Bionicle Toa Alternate Builds

[Logan McOwen]

So, RaySkull's "Bionicle Protector Alternate Builds" thread has proven to be pretty popular. So, I thought it'd be neat to have a similar thread, but for modified Toa!

Feel free to share photos of your modified Gen2 Toa in this thread, along with relevant building techniques and ideas.

So, I'll start this off by showing off my modified Lewa. This was made to answer mine and a friend's question of how Lewa would look with a transparent colour in his scheme. Push came to shove, and more changes were made!

So yes, Talons! Those are inspired by some concept art for TMoL in which Lewa Nuva had talons, presumably for perching on tree branches. And the pink thorns? I wanted to emphasise Lewa's new-found control of plantlife in a unique way, but also wanted to break up the colour scheme a bit more. Oh, and his gearbox is a notch lower, so he can move his head.

And now, some photos of him in adrenaline mode!

[MakutaOfWar]

Woah, love the talons and the modded katanas. Very nice. Sadly I never mod >_< but excited to see what more people contribute. Though I am so turned away from Kopakas shins...

[DraikNova]

Wow. The use of the Ben 10 spikes is a definite NPU. The tr. apple green shells do seem like a little too much for the color scheme, and if possible, I would replace them with the solid green (is it called Earth Green?) used elsewhere on the MOC.

[Rayskull]

But he has to balance the bright green claws which look nice here. Imagine if Lego made a trans bight green mask. I noticed the neck claws were adjusted too, nice effect.

[TheOneVeyronian]

Your Lewa is really nice. I like the use of the Ben 10 barbs, which I wish I had more of but they're just so rare and expensive in any decent quantity on BL

I may as well share some pics of my modified Toa (which I've already shown a while back in the Bio2015 thread), not as deeply modified as yours but still relevant:

Lewa Master of Jungle Shoulder Modification by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

Lewa Master of Jungle Shoulder Modification (construction close-up) by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

70787 Tahu mod by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

I will share more as I modify the other Toa. I've a feeling that, come July/August, there'll be a thread for modified Skull Villains too. May as well. I'll be happy to start such a thread off closer to the time if there's enough interest

[Robin Creations]

Nice job Lewi! While I don't usually like using trans shells, it works pretty good here

@TheOneVeyronian: I like Lewa, but I don't really like the breakout armor on Tahu. It looks too robotic, not armored

Edited April 1, 2015 by Robin Creations

[Logan McOwen]

It looks too robotic

lol what

[TheOneVeyronian]

@TheOneVeyronian: I like Lewa, but I don't really like the breakout armor on Tahu. It looks too robotic, not armored

Erm... and the piston shells don't look at all robotic? Not to mention that they are technically robots of some kind? "Too robotic" does seem a bit of an odd criticism in that context

But the Breakout armour was only used since I had to lift the original red torso shell from Tahu for another model (and I didn't want to BL another one). And considering I had bought a few Iron Man sets, I had plenty of the Breakout armour to replace it with, which I think looks better. I like the muscle look it gives. But if you're referring to the way it tapers, then good point. I do have a custom torso design (used on the figures here, for example) that eliminates that problem, but it wouldn't work on Tahu anyway since it only works with a second torso plugged into the back and it wouldn't be able to accommodate a gearbox

In fact, I would have given Lewa the same Breakout armour as LewiMOC has done (it actually looks better on him, given he has a slim physique), I just forgot...

[Robin Creations]

lol what

Erm... and the piston shells don't look at all robotic? Not to mention that they are technically robots of some kind? "Too robotic" does seem a bit of an odd criticism in that context

But the Breakout armour was only used since I had to lift the original red torso shell from Tahu for another model (and I didn't want to BL another one). And considering I had bought a few Iron Man sets, I had plenty of the Breakout armour to replace it with, which I think looks better. I like the muscle look it gives. But if you're referring to the way it tapers, then good point. I do have a custom torso design (used on the figures here, for example) that eliminates that problem, but it wouldn't work on Tahu anyway since it only works with a second torso plugged into the back and it wouldn't be able to accommodate a gearbox

When I see that piece, I think of Iron Man or something fully mechanical. The toa (and others in the Bionicle universe ) are biomechanical. I would think it's reasonable to assume that they might wear armor to protect their organs or whatever they have.

The toa aren't *that* technologicly advanced, so they probably don't have robotic armor. That's why I don't like it, it looks too advanced. I like Kopaka's armor because it looks like layers of metal, and I like Tahu's because it looks like plate armor.

And to be honest, I don't like way it tapers either. But hey, these are all just my opinion

[TheOneVeyronian]

When I see that piece, I think of Iron Man or something fully mechanical. The toa (and others in the Bionicle universe ) are biomechanical. I would think it's reasonable to assume that they might wear armor to protect their organs or whatever they have.

The toa aren't *that* technologicly advanced, so they probably don't have robotic armor. That's why I don't like it, it looks too advanced. I like Kopaka's armor because it looks like layers of metal, and I like Tahu's because it looks like plate armor.

And to be honest, I don't like way it tapers either. But hey, these are all just my opinion

Fair enough, you have a valid point. I use the Breakout armour a lot for unarmoured muscular biomechanical beings (with the custom torso design linked in my last post) so I keep a massive stock of them, and I guess Tahu just wanted to show off his muscles the day I took a pic of him

Jokes aside, I probably wouldn't have changed Tahu's original armour but an MOC needed it where Breakout armour wouldn't have worked. I took that photo of Tahu a while ago and it's since been reverted to mostly original state anyway (as has Lewa)

Anyway, I have got some others to post that have minor modifications (like an Onua with all silver), it depends on when I have time to take decent photos

[Cirkit]

LewiMOC's Lewa MOC just blows me away. Never thought I'd like seeing claws and pink spikes on our Toa of Air Jungle, but he pulls of the look with style.

