Mata Nui Online Game is one of the most core parts of Bionicle for me, I'd even go as far as saying I'm more of a MNOG fan who is also a fan of the tie in action figures.
I think one of the most endearing things about it is its art style, its sometimes quite rough, but it just comes together to make some very evocative imagery.
One of the most interesting examples of the very economical way in which this game was made is, I think, the Ussal crab.
The Ussal is first introduced in the Onu-Koro chapter of the game, an area focused around a large mine, and in keeping with this there's a lot of machinery. A few years ago I 3d modelled a lot of them, which is where I first had the realisation that the bulk of them are actually reusing Ussal graphics.
Its something that's come up quite a bit since so I feel I'd like to have a document that covers it all in detail for future reference.
To begin with: this is the Ussal. Its a cute little crab. It has a little rubber band function that lets it do little punches. Even though it first appeared as a set in 2002 it was all over 2001, from MNOG, to the card game Quest For The Masks, to the video games Quest for the Toa and the cancelled Legend of Mata Nui, and its even one of the first creatures you see in the comics!
MNOG, being a flash game, constructed the Ussal out of several simplified collections of parts that could be animated separately. They then reused these parts, flipping them around, overlapping them, scaling them, all sorts, to make all the various machinery you see throughout the area.
So I thought it would be a bit fun to tear apart a couple Ussals for purely demonstrative purposes.
These are all the main usages that I'm aware of. Note these aren't 1:1, there's some scaling involved in some plus extra little bits here and there.
Small Lava Valve
Large Lava Valve
Lava Pump-aka Tower of Crab Corpses
Drill-This one also contains parts of Whenua!
Light Stand-As I recall this was the what made me finally realise the Ussal connection, the bent beam was confusing me until I worked it out.
Lever-Yeah every time you ride this thing you're grabbing an Ussal's eye.
Elevator Winch-its up there, looming out of the darkness.
This object also includes many parts seen in the ziplines.
And while that may be it for the Onu-Koro chapter the Ussal bits make one last surprise appearance in the little electric bug from the next chapter, Le-Koro.
This one is playing a lot with scale, and its using the back of a Kewa bird for the abdomen. it means that the little guy isn't really buildable, but I've tried.
These are all the usages I'm aware of, I'd love to know if anyone's found any others! I'd also like to quickly note where the Ussal was not used, as I find it interesting.
When the Toa Kaita fight the Manas, a much larger, treaded crab, they end up having to smash these large control towers. The towers are full of miscalaneous mechanical bits, but no crab bits.
And at the end of the game, the void features entirely Toa bits and tubing, so no crab bits there either.
I just wanted to make a note of that since it was something I once wondered when looking in to this.
In conclusion, I find it so inspiring how effectively they used their assets. Like, did you know that Lewa's head here when he gets the infected mask knocked off is just reusing the foot graphic?
Wild stuff. Its just very in keeping with the whole building system Bionicle is based on and I love it.
Hope everyone filed their taxes on time. Good night.
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Recently I went to DragonCon where I had the joy of meetingĀ Comfort LoveĀ and Adam! They're amazing artists and were kind enough to do two drawings of my book characters for me. Everyone, this is Kinsaal and Usaal, my twins. They are from the Yaholcanob nation in my story. Kinsaal is the older sister, born 2 hours and 15 minutes before her brother. She's a fierce fighter and carries a macuahuitl, a club lined in sharpened obsidian. Her brother Usaal is a gentle soul and is a healer. He is a fairly skilled surgeon and tends to be the calming influence on his more hot-tempered sister.
