Mixels are here, and other shopping news
Posted by Huw,
UK shops are starting to receive stock of the March releases. Disney Princess and Juniors sets have been found in Sainsbury's and Smyths, and Argos is selling Mixels already. I picked up a set of nine earlier today and I'll be reviewing them over the next few days. In the meantime, take a look at this picture from the back of the instructions that shows series 1-3.
In other shopping news:
- Most of the first wave of Q1 2014 Star Wars sets are (finally) available for pre-order on Amazon.com with a release date of 1 March.
- The first wave of Creator and Disney Princess sets are now available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk with a release date of 23 February.
CapnRex101 - As well as all of the above, I came across the three smaller Marvel sets, which have been available for a few days in North America, in my local Sainsbury's this morning.
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My local ToysRus had 4 of the 5 Marvel sets as well, missing only Captain America and the Red Skull.
Well worth the pick up.
Wonder how many series they'll have...
@CapnRex101 - D'you remember any of the prices on the Marvel sets? I've been wondering if they are going to retail 76015 and 79017 at £19.99 or £24.99.
What is this serie for? Just wasting money for things which you can build by yourself... I don't guess any reason for people want to buy it for..
@bodybomb3 Both of those are listed on amazon.co.uk at £19.99. Also 76014 £11.99, 76016 £44.92, 76018 £44.99. All 5 new Marvel sets show an availability date of Feb 23.
As usual, I'll be waiting until the LEGO store gets these in before I consider purchasing, but can't wait to get the Mixels and a couple of those Marvel sets! :-)
The Hulk's lab smash is also in the US
In bellevue (Washington) we had all the new Hero Factory, Chima (Speedorz, sets, and Beasts), Star Wars, Mixels, and Super heroes (DC and Marvel) since about 2 weeks ago. They said they got it in early...
Correction: I only saw the Hulk Lab set, the SPidey chobber, the Doc Ock Truck Escape, and the Captain America vs Hydra set
The LEGO store in Pleasanton (California) had the new Star Wars sets early about 2 weeks ago as well. They had the new Super Heroes as well; all Marvel sets were in stock (with an abundance of last year's IM3 sets), but the popular Batman Riddler Chase set was sold out, leaving a large hole in the shelf.
So, are Mixels pretty much a Pokémon type series, as in the way they evolve or something?
@SHuN23: Are you talking about the Mixels? I couldn't build them for myself. Don't have the parts in the right colors or quantities. There are some parts I don't have any of, like some of the cartoon eyes.
Anyway, what's wrong with sets that you could build yourself? It doesn't make them any less well-designed — in fact, it can take more effort to create something unique-looking from existing parts than to create specialized new parts to achieve the same goal.
@Blockland: It's sort of like Pokémon/Digimon in terms of characters evolving/leveling up. But the individual sets are all unique characters. Instead of just transforming from one design into another, they power up by combining into "Mixes", "Maxes", and "Murps", kind of like how the classic BIONICLE characters could fuse together into larger characters like "Toa Kaita" or "Turaga Nui". See here: http://www.lego.com/en-us/mixels/explore/mix-max-murp/mix-max-murp
I think the Mixels are an awesome concept, and I hope they're very successful. The new joint pieces they use are incredibly useful and I can't wait until they're on LDD so I can experiment with them a little bit more freely. And I love those cartoon eyes! The models have elemental themes like Pokémon and Digimon, but aesthetically they remind me a bit more of Muppet characters like the ones in Sesame Street or Fraggle Rock.
I'm approaching the Mixtels warily for the time being but the more photos I see of them the more intriguing I find them. They do have a rather Muppet-like feel to them and some of them are bursting with personality as well as ideas for parts-reuse. The joints are great and the price-per-piece is excellent. Like the LEGO Movie sets, they do a wonderful job of encouraging creative use of parts as well! I think TLG have a great idea here!
On a related note, I just saw the newest set of Friends animal sets (the one with the Tiger, Penguin, and second Turtle) listed on the TRU website. Should mean they're available on the West Coast of the US now and the rest of us will be able to get them soon! (I've been drooling over that Tiger set for some time as an efficient way to get gold swirly finials and the new plant piece in green!)
I bought most of the Star Wars sets at Smith's in Utah on their buy two get one free deal. Toys R Us has also had the star wars sets online on Monday I bought the rest of the sets I needed at the buy one get one half off deal. Plus they were listed at reatail, no Toys R Us mark up.
Our store now carried the electro set as well as the sea cow.
@Aanchir, and how can you compare this with SW sets and other which you can buy, build and make your own collection of your interests. I think this serie will be closed as soon as the first parts will be sold
^ I think you're missing the point of these. Not everyone likes SW or can drop $20-200 on SW sets. Mixels will appeal to a very different demographic. Not necessarily all AFOLs, but certainly many of them who can see these for what they are: fun and full of potential.
The long term success of these will probably be determined by the success of the cartoon, not because LEGO buyers don't like them.
@SHuN23: I wouldn't even try to compare these to Star Wars sets myself. They're completely different categories. Star Wars, Ninjago, and themes like that are the kinds of sets you collect with a passion, whereas these are the kinds of sets you collect on impulse, kind of like the Collectible Minifigures.
I personally haven't bought Star Wars sets in a long time because I know that no matter how much I spend, I will never have a collection that I can really call "complete". It takes years for enough sets to be released to cover all the major scenes in the franchise, and by the time there have been enough, some of the older sets and minifigures will seem awfully outdated compared to the newer ones. I still admire modern Star Wars set designs for their attention to detail (which puts my old Star Wars sets from 1999-2005 to shame), but I make no effort to collect them. It'd just require a level of dedication I am not prepared to commit.
What!!? The Star Wars are here?! YES!
Or maybe not...sigh...