Review: 40919 Gremlins: Gizmo and Stripe
Posted by TheBrickPal,
The Gremlins franchise returned to LEGO last year, when the highly praised 21361 Gremlins: Gizmo launched. With that set and the minifigures from Dimensions, the films have now been represented in a couple of different forms.
One form that hadn't been explored, though, is BrickHeadz, and that's what 40919 Gremlins: Gizmo and Stripe aims to fix. The set looks brilliant in official images, capturing the looks of the lovable Mogwai and his arch-enemy quite well. But how well? Let's find out...
Summary
40919 Gremlins: Gizmo and Stripe Figures, 230 pieces.
£19.99 / $24.99 / €24.99 | 8.7p, 10.9c, 10.9c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
The Mogwai and monster are among the best BrickHeadz produced thus far
- Accurate designs
- Interesting shaping and prints
- Good parts pack
- Gizmo's accessory could be better
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The Completed Model
What becomes clear from the moment these two are fully assembled is just how much the designer paid attention to getting the appearances of the characters just right. Small details, such as Gizmo's eyelids, are present as they should be. The height difference is acknowledged, and Stripe's arms are longer, too.
Gizmo looks adorable in BrickHeadz form! The traditional black eyes work nicely, and the curved 1x2 tile looks good as his mouth. The shaping of the ears is perfect, too. Light nougat is used as the flesh tone throughout the model, which is a great match.
There's not much to see from the back, but I never expect much there.
The top of Gizmo's head is simple in its construction, but it didn't need much. The stacked plates work well enough as some fur texturing.
Gizmo carries a popcorn bucket, with a print that we've seen plenty of times before. It would have been cool to see a printed 1x2 tile with 3D glasses, or even something from Gremlins 2: The New Batch, but this is an appropriate accessory.
Stripe is easily the more impressive design here, which is not a slight against Gizmo. Both are outstanding, but Stripe is even more exceptional. The earth green and brick yellow combination is striking, and I like the printing on the arms and eyebrows.
The masterful use of a rock element for his chin is the real highlight, though. It's also good to get BrickHeadz eyes in different colors. The red eyes are particularly effective here, coming from the recent 40924 Megatron Robot & Vehicle - another character voiced by Frank Welker!
Stripe's backside is a bit more interesting than Gizmo's, due to his signature mohawk.
The Mohawk continues onto the top of Stripe's head, and looks fantastic.
Stripe holds the skateboard that he uses to steal candy and cause havoc at the store on Christmas Eve. This is the first time the element has been made in nougat, to my knowledge.
This set was begging to be photographed with 21361 Gremlins: Gizmo and the minifigures in 71256 Gremlins Team Pack, so here are some comparisons. All that's needed now is a large-scale Stripe sculpture!
Overall
I absolutely love this set! Both characters match their film counterparts perfectly, and look wonderful together. These truly are some of the best models we've received from the theme.
Again, Gizmo's accessory isn't the best, but otherwise, this set is almost faultless. It's an essential BrickHeadz set if you're a Gremlins fan. I just hope it's not the last we see of the franchise in LEGO!
"Gizmo caca!"
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19 comments on this article
Sorry, but Gizmo looks like a pig.
Not a Brickheadz fan, and I was in my 'dark age' when Dimensions was a thing, but that Stripe minifig is EXCELLENT. Put that in a set again, please.
I think the piece for Gizmo's mouth works IF it was printed with a mouth. As it stands it looks like a snout (unprinted as well).
I never noticed how horrible the color matching was on the old Gizmo figure. They really need to multi layer the white on darker colors.
As for the Brickheadz...not really my thing. I have a handful from the early days, but I don't think I will be tempted on these anytime soon.
I do have the large Gizmo that I have yet to build. Looks like fun for sure.
@mikesray said:
"Not a Brickheadz fan, and I was in my 'dark age' when Dimensions was a thing, but that Stripe minifig is EXCELLENT. Put that in a set again, please. "
I know, I wish those legs were still in production for the Shrek dragon minifigure
@brickwich said:
" @mikesray said:
"Not a Brickheadz fan, and I was in my 'dark age' when Dimensions was a thing, but that Stripe minifig is EXCELLENT. Put that in a set again, please. "
I know, I wish those legs were still in production for the Shrek dragon minifigure"
I'm not entirely sure it's left production yet, though it could have happened very recently. The legs were used for two minifigures in CMF26, not sure I've seen the piece used since.
