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MOC: Floresta

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 Here's just another Bionicle MOC fresh from the building table. She's Floresta, sort of a green spirit, life-giver of some sort, I guess. I haven't made so many green Bionicle MOCs, and most of them have used only dark green; Kathrienna is the exception here (and she even made it to Mike Doyle's Beautiful LEGO book). This one is a combination of a few floating ideas.

The first one was those small leaf-like wings constructed on dark and olive green 1x2 plates (from LUGBULK) and 1x1 round plates. That technique has been around for a while and sure looks good. I had those green plates around so I tried to do some leaves without knowing where to use them. They didn't came out very big as I ran out of trans-green 1x1 plates, but they looked pretty. I had an idea of some sort of a absinthe fairy (after reading travel guides to Prague last autumn) so I though that they could with with that.

I took the lower legs of another brown WIP (which is a WIP because I don't have enough brown Rhakshi heads; Only one and that's full of bite marks), built the legs (traditional but working Rhakshi shell design as there is not that many alternatives in basic green). The torso came out pretty easily, I especially like the green panels there. I'm also pretty fond of the "color layering" or "color blocking" or whatever  they say; green as the main color, dark green to bring it up, and some black for balance. Couldn't have done the hands on green and I quite like the feel of monochromatic black boots.

The trans-green wings had bee laying on my Bionicle table for a year or two. They are from the big odd Ninjago dragon set, though I picked them from Bricklink as the looked cool. There was a perfect chance to use them. They were a bit problematic, though - The stability of the click hinge alters and they ended up looking asymmetrical; Gravity angled some more than others. I had to sort them by the stability of the joint and rebuild the wings. I ended up putting the behind the leaves. The placement of the leaves wasn't clear until the end, they used to be on the hips or on the lower torso during the process.

The head also came through some alternatives. By first try was to make a head similar to Qwena or Zero Suit Samus, and that was the time when I was thinking the absinthe fairy thing. But I didn't have the needed parts and it would have looked way too big compared to the torso. The another idea was to make head similar to Belsa in white with tan hair, but it looked terrible - White just didn't work with the greens at all. So I ended up with rather stylished design similar to Karmenna and especially Lady Liberty 3000. This MOC is in may ways similar to the later, though their backstories are definitely different, as it is a mecha and this is a forest spirit. But both have transparent wings and sort of a crown, and they stand side by side on the top of my character MOC shelf.

There's more photos on Brickshelf.
 


MOC: Avde

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 If you have dozens of projects in progress it's always nice feeling to have one of them completed, especially if the project is bigger and has been under construction for a while.

This MOC is from Klaanon (sort of  a Finnish spin-off Internet novel Bionicle-ish thing with many authors). It's name is Avde, but not much is known about it (or him). It seems to consist of two creatures, though it is not known are they of same person. The one is the Matoran-looking Crimson Man, a small and suspiciously friendly little man. The other is The Deep Laughter, a black shadow mass with dozens of tentacles, red eyes and deep gapes. The Deep Laughter can appear both as a physical creature and nightmare-ish mental creature, though the latter require a use of a telepathic, as Avde doesn't have such powers.

In this MOC I wanted to capture the mental side of Avde as he appears on a person's mind. I have built the physical side a few years ago, and this time I wanted a vastly different approach. I built the MOC with white wall and floor using some a bit yellowed old bricks to create a feel of a bit depressing empty room. The white backdrop also brought forth the black and red creature, allowing to make shapes that wouldn't be possible without brick-built backdrop.

The Crimson Man is built using my old Matoran technique which reminds a bit of the 2001-2002 "Tohunga" design but is a bit bigger and has more movement. The blue Pakari might be a bit of a reference to Takua, the hero of MNOG (The best thing of Bionicle ever) and it also appears on some other characters on Klaanon.

This MOC was also built for a "competition" on Mike Doyle's homepage. The competition (which is not really a competition) searches MOCs with the theme "Dark" for the Second book on Doyle's Beautiful LEGO series. The first book was excellent as a builder showcase, art book and a source of inspiration. I got a free copy from No Starch Press as there are six of my MOCs from 2009-2011 in the book.

-Pate-keetongu


MOC: Toa Kerosiinipelle (+delays are "dangerous")

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Hey readers, nice to see that many of you have been browsing my blog during the last month even though I haven't blogged really anything! But don't worry, I have been building a lot, and there is several MOCs, Bionicle, SYSTEM and minifigures, coming soon.

