Toa of Shadow (and Turaga!)

[Munty]

Hi all, here for your assessment and critique is my first (and second) ever MOC. Never been inclined to build anything without instructions before despite having mounds of spares to work with. A recent purchase I made had some of the parts from the 'Battle of Metru Nui' playset in but nowhere near enough to actually build it. So when I spotted a bunch of the keetorange mata heads I decided to make a Turaga out of them following the standard 2001 design. I couldn't come up with enough suitable parts for an interesting secondary colour so he ended up mostly black but I still think he looks pretty cool and now he lives on my desk. Here is a pic of the little guy!

 

 

I decided he looks like a Turaga of Shadow (before I knew such a thing actually eisted in canon) so I decided that's what he'll be... I also decided it would be cool to build him in his Toa of Shadow form but having never done this before I didn't think for a moment I'd be able to make anything even remotely good. Regardless I sat down a few nights ago and dug out my spare Keetorange bits and a bunch of black torsos limbs and whatnot. Soon came up with a few sub-assemblies I liked and started trying to fit them together.

 

Ended up with something I kind of liked but was pretty gappy so I worked on bulking it up a bit and then took a bunch of pics before deciding it had disproportionately short limbs. Added double joints all round and worked on the head for a while before finally calling it a day. Am not 100% happy with the simple forearms and weapons (but all attempts I made at improving the latter this morning looked terrible) but I like how everything else turned out so here it is! 

 

Be kind but critical, I don't think I'll change anything now but it's always interesting to hear what other people would change I guess. Here he is, Muntok, Toa of Shadow!

 

 

Couldn't find a Kanohi I liked except Hewkii Mahrii's which felt too unique to steal so I made my own. It has a distinct Rahi vibe to it but also resembles Hewkii's quite closely too so am happy with how it turned out.

 

He's a serious hunchback by design and I consider him to be 'shelled' biologically speaking. He also has a big fat ###### but don't let him hear you say that...

 

More images are on my photobucket here > http://s1198.photobucket.com/user/Tim_Munt/library/Muntok?sort=2&page=1 including shots from the original build (pre-elbow) and a bunch of shots showing off his hunch, butt and other various angles.

 

Hope you like him, he's going to live on my desk for the forseeable future. I'm also going to be putting together Av-Matoran and Shadow-Matoran variants of him at some point so I'll have his entire evolutionary history to show off. Need to bricklink some parts for that though so won't be for a while. Thanks for looking and pleas eleave your thoughts!

[The 1st Shadow]

Cool! The legs look a little weird, but the whole upper body makes up for it. I love the layering effect with the Bohrok headplates--nice touch!

[Munty]

Thank T1S! The original arms and legs were way too short and the legs in particular were super gappy after I added that knee joint. The thighs are all very much reinforced but the shins aren't all that structural in honesty The bohrok head plates were one of the first things I toyed with as a cloak/hair/whatever I could use them for. In the end I found a second black one and it became a hump. It gives him a lot of his character so I think it worked really well

[Specter Knight]

(Looks at Turaga) ...Meh.

 

(Looks at Toa) WHOA!!! That is awesome!

 

I'm liking the colour schemes you used with these builds. Keep up the good work!

[Munty]

(Looks at Turaga) ...Meh.

Awwww! Poor little guy Size isn't everything you know! You can see why I wanted to make his toa form though I think. Black and BLO go really nicely together and I think I got the balance about right (though I wasn't able to seperate his hands and blades with a black piece as I'd hoped too)

 

Not planning any additional builds other than his matoran forms for now (which will be twomore meh pieces) but I do want to give this guy a background so maybe there will be room for another creation at some point!!!

[user-402520536]

Wow, very awesome-cool, the two of them. I like Toa Muntok's lower leg-foot assembly.

[Tuuli]

I still think he doesn't resemble a Toa, but he's still awesome

[Munty]

And I still think he's a Toa of SHADOW. I also think you don't need to post exactly the same comment in two places but that's neither here nor there... 

