[MOC] Iolana - Champion of Sky

[Aanchir]

A graceful Bionicle swordfighter I built this week. I haven't really come up with a story for her. She mostly just evolved out of an assortment of building techniques I'd been fiddling around with.

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Flickr album

Please feel free to share any comments, criticisms, or questions you might have!

[Pate-keetongu]

I quite like the colors and the sword design (lightsabers are used succesfully), but the physiques bug me a bit; Foremost the shoulder line is too flat and the neck is too long; Moving the shoulder connection one stud upwards would solve the problem.

I'm not sure about the buttock pauldrons. The silhouette from the back is not bad, but the gap seen from the front doesn't look good neither. I'd move them more to the sides of the hip.

The claw piece are used nicely through the build. They create nice shapes, but I wonder if something could be used between them on the upper legs - Now there's a groove where the bone should be on human anatomy. Some minifig weapon piece probably, a Chima sword or something?

[One Very Agile Cat]

Ha! The butt's really funny.

I really like those weapons. Simple but unique. I wish those axe head parts were more readily available in CCBS itself.

[dooberfloober]

do she got a booty? she dooo

[avatarbrickman]

I see you also have a bionicle.com gallery account.

[Quisoves Pugnat]

Hmmm... While I like what you were aiming for with this and while it has some rather nice innovations, it doesn't quite cohere.

I think my complaints boil down to the posterior and the use of the claw/tooth pieces.

The rump isn't necessarily a bad idea, but it looks quite comical, sabotaging the model's generally graceful appearance.

The claw pieces in the torso are simply too angular. If you could somehow put them at 180 degrees opposite each other, they might work.

The claw pieces in the leg form a nice construction, but they clash with the rest of it. They're too wide at one end, too thin on the other. That said, I wouldn't mind if you kept them and replaced the other leg-shells.

[Aanchir]

I quite like the colors and the sword design (lightsabers are used succesfully), but the physiques bug me a bit; Foremost the shoulder line is too flat and the neck is too long; Moving the shoulder connection one stud upwards would solve the problem.

I'm not quite sure what you mean about the neck being too long. It's about as short as it could realistically be. If I moved the shoulder connection one stud upward then her shoulder line would be about level with her chin, which seems unrealistic to me. And yes, I know some classic Bionicle figures had shoulders that were much higher, but I wanted to aim for a more realistic physique with this one. It might be that the neck just seems long because of how the mask doesn't quite reach down to the chin?

I did just make the shoulders a bit more sloped by removing one half-bushing from the torso, thereby lowering the chest plate a tad and revealing the natural slope of the paw piece used on her back. This was also in response to criticism on another site that the chest seemed to be pushed up too high. It definitely looks better now, though I might wait to see if there are any other changes I'd like to make before taking new pictures.

I'm not sure about the buttock pauldrons. The silhouette from the back is not bad, but the gap seen from the front doesn't look good neither. I'd move them more to the sides of the hip.

The idea of having them in the back was not just for the curvature but also because moving them to the sides doesn't really make the gap in the front any smaller. And attempts I made to have them on the sides that DID fill in the gap in the front more also greatly inhibited the posability of the legs. In a future MOC I might see about using different techniques to try and minimize that gap.

The claw piece are used nicely through the build. They create nice shapes, but I wonder if something could be used between them on the upper legs - Now there's a groove where the bone should be on human anatomy. Some minifig weapon piece probably, a Chima sword or something?

I did contemplate putting something on the front to try and diminish that groove. The crystal add-on from the 2016 Toa would fit the contours nicely, fill in that groove, and add even more volume, but I couldn't find a way to make it work for this MOC. A MOC that used that technique might need slightly longer legs.

I see you also have a bionicle.com gallery account.

Yep! I mostly added some of my recent MOCs there just as an experiment to see what the community is like, and I'm actually quite impressed with the amount of constructive feedback I've gotten.

Ha! The butt's really funny.

The rump isn't necessarily a bad idea, but it looks quite comical, sabotaging the model's generally graceful appearance.

The claw pieces in the torso are simply too angular. If you could somehow put them at 180 degrees opposite each other, they might work.

The claw pieces in the leg form a nice construction, but they clash with the rest of it. They're too wide at one end, too thin on the other. That said, I wouldn't mind if you kept them and replaced the other leg-shells.

Copy:The rump isn't necessarily a bad idea, but it looks quite comical, sabotaging the model's generally graceful appearance.

I'm not sure what's so comical about the rump. I thought it was in good proportion with the rest of the model and fit the streamlined design I was going for. Originally I did use those pieces on the hips instead, but as I mentioned above, I couldn't make it work, and once I moved them to the back of the model, that was when the whole MOC really began to come together, IMO.

Regarding the technique with the claw pieces on the torso and legs, that's what this MOC started with. I will bear these criticisms in mind for future MOCs though and possibly find better ways of using that technique (like with the new crystal add-on, as I mentioned above).

[One Very Agile Cat]

I'm not sure what's so comical about the rump.

Because they're big round buttcheeks on a robot. It's just amusing is all.

[Bigger Fish]

I find that the design of this MOC to be very Cheeky if you ask me. ( ͜。 ͡ʖ ͜。)

Also, any backstory or abilities for her?

[bidiminished]

The 'hand' piece on the back creates great shaping and from behind the silhouette looks pretty healthy. The SW shoulder add-ons stand out a bit due to how round and curved they are compared to basic CCBS pieces and the type 2 HF foot (as usual) doesn't match well due to the odd texture and shaping which strongly contrasts with the smoothness of the curved SW shin piece. Maybe the type 1 foot would look better.

[Quisoves Pugnat]

I'm not sure what's so comical about the rump. I thought it was in good proportion with the rest of the model and fit the streamlined design I was going for. Originally I did use those pieces on the hips instead, but as I mentioned above, I couldn't make it work, and once I moved them to the back of the model, that was when the whole MOC really began to come together, IMO.

Methinks it's disproportionately large, with a crack that follows suite. It really doesn't blend with the rest of the model.

[darklink34]

I really like the design of this. The look is very feminine and she looks very fit and slick, which I find fitting for a champion of sky, she looks like she could breeze through the air and other terrains quickly.

I like how you have manage to make it all really compact, only minus maybe being that from the front her backside shells make it look a bit hollow, but it doesn't bother me that much.

At first the split coloring looked a bit cheap to me, but after giving it another look, I think it makes her coloring look a bit more "complex" in a way. I think it would look a bit dull with full white or dark silver. Speaking of colors, I really like how her blue weapons add to the characters colors. The arms and the top part of the mask could look a bit out of place if her weapons weren't blue. Plus I find that the clear blue gives her a bit of a "cold feel" to her look, like she's quick as the cold wind.

Any possibility for instructions in the future for this?

[Csacsa234]

Nice MOC! I was also thinking that using those pieces would make a female MOC even more feminine, but i never tried it. I also like how you played with the silver-white assymetry.

[Steven the toa of flight]

Not bad I really appreciate the weapon design I actually wish to build it in the coming days can you make some instructions for it?