Pohatu reimagined

[CeziuM]

Wanted to experiment with pneumatics a bit, ended up with this. More details (including functions) on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cezium/29883221761/

 

[Pohaturon]

This is a neat experiment! It's clear that you've got building skills and much thought went into this, however it is pretty apparent that you came up with the idea for the function first, and then tried to wrap a character around it. I do love the extremely mechanical feel this has going for it, and am impressed that you managed to fit pneumatic functions into a Toa-sized MOC without making it super bulky and poorly balanced.

 

That said, the color scheme could use some work. The blue pipes are jarring, and burned orange doesn't really work well with light grey if you ask me, but that's just my opinion. I also see you put effort into retaining some Pohatu-esque characteristics beyond the colors, mask and printed chest piece, but overall this doesn't "feel" like Pohatu. Honestly, if you would have gone for an original character, or not even something in Bionicle lore, the MOC would have fared better, as you would not be restricted to burned orange as a color. If you would have gone for blue instead, matching the pipes, the whole thing would look more coherent and pleasing.

 

All that said, this is a wonderful MOC, and a very interesting way of integrating functions!

 

[CeziuM]

This is a neat experiment! It's clear that you've got building skills and much thought went into this, however it is pretty apparent that you came up with the idea for the function first, and then tried to wrap a character around it. I do love the extremely mechanical feel this has going for it, and am impressed that you managed to fit pneumatic functions into a Toa-sized MOC without making it super bulky and poorly balanced.

 

That said, the color scheme could use some work. The blue pipes are jarring, and burned orange doesn't really work well with light grey if you ask me, but that's just my opinion. I also see you put effort into retaining some Pohatu-esque characteristics beyond the colors, mask and printed chest piece, but overall this doesn't "feel" like Pohatu. Honestly, if you would have gone for an original character, or not even something in Bionicle lore, the MOC would have fared better, as you would not be restricted to burned orange as a color. If you would have gone for blue instead, matching the pipes, the whole thing would look more coherent and pleasing.

 

All that said, this is a wonderful MOC, and a very interesting way of integrating functions!

 

Thanks for the comment! Like I said in the Flickr post, this was a quick thing where the main goal was to fiddle with those technic pieces. I did try out multiple versions of this, including something more "original" than just Pohatu, but I've ended up liking this version the most, partly because I didn't have much time to do anything more refined. I do agree that the colorscheme seems a bit jarring in the pictures, although that might be due to my light setup (or rather, lack of it, again because of time constraints). As for the blue pipes, I don't really see what's wrong with them, considering the outer armor layer was supposed to contrast the internal mechanical structure. This wasn't really a "serious" build so I'm not too bothered if it has some issues, but still, thanks for the thorough C&C, I really appreciate it!

[Toa Imrukii]

I like it, I like it a lot. I love the style and design, he looks like he has prothesis for legs, let looking inline and semi-biolocial and mechanical. Not quite biomechanics, but pretty close to.

 

This is great.

[Pohatu: Uniter of Stone]

Pretty cool, especially with the legs. However, I really don't like the tiny feet. Although its impressive you got it to stand on them, they don't feel very Pohatu-y. The digitgrade legs with all of the springs and tubes really feel like they are made for running very fast, which I love, but the feet are so small that they don't feel like they would be very good for that. The feet don't even have to be huge, just something that looks like it would withstand the pressure and stress of running very quickly.

 

Also the blue is a nice accent.

 

I rate 7/10

[The Invisible Handman]

While it doesn't feel very Pohatu-ish to me (mask aside), I do like the experiment you've done here. I would love to see you take what you've applied here and use it in an improved build. I must admit I dont like the small feet though.

Edited September 29, 2016 by The Invisible Noob

[Katanga]

I'm inclined to agree with the others that have said the feet are too small. However, I feel like if you weren't using Pohatu as a basis for this MOC, it probably wouldn't be a big deal to me. I like everything else about this MOC though. The way the blue tubes clash with the burnt orange armor makes for a very interesting color scheme.

[Tahu3.0]

Congrats it looks soo cool but honestly it looks like a prototype Pohatu in story not set the leg and hands look and seem good its a nice build.

