Aria & Synth

 

 This is one of those models with a complicated background. Simply put, I first built the figure on the right (Synth) and wondered if it was interesting enough; it needed something. I decided what it needed was a mate, and thus I built the figure on the left (Aria). And noticed that there was this Party contest on Lego Ideas with two categories: Dressed to Impress, very fitting for me, but maybe not for this model; Perfect Gifts, a bit less interesting category honestly; and general party category, with an example of a snapshot from the dance floor, perfect for this MOC -

[At this point the author reads the category description a second time, and bit more closely. It's called Home of the Ultimate Celebration and they clearly want you to build a building, a venue, or at least some kind of location; I have a feeling that a chair, table and microphone stand are not quite enough. Back to the building table then; I'll post my Primordial Giant Quagsire before this but will be back the next week as there are 10 days left in the LEGO Ideas/House contest.] 

 Oh yes here I am again. Here's the link for the Ideas contest page. I had this wall thing with three tall windows and four joints and some nice creeper vines with pretty flowers; I had built it for another use (where it was slightly medicore) and had not published it in any way, so it worked well enough. It was the right scale, too. I then made a floor - dark bley was one of the colours that I had enough. I mixed some log bricks in to create a slightly unkept feel of a worn concrete floor. The neutral hue of the grey was good, as it did not reflect any colour to the white walls or compete for attention with the characters. The floor also helped me to make the model a bit sturdier, as I was able to fix the table on its place and connect the microphone stand while keeping the dynamic posing. 

But of course, the figures - sorry for an extremely jumpy text here. Synth. This model is recycled from a WIP that ended up being Supersonic Soaring Suit some 1.5 years ago.  The initial model included a red jacket with those Ace of Spades stickered wedge slopes. I alway though they were from some Harley Quinn set, but they're from a forgotten 2008 Racers set appropriately named 8493 Red Ace. I had acquired two from bulk parts bins. The hanging lightning ornaments are from that WIP, too, as are most of the sleeves. The rest was redesigned to meet the 2026 standards instead of the 2022 ones. I furnished the rest of the figure with certain underground culture vibes: black chocker, slightly torn stockings, swept short turquoise hair and badges. Initially, the composition culminated in Titanic Liverpool curved slope over the sand green shirt (from PaB), but I had to censor it off as LEGO Ideas staff told me that it was licenced. I was aware that the entries should not refer to licensed material, but I was fully unaware that a 122 old boat would be under copyright or someone's intellectual propertly. Well, the published entry uses only regular black slope.

(Originally, the laptop had "Boy, do I hate being right all the time - Ian Malcolm" tile, but I realised soon enough that it would cause issues.) 

And so, I decided that Synth needed a mate so I built Aria, who was to have a totally different look - simple, elegant, a bit fantasy-esque: fittin for summer and inspired by the bright green recolours from the Botanicals tulip bouquet, combined with the magenta axe heads from another flower set. I had reviewed Creator Beautiful Horse some months ago fro New Elementary, and medium nougat boat stud had appeared in January and made its way into PaB; therefore, I could finally build good, sturdy medium nougat legs. The arms are not as sturdy (note the stud-only connection above the elbow) but look decent. And I had got some cheap white macaroni tiles from BL to the hair. These made up Aria and she was a very straightforward to build. 

 At that point, I knew they were heading for the party and were perforning musicians. The set-up was inspired by a discussion with a friends who noted that the most boring set-up in electronic music is a dude with a laptop. I took that as a starting point but had zero inspiration to build a table; it would have hidden the lower part of the figure, killing the dynamicity of the model. I took a break with some other projects and suddenly came up with this idea of a transparent acrylic furniture. Its certain retro-futuristic air fitted the idea of Aria & Synth very well, and, importantly, the transparent table would not obscure the figures. The final table is 5-shaped and made of big panels from 1993 Dacta set 9701 - with the age of 33 years they are retro enough. Later, I supplemented the table with a matching chair that uses Toa Inika weapon prisms as its legs...

