MOC: I Am A Mole

I turned the loo's taps to puke sewage!
I set Volmar's toupee to fire, sank his Corvette to the canal!
That's right: I am the postman of Job!
The prophet of the doctrine of unpositive attidude, yes!

I am the mole, scumbags!

Earthmover! Terminator!

Under your dwellings I shall dig my catacombs!

And I shall not wait for your invitations but I'll invite myself;

For your guest, for your blight, and your home is my castle!

Your kitchen into a Turkish sauna and customer in there!
So I sit on a freezer, ladling water to the stoves! Yes:
I nest in shallow waters!
I nest in shallow waters!

Ch.:

And now I'm having a Polaroid hidden in the ceiling...
A recorder behind a painting...
And harm watch will be harm catch!

And in those days one fellow raved the whole month about mammals...

After a hurricane snatches the furniture I shall eat the chosen bits 
of your lawn and the small feet groove all night...
And when "ring ring" says the phone inside the head
The ambulancemen don't say even that!
Buy this:

Ch.: 

And your mole goes:
And nests in shallow waters!
Rises out from your hot tub...
Now!

MOC: Superintendent Harkel

Here's another important Klaanon character after The Marionette, though this one does only have two Bionicle parts (matoran feet) and two TECHNIC pieces (Hole with a pin and a blue axle-pin). But yes, Superintendent Harkel of the Blue Cloaks Nui-Koro, the greatest village on the Island of Bio-Klaani, after the city grown around the Clan's fortress. Harkel's the cop of the village. Not the chief, no, and he once was suspended because his inquiries about the Mayor Tahae's tax avoidance crimes. Harkel's veteran cop, he has seen crime and knows his city (which is, by the way, already invaded by the Nazorak Empire).

But in reality, Harkel is a police moustache connected into a matoran. The moustache is important. The narrator loves it.

Harkel is a Po-Matoran and a large one. He has a black Faxon, Hahli Mahri's mask, which I built using SYSTEM pieces as Faxon is not available in black and Harkel's version differs from the underwater Mahri version. I'm very happy with the result. Harkel has a bit sad stare, almost beagle-like. He also has a cop helmet.

The main gimmick here - aside the moustache - is the blue cloack, Nui-Koro's Police Department's main symbol. It also has the crab badge, Hahnah crab being the signature animal of the village (in contrast to Bio-Klaani's silver ussal on blue background). I built the cloak very dramatically on one shoulder, covering the left arm. I'm very happy with it - I fortunately gathered some dark blue curved slopes from Bricklink a few months ago.

I also gave Harkel some police accessories. He has a stick, a badge (compass), and a "Wanted" poster of a mayor's mook. Alright, the mook looks quite a bit like a minifig, and those are not really bionicle letters, but anywhy... The handcuffs are too small for Bionicle figs so let's say it's pocket watch's chain.

In addition, here's a photos of two another Klaanon creations, built by friend "Snobie" using my parts - Blue Cloak's secretary Suflerly (Or Sulfrey?) and Gahlok Va (Some sort of a librarian gnome; Definitely not a half-bohrok).

-Eero

MOC: The Marionette

 To cease all of your suffering
A faceless doll of dread
The pale hand of the Crimson Man
Will drown your corpse in red

-Tarip the Rust-eyed/Gurvana

 The Marionette, the pale swordsman, is one and probably - just probably - the deadliest of The Puppets, six creepy servants - or, as they say, children - of Avde.

The White Hand of the Crimson Man is an important Klaanon... well, not character, but something. He - IT - has been around since 2010 or 2011, when it fought Ämkoo, who was still on Clan's side, cut his right arm off (it (the hand, not the Marionette) was later eaten by the tapir) and stole his sword Aeon and stole a shard of Nimda from Snowie (he didn't cut Snowie's arm of, because the big sissy was unable to fight back). Later on, he fought Matoro the Blacksnow (and Captain Notfun), cut Matoro's right hand off (he was able to fight back but didn't stand a chance) and nearly killed him anyway. The Marionette has never been beaten in a sword fight. Bullets swerve it. Missiled sweve it, if you pardon the stupid joke (which no one is going to understand anyway...).

And its mouth is on its left hand.

Yeah. A disturbing sort of fellow. The Ventriloquist was the first of the puppets I built. There as six in total; Four of them we have seen, or read about, properly.

  Mario was on a WIP stage for few months. The arms, upper torso and head came together quite easily, though the lower arms changed from regular ball joints into the smaller ones and more SYSTEM-oriented. HF torso armor was going to be used from the beginning, and the HF shells worked wonderfully to create the completely flat surfaces without any mechanical of biomechanical details. The inner upper leg is probably my favourite bit technically, with the t-bar-connected boat studs covering the one side of the Y-joint.

