MOC: Big Daddy

 Say hello to Big Daddy from Bioshock game series. This big stubby diving suit fellow was quite an interesting build and one of the challenging MOCs I have ever built.


Okay, lets tell the facts. I have never played any of the Bioshock games. Actually, I have never bought a computer game. I'm not really a gamer guy, expect I used to play Pokemon Emerald and some Mario classics on my Game Boy Micro, and I enjoy brilliant Super Smash Bros. Brawl matches with my friend every now and then. But Big Daddy is a magnificent concept that fulfills all the requirements of coolness: Old scuba suit feel, big drill hand, stubby hunchback look and steampunk feel.

So, I began building this guy. I intended to use some Bionicle pieces as I did with Samus Aran, another game character MOC, but the barnicle parts weren't that good after all. I ended up with Exo-Force styled limbs, legs with click-thing-joints for more stability and arms with ball joint for better mobility. The joints were very hard make flexible enough without making them unnaturally thin.

 The head was interesting and it was the first part I built. It uses a Big ball piece which is held between the tubes and macaroni bricks. I quite proud of that use. The grid is a bit too big, but I like its shape, and didn't really found other ways to do it.

The colors of this MOC are seriously off. I didn't have bricks in any gold shade to do the golden parts in correct colour, so I did them with two shades of dark grey to make it look a bit torn. The fabric parts are also done with dark greys, as it was the best colour to do them because I have quite lot of it. The yellow eyes and brown shoes and belt hopefully balance the colors well enough.

There is a lot of SNOT in the torso. Okay, there is lot of it everywhere. But I'm happy with the shapes of the torso, the hunchback look and the suture between the head and the upper torso.

The arms were probably easiest parts to build, save the simple canisters on the back. Ball joint are just so much easier to play with than the clicky joints. The drill is a classic Rock Raiders chrome drill, one of the best pieces ever. There is even correct number of movable fingers in the left hand!

More pictures at Brickshelf.

-Pate-keetongu

Merry Christmas!

 Oh, that was an greatly overused phrase. Let's say something more interesting:

Whimsically pleasant Fest of Light!

Enjoyable and delightful party of pine trees!

May the surprisingly big number of rattling presents be with you!

That's a lot better, isn't it? That little MOC was built to Finnish LUG Palikkatakomo's Mid-sized (16x16) winter contest and also for Christmas purposes. Father Christmas here is a bit different from LEGO's CMF fig. That one was too American to me. We all know that the old man is the mighty leader of the Elf Republic of Korvatunturi (The Ear Fell), not the fat red guy who drives Coca-Cola trucks around the plastic landscape.

Have nice season time with your friends and family, everyone.

-Pate-keetongu 

WIP: Bag End

 Hey guys. I'm back.

I'm terribly sorry about my three-week absence. I was busy, very busy, with full-schedule upper secondary school period and other happenings. I have been building stuff, of course I have, but haven't been able to post anything. The photographing is the problem: I usually take photos outside with sunlight, but because I live in rather north, there is not much sunlight there. Not to mention the weather outside: It's currently -23 Celsius (-9.4 Fahrenheit). That's quite chilly, not too cold for being outside but rather cold to photograph plastic models.

And yes, I have a Bag End project. I felt like I should build something about the recently-released Hobbit film (That was excellent) and so I spontaneously started this project few weeks ago. It's rather large one, and really wish I have guts and pieces to finish it. It's an interesting building to build: as we know, round shapes are not the easiest things to build with LEGO, and hobbit holes have heaps of them. And I made it even more complex by angling the left wall with hinges a bit.

I currently having far too less tan bricks to make the walls because of the Humppa-Pub which I'm not taking apart any time soon. But I'm waiting to buy the Unexpected gathering as soon as possible, hopefully with -20-30% clearance after Christmas. It's price is 100€ here, which is 132 USD, so I really don't want to buy the full price. But I need some parts of it to this project (The door, macaroni parts, windows and the whole lot of green and tan parts) and that set is very well designed too, not to mention the brilliant figs (I have to see the Hobbit another time soon).

