[MOC] Skull Smasher, Steampunk Aggressor

[TheOneVeyronian]

Finally! After a long hiatus of not building anything (that collab project I did really did drain my creativity for a while afterwards ), I'm back with a new MOC. Though I may well have made it just to show off my latest rare acquisition... Kulta's mask in Pearl Gold!

Surprise, surprise - it's another original creation Skull Villain from me. Skull Smasher, a hugely successful wrestler in his previous life during the age of Steampunk and given new life by "mysterious forces", is an eloquent brute who towers above even Kulta, and could "accidentally" squash a Protector underneath his feet and throw Toa around like they were a dog's chew toy. Even Kulta himself dares not underestimate Smasher's sheer power, as Smasher could crush Kulta in an instant in one of his huge hands. But don't think Smasher is all brawn and no brains or class. Smasher is incredibly vain as far as Skull Villains go. He never goes out without wearing his feather and velvet robes, held together with his lucky golden bone. Show him a mirror or give him a camera (he'll stop mid-fight and take a selfie of him crushing his victims) and you'll probably distract the titan enough to get past him... or land the killing blow on him. Selfies are dangerous things!

Anyway, onto some full pictures then!

An interesting side note: He got named "Smasher" not because of his giant hands, but due to the fact that I was listening to a lot of the rock band The Offspring while building him, and they have an album named "Smash". So there you go

This is actually the first time I've ever tried to do something even vaguely Steampunk themed (though my second creation done in this sort of colour scheme, the first being my dragon, Golden Furious), so it's probably not perfect. Comments and obscure references all appreciated

[Dosenbrot]

That's one huge Figure, excellent work, wish there were some actual steampunk sets.

I bet he even uses more Gold than Tahu!

[Voxovan]

While the MOC uses very interesting techniques, I can't really see how it's steampunk, aside from its colorscheme. I think adding some gears here and there would really improve the MOC's look and give it a proper steampunk, well, look.

Aside from that, the head is just way too small. He looks more funny than menacing or sp00ky because of that :s

It doesn't mean this MOC is bad, but definitely has some things that can - or even should - be improved.

[Bony_em]

Amazing bionicle,nice work

[TheOneVeyronian]

While the MOC uses very interesting techniques, I can't really see how it's steampunk, aside from its colorscheme. I think adding some gears here and there would really improve the MOC's look and give it a proper steampunk, well, look.

Aside from that, the head is just way too small. He looks more funny than menacing or sp00ky because of that :s

It doesn't mean this MOC is bad, but definitely has some things that can - or even should - be improved.

I use the term loosely - and as I said, first steampunk-ish model I've done. It's just the first thing that came to mind when I thought "brown+gold, with pistons". Appears I forgot the gear element, though looking at it again, I'm not sure where they could be incorporated. Pretty much all useable connections are used. Plus, all the large gears I have (about 2 in total) are light grey anyway, it wouldn't really mesh incredibly well with the colour scheme I have here

And the head - can't be helped given the main reason I built this was to use the gold Kulta mask. I could build a larger head for it in the future, but it's likely I'm just going to re-skin the bone structure completely and make it into something else (the torso structure is my favourite bit about the MOC and I don't really want to take that bit apart ) as this thing has all my gold and all my brown pieces in it. And I need them back

Edited October 19, 2015 by TheOneVeyronian

[GK733]

If that's the case I would suggest scrapping the whole thing and making it half of the size it's now, that way you could take more time into it's design to make it steampunk rather than having to worry about it's stability and all other problems that come when building in this size.

[YellowCorvette]

Good MOC, but I think the skull mask is too small for him. I think Brutaka's mask fits better.

[Logan McOwen]

Impressive, but I must mirror AmstrongYong. I also don't quite see how it's a "Skull X" when it's so bulky.

[TheOneVeyronian]

Well, the way I got around that is to just say he's wearing a ton of armour - but on Leewan's request I stripped him of his armour to show the underlying bone structure - maybe to show that he really is a skeleton underneath

I'm actually going to re-skin this general structure (as I'm really really pleased with how it came out, it seemed a shame to destroy it ) as something completely different in the near future. Not sure what, but it won't be a skellie that's for sure

[VBBN]

The problem here is, I really struggle to see this as steampunk. Making something gold and brown doesn't necessarily make it steampunk (and if you are going to call it something, expect to get flak for calling it that if it doesn't convey it ). Steampunk is usually described as being the past if the future came early (or something to that extent) and has to have a few major components, the most obvious of which is steampower. I would have liked to have seen this guy running on steam, to show how out of time he really is. And yes, gears/clockwork is a major design choice for many steampunk visions and would be very fitting, even if they don't function they are a visual aspect of the theme.

Plus, all the large gears I have (about 2 in total) are light grey anyway, it wouldn't really mesh incredibly well with the colour scheme I have here

Gold, brown and gray is the most typical color, so, you wouldn't be throwing much off by incorporating that color.

And actually I might disagree to some extent with the head- I like the choice of mask, it's very fitting for a mechanical-steam-abomination that just climbed out of the dirt, and I have seen plenty of things that are huge bodies with small heads that work, but it's placement on top of that shield is a very strange contrast to me.

[TheOneVeyronian]

The problem here is, I really struggle to see this as steampunk. Making something gold and brown doesn't necessarily make it steampunk (and if you are going to call it something, expect to get flak for calling it that if it doesn't convey it ). Steampunk is usually described as being the past if the future came early (or something to that extent) and has to have a few major components, the most obvious of which is steampower. I would have liked to have seen this guy running on steam, to show how out of time he really is. And yes, gears/clockwork is a major design choice for many steampunk visions and would be very fitting, even if they don't function they are a visual aspect of the theme.

Gold, brown and gray is the most typical color, so, you wouldn't be throwing much off by incorporating that color.

And actually I might disagree to some extent with the head- I like the choice of mask, it's very fitting for a mechanical-steam-abomination that just climbed out of the dirt, and I have seen plenty of things that are huge bodies with small heads that work, but it's placement on top of that shield is a very strange contrast to me.

Alright, I admit I made a mistake calling it STEAMpunk. It's not really a style I've built in before and I severely lack (large) gears in my collection so I was bound to get flak I guess

Oh, and I meant light grey wouldn't really go, given gunmetal pretty much fulfilled the role of grey here. The shield was a bit of a design choice, there to cover up ugly connection points, but I can see that the all-gold can make the head seem really small. Perhaps it may have helped to use a pearl gray or a printed dish, to break up the monotony there. None of the printed dishes would have fit though given all the ones I'm aware of incorporate red, which the MOC uses none of and would look out of place.

Not that I can really make any changes to it now I've stripped all the armour off it though!