A wonderful and infectious review, I'm sold! Gizmo looks surprisingly good but I'm still not too sure about Spike...I'm sure there's a MOC out there that has the gnashing teeth grin with it. That said, after kicking myself after passing numerous times 41622 back in 2018 (during my Lego Dark age and i totally derided Brickheadz until i eventually realised it was a good means to get certain parts, plus some characters actually look good in SD form) i can't imagine not getting it for the pure nostalgia like 40804 and 40878 and I'd never forgive myself, being the 80s kid that i am. At least this time I'll actually own a Gizmo in some form (after being rejected countless times after waving the Argos catalogue toy pages at my parents' faces)!
I'm certainly going to get this--mainly for Stripe, because I'm a huge fan of gremlins, not Gizmo--but I think the chin ridges on Stripe are a bit too disproportional...it makes him looks kind of like a hybrid Cthulhu.
Has anyone heard any rumors of a buildable gremlin to go along with Gizmo? They have to do it at some point, right?? (I'm keeping my fingers crossed.)
"The red eyes are particularly effective here, coming from the recent 40924 Megatron Robot & Vehicle"
nope, not quite, the Red Standard BrickHeadz Eye originated with a ComicCon exclusive Martian Manhunter BrickHeadz
I think Gizmo looks good and, best of all, the design is down to bricks rather than exclusive prints.
Excellent. An easy must bye set along with 40859
Love the review and agree with @Euroseb11 that it was wonderful and infectious. I especially love the variety of Gremlins family portraits. :o)
I'm kicking myself that I never picked up any Dimensions minifigures.
That being said, these Brickheadz unfortunately simply don't work for me. I'm only a recent adopter of Brickheadz but I've picked up twenty or so the last couple of years. Throw in the fact that Gremlins is one of my favorite childhood films (Summer of 1984 was so good with Ghostbusters, Temple of Doom, Karate Kid, and the Search for Spock), these Brickheadz(es?) should have been a Day 1 purchase.
I guess I just don't like the design decisions. At the very minimum, I think Gizmo's and Stripe's mouths should have been printed, I would have also loved it if they had been able to articulate the ears perhaps like 40792 Dumbo. I'm just not getting the whimsy of 40797 Eeyore, 40674 Stitch, or any of the FortNITE ones. :o( These seem to suffer the same blandness as the 40923 Shrek triumvirate.
IMO, 40615 Tusken Raider set a high bar for all Brickheadz to follow and these two should have never been fed after midnight. For those reasons, I'm out. Sharktank. :o)
I hope this opens the door for a buildable Stripe to complete the set!
Both their mouths look off... can't quite think of a better alternative, however.
All BrickHeadz are ugly and these two are no exception...
Lot of people who just seem to hate BrickHeadz on principle in the comments; why did you even come to this review if you automatically don’t like the theme?
@Brickalili said:
"Lot of people who just seem to hate BrickHeadz on principle in the comments; why did you even come to this review if you automatically don’t like the theme? "
BUT HOW WILL COMPLETE STRANGERS KNOW WHAT I'M NOT INTO UNLESS I TELL THEM, REPEATEDLY AND AT LENGTH, AT EVERY SINGLE OPPORTUNITY???
Maybe commenting is art. Maybe some people love using negative space. Then again, maybe some people should stop huffing paint.
@TheBrickPal are those pieces actually tan in the Stripe figure? They look very yellow, but I can't tell if it's just the dark green next to them tricking my eyes.
@brickwich said:
" @TheBrickPal are those pieces actually tan in the Stripe figure? They look very yellow, but I can't tell if it's just the dark green next to them tricking my eyes."
To be specific, it is 'brick yellow', but I've always referred to it as tan. Apologies for any confusion! I'll correct it.
@TheBrickPal said:
" @brickwich said:
" @TheBrickPal are those pieces actually tan in the Stripe figure? They look very yellow, but I can't tell if it's just the dark green next to them tricking my eyes."
To be specific, it is 'brick yellow', but I've always referred to it as tan. Apologies for any confusion! I'll correct it."
No you're fine! Everyone calls that color tan. I just wondered if it was maybe light bright yellow or something.