I'm trying to be a bit more active on the future. Luckily my Christmas Holiday began today, so I have around 10 days of freedom to come. And the winter solstice was yesterday, so the days will be longer, and I will have more time to take photos of my MOCs. Take care, people, and stay tuned for (hopefully!) another entry before the Christmas eve.

-Pate-keetongu

Old MOC revamp: Karmenna

This MOC, Dragon Warrioress Karmenna, is one of my own favourites. I built it on January of this year, around a year ago. But it wasn't perfect back then.

From the original version I have changed quite a many little things. The middle and lower torso are rebuilt. The hip area of the original version was quite odd and the back was rather wide and blocky. The connection of Toa Inika shoulder guards (great pieces!) that are used as a side armours must be four units (or studs) wide, and there are only few ways to build small four-wide TECHNIC units with necessary connection points. The old version was oddly shaped  and used for example a bit clumsy ball socket, but this design uses more special TECHNIC connectors. You can see it better here.

The hair is a bit shorter, as I used my two middle tail pieces in Steampunk Qwena's hair. But I prefer this version, as it allows more movement to the head. It is also sturdier.

Legs are a bit sturdier and realistic. I added Visorak feet (another great piece) back of the femurs to make them more boot-like. The upper legs are also a bit more smooth. They are still quite a poseable. 

 She has now dragon skull armours on her both shoulders. I randomly picked another from Bionicle bin on second-hand LEGO shop in Berlin. I like how the another armour balanced the dark red with black. She also holds her sword more realistically now.

More pics on Brickshelf.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Warrek

 I don't really like the fact that in GregF's Bionicle canon Skakdis are usually just a gang of ugly bullies looking for something to steal and pillage. Fortunately the things are different in Bio-Klaani's Klaanon project: Sure, Warrek isn't the most beautiful boy in the class, and he probably has some thefts and pillages on his earnings, but he really has a heart (I wouldn't be so sure about the liver though) and yes, he could be seen as a freedom fighter (at least after few beers on the Dead Ruki's Tavern).

Warrek was once a general on the Great Civil War of Zakaz. He was not on the wrong side, but on a losing side. Group of talented Watchman-rifle-wielding skakdi warriors including Colonel Guardian fought under his command, but they were traitored and warlord Nektann's troops won. I don't believe Warrek was one of those who use to call the war Great; he was traumatized, he was alcoholized, and within the years he became a permanent boozer on Dead Ruki's Tavern. 

But the old dog haven't yet forgotten his old tricks. Or he may be, but after few pints he will remember them. And when he pulls out his wartime Zamor handgun, Nektann's troop should watch out if they don't want to lose some of their biomechanic body parts or get their heads stuck permanently in a pickle barrel.

This MOC was quite a interesting to build. The suspenders were super necessary (They are actually reference to Malcom Reynold's suspenders in Joss Whedon's Firefly, which settings are quite similar to Zakaz. Warrek and his men (or reptilians) were the browncoats of the Bionicle universe) and I also wanted to build some clawed boot-looking feet to add a bit more western look. I also didn't use any bright light orange on the legs because he really wears pants, or at least pants-looking armour. With shin armour, because bar brawls can be intricate.

The character is created by my good mate Dr.U and somewhat deepened by Guardian (Strange man, looks like an Easter island statue, kills with irony).

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Balin

 Premiere of The Hobbit is near and I built this bust of Balin, an old dwarf from Thorin Oakenshield's company. I got the idea to make that huge white beard and then the rest of the MOC built itself around it. I'm glad I bought lots of small tan plates from LEGO shop in Berlin few weeks ago.

Balin's design in the movies looks excellent and he was my favourite dwarf in the book (Though most of the dwarves are not really characters...). Dark red is also a beautiful colour and I hope I would have been able to do the whole dwarf, but my collection of that beloved color is rather limited. And I had no idea how to do the arms.

Nothing much more to say about this simple little MOC. It work now as a guardian (Balin was the everyday watchman if you remember) of my bookself of the most important books (Mostly Tolkien with Darwin's Origin of Species and some Alan Moore's comics).

