Wednesday, December 31st, 2014 at 3:13pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager
On the last day of 2014 we're taking a look at the last group of Mixels. The Wiztastics are made up of 41524 Mesmo, 41525 Magnifo, and 41526 Wizwuz and proudly present a purple pigment. Should you hunt down these magical Mixels? Or should you wait for the 2015 ones to arrive at a store near you? Read on to find out!
Presentation
From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.
After eight other sets of these guys, the packaging should be old hat by now. The polybags are made of a thicker plastic than most others that doesn't easily break, requiring scissors or a knife to open. The fronts of the bags clearly show the Mixel the set allows you to build, with an animated version in the top right. Other things like logos, piece counts, and age ranges are also present. The back is about half-advertisement: they tell you to collect all nine Mixels from the third series, or at least buy all three of the purple ones so you can build the Wiztastics Max. Legal text takes up the rest of the space.
Building
Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?
As with most of the Mixels, the builds are relatively straightforward and shouldn't take too long. There's some SNOT techniques interspersed throughout, but nothing we're not used to at this point. Of note, Wizwuz is a bit repetitive with his six identical legs.
The Wiztastics Max is a bit more involved than the individual Mixels and uses about three-quarters of their pieces. In addition to SNOT instances, there's even some upside-down building that takes place, which I enjoyed seeing in the model. It's definitely more engaging, but it will still be done before you know it.
Set Design
Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.
There are a lot of purple parts in this set, which is great! The 1x2 curved slopes are here in abundance and can only be obtained in these three Mixels and the Sentinel from the Marvel Superheroes line. The 1x2 jumper plate is exclusive to Mesmo, as is the black 2x2 round tile. Back to purple, the 2x2x2 cone is exclusive to Magnifo, and the 1x2 inverted slopes are only available in three other sets. Not as rare, but still cool are the minifig head with eye printing and the trans-purple bar (aka lightsaber blade). Aside from these standouts, there are a bunch of other useful purple parts as well as a selection of black, trans-blue, white, and grey elements. This is definitely a good way to beef up your purple collection, but none of the parts here will go to waste for too long.
Mesmo is a cool dragon-looking-type-thing, complete with a nice set of wings. I love the head and the use of wizard hats as horns/eyebrows, as rotating them allows you to easily change his expression. The mouth is full of teeth, but not sharp, pointy ones, and he has a little goatee/soul-patch on his chin. This gives the look of a pretty chill dragon, which I can dig. The tail is a little basic and lackluster, but I think the rest of the design and color scheme is solid enough to make up for it.
Next up is Magnifo, probably the weakest of the bunch. I'm guessing he's supposed to be a wizard, but a brim for his hat would have really helped with that. I do like the cape/tuxedo tails, but am a little confused as to why they used a trans-black piece for it instead of a solid black one. The wands are a nice touch, but the limited arm movability restricts what you can do with them. The colors work well - I like how the trans-blue compliments the purple, and none of the other colors are too overpowering. In the end though, he doesn't do much for me.
I was unsure about Wizwuz going in, but he really won me over. He's got a scorpion vibe going on (although clearly missing two legs), but I love the tail, which offers a lot of poaseability. Additionally, both the upper and lower jaw can move (and are filled with teeth) and the sword piece used as a tongue certainly stands out. I do feel like Wizwuz has the fewest purple pieces, and would have liked the black 1x2 curved slops on the legs to be purple as well, but that's a minor gripe. Overall the color scheme is fine, and I feel like this might be one of my favorite Mixels of all!
We've seen this Nixel twice before, and he doesn't offer anything new here. It's a very basic design but it works and the face plus the pointy ears and toes gives him a real mischievous look. Sometimes simple is best.
With all three of the Wiztastics Mixels in hand, you are heavily encouraged to build the Wiztastics Max combiner. The model reminds me of a dragon mixed with a flying insect - it has horns and fangs and claws and wings but also an abdomen, thorax, and what appears to be a stinger. I like it though, and it's perhaps my favorite of the Max Mixels that I have built. The head is actually built upside down, which I think is really cool and it works quite well. The body is rather squat, but I think it gives it a feeling of innate strength and toughness. The colors still go well together, just like on the individual Mixels.
Playability
The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?
Mixels don't really have any play features aside from their poseability - and that's okay! Magnifo has a mere five points of articulation, which is rather disappointing, and Mesmo only has six, but Wizwuz has ten, including both upper and lower jaw articulation. You can put them in lots of funny poses, and they almost always make it look cool. The Wiztastics Max has twelve points of articulation, and while he's somewhat limited by the use of clip hinges versus ball joints, there's still quite a bit he can do.
Magnifo comes with the wily Nixel, who ups the ante when it comes to role-play. Although he doesn't have much poseability, he can still wreak havoc among the Mixels. Thankfully, the Wiztastics Max is here to save the day and put an end to the Nixel's chaos.
Final Thoughts
Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?
Pros
What's to like?
Lots of purple pieces
Mesmo and Wizwuz have cool designs
Max is definitely worth building
Decent part selection overall
Cons
What's not to like?
Disappointing poseability on average
Magnifo is a bit lackluster
To wrap things up, I'm quite pleased with the Wiztastics as a whole. Wizwuz and Mesmo are both solid designs, and the Max model is no slouch either. These sets are also a great source of purple pieces and ball joints, clips, and SNOT brackets in general. If you can find them on sale (like I did), they're definitely worth snatching up!
Thanks everyone for reading and watching, I hope you all enjoyed the review! Your feedback and questions are always welcome, so head over to the Talkback and share your thoughts. Soon the 2015 reviews will be coming in full-swing, so keep your eyes peeled for those and all the latest LEGO and Bionicle news, right here on BZPower!