Review: Mixels Series 4 Glowkies
Posted by CapnRex101,The ever-popular Mixels are back for a fourth series, once again priced at £2.99 or $4.99. Following their official release on the 1st of February, we will be bringing you reviews of all three tribes over the next few days. Today we begin by taking a look at the Glowkies.
This tribe stood out to me as the best of the bunch, including an attractive selection of useful dark blue pieces and three unique models, unlike any Mixels we have seen before.
41533 Globert
Globert was the first Series 4 Mixel revealed at San Diego Comic-Con in 2014, which is perhaps unsurprising since he is apparently the ultimate exhibitionist. He looks very imposing with some dark blue wings and an enormous monocular eye.
This eye is his standout feature and it looks fantastic, particularly since the 4x4 parabolic reflector forming the iris glows in the dark! The 2x2 black tile in the middle is printed with a white spot to suggest it is reflecting light which looks great. This design gives plenty more possibilities for changing the colour of the iris by switching out the 4x4 dish and creating some new characters.
Globert is fairly typical of Mixels in his construction and articulation, with ball jointed hips, an opening mouth and poseable wings. Although he looks great I think he is a bit lacking in character personally, probably a result of that enormous staring eye, with which you cannot change his expression.
41534 Vampos
Vampos however is not lacking in character at all! He obviously recalls the appearance (and name) of a vampire, an assessment supported by those enormous teeth! His teeth look brilliant and I love the angled tooth components just above his eyes. I am not sure whether these are supposed to be ears or eyebrows, but they are serviceable as either. His eyes are glow in the dark, which is new for this piece and will be great for creating some creepy monsters I'm sure.
Perhaps even more interesting than his glow in the dark eyes are all those dark blue pieces which will be handy for building MOCs. There is a nice variety of bricks and slopes in this colour for such a small set, a fact consistent throughout all three of the Glowkies.
The adjustable wings, legs and head do not offer a great deal of articulation, but those teeth give Vampos all the character he needs in my opinion! It is nice to find the bat wings in such an inexpensive set and we also find one of the new 1x2 plates with hinges at either end. I am sure these will see plenty more use in the Mixels line as they are ideal for mounting limbs.
Vampos is accompanied by a Nixel, which at last has a new design. This is a simple little chap but he looks suitably menacing and, best of all, the 1x2 plate with three teeth is new in black. New colours are always welcome, but even more so when they have so many potential applications. Here one is used as hair.
41535 Boogly
With a name like Boogly one cannot blame this fellow for his apparently snobbish attitude. This Mixel looks totally unlike any we have seen before with a gaping mouth and four irregularly sized legs. I presume the long appendages coming from either side of his head are ears or some kind of antennae. Whatever their purpose they look superb around his glow in the dark eye, which has a beanie hat on top to represent an eyelid.
Like all quadrupedal Mixels, Boogly suffers from relatively poor articulation. His rear legs can only move out from the body while his forelegs are hinged, so they only move forward and backwards. The jaw can open and you can move his eye around to look in different directions, which gives a nice result when combined with the adjustable eyelid.
I am not keen on those exposed studs on either side of his body, but I like the parts selection which includes some different kinds of teeth and six light aqua cheese slopes, which appear with all three of the Glowkies. Including the spare pieces there are a total of nineteen light aqua slopes when the entire tribe is assembled!
Verdict
I think it might be the lack of articulation that leaves me a little disappointed with these Mixels. I find that posing them in characterful ways is part of the fun and that is not easy to do here as all three are somewhat static. However, the colour scheme is fantastic and the glow in the dark elements are always nice to have.
I value character and the parts selection above all else when looking at Mixels. In terms of character I think there is room for improvement for the Glowkies, but the pieces are some of the best included in any tribe of the first four series.
Reviews of the other two new tribes will follow later this week.
Thanks to Huw for his excellent photos.
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22 comments on this article
I'm not into Mixels, but I do like both glow-in-the-dark parts and the dark blue parts. I might have to pick these up just for the parts selection.