 

As I responded in the other thread you said this in;

 

 

 

Remember this is a Toa of SHADOW, corrupted by Makuta, it's only logical that there will be some Rahi in his design. The Makuta created the Rahi too afterall... Besides, if I gave him the feet and mask off an Onua set would you still think he looked nothing like a Toa? Nothing like the Toa we've seen released in sets maybe but the whole point of a MOC is to produce something different to what we're used to getting from Lego. The core of Muntok can be classified as an Inika build but I would have been gutted if he ended up looking like one...

 

The wiki has the following to say about Toa of Shadow;

Toa of Shadow was a title given to Toa who had had all of their moral Light drained out of them, allowing them to wield the Element of Shadow. As Matoran of Shadow did not occur naturally in the Matoran Universe, a Toa of Shadow was impossible to create until the Makuta created Shadow Leeches. After that, there were two ways that a Toa of Shadow could come into existence; one was to find a Matoran destined to be transformed into a Toa, drain their moral light, and expose them to Toa Power. The second way was to find an already existing Toa and drain them of their light. Should a Toa of Shadow fulfill his or her destiny, they were given the option of sacrificing their Toa Power and becoming a Turaga of Shadow.

 

 

All I've decided so far on the backstory for this guy is that he was drained of light as a Matoran around the time of the events in Karda Nui and then left the area soon after. How, when, where and why he became a Toa is anyone's guess but it's important that he never returned to Karda Nui while the Klakk was still alive as that would have the power to turn him back and this never happens...

 

The fact I already made him as a Turaga would suggest he fulfils his destiny and at some point afterwards decides to sacrifice his Toa powers. I'd like to think he has a good long run of Toa'ing first though so again no idea on where, why, when or how this may happen! 

 

I'm also undecided on whether to keep him morally conflicted or to try and engineer some sort of plot device that restores his moral light without him losing his Shadow form and power. After all, the Klaak is the only thing ever said to be able to 'cure' this affliction with a sonic blast but there are many other sonic powers in the MU that could effect him differently. Like a battle with a Toa of Sonics perhaps? What ever happened to Krakua...

[Mysterious Minifig]

I like the Matoran. There's not a lot there but it's still nice for nostalgia's sake.

 

The Toa of Shadow is really well done. The weakest part is definitely the forearms. There's just nothing there compared to the rest of the arms and the legs. You mentioned trying to fix that though and I'm not really sure what else would work there. The rest of the arms and legs are good. There is plenty of bulk there that helps to give him a pretty strong look.

 

Overall nice job on both of these.

 

[Munty]

Thanks for the input MM, I would like to see improved forearms but not sure how quite to do it. One idea that comes to mind (2 now actually) which may be worth pursuing. Not sure I'll have time to try it today though so will post any updates as and when I do!

[Alto Magna]

That Turaga is just adorable. As for the Toa, the Rahkshi head just won't stop throwing me. I can't shake the "Rahi!" vibe every time I glance at it, I'm sorry. But that aside I like what you've done with the upper body, like in the torso and above, especially the view from behind!

[Munty]

That Turaga is just adorable. As for the Toa, the Rahkshi head just won't stop throwing me. I can't shake the "Rahi!" vibe every time I glance at it, I'm sorry. But that aside I like what you've done with the upper body, like in the torso and above, especially the view from behind!

 

Thanks AM, I know what you mean. It's hard to see the two pieces of his 'mask' as one rather than just focus on the black Rahi head. And frankly I suppose the fact that this MOC doesn't use a head piece means it IS his head rather than a mask. Again though, I'm happy with that as I eplained before, he is essentially what a Toa would look like if created by the Makutas shadow influence. It does make him a little hard to recognise as a 'character' as opposed to a beast but I certainly have no intention of changing that part of his build as I think it fits his build nicely.

 

I think it's safe to say that as a normal (non- shadow) toa, he would wear a Garai like Hewkii Mahri. In his current Shado form he doesn't have those powers, just control of shadow. I'm toying with the idea of creating a secondary version of him as a true toa in which his moral light has returned but his shadow element would remain. In this event he would get the proper Garai and lose the Rahi aspects of his build like the feet and hunchback. I doubt I have enough parts for that though and I still haven't decided on a backstory for him so it's not going to happen any time soon!