#Muaka

[bioniclechicken]

[ohlookitsanartist]

"The Hunter," a Kaita of Onua, Tahu, and Lewa (with a couple of Muaka companions)

[gigamesh-mocs]

Battle in the Drifts

(Adapted the Kane-Ra into a Muaka but it actually kinda works??)

[groundrunner100]

My FAVORITE Villains In Bionicle

2001-Muaka

2002- Pahrok

2003-Kohrok-Kal, & Panrahk

2004-Vorzahk

2005-Oohnorak

2006-Reidak

2007-Carapar

2008-Vamprah

2009-Skrall

I only managed to get half of these guys…😔

[sepublic]

Was looking through some childhood drawings and found this redraw I did for page 5 of Bionicle Issue 3: Triumph of the Toa! I admittedly had nothing planned for 810nicle day, so I may as well post this.

Original page for comparison:

[kolhii-head-chronicler]

My dumb little headcanon: Vakama Hordika can purr.

[byz-was-here]

You could totally set a bionicle/transformers crossover on Mata Nui with the maximals and predacons adopting Rahi alt modes and duking it out over energon/energized protodermis when the matoran aren't looking.

It'd be fun to execute if nothing else.

[toacody]

Muaka

This cat will steal your tongue and everything else.

Source

Creator: imbatman123459

[ariartaccount]

Muaka and Kane-Ra

[downtofragglerock]

I finally read the bionicle story bible and here's the most interesting things I noted from it (I might be forgetting a thing or two)

while the gba game and the cancelled pc game are brought up multiple times, mnog isn't, at least from what I can tell

nokama, nuju, kotu, hewkii, hafu, and jaller all have different names

the turaga were originally called the kahuna

the noble kanohi were called the mortal kanohi and the hau was one while the huna was a great kanohi (this is not a case of name change as the powers they each have are still the same as they are in the final version)

gali and kopaka are said to be twins, the same is also true for onua and pohatu

tahu and lewa are stated to be besties, while the main tension between the toa as a group comes from tahu and gali, rather than tahu and kopaka in the final story

the toa kaita's domains were swapped

the kanohi were considered masks of wisdom rather than of power

the toa's trials to get them were more intellectual and puzzle based

the turaga in general have different characterization than in the final story, some minor, some major

pohatu is described as "slow" and "sure footed" as opposed to the speedster we know

while not outright stated, the text implies that what will become ga koro was situated on an inland lake, rather than the coastal settlement it will become

likewise, onu koro is coastal and may or may not even be underground

rahi as a term does not seem to apply to all of the island's creatures, rather two specific guardian beasts under makuta, the rahi tori (who will become the muaka), and the rahi kahu (later just the kahu, an ally creature to the matoran)

the manas are considered even separate from that

the tarakava were originally conceived as "boxing gorillas" rather than semi-aquatic reptiles

makuta's final form is described as having three heads, a cobra, a tiger, and a hawk

And two big ones (at least for me)

takua is absolutely nowhere to be found in this document, not even a slight hint at their existence

mata nui awakening and being revealed to be a giant robot that they were all living on was originally only the first part of an even bigger plot twist, that being that Mata Nui was only one of six giant robots that had all crash landed on the planet, and that the other five were still out there, comatose in very different environments (obviously this was clearly meant to be a potential way to continue the story if it did well, as it's been known for some time that bionicle's original story was initially only meant to last for one year)

Overall it was a very intriguing read, interesting to see what changed and what remained the same

[legend-as-old-as-time]

Inspired by @muaka-safari's analysis of Vakama's relation to anger.

My hypothesis: Nokama, while stressed too about fulfilling her duty, has a different core issue in relation to it. Rather than the aspect of fulfilling a command by her leader, she constantly thinks of her behavior. For her, her conduct is part of her duty.

She has to act a certain way. She has to be in a certain way, or she is failing.

Which makes sense. She is a teacher, after all. She has to be a role model for her students. But what if it went deeper than that?

Nokama puts a lot of stock in order, reflecting her Metru and the vahki assigned to this metru: The bordakh. These vahki carry staffs of loyalty that instill uncompromising desire for social order.

Official material depicting in-universe information describes Ga-Metru in a very flattering light. It's the city's spiritual center and said to be favored by Mata Nui himself.

None of the Ga-Metru hold any jobs in terms of repair, manifacturing, or engineering. Matoran from other Metru do these jobs for them. Ga-Metru is privileged.

But like with everything in Metru Nui, this is only one side. The side most would think about first, whether as good or bad. The other one of this reputation means that all ga-matoran must be peaceful, right? They are orderly, spiritual, wise, etc. Otherwise Mata Nui wouldn't love their Metru as much.