I cannot wait to pick these up, Boogly in particular. Very nice review, Captain - short and to the point.
@ CapnRex101: Are you or Huw doing anymore Bionicle Reviews soon? At the moment I am wondering about purchasing one or two. They certainly look good.
@ Farmer_John: You're an MOCer, huh? There are many parts throughout all the Mixels that would be useful for MOCs. I advise you to have a look!
Nice parts, bad models... wowza, they did drop the ball on these guys! Might get Vampos for the teeth, "love handle" plate, and bat wings though.
Vampos is my favorite Mixel for parts. I agree with PicnicBasketSam, and I'm also seeing some great black brackets, as well as the four 2x2 bows. I was originally thinking about getting Boogly for the four 1x2 bows (which are more versatile), but now I've changed my mind - Vampos seems to have better value overall when it comes to parts that I don't have. Thanks for this review!
IMO besides Vampos who has some problems, these uys are myfavorite tribe with best MAX.
Vampos is constructed a little weirdly, but he has great parts. I would buy another.
I like Globert. His wings' poseability can give him some rather nice poses, as they could be out like wings or posed like arms. Vampos just looks odd to me, and Boogly should have more legs, seeing as he's supposed to be beetle-like.
I really like the color scheme (I usually love glow in the dark), but I really don't like any of the designs, it's a shame.
Are the cheese wedges glow in the dark? They seem to be, but I can't tell.
^ No, they aren't but they look like they are, I agree. The same colour is used extensively in the new Ninjago dragons.
I also don't care much for these three to be honest, Vampos in particular is very weird.
Boogly is now an ULTIMATE WANT for those dark blue mini slopes he has in spades. And those cool fang things on his back , and of course the GITD cheese slopes
Wait the cheese's aren't GITD? I got tricked! Ah , but I still ULTIMATE WANT those dark blue mini slopes.
Wow, didn't expect any credit to the wiki! Thanks a lot.
The Glowkies are actually my second favorite tribe in this series (after the Orbitons), so I will definitely be purchasing them soon enough!
@Huw Thanks for letting me know about the wedges. It's still a nice color, shame they aren't glow in the dark.
@HK-50-09, i only realised they weren't glow in the dark slopes when I charged up the big eye and they didn't glow. A bit disappointing that really.
I like the color scheme and the glow parts. I believe @lordofdragonss is referring to the "Glowkies Max" combo model found at lego.com/mixels. Much more impressive than the individual builds!
I really like these guys! Each one is incredibly unique! That being said I bought Rokit first...
@Huw the colour of the cheese-sloped pieces is not the same as the one used in this summer's Ninjago dragons, which is greenish and WILL glow in the dark! (according to the video of Atamaii) :D
^ I think he is mistaken. It looks like it does but, like these slopes, it doesn't.
Picked these and the Orbitons up at the weekend and I really like them. I find similar results with every new wave of mixels - my kids love the characters and will play with them as soon as they are assembled (by them or me, we generally grab a bag each and start building) while I look for the parts selection and these are great for new parts - the new printed eye tiles and the modified plate with handles at both ends are both stand-out useful pieces so I think I'll be back for multiples of Vampos and Globert. Plus dark blue bow slopes and aqua cheese - what's not to like?
Boogly looks like a mix between a frog and a spider. Science experiment gone wrong?
Whoop whoop .... They come with a new Nixel!
@Huw: Are you sure it's the same color used in the Ninjago dragons? From the pictures I've seen, the Ninjago dragons look like they use Spring Yellowish Green, the color used in some Skull Spiders in Bionicle and some Friends sets. This, meanwhile, looks to be Aqua.
The slopes used on the Glowkies are Light Aqua. The pieces used for the ghost forces in Ninjago are the green counterpart to Light Aqua, Spring Green. Neither glow in the dark (although it's possible LEGO made a way for Spring Green to glow.)