Toa Voya
Jan 11, 2009 11:49:21 GMT -5
Post by Madaraki on Jan 11, 2009 11:49:21 GMT -5
Didn't see anyone else here doing this, and while I imagine other people have done it and have galleries on Brickshelf, I figured it'd still be fun. Really, I've had these seven guys assembled for almost a year now. I just never really got around to actually posting them until this point. Some of them have undergone upgrades, although I will say now that you might have seen a few of them in a non-MOC thread at one point or another.
So after that ginormous image, the question emerges: Why Toa Voya? To answer that, I noticed that the majority of the Matoran teams seem to have a habit of showing up in Toa incarnations. The Inika were once Matoran, and even the Metru Nui Matoran had their own alternate timeline in the books where they briefly became Toa themselves. That being the case, I figured Garan, Balta, Piruk, Kazi, Velika, and Dalu would need their own moment of glory.
So that said, the first two to make an appearance here are Balta and Piruk. Why put them both in the same area together? They're the simplest in construction. I really liked the built of the Toa Hagah, especially Iruini. The only problem I had was that I really didn't like the gear-arm function of the Toa Metru. The inward slant of the arm holes and whatnot just bothered me.
Link'd due to size
So, how do you fix that?
Like this. Use the correct angle connector inside the torso with ball-joints at the shoulders and the pieces shown on the upper arm, and you can easily keep the form, without the gimmick. Does that mean I dislike all gimmicks/action features? Hardly. I'm just not a fan of how the gear-arm in the Toa Metru severely restricted that area's poseability. Also, the Toa Voya were largely flavor-designed as it was.
The weapons on Balta are admittedly flavor-based here. I figure it's sort of an unwritten law that Fire Toa must have fire swords. At the same time, I felt like drifting away from that a bit, so I went with the odd twist of "What if we have a Fire Toa who happens to be afraid of fire?" That in mind, Balta's primary weapons are the two shields he uses, both in melee combat, and -when he uses the fire spinners on them- to keep something between the fire and himself as a defense. The mask was an easy choice. Of the two gold masks in that shade of the color, he looked too much like a taller Lhikan with the Kanohi Hau.
Piruk's another story. With the mask, I'd originally thought of him as being a Toa version of Nidhiki, since the Kaulsi's forward-jutting edges to look sort of like Nidhiki's little mouth launcher. In the end though, I found out Nidhiki had a different mask altogether, and still kept that one on for Piruk. I like the look of it. The weapon...was pure fun. I'd noticed the minute I got them that the Keelerahk pincers looked a lot like scythe blades, and the idea of a whirling scythe like that was too fun to pass up.
Anyway, hopping ahead here, we reach Dalu. Yes, her body design is glaringly different from Balta and Piruk. Two Hagah style bodies were enough in this case, and in the storyline, all the Matoran on Voya Nui are mutated/have different forms already. I figured their Toa incarnations should at least reflect that somehow, hence Dalu having all those blades/fins on her.
Of course, a set with a custom body design does sort of mean that a "How's it look underneath?" shot is required. I wish I could tell you just what I had in mind when I designed it, but all I was really thinking was "Okay, so what do I add on between a neck socket, shoulder area, and waist joint...that gives it all about the right height for the arms and legs to match?
Oh, and a back view of how the design went.
Weapon and mask-wise, I had to debate for quite a while. Gali Nuva's mask just didn't look right, and Gali Mata's mask was obviously used. I didn't have Nokama Metru, and her Turaga mask just looks ridiculous. So why Axon's? The color fit, and it's even got a shark fin on top. The weapons were also interesting. I didn't want her to just be listed as using her fins, so I eventually went with the two flatsowrds found on Lesovikk's vehicle. They've got a nice flat shape to them that seems to work.
Kazi's next, and probably has the most glaring design bit going for him. He was always an unposeable little freak of nature as a matoran, so I went with "It's because he's armored to hell band back!" as an excuse.
Takanuva's Ussanui came in handy for the silver parts here, and Kazi's using all six of them. The chestplate I must say, was especially fun. It's a huge skull-like thing and I always wanted to use it as armor somehow.
