Makerspace at the Fulton School
Adaptive/Nuva armor and Enhancements to Toa Mata
This project aims to modify the 2001 Toa mata to have better articulation and access to all of their forms while retaining the base mata/nuva type body with all of the functions that come with. However, this is mainly about the new masks for these forms and what modification was required to mke it work.
From 2001, these are the base the project works on to improve and to make compatable with later forms. A basic modification to temporarily disable the gear function and lock the arms in place came with their nuva forms, but works on these guys as well.
These are the forms that the Noa Mata took at the end of 2002 after being dumped in what is essentialy their version of electric primordial soup. These guys have multi function weapons, alongside an extra gear and size three axle to lock up the gear funtion and hold the arms/legs steady.
These are the forms the Toa Nuva took in 2008. Divided into two groups, (Phantoka and Mistika) many thought that these designs were not true to the characters. The main things that I think caused this view are the masks and torso builds. Other than that, there are many cool aspects of these designs that I would like to carry over into the project.
These are photos of the designs for the modified limbs. These would not only improve articulation and possability to the toa mata, but by using CCBS joints and the custom upper arm, special armor can be attached while retaining a more familiar design. The first sucsessful implimentation was Kopaka, as seen directly above. Some refinements would be made to the legs later
Tahu is the toa of fire, and wears the Kanohi Hau, mask of shielding. He is presenting unique challenges when it comes to the limbs. They dont make the modular peices in orange, so I have to find work arounds. In the future, I may be able to print orange bones. As for now however, the 2008 form is (in my opinion) actually one of the better Mistika transitions, with only the mask being the problem. To solve this, I used KhingK’s Noble Hau Model on Thingverse. Though it was designed as a less powerfu version of the Hau, it incorperated design elements from the base Hau, Nuva form, and even bits from the base 2008 mask. It kinda makes a nice interpertation of a adaptive Hau. When I 3d printed it, it was yellow. When I initialy went to test it out, the axle snaped, and i had to glue it back on. It now sits slightly crooked, but still looks decent with the red paint.
Pohatu is a Toa of speed, wearer of the Kakama, the mask of speed. Pohatu Mata is completely unmodified. He shares a problem with Tahu, as they dont make the official bone peices in tan. Also, the 2008 Phantoka form is diffrent colors than the base form. Those colors and the base design were actually pretty cool, but didn’t have mutch cohesion with the previous forms. For the mask, I used Galva’s Adaptive Kakama (Flight) modle from Thingverse. This more resembled The Kakama nuva, while having the cheek vent things of the normal mask. This one could also fit a visor underneath. I printed this in orange and tried to initaly paint it woith a normal brown that turned out too dark. Because of this, I decided to go with a more red brown color, to more successful results. It even fits the mata head peice.
From the same print as The Adaptive Kakama Nuva, these are limbs designed after the Toa mata limbs, similar save for the knee/arm joint. It worked pretty well, but it presented the problem of retaining the same flawed hip and sholder joints. It still is pretty cool though, and I may find a use for these peices in the future.
By far the most realised version of this project, Onua is the toa of Earth. His mask is the Pakari, the mask of stregnth. He was the second and currently the only other to recieved the modified limbs other than Kopaka. Onua has the second version of the modified limbs, now fully modular and able to recieve the upgrade parts. For the mask, I was going to go with The Sky Adapted Pakari by Galva, but thought the Project Nuva Pakari by Rothanak would be a better fit fo a Toa Nuva based form like the Mistika form was supposed to be. The mask wasnt origionaly scaled properly, so I had to do that myself. The mask was first printed in white plastic, and Using some paint at home and a pipecleaner, I managed to paint the entire mask Black. I also descovered i had most of the parts to emulate a mostly complete Mistika form, so I experimented until I achieved the results seen above. While not perfect, this is a really cool thing to have built.
Kopaka is a Toa of Ice, and wears the Akaku, mask of X ray vission. Kopaka’s Phantoka mask is Galva’s Flight adapted Akaku. I chose this as supposedly, it actually works with the lazer peice. However, a drill bit is needed for modification on this print. This was printed at the same time as the Project Nuva Pakari, hence why the both started out white. However, no color change was needed for this mask, as that is Kopaka’s base color.
It took a week to print Lewa and Gali’s masks. To start with, I decided to move to the other printer, so I had to learn how to use that. Then, the printers were acting a bit funny, so I had to restart the print three times before it actually started to print the masks properly. I also printed a neck joint adapter because the masks seemed to work best with metru heads. In the end, it ended up working
Gali is the Toa of Water. She wears the Kaukau, mask of waterbreathing. Gali Mata is completely unmodified. The mask choise was a toss up between the Galva model and the Rothanak model. The Galva model had compatability with the head fins on the 2008 mask, but the Rothanak version more closely resembled the Kaukau Nuva. Both could use the visor peice. In the end, I ended up going with the Rothanak model. Similar to Rothanak’s Pakari Nuva, I had to scale the model myself, though im not sure I did it quite right. It may work better with Metru heads. The printing process was its own mess that was covered earlier. When it did print, the axle sheered clean off upon initial testing with a metru head. After modifiying the axle and re-glueing it, it seemes to funtion. I painted the mask at home using a mix of a dark and light blue, as for some reason I dont have a base blue paint. In the end it worked out pretty well., though it only really fits on a metru head, meaning later extensive modification may be neccisary.
I dont actually have Lewa, but I know the exact modifications I need to make to make him work. Lewa is the Toa of Air. His mask is the Miru, mask of levetation. The mask used was Galva’s Flight Adapted Miru and is compatibe with a visor peice. It was printed along side Gali’s mask. After getting stuck in a Metru head, I trimed the axle so that it would be easier to remove and put on. It dosn’t fit on Mata heads, so more modifications will be needed later to make a Mata body work with a Metru head. Also, it may be an issue to find four lime ccbs bones for the forearms/shins if the trans-neon green colors dont work.
Cronologicly, this is the point at wich I started on the Mistika form for Onua. A Hero Factory torso shell scaled better than the actual shield seemed to, so I used that instead. I initialy didnt know how to construct the legs with the thrusters on the cack and the armor on the fron at the same time, but then i decided to use the spike peice over a size two shell to reach a cool effect like there are verniers under the spiked shins. I am still working on the shield and sholder fins, but as of right now, it looks really cool and very simillar to what the finished project will be.
In the future, more modifications will need to be made to make the 2008 armor work. however with the upper arm designs and ccbs bones, this should be easier/more effective to do. Some designs like Kopaka and Tahu’s will require some more intresting solutions than than just applying armor.
On the left, there is the vernier backpack. If you put the blue axle pin where the gear stopper usually goes, you will be able to attach Tahu Mistika’s Vernier backpack. At least, this is how I would like it to work, but i dont have all of the peices to test this yet. On the right, there is Kopaka’s wing backpack. It attaches the same way as Tahu’s backpack, but has extensions to attach Kopaka Phantoka’s wings using pins so they can move into and out of position. The pin holes can also be replaced with ball joints for the extra shells that I 3d printed.
This is the most recent development in this project. what if instead of some sholder spikes, Gali’s Mistika form had Turbines/propellers similar to the Protector of water pictured directly above? More developments could come from this but this is as far as the idea has progressed at this point.
The Toa Mata could combine into two super powered beings using only the peices included in the sets. I dont know if it is possible, but when completed, maybe that would work with the modified toa mata as well?
Thats all I have for now. More updates to follow!
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