Jarago: MOC Overview

Another old favorite rises anew. Last year when I challenged myself by trying to see what I could build in a day, I revisited Jarago and worked on giving him a more improved, original look than previously.
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The revamp was a bit of a mess due to time constraints, but it incorporated a lot of good ideas that I fell in love with because they made Jarago look much more birdlike, which I wanted in order to emphasize his Rahi nature. Like before, he's a lean and flexible bipedal. UNlike before, he has another color that gives him a little more character. (I wanted to add more than white, but I don't have the parts for it right now.) I also tried to include feathers in any way possible (because, again, more bird details) and added a little more to his custom torso just so he has a liiitle more beef than before (I want him to be lean, not sparse).

When I came back recently to fix him up, I mostly toned down those details so that he didn't look so messy, plus I tweaked the torso to improve the appearance and articulation. The biggest change was the sword and the head, both of which were challenging because I was picky about getting them perfect. In reality, the sword wasn't THAT hard; I just had trouble deciding on a smaller blade that looked good and served its purpose effectively. But the head- OH, the head. I nearly hurt my own head figuring out how to make Jarago's work, and even in the end, I'm still not completely happy. On the one hand, I think it looks GREAT! It's a way better birdy head than what I tried to pull out of a Bohrok-Va ripoff. But it's not stable. I have to think carefully about where I grab it for fear of it falling apart accidentally. Will I fix that? I dunno. On the scale that this figure is, it's hard to add stability without bulking up the component too much and making it look awkward. Besides, I love those big blue eyes too much. (8>