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Which Toa Mata version is the best?


Mish

  

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Which version of the Toa Mata is your favorite? Mata, Nuva, adaptive armor, or 2015?

Edited by Mish
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Two things, I Do believe this belongs in Discussion, not Storyline and theories, And you May want to add a Poll.

 

Anyway, to answer your Question, They all had their Ups and Downs, though AA Had alot of Downs, Nuva Pohatu looked really wierd(I Can't explain Why, he was just, offputting), Onua Nuva Had Short Arms(Way too Short), So in all, its a Tie between Mata, and 2015.

Edited by Dragon11603
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The Kanohi Nuva were hideous, and the Adaptive Armor was too dull and grey for my tastes. As for 2001 and 2015... I have to admit that 2015's Toa are more interesting sets, and are probably more fun to play with, but they can't compete with my nostalgia. I have to go with the original ​Toa Mata.

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"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant."
-- Harlan Ellison

 

 

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I loved the silver on the AA. It gave them some more depth rather than giving them excessively bright colors like in 2001. They also had much better articulation and didn't have those obnoxious gear functions that got in the way of both playing and posing. Plus the blasters added to the play factor.

So in my opinion, the AA Toa beat the Nuva and Mata by a mile. They were not as good as other Toa waves such as the Hordika or the Mahri, but they sure were an improvement off those stiff and obnoxiously bright ones that we got in earlier years.

However I do like the 2015 Toa even more than AA (which is really saving something because they were pretty good sets). 2015's Toa are much more complex, larger, have more intricate masks, and are overall very good (especially Pohatu). Unfortunately they have gear functions, but are handled much better than the earlier waves. Same with the overly bright colors, as they are balanced out with metallics.

For me, 2015 and AA are close for first, with Nuva and Mata being WAY far behind.

Edited by The Irrational Rock
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bZpOwEr

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The Toa Mata had no posability, but iconic mask designs.

 

The Nuva had worse masks, but some of the best weapons in Gen1.

 

AA were posable, but were too dissimilar to the Mata

 

The Gen2 Toa aren't the Mata at all, but they're better for having both gears, posability, dual-function weapons and the best color schemes. Mask function is a little fiddly though.

:r: :e: :g: :i: :t: :n: :u: :i:

Elemental Rahi in Gen2, anyone? A write-up for an initial video for a G2 plot

 

I really wish everyone would stop trying to play join the dots with Gen 1 and Gen 2 though,it seems there's a couple new threads everyday and often they're duplicates of already existing conversations! Or simply parallel them with a slightly new 'twist'! Gen 2 is NEW, it is NOT Gen 1 and it is NOT a continuation. Outside of the characters we already have I personally don't want to see ANY old characters return. I think it will cheapen the whole experience to those of us familiar with the original line...

 

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Far and away the Toa of Okoto. They've got the best features of every previous wave combined, and more, with both gears and poseability, both vibrant chromatic and metallic colors. They pay homage to the Mata more faithfully than the Nuva or AA Nuva, while at the same time incorporating dual-function weapons like the Nuva. They come with their golden masks, a significant advantage over the Mata, and their power-up modes are far better than the AA Matoran rider gimmick. And though they incorporate a mask pop-off function like the Mata, it's vastly superior, and their heads look like actual heads. To top it all off, the Toa of Okoto sets even come with enemies, a 'conflict in the box' allowing immediate combat role-playing, something all previous iterations of the heroes failed to deliver.

 

Don't get me wrong, the older iterations were great to varying extents, and I take no issue with anyone else preferring them. But for me, there's practically no contest.