I have been lazy updating this blog, but if somebody said that I have been lazing, I would probably punch them on the face (or not, as I am not a violent man; but I would stare at them on a nasty manner). I have had my final exams on Finnish Upper Secondary school; they are bit like A-levels on Britain, or at least that's what I have heard. The exams (I had Finnish, English, Swedish, long math and physics) lasted to weeks, and then there were three weeks of reading break - I used that time to do my advance exercises for the architecture department on university. And as I said, I have been building, as it's nice contrast to all the reading and, well, knowing. Writing a blog on a language that it is not my natural one wasn't, so I just build the MOCs to release them afterwards. But now I have a bit less than three weeks until Model Expo, the biggest exhibit of Finnish LUG Palikkatakomo RY, and I have some projects to finish for that; but I have no school anymore, so I'm a free man. Brilliant! But now, to the MOC.

I have built Toa Kerosiinipelle three times before as he is one of the basic characters on the Klaanon story, but those MOCs were either too muscular or too small. Kerosiinipelle, or Kepe, is not a fighter Toa. No, he's more like the scientist guy, and even though he has elemental powers of ice and plant life, he has tendency to panic on tricky situations, and save the day with a fire extinguisher instead. 

This MOC is a dyed-in-the-wool Toa-mod. The legs are basic stuff: foot, shin, shin fillings, upper leg socket, armor on the both sides. The torso is a bit more interesting if not incredible ingenious, with some embedded system to achieve a better shoulder connection. The arms and hands are the best part here, and I built them first; the hand and its connection to the arm is similar to Floresta's design, with skeleton arms as fingers and boat stud to make the shape a bit more organic; they are among my favourite pieces. The arm is combination of Bionicle and HF stuff, and works quite well. Thanks god I had a lime green ball joint, as a black one there would have ruined the color flow; White and lime are definitely flashy.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: The Snowman

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 After posting a new version of Kepe yesterday it makes perfect sense to post a revamped version of The Snowman (Or Snowie-Sno-Snögubbe-Snobla-Snörbels-etc.) today. He and Kerosiinipelle are always paired, and while Kepe is the brains of the outfit, Snowie definitely isn't its muscle. Of course he's bulky, but not a fighter at all, even though he once beat a flying cigar-smoking skakdi (or at leat that's what they say).

 Snowie's body consists of snow-like material that he can arrage in the way he likes, which makes him nearly indestructible, but not resistant to pain; he usually tries to avoid the conflict as much as he can. Bio-Klaani often sends him to convert factions to their side. But as a peaceful and laid-back guy Snowie is one of those who make sure that Bio-Klaani is the good guy of the conflict. 

I have build Snowman before, and that even made it to Mike Doyle's wonderful Beautiful LEGO book. However, I felt the old model had too many holes, pins and axes sticking from the white mass. Building white mass definitely isn't easy with Bionicle parts! White nuva shoulder armor is the key piece here; thanks to those very odd NHL player sets those pieces exist. Getting them to the right angle was very hard, and this MOC was on a progress state for a very long time. I had to sacrifice some mobility and the look of the back for decent front view. There is rather lot of SYSTEM there, especially on the legs. They are probably my favourite area on this guy, and they were a lot easier to build than the body. I think the hero feet look great there, as they lack the biomechanical detain and have only a simple roundish shape.

There will be some more Klaanon stuff tomorrow, and then you'll get some steam straight from the 1800s. I have plenty of time in my hands now and lots of finished stuff - Stay tuned!

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Metorakk

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 Here's the last MOC on this batch of Klaanon MOCs. On contrary to Kepe and Snowie, Metorakk is definitely not a laid-back peace-loving good guy but a ruthless bad bounty hunter. He works for General Gaggulabio, a cigar-loving skakdi officer who is one of the Alliance commanders. Metorakk isn't his master's servant though, and is likely to go where he likes; that means the places with the bloodiest battles and best lootings.

Metorakk is a 100% fighter. He wears nazorak-made elite battle armor with leg thrusters, arm-mounted missiles and a protective helmet. The armor is still aerodynamic enough to enable Metorakk to move sharply. His favorite choice of weapon is powerful morning star.