[ToaTImeLord]

I oddly like the burnt orange and the Mata blue together. It like one of those weird color combinations that don't seem to work in theory but look good in practice. Such as Mata red and trans light blue.

 

The legs are a beauty or Technic creativity.

10/10

Edited October 8, 2016 by ToaTimeLord

[Primus]

Great work! Overall shape is great and really resonates with Pohatu's theme of speed. Only nitpicks I have is that there are some exposed axles in the chest cavity and the circular plates you used (little rusty, but I'm pretty sure its this piece?). Is it possible to use some shorter axles in the chest cavity? Or, if you have to keep the longer axles, is it possible to put some 1/2 bushings on them? As for the circular plates, I think if you swap them with some 2x2 turntable tops it would look a little sleeker (again, particular to that piece so maybe I'm a bit biased).

 

All in all, awesome creation!

 

P

Edited October 31, 2016 by Primus

[Chro]

HEY there my DUDE this is a sweet build

 

love how you embraced the robotic side of things but like actually made him look robotic instead of just a brown blob

[Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva)]

Like most of the comments are saying, I don't believe the design fits Pohatu that well, mostly because Pohatu doesn't have double-jointed legs.   Still, taken free of context, I think what you've got here is a very solid MoC.  The thighs seem ever so slightly disproportionately long, but I really like how it looks like a lightly-armored machine, with a whole bunch of exposed, complex robotics.  Well done.

[bionicleFanatic]

Those hands! ʘ.ʘ This makes me want to start MOCing again. []

[Chro]

I don't believe the design fits Pohatu that well, mostly because Pohatu doesn't have double-jointed legs.

says who? pohatu also has a hunchback and no actual fingers but people tend not to complain about that. this is the point of making your own version of a character

[Endless Sea (Alaki Nuva)]

Pohatu's always had fingers!  What Pohatu are you looking at?

[CeziuM]

Oh wow didn't realize this god featured and stuff. Thanks for the comments everyone, I truly appreciate it!

Since most of the comments are about the legs, allow me to clarify why I opted for this type of design. From a physics standpoint, it is much faster and more energy efficient to have this type of design when the machine is supposed to run fast or just have agility all in all. Basically, the less weight is thrown around when the feet move, the faster you can move them due to a lower angular momentum (Trust me, I study this stuff). This principle was used by companies like Boston Dynamics for their robots, or for these things: http://www.bionicboot.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/keahi-bionic-v2-950x500.jpg (I'll admit, these might've been part of the inspiration for the MOC). I can understand why some people might not like this approach due to the original Pohatu being really bottom-heavy with legs that were made for stomping, but this was supposed to be a sort of experiment to see what Pohatu -could've- possibly looked like. And honestly, this was partly an excuse for me to use up as much technic suspension as possible, so there's that :v

 

 

Great work! Overall shape is great and really resonates with Pohatu's theme of speed. Only nitpicks I have is that there are some exposed axles in the chest cavity and the circular plates you used (little rusty, but I'm pretty sure its this piece?). Is it possible to use some shorter axles in the chest cavity? Or, if you have to keep the longer axles, is it possible to put some 1/2 bushings on them? As for the circular plates, I think if you swap them with some 2x2 turntable tops it would look a little sleeker (again, particular to that piece so maybe I'm a bit biased).

 

All in all, awesome creation!

 

P

The only reason I didn't use the turntable slopes was simply because I couldn't find enough of them. I do agree that the legs would've looked better with them, but i figured it didn't make that much of a difference in the end. As for the bushings, will do! Didn't realize the open axle was that noticeable when I was taking the pictures, mainly because I was looking at it top-down. Thanks for the C&C, I appreciate it!

Once again, thanks guys! I've been kinda on a hiatus recently, hopefully I'll be able to finish something over the holidays.

[BIzzy]

This is wild looking. It's not very reminiscent of Pohatu, but the tubes and springs really add a very mechanical, engineered look, which is awesome and unique in my opinion. The actual functionality of the feet reinforce that effect even more. Nice building.

Edited December 20, 2016 by BiomechanicalIz