Ooof. Of course, some would feel arrogant about that. But mostly, that'd be a lot of pressure. If you're the favorite of the city's most important person - your God - then you have to show it that you're showing reasons why you're the favorite? And keep it up all the time?

I doubt all ga-matoran took it that deeply to heart, but some of them likely did. They have to act responsibly. Among them is Nokama.

Remember what I said farther up in the post that she thinks she has to act in and be a certain way? We see it regularly.

Nokama in the movie and in the movie's novelization [[gave the Po-Matoran a sharp look. “Your negativity pollutes this sanctuary, builder.”]]

She snaps at Matau and tells him they have to take their duties as toa seriously.

She scolds herself after she argues with Vakama in the Archives. Never mind that it's a genuinely stressful situation and the others barely ever consider that they themselves need to make an effort to argue less. In my reading it felt like she deemed it more a moral failing of hers rather than a practical concern?

She tries to mentor Vakama and steer him into the direction of being leader. We're never given a concrete in-universe reason. (Out-of-universe, the writers clearly pushed the fire toa into the leader role.) But maybe Nokama saw it as her duty and responsibility to keep teaching in the one way she could, if she wouldn't teach matoran anymore? (Not to mention that's the only connection to her old life that she still has.)

She asserts that she's a toa in the comics when Nidhiki mocks her, Matau, and Vakama to be overgrown matoran.

Feeling rejected by the Great Temple when she enters it as Toa Hordika deals a heavy blow to her. She feels impure, as if she's longer fit as she is to serve the Great Spirit in his regard.

She has a rage breakdown, yelling that "She's still a toa!"

On the other end, Nokama notably has moments as Toa Hordika, while she's trying to calm down and find stability with Gaaki's help, where she doesn't seem to care about her previous high standards anymore. She feels tempted to give into her hordika side and is much more reckless, less thinking about how she acts as a toa.

She also makes an effective and chaotic team with Matau. As @crystaltoa pointed it out, they both are now "hold my beer" types, while they act about each other as "I can't take you anywhere with me!"

As if the transformation into a hordika beast, which looks nothing like a toa's supposed to, has freed Nokama from a great weight.

(@crystaltoa She might still think back on the Great Temple, however, and wonder if the stain on her from being transformed into a Toa Hordika remains.)

[fieldsofeternalfortune]

[bionicle-ramblings]

...

Why is it that I'm today years old and only learning now that Vakama's hordika "rahi/animal" is a Muaka? Like, a tiger?

I thought he was some kind of wolf, solely because he was holwing in Web of Shadows!

Nope. Not a wolf

He's a howling tiger. That or I'm confusing a howl for a roar

[boxturret]

Voodoo Heads

Faber released this amazing video that detailed several Voodoo heads prototypes recently, which was amazing timing as it came out the day I was this close to quitting the hobby entirely and it completely revitalised me. I decided to work on the 3 brown and tan Voodoo heads seen in the video first, as they all feature very similar parts and focus on the same basic function.

This is the first one I made, I call him Hammer because of his personality. I spent a lot of time beforehand working on trying to piece together the central ratchet part that all 3 of these builds rely on and came up with this as my best guess. You never see it on its own or its back so I had to infer a lot. The latch part would be made of a more flexible plastic to allow the ratchet to function, and to allow it to be released when you press on the lever.

I made this guy second, named him Whip, because he has a bunch of whips on his hand. I guess bite could have worked too since the function makes his head go forward, but there's a Voodoo Head era Muaka too...

I know its heretical*, but my purpose here was to make the builds as accurate to the prototypes, so I had to modify several parts in somewhat extreme ways. Notable is the fact that the "Voodoo Ball" piece used in the Toa didn't seem to exist yet, so in its stead they simply snipped the balls off of the existing Slizer limb part.

And finally, here's Punch. He is incredibly unstable, with a friction pin being all that's holding the top of the body to the torso, and the same for the legs. A single axle runs the length of the body to keep everything aligned.

One final note for them is, to go along with what we understand of the Voodoo Head story, their heads are all made to be completely modular, just change some targets the heads pop over to the assigned character. Their jaws and eyes are even set up to be controlled from the parent rig as well!

They're all also set up to have symbols that can be easily swapped out, like some of the other ones you can see.

These were very fun to make, they're very expressive and silly, and the reference came at a really fortunate time :)

Also it gave me a chance to try out something I've been mulling over for ages, gradient backgrounds like the Slizer product images. I really like the look and will probably go with this or variations going forward for this sort of thing.

*but more importantly I don't care at all about purism lol