Set Review: 71306 Pohatu - Uniter of Stone

[Hapori Tohu]

We're getting close to wrapping up our reviews of the first wave of 2016 Bionicle sets. To get us one step closer, today Ta-metru_defender takes a look at 71306 Pohatu - Uniter of Stone, one of the smaller Toa in this wave. Does he stand strong and tall - setting himself apart from the crowd? Or his he just another Toa to add to your collection when on sale? Check out our review - in both text and video form - to find out!

 

View the full article

[xccj]

Poor Pohatu. He really got the short stick for design this go around. Needs less silver and more brown. (The tans can stay.) I wonder how he'll look if you replace some of the silver armor with the actual Vorox tan/brown pieces...

 

Thanks for the review!

 

[Aanchir]

I don't see why anyone thinks he has too much silver. I mean, Toa Norik had way more silver (in terms of how much of his body it covered) and I've never heard anyone complain about that set's color scheme. The 2016 Pohatu's got silver boots, silver gloves, silver shoulders, and a bit of silver on his mask. That's it. 2015 Pohatu had way more silver, and yet I feel like his color scheme felt way more unified than this set's.

 

Really, I think it's all that Sand Yellow that's really screwing up Pohatu's color scheme. It doesn't contrast with the silver anywhere near as well as the Dark Orange in 2015 Pohatu's color scheme did. If his torso shell and thighs had been Dark Orange instead of randomly introducing yet another new color to his color scheme, he'd have felt a lot more unified. If I had to revamp the present set, I think changing the shells on his forearms and thighs to Dark Orange 4M shells would be an obvious first step. With how huge the torso shell and how it's at the center of the design, I think it can probably stand on its own without needing any more of that color to reinforce it.

 

The silver boots are probably the best thing this set has going for it. They create continuity with the 2015 design (which had similar boots, just using the piston add-on in place of the crystal add-on) and look pretty solid to boot. (I'm so, so sorry)

 

Overall, I agree with the review that Pohatu's spear just doesn't feel that well-suited to him. It also feels a bit redundant since it's so similar to Gali's weapon. If I were designing the set I might've skipped the crystal blade and instead given the boulder a similar two-color blend to reinforce the crystal motif. I also agree that Pohatu's combination with Ketar is by far the clumsiest-looking "unity mode" of any of the Toa, though this is more a problem with Ketar than with Pohatu.

[MarkSurge9411]

1: Needs more brown

Eh, debatable, I think he has a good amount of brown.

 

2: Jumbled unified mode

Agreed.

 

3: Why's he got a staff?

Because he's Batman!
 

4: Lacks personality

Honestly, most of these sets lack personality. The only Toa who's set gives a hint towards their personality, or at least to me, is Onua.

[StoaxTheHistorian]

I dunno about you but I like this set. Yes, he isn't as solid as his 2015 form, though he's still fairly decent. One of the main reasons I find him appealing is that something about the style of his shoulder armor and the certain colors he uses give him a barbaric- wastelander vibe which works for Pohatu. I also really like his staff, something about it just fits for this type of character and I can just envision posing him with it held above his head, letting out a battle cry. I do think that the lower arms have a tad to much trans neon green, which is a little off putting in my opinion.

[J46 Nui]

I like Pohatu enough that I am looking forward to picking this up, but I absolutely hate his weapon.

 

All of the Uniters could do with more of their primary color.

 

It is kind of disappointing that the best thing about this wave is their masks.

 

I do plan on picking up all of them, but I am expecting to still like their Master versions a lot more.

Edited December 25, 2015 by J46 Nui

[Nato G]

I've seen a bit of hate for some of the custom limb designs this wave, but I really think Pohatu's upper arms are quite well done. Alas, they're pretty much the only part of his build that I actually like.

 

The weapon is weird, the colourscheme is all over the place, the unity form is useless, and so on. 

[masterchirox580]

Word to the wise lego, sand isn't brown. Seriously is brown an expensive colour to produce or something?

[TakuaNova]

While he's one of my least favourites of this wave, I'm still gonna get him when he releases in the Netherlands. 

[Toa Smoke Monster]

Pohatu looks weird with a staff. It's just not a weapon I see him using. As for the set itself, I also wish it had more brown, but I guess it looks okay as is.

 

Thanks for the review!

[Lyichir]

Word to the wise lego, sand isn't brown. Seriously is brown an expensive colour to produce or something?

Brown isn't any more expensive than any other color. But brown isn't really the most interesting or appealing color on its own—there's a reason why Stone sets stopped being brown after a while in the original theme. Personally, I'm glad we're still getting plenty of earth tones in general, instead of having it taken away from us completely.

 

Also, sand not being brown may be EXACTLY why we're seeing more tans and similar colors for the Stone sets, what with their desert setting. Just sayin'.