This MOC is loosely based by an old creation by a man caller Dr.U. I picked the helmet idea, which looked excellent and gave heaps of character on U's MOC. Otherwise this was quite a simple humanoid MOC. I'm happy with the aerodynamic torso and the hand design especially; Movable finger usually give extra character on a MOC. Metorakk is holding a stolen magic sphere which is said to give overhuman powers to some special Vahki units.







This MOC combines Bionicle, HF and even small amount of SYSTEM parts. HF parts are used on the upper arm as I did on Kerosiinipelle, but there have also some extra beefing and Metorakk is more muscular guy. The legs are rather basic stuff. I made the ankles a bit sturdier, as just a ball socket on a piraka foot looks way too weak. KK2 armor part was an easy solution, but I like how it flows with the simple shape of Vikings dragon skull.

-Pate-keetongu


MOC: Miss Izzy Orchard

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 After those Bionicle models I posted on last three days, I'll present you some poseable SYSTEM figures. They are steampunk-themed, which is, as you have probably noticed, one of my favorite themes.

I built this MOC few days before I got my first new ball joints when I bought Gorilla and Eagle legend beasts from sale. So, this MOC doesn't use the new ball joints; the next one on my series does. Izzy is "fully articulated" (except the fingers though, impossible to build those in that small scale) using basic ball-clip joints in lower legs, normal-size ball joints on hips, double clip - towball on shoulders and even old arm hinges on the arms. There are double joints on the elbows to allow better movement.

The legs are partly inspired by Moko's work. I wanted them to be mobile enough to allow some posing, but they are not very sturdy. I probably could have achieved a sturdy design with those new ball sockets, but finished the model anyway before buying some. The minifig ruffs were a last-minute addition.

The body is pretty basic stuff with some nice curved slopes and wedges, with embedded double clips to make the ball joint sockets for the arms. The skirt was here from the beginning, and I'm very happy with the bags and packets on the belt. Izzy even has a booklet with the printed tile from Lady Liberty minifig.

The head is not rocket science with inverted, simplified face and golden locks. Bowler adds some steampunkiness. I'm proud of the hands, as they are hard to create in such a small scale. The connection might be a bit stressful to the parts, but I don't think it's that bad. Izzy has four fingers as most of my MOC figures, both Bionicle and SYSTEM-based. Five is just too much to handle! Badum-tish.

I had to build a chair for Izzy to sit on as the legs are not that stable and I'm going to keep this MOC on display for some time.

-Pate-keetongu


MOC: Gail Nealor Lyner

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Meet the second character on my SYSTEM steampunk figures line, heroine Gail Nealor Lyner. She is more action-oriented than Miss Izzy and therefore wear more protective outfit.

This time I used the new ball joint as I promised on the last post. They give both durability and mobility, and Gail is quite a posable; however, some furniture would be needed to show that and I didn't built any. Hopefully the other photos show that though, there's plenty of more in Brickshelf when moderated.

The build was pretty normal SNOTty work with round shaping and some detail. I began with the legs (I usually do) and after getting them right (Boots were tricky, the shape was not easy one) the body came up quite quickly. I gave a special thought on colors: Dark bley trousers and gloves to match, light grey belt and medium blue upper shirt thing to give some fresh color. Dark red and brown with gold buttons were trustworthy steampunky elements which worked well. The body is a bit similar to my Comedian, as those 4x4 wedges give such a nice shape. The unsymmetrical buttons where there from the start.

I'm very happy with the head and the practical but feminine hair achieved with tri-bar 1x2 plates. 1x3 tile makes sure that the stylised face is not too blocky. There is of course plenty of SNOT in the head as the 1x2 double slope is upside down.

I pondered a while what I would do with Gail's accessories and finally ended up with a pistol holster with simple short chain. I think is works well. I also tried to make a longer rifle, but had no idea how she would carry it. I guess Gail is a fast shooter!

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Cynthia Quegan Muskell

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 Ladies and gentlemen, here's the last steampunk figure for (some) while. This gal is Cynthia Quegan Muskell, professional engineer and airship pilot. She wears warm and protective longcoat, heavy boots and aviator goggles. A strong woman for sure.

This was actually going to be a male character, a police constable probably, but the 4x4 wedges (still one of my favourite parts) looked so curvy that it was better as a female character. The torso is bit similar than Gail's (see last post) and I got the idea of this when building her. This one is a bit less sci-fi, but I believe the boots and hairstyle have enough punk and steam to be classified as steampunk.

