False Hopes 20 Years Later: Voriki Reinvented
/For devoted fans of a franchise, news of developments ahead of official announcements can be special and exciting. So much so, that some pranksters take advantage of fans’ hopes by creating fake “leaks” of upcoming LEGO sets to cause confusion. (Reminder, April Fools is nigh!) Typically these forgeries are poorly made and quickly forgotten, but there are a few exceptions.
In 2003 when LEGO teased the release of a legendary seventh Bionicle hero, the rumor mill ran wild and a fan “leaked” two retrospectively unconvincing images of the mysterious upcoming LEGO set.
In the time since, the fan-made character “Voriki” has been celebrated by the community as an honorary official set—you can even buy 3D printed custom parts to recreate the original image!
[Author’s Edit: A reader has informed us that Voriki was originally created as an entry for a contest and not a fake leak, but the identity of the creator remains unknown. The muddled story still served as an inspiration for the following model though, so this article will otherwise be presented unchanged. If you have any further information on the origins of Voriki, please leave a comment below.]
“Since Voriki isn’t actually a real Bionicle character, I wanted to do something drastically different!”
To celebrate the fake “leaked” set, builder Alex Mertens put his personal spin on the character, depicting him as a monstrous cyborg who is a massive, living electric generator:
Alex makes excellent use of texture motifs to establish the electric theme of the character. There is an impressive variety of carefully selected parts on display here in a delicate harmony of similar shapes both from a distance and close up. Here are a few details that stood out to me:
Bendable tube elements such as the black flexible hoses on the chest and the blue pneumatic hoses on the arms, stomach, and neck are used to depict a life support system for the biomechanical character.
Ribbed elements such as the purple 7mm hoses on the arms, gray technic steering racks on the torso, and black grabber arms used as toes bear a close resemblance to solenoids and coiled wire.
Grooved cylinder parts such as 18mm wheels and 2x2 dishes on the back generators, and micromotor pulleys on the wrists, evoke the shape of tesla coils.
Knobbed elements such as the purple Znap connectors on the forearms, black tread sprockets on the chest, and black bars with towball on the knees look ready to dissipate high voltage electric charges to his foes.
Two more parts are worth pointing out, as I have never seen them used in a MOC before: an orange hair tie from the LEGO’s old jewelry line Clikits is used as the grip on the staff, as well as an orange gear that you can find inside a disassembled 6 x 5 x 3 pullback motor.
It is exciting to see Voriki reimagined, especially as a fake “leak” that took on a life of its own.
Do you see any impressive parts usage that we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
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