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Vampire Hearse

Yep, I'm a bit late for Halloween. But I have to blame the weathers again. This is the first winter of this blog, and winter in Finland means darkness, especially when there's no snow at all. Today I managed to get some time in daylight to take pics of some MOCs.

This is my "revamp" of Monster Fighters 9464 Vampyre Hearse. I loved the idea of that set, a cool big Hot Rod Hearse to theme's main antagonist. But I wasn't completely happy with the set's design, it was somewhat too modern compared to Haunted House or Vampyre Castle, so I didn't buy it but built my own versions instead.

This MOC was on a WIP stage for a long time. I started (and built most of it) during my summer holiday but them somehow forgot the project on my table. I had the Humppa-pub going on alongside some Bionicle projects, including Ragnfast the Viking, and they seemed somewhat more interesting. I have to thank my ol' buddy Humppakeksi for reminding me about this thing. I couldn't have ever finished this without you.

The MOC itself is mainly straightforward build, lots of basic brick-on-brick with some SNOT on the front and the back cabin. The trans-clear 2x1x5 bricks were my only parts to represent the big long hearse windows, so I had to use some more special techniques here. Or oh well, SNOT isn't so special any more.

 I'm very happy with the front. Bigger and more triangular vampire teeth on the mudguards and some more teeth with bloody gums to add some horror feel. Plus completely unexplained odd turbine to block the view of the undead driver.

Because the original set included steampunk monster fighter Rodney Rathbone with his motorcycle, I decided to add Monster Hunter Aubrey Treesparrow Melledy from my previous steampunk figbarf with his special diesel motorcycle. It's equipped with augmented diesel tank, saddlebags, armored front and special floodlight to blind the pesky vampire.

-Pate-keetongu

Revamp: Onua

Ol' good Onua in one of the best Bionicle characters ever because of his unique hunchback look, fatherly appearance towards Lewa and damn cool claws.

I got the idea to this MOC from a bit older MOC of mine, Toa Samol. These characters shared the same short and stubby appearance, so I decided to use a very similar design especially on the torso.

It's not a full clone though. The chest armour is more organic. I used Core Hunter's pec armour plate to give Onua a more muscular look. I also put the gear things to his back to remind of the gear function of the original set.

The hand design is a bit similar than Samol's, it's based on BCth's Pohatu's hands. I used the newish bar-plate pieces I got from Lighting Dragon Attack to make the angled fingers. They are all poseable, a feature that original Onua didn't have.

The legs are rather thin, but I wanted to preserve the robotic look of the old Mata limbs. The HF shell is rather boring piece choice, but work quite well as the "inverted" leg shape that Gali and Onua had. It also balances the color scheme nicely.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Melville Blizzard XL

 First of all, I'm terribly sorry of the late time lately. I have had a lot of time with LEGO, but the weather outside has been rather terrible for some time so I hadn't got chance to take photos of my new creations... It was either rainy, or as in most of times, too dark. Usually when I arrive home from school sun has already set. I tried to took photos another day but they turned out rather bad. Luckily the weather was better today.

This Hero guy called Melville Blizzard XL (Yep, it's me doing HF MOC) is an older project from last summer. I tried different leg designs to HF sets to capture the coolness of ankle guards of 1.0 sets. It came up pretty well, but other parts of the MOC didn't and I abandoned the project. It laid on my Bionicle building desk for few months until I finished it on last weekend.

Aside the legs the build is pretty basic with some gimmicks on the torso and the shield. I'm rather happy with the colour scheme, blue, white and keetorange flow together nicely.

I'm not that happy with the thighs though, I wished to use a longer shell but I didn't have them on right colours. I originally used trans-yellow ones from Waspix but they didn't work that well. At least the visorak feet behind them make them a little bit beefier.

Stay tuned for more both Bionicle and SYSTEM stuff in the near future. I have another MOC photographed and I will post it during the following days.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Samus Aran

 Mixing Bionicle/HF with SYSTEM parts is quite fun, actually. After hours and hours of playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl with friend of mine I decided to build Samus Aran in her Power Suit from Metroid series.

