego Firefly sets. I know. And it's absolutely backwards.I'm not sure if that's exactly relavent to the discussion at hand...

It bothers me that we live in a society where "sexual themes" are a greater cause for concern than "violent themes".Whoops who left this soapbox here?I think most parents would, given the choice, expose their children to violence than sexual themes, especially in media. There are many reasons why that's the case, but probably one of the most important reasons is because it's far easier to shrug off a violent scene than a sexual one.

While I understand why some people are disappointed about the rejection of the Firefly proposal (I am very happy that The Legend of Zelda proposal is being reviewed, but I would have been disappointed if it were rejected), I can think of several other reasons why the proposal was rejected:1. It would have been another space theme (Star Wars is very popular, and there already is Alien Invasion). "Hey, Mom, what's Firely?" "maybe it's some Star Wars thing."2. It's based off of a tv show/film that is not nearly as well-known as Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc.3. Sort of coming off of reason 2, but it's not as well-known by parents. Parents would show their children Indiana Jones because they watched it as kids/teens/young adults, unlike Serenity or Firefly (at least for the present, I'm actually looking forward to the time when a lot of today's generation become parents and share their video games with their kids ).Since it is not well-known and is discontinued, it wouldn't exactly be in the best interest for LEGO to produce Firefly sets, regardless how it is received by the relatively small group of people who watch it (as compared, again, to Star Wars or Indiana Jones), and so I can see why, soley based off of those reason, LEGO decided to reject the proposal. I personally haven't seen Firefly or Serenity, I've only heard of it, so I can't really write about the questionable content that might be in it.

"Shh-shh... I hear something...""What?""It's the Justice League calling. Can't you hear it?""Uh... no.""Exactly."Anyways, I do have to say that the capitalization made the review difficult for me to read. I wouldn't have minded if it were in that first paragraph and the pros/cons, but I think it works better in the comics than on the forums. The greave pieces look pretty cool and I might consider getting the set if the price drops (in the next year or so ).

I got a Bionicle lot off of Craigslist a couple of years ago; forty-five sets for $25 ( ). One of the sets was a complete (most of the sets were complete) Exo-Toa, which equals to $1.80 for the Exo-Toa. It can't get much better than that, and it's probably the best deal I've gotten, possibly except for the fifty-plus pounds of parts I bought over the last couple weeks.

Maybe to keep things more Bionicle-oriented, the staff could maybe recruit some people to find the best MOCs, artwork, games and stories and other stuff of the week (or bi-weekly or whatever), and have it posted on the front page. I would definitely love to see that for Bionicle MOCs ("hey, my MOCs on the front page!"). That way, the regular staff can go about their jobs, some members get to do work as staff, the news crew has something to do (), and members get their stuff posted on the front page. Everyone's happy.

I'm sorry to hear that. We will eventually meet, however. As far as I know, there aren't any Lego Conventions over here at that time. Most conventions are held at about March in the first half of the year, and about October in the second half of the year.

But, anyways, it would be nice if BZPower stayed focused around Bionicle, although I'm not sure how long that could last, because I'm here for Bionicle stuff (mostly, I look around in COT a little). I like BBC's, Bionicle-centered stories, Bionicle-centered RPG's, Bionicle-centered artwork, etc. I've never been a big big big fan of other lines, but Bionicle has always stood out to me, and I still scour Craigslist for lots.So, of course, storyline and set discussion will probably diminish, since the toyline is over, as well as the story (practically, at least). But the creations will still keep coming in, and I think it would be nice if BZPower made that the main focus of its site. It is about the creations, after all, and I think that's how I would want BZP to go.What I'm guessing is what's going to happen, however, is that eventually BZP will pull away from Bionicle a bit (not a lot, but a good part) and put some more focus on Lego in general. More Lego creations might be posted, and discussion about other Lego sets will increase, but that's about as far as my predictions go.

