Klaanon-MOC madness: General Gaggulabio

 I spent few summer days with a friend and Klaanon-writer known as Snowman building the Klaanon characters that lack MOC art. This one is General Gaggulabio, a Skakdi leader who fought in Zakazian Civil War and later joined in the forces of Alliance, an evil league of evil (well, that's matter of perspective anyway) to destroy Bio-Klaani.

Gaggulabio is sort of a lovable fat-head bad guy straight from Saturday morning cartoons. He is an ex-baker. The etymology of the name might suggest something, but I'm not going to say more about it. He has a tall white hat and his broadsword is named Galmanlabio. General also smokes a lot Xian cigars (and also Steltian ones when he's out of Xians, but theyre cheap crap anyway). His armor (that has belly extension) has blackened over the years due to smoke and tar.

Gaggulabio was sort of a collaboration build. The jaws were made by Snowie (well, with my parts) for Zaiggera, a female Skakdi lieutenant. The jaws looked a bit too fat-headed, and we though they would be perfect for Gaggulabio, so I built the head and the rest of the MOC around it. The head is supposed to look a bit like Garai-head I used on Warrek with some more comedic elements. The black pieces are eyebrows, not eyes; the trans-orange cheese slopes are the eyes.

The limbs are very basic stuff. I wanted them to have ape-like proportions and very flat feet, as Gaggulabio is definitely not an agile fighter; he relies more on brute strenght, and when possible, on sending his minions to do the job. He hasn't fought a single time during the Klaanon yet.

And yes, he's riding a track-cat known as Muaka, just because track-cats are gorram cool.

-Pate-keetongu

Steampunk figbarf: Vapour-powered Hulabaloo

 Don't let the stupid title confuse you, this is just an ordinary barf with some Victorian steampunk oddballs. Enjoy!

Private Mark "Gingerbeard" Haystett, who later became a famous war author, was an unaknowledged war hero who never surrended despite losing his right leg. The darkness of the trenched left their terrible mark on his mind, but unlike to the most veterans, Haystett succeeded to express his feelings in his books.

 Lady Steaphanie Crimwall is higly stylistic woman and master trainer of hunting falcons. She is an old friend of Ms. Windmill, the Prime Minister's wife, and her fiery nature has quite lot of power in the byrocratic machinery of the state.

 Captain Ferdinand B. Bohrman is a airship pirate leader who pillages (mainly "bad men") under the blessing of the state. He is famous of huge elaborated brass pipes he uses to smoke. Bohrman is also skilled engineer and self-made man.

 Celaine Nanborne is dyed-in-fool adventurer and experienced jungle trekker. She definitely knows how to hunt, how to repel the mosquitos and what materials to use to build a river raft. Her aim is to show the world the individuality of European woman.

ps. The coat idea, using two short capes, was stolen from dieselpunk Sherlock Holmes MOC - but gorramit can't remember who that was. Please note if it's yours!

EDIT: That was A Plastic Infinity - And a good chap he is.

Nicholas "Superbobby" Franrike is the secret powerhouse of Brassport's Police Department.  With his badass bluecoat, brass chest armor and vapour gun to smash riots, Superbobby is capable to beat any criminal in free brawl. Usually his friendlu muttonchops moustache is enough to make the marauders surrender.


-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Brenda

This MOC is a good example of a creation that evolved throughout the progress. In the end it turned out to be Brenda, artistic sort of gal from steampunked Victorian times. I had had a pair of brown thighs sailing around the Bionicle table for few months, and I was planning to make another steampunk girl like Qwena at some point, but it would have deemed some Bricklink orders and I didn't get bothered. Then, after four days of entrance examinations for architecture department in Aalto University in Helsinki (or well, Espoo, but it's same city in the matter of perspective of a man who has lived all his life in North Carelia), I went to a shop, burned 17€ from gift card I got as a graduation gift (if that is a correct word - It's the finishing of Finnish upper secondary school, including a hat that looks like sailor's cap) and bought CHI Laval. It was the first constraction set I've bought for three years. I don't buy lots of sets (excluding Collectable Minifigs) expect when they are on clearance and constraction sets rarely are in Finland. Don't know why.

On the train way back I sketched some concept art (on the left). The exams were art-based, drawing, planning and building, so I had quite a good arsenal of drawing stuff with me, so it is even partly colored with some promarkers (I used them on Porco Rosso -themed diorama in the exams). The idea was to use the new (juniorized? But then again, are big plated juniorized? It's a cool piece!) Chima armor on female figure with brown trousers and the new armor add-on pieces on knees.