The colours are wrong and I know it. I don't have enough orange so I changed it to red. In reference pictures, the lighter parts of the suit varied from yellow to tan, but I ended up building then in tan because I had more of that colour when it comes to parts that are useful in builds like that.  But hey, at least the weapon arm is dark teal!

The legs were rather easy to build, and I used one of my favourite pieces, Roborider connector block things. Luckily I had them in red and tan. Big round shoulders were quite challenging, but I'm pretty happy with the result. It's not that sturdy though, and limits the movement quite a lot. And yes, I still love those round HF armours.

The middle torso was another hard part and I did quite many different versions before it looked good enough. Curved arches are key parts here. The waist and middle body have ball joint in them, so the MOC can be easily balanced when putting on display. The dark red wedge piece here is a bit strangely coloured, but I didn't have any better opinions.

The gun arm was another challenge because of it's teal colour. Most of the pieces are from Tarakava (Early and fantastic Bionicle set). I did another version on dark green, but it was even worsen. And teal is beautiful!

-Pate-keetongu

Figbarf strikes back!

 It's figbarf time again! Sorry about the quiet time lately, I visited Berlin this week, and my visit obviously included some LEGO shopping from LEGO store (my first experience with PaB cups, now I have quite a lot of dark tan 2x2 tiles for example) and Mauerpark's great great flea market. But yes, the figs.

 The Pokerface, master gambler and Eco-activist. The Aztec warrior head matched quite well with Leprechaun's hat and they worked well with that awesome Western outlaw torso. It leaded to this fig. The Aztec head is very useful piece anyway, for example in camouflaged forestmen figs.

Infrantyman Browsnik, a steampunk space communist soldier. The old-style scuba helmet is funny piece because it can be used with many different headgears. The next fig belongs to same "Theme": Steampunk communists spreading their gospel of joint property across the galaxy.

 Colonel Karl-Marx Bodrikov, one of the leaders of Steampunk space commies' Mars Expedition. His enormous hat is an obvious sign of his high rank. The piece is from old Homemaker figs from 70'. I was excited when I discovered that it can be connected to scuba helmet. K-M is a cold-blooded supporter of communism (Something can be inferred from his name, too) and is ready to eliminate all the capitalistic alien races he finds (none so far).

 Dark Diesel, the dreadful lord of the Galactic Domain. As you probably have noticed, he is dieselpunk version of Dath Vader. I love the CMF Evil Robot's head and torso print, and it leaded to this fig. I'm quite proud of that helmet, it is surprisingly similar to Vader's helm.

 Ange-Pääg Mauser, mammal-like alien woman from outer space. Insectoid female head is quite an exclusive piece and it worked well with Man-Bats hair/earpiece. The purist blaster is not my design, but I don't have an idea who invented it.

I still have no idea who this last guy is. He used to be an underwater sheriff, but he seems to have growth a tail... I wonder if one can became a sheriff if he has a tail? Do you know? If you do not, ask you partner. If you don't have a partner, get one; You will need him or her before long.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Not at Home

 It's still 67 seven long days to Hobbit: Unexpected Journey's premiere (12.12.12 in Finland) and hype is killing me. I have read the book three times during the lasting year. This MOC is about the chapter Not at Home, where Bilbo and the dwarves venture out to Halls of Erebor when Smaug is away from his nest. Bilbo receives mithril armour, but is worried about the dragon coming back...

Another reason for building this MOC was the LUGBULK bricks I got on the summer. I bought quite lot of castle building elements, but didn't manage to use them before this. You can probably see it in the high quantity of Lbley 1x2 bricks, Lbey 2x2 tiles and Lbley 1x1 round bricks. Well, it can be said that those are the key parts of castle building.

Five of the thirteen dwarves are represented here. Two of them, Oin and Gloin maybe, are pretty much LEGO's fantasy era dwarves, but the other three, Dori, Dwalin and Balin, are more original figs. They have taken old armours from the halls and are now looking for weapons (Or treasures). Balin, the watchman, is standing with Bilbo at the doorway. Dori, who is the strongest of the company, is picking up more jewels to his huge packages. I'm especially happy with Balin: the Sensei Wu beard seems to fit with the breastplate quite well (It's rubbery material) and the roman helmet seems to work with it as well. 

