Furno 1000

I don't like Hero Factory much. I was bit too old back in the day to have actual childhood awe on them, though I obviously bought many sets for parts and liked some of the designs (especially on the Breakout wave). This didn't stop me from taking part on a Finnish Ordeal of Fire collab on Pii Poo Helsinki event last August. In the end, we chose not to do a simultaneous collab post, which makes this model isolated from its original context; but I'm posting this now anyway.

Ordeal of Fire was the premiere of CCBS system. The heroes had similar asthetics, sharing the helmet piece with different add-on from cowcatchers to eye scopes. 2065 Furno 2.0 was a relatively uninteresting design, with funny goggles being its most distinct feature. In addition, he has a Swiss army knife -style shield weapon. I learned during the build process that the heroes were equipped with ice weapons to fight the fire-themed villains, and we agreed to feature them in the models. Thus, the ice shield and the goggles were my starting points. 

This was a fast build, really a last-minute creation before the exhibit. I wanted to differiantiate heavily from the original set as I didn't like it or own it; I also dislike the basic concept of Hero Factory as it's quite dystopic. I did see no reason for Furno to look very human-like; I wanted it to be alien and twisted; and I found myself leaning bit to Gollum and asymmetry, emphasising some mechanical details. I've always liked the Breakout launcer piece, and a pair of them formed the lower legs. Another HF classic, the rounded pauldron, found its way to the kneecaps and the shoulder armour of the free hand - mirrored by a Technic figure helmet on the shield arm.

The head was the defining part, and I used some System here to form the face under the goggles. The goggles themeselves are based on those flat silver Batman accessories I acquired for my first Parts Festival in New Elementary in 2019. Originally, the neck connection was more twisted, featuring a very hunched pose. It somehow went to far, making no sense in the robot context, so I changed it into more modest design, closer the to original. The shield weapon is a simple combo of two parts, Gelu's blade and Breakout Furno's armour. I've always like these parts: The blade has a striking shape, with its colour contrasting nicely with the reds, and the yellow print on the armour calls back to the yellow face. In hindsight, some additional yellow details on the limbs would have worked.

-Eero.

Cordelia

I built this MOC to accompany my New Elementary review of two Dreamzzz sets. I had two options - either use those new scuba helmet/mech torso halves for something dieselpunk-like, or simply answer the call of my soul and build something with those interestingly shaped dark purple and magenta pieces. I chose the latter, as I had another set with those halves to review.

The first part I made were the boots, featuring this neat lacing made of cattle horns. The set included five of them, but I luckily had some more, enabling a decent design. The boot caps use D-SNOTs - another use for those fabulous parts. The more interesting (and challening) part use on the legs is the mega macaroni tube of the upper leg. I used those pieces already on my new Zero Suit Samus to capture curved human shapes. Here, they are used differently, on the actual limb. In real life, human thighs are not sausages with 45 degrees curve; but the dress allowed me to hide the problematic concave, thus leaving only the slight convex visible. It's not so different from slight curves of human leg muscles, even though the bone inside is obviously straight.

The rest evolved upwards. The colours suggested something like a gothic Mary Poppins, or an average con-visitor. Magenta rock pieces made a nice vibrant frill, and the theme continues to the striking layer of spike pieces above it. The lacing of the corsetry uses hands from Dogan minifig, as Dogans are so common in this wave of Dreamzzz sets.

Another challenge emerged when I returned to dark purple. I again wanted to use macaroni tubes, this time the middle-sized version, to make human shapes: the shirt emerging from the dress. The ones on the bust have no issues, and I like the Victorian flair of the printed piece below the neckline. However, the ones in the shoulders change the basics of my figure making: while achieving the nice rounded curve of the shoulder, they also turn the shoulder joint 45 degrees downwards. This caused some irks when posing, but I managed to play along.

The hairstyle that uses Dizzie's hairpieces and Never Witch's swirly base pieces was part of the initial idea. I'm quite happy how it turned out, giving the challenges of connecting pieces designed for minifigure looks instead of system requirements. The upwards curve of the swirly bases give this character a sort of brisk style I usually look for when building. As a side note, the medium nougat 1x2 double slope is one of the best recent recolours; this is the first time I use one.