The legs turned out pretty thin. The Marionette denies most of the laws of physics (well, they are a bit different in the Klaanon universe anyway, though not as ridiculous as in the Bionicle canon) and walks on a water, it doesn't need legs strong enough to carry it. The knee joints are a bit loose, which gives the posing some real puppet quality. The feet could have had a bit better shaping, but 2x4 will do.

The sword is exactly the same to Ämkoo's sword Genesis; They are a pair. After losing Aeon to The Marionette, Ämkoo stole Genesis from his old master Atya's grave. I though it was natural to build them identical.


-Eero

MOC: Dwalin - Battle of the Five Armies

 Despite building Dwalin in his Battle of the Five Armies gear I'm not doing another series of the dwarves in their Erebor gear. Definitely not. I might (and will, and have already...) make some more spin-off-dwarf-stuff including stuff like Dain Ironfoot, but yeah, here's Dwalin, the bruiser, the muscle, Thorin's best buddy. The head is exactly the same than on the current travel gear version, but I copied it so these can be displayed simultaneously.

I do not know the exact reason for building Erebor gear version of Dwalin. Of course he is a cool character and has small yet important role on the last film, but I think I ended up building him because of the pieces available. I got 100 of those short chains for 9€ from Bricklink bulk store via member of our LUG during an exhibit at Imatra on February. I also got some olive green car hood slopes from LUG support bags and traded a few from my LUG members and then just began working on Dwalin, beginning with the upper torso and the shoulders (the amount of the chain enormous; 54 at the end)  and finishing with the boots and the axe, as usually.

The torso came out very nicely. It has tons of SNOT, and the shoulder connection is not very ideal (Two half-pins and half of an axle) but the finished model is quite sturdy. Dwalin has more depth than your average dwarf, which is ideal as he's the muscle of the group. The torso is solid and heavy, being full of brackets and SNOT bricks and layers of plates. Olive green cheese (thanks god it's cheap) and the car hood slopes ice the cake. Dwalin's mantle has a very pleasing colors, olive green and browns.

The arms were a bit problematic, but arm bands saves the shape of the lower arm; Another solution using 2x2 round tiles with holes and travis bricks, very cool pieces both of them. I came up with those when at work. Minifig legs work as elbow joints, just like on Ridcully and Bilbo. They are sturdy joint pieces and available in pleasingly wide array of colors.

The axe was very interesting. It is not so visible in the movies where the colors are not that bright, but according to Weta's Chronicles books the axe's blades are green stone native to New Zealand, so I ended up making it dark green. In addition to that, the shape is quite strange, having bars on 45 degree angles rather than 90 degrees. I fiddles with it a long time and finally found a solution using travis bricks, bars with clips and, as the seed parts, magnifying glasses; Clips attach nicely to their edges. The result is quite cool, if you don't mind me saying.

-Eero

Juts because: The Warriors of the Northern Wilderland

I just realized I hadn't taken any cool group shots of the "Northern Akamai Gang" of Klaanon (Korpraun, Muothka and Ursanga). So here's some.

-Eero

Super important Klaanon stuff: Solid Snowman

 Well, hello... This isn't really a new MOC nor old MOC revamp, as the MOC itself is pretty much same than the previous version (Ball joint on neck has been changed into a white one) but this has some important accessories; headband, scarf and shoulder bag, as requested by the character's creator. At least to ones who have read Klaanon (multi-author giant novel thing, in progress) these garments define the character.

The only interesting building technique used here is the strap of the shoulder bag. Dark brown 1x1 round bricks have been put on a LEGO string, which is simply squeezed between the plates on the bag. Simple, effective and 100% purist.

This post also features a pose with Snowie's friend Kepe. They are, as the TvTropes page suggests, "Non-action hetero sexual life partners" and such lovable characters.

-Eero

Old MOC Revamp: Matoro the Blacksnow

This seems to became a "Old MOC Revamp" month... But be no afraid, I have new project under construction too, and some of them are 95% finished. But until then, I have some old revisited Klaanon characters.

This is Matoro "The Blacksnow", who could said to be the main character of Klaanon. At the beginning of the story he was an eager hero looking for adventures. He has become "darker and edgier" since them, after fighting Makuta Abzumo at a falling cathedral sphere airship with a black heart using one of the shards of Nimda, a powerful artifact with massive mind powers. He also lost his right (i guess) hand when fighting the dreadful Marionette (Coming soon!), one of Avde's puppets.

On his left hand Matoro now has a six-hooked harpoon. Especially at the first half of the story Matoro's harpoon was an important plot element, causing many daring escapes and unexpected (well, not really) survivals. In his right hand he has a mind-sword generated using a shard of Nimda.

