God, I forgot this blog existed for a while. Whoopsie.
Between when I last posted about him and now, I’ve given my self-MOC Natale Mortalis a revamp. I’m not going to go over his story again, so this post will largely be dedicated to the figure itself, specifically what’s changed from the last version.
Let’s begin this review starting from the bottom up. His feet and shins remain the same aside from adding 6-long armor shells to the backs.
Moving up, his thighs have changed from grey to black. This was more challenging than you might expect, as not only was this piece only ever released in this color in one set, but I was also using my only pair of these on Teridax. Fortunately, giving her grey thigh bone pieces did not detract from her appearance at all, so I felt no qualm switching the pieces. Instead of the 6-long armor shells, I attached the extra wide armor shells to the thighs.
The arms, weapon, and head are all identical, so that leaves the torso and the wing pack.
Previously, I had used a Luke Skywalker torso shell to cover the body. For a while, I thought this was ok. At some point during these past months, though, I took one look at it, thought it was lazy and decided that this piece would be the first thing to go. I found that the Piraka foot in black makes an interesting shape. But then my next problem came
when the figure looked scrawny and gappy. An assortment of small Technic pieces did the trick just nicely. You can also see that a Technic liftarm at the shoulders holds down his cape.
Lastly, instead of his wings just attaching to his shoulders and an awkward construction on his back that did absolutely nothing, now he’s been given a wing pack which he can use to fly through the air. In-universe, the pack is powered by a Kanohi Kadin, mask of flight, meaning he does not have to flap his wings in order to stay afloat. The wings act less like those of a bird and more so like those of a
jet.
Before I go, I would like to mention that yes, that is a Kanohi Kraahkan attached to a 2015 Bionicle head. How did I do it? Well, I’m not going to answer that question here and now, but I will say that it’s actually quite simple, requiring only two additional pieces to pull off (but I used three because it looks better).
Miserix was a simple man wanting a simple life in Ta-Lachia, Okoto. Like many of his peers, he had heard the tales of Ekimu and the noble Toa and how they vanquished the evil Makuta after he had succumbed to his greed. Unlike his peers however, he didn’t like the story as it was at face value. He knew that there are two sides to every story, so he took it upon himself to research Makuta’s upbringing and what drove him mad. He attempted to bring others to his cause but to little avail until he encountered a young woman named Teridax (more on that later).
ited before contemplating giving up his quest of validating Makuta. There, he met a young woman named Teri. Teri was interested in hearing of Makuta’s story, as the legend of Ekimu and the Toa had not yet reached the Shadow region. Miserix explained the story to her–in his way to convince her to join his cause. Now that Miserix was no longer alone, his belief now had strength. Knowing how difficult it would be to teach the masses, Miserix and Teri officially formed the Brotherhood of Makuta. The temporary HQ was Teri’s house, but Miserix considered this more than enough for now.
Mutran is the Brotherhood of Makuta’s head scientist. Often considered insane by his comrades, he cares little for the repercussions of his experiments as long as he is able to get results. Because of his “shoot first, ask questions later” mindset, he has been praised by his brethren for achieving what should’ve been impossible on more than one occasion.
Little is known of Krika’s life before he volunteered to participate in Project Carver. After participating, he came to regret his decision. His body became a grotesque husk of flesh and bones; he gained the head of a fly, talons of a hawk and his neck elongated to unnatural lengths for a humanoid. Because most of the mass in his torso moved up to his shoulders, Krika became top-heavy and was forced to learn to walk again. Although deeply troubled by his new appearance and graced with an intense hatred for Mutran, Krika finds solace in that in a world of biomechanical men, he doesn’t look as out-of-place as he initially feared.
Gorast was the next test subject after Krika. While she was already not the nicest person to begin with, Mutran tried mixing her DNA with that of a mosquito, ultimately amplifying her jerkish tendencies. As a result of her experiments, her limbs became unusually lanky and she grew a second set of arms. She did have reservations regarding her new appearance, but quickly dismissed them as she believed that her new beauty was the “unconventional variety.”
this experiment turned him from a typical Okotan male to a man trapped in a wolf’s body. Unlike Krika and Gorast, both of whom had negative opinions about their new forms, Vamprah completely approved of the changes, enjoying the challenges that come with being a primitive hunter. Don’t be fooled by his canine appearance, though: Vamprah is still a sentient being and does fully understand the world around him. His ability to reason makes him an incredibly dangerous predator and someone no one should underestimate.
counterparts in Lego’s official Bionicle stories) whose set I’ve owned before.
Almost all Okotans are seen wearing a Kanohi mask of their choosing. These masks serve a number of purposes on Okotans; the main ones being (1) they provide a power specific to the mask and (2) enhance the wearer’s elemental abilities when worn and hinder them when not.
The Toa Archives 