Mixel Madness!!: Series 3 to the MAX

The month is coming to an end, and Mixel Madness is coming to a close, so there's nothing else to do but break the Mixels down and move on...

Wait a minute, that's not right. I did break them down, but I put them right back together... to the MAX!!

So if you're unfamiliar with the Mixel lore, combining three mixels from the same tribe creates a MAX; a giant mixel that has the powers of all three combined. Or they're just building toys, whatever. I've never seen the Mixel shorts so I'm not really sure what they're powers are supposed to be, but I do know about the combinations. Lego has the building instructions for all MAX mixels, as well as ideas on how to combine mixels from different tribes. 

Now you do have to go online for this, and I honestly think Lego dropped the ball here a little. They could have included the MAX instructions with the instructions for regular mixels. It's kinda lame that I have to get online to view/download the MAX instructions, but I suppose it isn't that big a deal. I do like that there is a good amount of unused pieces after the builds are complete. This allows you to change the build if you'd like.

Anyway, let's get on to the official builds and see how they stack up.

Wiztastics MAX

If you've been following my Mixels write-ups, you know that I wasn't too happy with the Wiztastics. I just didn't think there was a lot of playability there, especially when compared to the other sets. Now, the MAX makes up for this, but just barely.

There's a lot going on here, with the wings, the tail, the arms, and the mouth all being on either hinge or ball joints. The glaring problem with this figure is that almost all movement is hindered by another part of the build. Depending on how the wings are positioned, it can prevent the mouth from fully opening or hinder the tail movement. This MAX has four arms, the front two on hinges and the back two on ball joints. The front two work well, but the full range of motion of the back arms are completely hindered by their placement. The wings and front arms actually keep them from moving up and forward. 

I found the tail particularly frustrating. It's attached with one ball joint, and combined with it's wide construction, this hurts how much it can move. I didn't measure it, but it probably has about 130 degree range of motion up and down, and 90 degrees left to right. You can also see that the stinger is attached to the cone via a lightsaber blade. It looks fine, but the cone falls off almost every time it's repositioned. This can easily be fixed by pushing the blade in completely, but I'm reviewing this build as it is designed, and it fails in this regard.

Glorp Corp MAX

Just looking at this guy, my first thought went to Pey'j from Beyond Good and Evil (great game, btw, totally play it if you can). He kinda look like a pig standing upright.

This MAX has a lot going for it. The shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles are all ball joints, and the mouth and tail are on hinges. It's a squat figure, but there's still a good amount of motion to be found. At least there would be if the "snot" wasn't in the way. Honestly, I see a theme here with the Series 3 MAX Mixels: restricted movement.

And just like the Wiztastic MAX, there's something here that just really hurts the build. The hand/arm piece falls off with almost every movement. And the worst thing is that there are more than enough extra pieces to correct this problem, Lego just decided to leave it be. At least with the Wiztastic MAX you could slightly modify the build to fix it. Here, there's no way to modify it with the pieces used in the build.

I know it seems like I'm hating on this figure, mostly because I really did not like the way the hands turned out, but overall the Glorp Corp MAX is a very middle of the road figure. Not great, but no terrible either. 

Spikels MAX

    

So by this point it's probably obvious that I'm nor caring much for these MAX Mixels, but thankfully the Spikels MAX is a great figure, and my favorite of the three hands down.

As you can see based on the figure's pose, there's a lot of movement here. And most importantly, it's unhindered movement.The shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, ankles, and tail are all ball joints. The mouth, and each finger and thumb are on hinges. Now this MAX is a bit top heavy, but there are enough ball joints on this figure to compensate. And the big feet certainly don't hurt. As a result of all this, there's a huge variety of poses to put this guy in. The figure is also very expressive since each finger moves independently. If you wanna have him giving a thumbs up, or shooting the bird, you can easily do it. There's just a lot going on here, and I can easily see him becoming everyone's favorite. 

The Verdict

Overall, this is the weakest set of MAX figures out of the three series that have been released. But the Spikels MAX may be the best individual figure out of the nine available. So if you had to choose on set, you absolutely can't go wrong with this build. There's a lot to play with here.

With this being said, there's still a lot that can be done with these Mixels. While I'm not one for building my own creations, but if that's what you're in the mood for, there are some great pieces here. And I'm sure you can modify these builds to work better. I can already see places where adjustments could be made, and who knows, I may build and post them sometime.

So keep all this in mind if you're on the fence about breaking down your mixels to construct the MAX figures.

Mixel Madness!!: The Glorp Corp Review

Hopefully you enjoyed my brief write up on Mixels Series 1 and 2 last week, and that's why you're here for more Mixel Madness!!

This week I'll be focusing on the Glorp Corp of Series 3. These guys are obviously based on the color green, and in the show, are derived from goo and snot. Really deep stuff here, ladies and gentlemen. 

Each individual Mixel is priced at $4.99, and comes with 174 total pieces for the set of three. There are also some extra pieces tossed in, per usual, and I'm honestly not sure if these are included in the official piece count per set.

So with the technical stuff out of the way, let's get to the Mixels!

Torts

First up we have Torts. With the lowest piece count of the bunch, 48 pieces, I was actually surprised at how poseable the figure is. He utilizes bionicle robot arms for his arms, allowing him to move back and forth at the shoulders. He also has ball joints at his hips, giving his legs a wide range of motion. Since the figure is short and stocky, it isn't that difficult to get the little guy into a pose that works. 