Of course, such things require the obligatory "How's he look underneath?" shot. Yeah, he's rather shrimpy looking without it, and unfortunately the hip/upper leg armor also holds his two halves together. It took me a while to get him balanced there. Like Dalu, he's a case of "How can I make parts A and B connect with C and merge with D?"
The mask oddly enough, was no problem here. The silver Avohkii that come with Teridax (hands) fits the bulky look of the armor nicely, and after all the "icy juggernaut" stuff here, I had to use Axonn's axe weapon, split in two, to give him a nice weapon lineup.
Ah yes, Velika. You might've seen him a while ago when I did that weapon commentary on the Zamor Rifle/Bandolier. Not much to say about him here, really. Unfortunately I didn't have enough of the right tan/brown parts, and ended up having to go with yellow. Still, I'll concede that it's better than orange in this case.
The body design was also rather fun. I'd just gotten Dekar and liked the way the shoulder area connected with the head and chest armor. Obviously, I had to try such a thing on a Toa scale and I think it worked out nicely.
Weapon wise, since his axe is a bit more odd looking than just sticking two usual pieces together, you get a bonus breakup shot of it. The idea of the blade curving down in front of the rest of the handle like that is admittedly based off of one of Gimli's weapons in Lord of the Rings. Not much to say on the mask choice. I originally had him wearing Dekar's yellow one, but after the shoulder armor, chest armor, and feet came into design, I decided to give him a matching color for the mask.
Finally among the primary six; Garan. Looks odd right off, doesn't he? He's probably my favorite of the primary six Toa Voya just because of how the body design flows. Oddly enough, for a Toa of Earth, he doesn't have too much black to his design. He's more dark grey/metallic grey than anything. Looking back I think he spawned off from me attempting to use Hewkii's metallic grey parts with Nuparu's dark grey or something. Anyway, it worked nicely here. I really like the "flares" design of his lower legs with the Nuva armor too.
(Sorry for the blur, I'll try and get a better shot up later today.)
Design-wise on the body, this was one of my first "toa without a toa's body" designs, and I'm pelased to say that I think it was a success. I've got two Metru arm pieces in there as the primary connection points, and miscellaneous other pieces finish the connections nicely. Also, it nicely flows with the shape of the chest armor.
Why use a Kraakhan for the mask? It looks better than the Ruru (which I might add, makes very nice looking shoulder-armor). The weapons were especially fun here too. The oversized claw arm is again, a case of the Matoran's mutation carrying over into toa form, and the mace & chain was a design I wanted to try out for something immediately after noticing that Hewkii Mahri's "kneepads" each had half a chain-connector at their base.
Now, do take note that I said "six primary toa". I figure the Metru initially had Lhikan, the Mata/Nuva/Phantoka/Mistika/Power Rangers Toa Force got Takanuva and Ignika, so I figured I might as well give the Toa Voya their own "seventh toa".
Remember Kulag?
Yeah, he'd originally been bronze with a Kaulsi, but the Kaulsi was overused, and the bronze wasn't going with the weapons, so we've got a shiny silver toa with lots of swords.
The body, I admit, is near-standard Metru with the same arm hookups as Balta (It took me a while to get the capes and chains positioned right...apologies for lack of interior shot) The two cape pieces on him came from the two Vezon & Fenrakk sets I have, and I must say that they really help the appearance. The lower arms...I used the old Throwbot/Slizer arms for. They still have the same elbow flexibility, and then some. You see, I figured if I was going to pile him high with all those weapons,
I wanted his arms to be flexible enough to reach any of them. Of course, the arms looked shrimpy, but the two staff heads there fix the problem rather nicely.
Also, I'm especially happy with how the chain belt/sash came out. How'd I get that much chain?
1x Karzahni
2x Vezon & Fenrakk
2x Hewkii
So yeah, that's not even half the chain pile I have.
Obviously, he trick with Kulag here was figuring out his element. While the mask (plot-wise) is carved as a Hau, I'd decided on another Kanohi, the mask of Memory, that allows the users to "see" the memories of anything he/she touches at will. It made Kulag's primary element (metal) much more interesting, as he's able to thus master the fighting style of any sword he uses. More swords = more fighting style.
Link'd due to size
So in the total lineup of weapons, he's currently got:
1x Dagger
1x Curved sword
2x Rapier
1x Longsword
1x Big long blade with tons of spikes on it that originally came off the Jetrax T6
I could add more, butthen I'd end up REALLY restricting his poseability.