The third annual Bricks by the Bay, a Lego Convention in Santa Clara, California, will be held on March 16-18, with the last day being open to the public. Registration details and other details are on the website. Early bird prices to attend the full convention(up to February 3rd) are $50 for the basic registration and $85 for the deluxe. The price for the public day on the 18th of March is $8 (children 2 and under free).I am the Bionicle/Hero Factory Coordinator, so if you're interested in talking about mailing some MOCs in to have on display you can PM me and we can work something out.Last year was great, and myself, Waffles, and Flying Mummy had a good time, as I'm sure they can attest to. I've got pictures from last year floating around somewhere, so I'll see if I can get those uploaded.If you have any questions, please ask and I'll do my best to answer them.

While I haven't played any Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 games, I can tell you that Rayman Origins looks fine on the Wii. The framerate is smooth as well, and so it really depends if you want to play it in HD.

Thank you, Ballom. I'm glad you like it. Although I haven't mentioned it, I was kind of worried about how doing fusion with this would turn out, especially since I don't think too many people have experimented with mxing Bionicle parts with Hero Factory parts, and one thing I've noticed is that the Hero Factory parts can keep your models lighter because you can get different kinds of connections and because you would have had to use several Bionicle and/or Technic parts to get the same kinds of connections.I've used the hand design before, on both my Vorox revamp and my Maxilos revamp from about a year or so ago.Thanks again. Thank you.

@GSR: Eh, it could probably go either way, since that seems like a "favorites" topic.To get on subject, all I can say is: Duh, of course it's great to listen to. Nintendo is probably the most well known in terms of video game music (music from Mario and the Legend of Zelda, especially), and I like listening to a lot of music from their games.Rayman Origins is another soundtrack I've been pleasantly surprised with, as it has a wacky side along with orchestral elements. One piece to point out is the the one that plays when you first fly on the back of a mosquito. It's got strings and a kazoo, and it's great.Another soundtrack I really like is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. I've never played the game, but I love the mix of orchestral and electronic ambience elements. It has left a great impression on me.Video game music is, I feel, the best example of today's music. It has to be interesting to keep the person playing the game interested. It sets the mood of the level/whatever, which will leave an impression on the player. Not only that, but from a compositional standpoint, it is usually far superior to most pop music, as well as most other mainstream pieces. Video game music also seems better than a lot of current movie soundtracks, again from a compositional standpoint (I love complexity in my music, for the most part ), which seems a bit disappointing in some ways, but I'm happy to say that video game music has come a long ways in about 25-26 years.So, some of my favorite soundtracks:Super Smash Bros. SeriesLegend of Zelda SeriesMario SeriesChrono TriggerMetroid Prime SeriesMetal Gear Solid SeriesRayman Origins (I haven't heard soundtracks from other games in the series)Age of Mythology (PC RTS Game)World of GooSonic the Hedgehog Series (at least the first four, but some of the later ones as well, like Sonic and the Secret Rings and Sonic Unleashed)Starcraft: Brood War (Zerg track for Brood War is awesome )

Really? I guess I didn't expect that because I didn't think the Technic figures were that big. Thanks for the info.

