Galidor: yes it was all bad

Here it is, folks: the "Manos: Hands of Fate" of LEGO sets...

"Unless you plan to buy one of everything LEGO has made, avoid this like the plague..."

I will avoid this like the plague.

Galidor = hours of being bored, rubbish display models...

You get the idea.

I actually had quite a few of the Galidor sets back in the day. My mom bought me the big egg-looking space ship because it was like $5USD or something ridiculously low at ToyRus. I ended up giving one (still in the box) to a friend for his birthday back when they were popular (where they ever really though?) and then I sold most of the rest of them at a yard sale. It wasn't until a few years later that I learned they were actually lego! I have around 110,000 pieces and I had no idea these things were lego...

On a side note, are you going to be reviewing the ones from McDonald's? Those are even more of an abomination!

I think LEGO has learned at least one thing from their mistake.

When you show a model, you really should have instructions on ow to build it!

I have several raptors from the much more recent Dino 2010 series, and their rubbery parts all suffer from the same white film as these Galdior parts.

Will mixels die like them.

Mixels are great and are made out of Bricks.

Thanks very much for the review Huw, sometimes it's even fun to look at the terrible sets with a fresh set of eyes. Even more disturbing is that rubber issue... I did a review of a Dino Attack set from 2005 recently and noticed the arms covered in this "white dust" too. I wondered why this happening, n fear for these type of pieces over the years now....since these arms are black they look even worse.
Link to my picture...
https://thehabitualbrick.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/7474-3.jpg
I'm was very curious as to the root cause, and whether it was my storage system or not, I'm starting to think its not after looking at your pictures.

I have to agree with davymoon. Mixels = Galidor 2.0. I think we are going to look back on them and ask what was Lego thinking because they look just about as ridiculous (with better quality parts).

I love it's design. Very insect-like, great molded pieces...
The head. the head is trully beatiful.

I liked them, but mainly cause I could attach the joint to the click sockets from makuta, http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=41681, and give bionicle guys the cool bug legs from this set. And the head from this guy is sweet!

That does seem odd. I've heard of this theme, but never actually looked into it before. I was in the dark ages at that time.

I'd say Mixels at least have other uses. Unless you are into the constraction models or action figures, you wouldn't have any need for Galidor parts, even if they looked good and were useful..

Should have put something like "WARNING: Disturbing and/or Graphic Content!" at the top of the article! No one should have to suffer through a Galidor ... set? toy? ... whatever. But thank you anyways for pulling back the veil and exposing Galidor for the fraud it is. You are the hero we need and the one we deserve.

WHAT THE BLEEP is that thing?!

This is a disgrace to the name of LEGO. Come on... no instructions? Really? *slams head against wall*

That's odd. Most LEGO older than I am doesn't have white, dusty films all over it. FAIL. (Also, where do you get 14 years? This set came out in 2002. 2015 - 2002 = 13 years.)

Bah, it's an ugly set, but don't oversell this as the worst thing you've ever seen. It was an innovative new thing Lego was trying, and it failed and they learned from it. Heck, I even think some of the red armor pieces (in the degraded rubbery plastic) would look cool on some Bionicle MOCs. I think Galidor pieces provide the ultimate challenge to MOCist; if you can nicely incorperate them into a MOC, you have skills!

Also what's this about Mixels being the next Galidor? Galidor was already rebooted in Ben 10: Sets based off TV show characters with highly specialized pieces. And even then those were much better than the original.

Mixels are nothing like Galidor. People stating this I assume just dont like the designs of them. Yes they are cartoony and a bit strange but they are still obviously Lego, about building and have a lot of other options. Not some feeble attempt at action figures which are very difficult to combine with any other Lego element.

I'm a bit puzzled by all the gripes in the article and comments about the set not having instructions. On the one hand, yes, I know constraction building doesn't come naturally to everyone. On the other hand, Galidor sets in general are among the most mind-numbingly simple constraction sets ever, so it's surprising that any experienced AFOL would consider a lack of instructions for a set like this an undue burden. Color confusion should not be an issue, since as far as I can tell this set does not have any pieces in multiple colors? The Dark Red molds all seem to be visibly different shapes and sizes from the Bright Red ones.

