New Phantoka pics are available through LEGO.com, including PDF instructions! Here's the rundown:

Pohatu's still awesome. Sadly, his eyes aren't orange... it seems LEGO is returning to the schemes of '06 where all the good guys and all the bad guys share an eye color with their side. Ah well. I'd say "I can switch it" like everyone else, but it seems they've overlooked that ice blue eyepieces don't exist for Kopaka (if you haven't noticed, it's different than the blue used in Nuju's or Kohrok's eyes-- more like the Mahri visors, Matoro Inika's legs, or the eyes on Kazi). His new arm pieces are neat, hope this won't be their only use. His shoulders still bug me... maybe I could try my hand at a revamp. Tools aren't quite as awesome as I anticipated, but whether their function will be cooler in the plastic remains to be seen. Mask edit pending.

Kopaka is made of win. I KNEW he had more armor on his back! The wings are also nice. The Midak seems to have ample attachment points, forming a sharp contrast with the Cordak blasters, and Kopaka takes advantage of them very nicely. His mask, while it looks even more different from the old Akaku Nuva from the side, is even cooler looking from that view. Other faults mentioned in my (p)review a few entries back still stand. Oh, and the 3-length pegs are apparently now blue. I wish they'd done it sooner so people wouldn't have the option of just using an abundance of black ones. This is one of those cases where hey, it doesn't really matter! Adapt now or be picky and SUFFER!

j/k . Seriously, I love you guys, but there's times when your complaints really don't matter so much. I can't say I blame you too much for not adapting quickly to such changes, since in some cases they are radical, but once you have as I have it's easy to cast a blind eye to the blue +/O pins. A bit of frustration pays off in the long run...

Oh, and if you feel the MOC cannot permit blue pins or red axles, either due to an overabundance of pins and 2-axles in the MOC or the fact that they're just a bit too obvious, then go ahead and change them. I don't blame you; some sets like Vakama Metru and most of the Metruan (as if they were redeemable in the first place ) looked horrible with blue pins. Ehlek looked horrible with red axles. But Nuparu Mahri has proven that this change is not an all-encompassing one, so I'm confident that from now on LEGO will avoid placing them where they're annoyingly obvious or abundant. At least, I hope they will... *never wants to see the likes of the Metruan again*

The Matoran have one-piece torsos, it looks like. I knew I had reason to be afraid. Perhaps the better MOCists will be capable of using them, but sadly these are the sorts of situations in which the better MOCists would rather not try. Matoran legs... some are better, some worse than anticipated. Again, might not see too much use. The evil Matoran also have rather bizarre heads... Even now I can't divine how they will behave in sets or MOCs. Both attach in interesting ways... Their masks also are neat, like Matoran forms of the masks for their larger canister counterparts.

Vamprah has no new wing piece, just two blue ones of Chirox's variety in addition to the black ones that match those on Chirox. Mask is nice, I guess... still going to be tough to adapt to my style.

Chirox's luscious practical pistons on his tools are awesome... these tools may see good use in the future. His mask has redeemed itself greatly, and his armor exhibits amazing stylistic consistency. His arms still may bug me in actuality, it remains to be seen. Now just to wait for personality information on him and his allies...

Phantoka also have one HUGE torso piece... and the angularity means that this, too, will see only occasional use from the best of MOCists. Worse, the pistons on it which LEGO could have made practical are not such by any stretch of the imagination. The function of the launcher is interesting, though...

So... yeah. Debate anything I appear to have neglected mentioning, or anything I have mentioned with which you find fault. Oh, and take the part about pins with a grain of salt. I don't mind many of the complaints, or the refusal to use the pins in MOCs (even blue/red ones... I don't get where people get the idea that if there's a variation elsewhere on it in the scheme, it counts as the same color). It's when people start complaining about the Cordak ammo in sets (which makes about as much sense as complaining about the Piraka's or Inika's Zamor spheres), or whining about how Hydraxon doesn't have room in his color scheme for a third main color, if you count that as a major part of his scheme, that slay me.

With all due respect,

Aanchir: Rachira of Time

P.S.: O_o I was WAAAAAAAY too hyper when I wrote this...