Having completed the table, I returned to the instuments. I added a black analog synthetiser and a very small yellow drum machine to give Synth some knobs to adjust. Aria was fine with a microphone. The set-up is, of course, inspired by the current, wonderful live assembly of Rättö & Lehtisalo. They have a mostly acoustic drummer, but otherwise the show is a combination of vocals (Rättö) and electronic laser sounds (Lehtisalo). And a lot of dance. I recommend it.

Next up, I do not know what. I though there would be fan voting but apparently there's sort of review board, too. They might remove my MOC as it's too difficult to display without me assembling it (though it's not that difficult really), I don't know. But next up here, I have another Ideas contest model, and then we're back to Bio-Cup, Summer Joust and who knows what. Cheers!

-Eero. 

Here are the original photos! Please note that these pictures are strictly NON-CANON as they include the Titanic curved slope that is licenced and can't (and won't) appear in the model in case it ends up in the LEGO House.

Giant Primordial Quagsire

 This is my entry for Summer Joust 2026's category Medieval Pokemon. I've taken part in this contest three times before, and this years categories are great. I have another WIP in good shape already, and might make a third, maybe even fourth entry, too. Bio-Cup being (probably?) later this year helps, too.

 So, Pokemon. I was a Pokemon kid as a kid. I played TCG even in sanctioned tournaments, and managed to get most of the gold symbols in Emerald's Battle Frontier. I'm somewhat familar of the fourth generation, but generally, my Pokemon experience consists of generations 1-3, with Emerald being my definitive (and the only actually owned) game. I don't think there are any better Pokemon games than that, so it's not an issue. It's quite surprising that I haven't posted any Pokemon Lego models before. I've built some as a kid, but that was before this blog and likely before Brickshelf, too (2007). 

Naturally, when thinking of this category, I evaluated my favourite Pokemons and their suitability for the task in hand. Big friendly Quagsire ultimately won. The second possibility was a Regirock breaking loose form its Desert Ruins (I had to look that up), conforting some sort of band of minifigure warriors. I really like the legendary golems of Gen 3 - maybe I'll build them later on! Quagsire, though, is my ultimate favourite pokemon and it was about time to make something in gratitude for this magnificent creature. 

I made it very big, of course, but otherwise kept the design pretty much the same. There isn't many official pictures of a swimming Quagsire, so I had some freedom on this. The main attraction here is the sense of motio, enhanced by the fishlines and the sweeping aquatic plants. Thus, Quagsire's face is facing forward, like commonly with Japanese and Chinese giant salamanders - the real-life equivalents of Quagsire. I gave the creature a large, gaping maw to show its lolling pink tongue - I'm very happy with that! This was the defining part of the model.

The colour caused some issues. I had lot of curved slopes in medium azure, bought for very cheap on Bricklink years ago. However, I had barely any wedges! What I had, though, were those 4x3 curved wedge things with the irritating 1x2 cut-out on top that no piece matches very well with. I had got a bag of them form my at-the-time neighbour Jani about two years ago. They really saved the day here. If a model ever needs gently curving medium azure pieces, it's Giant Primordial Quagsire!

Of course, I had to medievalize the creature. I wanted to have a harmless scene with some sort of excite- and movement. The real-world giant salamanders live in the East Asia, so I chose it as the setting; of course, it also fits Pokemon's Japanese origins. I had recently reviewed Ancient Moon-Gazing Inn for New Elementary, and it had great minifigure parts for this. The canopy of the boat felt fitting for the atmosphere. Ultimately, the fishing action defined the relationship between Quagsire and the people, while the fishlines helped to make the model dynamic. Of course, adding an another Pokemon, or 3x Magikarp, further integrated the themes of Pokemon and Medieval together.

The river surface goes in the middle of this model. I could not express it with bricks wihtout making the model messy, but I tried to define it by using a two-colour background. I hope it is clear enough. It is cheerful, at least.

-Eero. 

Tawa

 This is Tawa, another Klaanon character straigh after Killjoy. This is a bit older model, though, mostly built somewhere between February and March, but finished in May after getting my PaB order with good yellow bits - mostly old pieces I had some of but not enough; boat studs and 1x2 round plates.