Moving on, any comparisons between Galidor and Mixels, other than the fact that both themes were developed jointly by LEGO and a partner in the TV industry, are laughable. Mixels have a story, but knowing that story is not at all necessary for appreciating the sets, which are brimming with personality and visually consistent. Mixels are considerably more complex than Galidor sets even at less than half the price, and unlike Galidor they have been wildly successful. But I suppose there is a common factor in that neither theme (nor any fantasy theme with such wacky creature designs) will appeal to people with stunted imaginations.

The white film is a curious quirk. No telling what causes that on these rubber parts.

@xccj: You have things a bit backwards. The Galidor TV show was based on the sets, not the other way around.

The thinner rubber armor pieces seem to have axles; aren't those regular attachment points?

Wait, Mixels are bad? They're not my favorite theme, but they hae useful parts and seem to have kid appeal. And they've been through several waves already. My daughter loves them.

Remember, AFOLs are not Lego's primary consumer. They cater to us, yes, but we're not the main market.

I did a bit of research, and the white stuff might be caused by ozone or UV reacting with the rubber- apparently there are special coatings that are normally used to prevent it.

I picked up Gorm Deluxe for $2 or so last year to experiment with MOCing with Galidor, but I haven't gotten the opportunity to do so yet. I think that Galidor is pretty dumb, but it does pose a nice challenge for us MOCers.

Mixels follows the lego style, the disaster that was Galidor did not.

Hahaha...omg...that is terrible.

Every time a box of Mixels appears at any of our local toy stores, the contents quickly vanish. So annoying as always takes me several sweeps to grab the full range. Mixels are a pocket money success story.

I never even knew these 'things' existed.
And, quite frankly, this pleases me.

I love it. Stop being mean! It's for simple people. If I hadn't seen this at a special time on my life then I wouldn't have been able to build. My good friends would not have created such masterpieces as the Exo-suit. You cannot write off this theme just like that. Tom Cruise told me in a hot jacuzzi last week that Galidor was his second favorite theme after Airbender. It gets a bad write up but oh god it's so easy to play with. And just imagine swapping your arms for jet engines or your torso for that of a young woman! One wait that's a bit creepy. Anyway to clarify Galsor is crap. But won't stop me displaying it at BRICK 2015. (Warren might however! )

I don't really see a parallel between Galidor and Mixels. I can't speak to how popular Mixels are on television, but the sets seem quite popular, especially considering how many series there have been of them at this point. The character designs are also very creative, and at the very least have value for most LEGO collectors when it comes to cannibalizing parts, especially the joints and hinges.

On the other hand, Galidor deviated too far from its contemporary LEGO themes.

Just give them a few more holes to cram more stupid limbs on, slap on a pseudo-Hawaiian name and you've got yourselves a gold mine!

i stopped playing lego for almost 17 years until Lego got their act together from 2005 onwards and started releasing iconic sets with better quality, looks and details. Galidor was the one theme from way back then that made me exclaim in shock, "I guess this one might just send Lego to its grave." Look where Lego is now! Better make the mistakes earlier than later. U learn from them.

You can get episodes of the show on YouTube - they were broadcast on bbc too since that one I checked out was stamped as such. If you go by that then lego did do a decent job recreating the characters but it's not really lego as we know it. Looks awful.

I can't help but wonder how the Galidor sets would have looked (and fared) if they were made from CCBS parts.

Looking at this fellow ... (in particular, that awesome design for a menacing insectoid head) ... and I can't help thinking that if this toy was either (a) a pure action figure, or (b) made up of actual Lego pieces, then it would've been a really cool toy.

As it stands, it looks like they went out of their way to pick the worst possible aspects of both Lego and action figures, and that's how Galidor happened. The lack of instructions seems ridiculous, after all. It's Lego! Yeesh.

That reminds me I was going to watch John Carpenter's The Thing

I remember being confused by these. I saw the Lego logo on the box, but it didn't seem like Lego. I suppose I was not alone as they all went to the Clearance bin rather quickly.

You know, if the show this was based around was any good, how different do you think the company would be now?

That is the biggest piece of junk I've Ever seen! What is Lego thinking.

@DanRSL: Wow, your humor is almost half as clever as this set.

Truthfully, Galidor is about as far from BIONICLE as Jack Stone is from LEGO City. They're the same category of toy and depict similar sorts of subjects, but that's about where the similarities end.