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Of the old constraction sets, the Mata are very simple in design, not having much posability or individuality to the sets, but definitely have cool design and workable play function. The Nuva added a couple more play functions with the dual-purpose tools, but were more or less the same build as the mata but with added shell pieces (and worse masks, ugh. I get they were trying to go for more organic, but..). I don't own all of the Adaptive Armour sets, but they are for sure the most advanced designs of the Olda, featuring such revolutionary ideas as bendable limbs, individual design, and masks that don't come off. I had mentioned in a separate topic that I really really liked the Mahri, having that everyone's-different-but-they-fit-as-a-team design, while the AA definitely don't have that. The sky three are smooth and shiny, with bulky jetpacks and long tools, while the swamp three are muted colours, have a rougher texture to some of their parts, opting instead for jet turbine pieces and two-handed blasters (or in tahu's case a shield too, since apparently having a mask for that isn't enough). In the groups of three they look good, but with all six (or eight if you have the vehicles) they just don't mesh well. Their blasters are even different! From a design standpoint I award my vote to the Toa Mata, from a playability standpoint I award it to the Adaptive Armour Toa Nuva.

 

Even though the CBBS Masters blow them both away. :P

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Current Bionicle Sets: 232/250
2001: 23/24 2002: 20/21 2003: 22/22 2004: 22/22 2005: 23/23
2006: 16/22 2007: 22/22 2008: 25/27 2009: 26/26 2010: 4/6
2015: 18/18 2016: 11/17

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Mata & 2015 are tied,

 

Each of the Toa Mata, despite using almost exactly the same bricks, was still able to have a design all their own (except for Tahu, he was red Kopaka minus scope and shield) And G2 because just holding the newly assembled Lewa in my hand was an epic feeling, and each of the G2 Toa seems to perfectly embody both their element and their previous forms.

 

Why's it called '15 anyways? I got m' Pohatu right after Christmas '14.

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Definitely 2015. Everyone knows full well that if CCBS existed back in 2001, they would have used it. I think the new Toa not only topple the older versions, but they also are way better than the sets of Hero Factory. Posing, function, they've got it all! It's like the Toa Metru, but better execution on both fronts, posing and function. The gear-system has friction, and because of that, the poses are near-endless.

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The Toa Mata were the classic examples of what Bionicle is about, there's nothing wrong with them.

 

The Toa Nuva I feel were better than the Toa Mata, they kept the classic example while adding to it to make it better.

 

The Mistika/Phantoka had their ups and downs, but overall not the best, and the new ones are good, but still haven't yet reached the glory of the Toa Nuva.

 

The overall winner? Definitely the Toa Nuva.

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"In this new- Wait, why am I being quoted?!"

-Kovika, Toa of Ice, Bread Enthusiast, and Ko-Metru Scholar.

 

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As this appears to be about the sets (or both), sending to Discussion. :) BTW, folks, next time remember to use the report button.

 

And BTW, here's my estimation (although it doesn't consider all factors):

 

best_toa.png

 

Apparently Mata wins for me both with count of top choices and higher levels of the not-top choices. It had several glaring downsides that later years fixed, but I guess they were spread out randomly enough to not make any other team win out. Reboot comes in second. Looks like Nuva is third based on my overall choices, although it lacks any top winner. Pohatu Karda winning out doesn't surprise me, although the chart doesn't factor that I miss the loss of brown (but then orange is my favorite color, so forgiven in that case!).

 

I made this in Powerpoint. If anybody wants to make their own, I uploaded the file here. If your tastes are similar to mine you can modify slide 1, or start from scratch with the template on slide 2. :) (Select a bar, then drag the top middle resizing dot up or down.)

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Mata:  Defined the Toa's look but weren't that posable.

 

Nuva:  Posability wasn't fixed, and the Toa seemed bulkier.  But the whole transforming tools (e.g. Tahu's blades turning into his surfboard) were cool.

 

Karda:  I'm not sure what was wrong with them, but they get a solid 'meh' in my opinion.  They were pretty posable though.  Plus Lego had just switched socket designs so the joints tend to crack easier.  The fact they could link with the Matoran was cool.

 

Okoto:  I haven't got any yet, but CCBS doesn't lend itself well to Gen1's mechanical look.  However, they are posable and have gears (a pro, IMO).  And Pohatu finally got a cool weapon.

