[Check out Episode 171 of the TTV Podcast over on Vessel!][1]
This week, we have a much overdue discussion regarding the 2016 sets and, well… boy, opinions sure do change a lot as time goes on… #Pohateu
-Mesonak
[1]: https://www.vessel.com/videos/cChb-oHOG
Okay, lemme talk about Pohatu. Pohatu became my favorite G2 Toa due to the animations. As far as the 2016 set is concerned: I kind of like the build, but I don’t like anything about the color scheme. His chest piece does look interesting, but I can’t stand the color. He may be my favorite Toa character-wise, but set-wise he may be my least favorite. You guys hit on a lot of good points discussing Pohatu. I want to defend him, but I can’t.
I don’t really have anything else to add.
WHY
Why would they do this to Pohatu?!
All in all, a very funny episode. Nice work.
I do not support TTV’s relationship with my wallet.
Yay, it’s up! I’ll be back with my thoughts!
Passive sarcasm:
Yes, rocks are all always one shade of brown/black/grey/whatever. It’s too bad Pohatu can’t be more like actual rocks…
I don’t find him the worst set. He has a lot of flaws, but he’s not broken. Modding could easily solve half the issues with him.
I will say though, the United form isn’t favorable…
I know @IllustriousVar will punch me for that.
I can still tell Tahu is the fire one, so the gold doesn’t bother me.
More to come…
I have to agree with Var: Pohatu is the best 2016 Toa. In fact, Pohatu is the best G2 set except Umarak.
BBBB55
I like typing long things, and this episode gave me things to think and type about, so… Rankings!
His weapons don’t make much sense from the way he holds them, but I’ve got to say Lewa’s looking like my favorite so far. His mask just looks really sleek and aggressive, although it still suffers from this weird half-silver blend which I don’t like. In fact, if his keeps on silvering at this rate, we’ll be calling his 2017 version “Lewa, Harbinger of Iron” or something like that. Maybe too early to speculate on that. Also, epic Uxar unity. Umarak does this as well; Uxar just seems to look good with everyone. Kudos to Uxar.
Kopaka would be second, since he’s got a more solid, stoic, and cohesive look going on. His sword design is awesome too. Wish he had a good shield to go with it, but no, blaster it is. It seems he’s also made off with the only gold pieces that Tahu couldn’t get a hold of, which is probably why Tahu is always angry at him. It doesn’t do much for the color scheme, though. Melum unity balances out the gold and gives him his old shoulder pads back in white. Meh.
Umarak is antlery… I swear this guy’s collected and taken to wearing the antlers of every deer he’s ever killed, along with a few he hasn’t. He’s even stolen Kulta’s knife to take their pelts too. Still, his color scheme is one of the better ones here, both balanced and giving off a great ‘nature’ vibe. Leg design gives off a titan vibe, but I’m guessing that, like Kulta before him, Umarak won’t look half the challenge to the Toa in set form as the story will make him out to be. Mask of control proves why Umarak wears deer antlers and not buffalo horns: antlers look better.
Tahu’s got simply too much gold, and the technic parts in his weapons are rather jarring. What’s that function going to do? Does Tahu stab things with the upper flame parts and then scissor them to death with the lower ones? Random blue details are too random for me to get behind; I’d much prefer them being bright yellow. Or orange. Or red, but apparently Tahu’s left those days behind. His SUPERAWESOMEPOWEREDUPPHOENIX form brings him up a few points for me though. Not bad, Tahu. Not bad.
Gali… what did they do to you? I can deal with the orange, I can deal with the asymmetry, and I don’t mind trans-on-trans blue coloring. But that mask… I loved your 2015 mask design because it looked striking and wasn’t too complicated. I’ll give you that your ‘upgrade’ still looks simple, and it has retained the striking jawline from before, but that silver ‘shower cap,’ as someone dubbed it, just doesn’t work at all. So many small ridges that they just blend together into a silver dome, with none of the appeal of the ‘crown’ the old version had. Also, that weapon makes no sense. Yes, a lance, spear, or trident (hint hint) is good to use underwater, but why did you have to attach a fan to it? It looks like that one time Man At Arms made a combination of all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle weapons; iffy at first glance, and horrendously impractical to use. Akida combo forme does help you out, though, since the creature has the good sense to cover up the top of your mask and gives you gun turrets. Gun turrets make everything better.