-Pate-keetongu

Castle figbarf!

 These Castle figs are heavily inspired by Eurobricks' Guilds of Historica. I haven't had time to contribute that wonderful project myself, but it is obvious that it has really risen the level of castle MOCs nowadays.

Mister Burgindio, Duke of Birminboing, highly civilized and powerful man. Kingdoms wizard's legs made such a nice combo with the wonderful torso from Series 8's Actor. A simple fig overall.

 Narda, warrior woman from north. Viking woman/Gladiator legs combo isn't my original idea, but those pieces math together quite well. And who doesn't love old round shields? One of my favourite pieces! The Viking woman had some really good pieces for medieval minifigs, and now I wish I had picked up another one of them...

Bingur, a happy miner dwarf. This was pretty much an example of dwarf designs different from basic Fantasy Era dwarves (Which are cool nevertheless). Bingur has quite a big luggage, but dwarves are resilient folk. He always has to carry his axe as a counterweight for his bags, though! 

Qindoor, the enchantress. Rigorous but goodhearted, she's sought by many who need advice or salvation. Only few, if anyone, have ever seen her face which is always hidden behind a scarf. The idea of this fig was to use Alien Queen's cool two-piece cape with Genie's turban.

Blandor, the councillor of the king of Endylonia. Endylonia is well-known for its huge reservoir, and therefore it's not stinted of public officer's uniforms. Blandor takes his job very seriously, but not as seriously as others take his spectacular mustache.

Shyyla, Marshall of the military of Endylonia. She's master tactic, but has manner of including "Prostrating" on every attack plan. Because of that she's widely hated by enemies. But in other hand, she's "a mother to her troops". It can be said that she really divides the opinions... 

Jerbian, Jarl of Jourgard. He's malevolent, malicious, mischievous, hurtful, viperish, malignant and evil-minded. Someones also claim that he's nasty, bad, wicked, mean, catty, vicious or invidious, but there's no evidence for such a odd pretensions.

Who watches the Watchfigs?

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's Watchmen is one of the best books ever made. Some of these figs have been posted on the Internet before, but they are mostly new designs.

Edward Blake, The Comedian, in his patriotic leather armour. The blue shoulder armour is a helmet from Power Miners line, and the American stripe cloth on the other side is constructed using few parts. The visor is connected with 1x2 TECHNIC liftarm on the back. It's completely purist but not very stable. I very happy with the Collectable minifigures series 5 gangster head. It captures The Comedian's attitude quite well.

This Rorschach is my only unpurist fig ever made and I'm not very proud of it. I don't like drawing to bricks (even when it's just another ugly fantasy era skeleton head and the marker is water-soluble..) and the mask didn't come up very good. The white pattern on the torso is just a piece of paper slipped between the torso and the bandanna (Which represents the trench coat's collar, I hope it would be brown). Well, at least the trousers are correct color and the cleaver from series 6 butcher works quite well.

Laurie Juspeczyk, or Silk Spectre II, is quite simple design with couple of rubber bands. The bright-light orange torso (From hazmat guy) makes a nice difference with the skin colour, yellow. Head from series 6 flamenco dancer has the correct beauty spot.

Daniel Dreiberg, Nite Owl II, is simple as well. The old miner helmet has nice ears on it, but I'm not that happy with the goggles. Goggles printed on head could work better, but I don't have any proper goggle-heads. Head from GB team swimmer could work quite well. I'll probably pick up one from BL some day. Nite Owl's cool owl cape is quite impossible to make correctly with LEGO pieces, so I went for basic cape instead. I've also built Dan's Owlship couple of years ago, and modified it a bit some time ago (yesterday, actually) and I'm planning to take better pictures of it soon.

Doctor Manhattan is done with basic pieces and some hue help with Gimp. Basically naked blue superman has yellow legs, Sea King's torso and crash test dummy head. Crash test logo isn't a hydrogen atom, but it's close enough. An it's quite unlike that LEGO will ever do a head with hydrogen atom logo, isn't it?