 

My ideal Toa would combine parts of all of the generations:  the Mata's biomechanical look, the Nuva's transforming tools, and Okoto's flexibility.  And rocket-propelled boomerangs.

Avatar by Nicholas Anderson (NickonAquaMagna)

My blog: The Jaga's Nest

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evil-jaga-genius, it seems that your main gripe about gen2 is that the mechanical look of Gen1 is no longer there. I think that Lego kind of wanted to get rid of the overly-complex pieces, and I know that later sets, especially 2009's, suffered from the mish-mash of styles conveyed in their pieces. I like the simplicity of CCBS, but also notice that the new armor add-on borrows from the piston-y look of 2001-2003. I like that, and how it gives a little bit of the old, while keeping the central armor design rather simple and customizable.

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I like all four versions of them to one extent or another. Though the Nuva would probably be my favorites. I do agree that, build-wise, the 2015 sets are better. But they can't beat my nostalgia for the Nuva sets. :P

Everyone is one choice away from being the bad guy in another person's story.


 


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As this appears to be about the sets (or both), sending to Discussion. :) BTW, folks, next time remember to use the report button.

 

And BTW, here's my estimation (although it doesn't consider all factors):

 

best_toa.png

 

Apparently Mata wins for me both with count of top choices and higher levels of the not-top choices. It had several glaring downsides that later years fixed, but I guess they were spread out randomly enough to not make any other team win out. Reboot comes in second. Looks like Nuva is third based on my overall choices, although it lacks any top winner. Pohatu Karda winning out doesn't surprise me, although the chart doesn't factor that I miss the loss of brown (but then orange is my favorite color, so forgiven in that case!).

 

I made this in Powerpoint. If anybody wants to make their own, I uploaded the file here. If your tastes are similar to mine you can modify slide 1, or start from scratch with the template on slide 2. :) (Select a bar, then drag the top middle resizing dot up or down.)

 I compared all of the Toa Versions against each other (better thing = one tally mark) which got me this. Apparently I like the Okotans the best. 

 

:P

 

That's how I usually do it. I naturally consider weapons more strongly in rating sets, so I can incorporate that more readily into the analysis for a more accurate taste depiction. Takes more work though. :P Then I ditched my Not-Invented-Here Syndrome and got this: 

 

17030223878_940f398172_z.jpg

 

What. 

 

One thing I noticed about this was that it didn't account for the weights like the other analysis did, so I took the weights out. That left me with the Okotoans and the Mata at a dead heat, with the other versions not even coming close. 

 

There was so much inconsistency in that analysis - and admittedly, in the grid - that I probably like the Toa Okoto the most out of all of them, though. However, I'll concede that the original Mata are a strong second, and that I'm probably biased toward the originals despite getting into Bionicle late. (I'm probably also biased toward the Toa Okoto because they were my first actual Toa sets that actually belonged to me as well, but whatever. I'll also argue that they are probably higher quality because innovation tends to make things better. :P)

 

[/nerddddddd]

Edited by fishers64
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I really really liked the Mahri, having that everyone's-different-but-they-fit-as-a-team design, while the AA definitely don't have that. The sky three are smooth and shiny, with bulky jetpacks and long tools, while the swamp three are muted colours, have a rougher texture to some of their parts, opting instead for jet turbine pieces and two-handed blasters (or in tahu's case a shield too, since apparently having a mask for that isn't enough). In the groups of three they look good, but with all six (or eight if you have the vehicles) they just don't mesh well. Their blasters are even different! From a design standpoint I award my vote to the Toa Mata, from a playability standpoint I award it to the Adaptive Armour Toa Nuva.

The Phantoka were in the sky whilst the Mistika were in a swamp environment, so they shouldn't look completely unified due to their adaptive armour. It's not like the Mahri where they were all underwater with no AA.  

