Samus Aran (3)

 After finishing the Zero Suit of the last post, I dug up my Power Suit Samus from 2016 to take some comparison shots. The model is one of myt most popular ones, and I had felt that it was still technically up-to-date. Well, after 8 years, it was not. I though of doing just some minor tweaks here and there with new orange and yellow and red pieces introduced after 2016. I the end, there are no major bits that would have left untouched. Hand, perhaps, and the shoes have only black axles changed into yellow ones. The structure (or "frame" as mech builders like to put it) is still relatively same as before. The only joint type I changed is the elbow joint, which got a double joint with more mobility. As in 2016, this is based on the Other M / Smash Power Suit, as I like its robust round shapes. 

The legs are mostly smoother and made more elegant, and the hip area follow the original more closely. The shoulder pads enjoy some fresh pieces, although lot of the structure stayed as it was. The main construction of the cannon remains the same, while its ends are closer to the source materia. The rings are, of course, Clickits. The other arm was reshaped, ditching the CCBS shell with its ill-fitting infill.

The heaviest changes are in the yellow torso, the breastplate and the helmet. The torso has now more muscular shape, using many pieces that simply didn't exist 8 years ago. The breastplate is lighter than before, and this is a bit of a compromise - I just liked the pattern made of round macaroni tiles much, and had to conjure a supporting structure with enough connection points around it. It could be thicker, but I hope the issue is not too glaring. I'm happy with the new helmet, enabled by the red shoulder pads from the rose bouquet set. How chamberpot-like the old one looked! It also had some stability issues. However, I retained its best parts, the lever-connected tubes and the the general shaping of the visor.

 This was quite a relaxed intermission build between other projects. Samus has such a nice colour scheme - I wish more video game heroes were this vibrant. And it's indeed just the right scale with my new Zero Suit, as visible in some pictures in the end.

-Eero.

Zero Suit Samus

 This MOC was built for a New Elementary article on two Dreamzzz sets, Logan the Mighty Panda and Zoe's Cat Motorcycle. The cycle's influence is small (it's apparent mostly in the buttocks, obviously) but the seed part used was the new 3x3 maxi macaroni parts that form the curves. I'm not explaining it very thoroughly here, as I've written about it in the New E article. Simply put, this model is more statuesque that usual, as it's built for a specific pose, and even though there are some joints, it's not really an action figure. It's nice change from all the poseable figures.

Some readers probably remember my old Zero Suit Samus models, the original from 2013 and the edited version from 2015. Somehow, back in the day, I couldn't really build a decent face. It never worked! 10 years in and some development has happened. Makes me wonder what 2034 will bring. Anyway, I've been playing ZSS lately in SMash, and this was my first idea with those blue curved pieces. Interestingly, the tradition blue is one of my least used Lego colours. There are simply so many blue hues.

The model is based on The Other M figure by Max Factory. I like its determined stance with the wind-swept ponytail and long legs. While this duplicates those aspects quite faithfully, I consciously made the spine less twisty and the body more muscular. Samus sure has build some muscles during her adventures. I'm particularly happy wih the dark blue "tongue" windscreens on the upper legs and the transitions between blue, dark blue and medium azure on the legs.

I also built Samu's taser pistol as it appears on the figure. I'm not interested in weapons, and this took many trials and errors to get right. The first versions were mostly flat silver, but I ended up mixing in some metallic silver to get to use Power Miners armour piece. I like how the metallic shine contrasts with the blue bodysuit. This is also my first model that uses those new finger pieces. I think the match the sleek skin-tight garment quite well.

After finishing this model, I also reworked my Power Suit from 2016, as it was accidently in the same scale. I'll post it soon, but until then, there's a small sneak peek on the end of this post.

-Eero.

Keetongu

I built this big boy for New Elementary article on the big Simba set, but it's history is a bit longer. In July I posted my "lore-accurate" Keetongu for Bio-Cup's Class/Monk category, explaining my history with this Bionicle character. At the time this model was already shaping up. This didn't start as a New Elementary model, and had nothing to do with Simba in the beginning. However, after making the first version of the torso, upper legs and upper arms, I realised that I didn't have any interesting keetorange parts to finish it. Simultaneously, I noticed that Simba would have plenty of good parts for this - and good many of them were recolours, relevant for New E to cover. Thus, a pact was made...

This is a new version of a self-MOC Keetongu, last version of which was posted over ten years ago. The main aim was to make a bulky, mushroom-like version of the character. Interestingly, Keetorange first appeared in Clickits, Bionicle/Technic and Dublo, so back in the day there were no many System options available. This has changed, so most of this is system; as evident in the old version, heavy system use leads to less noisy design with more unified surfaces. As I was after quite organic look with only small mechanical details, this was a good thing. Bionicle kids might still hate it for having only two bonkle parts. I wonder if they'll tell me that; they probably will.

The seed parts were those big macaronis used on the hat-shell. The round top on the head was added later, after acquiring Simba parts. The torso details are close to the pre-Simba model, but adding those 4x4 dome quarters under the shoulders really helped to make it more rounded and muscular. Arms, lower legs, feet and the back are fully post-Simba design. The set is a treasure trove of keetorange. 

I wanted this model to be poseable, despite its weight. The first idea was to use the new double-ratchet mech joints in the shoulders and hips, with ball joints on the other joints. The double joint seen on the knees was first built for the elbow, but I realized that the elbow needs to twist as well. Thus, I used mech joints on the elbows, too. The joint that ended in the knees is a nice design nevertheless: total six ball joints in a small space enough both friction and mobility. The ankles have double joints with four balls each, while the wrists use only mixel balls. But the waist needed two major overhauls. First, the hips were too thing, only two studs with mech joints. This meant that the legs had to be in a constant A-position, which didn't look good. It looked like a tall thin dude in a suit. I made them wider. But the mech joint created another issue, as its limited the movement to certain steps. The posture was either too thin or too wide. I wrecked it and returned to old, good single ball joints. It makes this swingy as hell, the posture must be balanced carefully. But the sliding joint enables natural posing, so the swinginess is a small price to pay.

-Eero.