[believe victims]

Honestly, one thing that's bugging me about Pohatu is the shade of tan used. Every time I look at him, it feels like his tan is dingier and duller than his primary "brown". It just feels wrong to have a secondary color so much darker-looking than the primary. If I had my druthers, he'd use Brick Yellow instead of Sand Yellow.

 

Granted, that would make his chest piece too bright, make it draw far too much attention. I'd probably change it to Dark Orange, with Brick Yellow and silver accents. I'd leave the leg shells tan (well, the new suggested shade of tan, not dark tan), and perhaps change the lower arm shells to tan. Or possibly silver, to give him a gloved look to go with his boots. Regardless, I feel like that would solve both his visual dearth of brown, and the strange conflict between a vivid brown and a dingy tan.

 

I know others probably don't mind the look. It just... feels very weird to me, this dark tan.

[Rahkshi Lalonde]

yeah the dark tan is bad, espec since pohatu already has three colors. three, relatively bright colors (if you count the silver's metallicism as being bright. o: )

 

but anyway, it's also his toros color which is garbage, because the main color is always going to be the torso color, and if not, it at least needs to be more common on the rest of the model!

[Ballom Nom Nom]

The photos aren't the brightest, so I'm a bit unsure on this: are those pieces tan or dark tan? Hopefully the latter, since Grievous and Obi-Wan have already provided ample amounts of tan CCBS pieces, and dark tan was really rare due to only being on Vardy. Of course, I'd still have preferred more burnt orange, but I'll take what I can get given the circumstances.

 

~B~

[Ta-metru_defender]

The photos aren't the brightest, so I'm a bit unsure on this: are those pieces tan or dark tan? Hopefully the latter, since Grievous and Obi-Wan have already provided ample amounts of tan CCBS pieces, and dark tan was really rare due to only being on Vardy. Of course, I'd still have preferred more burnt orange, but I'll take what I can get given the circumstances.

 

~B~

I double checked (just for you) by holding it up against other bricks and it is, in fact, dark tan. Or at least a darker colored tan than the tan bricks I have lying around in my modular buildings. I too would have prefered normal tan or more burnt orange.

[Petewa]

I actually quite enjoy his colour scheme.

[Lyichir]

Personally I love Pohatu's color scheme and think he would look much, much worse with regular tan (Brick Yellow) in the place of his dark tan (Sand Yellow). Brick Yellow is very saturated and bright, and I feel it would undermine Pohatu's post-apoc aesthetic.

The only problem I have with his color scheme is the shells on his arms, which combined with the similarly colored bones ruin their flow. I would probably prefer Silver Metallic, Dark Orange, or Sand Yellow shells in their place.

[believe victims]

I don't know, maybe it's the color layout that has me so soured on the dark tan? With the big chestplate and thighs in dark tan, and only the mask and upper arm bones in dark orange, it really feels like it's crowding it out of his color scheme. Maybe if the chestplate was dark orange with tan accents instead of the other way around, it would feel more balanced to me, but right now, I really don't like how it looks at all.

[Ta-metru_defender]

I'd vote for a more 'old fashioned' look, with a burnt orange chest (with dark tan printing), dark tan thighs and upper arms. Then give him the silver forearms  for that gloves look someone suggested earlier to match his boots. I think I'm with Dina here; it's the layout that bugs me.

[Lenny7092]

Pohatu looks cool. I like the pieces used for his new armor, gloves, and boots. They look sweet, including their colors. His weapon is very cool, too! It's great to see a Kohlii ball attached to it. Ah, good times.

 

However, what's disappointing is that he needs more brown. I like the trans-yellow, tan, and silver colors, but, as I said, he needs more brown. What's wrong with brown on constraction sets these days?

 

Anyway, since Pohatu doesn't have his boomerangs, I wonder who would Pohatu be when he does not look like Batman and uses a staff? Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Lol.

[fishers64]

For some reason I really like Pohatu's leg design. I really wish that there was a shade of olive green they could put over the shins - it comes very close to an overdose of grey. The grey plays off the tan really well, though. 

 

By contrast, the top is very bright. The shade of brown and the trans green really look well together. The trans-green meshes well with the gray, but the brown does not. The doubling of said trans-green on the upper arms is a bit over powering.

 

The two color schemes - the drab bottom and the bright top - don't really blend well. The brown doesn't blend with the tan or the grey, making the brown stand out as the ugly color. But that is Pohatu's main color. It's almost as if they wanted to design an entirely tan figure, then remembered at the last minute it was Pohatu and they had to put brown and trans-green on it. 

 

Finally, Pohatu's arms strike me as too scrawny. While Pohatu isn't nearly as famous as Onua for his upper body strength, he should probably have a bit more muscle in there.