I'll be sure squared mountain, which could be seen rectangular metallic door he was slight smile, “just in case.” be cleared of snow. telescreen emerged. This issue shows up two more times. from another island.” “Sir, so you’re implying that “It’s quite possible, my brother, “So you think they came out of there, sir, I'm not sure what you meant here. Maybe reword it? “So we’re goin’ down there today to see a sad smile. “Unfortunately, Kromahl can be gathered and/or “And, just in case, shouted, “Yes, sir!” Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have that feeling again…Again, Word is an invaluable tool to prevent little things like those. Getting back to the actual story, though, I'm a fan of your opening poem. I have a feeling it sets a tone for your epic, or the tone you're intending at least. It was difficult for me to find a tone, or much of any feeling from your first chapter. There was a noticeable lack of detail regarding what the characters were feeling (or sensing), and it left things feeling rather hollow. This spilled over into dialogue that felt a bit forced. Bear in mind, however, building a world from the ground up (even with the Bionicle universe as a backdrop) is a task in itself, and I am the last person to underplay the skill involved and required to do so. Still, this epic needs a greater attention to detail, in terms of sensory experiences, imagery, and enhancing the dialogue. Reread everything a character says back to yourself, out loud, before deciding to let a character say it. If it feels forced, or awkward, change it.Writing is about building upon your experience, and learning from where you went wrong. But like any other skill, the amount of time you put in to mastering an art form will be reflected in your application of it. This is a good start, Zorrakh, and I wish you the best going further.-CedCurse you SpellCheck, you have failed me again...I guess I just need to take a closer look before submitting stuff. I do use Microsoft Word, so I guess there are some things it just doesn't pick up.I think perhaps the problem I have with giving feelings for the character is that it in iitself feels forced, but I'll see what I can do. It will definitely be something I need to work on, especially with what I have planned for my story. Maybe one thing is that in this first chapter it was mostly focused on members of the Marak Nui military, so I didn't exactly want to have those kinds of feelings showing because of disipline, but it will be something I focus on in later chapters.Thank you for your feedback, it is definitely helpful. Oh, and I spell it "Grey" because I like the spelling better.

OK, here goes (in no particular order):Megatron (Beast Wars) (BEST MEGATRON EVER) (You can't deny it) Dinobot (Beast Wars) (Saddest death in animated television history)Rampage (Beast Wars)Megabyte (Reboot)Bob (Reboot)Mike the TV (Reboot)Wargreymon (Digimon Adventures 1.0)Blackwargreymon (Digimon Adventures 2.0)Beelzemon (Digimon Tamers)Sokka (Avatar: The Last Airbender)Prince Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender)Uncle Iroh (Avatar: The Last Airbender) (Everyone wants an Uncle like him)Aang (Avatar: The Last Airbender)Peri and Entrée (Spliced!)Spider-Man (The Amazing Spider-Man) (90's cartoon) (Spectacular Spider-Man ruined too many things for me in the first ten minutes) The Tick (The Tick) (SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNN!!!!!)Arthur the Accountant the Sidekick (The Tick)Lord Zakarog (The Tick)Soundwave (The Transformers)Soundwave (Transformers: Prime)Starscream (Transformers: Prime)Ratchet (Transformers: Prime)EDIT: Knockout (Transformers: Prime)I think that's it for now...

Thank you. Since I did want to make the model hunched over, having extra weight on the back doesn't effect the balance very much. But yes, if I straightened it up, there would be balancing issues. Thank you. As I mentioned above, it's not too much of an issue because of my intention.

This is the review topic for my first epic in the Shades of Grey Trilogy. Here is the link to Genesis.

