Nothing much to do at the moment, sooo...

First, I'm not going to go on a tirade about how dreadful they are as the Nuva. I did that with the Phantoka, and these are even worse as Toa Nuva. Next to no points of recognizability (except on Onua). But I do have to say, again, that Tahu and Gali could work swell with dark red and dark blue if only they had Kanohi Nuva-like masks.

Now, with that out of the way...

Gali Mistika :: I rather like her design overall, ignoring that she's Gali. The dark blue is good with silver, and her mask looks nice – I had told myself before the preview night to try to imagine it in normal plastic, but I forgot to. >> There are some glaring design flaws, though, again with the reversed Piraka torso and ridiculously long arms. The shoulder armor has the potential to be a very nice piece, but it's just so flat, doesn't cover anything at all from the front and back, and the attachment point looks contrived to me... At any rate, the blaster looks so much better with the scope, especially in silver, and I also think it looks a lot better held two-handed. Again, the whole thing could be great for a Dark Hunter, or some Toa much more ruthless than Gali.

Back to her mask, though. You know what it is? It's an Elda. A normal-style Elda with a mesh eye covering. It has the same forward-jutting, roughly triangular "jaw", leading to a swept-back, mostly smoth top, and if you take off the fins it has the same cylindrical features at the back/top of the head as the Elda's tubes ended in. It fits perfectly...

Tahu Mistika :: Lovely recolored pieces, design could work, if it weren't for the reversed Piraka chest, long arms, and thin thighs and upper arms. The jets are... interesting, but spoiled by the glaring blue pins. Mask... eh. Without the large, round mouth and fierce eyeholes, it can't compare to the Hau. Weapon-thing's not bad.

His set has one thing that's very nice in principle: 73 pieces. Nice.

Onua Mistika :: I've ranted about him already, but I can't deny that by color scheme he's clearly Onua. But I just think that color scheme is poorly executed – too stark a division between black and grey on his limbs, and too much grey showing under the chest armor. Plus the whole thing looks stringy and weak and awkward, even ignoring that it's Onua. The red's more than a little odd, too, stuck at the back of his legs...

The pauldron-like arm... armor is a nice idea, but Bitil's wing is just too big and flat to be perfect – especially with the only other silver armor being a Metru chest on his waist. The mask would make a nifty Kraahkan, too, but it's not working as a Pakari for me... (for comparison, I think the Miru Phantoka is fine as a Miru.) Blaster cover is an interesting idea.

Takanuva's a rather good titan, very solid design, and good color scheme, but the whole thing just looks blocky and his chest is rather flat. I can only really say "meh" to it. Midak under the arm is a nice bit, though.

Sméag made a good point about the vehicles – they hearken to the complex Technic builds of the early years, and that is a very good thing indeed. Rockoh is the only one I find unsightly; the others look pretty good but don't pique my interest enough to want to possess them. Axalara's deploying Midak and the folding... things... at the end are nice, and Jetrax's unfoldable wings are good, too. As to their figures, "Antroz" is the most boring thing I've ever seen, Lewa still confuses me, and Pohatu's color distribution is quite awkward. But I still want one of their visors.

...Wonder why there have been so many guests viewing my blog lately...

~ ToM