Bartakha

This big fellow has been waiting to be posted for some time. It was build as a part of local, bottom-up grassroot level story development project in November. Build day was traditional "one day with the usual tweaks on next morning" type of thing. He turned out being more serious build than I first intented. Not 100 % serious, but not completely joke neither. Car hoods make pretty nice biceps, right?

He's named Bartakha and he serves sweet drinks in pub and nigh club The Definitive Hazel Grouse, which he owns with his partner Kinlika. His species is Rigelian Vatuka, and he wears Vatuka Kanohi mask (they're like usual kanohi masks, only harder). His name is a pune or a play of words on him owning the bar AND the bartakha moustache on his Vatuka Kanohi. He's a friend of Guardian, Taguna and Deputy Fuzchel. He is an ex-pirate but isn't everyone though? He once took part on Artakha lookalike contest, but was banned for his main colour was apea green instead of masentava green and he had a staff, accidentally. The contest was won by Artakha himself, as everyone else were banned too. He has clumsily big hammer, unuable for any sort of arts and craft. He uses it to hammer badly behaving customers out of The Definite Hazel Grouse.

That's what he is. As a build, he was sort of comeback to Bionicle pieces, as this is couple of months older than Botar. It was "easy comeback" as this wasn't super serious, and uses lot of System; finally got use for those car hoods, too. The arms are tad too short (but think at least) and the fingers fall of all the time (but they gleam nicely). The feet are dull, being only dark bley too, but I quite like the legs. And I'm happy with the hammer, that has wrought iron flames on the back and metallic silver rim inside. Managed to use Ninjago dark pearl grey container piece, too. I think it fits Bionicle aesthetics well. 

Next up maybe Discworld, or some architecture; not sure yet but I've got few finished models and one big thing down the pipeline.

-Eero

For those about to rise

 And the last Space Jam entry - the Travel Poster. Great, innovative category; and this model was made in one night, yesterday six to midnight, maybe. My original idea didn't change much. The hair colour was chosen according to parts available, with requiremnts being something not appearing in the sky gradient. I also cropped out the mouth because it was hrd to build - and this crop emphasized the anonymity of the person, while adding more balance to the space; that's what this is about, right? The spaceship was the last addition, adding the "travel" part of it, and somehow binding the theme together.

Barney

Now let's talk about last minute entries! Last day, pretty okay category, some inspiration - and the result is this simple, moving scene were the crew of Cygnaeus III, as the embarrasing climax of their voyage, make the first contact with extra-terrestial life.

That's it. Brown stony blob with some teeth and two goggly eyes and (one) offspring, and space rockted landed on its head. It took around one and half hours to build, and the most interesting technique is 1x1 tiles stuck between the side and the tube of 2x4 plates. Fun fact! That connection is lot looser with 2x2 plate with two studs on top - I had to try out several tiles before finding one that stack decently. The whole thing wobbles around on the trans-clear bar, big time, but boat weight bricks on the base prevent it from toppling over.

That's all there is to say about this model. Nice February! Maybe things turn out better after all.

-Eero.

Hai Spektrum, the Zap Samurai

 Space Jam continues! This is a last-minute entry for Grantmaster's Challenger category, with aim to build a gladiator of any sort. The category has a character of mine - HAVOC-DISSECTION IV - as an example build so I thought what the hell, if that fits I can make something similar but new and exciting. So I wanted to work on familiar area, some sort of cool flashy character about to fight. Neon colours, elegant armour, bright hair!

The seed part is definitely vibrant coral Technic pin connector. I got plenty of them (this is only fraction!) of them from last LUGBULK and hadn't used them much yet. So I went with parts spam routine, trying to find interesting patters. The first ones was the sleeve armours; a bar gracefully slides between four of those connectors, enabling the joints. The second use was the big knee pads; I tried to find pieces to fit the cumbersome slot on on the connector piece. Small shuttle tail didn't work, it was too thin, but these medium-sized ones slotted into the slop perfectly. So she got these huge knee things, that, as I found out during the photographing, enable own new battle style based on leaning on them (probably they are made of soft synthetic material). In a way, they're reimagined big samurai pauldrons moved to the legs. Connectors on upper legs continue the motif from the sleeves.

