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Set Review: Glorp Corp Mixels
 Friday, December 26th, 2014 at 2:52pm by Andrew, BZPower News ManagerBefore the year ends, we're going to try to get some more 2014 sets reviewed. Today we're taking a look at the Glorp Corp Mixels from Series 3 of the line - 41518 Glomp, 41519 Glurt, and 41520 Torts. Will you get stuck on these gooey green guys or will you wad them up in your handkerchief? Read on to find out! Presentation
The packaging for the Mixels is the same as it's been all year. The plastic is thicker than what's usually seen in polybags, making them durable and seem to be of a higher quality. All three bags are green, showing their Glorp Corp allegiance, with an image of the set taking up the majority of the front. The top right has an animated version of the character along with their name, and of course all the appropriate logos are present. The silly transparent window is still there, even though it doesn't show you much of anything. Most of the back is taken up by legal text and warnings, but some space remains to show that if you collect all three Glorp Corp Mixels, you can combine them to form the Glorp Corp Max. You can also see all of the Mixels in Series 3, encouraging you to collect them all! Building
With only about forty to sixty pieces for each set, these Mixels go together quickly. The designers do a great job though of incorporating SNOT techniques to keep things interesting, and Glurt has some offsets to mix it up even more. Still, after a few minutes with each you'll have a completed Mixel. The Glorp Corp Max is a similar build to the individual Mixels, just on a larger scale with about double the pieces. The techniques are more or less the same and won't blow you away. It's not boring though and after a short time you'll have your finished Max. Set Design
Green is the predominant color in these sets, namely lime, dark, and transparent-neon. In lime green you get some recolors and uncommon parts, like the 1x2x2x2 SNOT bracket, 1x2 curved slope, 1x2 'attic' slope, and a couple of fender pieces. Dark green doesn't offer much that's new, but there is a 2x2 plate with spoilers on it that doesn't come in very many sets. Finally, the snake-blade and starfish are exclusive to these sets in trans-neon green. Apart from the wide selection of green elements, there's also a good bit of black, white, and light and dark grey. Of course you get some of the new Mixel joints, as well as a selection of SNOT brackets, clip and hinge pieces, teeth, and eyes. Nothing that stands out above the rest, but useful pieces in general.
For a character named Glomp, I would expect it to have big arms to hug you with. Preconceptions out of the way, the first Mixel has long legs with three points of articulation. Due to the way the joints are positioned though, the range of motion is rather limited. His arms have a hinge joint at the shoulder, and the two fingers on each hand are movable as well. The four limbs are attached to a round-ish body/head, with a big eye and what I can only guess is mucus dripping down his face. From the front you see a lot of lime green, but from other angles the dark green becomes more apparent. The colors work alright in this case, but I feel like the focus should have been on one or the other as opposed to a mix of the two. The overall impression I get is Mike from Monsters, Inc. with a bad head cold.
I feel like the designers spent the majority of their parts budget on Glurt's head, and then were stuck trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the body. The head is definitely rat-like, and features the ears and big nose you'd expect from such a creature. I really like the eye section, where the eyes are actually offset to attach a three-unit-wide eye module on top of a two-unit-wide head. SNOT techniques are used to great effect to give it a curved shape. The rest of the body is rather basic and disappointing, with a blocky body and 1x2 slopes for feet, giving him very little in the way of articulation. I'm also not sure what the snake blades are supposed to be - drool perhaps? The tail using the minifig Piraka spine is nice if simple. While I really like the head, the model overall is a bit disappointing.
Torts has a pretty unique look. The fender on the head and the 'attic' slope give the body an almost owl-like appearance. The rest of the Mixel breaks that illusion though with those weird arms that have suckers or something at the end (or is it goop he's shooting out?) and big bulky legs. I do like the leg design, especially since they're constructed so they can move forwards and backwards instead of just side to side. Their size makes him very stable as well. The arms are another story though - they only have one point of articulation and are very lacking in detail. They just seem out of place on this model, which comes close to being cool but falls short in my mind.
Of course there's a Nixel too, which comes with Glurt. He's a basic design with no articulation at all. For what it is I have no real complaints, and its presence makes up for some of Glurt's shortcomings.
Of course with all three of these sets you can combine them to build the Glorp Corp Max! This guy has a really runny nose, so much so that it's difficult to stand him up with the mucus dripping out. The overall look reminds me a bit of a wingless dragon, or at least a bipedal crocodile. It makes use of the Mixel joints to achieve some decent articulation, better than the individual models at least. It's a rather awkward model though, with the antennas coming out of the nose really throwing off the balance and the proportions being very cartoony. Playability
The Mixels don't really have any play features aside from their articulation, which varies significantly from figure to figure. Glomp has the most points with twelve, while Torts only has four and Glurt has two (unless you count his feet pivoting, then it's six). I feel like that's pretty poor, and it does make it hard to find interesting and dynamic poses to put them in. For the Glorp Corp Max, you get ten points of articulation, but at least eight of those are ball joints, giving it a good range of motion. All that is greatly restricted though by the trans-neon green antennas coming out of its nose, which make it difficult to stand and balance. It almost always has to be leaning backwards, which can make it prone to tipping over.
Of course if you buy all three you get the Nixel, which adds some conflict play. Since the Nixel has no articulation, the Mixels can take turns dishing out the hurt, or combining into the Glorp Corp Max and covering the Nixel in boogers. Gross! Final Thoughts
I really like the concept of the Mixels, but I'm not a big fan of the execution on the Glorp Corp. There's some good pieces in shades of green, so they're not a bad value if you're looking for parts. The sets themselves aren't really stand-outs though, and you're probably better off picking up some of the other Mixels or waiting until 2015. I hope you all enjoyed the review - let us know in the Talkback if you have any questions or feedback. 2015 is almost here, and with that will come a whole slew of new set reviews, so keep checking back on BZPower for those and all the latest LEGO news!
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