I've never been a majorly skilled MOC builder. My interest for MOC's
started off simply, and stayed pretty simple even along the path of
building.
When I first started out in being a fan of Bionicle, I didn't build my
own characters till later, when I had more parts to play with. This
started around 2009 I believe; I remember having fun with the canon
figurines, but after awhile I got tired of someone else's character
creation, and decided to make my own. Seeing that I had more parts
available after a year, I sat down and created my first MOC..who I think
may have been Frona.
As the years went by, my mind seemed to
rewire itself, till finally I understood building techniques I didn't
think I could even grasp. The step probably seems tiny compared to some
of the muscle mass builds of avid MOC artist out there; but for me it
was a good enough step to express and create decent characters I could
call my own for play time.
These days I can say that building MOC's is not as large of an option
for me; seeing that Bionicle has retired, and the parts are out of
production, I find I have an issue on my hands which has prevented me
from further pursuing the MOC art form.
During late 2009
-2010 the plastic quality and structure of the limb pieces on the
Bionicle toy sets seemed brittle; and at the time it wasn't an uncommon
thing for these parts to crack, even when you were being careful with
them. I still have my share of sets which have such damages, and I'm
highly cautious when playing with them.
It was easy in the
day just to call the LEGO company and request for replacement parts so
your toy would be fixed; and so my worries of the limbs accidentally
cracking during building sessions didn't concern me so much, especially
because I could get the replacement parts for free.
Then
when Bionicle retired, I knew LEGO would stop producing spare parts; and
for someone like me, that's a bad sign, because I can't afford to just
buy parts in bulk piles off E-bay as some are more fortunate to do. This
in turn put my MOC building to a stalemate; for fear of my already
fragile sets, I settled with keeping them the way they are, and only
making MOC's out of spare parts still in my grasp, obtained through yard
sales and such. This means that my MOC characters haven't been tampered
with very much since parts went out of production.
I may
occasionally change out armor pieces for a new look, but I shy away from
changing the limbs themselves, unless I'm replacing them with a new one
that has no cracks, or I'm building an MOC from the base up with intent
to leave it built once it's made.
My true desire, to be honest,
is to find a way to make my own toys, my own figurines that will never
retire with a story; and I have the assurance that if damage comes to
the figure, it can be fixed by my own hands, no worries about parts not
being available.
When it comes to complex MOC builds, I've never really done them, since
one I don't have enough parts that match in color (which is a must for
me; it drives me crazy if it's not matching); two I lack the skill to
build something extravagant, and prefer to stay with only semi complex
builds, and in most cases always felt too much bulk distracts from the
values of the character itself. I've always been more interested in the
personality of the figure than the build. To me, a structure should
match the personality and traits of an MOC, not distract from it, but
rather work with it. Which in my case, medium builds do the trick just
fine in expressing the characters qualities and personality over their
mass.
Because I lack certain skills and parts to pull off most my MOC's, I've
always turned to more crafty methods in order to achieve an interesting
look without having to use so many pieces. I turn to cloth, jewelry, and
outside accessories not of Bionicle. My mentality is to balance out the
bare spots of the set by covering it with cloth and jewelry accents, a
way of creating an illusion of more body on a figure, when in reality
there's not much beneath. This same concept applies to real fashion,
where you balance out your form by wearing certain styles of clothing
which cooperate with your shape; the same techniques apply to toys.
The
MOC art form is fun; and I still enjoy it, only I don't have it down as
my official art form. There are some things I still can't pull off
detail wise on an MOC, and therefore turn to drawing and painting to
achieve certain designs which just can't be built quite exact.
Also,
I feel that MOC's shouldn't be picked at so much...after all, there's
only so much you can do with standard Bionicle parts, and not all MOC
builders have the oddball parts to do the job. But that doesn't mean
they can't create a cool character with what they do have; and with just
a little cloth, jewelry, and creative wrapping techniques, any MOC can
have a drop of awesome in my eyes, with or without lots of fancy parts
and a big build. So come on, be creative, lean for unique and well built
as a standing character, big or small. ^.~
There you have it, a peep at my view and history to Bionicle MOC's.
