It’s been a while! The year's almost over, so now I'm scrambling to complete things before 2024 closes out! So before it feels way to late to do so, I'd like to write a little about my builds from Bio-Cup 2024!
Preliminary Round: Red Planet Prospector
This year's preliminary round was 'Space', and I knew what I wanted to make for it straight away. Since last year I've developed a bit of a special interest in Lego's 2001 theme, Life on Mars. To call it simply 'Lego Space' would be an understatement though - the company was really trying to push for something new and exciting with this theme. I strongly encourage anybody else as enchanted by the aesthetic and mystery of Life on Mars as I am to go and explore the Biodium Vault, a fan site archiving a lot of great content from the theme's time in the spotlight.
My main source of inspiration came from 7313 Red Planet Protector (confusingly the mech that isn't red), and the render used for its box art. Something about it is really evocative to me, and I wanted to try and capture some similar vibes, while still fitting into my usual colourful style.
The shaping was heavily determined by the parts available in the Life on Mars colour palette. Dark Gray, Green and Sand Green are all colours that I have more limited collections of, so I kinda just picked out all of the interesting parts I could find and amalgamated them into one thing. I liked the way the bohrok windscreens gave an alien, insectoid look to the build, inpsiring the mosquito theming. The canopy section, featuring a bubble canopy surrounded by the rahkshi kraata holders was taken from a tablescrap mech I made in 2021. I refined it a bit here with a more fleshed out cockpit interior (and a shoehorned in nuva mask recolour :D).
Lastly, I knew I had to come up with a bit of lore for this alien walker. I took some inspiration from the product blurbs for other Life on Mars sets found in a 2001 Lego retailer catalogue. Equipped with a core extractor proboscis, a sonic scanner and spectral searchlights, this nimble mech is designed for locating and sampling Biodium deposits on the surface of Mars. Once its mission is complete, it can use its mosquitoid wings to quickly zip back to base! Seats one Martian.
The song I chose to accompany this build was Corn Syrup by Otto Benson. I think the hyperactive tunes fit this mosquitoid mech pretty well.
Round 1: Runaway
After passing prelims, I moved on to the next round where the theme was Energy. Each separate group of participants was given a sub-theme in the form of a different type of energy, and mine was kinetic energy. I was pretty stumped on what to do for this, so my build was slapped together pretty haphazardly. After fiddling with the reddish orange technic panels I had picked up recently, I found they made for a great flowing scarf. I figured this would be a good opportunity to add another entry to my Dog World series :3!! The other main motivator for the build was the blue Barraki squid that I had been trying to find a way to use for a while, and I thought they'd make for great flowing tears. Or at least, I would have used those if I hadn't LOST THEM. I ended up having to use yellow ones for the photo, and I edited their colour for the final post. Nobody ever said anything about it, so I guess I did a good job. :P
I had a few contenders for this build's song. I considered Runaway by Penelope Scott, Runaway by Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Runaway by Gezebelle Gaburgably. I ended up choosing Runaway by 100 gecs. lol
Round 2: Jaa, Scribe of Ko-Koro
Round 2's theme was DnD Classes, and my assigned class was the Monk. I know a Monk in DnD is more of a warrior type person, but I really wanted to go for more of a buddhist monk vibe. I liked the way that the Pohatu Phantoka arm pieces sloped down, reminiscent of baggy pants or robes, and so that was where the build started. I originally wanted to use orange for the outfit, but I only had one of the Phantoka arms in orange, and digitally editing from dark bluish gray to bright orange was a tall order.
I wanted to make another matoran in the same vein as my 2021 Bio-Cup build, Kai the Angler, so I tried to find the most monk like (but somewhat obscure) matoran from MNOG. I found Jaa, a scribe who Takua encounters in Ko-Koro by the Wall of Prophecy. I incorporated this profession into the build, giving him a stylus, a gold dish of ink, and some inked paper (using some Minecraft tiles to represent scribed runes).
I also really wanted to incorporate some Tibetan prayer flags. I've always loved the aesthetic of hanging flags, and I think their ties to different elements perfectly suited the Bionicle subject matter. Instead of the usual yellow to represent Earth, I opted for separate black and brown flags to mirror the original elemental colours of 2001 Bionicle.
Jaa's theme is Setting Sun by You'll Never Get to Heaven. The atmosphere of the track just felt suitable for snowy, isolated Ko-Koro.
The End
At the end of Round 2 I was eliminated, so I only ended up with these three builds. I treated the competition pretty casually this year, so honestly I was surprised to even make it to Round 2 :p
I'd really like to do some more stuff in the style of all three of these builds (Life on Mars mechs, Dog World, MNOG Matoran). I've got a couple of ideas…
That's all of my Bio-Cup ramblings for this year. Thanks for reading!!!
woof :3