Tag Archives: MOC

MOCs: “Project Carver”

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“Project Carver” refers to the experiments performed by Makuta Mutran in an attempt to discover what causes Okotans to transform into toa. History has well documented the how, but never the why, leaving people like Mutran unsatisfied. Unfortunately, these experiments ended in failure; subjects were grown to toa-size and gained animalistic characteristics, but lost their innate elemental abilities.

Mutran

IMG_2193Mutran 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.

Mutran wears the Kanohi Miru, Mask of Levitation. Simply enough, this mask grants him the ability to levitate for a short time or leap tremendous distances. He dons protective armor on his left arm to work in intense environments (high temperatures, contagions, etc.).

Krika

IMG_2197Little 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.

Krika wears the Kanohi Crast, Mask of Repulsion. Simply enough, this mask allows him to create a small forcefield to repel nearby targets; he can use this mask on himself to leap tremendous distances. He wields two giant axes, both to aid him to walk (initially) and as a means to ward off opponents. However, Krika is not a warrior and avoids confrontation wherever he can. If he can’t, he carries a large gun on his back at all times as a last resort.

Gorast

IMG_2195Gorast 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.”

Gorast wears the Kanohi Felnas, Mask of Disruption. This mask allowed the wearer to cause a target’s natural abilities to go haywire, provided she could make physical contact with her opponents. She has taken special martial arts class to make use of her newly-elongated limbs and wears a jump pack on her back, allowing her to leap tremendous distances (I think I’m beginning to notice a trend here).

Vamprah

Vamprah was one of the last to participate in Project Carver. The changes brought on by IMG_2192this 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.

Vamprah wears the Kanohi Avsa, Mask of Hunger. This mask allows him to drain the energy and light from opponents, reducing their will to fight. He does not use weapons like other Makuta, but uses his front claws, barbed tail, and enhanced sense of smell to get the job done.

Trivia

  • Krika is the only character in this post (and the only one of the Makuta that have IMG_2191counterparts in Lego’s official Bionicle stories) whose set I’ve owned before.
  • Rumor has it that Gorast and Madilim were once in a romantic relationship but have since ended on a sour note. I wonder what happened to them?
  • Vamprah is what this guy wishes he could be.
  • Vamprah retains the ability to stand on two legs like regular people; he simply chooses to walk on four legs a majority of the time because he wants to.
  • Project Carver was one of the factors that contributed to the Makuta’s escape from Okoto, but was not the deciding factor; because all of Carver’s test subjects were rational, consenting adults, the Okotan government couldn’t prosecute Mutran solely for this.
    • There was, however, one experiment of interest that led to the Makuta’s demonization. What was this experiment? You’ll find out soon enough.

MOC: Makuta Madilim

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Of course, I could not bring up Natale without talking about his partner in crime. Makuta Madilim is also one of my oldest MOCs, dating back to April 2015. Despite the simplicity of his build and how much I have changed since then, I’ve become too sentimental to this character to change the figure any further (the only major change I’ve done between then and now was adding claws to his right hand’s fingers in 2017 or so).IMG_0622

Madilim wears the Kanohi Koniec (pronounced cone-YEK), Mask of Slumber. This mask grants him the ability to knock any target unconscious for a period of time if he makes sufficient physical contact with them; i.e. his full hand must be touching his target. His other primary tool is a broadsword, which he took from a tribe of Skrall Raiders shortly after becoming a Makuta, as a way to prove his strength.

At first glance, one can easily tell that Madilim’s armor is asymmetrical, being mostly silver with some black limbs and his right hand having four fingers while his left has five. The reason for this is directly related to his backstory.

For a while, life was pretty normal for the Air village of Le-Lachia. Madi and his sister Settel (pronounced set-TELL) were out playing in the fields a number of acres away from their home when they noticed two figures off in the distance, one red and one green, and opted to investigate. As they approached, the two figures seemed to disappear out of thin air. Before they could ponder what just happened, something hit them from behind and knocking them out. Madi couldn’t see Settel’s reaction, but as for him, his armor protected him just long enough for the strike to be painful.

Several months later, Madi finally reawakened on an operating table in a dimly lit room. He wasn’t sure of what was happening all around him, but no one was there for him to ask. All he could make out were strange devices and screens to his right, beeping a slow, steady rhythm, and his armor. It had changed from green to silver and…gotten bigger? He lifted his left leg. It functioned with no problems at all. He lifted his right leg. It appeared to work just fine, but he didn’t feel it moving at all.

