My first 08 set. And he's the second remake of my third Bionicle set I ever bought. How does he compare?

Well, Pohatu olda just rocks all Toa of Stone, and that's final. Hewkii looks good without the brown, but Pohatu Phantoka cannot replace good old upside-down Pohatu. (Pohatu Nuva, yeah, he can replace him in a jiffy).

First, a quick note on the packaging. We're getting back to canisters again, baby! Woo Hoo! Sure, it's not a traditional canister, especially with the useless array of orange plastic on the front. But it's a solid plastic container than can be reused and has a somewhat sturdy plastic top... not as good as the Inika's, but it'll hold. In total size, it's about as big as the Inika canisters, but unlike the Mahri, the plastic covering does not have any special effects for the set. In fact, it's also a hassle for storing, so I might toss it. A shame, because that orange stuff is good plastic. I wonder if it'll recycle.

Onto the set... the build is pretty basic. Apparently he's a copy of Kongu Mahri's body... well, it fits a stone Toa, not an air Toa, that's for sure. I kinda like it, really... a new design. The legs are blah... been there, done that; maybe not in that exact combo, but I get the idea. The arms are really nice, though... certainly unique, and give him the look of a buff Toa. The head has green eyes, again copying those of Kongu Mahri. I dunno about the short eyes... they save space but do they glow as well? I haven't had enough time to really form an opinion of them.

Pohatu's new weapons are a step up from his Kodan claws. While the claws were interesting, this seem much more formidable. I like the function to make them spin. However, they don't have a snap function; I was under the impression that if you pulled back on the rod that you used to spin them, they'd snap shut. But, nope, the set isn't that complicated. They snap as well as Carapar's claws do... aka, you must do it manually. However, they easily fold out to form helicopter blades, and that's what he needs mostly. For the Toa Phantoka so far, I think Pohatu's weapons top Kopaka's small eyescope piece and Lewa's curvy sword.

Now the Midak blaster, or whatever it's called. Yep, zamor revisited. Somehow, that doesn't bug me. Squids and cordak were not able to replace the coolness of the zamor, but those things always fell out of their launchers. This new launcher fixes that, with a simply design that's very effective. I applaud whoever created it, as they have perfected zamors once and for all. I'd like to see them top this. On the up side too, is the fact that the new ammo is actually zamor sized, so I can use my collection of zamor spheres I got from the Inika and Piraka to colorfy Pohatu's launcher... like with a deep orange zamor I got as a discolored piece from Dekar. Pohatu's positioning of his blaster is also cool, because it's able to swing back over he shoulder with ease. Sure, it's a little bulky, but it has a lot of connection rods, so there's more MOC capability with this than, say, a squid launcher. (Can those even be used in MOCs?)

Now, the mask. Indeed, it does appear to be part Kakama, and part Vahi. I think the fan name for it should be a combo of those two names, like "Ka-hi". Of course, you could go the other way around and call it a "Va-kama" but that word sounds oddly familiar. Anyway, it's okay for a mask, not nearly as bad as when I first saw the promotional picture for it. But here's a genius idea that would've made the color scheme flow better; make that darn head cover trans orange instead of trans blue. Then, although it isn't apart of the mask, it doesn't starkly contrast with it. Hello, was somebody color blind when they picked that out?

As for Pohatu being orange instead of brown... well... it takes away some of his originality, but we should be used to that after Hewkii. The orange really stands out from the bley grey, much better than the keetongu-yellow would, in my opinion. Yes, I would've included more orange pieces on him as a whole... an orange chest piece would make him flow really well. I tried fitting the orange piece used on Jaller Mahri's chest to even him out, but it doesn't fit by just a tiny bit!! Uh, sooo close. Oh well, maybe the orange Makuta will look better.

I can't tell if Pohatu is the coolest of the Phantoka so far... I thing I'll buy the others regardless, but I'm going to wait for a sale of some sort, so that may mean I won't get them for a few more months. Big deal... I kinda want to collect them just to say I have all of the Mata / Nuva / Phantoka characters. I'm looking at only one Makuta, though. But is Pohatu worth the $10? I suppose so... his upper body is certainly something new for you to play around with. And he's even better if you get somebody else to pay for him... unfortunately, I used my own cash, stuff which I should be saving for when I'm back at school and wanting to buy food.

Oh well, Pohatu Phantoka = Good. Send me free samples of the other Phantoka and I'll review them too.