Cynthia doesn't have any new ball sockets, and the arms use twin clips as sockets, but don't worry, I bricklinked 24 of both socket pieces and they should arrive soon, so there will be more figures like this. The hands don't use the same design as the two last figures, but Cynthia is a bit smaller model and I wanted to give her wrist angle for posing.

The torso came up pleasingly well; Surprisingly I didn't start with the legs. I'm especially pleased with the inverted curved slopes on the back of the coat, as I didn't have those before I bought the eagle beast. They help creating the feminine curve there. Binoculars as the belt buckle was there from the beginning, as it reminds me of the buckle on my coat.

The head uses the same basic stylised idea than the two previous MOCs, though here I could built the whole head inverted as the neck connection is the bottom of a headlight brick. The hairstyle is a bit Wyldstyle-esque, with goggles on a rubber band, trick from the BCth. The boots were the last part I built, and I like the heavy heels there. I wanted to give her a boots that are faithful to the style but not too impractical when messing with boilers, fireboxes and pipes. The winky-wonky "gungan angle lightsabers" are the key part there. The binocular motif can be seem on the boots too. 

-Pate-keetongu




MOC: Retribuiton of Coote C. Lucknahan

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 To be honest, I'm not quite sure what's happening here. But I'm sure there have been a crime - Dirty money, stepping on the poor, forged contracts and so on. The police department might be corrupted with these ignoble gentlemen around, so the situation has escalated into the point where Miss Evelin Sharley has to grasp her rapier and climb up to the highest floor of the office skyscraper...

Actually, I build this vignette mostly to use some techniques and create a bit of scenery to my steampunk universe. Miss Sharkley can be familiar to some of you from of minifig barfs. I liked the minifig, and wanted put her to action. I had some ideas for classical but gloomy office, and so the idea was born.

I didn't want to build an office that looks extremely comfortable, as the bad guy here, Coote C. Lucknahan, probably loves only money, not its benefits. The stone floor is likely cold and hard. I have those light bley headlights from LUGBULK, and it was a pleasure to make proper a stone wall with them and dark bley tiles; I always wanted to build things like that when I was younger, but didn't have enough pieces - greys and black were always under the stone (If there is such a phrase in English; there is Finnish).

The big windows use red fences that are likely my father's old from seventies. I like how they work with the classy dark red curtains. Mister Lucknaham has also an Indian-style rug on the wall, it's probably an imperialistic gift from colonies. The furniture also includes a heavy buro. There's a contract, some drinks and oh boy the money - all messed up in horror, when the reddened eyes of the malefactor meet the rock-hard gaze of the vigilante in red. And her long dress and hair are never on the way.

-Pate-keetongu



MOC: The Twisted Victorian

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Model Expo, the biggest scale model exhibit in Northern Europe was on the last weekend and the Finnish LUG Palikkatakomo had a show there (report may or may not follow). We had a big modular town/castle diorama, and there was, among other things, a house fair contest. The idea was to build a house on 32x32 or 32x64 area and then people (the visitors, not LUG members) voted the best house. There were 16 entries and my house, The Twisted Victorian, got 50 votes and was third alongside with Legorides's (Markku Jääskeläinen) house with awesome Scots pine tree. Awis's (Ismo Aavaharju) Finnish-style house was got the most votes and Janne Kortelainen's house with motorized things was the second. I got 70134 Lavertus Outland Base for prize, and while the set design isn't that impressive, it had brilliant pieces and you will definitely see them on my creations soon.

This house definitely isn't very modern. It is time traveller's house - You can see Aikapoika, my time-travelling  alter-ego on the stairs. I think the whole house was transported to the fair from an another decade. I couldn't have built an ordinary house. No offense, there were some definitely cool ordinary houses in the fair, but it just isn't my thing; steampunk is. Finland doesn't have many houses like this, most of them are gray or white and use blocky shapes and minimum detail. This is of course different: Round yellow tower, black ornamented arches, funny somewhat tudor-style shacks on the side (probably inspired by Howl's Moving Castle, which despite being Miyazaki's worst movie has some awesome details) and big cone roof with a flag. And then the full thing is funnily angled, as there had to be 2 studs free space on every side.