Onua’s seen great improvement when it comes to his weapon; his hammer’s finally reached the awesome proportions of his concept art, and it now includes a drill and launcher to become a strange sort of Swiss-army maul. As for the rest of him, though… He looks like he suffers from the same issue 2015 Onua has: he’s supposed to be massive, bulky, and generally imposing, but looking at these pictures I’m pretty sure that he’s not one of the taller Toa, which really undermines his ‘muscleman’ image. The skeletal shoulder pads don’t help, being both too flat and too gappy to look good in my opinion. Terak unity tries and fails to solve the problem by making his shoulders three times thicker, resulting in them being ridiculously tall. Valiant effort, Terak, but no.
Pohatu, Pohatu, Pohatu… Did you steal your sister’s mask? Do you even have a sister? I don’t know but something about the eye shape of your new mask very, very strongly suggests ‘female’ to me, which isn’t good for a character whose personality can so far be described as “tough guy who doesn’t say much except when he does it’s in a deep voice with an australian accent because reasons.” Then there’s the weapon, which takes what Gali’s did badly and proves that it’s possible to do it even worse. You stab someone with the spear end, and the rock lands on your foot. You try to whack them with the rock end, and you’ll stab yourself with the spear. Did anyone think this through? I don’t even mind that he uses fifty thousand shades of brown because, as someone’s already pointed out, real rocks use fifty thousand shades of brown. As if a questionable mask and unfathomable weapon aren’t enough, though, he also perfectly shows off one of my main concerns with all these new Toa builds (and Umarak): the length of the Torso just doesn’t feel right. I get that Bionicle gets a lot of flak for limb proportions being all out of whack (great, now I’m rhyming too), but giving characters a really long torsos and short limbs isn’t any better.
Speaking of functions, another concern: when building a MOC (I know I’m not a great MOCer or anything, but bear with me) with waist articulation, people usually put the joint somewhere right below the ribcage. This makes sense: the ribcage doesn’t bend, and neither do the hips; the torso bends by twisting the soft bit in between. I fear that, with the rotation gear in all these torsos being mounted as low as it is, and all these sets having a single, solid piece representing the whole armored front of their torso, the function is going to look much more weird and unnatural than it should. It also makes the torso about one ‘stud’ taller than it should be: the lower end of the chest armor piece looks like its designed to cover the crotch area more, but because of the way the torsos are built that doesn’t happen.
On the whole, while the new parts look interesting and some of the sets look nice, I can’t say I’m quite as amazed by this wave as the first one… I’ll still get them, because I’ve become something of a collector. Hopefully, the sets will look a lot better in person.
Okay, I’ve gotten carried away. Maybe I’ll look at the creatures more in detail at some point, but I’ve already been typing for an hour on what was supposed to be a short discussion post. Also, I’ve gotten progressively more sarcastic and I don’t want to get to the point of being outright rude or offensive (beyond posting ridiculously long replies, that is) so I’m going to call it here. Have fun discussing, everyone!
"THIS SET IS EVEN WORST THAN must not reference that thing "
I do agree that Pohatu is bland.
I still think Gali’s mask looks fantastic. 
I think Gali and Tahu are tied for my favorite simply because I like the way their combination looks.
Also, Pohatu’s combination looks like someone shortened Dr. Octopus’ arms and added Scorpions stinger tail, but made it so that he can only stab upwards. It’s disgraceful.
you guys said you wanted fan art so here you go. hope you like it~!
But wait, there’s more!
Behold, the only ship that could possibly be better than TTV x fan wallets:
@IllustriousVar x Combo Pohatu 2016 
Picture confirmation: 2016 Pohatu is now a girl. Because G2 needs more non-blue female characters!
Oh I ship it. I ship it hard.
Aside from this beautiful art, the episode was awesome! Meso’s powers of absolute uncertainty reign supreme and you all have officially ruined Pohatu for me! Thank you! (In all seriousness, that set is garbage, and ketar is worse than the freakin budget terak)
I do indeed.
KILL MEEEEEE!!!
that is pretty incredible
though Pohatu is one of my least favorites, I cannot say I hate him at all
K, so I think that this Picture is amazing…but wow…
Pohatu looks good? I dunno, oddly feminine, but good…
also Var’s face…
The podcast should have been called: The TTV Podcast - 171 - 50 Shades of Brown.
Woo hoo! I shipped it ten episodes ago!
Poor Var. I suppose his only hope to sink the ship is Gali Unity. 