I especially enjoy the bottommost image of Lewa flying. That brings back memories...

I have two Masters on the way now, Tahu and Gali, and you can be sure that I'll be posting photos of mods made to them and the two Protector's I have here when I can :)

[Zenerius]

Pohatu Revamped by Zenerius, on Flickr

A slightly modified Pohatu. Nothing much, but I only had 2015 parts available. Cheers!

[Robin Creations]

Nice job with the skull spider armor

[One Very Agile Cat]

It's a shame this thread hasn't had more traffic despite sitting on page one. I'd love to see more Toa mods and revamps!

I don't have good pictures of all of mine, but I did recently photograph my Pohatu:

My goal was to give him more of a distinct look like Lewa and Gali while still evoking the original set and looking like a "stock" set. So I tweaked the colours just ever so slightly (two extra brown shells and added gunmetal to tie in the boomerangs) added a bit of height and wider shoulders, made the boomerangs back-mounted wings for "adrenaline mode" and added the green electric spikes so he had some idenifiable armour part like Lewa's collar things or Gali's tall shoulder armour.

Edited April 21, 2015 by One Very Agile Cat

[Logan McOwen]

Very nice!

[DuckBricks]

My goal was to give him more of a distinct look like Lewa and Gali while still evoking the original set and looking like a "stock" set. So I tweaked the colours just ever so slightly (two extra brown shells and added gunmetal to tie in the boomerangs) added a bit of height and wider shoulders, made the boomerangs back-mounted wings for "adrenaline mode" and added the green electric spikes so he had some idenifiable armour part like Lewa's collar things or Gali's tall shoulder armour.

I like how you made the gunmetal to compliment the boomerangs! If only they had gunmetal piston add-ons....

[Robin Creations]

Wow, that Pohatu is awesome! I really like those shoulders, too. Although you probably know my opinion on that torso piece (see above), I think it works better here for some reason

[One Very Agile Cat]

Thanks for all the kind sentiments!

I've also slightly modified my Lewa, and split the axes (which I've made into long swords) into a wing backpack, and just sort of tweaked the proportions and part placement so it's basically the same, but stuff doesn't quite crash into stuff anymore. :p

I'm waiting on a part before I post my super-revamped Onua.

[bidiminished]

A mod so that the shoulder armour doesn't rotate with the arms

A gearbox friction mod which works for gearboxes that aren't raised. It uses this piece.

Altogether:

[Logan McOwen]

A mod so that the shoulder armour doesn't rotate with the arms

http://s1.postimg.org/nluk83gzj/IMG_20150428_171006.jpg

A gearbox friction mod which works for gearboxes that aren't raised. It uses this piece.

http://s3.postimg.org/j1z5b6k03/IMG_20150428_171146.jpg

Altogether:

http://s23.postimg.org/honhsp0mj/IMG_20150428_171929.jpg

That's nice! You could have achieved a similar effect by just using Glatorian necks, but this still looks the biz. Edited April 28, 2015 by Leewan
Removed quoted pictures

[bidiminished]

That's nice! You could have achieved a similar effect by just using Glatorian necks, but this still looks the biz.

Wow, I never noticed that! Nevertheless, the method I used works well in this case because the grey piece allows a simple way of storing his swords, and I don't have many glatorian necks.

[One Very Agile Cat]

That's nice! You could have achieved a similar effect by just using Glatorian necks, but this still looks the biz.

I just tried this version with my Tahu (who's not been modified in the torso so he still has the broad shoulders) and yeah, works great! I never minded the pads moving, but I might leave it like this. I assume a similar trick could be used for Gali, but I mind it even less on her because it means the pads move out of the way of the arms. But for Tahu, I just held the black parts that hold the swords with one black pin each, and the Glatorian neck was attached with a blue pin/axle with the beige axle for the shoudler holding everything in place, but it'd be even more solid if I had two of those grey double pin/axle peices Lewa has, then it'd be like a rock.

The only downside is now the shoulder armour lifts out to the sides when you swing the arms, (and he looks a bit flat if you look into the inner workings) but that's a small inconvenience for that bit of added visual consistency.

Edited April 28, 2015 by One Very Agile Cat

[One Very Agile Cat]

Finally got the longer torso I needed for my Onua. I really didn't like super-short super-wide Onua, so I took a page from the animations and just made him a giant.

Pretty much all I want to change now is maybe add gold armour to the lower legs when/if I get another Toa for spare parts.

[Lord-Vorahk]

These look awesome.

I think maybe Onua's legs should be a tad chunkier, but otherwise he's perfect.

[TheOneVeyronian]

Finally got the longer torso I needed for my Onua. I really didn't like super-short super-wide Onua, so I took a page from the animations and just made him a giant.

*snip*

Pretty much all I want to change now is maybe add gold armour to the lower legs when/if I get another Toa for spare parts.

That's a really nice Onua mod, I like it. Though I will say that I also think he could do with chunkier legs (particularly on the upper legs). He might even benefit from something fairly similar to Black Phantom's leg build (but maybe with 6M or 7M bones as opposed to 9M bones), but you would need to alter the torso slightly to implement it.