I chose yellow to be the main color as it is bright enough to look really good with black and I had enough yellow bricks left. I had ideas for more shacks on different, special colors like light yellow and medium blue but the ideas didn't fly as there weren't enough room and I didn't have enough bricks on those colors. But sand green and dark orange were good choices to my eye, and the rounded balcony with the stairs looked better than expected and give a nice spot for the figure.

The tower is rather similar to the one in the Prime Minister's apartment in Brassport. It looked nice and I wanted to try the idea with different color and greebling. As it would have been terribly hard to make all-round tower to burst through the roof, the backside on it is funnily shaped with an arched window and some hexagonal pipe pieces. They are interesting parts but rarely used nowadays, and I wanted to make a difference there!

-Pate-keetongu

Old MOC mod: Keetongu

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 This is my self-MOC, Keetongu or Tongu in Klaanon, one of the last Saffron Giants and the leading engineer in Bio-Klaani's steam-powered Air Fleet. The same name to canon's Keetongu is a pure coincidence. They are members of the same near-extinct Rahi species, but have likely never met each other. This Tongu is a peaceful guy, enjoying building stuff with Matoran friends and flying airships, but he's got enough muscle to defend his friends in battle if needed.

The previous version, if that is the correct term - the last two ones were the same MOC with some fixes and added mass - has been my most popular Klaanon MOC on Flickr. This version fixes the most problems noted there, but I didn't add musctache and top hat; there are those on Klaanon though, not on Tongu but hats are definitely a thing and Matoran living in the northern part of the island of Bio-Klaani often have facial hair... or maskial hair, kanohian hair, you know the stuff. Tongu has no head, or at least it is pretty much between his shoulders, so a hat wouldn't stay on very well.

Modding Tongu started when I got a Chima set as a prize on a building contest, more of than on the previous post. The set had some great keetorange/bright light orange/something flamish yellow SYSTEM parts and they seemed good for adding some beef on this guy. These parts included some of by favourites, cheese slopes and curved slopes, and they worked well with some smooth HF/Bionicle pieces used in this MOC - the HF shells on shoulders and the Bohrok headplates. The lower legs were the first parts to get a twist. I had added the Roborider block long ago, and now I made the feet more stompy and added tiles on Metru feet; now the lower legs felt like a small fortresses on their own!

The other mods are about beefing up too. There's some curved sloping in the arms, and the hands are completely reworked; they don't look that much different but the design is a lot sturdier.I wanted to make the knee joints a lot better, and add a mecha-style dished on their sides. That was a lot harder that expected, but I finally managed to do that with some clips and 2x2 dishes. They rattle a bit, but don't limit movement much.

The torso has some more armors, and the stomach piece doesn't fall apart any more. The sides have also some more meat (kidneys?). There's some other small tweaks but I can't remember all of them. Give mercy!

-Pate-keetongu

Galactic Congressmen & Their Bodyguards

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 Here's a barf on sci-fi figs from another universe, three galactic congressmen of various factions and their bodyguards, though only one of the congressmen is male and and one a human being... But that's the terminology.


 Washiva Chandeliereve is the leader of rare race of Anthaenolygenia. Their civilization is ancient and advanced in both cultural and technical settings, but usually not trusted by other civilizations, as they usually use their mind-reading powers in diplomatic counsels.
Washiva's personal guard consist of Whisper-4 robot warriors that are superior over living being with their extremely sharp reflexes, unnatural speed and skill with electro-shock rifles.






Blaina Candeles is the chief of human colony on the volcanic planet Catamalania. Fire is the life-deeming factor on the planet and usually visible on the formal costumes. The colony is ruled by matriarchs and the main export is thermal energy. The colon has got a lot of fortune from energy dealing which can be seen on Candeles's armor.
Adele Harvene is a member of Candeles's personal Red Guard. It's quite ironic that the guard's armor looks actually lighter than their leader's, but it is designed to be fitting on real combat situations whereas Candeles's armor is purely an emblem of authority. The Red Guard's rifles might look ancient and clumsy, but they are packed with modern technology and firepower without forgetting the authenticity.











Manfred P. Dertit is a chieftain of algebra-based bank union
civilization of Hellepermanni System. Among his people bribery is seen as a moral way to increase politician's motivation. The other races don't usually share this point of view, but often a bundle of money can solve that problem surprisingly easily.