When I arrived back home I started to build the thing. Lots of people seem to complain that the new armor has too few (well, one) connection points, but I thought one ball socket was fine. The old thighs looked too big though, so I replaced them with design similar (but not identical) to one on Karmenna and Toa Ruki. The new armors worked well on the knees, and I also used those cool printed shells. The boots are somehow similar to Floresta's.

The arms are quite simple, and the design fortunately uses no throughout hole ball joints (I'm going low on them, but I'm getting 200 more later this summer). The head is quite similar to Qwena's with a bit different eyes in sake of individualism (yeah really). Those are a big pair of eyelashes. The hair is quite surprisingly colored trans-neon orange. It is not supposed to be on fire; it's just dyed very brightly orange. There are several reasons to it. Firstly, those pieces, claws and the new-ish flame, were shaped quite nicely for a hair, and I hadn't seen them used like that before. Secondly, they were another pieces from CHI Laval, so there is a sort of a motif there... And thirdly, those pieces were lying on the table, and that is probably the most important reason.

There is also a accessory belt with all kinds of cool stuff, bags and tools and optical tools and a globe. Then there is the hat, which was really the turning point on the progress. I wanted to build sort of a cap or beret, and it looked very artistic. So, the consequences were logical: I built a painting and a stand for it, plus a brush and a palette, likely inspired by the exams I had. The stand is quite simple - it was brown at first but I didn't have enough brown tiles - but I'm very pleased with the painting, especially the raven on it. Plus everyone likes SYSTEM accessories and scenery on Bionicle MOCs, right?

Photographing this MOC was Hell. Literally. It was not about the MOC, no! You know, the Finnish summer. Warm days, no sunsets (in the north) and the air is full of gorram mosquitoes. To be honest, I spend two thirds of the photographing time thinning out the mosquito population. I had a hoodie on for protection, but my forehead wrists were full of swellings. Somebody could say that buying a light tent could be an idea, but damn... Not this day!

-Pate-keetongu

Ps. There's lot of more photos on Brickshelf.

MOC: Father Bartax

Here's some music for this MOC. Kaukana kavala maailma!

Father Bartax is one of the holy fathers of Athism, one of the religions on Klaanon. Bartax is acrid and bitter. Seen death of his friends and fall of his temple in hands of vicious Makuta Abzumo, Bartax has in manner of speaking turned into the dark side. He has committed murders, burned ancient texts and destroyed the most important holy place of his people.

This MOC was a simple building piece between bigger projects to make an image of this particularly character. The color scheme of red and black was original MNOG thing for Ta-Matorans and looked evil enough. Noble Matatu has always had such a grim look and the red rubber band strenghtened that feeling (and also creates a connection to Oracle's mask). The torso uses mini-torso from HF sets; That piece seems to enjoy lots of love in Eurobricks, but this is the first time I have used it. The ball connection to neck is terrible with Bionicle heads. So, Bartax has a terrible hunchback that acts as bishop's cape.

There were more photos, but they turned out bad due to dozens of little blood-sucking buggers flying around; more of them later.

-Pate-keetongu

MOC: Toa Tawa (Version fourty-five or something)

I posted the previous version of Toa Tawa (the founder and leader of Bio-Klaani in Klaanon) on last September, but here's another one fresh from the building table. I have build quite a lot versions of this character. I believe it is due to Tawa being an important character and, more pragmatically the color scheme being so damn tricky. The shoes are the biggest change here - nobody never liked those out-of-color scheme metru feet anyway. In my opinion the new ones are lot better than the old ones, though these are a bit too high-heel-like. Alright, the sole is very solid and thick. I would have made them lower, but that seemed quite a impossible in two-stud wide custom shoes with sideways (or whatever) ball socket.

As the legs became a bit longer, I reworked the torso and made it two studs taller. It was very tricky to get the shapes right there, as there is not many purple and yellow bionicle parts (And purple has been out of production for years). But I think I managed to achieve the shape quite well. In this version the proportions are more human.

There are also some other little tweaks. The limb fillings are a bit more aerodynamic, there are some flippers to cover some holes and the knee joints have those traditional joint dishes. Banana armor and and the red admin-stone are still there, of course.

-Pate-keetongu