The upper torso is recycled from speeder rider Aurora Sievert; I was very happy with the design and thought it could work as a armour. It also enabled this neat, curved bit of vibrant coral on the bust. Aside from the Technic connectors, I wanted to be sparing with coral; aside from the chest ornament it is used on the boot soles, balancing the black and vibrant hues on the model. I'm very happy how the hips turned out. They use old classic Slizer foot, along with one of my favourite "forgotten" pieces, 90s solar panel with clip.

I wanted to add some more colour, but keep the armour black and coral, so I aimed for blue hair. My trans-light-blue was just enough - some 4x4 fractured wedges, four 1x2 plates and some cheese - to make a haircut with this beautiful vibrant shade! It's almost electric. The hair shape reminds a bit of samurai helmet, kabuto, which is nice touch; the head band, with antenna, makes it less flat and adds mundane space detail.

A katana felt ultimately very fitting. This is actually mostly because slightly curved katana scabbard was perfect for the character's dynamics, and I was able to make a pretty good scabbard with those connectors! Positioning it was much harder bit, but worked all right. The actual blade is yellow, to make it more sci-fi, and compleating the colour scheme. I enjoy its contrast with coral armour and blue hair.

 -Eero.

Dedofiktion Racing Unlimited Warpwheel Cryptobike

 

It's contest time! This one (and the another one too - double post!) is for Space Jam's collaborative racing category. I was asked for a team, and I of course accepted the offer. And was first to start building in my team, so I chose the colours and feels. But alas, my teammates had personal reasons that made them unable to participate - at the time that I already had two builds finished. But no worry. I got new teammate - Aiden - who had also lost his team members. He kindly made some little changes to his entry, and thus - Dedofiktion Racing Unlimited was formed. The name is reference to a Circle song, as usual.

I wanted to build a racing vehicle for a character build. I though of speeders, bikes, roller skates, jet packs, gliders, aqua jets... but settled for a bike, as I had built so many speeders recently - and had some piece use ideas; the back wheel made with large TECHNIC toothed... thingys I got 7 from LUGBULK two or three years ago. I had never used them on anything. So here they are! I wanted to add some colour on them, and luckily I had bought four rigid cables in purple many years ago, and the fitted nicely in the groove. The front wheel also uses a tablescrap I made for Parts Festival (where the Fat Boy hub is from); a rubber track/thread fits around the hub very well, and 1x2 tiles can be connected to it, very sturdily. It premiered on Gateway to Bricks Unlimited (coincidence with the name) on MOC Wars, rather mildly. Here it is better observed; photographing made the trans-medium blue tiles glow very nicely! 

Other that the huge back wheel, the bike is quite traditional; at least more traditional than my previous one. Inverted medium azure arch piece and yellow macaroni tube were other key pieces. The tubes form soft-looking surface to comfortably lean on, while the arches give some sturm und drang to the back, like a burst of flames. The fork is quite realistic; it was reworked from more simple Technic composition into something using more macaroni tubes, according to critique by Tino Poutiainen. Thanks Tino! I'm also happy I finally get to use that trans-yellow windscreen I had had around for quite a while. 

The figure - let's call her Winona Skyrake - was build mostly after the frame of the bike, to make them fit each other. Interestingly, she's around 20-30 % smaller than my average characters, with the same head. Why? Smaller scale made building the bike lot easier; less lenght, less weight, smaller distance to handlebar, pedals, etc... But it turned out looking pretty natural nevertheless. The obi (cummerbund) is reference to some Japanese themes, fitting for this sci-fi-atmosphere. Overall, the balloon panel hair is the most extraordinary part of it. Honestly, when I see a new fancy piece, I usually first ask myself, "would it work as a hair? Or beard?" so hair it is. I've used in before as a hair, but on in white and not that way up. Cool piece, balloon panel!

-Eero.