What better way to start this blog, than a post of some grand and magnificent creations?
BIONICLE pieces usually work on a much larger scale than the usual system or technic pieces, while those latter can sometimes very easily be put togheter and fit into each other preety much like a compact monoblock, BIONICLE pieces(and bear in mind that here I do not include technic connectores, axles and others found in BIONICLE sets) occupy each one a different kind of space. Due to their variety fo shape and numbers, it's very hard for two or more peices to fit perfectly, making it so that compact structures are very difficult.
As such, the scale of BIONICLE constructions is usually very different from what a usual LEGO builder may expect, and sometimes that might be why soem people call BIONICLE uncriative. Because simply, to create a humanoid(for instance), you only usually need to snap the legs and feet togheter, do something for the torso and head, and you're done.
The thing is, that is what is just barely needed to be done, and not necessarily what can be done.
Take
The Rack for instance, whose image is displayed. This MOC was made by Cajun, easily one of the best builders out there, already mentioned in Brickjournal, and also a member of MechaHub. To treat The Rack as simplsitic is impossible, to call it anything other than BIONICLE, is unthinkable.
In many ways, this MOC shows the scale on which BIONICLE works. On one side, there it is the huge black cave like structure, performed of hundreds of pieces together, and filled with curvilineous forms like the famous
DNA chain, made out of hundreths of Onua's claws put together. On the other side, there is not an ounce on this MOC that can be called symplistic. Its whole structure as a figure, and each of tis finest details is made out of pieces that fill each gap and complement each other in ways that are hard for a usual MOCer to imagine.
This is the scale on which BIONICLE many times works best.
To show another example from Cajun, there it is for instance the
Black Window, also many times mentioned in when talking about BIONICLE MOCs and complexity. Although the Window at the beginning seems neither huge nor complex, such opinions are easily overruled.
The
head for
instance, is made from a careful build of pieces that both increase stability and create the flowing organic look of a spider. Many of the angles here mentioned would have been impossible to achieve with a usual LEGO piece, but furthermore, many of the pieces in this MOC, could have been replaced by different pieces, just not used in exactly the same way. There it is no lack of complexity and yet, there it is no exclusive part in which something could not be invented(as opposed to a gearbox by instance, where each gear existence and placement compromises the design of the same).
Although I have already written quite a lengthy post, I can't finish this without introducing at least one more singular example of each of the specified characteristics.
As such, pontificating the characteristic of huge, I would like to draw the attentions to
this MOC by Roa McToa, as well as the others in the same brickshelf folder. Although from observation teh truth is that no kind of special characteristics or any kind of unqiue techniques in construction seem to be visible, the first sight just gives us two little pieces of information:
- It's Huge
- It Works
The fact, is that the size of this MOC, completely uses the size restraints of the BIONICLE pieces to tis advantages. Perhaps from some kind of close scrutinity it may seem that the MOC is imperfect or flawed, but the truth is that as a whole, and as a
huge whole, it is a perfect MOC, simply because it transpires what it's meant to transpire, and because it
works with the pieces.
Finnaly, to relevate complexity, I chose
this MOC by the same author, both for creating a easy comparizon and simply because it fits the definition.
It's big, that's true, but it's also in no way as huge or imposing as some of the previous MOCs, and in such a situation it's easy to evaluate it better. The cosntruction, although may seem random at first, is carefully executed. To use as an example the picture I linked to, I would like to drawn your eyes to the cente rof the MOC, to the area that's barely visible, but that can also be observed plenty off with care. It's easy to note that the numbe rof pieces and their arrangement is in no way trivial. ALthough there is no doubt that such a method of construction could be replaced by other equivalent, there also is evident the level of complexity of such a cosntruction to create the specific flowing effect related to this MOC, and to nto only give it a good look, but also to create a
real and
biological look.
And as such I end this study, promising that the following posts are going to be more succint and objective.