Edited by 32one
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This is a tricky question. My very favorite forms are the phantoka, while the mistika kinda suck. The nuva for the most part kinda suck. The mata are highly nostalgic for me and hold a special place in my heart. The reboots are all pretty awesome, but I miss the very tech look from the past. The exclusivity of bionicle pieces is what kind of made it so great to me, and now most of the 2015 parts can be found in other themes. Before this, most bionicle parts could only be found in bionicle sets.

 

In the end, my favorites by character would come to this

 

Tahu-mata

Gali-mata

Lewa-phantoka

Kopaka-phantoka

Onua-mata

Pohatu-phantoka

Edited by JanitorJake

:y::m_o::l::m_o:

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2015 > Mata > Nuva > Adaptive Armor  Mata was great, but lacked posability. Nuva were pretty much the same but with uglier masks (probably some of the worst bionicle masks) and silver armor thrown on. Kopaka and Gali were the only one with decent masks. Adaptive Armor was terrible.

 

2015 was fantastic, great masks (lewa and gali being the only iffy ones), great designs and colors, cool weapons (besides kopaka re using tahu's), only problem with the color scheme is that i think there was a little too much transparent colors used at times. 

 

Anyone else notice that, throughout all the versions, Kopaka's masks always look the most similar? Even with 2015. I wonder why.

Edited by hiddenderek
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Mata were the first toas I ever owned. I was still young at the time and that was good enough. I was fine with playing with them without posing.

 

The Nuva were good as well, I liked the weapons and especially toa Lewa. I didn't like though that Kopakas mask was mirrored from the original. Otherwise it was alright.

 

AA I never had. I was going through a rough patch and was unable to purchase any sets at all. However, from seeing them, they looked unpleasing. They had no action and were much too thin. I wish they stayed close to the metru designs.

 

I plan on getting the 2015 models. They interest me and I plan to reuse the parts later for future projects of mine. Some I won't say. However, what I don't like about the new sets is the inequality of dedication placed into each toa. Tahu has the most effort while Lewa has the least. (Only Tahu's mask has inner detailing while Lewa is very vague)

 

My choice is tied for all four.

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2015 > Mata > Nuva > Adaptive Armor  Mata was great, but lacked posability. Nuva were pretty much the same but with uglier masks (probably some of the worst bionicle masks) and silver armor thrown on. Kopaka and Gali were the only one with decent masks. Adaptive Armor was terrible.

 

2015 was fantastic, great masks (lewa and gali being the only iffy ones), great designs and colors, cool weapons (besides kopaka re using tahu's), only problem with the color scheme is that i think there was a little too much transparent colors used at times. 

 

Anyone else notice that, throughout all the versions, Kopaka's masks always look the most similar? Even with 2015. I wonder why.

Kopaka's mask is the one constant the Bionicle universe revolves around.  To change it would mean to unbind all of reality.

 

(Or have a bunch of angry fans bust down the doors of Lego headquarters, but close enough)

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Avatar by Nicholas Anderson (NickonAquaMagna)

My blog: The Jaga's Nest

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My favorite would be 2015 by far. They are a big improvement to earlier forms, and their color schemes are very nice. 

 

My least favorite would be Adaptive Armor. The Phantoka looked alright, but they didn't resemble the Nuva, and the Mistika were just terrible. And Gali Mistika makes it worse..........

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2015, definitely. They're arguably the most varied designs yet, with a diverse range of heights and physiques. Plus they have energetic color schemes, versatile parts, gear functions, dual-function weapons, and thirteen points of articulation each. And they pay earnest tribute to the essence of the characters' original designs. They're easily my favorite Toa sets to date!

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Both the original Mata and the 2015 versions are the best for me. I feel like choosing one of the two is unfairly pitting a set from 2001 against a set from 2015, which is a little like comparing the performance of a model T Ford with a current Ford vehicle; of course the current one is going to perform better, because it's had years to refine the rougher aspects of the original. Similarly, because of the changing standards of constraction building, of course the 2015 Toa are going to be better action figures than the Mata; it's been fourteen years, and many things have changed.