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This caused him to panic and thrash around, alerting the officials to come to him. Three people came into the room. Two of them he recognized–they are the same people from the day he and Settel were hit–but the third one was a mystery to him. The man, introducing himself as Makuta Miserix, told Madi how he and his sister were attacked by an strange creature and were caught in a fight with it. The two other Makuta who found him and his sister sensed potential in Madi and elected to repair him and indoctrinate him into the organization. His sister was believed to have died in the scuffle, so the Makuta left her behind. With his mind everywhere and nowhere all at once, Madi wondered why the Toa did not save him. Miserix laughed, stating that the Toa disown everything the Makuta have to stand for; by refusing to save Madi, Miserix believes that the Toa have, once again, declared that their dogma is more important than doing what’s right. With this newfound knowledge in mind, Madi accepted Miserix’s offer to join the Brotherhood of Makuta. Appreciative of the offer, Miserix opted to wait until Madi recovered from his injuries before being able to test where he would fit in among them.

After he completed his physical therapy, Madi was taken by Miserix to a camp occupied by the primitive Skrall tribe. The mission was simple: If Madi was to be a warrior Makuta, he must take a weapon from the Skrall, but he must not kill any of the clansmen. Madi accepted the challenge and put his skills to work. He showcased that he was an exceptional martial artist and learned that his surgery under the Makuta awakened his elemental powers of air, powers that were prophesied by the elders of his village. With these newfound abilities, he made clean work of the Skrall and took the sword of the final warrior he beat. Madi didn’t say a word, simply standing over the defeated clansmen and comprehending what he had just done. Miserix came to congratulate him on passing his test with flying colors and welcomed him into the Brotherhood. Madi accepted his new position, but had one detail to clear up.

“My name isn’t Madi. From now on, I am Madilim.”

After several years of low relevance, Madilim and the other Makuta were forced to emigrate from Okoto on account of supposed genetic experimentation. After several weeks of complications, he and the other Makuta joined Marlinan noble Natale Mortalis into the Luxtene Towers, which would serve as the Makuta’s new headquarters. While there, Madilim and Natale learned that they compliment each other very well; they have similar senses of humor, Madilim serves as the optimist to Natale’s pessimist, and, when on duty, have similar fighting styles that cover each other’s weaknesses. Soon enough, Madilim and Natale would become best friends and would gain a reputation among the other Makuta as “those two guys.”

Trivia

  • Madilim is one of the few characters of mine whom I can trace their etymology. In this case, the word “madilim” is the Filipino word for “dark.”
  • The current version of Madilim is the fourth version of the character I created.
    • The first version was a black and lime green military general who had a cheeky sidekick named Cojera (pronounced co-HEH-ra). Cojera remains canon and will receive his own post another day, but “Madilim v1” was scrapped.
    • The second version was an all black shadow warrior of sorts who had no tolerance for tomfoolery. “Madilim v2” was scrapped because he was an incredibly bland character.
    • The third version was basically Kiina with four arms (who is Kiina?). It was as ridiculous as it sounds. “Madilim v3” didn’t last a single day.
  • Eagle-eyed readers will notice that his legs are constructed slightly differently. His left leg has a friction adder while the right leg does not (leading to the armor on the left leg hanging slightly lower than the right). This is not something I like, but something I have to live with until the parts I need come in the colors I require.
  • Originally, Madilim’s figure used a small amount of super glue to attach everything properly, but I have since figured out how to get the look I desired using “legal” Lego techniques.

MOC: Natale Mortalis

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What better way to begin a Bionicle-based blog than to talk about my Bionicle self-MOC? Although I do not remember exactly when I created him, I estimate that it was around June 2015 that I created the first version of him; he has gone through a number of revamps since.

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The build of Natale’s figure is nothing all that impressive. The body is pretty standard as far as Lego action figures go, aside from how the mask is connected to the head, which I explained some time ago elsewhere.

Speaking of the mask, Natale wears the Great Kanohi Kraahkan, the Mask of Shadows. In my canon, this mask allows the users to take their darker emotions (fear, pain, anger, etc) and converts them into energy which they can use to amplify their natural abilities. Due to the nature of the mask’s power, it is not activated voluntarily; the best way I can think of explaining this is that the mask reads the wearer’s brain waves and glows black when inner darkness peaks.

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His other main tools are a blue-bladed sabercane and a mechanical set of wings attached to his back and hidden under his cape. The blade functions similarly to a lightsaber blade from the Star Wars series–though the specifics have yet to be determined–meanwhile the bottom end of the cane serves two main purposes: (1) It is shaped sort of like a crab claw to optimize clinging to the ground. (2) The inner half of the claw has spikes/ridges, which can be used as a carving tool.

