From my experience, the BBCs were the popularity contests, but I suppose I haven't paid enough attention to the artwork contests.

You have a point: some people can't accept that the new Nuva aren't the old Nuva... and others make vlid arguments on both sides. Luckily, we've seen that Greg can write about the Nuva, so the odds are a change in personality won't come along in the books and comics, even if the sets are different. And, anyway, how can we critique the quality of the sets from those very small images? Gotta keep an opened mind...

But they're not really the Nuva, they're their secret twins, kept hidden in a far-away cave until recently! See, it's like that one Doctor Suess story, about the woman named Mrs. McCave who had twenty-three sons and she named them all Dave, only in this case it was Pohatu and Kopaka and...

But seriously, the new Nuva are cool. Not as cute as the Matoran, perhaps, but definitely cool.

And, if it's any consolation, I can one hundred percent guarantee you won't end up in a poll with Nikira.

Turakii

I personally don't mind this change any more than I did the Mahri, though it is substantially more dramatic. Any change these days is fine by me as long as the sets maintain a connection with the personalities of the characters they represent (and LEGO just happens to be nice enough to give us more beyond that).

Like Lyi, I have my qualms about the new Nuva as sets, and even more about the other Phantoka. However, as Nuva I find them better than I could have ever imagined.