From Good to Great: The 2024 Bio-Cup Blessing
The annual Bionicle building competition Bio-Cup is nearly over. The semifinals end in a few days, and then it will be down to the last three competitors to battle it out for the first-place title. If you don’t know about Bio-Cup yet, it’s the largest LEGO constraction building contest with over 150 entries that all get narrowed down to one victor in a tournament-style competition.
Each round has a unique theme and lasts two weeks, with builders in groups of three or four battling head-to-head to move on to the next round. With great prizes on the line, such as sealed sets, custom resin cast masks, and cash, it’s no surprise this contest brings out the absolute best in everyone. This year, I want to look at four builders who really excelled in this year’s competition and, I think, took a few people by surprise with their amazing builds.
Micellanabuilds
Many of you probably know of Micellanabuilds, who for a while predominantly built with just System parts. But in the past couple of years he has been branching out into creating characters, but again, mostly with system parts. For this year’s Bio-Cup he really showed his skill, achieving first place in the preliminary round and making it all the way to Round 2 with some wonderful builds.
We’ll start by looking at his preliminary build, which was ranked first out of over 150 builds. This is the perfect blend of constraction and System parts for a great character. Between the happy emotion conveyed through the face and the posing of the limbs, it creates a very lovable character with lots of life. This, added with great NPU such as frogs as a jaw and minifigure katanas as the ears, elevated this build to the next level.
Ground control to major tomcat
Taking a look at his first-round build, it’s another character with great theming and so many wonderful little details. It is very clear to see where Bianca, the Springstress, gets her name. The spring coils around her boots, super curly hair made with flex tube, and the ribbed hose texture all help sell her springiness. We can’t forget about the actual metal springs taken out of LEGO elements, used around the waist and in the hair, all potentially from small spring-loaded missile launchers. And the large springs around the shoulders come from a Technic pull-back motor.
Bianca, the springstress
Darknova3529
From what I can find this was Darknova3529’s first year competing in Bio-Cup after having built characters for around three years. Their preliminary build ranked 44th which is a great placement, but with 108 builds that pass preliminaries, it’s just above the middle of the pack. Round 1 and 2 is really where Darknova really shined.
At first glance, this build looks great—it’s a play on the Piraka rap song with a large scale Piraka singing it. Not only is the scale impressive for two weeks of building, but it is also motorized! You can see the build in action on their Flickr and it is quite a sight to behold. Not only does the mouth move but so does the whole head and the music notes in the background. If that isn’t the embodiment of a sound based build, I don’t know what is
YO yo piraka
Continuing with the sound theme, for Round 2, Darknova created an old bard playing a wonderful tune for us. This one is not motorized but has so many other nice aspects. The face stands out to me, using the Chima fur piece to create a nose shape and the small barbs for some bushy eyebrows without needing to actually create eyes. All the music notes add that extra little bit of life the build needed to convey through a single still photo.
Song of the dragon
LegoJoey
Joey is another builder many of you probably know of, and this was also his first year entering Bio-Cup—and he did not disappoint!. Being a master model builder at LEGOLAND, he’s extremely experienced with building, but once again mostly with System pieces. Sometimes delving into mech builds, this year he dove head first into constraction building for Bio-Cup. His preliminary build ranked 5th which is an amazing showing for a first time entry, and he continued with great builds through Round 2.
His preliminary build is a fresh take on the theme being a mix of Xenomorph and a lobster of all things. The messier texture of Bionicle pieces work very well here to match the texture of real lobsters. The subtle color mixing, attention to texture coherence, and perfect blending of lobster anatomy and iconic Xenomorph parts all culminate into a showstopper build. (Also the rubber band lemon is the perfect addition to the build!)
xenolobster queen
For Round 1, Joey built another model combining two seemingly unrelated things. A beetle and a gravitron—another very unique take on a very challenging theme. I’m not sure what it was about this Bio-Cup, but we got not one, but two great looking models that are motorized. Yup that’s right, the gravitron actually spins! You can see it in action on his Flickr. Besides that, this build also has great color and texture cohesion, and cute little Bionicle guys.
Gravitron Beetle
Legonerdphotos
Legonerd, like the others, predominantly built figures with System parts. This year, though, they decided to show up and show off in Bio-Cup. Of the four builders in this article, they are the only one still competing in Round 3 at the time of this being published. In preliminaries, Legonerd ranked 47th, but that only set them off to keep improving as the competition progressed.
World Eater is a safer take on the space theme for the preliminary round, but a very well executed one. The sense of scale created with the globe and micro satellite are perfect additions to giving this build life. The motion depicted by the tail and tongue make the creature look very hungry for its next meal.
World Eater
The final build we will look at also happens to be one of my personal favorites. The presentation alone on this build elevates it to another level, as the lighting and shadows create a fully immersive picture that tells an entire story in a single shot. The build itself is also great, using rigid pieces to create a cloak is very impressive. Of course the little guys are everyone’s favorite and for good reason. They are cute, innocent, and in need of help—all clearly conveyed in a small build without complex designs.
Light in the darkness
The greatest part about Bio-Cup—above the prizes, above the pressure of competition, above vacations being ruined—is seeing the absolute best MOCs that builders have to offer. It’s just something about the time pressure, competing against some of the best, and impressing the judges that drives everyone to give it their all—and it produces some of the best MOCs out there.
These four builders were standouts to me this year that really excelled above and beyond, but there are another 104 builders that made it past preliminaries that I didn’t get to mention. Each of them growing and improving in their own ways. Make sure to check out all the amazing MOCs from this year in the Flickr group, and follow along as the semi finals are about to end and the finals are about to begin!
What have been some of your favorite builds of Bio-Cup 2024? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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