And yes, the creation. The old version is here. When I saw "Kopaka, Master of Ice" for the first time, I knew the mask would look great on Matoro. Of course the old Akaku is a true classic, but the round shape didn't look that good on Matoro, and his mask isn't Akaku but Kanohi Cencord, prototype mask of mind in the story anyway (with added telescopes). New Akaku has a lower brow which makes it look edgier, a fitting detail with Matoro's character development during the story.

I also bulked up the shoulders, re-designed the torso armor and made some tweaks on the limbs; Boat studs make excellent back armor to Ben10 limbs with T-bars, by the way. I also gave Matoro brick-built hand to allow more diverse posing.

-Eero

Old MOC Revamp: Samus Aran

Good morning and good May Day/First of May/Walpurgis night (morning)! Today is time for another post on the "old MOC revamp" series, this time on a bit bigger magnitude. 

I built Metroid heroine Samus Aran in her Zero Suit back on Christmas 2013. So it was built on a shelf or a desk for 16 months, gradually evolving, as most of my MOCs do. It's (her? Anyway..) first exhibit was Leiki LEGOilla 2014 on Imatra. The MOC was stored in a glass vitrine, and it had to lean on a wall with the taser gun to stay up. The upper torso was terribly designed on the inside, and the head was so loose that it kept exploding all the time; I gathered its pieces from the floor dozens of times. The upper arms were painful too, having extra joint below the shoulder due to use of HF shells. At least the legs and the lower torso were quite good.

I began with reworking the upper arms using 3x3x3 cones (wonderful pieces, ideal shape), though it took some time to get two in dark blue (now I have four five or six) and blue steering pseudo-ball joints, which were tricky to get too. The same design was used with rather good results on original Qwena and later on Alina and Kira. The shoulder friction isn't the best possible, but it looks so much better than Y.joints with black tyres, trust me. Boat studs (another lovely piece) give it some shape and sturdiness. 

The second thing to got under construction was, after a few months, the upper torso. The old version with HF chest plate and tyres around Bohrok sausage legs was not good. It was loose, connected to the lower torso wia half a friction pin (yep...) and was a bit of a mix of colors; Too much black, mostly. I reworked the whole section, making the neck connestion with a SYSTEM bricks and giving the shoulders some shape without odd colors connecting those Rahkshi heads with (gasp!) hidden rubber bands nudged between them and a 1x2 liftarm inside; Super sturdy. The back also had now better connection points for those pink power emblems and the shaping looked way more natural and flowing. I also recall building the base at that time to allow better and more importantly stabler posing. That version went to Leiki LEGOilla 2015 on February, but I don't have any photo evidence as the MOC was behind a glass and hard to photograph.Well, alright, it can be seen on a background here - That's me (left) presenting the dwarves to Matti Kortelainen.

So, back on February, I pondered whether I should photograph this one and post it revamped online. But I didn't. Probably because it it damn dark in Finland on February; and mostly because I still didn't like the head.

Then, on last Wednesday, I was at work, at the Police Department's garage's furniture storeroom, where I read/think/listen to music/doodle around the half of my working time, and I though that heck, I'd like build an another female character; Probably with a similar head than on Kira, as it's eyes turned out well. I doodled a bit and though that I could try to make eyebrows using black T-bars (which I have none so far, but a lot ordered from LUGBULK). Back at home I started building, but ended up using brown minifig hands as a eyebrows instead (T-bars were too big and robust). And then a though occured in my mind - the head would look perfect on Samus, with bright green eyes and all. I also managed to squeeze it from 11 plates to 10,5 plates in width; The small but critical difference that allowed me to give Samus 1 stud wide lips using dark red 1x1 round brick with hole; I knew those would be a good buy from Bricks&Pieces. The expression is a bit surprised due to the distance between the eyesbrows and the eyelashes; But if somebody thinks the batarang was better, I have to disagree.

I broke the original head by accidentally dropping it to the floor. It exploded.

The ponytail is pretty much the same, but the rest of the head is around 250% sturdier than the old one, the hair flows more naturally and the bananas made a lot better fringe than the random yellow bits used on the old one. The neck connection is also more trustworthy and doesn't have the odd dark bley bracket. On the whole, it turned out rather nice.

There are more photos at the end of this post. They turned out quite light (medium!) blue, because I took them against the setting sun; It was either rain on sunlight yesterday. But they don't look bad as Zero suit is lighter on shade than TLG's regular blue. I might take another set later with different light, but here's a pretty good mix of angles and poses too. None of them are supported by anything - the base allows some neat one-leg action posing.

-Eero