The model was completed with the umbrella, as accessories like this make the posing funnier. I considered some musical instruments, but this seemed like a fresh idea. I'm particularly happy with the petal piece under the strap, and a shepherd's staff is used again inside the ribbed hose to give it the tightly curved shape.

-Eero.

Samus Aran (3)

 After finishing the Zero Suit of the last post, I dug up my Power Suit Samus from 2016 to take some comparison shots. The model is one of myt most popular ones, and I had felt that it was still technically up-to-date. Well, after 8 years, it was not. I though of doing just some minor tweaks here and there with new orange and yellow and red pieces introduced after 2016. I the end, there are no major bits that would have left untouched. Hand, perhaps, and the shoes have only black axles changed into yellow ones. The structure (or "frame" as mech builders like to put it) is still relatively same as before. The only joint type I changed is the elbow joint, which got a double joint with more mobility. As in 2016, this is based on the Other M / Smash Power Suit, as I like its robust round shapes. 

The legs are mostly smoother and made more elegant, and the hip area follow the original more closely. The shoulder pads enjoy some fresh pieces, although lot of the structure stayed as it was. The main construction of the cannon remains the same, while its ends are closer to the source materia. The rings are, of course, Clickits. The other arm was reshaped, ditching the CCBS shell with its ill-fitting infill.

The heaviest changes are in the yellow torso, the breastplate and the helmet. The torso has now more muscular shape, using many pieces that simply didn't exist 8 years ago. The breastplate is lighter than before, and this is a bit of a compromise - I just liked the pattern made of round macaroni tiles much, and had to conjure a supporting structure with enough connection points around it. It could be thicker, but I hope the issue is not too glaring. I'm happy with the new helmet, enabled by the red shoulder pads from the rose bouquet set. How chamberpot-like the old one looked! It also had some stability issues. However, I retained its best parts, the lever-connected tubes and the the general shaping of the visor.

 This was quite a relaxed intermission build between other projects. Samus has such a nice colour scheme - I wish more video game heroes were this vibrant. And it's indeed just the right scale with my new Zero Suit, as visible in some pictures in the end.

-Eero.

Zero Suit Samus

 This MOC was built for a New Elementary article on two Dreamzzz sets, Logan the Mighty Panda and Zoe's Cat Motorcycle. The cycle's influence is small (it's apparent mostly in the buttocks, obviously) but the seed part used was the new 3x3 maxi macaroni parts that form the curves. I'm not explaining it very thoroughly here, as I've written about it in the New E article. Simply put, this model is more statuesque that usual, as it's built for a specific pose, and even though there are some joints, it's not really an action figure. It's nice change from all the poseable figures.

Some readers probably remember my old Zero Suit Samus models, the original from 2013 and the edited version from 2015. Somehow, back in the day, I couldn't really build a decent face. It never worked! 10 years in and some development has happened. Makes me wonder what 2034 will bring. Anyway, I've been playing ZSS lately in SMash, and this was my first idea with those blue curved pieces. Interestingly, the tradition blue is one of my least used Lego colours. There are simply so many blue hues.

The model is based on The Other M figure by Max Factory. I like its determined stance with the wind-swept ponytail and long legs. While this duplicates those aspects quite faithfully, I consciously made the spine less twisty and the body more muscular. Samus sure has build some muscles during her adventures. I'm particularly happy wih the dark blue "tongue" windscreens on the upper legs and the transitions between blue, dark blue and medium azure on the legs.

I also built Samu's taser pistol as it appears on the figure. I'm not interested in weapons, and this took many trials and errors to get right. The first versions were mostly flat silver, but I ended up mixing in some metallic silver to get to use Power Miners armour piece. I like how the metallic shine contrasts with the blue bodysuit. This is also my first model that uses those new finger pieces. I think the match the sleek skin-tight garment quite well.

After finishing this model, I also reworked my Power Suit from 2016, as it was accidently in the same scale. I'll post it soon, but until then, there's a small sneak peek on the end of this post.

-Eero.