Jason Corlett would not be the first to use a kraata jar as part of a characters head, although his design is one of the better ones I’ve seen.

Beta Three is the second generation of robots capable of AHE or Artificial Human Emotion. The Alpha Two was the first to use it but the hardware was flawed. As AHE evolved into a more advanced piece of software, the robot needed to be upgraded to be able to run it. This new robot has a head that has artificial muscles integrated into it for more complex emotions. If the muscles dry out they become very brittle and must be replaced. To keep the muscles wet, the entire head is surrounded by a jar-like helmet filled with a special chemical solution. The body of the robot has also been upgraded to be lighter and easier to repair.

Jason Corlett

Besides just making a fun looking body to attach the head onto, Jason used some interesting design techniques to make the kraata container blend in better. Specifically, the wheels throughout the torso and limbs serve to make the cylindric jar fit thematically with the entire design, along with a touch of gray here and there to better blend the colors in.

I do find the offset elbows slightly irritating, although I think Jason wanted to emphasize the robotic look with a skeletal limb design. There probably wasn’t a great way to center the limbs and keep the arms slimmed down. The legs are offset similarly, however the pistons there add a bit of depth to make that less noticeable.

If you want to see more of Jason Corlett’s work, you can find his flickr album here. Jason’s usual creations are spaceships and mecha, trending toward technic and bricks more often than CCBS and BIONICLE. His mecha creations are very inspiring, and demonstrate some of the strengths of using standard bricks for detailing mechanical characters. His spaceships are equally impressive, many of which appear to be even larger than the USC Millennium Falcon.