[MOC] Creepy Creeps from Below the Surface! (aka CCBS Barraki)

[TheOneVeyronian]

Hey all!

If any of you have been following my Flickr, you would have known this topic was coming from all the MOC's I've been posting there for the past few days But anyway, I present to you the fruit of my latest MOC project, codename CCBS, or Creepy Creeps from Below the Surface. Or basically, the Barraki but remade in CCBS (pause for inevitable groans).

The Barraki have always been my favourite of all the Gen 1 villains, it's no secret. And Takadox will forever remain my favourite G1 character. So I thought it was high time I gave them a complete CCBS overhaul to celebrate that fact. It pretty much started by making a CCBS Takadox, but it soon escalated into me wanting to remake all the warlords in CCBS form. I wanted to keep as close to the original set's appearance as possible, down to replicating the limb lengths and colours in the right places, but doing that only using CCBS parts (aside from the head, weapons and sometimes the feet).

A full gallery including alternate views of all models can be found here.

So, without further ado, time for some pictures, complete with descriptions taken straight from Flickr:

Takadox:

Here is my favourite of all the Barraki first of all: Takadox! In some respects he is the hardest of the Barraki to replicate in CCBS, due to the only Dark Blue parts in CCBS being Skull Spider masks and zero Trans-Fluorescent Blue CCBS parts. I still really like how he turned out, even if he now wears Skull Spiders and has a lot of his Dark Blue replaced with Black.

Pridak:

Here's the second Barraki in the series: Pridak. Out of all the CCBS renditions, Pridak is probably the closest to his original set appearance, given his waist articulated torso translates very well into CCBS. I also tried custom built feet to try and replicate his original feet. I was going to use the original feet but then I saw the Protector feet on my Master Wu Dragon and immediately saw the similarities, so brick built them.

Ehlek:

Here is the third Barraki: Ehlek! He was originally my first Barraki set. This Ehlek is probably a bit bigger than his original incarnation due to using 2 CCBS bones instead of a Technic liftarm for his body (a technique I'd used on Takadox as well). I was going to use Ehlek's original feet for this, but I didn't have any in my collection so kinda had to settle for Beast feet given I couldn't find a custom solution I liked.

Mantax:

This is Mantax, who probably has the most unique build of the 6 and thus was a little challenge to get right. If you look closely, the shape of the original build is imitated in CCBS using a blend of Takadox's CCBS build and a 9x9 torso. This is probably one of my favourite of the builds as I think it almost perfectly replicates the original Mantax build.

Kalmah:

Here is Kalmah, the first of the two Barraki with a more standard humanoid build (or "the Inika build" as I so often see it termed). I have tried to replicate the general shape and colour segregation of the torso in the original set as much as possible here, even if it has resulted in Kalmah perhaps putting on a little bit of extra weight I probably would have put more dark red shells on the sides of the torso, but I ran out of dark red shells as Kalmah relies heavily on dark red in his colour scheme.

Carapar:

Finally, here's the last of the Barraki: Carapar. He was always the strong and armoured one out of the Barraki, so I made sure that was reflected in his CCBS iteration. The colour is perhaps the most difficult to get right, given that Carapar's marbled olour was uniqque to that set. I eventually settled with a combination of Pearl Gold and Keetorange, the Pearl Gold since it is the closest match to Carapar's head colour, and Keetorange because, well, he featured that colour in the original set. Carapar is also one of the few models I've made to incorporate a Technic function, pushing together two Technic bushes on his claw causes them to open, then the claw snaps shut when you let go.

Well, hoped you liked looking at my renditions of Barraki in CCBS. Comments and constructive feedback will be much appreciated. Also, don't forget to throw in a vote for your favourite revamps in the poll (it's multiple choice by the way), and feel free to explain your choices in a comment

Edited August 5, 2015 by TheOneVeyronian

[TheOneVeyronian]

Does nobody here like these at all? Not even a single vote in the poll? Given the lack of interest in almost all my MOC's posted here in the past 3 months, maybe I shouldn't post any MOC's of mine here anymore. The lack of interest in MOC's here in general recently is very discouraging. What's happened to this forum?

[CloverMaryam]

Ah I think they're wonderfully done, it's just that getting feedback on this forum can be slow sometimes. I recommend you try the Bionicle subreddit, if you browse Reddit at all, that is.

[One Very Agile Cat]

I think they're all excellent! I like Takadox the best, my only comment is that I wouldn't have used CCBS hands, as I was always under the impression that their melee weaposn were part of their bodies, but that's just my interpretation.

[Karateduo1]

I like the Carapar Claw idea a lot.

It translates much better than the actual set form(which just seemed to spin around and could never get that snappy feeling right).

Takadox is definitely the star of this show though.

[GK733]

Takadox really shines, I hope you would had given transparent parts to some of them as well.

With CCBS however you have to put extra thought to the color scheme and in this case add to it at some points. Pridak's arms really show this. Adding a little of transparent pieces would fix some of the things with Pridak and Ehlek.

I like Carapar's claw but the colors are just a mess and I know there isn't much to do about it.

Kalmah and Mantax both look really solid, good job, though I wonder why Kalmah doesn't have a CCBS hand piece on his left arm.

[TheOneVeyronian]

I think they're all excellent! I like Takadox the best, my only comment is that I wouldn't have used CCBS hands, as I was always under the impression that their melee weaposn were part of their bodies, but that's just my interpretation.

My interpretation is the polar opposite, hence I used hands (except with Kalmah's tentacles, I regarded those as part of his anatomy!). Though the canon suggests they don't have fingers, I do wonder how they even managed to hold their squid launchers? Particularly with Carapar, where in the story he has two claws but he can remove one to wield a Squid Launcher.

Kalmah and Mantax both look really solid, good job, though I wonder why Kalmah doesn't have a CCBS hand piece on his left arm.

Because that's his tentacles, which are a part of his anatomy. That part is just tentacle in both the set and the comics. Giving him a hand there would have just looked odd

In response to your other points, I was copying the original set's colour schemes (where Pridak's arms are completely white), which is why some of them can appear rather monotonous. If I gave myself more free rein to completely overhaul their designs, I might have put more transparent in or mixed their colour schemes up a little, but I wanted to remain faithful to and even mimic their original sets. It's part of the reason why making Carapar gave me such a headache actually, though his armour IS marbled Bright Light Orange in the original set, it don't look much like it at all

Edited August 5, 2015 by TheOneVeyronian

[Voxovan]

My only complaint about Takadox is that his head seems really out of place color-wise...

[DuckBricks]

Carapar quickly went from least favorite to favorite after looking more closely at your color scheme and noting the function. I made some revamps of my own of him and Takadox, and comparing mine to yours its amazing how different things turn out based on the same source material. Overall, very nice builds and very inspiring! I want to see the 2008 Makuta from you next!

Edited August 5, 2015 by legozebra

[Mandate]

They're wonderfully built, but the more textured G1 pieces clash with the CCBS pieces a fair bit IMO.

[The Outsider]

Frankly, it was hard to choose; all of these look great!

[mysteriouspi]

Really love these. Kalmah especially surprises me due to how few shells exist in dark red, yet how well you pulled him off...

The only one that bothers me is Carapar; he's just a bit too wide for my liking. A well done model as the others, just feels a bit off. Not much you could have done, given the size of the large torso piece.

[ToaDraco]

They are all very nicely done but Mantax was my favorite of the Barraki so I went with him.