I wasn't too keen on the arms at first, but they grew on me. His nose (or is it a beak?) gives Torts a very bird-like appearance, and the arms lend to this look as they basically only move in a flapping motion. I like the use of starfish for his hands but would've preferred something that at least looks like it could grip something.

Glomp

Next we have Glomp, the heavyweight at 64 pieces. The figure's pretty tall too, fitting right in with the Max Mixels. Although he only has one large eye, Glomp is definitely the most expressive of the bunch. His legs are composed of three ball joints, at the hips, knees, and ankles, making Glort highly poseable. He has moveable fingers, suprising considering how short his arms are, but they lend themselves well to more playful and expressive poses. 

The snakeblade pieces (the tendrils/drool coming from his mouth) are also moveable due to their construction, but be careful as too much movement can easily pop his snout off. You also don't have to worry about Glort tipping over since his large feet and long legs help keep him upright.

Glurt

Lastly, we have Glurt. Definitely the cutest of the Glorp Corp, as he pretty much looks like a dog, but from a playability standpoint, he's the weakest. He's the least articulated of the three, only moving at the mouth and tail in a hinge fashion. Technically his legs/feet can move, but I wouldn't count this as articulation since they're basically sloped 1x2 bricks attached by a peg. 

Glurt's mouth does have a wide range of motion, allowing him to really chomp down on something. The snakeblades along the side of his mouth also lend to the slobbering look of a dog. And you certainly don't have to worry about this guy being knocked over since he's so low to the ground.

Glurt also comes with the Glorp Corps' Nixel, but it's disappointingly not based on a new design.

The Verdict

Overall, I like this set. I love Glomp's poseability and Torts' arms really grew on me. The only downside is Glurt's articulation, or lack thereof, but the figure still works as a toy. I do think you're getting your money's worth out of these guys, especially if you're only buying the sets for parts since there are a lot of ball joints included.

I can't wait to see what the Max for the Glorp Corp looks like, and stay tuned if you can't either.

Thanks for reading, and look for my review of the Spikels next week!

Mixel Madness!!: Kickin' It Oldschool

If you follow me on Instagram, you might be able to tell that I love Mixels.

And if you don't follow me on Instagram, guess what? I love Mixels.

I got into Mixels maybe five months ago. I had seen them in my many visits to the Lego Store, and any other store that sold Lego, but for the most part I just largely ignored them. I mean, they weren't vehicles, didn't have minifigures, were based on tv shorts I'd never seen (and still haven't seen); they just didn't appeal to my interests. Then I went over to my buddy Felipe's place and saw one sitting on his coffee table. And BAM, I fell in love. I went out and started hunting for them. It took a few trips to various Target and Toys R Us stores, but I found all of Series 1. Then Series 2 popped up and I snagged them. Now I've made my way to Series 3.

And this is where things start to get awesome.

Every Monday during the month of September will be Mixel Madness!! here at Bricks, Pix, and Panels. Today I'm talking a bit about how I got into Mixels, and will also be spotlighting some of the characters from Series 1 and 2, but here's the schedule on what I'm highlighting throughout the month (and I will be updating this page with links, so bookmark away!):

• September 8: The Glorp Corp
• September 15: The Spikels
• September 22: The Wiztastics
• September 29: Series 3 Max Mixels

I hope everyone enjoys what I have planned this month. I'm certainly excited to do it for you.

But enough about what's to come, here's what I have now.

On the left we have Max Mixels for Series 1: The red Infernites, the yellow Electroids, and the black Cragsters. On the right we have the Max Mixels for Series 2: The brown Fang Gang, the blue Frosticons, and the Orange Flexers.

The idea behind the Max Mixels are to take the individual Mixels from each series (which are pictured at the top of this blog post) and put them together to make a larger form, hence the Max designation.

Now going from memory, and not breaking these apart so I could rebuild the Mixels, Series 1 was much stronger overall than Series 2, with my favorite Max coming from the Electroids. I just loved that build. The tail, the hair, this was actually the build that led me to start collecting Mixels. 

Although I must say that my favorite individual Mixels come from the Flexers of Series 2. I just absolutely adored Balk, Kraw, and Tentro. The Flexers Max does leave a lot to be desired, though. And my least favorite Max is the Frosticon. The look on it's face is just depressing, and it's tail was shoddily put together. I had to modifiy it to keep it from falling apart.

Along with the Mixels, each series comes with three Nixels scattered throughout the individual packages.

I wish there was some variety with the Nixels. As you can see, out of six figures, there are only two unique faces and three unique builds. I doubt this will change with Series 3, but would be pleasantly surprised if they did. 

This isn't to say I don't like the Nixels. I think they're great and love their look. I think Lego was able to inject a lot of personality with these small builds. These might be my favorite part of this entire line, especially since I wasn't expecting them when I started collecting the Mixels.

One of the great things with Mixels are their customization. Some might consider me rather boring since I tend to stick to the instructions, but those who are more adventurous can combine the Mixels from any set to make a Murp. I've seen some pretty great combinations throughout the internet, and I've thought of mixing them up myself, but I just cant bring myself to do it. Some might chastise me for not being creative, but what can I say, I just like to build them.

But if you're not really interested in the Mixels themselves, you can always buy them just for their parts. There are a good amount of cool parts, such as the flames, and the ice and lightning bolts, and the smaller ball joints are great, especially if you're into building small-scale mechs or mech suits for your minifigures.

So there you have it, just some of my thoughts on Mixels Series 1 and 2. Be sure to come back in the following weeks to see my thoughts on the newly released Series 3.