Morak

 

This post is late, late for about 40 days. I built Morak for Prisoners of the Pit collab in January and posted it on Flickr and IG a month ago, but didn't have time for this blog post... and forgot about it. These first months of the year were quiet here last year, and this seems to be the case now too. I've been building just as before, though; working on both big and small projects. I have two other finished and photographed models, so it won't take long until the next post.

Now, Morak. Morak is a 2007 Bionicle set and Prisoners of the Pit was a 2007 Bionicle collab. Now, 2007 was a very good Bionicle year - it and 2001 were the best. I was 12 years old and joined several sites like Brickshelf and Eurobricks in 2007 (we had just got the Internet). Bionicle sets were cool aquatic ones, and the basic canister sets were different and unique - this was something new after years of colour-change clones and semi-clones! Thus '07 is a great root for re-imaging the sets. But instead cool beasts like Carapar and Mantax and Nocturn (well we had a Nocturn collab earlier too, as Nocturn is so popular) I ended up with Morak. Morak! I didn't even have Morak, at least didn't back in 2007. Morak doesn't even appear in the Bionicle story and is dull set with mediocre design; at least the colours are decent (except dark bley). I was so called late in the collab, and I was asked to make Sarda or Morak. Lache nailed Sarda, so I ended up Morak - which is good, because I had no idea for a dude like Sarda. I also though for a long that Sarda was the red one; luckily I was corrected in time (thanks Ari). 

 

I was suggested to make something akin to a snapping turtle. I mixed it with a pink salmon's big, hooked lower jaw, and constructed the head using opal pieces from a storybook set I reviewed for New Elementary a couple of years ago. Round staring eyes seem to be a continuing motif in my collab builds... Morak's shell continues into its back, hence the turtle inspiration. The legs use dark blue tongue windscreens, a great part that fitted well as a re-imagined visorak foot. The legs itself have more mechanic look. The biomechanic contrast is also presented in the cannon. Morak has a zamok launcher tail - a natural form of protection that inspired Mahri Nui matorans' mechanic (but identical) launchers. This was silly. I wanted Morak to be an animal with completely mechanical cannon in its arse, a real Bionicle of war. Its silvery colour enhances the colour contrast with the rest. The cannon part is a Dublo fuel canister I acquired recently, and the trans-orange air storage pumps up the colour scheme nicely. This is Morak.

Loafbuilds made the edit on the main image. He photoshopped me into a Bionicle in the foot reflection.

-Eero.