Toa Mata Nui

Relict Antihero Posts : 206

I have had this idea for a very long time.

When I wrote my first short stories for BZPower (you can find them in LEGO/BIONICLE Fiction, reposted and partially reformatted by courtesy of W), I intended fully to base a series of creations on the in-story descriptions. In fact, two characters who never made it past the "design and ideas" process began life as ideas for creations.

Although my efforts on the sixth and last short story in that saga have yet to reach fruition, I am finally able to present you all a nearly finished BIONICLE creation: Toa Mata Nui.

Front

Side

Back

Weapon

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Head Librarian & Game Master Posts : 3659

All-silver MOCs are difficult to pull off, which may be because so many silver armor peices are so easy to build on to a model. Your creative use of armor solves this problem for the most part, but as a consequence, the plating seems a bit awkward in certain areas.

While I like it overall, I feel like the legs and upper chest especially feel disjointed from the rest. Especially since the Glatorian Mata Nui was so cartoonish in his proportions, I expected you to take that route and focus more on fitting the peices together. While it doesn't suffer terribly, I can't shake my impression that too much has been sacrificed for humanoid proportions.

All in all, though, my complaints lean more towards "artistic intent" than your use of the "medium". You have cunningly fit the peices together, and the armor looks sleek and cool.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I expected the armor to mesh together, and I don't think that's what you were shooting for.

Relict Antihero Posts : 206

I appreciate that you think of the armor placement and usage as creative, but I myself was less than satisfied with the flow of the finished product.

I don't agree that the upper chest is a feature disjointed from the rest of the model, and I hope you do realize that the blue pin was placed as a heartlight, but I was highly dissatisfied with the leg armoring. My plan of attack was not as a revamp of the set, and the term "revamp" is left out of the title of this topic; I own neither 2009 set version of Mata Nui and disliked both of the designs, so I focused fully (as I have said) on making this particular model most like the Mata Nui I describe in "Fire Lost".

I do understand your concerns about too much having been sacrificed for humanoid proportions, though, and likely will not pursue a design too similar to this one in the future. You seem to understand the crux of the matter, and proportions were indeed paramount in this instance; I did hope that the armor would mesh together in a better way than it ended up, however.

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Head Librarian & Game Master Posts : 3659

Heh, I actually missed the heartlight, thanks for pointing that out.

I actually don't mind the legs themselves. It's just that the straight edges are out-of-place relative to the curving armor detail of the arms and torso, as well as jarringly different from the '09 Nuis.

Although if you weren't trying to be similar to the Glatorian Legend Mata Nui, the latter dissonance is irrelevant.

You know what this reminds me of, actually? The legs and arms are very similiar to a Toa Metru. Both have traight legs, heavily armored shoulders and light wrists. The torso, meanwhile, bares closer resemblance to the Inka. Maybe a tighter, more compact chest is in order?

Relict Antihero Posts : 206

The Knight's Kingdom II armor was not a prime choice, I agree. As I have said, I did not seek to emulate (or rather simulate) the form of either 2009 Mata Nui set, instead focusing on a "Fire Lost"-type of form, so the difference is irrelevant - but the internal armor differences on this particular creation are not pleasing.

There is certainly some resemblance between this version of Mata Nui and a Toa Metru, true. I think I would likely have resolved the armor differences by altering the legs rather than the torso, however.

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