User blog comment:Mailbust/Bionicle Countdown: Toa Mata/@comment-4677076-20150103172145

Interesting idea, this. I actually look forward to future posts like this, if only for the sake of having debates. :P Anyway, here are my responses:

6. Onua - Actually, Onua was the first set I ever got as a kid (well, after Onepu); honestly, I dunno if he really deserves the bottom list just because he creeped you out as a kid. Yeah, the claw tools don't really work as weapons, or for anything besides digging, but I love his mask, and his green eyes contrast well with his color scheme.

5. Gali - I agree with you that her weapons are pretty useless (thank god they were upgraded to Aqua Axes and frankly terrible, but I think that the mask's ok (given that it had to be able to work on both males and females, it had to look androgynous), and I gotta disagree with you on the "non-feminine" build; they did add pegs to her pelvis to make her hips subtly wider, and that piece on her chest armor DID give it a slightly more feminine shape than the other Toa. Overall, I think that she was the second-most feminine female set in the original line, and she pulled it off a LOT more subtly than #1. XD

4. Kopaka - The mask is cool, but it always bothered me as a kid that he had only one visible eye; I wish they made the scope lenses translucent or something. :P I liked the sword a lot, but I have to agree that the shield kinda sucks; not because it looks un-elemental (with a bit of imagination, it kinda looks like a snowflake pattern), but because of how IMPRACTICAL it is. First, it's way too small, and second, WAAYY too gappy. If you used a shield like that in real life, you'd be dead in five seconds. This was something I thought was seriously improved with his Nuva form; the Nuva Ice Shield was a serviceable size, and since it was solid, it actually had a chance of stopping projectiles. Shame he no longer had posable hand to lift it properly, though.

3. Lewa - Honestly, Lewa's mask was the one that creeped me out most as a kid; maybe it was because I saw that one MNOLG cutscene where he was an infected zombie (infected Mirus are TERRIFYING; he looks like he has a sadist's grin frozen on his face). In any case, his axe was cool, but I HATED his left arm, which was practically useless; the dinky arm piece they used was vastly inferior to Tahu's, which used a leg piece and allowed for much more posability; Lewa, on the other hand (hahaseewhutIdidtharlol), was permanently fixed at a useless 90-degree angle.

2. Tahu - Honestly, I thought he was kinda overrated, but his mask WAS cool, and I think his sword was as well, at least for the time. Maybe that's the nostalgia goggles talking.

1. Pohatu - I know the brown sets were the least popular, but I just can't help but love Pohatu; his kick function IS awesome, as are his mask and color scheme, he's the only Toa to do the moonwalk, and his appearance in the MNOG only cemented his awesomeness. All that said, though... his first set has a lot of flaws; his kicking ability WAS awesome, but it came at the expense of his arms... which are absolutely terrible. They're stubby as hell, and not poseable at all - heck, they can barely reach past his chest! The worst thing for me, though, is that he HAD NO WEAPONS. All he has are those ridiculous two-fingered "hands" which can hold absolutely nothing (another thing that was improved with the Nuva) and those things on his feet. Why did Pohatu always get the short straw when it came to Toa weapons? His Nuva pincers were barely an improvement (since his arms were still un-poseable), and he got stuck with PROPELLORS in Phantoka form - which ironically were his BEST tools. Thank God the 2015 Pohatu seems to have broken free of this curse; his weapons look AWESOME. But as for 2001 Pohatu, the arms serve no purpose whatsoever.

That said, though, I still can't hate Pohatu; nostalgia aside, his mask looks cool, his kick ability's unique and cool (if impractical), his color scheme is badass and yes, the "leg spikes" DO give him a pretty edgy feel. He always struck me as the "sporty" one of the Toa Mata, and that's reflected well with this set.

Honestly, there isn't a Toa Mata I really dislike; they're all unique in their own way, the color schemes are all great, and though their Nuva weapons were more practical overall, and the figures are barely posable in comparison to later sets, these were a really good start for the series.