Gastly: Confuse Ray
Back to back entries with Ninjago spinners? I was not entirely satisfied with last week's usage of them for magic/fire, so I decided to revisit the elements again this week. With the theme of the week being "Attack!", my brain went straight to Pokémon, and I began looking through ones that would be doable in 101 parts or less. Gastly seemed like the perfect candidate since I would be able to utilize the spinners for the gas/ghost effect, and the rest of the Pokémon is literally just a ball with a face.
I started with the eyes. Though Gastly's appearance differs depending on the art, most depictions have it with very tiny pupils. I originally had bars for the pupils, but it ended up looking uncanny due to the scale I was working at. As a result, I decided to make the pupils slightly larger and rounder using the mixel bar. To capture the eyebrow muscles, I used a Bohrok windscreen. Due to this piece's natural geometry, it allowed me to not only capture the muscles but also form the upper head/body. For the mouth, I used dino tails to form the expression, and bounded the lower jaw with another Bohrok windscreen. The newer shoulder shell is used for the tongue.
For the ghost effect, I made sure to align the spinners in the same direction. However, I wanted to give the model a sense of motion, so I flipped around the spinners on the right side to give it a wispy effect. There's not really any element quite like this in the Lego catalog at the moment, and they're pretty much perfect for replicating the energy effect style of actual resin figures.
To fit the "Attack!" theme, I added three Dimensions NFC tags to represent the in-game move Confuse Ray. I originally wanted to do a combo of trans-bright green, trans-orange, and trans-purple, but I didn't quite have the elements or parts left for a good solution. I think the Dimensions tags work though - let's just say Gastly is using pre-generation VI confuse ray...
The one gripe I have about this model is the base. If I was not under the limit, I would have probably opted for a more detailed and angular base to help distinguish the Pokémon a bit more. Not a huge deal to those who already know what Gastly looks like, but for those who don't, I could see the base being misread a bit as part of the Pokémon. Regardless, to no one's surprise, this is probably my favorite build I've made in the contest so far!