So that's that on the Toa Voya I built, and now I leave you with an oddball image guest-starring Lewa Nuva.
BAN...KAI!!!
COMING SOON:
So after that ginormous image, the question emerges: Why Toa Voya? To answer that, I noticed that the majority of the Matoran teams seem to have a habit of showing up in Toa incarnations. The Inika were once Matoran, and even the Metru Nui Matoran had their own alternate timeline in the books where they briefly became Toa themselves. That being the case, I figured Garan, Balta, Piruk, Kazi, Velika, and Dalu would need their own moment of glory.
So that said, the first two to make an appearance here are Balta and Piruk. Why put them both in the same area together? They're the simplest in construction. I really liked the built of the Toa Hagah, especially Iruini. The only problem I had was that I really didn't like the gear-arm function of the Toa Metru. The inward slant of the arm holes and whatnot just bothered me.
Link'd due to size
So, how do you fix that?
Like this. Use the correct angle connector inside the torso with ball-joints at the shoulders and the pieces shown on the upper arm, and you can easily keep the form, without the gimmick. Does that mean I dislike all gimmicks/action features? Hardly. I'm just not a fan of how the gear-arm in the Toa Metru severely restricted that area's poseability. Also, the Toa Voya were largely flavor-designed as it was.
The weapons on Balta are admittedly flavor-based here. I figure it's sort of an unwritten law that Fire Toa must have fire swords. At the same time, I felt like drifting away from that a bit, so I went with the odd twist of "What if we have a Fire Toa who happens to be afraid of fire?" That in mind, Balta's primary weapons are the two shields he uses, both in melee combat, and -when he uses the fire spinners on them- to keep something between the fire and himself as a defense. The mask was an easy choice. Of the two gold masks in that shade of the color, he looked too much like a taller Lhikan with the Kanohi Hau.
Piruk's another story. With the mask, I'd originally thought of him as being a Toa version of Nidhiki, since the Kaulsi's forward-jutting edges to look sort of like Nidhiki's little mouth launcher. In the end though, I found out Nidhiki had a different mask altogether, and still kept that one on for Piruk. I like the look of it. The weapon...was pure fun. I'd noticed the minute I got them that the Keelerahk pincers looked a lot like scythe blades, and the idea of a whirling scythe like that was too fun to pass up.
Anyway, hopping ahead here, we reach Dalu. Yes, her body design is glaringly different from Balta and Piruk. Two Hagah style bodies were enough in this case, and in the storyline, all the Matoran on Voya Nui are mutated/have different forms already. I figured their Toa incarnations should at least reflect that somehow, hence Dalu having all those blades/fins on her.
Of course, a set with a custom body design does sort of mean that a "How's it look underneath?" shot is required. I wish I could tell you just what I had in mind when I designed it, but all I was really thinking was "Okay, so what do I add on between a neck socket, shoulder area, and waist joint...that gives it all about the right height for the arms and legs to match?
Oh, and a back view of how the design went.
Weapon and mask-wise, I had to debate for quite a while. Gali Nuva's mask just didn't look right, and Gali Mata's mask was obviously used. I didn't have Nokama Metru, and her Turaga mask just looks ridiculous. So why Axon's? The color fit, and it's even got a shark fin on top. The weapons were also interesting. I didn't want her to just be listed as using her fins, so I eventually went with the two flatsowrds found on Lesovikk's vehicle. They've got a nice flat shape to them that seems to work.
Kazi's next, and probably has the most glaring design bit going for him. He was always an unposeable little freak of nature as a matoran, so I went with "It's because he's armored to hell band back!" as an excuse.
Takanuva's Ussanui came in handy for the silver parts here, and Kazi's using all six of them. The chestplate I must say, was especially fun. It's a huge skull-like thing and I always wanted to use it as armor somehow.
Of course, such things require the obligatory "How's he look underneath?" shot. Yeah, he's rather shrimpy looking without it, and unfortunately the hip/upper leg armor also holds his two halves together. It took me a while to get him balanced there. Like Dalu, he's a case of "How can I make parts A and B connect with C and merge with D?"