 

There are, however, aesthetic things that, to me, the Mata accomplish better than the 2015 Toa. For example, the 2001 masks all had simple yet iconic designs. They have identifiable designs, work together in a consistent aesthetic, and yet avoid the overdetailing that plagued masks from at least 2004 onward. (For example, the Ignika was covered with fins, patterns, grooves, etc.) The 2015 masks may dial down the detail a bit from that, but it still shows in places (particularly Lewa's segmented face; I'm not a fan of that.) So, while 4/6 of the 2015 masks are fairly faithful adaptations of the originals, the originals still have something about them that feels more elegant to me.

 

I also prefer how much purer the Mata's color schemes feel. I've mentioned before that the amount of metallic color in the 2015 Toa is offputting to me (particularly Gali, who to me feels really washed out). The Mata, however, were visually much more elemental-feeling. (Partswise, they may not have seemed like they had much more of their elemental color, but you need to realize the difference in how parts were used; in the Mata, pretty much every visually important aspect of their design [e.g. limbs, body, mask, feet] was one of their elemental colors.) Aesthetically, to me, that feels more vibrant, more purely elemental, and more interesting than, say, 2015 Lewa, who feels maybe 60% elemental.

 

Plus, y'know, you can't beat nostalgia. They were the face of the original Bionicle, and to me, they'll always be representative of its best parts.

 

The 2015 Toa are great, but to call them better than the Mata feels disingenuous.

 

edit: oh yeah, and the Phantoka/Mistika are the worst.

 

the wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorst.

Edited by Dina Saruyama
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Ahh yes the old generation. of course the 2015 is far out superior, but of the old ones... here's my view.

 

Mata: Vibrant colors, cool masks and weapons and unique individual character minor character designs. However their articulation was limited for their time so thats their only drawback for me.

 

Nuva: 2002 definitely brought out amazing improvements in many aspects including awesome weapons and brand new armor while not straying too far from the original Toa Mata design. The alternate weapon functions were also great including Tahu's surfing mode. The only iffy downer was that the organic/cyborg style masks, some of them were good while others were creepy or weird(im looking at you Pohatu Lewa and Onua nuva)

 

Adaptive Armor: Arguably this is just my least favorite year, it's like the Toa were tossed into a washing machine along with random parts and huge ammount of bland paint and came out barely looking like their former selves. The Mistika are also in my opinion the unluckies, as if they got the short end of the stick, the leftovers in the parts bin if you will.
Sure 13 points articulation which we had since 2006 is a amazing improvement for our old heroes but it just pales in comparing to the rest of the loathsome tragedy that 2008 was.

My verdict is the that the 2002 Nuva are my favorite versions of the first Toa team lego brought out. 

Edited by ---Kopaka Nuva---
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I liked the Phantoka/Mistika. They had good articulation, diverse proportions, and even color schemes that I found somewhat interesting.

 

They definitely weren't as iconic as the 2001, 2002, and 2015 versions, though, because their "flight mode" motifs largely overshadowed their elemental colors and motifs. Instead of each one being designed for a unique environment (volcano/sea/jungle/desert/mountain/tunnel), they were all designed for two fairly similar environments (flying through the sky/flying above a swamp), and that meant that even with some creative means of flight to differentiate them, they felt a lot more repetitive than the Toa Mata and Toa Nuva did.

 

It was also frustrating how some of them diverged greatly from their previous forms, particularly Onua (who went from one of the two shortest Toa to one of the two tallest). The Mistika masks in general did not have a whole lot in common with the previous masks, though the Phantoka masks were generally better about this. My favorite mask from that year was Pohatu's from the Rockoh T3 (which felt, in many ways, like a more geometric version of the 2002 Kakama Nuva).

 

I had quite a lot of fun drawing the Phantoka, in any case.

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