Kabanoss is Manfed's personal assistant, consigliere and personal bodyguard. In battle he amounts an army and can turn a town into ruins in a matter of minutes. Kabanoss is very loyal as long as he gets his daily sausages.

MOC: Steamnarium of Mr. Edward Higgs

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 Above the barren and obscure wastelands near the Imperial London rises an odd and huge figure. But it is not one of the giants of the old age. It is a machine and it is a house, in fact it is the homely home of Mr. Edward Higgs, eccentric inventor and gentleman who definitely respects peace and desolation.

Higgs's home is a typical home of an bachelor (at least on some aspects). There isn't that clean as there's no one to nag about things. As Higgs's inventing projects take some room (one of the three floors) and the machinery of the house isn't that small neither (it is an old steam sawmill tower) he has his bedroom, toilet and the old boiler room all in the same space. Isn't that handy? He doesn't have room for chairs around his table, but fortunately he can sit on the stairs while eating. The sewer system is also very compact and helps Higgs to avoid the sewage costs.

As it would be troublesome and time-consuming to climb all the 32 ladders when coming home, Higgs has built a fold-out ramp for his helipack on the first floor. There is also a big steamp-powered hoister above the ramp to make it easy to lift heavy objects into the house. Another of Higgs's homely inventions is the big propeller on the wall of the first floor. It is not an air conditioning system, but a wind tunnel propeller that helps Higgs to make his airs vessels as aerodynamic as possible.

This MOC is an entry for Eurobricks'Home Sweet Home Sci-Fi contest. When the contest began, a mention of a steampunk entries woke my interest, but I had too many projects to work with back then. But on Sunday I though that heck, now I have time and three days left before the deadline. Well, I began making a few sketches; I'm trying to get into an architecture line on an university and that was also kind of a training for the entrance examinations. I finally ended up with a idea of a house on four tall supports, which was based on painting a did five or six years ago, inspired by this sawmill memoriam in my hometown. The painting is actually hanging above my screen right now. I made the MOC a bit more homely than the painting, which had a couple of sand green cottages on the lower part (an idea which I used on The Twisted Victorian) and was pretty much machine-like on the other parts.

I'm very happy that I managed to build and photograph this thing in only two days. That was really a hectic build. Luckily my schoolwork for this year is done and I'm basically on my summer vacation now - I have a summer job but it begins in July, so there's still couple of months to go. Good times.

-Pate-keetongu



MOC: Kili

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 The dwarves are here again. Or at least one of them. I couldn't bring the gang to Model Expo this year because I had too much ofter stuff (I had a big dwarf fortress. It was completely destroyed in the cardboard box during the way back. I'm glad that the big dwarves (ironic eh) didn't meet the same fate). But now I'm only two away from the adventure - Fili and Ori are still missing, and then there's of course Gandalf and the hobbit itself, Bilbo, but that will be another story. No wait. The story is the Hobbit.

Baaaack to topic. Kili, potrayed bu award-winning Aidan Turner, is one of the younger dwarves. He is the handsome one, with small prostectics and only a stubble. Guess how hard that is to achieve with simple blocky bricks! Quite hard, but I think this is good enough. Funny-looking characters like Balin and Bombur are just somehow easy to make look great with sort of a caricature style.

Making Kili's stubble with dark tan would have looked like a tan beard (and terrible with the dark hair) and black or grey beard would have been even worse. So, this is bit of a compromise, with a color slides using all of those colors. Nose is rather small, same size as Bofur's to make Kili look more human-like and young. Ears and nose grow all the life time, I have heard. The hair could have been better in dark brown, but I wouldn't have had enough pieces (Coat took lot of them, and there's still Fili to go...) and it would have looked too much like the coat, so I wanted a bit of contrast there. Some loose hairs in his forehead add a boyish touch. Otherwise the hair is very similar to Thorin's.

Torso uses lots of same parts: Dark brown 1x2 slopes and curved slopes. My collection of dark brown is limited, but I managed to catch the shapes quite well here. Gold and sand blue add some color and hint about Kili's status as Thorin's nephew. Reddish brown and dark grey add some contrast and help making the character less dark.