Now that you know the basics of Natale, allow me to share a snippet of his backstory:

During his youth, Natale Mortalis was a mask maker in the Kingdom of Marlina. He was not particularly well-known in the country aside from a few of his regular customers, but he didn’t particularly mind. He loved his job–making every mask he crafted slightly different from the last, meaning no two were ever exactly the same–it paid well, he had a decent social life. He wasn’t on top of the world or anything, but at his age he wasn’t trying to climb that high yet. One day, just shortly he came of age, his friend and employer Ravana informed him that the Royal Family had opened applications for a “very special job.” He did some research of his own and found himself interested in whatever the Family had to offer, leading him to resign from his job at Ravana’s.

After a grueling application process, Natale made it in and learned what the job was. King Benedict Attarai announced to the applicants that they would undergo training to join the ranks of the Royal Guards. Anyone who made it through would be knighted. Before the King finished speaking, he assigned everyone into pairs.

“The person you are paired with,” said the King, “will be your only friend throughout the training process. Aside from me or my heir, you are to trust and believe nobody.”

Natale was paired with a man named Silas Harchu. He was similar in structure to Natale, but could not be more different personality-wise. While Natale was soft-spoken, calm, and shy, Silas was brash, arrogant, and gave the impression that the word “quiet” was not in his vocabulary. Nevertheless, the two made a decent team and made it through the majority of their trials until their last. For their last trial, Natale and Silas would duel each other and try to pin the other to the ground. It was all or nothing. Natale, surprised that he made it as far as he did, tried to cool his emotions as he accepted the possibility of defeat. Silas, meanwhile, was determined to win the favor of the Family from day one. He dared to claim he was destined to win.

The duel was long and tiring for both combatants, but eventually Silas was knocked off his feet. Natale pinned him at the neck using the bottom end of his staff and ended their duel. As he went to retrieve his prize, Silas landed a cheap shot from behind. He could have just claimed victory there, but he wanted to avenge his stolen destiny; Silas wanted Natale to know how he felt inside. As Natale was mercilessly kicked and slashed, his mask began glowing a metallic ebony shade. He returned to his feet and proceeded to take on Silas again, this time returning the unsportsmanlike blows. Before he had a chance to kill Silas, his mask deactivated. He looked down at Silas. Then back to the King. He had saw the mask glowing. Even though Natale had acted out of turn, both could tell that he wasn’t 100% in control of his actions while Silas was, thus earning Natale the title of Knight and becoming the Family’s newest Royal Guard.

His time serving the family would not last long though. A catastrophe (the details of which will come soon enough) in No Man’s Land, a tundra on the northwestern corner of the country, led Natale into a self-impose exile. He wandered around the continent for many years until he encountered representatives of the Brotherhood of Makuta, an organization from Okoto aiming to “inspire freedom of intelligence in our youth and exercise of knowledge for our future.” The representatives, led by a woman clad in red and black armor named Teridax, explained to Natale that the Makuta are on the run from Okoto, accused of illegal genetic experimentation. Natale remembered his home country of Marlina and offered to take the group and find them a new base of operations there in exchange for him joining the organization. The Makuta agreed to Natale’s offered and they set off for Marlina.

The Makuta were welcomed by Antaedymn, the current King of Marlina, and granted them the Luxtene (pronounced loo-TEN) Twin Towers to serve as their headquarters, where they reside to this day. Since then, Natale has gone on a number of misadventures, became best friends with a fellow Makuta named Madilim, gotten mixed up in a centuries-old conflict between two dynasties, and even had a run-in with a Time Lord once or twice. These last couple of sentences may have left more questions than answers, but information about all these and more shall come in due time.

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Trivia

  • Natale is named such because when creating the character, I really liked the name “Natalie” and searched if a male version of the name existed. A year and a half after introducing him to the world for the very first time, a friend of mine informed me that the word “Natale” is Italian for “Christmas” (something I should’ve known, coming from a mostly Italian family, but somehow did not).
  • His wings are not part of his natural anatomy. They were added onto him soon after joining the Makuta. Natale specifically requested pain sensors to be added to the wings so he can easily tell whether or not he can still fly. Rule of thumb: If he can feel his wings, no matter how badly damaged, they are still usable.
  • Unlike many of his fellow Makuta, Natale does not possess any elemental abilities. This is not a hinderance to him. Very few people born in Marlina (or other northern hemisphere countries) possess such an ability, while almost everyone who is born in Okoto (or elsewhere in the southern hemisphere) does.
  • His figure stands at ~10.75″ tall, which, when scaled up, translates to somewhere over six feet if he existed in real life.