The mask oddly enough, was no problem here. The silver Avohkii that come with Teridax (hands) fits the bulky look of the armor nicely, and after all the "icy juggernaut" stuff here, I had to use Axonn's axe weapon, split in two, to give him a nice weapon lineup.
Ah yes, Velika. You might've seen him a while ago when I did that weapon commentary on the Zamor Rifle/Bandolier. Not much to say about him here, really. Unfortunately I didn't have enough of the right tan/brown parts, and ended up having to go with yellow. Still, I'll concede that it's better than orange in this case.
The body design was also rather fun. I'd just gotten Dekar and liked the way the shoulder area connected with the head and chest armor. Obviously, I had to try such a thing on a Toa scale and I think it worked out nicely.
Weapon wise, since his axe is a bit more odd looking than just sticking two usual pieces together, you get a bonus breakup shot of it. The idea of the blade curving down in front of the rest of the handle like that is admittedly based off of one of Gimli's weapons in Lord of the Rings. Not much to say on the mask choice. I originally had him wearing Dekar's yellow one, but after the shoulder armor, chest armor, and feet came into design, I decided to give him a matching color for the mask.
Finally among the primary six; Garan. Looks odd right off, doesn't he? He's probably my favorite of the primary six Toa Voya just because of how the body design flows. Oddly enough, for a Toa of Earth, he doesn't have too much black to his design. He's more dark grey/metallic grey than anything. Looking back I think he spawned off from me attempting to use Hewkii's metallic grey parts with Nuparu's dark grey or something. Anyway, it worked nicely here. I really like the "flares" design of his lower legs with the Nuva armor too.
(Sorry for the blur, I'll try and get a better shot up later today.)
Design-wise on the body, this was one of my first "toa without a toa's body" designs, and I'm pelased to say that I think it was a success. I've got two Metru arm pieces in there as the primary connection points, and miscellaneous other pieces finish the connections nicely. Also, it nicely flows with the shape of the chest armor.
Why use a Kraakhan for the mask? It looks better than the Ruru (which I might add, makes very nice looking shoulder-armor). The weapons were especially fun here too. The oversized claw arm is again, a case of the Matoran's mutation carrying over into toa form, and the mace & chain was a design I wanted to try out for something immediately after noticing that Hewkii Mahri's "kneepads" each had half a chain-connector at their base.
Now, do take note that I said "six primary toa". I figure the Metru initially had Lhikan, the Mata/Nuva/Phantoka/Mistika/Power Rangers Toa Force got Takanuva and Ignika, so I figured I might as well give the Toa Voya their own "seventh toa".
Remember Kulag?
Yeah, he'd originally been bronze with a Kaulsi, but the Kaulsi was overused, and the bronze wasn't going with the weapons, so we've got a shiny silver toa with lots of swords.
The body, I admit, is near-standard Metru with the same arm hookups as Balta (It took me a while to get the capes and chains positioned right...apologies for lack of interior shot) The two cape pieces on him came from the two Vezon & Fenrakk sets I have, and I must say that they really help the appearance. The lower arms...I used the old Throwbot/Slizer arms for. They still have the same elbow flexibility, and then some. You see, I figured if I was going to pile him high with all those weapons,
I wanted his arms to be flexible enough to reach any of them. Of course, the arms looked shrimpy, but the two staff heads there fix the problem rather nicely.
Also, I'm especially happy with how the chain belt/sash came out. How'd I get that much chain?
1x Karzahni
2x Vezon & Fenrakk
2x Hewkii
So yeah, that's not even half the chain pile I have.
Obviously, he trick with Kulag here was figuring out his element. While the mask (plot-wise) is carved as a Hau, I'd decided on another Kanohi, the mask of Memory, that allows the users to "see" the memories of anything he/she touches at will. It made Kulag's primary element (metal) much more interesting, as he's able to thus master the fighting style of any sword he uses. More swords = more fighting style.
Link'd due to size
So in the total lineup of weapons, he's currently got:
1x Dagger
1x Curved sword
2x Rapier
1x Longsword
1x Big long blade with tons of spikes on it that originally came off the Jetrax T6
I could add more, butthen I'd end up REALLY restricting his poseability.
So that's that on the Toa Voya I built, and now I leave you with an oddball image guest-starring Lewa Nuva.
BAN...KAI!!!
COMING SOON:
thanks to Yamamura 