Kili has a good array of weapons to kill nasty enemies on every range. The sword was quite simple with brick-on-brick structure (the blade isn't that sharp...) some SNOT and slope on top. The bow was trickier. I didn't want to go with old good "Round bricks on rigid hose" trick, as Kili's bow is shaped differently; I don't know the term even though I have some experiences of archery (took a course couple of years ago). So I constructed it using some dinosaur tails, robot arms and other small pieces. The cord was a bit too long, but I spun it from the ends to make is shorter. Kili has also a quiver on his back. The strap here is done using TECHIC chain links. Works quite well on my opinion.

-Pate-keetongu


MOC: Toa Korpraun

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 After a figbarf, steampunk creation and dwarf it's naturally time for a Bionicle MOC. This is Toa Korpraun from Klaanon project. He is a Toa of Stone and the protector of the Step of Tahtorak, a Matoran village on the Northern part of the Island of Bio-Klaani. The village is located between Mount Ämköö Guartsumountain but is currently abandoned because the war against the Nazorak Empire, reign of roach-like rahi species.

Korpraun wears a traditional colorful outfit over his tan Toa armor. It includes also a tall felt hat with four cones and numerous flags in blue, red and yellow, representing the rising sun over the icy fells. This motif is also seen on his many spears. The colors and hats are inspired by Sami people living in the Northern Europe, including the Finnish Lapland.

This was a fun build. Korpraun was loosely described on Klaanon a few months ago, as a robust light-brown Toa of stone with the hat and many spears. My MOC came out as somewhat more athletic and I also continued the Sami motif on the armor. There is also some asymmetry as Korpraun has a armor on the other shoulder and pendant sash on the other. The hat was a perfect fit on noble Huna (A 1x2 liftarm inside it goes into the hole on Huna's forehead) and I thought it looked good on it as I'm a big fan of 2001 Kanohi (and naturally there is best selection of those available). The color motif continues to the kneecaps.

The color scheme was rather challenging, especially the tan parts. I used most of Vorox's tan, some Roborider and Slizer parts and even some SYSTEM (dark tan 4x4 curved wedges, good stuff). The "destroyer droid foot" connector block is one seed part here, giving nice organic shape on the legs and lower torso.

Korpraun has five spears (should have given six as it's always six, but ran out of ideas and connection points) of three types. He has one long-bladed and colorful Sunrise Spear (the main Toa tool), two medium-sized one (for throwing, with bionicle minifigure weapons as blades) and two small ones (Probably to arm Matoran guards on tricky situations). Unlike the most Toas he doesn't magically hide his tools inside his back armor but keeps them visible as banner or deterrent. Korpraun is said to be a bit stubborn, but he is popular among his people and a worthy warrior.

I have some other Klaanon MOCs built, so keep an eye for more Bionicle stuff on the following days.


MOC: Toa Muothka

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 Toa Muothka, Toa of Earth, is another warrior from the northern parts of the island of Bio-Klaani. His people lives on the fells near Guartsumountain - or lived, as they have moved into south due to the invasion of the Nazorak Empire. Muothka's folk are probably a bit more primitive than Korpraun's (see the previous post), with reindeer herding as their primary livelihood. It is also said that there is still some Graalok Worshippers among them, members of ancient cult centered around the great ash bears.

Muothka is short and strong as most Onu-Toas. He is instantly recognizable with his long beard and huge antlers (ritual thing, connected to mask) though. His outlook and dented axe definitely strike fear to the most enemies an even some of his allies. He's still a  trustworthy friend, if sometimes a bit uncivil.

I had quite a clear vision of Muothka in my mind when I started to build him, as he is a character mostly written by me. The stout shape was here from the beginning, as were the antlers. I wanted to achieve a "Lapland-feel" with different aspects than in Korpraun. Orange seemed to be a nice secondary color, as it dates back to Bohrok Animations as an Onu-Matoran color and I had already used purple in Toa Iniko. The beard was originnaly going to be a piece of fur, but looked great as beard so I left it there; the tan on it also looked great with the tan antlers.

The limbs are reinforced basic limbs, with upper legs a bit similar to Iniko's and Mata feet (they are best feet, hands down). Nothing too significant here, but I think the limbs are beefy enough to hold Muothka's mass. Unlike Korpraun who has Glatorian hands, Muothka has bigger clamps as small hands would have looked quite ridiculous on him.

-Pate-keetongu

Ps. Make sure to check me being blogged on ReBrick.