This story, its characters, history, landmarks, etc., is entirely fictional; any content that appears similar to real world events and persons, past or present, is completely coincidental.Rated PG-13“How much will we suffer?How much will we gain?How much Misery, CrueltyAnd EvilWill our land have pained?So much Death dealt out,So much Suffering shared.So much Grief and Malice,Yet we’re here for each otherSo that It can be bared.”- Short Poem written by Lohii, Chronicler of Marak Nui, after The Exile. Shades of Grey: Genesis - Chapter I - “Why does it have to be so cold?” Trovin shivered. Even though the island, Marak Nui, was a wonderful place for almost anyone to live, the weather was a constant spirit-dampener. There was a chill in the air at all times, and the air was moist if it was not raining or snowing. Although snow covered about a fourth of the mainland, pretty much the only livable part of the island was blanketed in the frozen water. How the Settlers could have set up the Snow settlement in the middle of the coldest part of all Marak Nui was beyond Trovin.“Ah, come on, buddy.” Trovin’s friend, Johvii, grinned at the lime-green and black Toa of Air, The white and sky-blue Toa was next to Trovin in the preparation room. Checking to make sure all the moving parts of their Cevlek Rifles were in working order, the two Toa and their squadmates were preparing to set out for a scouting patrol.“You’re always complaining about the weather. Enjoy it for once, take in the smells of the crisp, clean air; I think you’d appreciate it.”“If I don’t drown from taking a deep breath, I be sure to tell you what I think, okay?”The Toa of Ice laughed, “uptight, as always.” While Trovin was sometimes annoyed with Johvii’s personality, he still loved him as dearly as a brother. No, he is my brother now, along with the rest of my squad, with all of the citizens. They’re all my brothers. Why can’t I move on? He stared off into space, fragments of past memories flooding into his mind as he recalled his life as a Matoran on one of the southern islands. Keeping out of sight of the Visorak. Collecting abandoned weapons to fight any wandering spiders that ran into him. Any cocoons he came across he opened up to see if any of the Matoran or Toa could have made it through before the venom took affect. Most of the time the sickly green, thorny webs, contained dead Matoran, a few times he barely escaped with his life from small, twisted, savage creatures that were once walking and talking, non-threatening beings. Trovin closed his eyes tightly as he remembered when he found his one friend, her body mangled and torn by something that had broken into the wrappings and had a meal, however it was probably driven off before it could finish. He shook his head slowly and rubbed the bridge of his mask with his hand as Rhonek, a Toa of Earth and leader of their squad of twelve, put one of his hands on the Toa of Air’s shoulder. His deep, cavernous voice rumbled, “you alright, brother?” Trovin looked at him and smiled, then stood up, “yeah, I’ll be fine.” Rhonek returned the smile then ordered for everyone to move out. After clipping on the extra ammo strap across his torso, Trovin and the others marched out of the preparation room and out into the dim sunlight with large, dark clouds slowly retreating to the south. The newly fallen snow crunched under their feet as they walked down the street. They passed many dwellings and shops, they passed many Matoran and several Toa as the citizens of Marak Nui went about their business. A few merchants were shoveling snow to be certain that potential customers didn’t slip as they browsed. Hammers and drills could be heard as a group of Matoran construction workers worked to repair a wooden overhang that had blown over in the storm; they were setting concrete bases for the support beams while the foreman gave out orders. After several minutes of marching down the main street, the squad came to the entrance of the military building, one of the three most important buildings on the whole island of Marak Nui. Marak Nui was a little over thirty kio squard, although many citizens joked that it really was thirty kio cubed. This was because of the massive snow-choked Mountain, which could be see from almost anywhere and was currently dominating the view behind the large metal and stone structure which Trovin and his squadmates were facing.Thick metal walls at the base protected the one hundred-foot-high building; most of the rest of the material was gray stone with metal support beams. Six smaller towers circled a large central one; each of the six towers had two Toa on guard, watching both the sky and the land for any Rakhshi attacks. A rectangle metallic door with a sort of scanner with a bright red light placed at eye-level in the center of the shut portal was built into the wall. Rhonek stared into the device. Turning from red to green after recognizing the Toa’s eye print and mask print, the light blinked twice, and the door slid open, allowing the squad to enter the building and receive their instructions from the military leader, Toa Tavka. A Toa of Fire, he is surprisingly even-tempered and kind, although firm. It was rumored that he was very old, despite his physical strength and mastery of swords. He