Tawa is a Toa Hagah and the founder of Bio-Klaani organization. She's a Toa of electricity (or thunder). I'll link the previous versions as a list as there are so many of them:

• 2010
• 2011 
• 2012
• 2013 
• 2014 
• 2014 (2)

The spear remains as a homage to the earlier version,. The shins aside they are the only thing that remains. The 2011 version was basically a mod of 2010; the 2012 version was completely new and gradually evolved into 2014-2 that was the first one that actually felt like the character - having the brick-built mask with visor instead of the too stern and legendary Hau. I was very happy with the 2014-2, which explains why it took 11 years to began with a new one. This is foremost inspired by all the new yellow pieces we've got since them. The structure is still mostly Technic/Bionicle, a conscious design decision, but obviously the new enablers are largely System. Obviously, we don't get new Bionicle pieces any more, and the classic purple inventory has been stuck in the 2001. I love this purple, though, so I did what I could with my old parts - mostly the same ones than in the old versions.

I kept the look of the feet, but updated the structure into more Technic-y to change the ball sockets purple. This is, I think, more about development of skill than of new parts. The knees use my usual pin-hole-to-stud joint, not very easy to get that "over" the ball joint of the rakshi leg, but looks pretty good while allowing enough friction (and mobility) for one-leg-poses (see below). Actually, freedom of movement was one of the key aims here. Tawa is supposed to be agile and I wanted to manifest that in the model. The 2014-2 had been very static.

The upper legs are competely new, with a structure that combines the 1990s Technic with more modern macaroni tubes and a collection of curved slopes. The curved Technic pieces on the crotch allow fore movement. The hips were an issue. That is where humans have soft tissue, usually covered by soft cloth of trousers or skirt. But soft things are famously difficult in Lego. What I did is a flexible armor plating of three yellow claw piece on both sides. While they normally block the movement of the upper leg (in sitting position, for example) the lowermost claw can be turned to the side, allowing a 90 degree angle of the leg:

I had many alternative versions of this, and while the finished design is that flux while "playing", it looks better than an obvious gap in there. I tried that, too.

The torso, too, is a mix of old and new stuff. The breastplate is an improvement over the older version. As it is system-heavy, I wanted to contrast it with puple Techic. The destroyer droid foot was an obvious choice, familiar from the previous versions. The sides made of angled connectors is a tech I nicked from Japanese builders years ago (TAN I think), and while not perfectly shaped, it's pretty good in the limited purple selection, while calling nicely back to the origins of Bionicle. The structure of the torso is Technic, with axles running through it all like a spine.

The arms are quite usual contemporary style with heavy System emphasis and a ball joint on the shoulder. Nothing much interesting in them. The mask is, of course, very imporant, and this is clearly a rehabilitation of the previous 2014-2; and it uses many parts introduced after 2014. It's really happy how the macaroni slopes for the sides of the foreheas, and how the stud notches of the curved slope wedge and wedge plates form a grille pattern that reminds a bit of Hau's "lungs". The visor is a essential part of Tawa's design.

Finally, there was the question of cloth parts. Tawa has a skirt, or a cape, or usually both. There wasn't capes in right colours, and I didn't want to have anything heavy brick-built to make the posing impossible - this was going to be a poseable model, if you remember. In the previous versions, Tawa's skirt used the the same puprle colour in various flaps - but those flaps, again, killed the movement. In some of the original art, Tawa's skirt had more lavender hue. Eventually, I figured out that the medium lavender/trans-purple Elves dragon wings worked pretty well. Their major drawback is the flatness - they're essentially two-dimensional - but I managed to counter the effect a bit by angling them; and the marbled pattern gives an impression of shadows and curves that do not, in fact, appear in the two-dimensional plane. Plus the marbled translucent effect captured something of Tawa's electric personality, and I liked that. Connecting the wings elegantly enough took some effort, but looks decent in most angles.

-Eero.