MOC: Oracle

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 Here's another Klaanon MOC, from same photoshoot than the two Toas I posted few days ago. This guy is called Oracle, and he is a very old man of belief. Oracle is one of the Athists, Matoran group with religion vastly different from original Mata Nui worshipping. Oracle has something to do with powerful artefact Nimda, he has some (rare) knowledge on Avde and has mysterious connections with several characters. He is master in telepathy and mind-reading, but also uses small Eight-Ball explosives when needed.

This MOC was a little challenge build-wise. It took less than an hour, but included some special tricks. The descriptions tell that Oracle has a pale blue Pakari (blue Pakari seems to be motif here, as Takua wore it on MNOG and The Crimson Man has one) with red runic patterns. As I am a purist, I didn't want to draw anything on the mask (Even though I have 3 of those) but a rubber band did the job just finely. The red patterns continue to the body, 1x2 grill tile being the key part here.

I wanted to use new small ball joints in the limbs; I had bough a lot from BL a month ago. I had never seen them used on a Bionicle creation, but they work fine on Matoran scale. Oracle is somehow more light-build and taller than my average, MNOG-esque matorans; the design can be seen in Avde (linked above). The also gave Oracle heaps of movement, and I even could add moving fingers in such a small space. Tohunga feet add Matoran feel.

-Pate-keetongu

A sort of a small redux on Steampunk Qwena

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As I have noted before, I often do a little mods and corrections on older creations displayed on my shelfs. Buying three Mixels sets (Shuff, Zaptor and Flain) gave me some glorious eye-patterned WHITE ball joints, which made it finally possible to make Steampunk Qwena's neck all-white, and it seemed to be worth of posting; and the old photos of this outfit wasn't that good, which was another reason. There are a couple of other tweaks too. The stomach piece is brown, the hip case is gone (don't know why, but this way the dress seems more homogeneous (what a cool word) and there is more dark red in the upper torso. The shoes are different. I quite liked the heavier boots on the previous photos, but then again the shape didn't really work. But hey, I'm not going to babble more about this, you can read the rest about this model on the old post from summer 2013; but enjoy the photos anyway.








MOC: Toa Tawa (Version fourty-five or something)

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I posted the previous version of Toa Tawa (the founder and leader of Bio-Klaani in Klaanon) on last September, but here's another one fresh from the building table. I have build quite a lot versions of this character. I believe it is due to Tawa being an important character and, more pragmatically the color scheme being so damn tricky. The shoes are the biggest change here - nobody never liked those out-of-color scheme metru feet anyway. In my opinion the new ones are lot better than the old ones, though these are a bit too high-heel-like. Alright, the sole is very solid and thick. I would have made them lower, but that seemed quite a impossible in two-stud wide custom shoes with sideways (or whatever) ball socket.

As the legs became a bit longer, I reworked the torso and made it two studs taller. It was very tricky to get the shapes right there, as there is not many purple and yellow bionicle parts (And purple has been out of production for years). But I think I managed to achieve the shape quite well. In this version the proportions are more human.

There are also some other little tweaks. The limb fillings are a bit more aerodynamic, there are some flippers to cover some holes and the knee joints have those traditional joint dishes. Banana armor and and the red admin-stone are still there, of course.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Father Bartax

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Here's some music for this MOC. Kaukana kavala maailma!

Father Bartax is one of the holy fathers of Athism, one of the religions on Klaanon. Bartax is acrid and bitter. Seen death of his friends and fall of his temple in hands of vicious Makuta Abzumo, Bartax has in manner of speaking turned into the dark side. He has committed murders, burned ancient texts and destroyed the most important holy place of his people.

This MOC was a simple building piece between bigger projects to make an image of this particularly character. The color scheme of red and black was original MNOG thing for Ta-Matorans and looked evil enough. Noble Matatu has always had such a grim look and the red rubber band strenghtened that feeling (and also creates a connection to Oracle's mask). The torso uses mini-torso from HF sets; That piece seems to enjoy lots of love in Eurobricks, but this is the first time I have used it. The ball connection to neck is terrible with Bionicle heads. So, Bartax has a terrible hunchback that acts as bishop's cape.

There were more photos, but they turned out bad due to dozens of little blood-sucking buggers flying around; more of them later.

-Pate-keetongu
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