always possessed twin Magma Blades; whenever anyone asked why he did so, he answered with a slight smile “just in case.” Tavka had his back to the squad as they passed the two guards and into the dimly light room, the only light was from the several Telescreens lined against the back wall.The military commander’s arms were crossed behind his back. His eyes behind his Kanohi Kiril watched the screens with undivided attention. Several of the pictures on the screens had a fine layer of white near the base, indicating that they needed to be cleared away of snow. A few others revealed beautiful scenery of trees and dirt. The trees rocked back and forth from the northern wind that blew the clouds into view, blocking out the sunlight. These cameras had not been spotted by the Rahkshi for some time, but Tavka knew that they would eventually. Turing around and saluting, Tavka welcomed Rhonek and his squad. They returned his salute and became at ease when the Toa of Fire motioned them to do so.“As you all know,” he spoke as he strode over to a console with several levers and buttons, “the Rahkshi have been getting bolder, and have been executing many more ambushes than we have recorded them doing. Our analysts have been speculating as to how they have been able to seemingly know where our patrols have been scouting, but we do know that these are not ordinary Rahkshi.” With this remark, he pulled one of the levers. With a brief grating sound, a panel in the side of the wall slid back and a smaller Telescreen emerged. Tavka pressed a button and a picture of a Turahk appeared on the screen. “This is an image,” Tavka stated, “of a Rahkshi of Fear from one another island.” A second image of a Rahkshi popped up, but this Rahkshi was much larger than the Turahk, and was covered in silver armor. The spine seemed wickedly sharp, as well as the claws and teeth. “As you can see, the Rahkshi of Marak Nui are severely different than other Rahkshi; we have made sure to cross-reference other sources to be sure that these creatures are roughly the same stature and construction as this Turahk here. So there is no question: we’ve got something different here, and that can explain why that these Rahkshi are able to handle and use Chevlek Rifles and how they are able to use different powers.” He zoomed in on the spines and pulled up some more close ups of other Rahkshi spines.“Notice the somewhat generic styling of the Marak Nui Rahkshi’s spine. We have an archive of images of all the forty-two species of Rahkshi, and we haven’t found a match. It seems to be a… combination of them all.” One of the squad members raised his hand, “sir, so you’re implying that Marak Nui might have the first living Rahkshi, and that we’ve been fighting antiques?”“It’s quiet possible, my brother, however, there’s a few facts that interfere with this theory.”“That the original landscape was wiped out by something, sir?”Tavka concurred. “That is exactly it. How could they have survived this destruction? We haven’t found any remains of Rahkshi, or of any sentient beings, for that matter.“There’s one theory I have, though,” Tavka turned back to the console and switched one of the Telescreen’s views to an image of a fairly large cave entrance. “The Underground.” Trovin’s mind developed an idea and was catching on, “so you think they came out of there, sir, and they fought the Visorak when they came here.”Tavka nodded, “while there isn’t any evidence against that theory, there is nothing against it, but that is what I believe. I assume, like you, that they were awakened or something similar to it, to defend the island from the Visorak that assaulted Marak Nui many years before Toa and Matoran inhabited the island.” “The problem with that idea is that the Visorak retreated to one of the Trinity isles and still live there. Given that Rahkshi are normally very territorial, I have no idea why they would not finish them off, if they did fight them off.” Rhonek grinned, “so we’re goin’ down there today and see what’s goin’ on, and if we find anything that fights we shoot ‘em?”Tavka smiled, but it seemed like a sad smile, “unfortunately, Kromahl and the Council have decided that the risks outweigh the benefits, considering that the search parties sent down there have not returned. It has been decided that exploring that part of the Underground will have to wait until more information can be gather and/or better weapons are developed.” Rhonek’s smile turned into a frown, “so what will our assignment be, sir?” The Toa of Fire motioned to the large crystalline protodermis table with a built-in Telescreen. He pulled up a section of topography of Marak Nui. “The south-western ruins by the cavern on the screen have not seen very much combat activity. We have seen only Rahi through the cameras, but there must be something there.” He whispered in a low voice, “and, just in case, check that entrance to the Underground. That picture was taken a while ago, and I want to make sure that they’re not doing anything suspicious there, but under no circumstances are you to enter, understood?” The squad saluted and shouted “yes, sir!” As they marched out, Tavka smiled sadly.Ah, so young and brimming with energy… Wouldn’t that be wonderful to have that feeling again…-------Review Topic