Glowkies (Mixels)

Glowkies_packaged

As the Mixels enter their second year, Lego seems to be struggling to find their footing design wise. This fourth wave of sets takes some interesting chances, which work to varying degrees. I have some nostalgia for glow-in-the-dark toys, so I snapped up the Glowkies as soon as I saw them all in the store.

These guys just scream ‘things that go bump in the night.’ Built in black and dark blue with white teeth and glow in the dark bits, the elements alone are worth the price of admission.

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I started with this one-eyed bat monster. I noticed that the packaging highlights the glow nicely. Inside the elements were in a second bag (this always seems a bit wasteful to me) along with the instructions. No surprises here.

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The glow-in-the-dark cheeses have been in a few sets before, but that 4×4 dish is new. Interestingly, the cheeses and the dish seem to be different plastics with obviously different coloring (though not so obvious in my photo). When I tested the glow, that dish stood out and the cheeses were barely visible.

That printed 2×2 round tile is fun too. I suspect those will get all kinds of unintended usage.

41533_built

Globert went together pretty quickly. I like the use of the roof ridge elements for ears. He looks pretty good from the front.

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The back is another story. This looks pretty sloppy back here, with exposed studs and a general feeling of being unfinished. I hope this isn’t a sign that the Mixels aren’t being held to a high enough standard. It is rare to find such unsightly angles on an official set.

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Vampos was the next in line (I was working down the stock numbers). He’s another goofy bat monster, this time of a more vampire inspired variety.

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Amongst his pieces I found a couple of items of interest. Again, he has glow-in-the-dark eyes and these are new for this element. His little wings aren’t very common and I’m already looking forward to using them on a minifig. There was also one of the new 1×2 plates with handles at both ends. This is a fantastic new element in this year’s sets.

41534_built

This guy is pretty adorable. I like the use of snot mounted cheeses to make his eyes more cat-like. He also came with another of the new Nixel designs (though it is almost identical to the one that came with my Orbitons). Honestly, I might need to buy a bunch of these just for the eyes!

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Finally I came to the odd-Mixel-out. Boogly doesn’t look like a bat (my son thinks he is more of a spider).

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The central attraction here is the glow-in-the-dark printed head that serves as an eyeball for this guy. Here is another element that I can see myself wanting a pile of for some crazed project in the future.

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All built, he is more menacing than cute, all teeth and weird looming claw arms. This model is definitely more original than most of the other four-legged Mixels that I’ve built from previous tribes.

Glowkies_built

With the family all assembled, I have to say that I am quite happy with the gang. I’m still sad that Globert seems so unfinished, but I’m willing to overlook it for all the new and rare colors in these sets.

No sooner did I get them all together, than I rendered them back into pieces to build their Max form.

Glowkies_max

This guy is kind of awesome. I love the multiple sets of tiny wings and the massive set of vampire teeth (they remind me of the plastic ones that we had at Halloween).

Keep building and enjoy!