Hau Rahi

[xccj]

Okay, so I have this new project. Back in 2001, the Toa Kanohi all came in six different colors. I finally completed my collection of the original 36 Toa Mata masks a while back, but what to do with them? Well, I plan to make a MOC for each of the 36 masks. And to give it a theme, I'm going to use the original six masks to recreate the Toa and use the rest to build various Rahi. This is my Thirty-Six Masks Project.I've built all my Rahi now. Bricks Cascade is starting tomorrow, so I wanted to get the last of them posted up. There are too many Rahi for one topic, but I don't want to make individual topics for each MOC (especially when some are lackluster). So instead I'm going to group them by the Kanohi mask they use.Today's are the Hau Rahi

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This is one of my better Rahi batches. I didn't intentionally try to save the Hau, arguably one of Bionicle's most iconic masks, for the best Rahi, but it seems I did. And it helps that the Hau is one of the masks that is easy to add in on a design, compared to some of the other masks. Anyway, here it is, my last batch of Rahi for the Thirty-Six Masks Project!

Frog Rahi

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Okay, so the Frog here is the worst of the best. I'm pretty cool with the body, but the legs aren't quite perfect. It's a little hard to pose too. I kind of blame some of the design on the fact that this was one of the last Rahi I constructed, so useful pieces were starting to become rare.

Lizard Rahi

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Strangely enough, this was the only Rahi that I used a bunch of dark green elements on. I really like how the body for this lizard came out; the various spiky pieces makes it work. And the dark green limbs on the back legs worked out better than I expected... front legs could use some tweaking, but they're fine. The head design is a little odd, and the eyes could be redesigned, but the Hau-nose worked out. One nice change I would like to make would be to replace the light grey elements visible with something green or lime... but I didn't have those pieces in those colors, so not happening.

Nui Gimlit

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This is a redesign of a Rahi concept I came up with years and years ago. It's basically a tunneling Rahi that utilized Whenua's drill as a head. I took the concept and make it larger this time, and I'm pleased with how it worked out. The head and body have a decent flow to them, and it turned out very solid, so there aren't any crazy gaps. And the overall appearance is what I imagined the Rahi to be... so it might look odd to others, but it fit my imagination, so I'd call that good.

Tan Nui Jaga

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This was one of my earlier models, but it went through quite a few redesigns. I got it into my head that I wanted to recreate a Nui jaga... and hey, I had tan pieces and the Rahi is a desert creature, so why not? First I tried to just replicate the Nui Jaga design in tan... didn't work. (The changes I made due to color availability made the proportions wacky.) Then I tried making smaller versions of it, and went through quite a few designs before I finished with this. The body is designed around connecting the tan Av-Matoran arms on, but I managed to squeeze in the mask nicely, and the tail, head, and "claws" worked out too. I'm fairly pleased with this remake.

Elephant Rahi

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I'll come right out and say it; the basic idea for this model is based off DV's Hero Factory elephant, but the main design was all my own. (Besides, it's not the first time that I've ever made an elephant model.) The body is big and well armored, and you can hardly tell that the inside is basically just a frame. The head and neck connection also turned out better than I was expecting, with useful but stable mobility on the neck, and articulation points for the tusks, ears, and trunk. (The eyes could be better.) While I put some effort into making all four legs identical le and tough looking, they could be beefed up a bit. (And also better stabilized... this thing is kind of a pain to stand up.) This was initially supposed to be an evil elephant, but I liked it so much that it became a steed for Matoro and the forces of good. Woo!And for grins, here's a bonus model!!

Makuta Matoran

I had an infected Hau mask, so I decided to add it to my Matoran design and make Makuta. Then I decided to give him a partial vortex on his back. I used up most of my black tail and spike elements, and it's not quite as cool as it was in the game, but it's something. Now Makuta can actually lead his Rahi into battle... even though he's still just a puny Matoran. ;)So that's the last of my Rahi. I'll be putting them on display at Bricks Cascade, in full out battle mode with my Toa and Matoran. I'll probably take a few pictures and post them in my blog... and heck, some might even end up on the front page. (You know, with the rest of the Bionicle table.) Thanks for viewing!

[Tomaku]

Nice Makuta Tohunga! I love the tentacles but maybe you could angle them a little more forward?

[<Reverb>]

Is it me or I love the Makuta Matoran the best? xDK so:-Frog rahi- I like the design of this one. It capture the essence of a real frog, and the tongue was a nice touch. The legs however as you stated need a bit of work-Lizard Rahi- Like this one too. The visable grey pieces are ok, but maybe you can get them in black? It might make the Moc smoother. Maybe some padding for those legs could work.-Nui Gimlit- I think this looks like a Rhinoceros Beetle, is that what you were going for? Love the bulk of this and the head, spectactular. However again, I would like some padding on the legs.-Tan Nui Jaga- I disagree on this one. This is probably my least favorite of the bunch. The colors just don't mix for me. I recomend armor on that lone gray piece on the tail. The brown of the Hau doesn't fell like it belongs there for me.-Elephant Rahi- I can see how you can get the desgin from DV's Moc. I still remember that Moc. xD I really like the color scheme. I can tell you wanted to incorperate those tusks in the Moc with the color scheme. Maybe more armor on that trunk?K overall, I like this batch of Mocs. Now gotta go post on those other batches you made that I nver got around to posting in. ~Gravity

Edited May 30, 2012 by Gravity Caiox