MOC: Hands of Blue

Two by two.

Hands of Blue. 

 Superhuman Nazorak agents? Yes. Horror story material? Yes. Obvious Firefly reference? Pretty much. Actually more like Men In Black? I'd say. Hands of Blue, Nazorak units 019 and 020, (I'm not sure which one this is... Probably I should build another one) are known for their matte black armor and weird technology on their mechanical blue hands. They can swipe memories, move things telepathically and emit ultraviolet lights. This MOC is actually capable of the last one!

Hands of Blue have been in Klaanon for years, but somehow I hadn't managed to build them until now. The main motivator behind this was getting a grip of UV led technology. See gifs at the ends of this post! The hands have strong blinking blue leds. How?

INIKA Technologies!

I opened couple of Inika swords with blue lights with a small screwdriver, removed the electronics and built a little structured around them. They have little rubbery pieces that work as a switch. I placed them in the holes of 1x2 TECHNIC bricks, and they are operated by pushing an axle through the hole. The light makes trans-light-blue ball socket pieces illuminate very vividly. The frame is a bit fragile, as the circuits have no actual connection points, but they stay intact if handled tenderly.

Other than the arms, this MOC isn't groundbreakingly revolutionary. The bohrok head shell on the chest reminds of General 001's officer armor, but otherwise the shapes are sleeker and lighter. Additional ankle joint is used to enhance insect feel. I'm very happy with the head; Hands's faces are covered with black visors, and their eye sockets are empty; I think Slizer head represented that well. Mantibles are a bit less aggressive than on General and Chima spider legs are used again as antennae.

-Eero

MOC: General 001

 Yes, I'm alive!

Even though it's pretty damned cold in here! But I prevail!

I haven't been posting much (anything) this year (hey, it's been only 17 days...). There have been several reasons: Foremost I landed on a new job at the beginning of the year. It's not a proper job, the state pays me a bit and I work 6 hours a day, but at least I work at art department of folk high school (or something...). I do handyman stuff and help on children's art classes; I've been studying there for 8,5 years myself.

So I have had a bit less time available than last year. But that's not the only problem! It's bloody cold out there. Haven't been less (more?) than 10 degrees minus (Celsius) for two weeks! And it has been more 30 degrees minus for several days; For dear readers not familiar with the glory of SI system, that's -22 Fahrenheit. Temperature like that makes the brick connections odd; They don't really like to stay together, but they are hard connect again, too. So I never take that many shots during there freezing conditions.

But yes, the MOC! This is from Klaanon, Finnish multi-author Bionicle-ish novel project. General 001 is one of the main antagonists, probably THE main antagonist of the "war plot". He's the commander of the Nazorak, war-monging Rahi species that stands for purity, Na Zora. They were developed from villains of old, abandoned indie game project Guardian Versus Nazi Roaches. The character has developed from those times.

General was based on some Klaanon artwork, but I also took some liberties. Pearl dark grey (gunmetal) pieces were where I began, using Bohrok faceplate as the chest armor and KK2 pauldrons. The rather simple legs were built in a minute or two, but the arms took more effort; they were the most redesigned part of this. They use bits of the arms of Clam-type heavy diving suit from my Novo Atlantis creation; That mech's arms were originally built with 001 in mind. I though the padded gloves had sort of "officer feel" in them. The same effect was used on a bit less pivotal General  Nurukan last month. 2x2 round jumper tile is used here to add stability to the wrist connection.

The middle torso was another hard bit. I wanted it to be a bit longer than on average humanoids, and it had to have two small arms on it - Nazoraks have four arms. They are a bit smaller than the should be, but I didn't come up with any better solutions. I guess they are alright. But I'm very happy how the claw/wing pieces work with the Bohrok shell; Those pieces are wonderful!

General is an old warrior and fight with a traditional officer cutlass and a pistol. I tried to make the sword using one of many Bionicle weapon pieces, but there weren't any good ones - They're always too complex and biomechanical. So I went with a simple but effective SYSTEM solution using tiles and a curved slope. The gun, in other hand, (pun not intended) was simple; The shape was pretty much same all the time, though it went throught couple of different versions before settling in this one.

Next up an another Nazorak creation! What then, I don't know - I have several projects as always, but photographing them won't be easy... Until next time!

-Eero