So, let me get this straight. Galidor = Bad, but I'm hearing people roar with love over the Battle Figures which appear to be the same type of thing where limbs just click into place. Is it just because this line didn't say Star Wars on it?

http://brickset.com/sets/75110-1/Luke-Skywalker

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on Star Wars. I've collected most all Kenner/Hasbro figures up to 2011 along with having a stormtrooper uniform. But, sometimes I think people jump on the bandwagon. Looking at the line from a child's point of view for a second instead of an adult I would have probably had fun playing with Galidor sets as a kid. It isn't Lego as we think of it as fitting in with other Lego, but it probably helped pave the way for Bionicle, Mixels, and even these Battle Figures...

I actually liked the Galidor figures and have a few in my collection. Euripides is a really cool character. My biggest problem with the line is that the figures are too big. I think if they would have made them on a smaller scale I think the theme would have done much better.

@TK2012WSW: Really, other than being buildable action figures of sci-fi characters, even the Star Wars Battle Figures are radically different from Galidor. All you need is to look at the piece counts. The Star Wars Battle Figures have between 82 and 182 pieces (source: http://www.bzpower.com/story.php?ID=7384), while Galidor sets range from 9 to 29 pieces (not counting the McDonalds sets). It shouldn't be a surprise that people within the adult LEGO fan community prefer a buildable action figure that involves some actual, substantial building to one that's just a matter of snapping pre-assembled limbs together at the joints. The Star Wars Battle Figures also have greater articulation than Galidor sets, since Galidor sets generally didn't have fully articulated wrists.

You're right that kids aren't likely to be quite so critical, particularly kids who are interested in the toys as action figures rather than as building sets. If the Galidor sets and TV show had not been rushed to market, perhaps it could have been a reasonably successful theme. But it still would have likely been hated from the AFOL community, and the audience for it would probably still be far smaller than the audience for the new Star Wars battle figures since it wouldn't be appealing to as many builders. Even most LEGO themes that are actually successful (unlike Galidor, which was an expensive flop) can rarely match the popularity of LEGO Star Wars.

@Aanchir That's probably not a great comparison because Jack Stone is virtually identical to City, no more different than Friends because of the fig swap.

Well, all opinions are respectable, I do not personally met the TV series (rare came to this side of the world) although I have seen some chapter on Youtube, but I was struck by this line, (to me clearly focused on Children between 5 and 12 years) with which end up buying several characters and TDN Module, caught my attention first, nearly taking the company to ruin (let hesitation, perhaps not reached the expectations of sales, if , but then to bring to ruin .....), ¿ugly ?, Well, matter of tastes, have playable ?, that is the question, what if two things are clear, that although we all must strive to say no, if it is and was LEGO and have made very good Moc's of AFOLs known that it is actually a challenge to use these parts.

Perhaps that is the reason that within a few years end up being collectibles (if they are not already), thanks for reading and sorry for my English (blame the google translator) XD XD XD

By the way, Ooni, had no gadget, but other characters yes, I think 8316: Kek Powerizer on his back it Come With 20 fun games and Interacts With Galidor Quest and it Interacts With The Galidor TV show

See You ¡¡¡¡¡

@DanRSL: You're kidding, right? o_O Are you honestly trying to argue that Jack Stone and City are "virtually identical"? Because it doesn't take a genius to recognize the fundamental differences between 4611 and 60047, or between 4601 and 60001. The subject matter is more or less the same (a police station and a fire car, respectively), but the design language, the complexity of the builds, the versatility of the parts, and the level of realism are radically different. And obviously plenty of buyers recognize these differences as well, because Jack Stone was generally unsuccessful, while LEGO City is one of the LEGO Group's greatest success stories.

Or maybe you're just trolling. On the Internet, it can be hard to tell. Part of me wants to assume you're trolling since your arguments just seem to reach further and further into the realm of insanity, but generally I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. In this case, that means assuming you do in fact think all municipal buildings and vehicles are "virtually identical", no matter what they actually look like or how they're constructed, and that the type of figure is the only possible reason that one theme would succeed where another depicting similar subject matter failed. Does that about sum things up?

No, I'm not trolling. The concept is the same and the bricks are the same. Jack Stone is clearly more of a "juniors" version of City with different figs, but the differences end there. To me, I'd call it virtually identical, even closer than Friends is (a neon and pastel "girls" version of City with different figs).

Jack Stone probably failed not because casual consumers noticed the different "design language", but because it had no installed brand recognition and the figs make it look like Mega Blocks or some clone brand at a glance. Yes, both pairs of sets you provided look the same but one has "weird" figs and is aimed at younger kids - If you're a 7 year old, are you going to want the normal version for "big kids" or the weird one for babies? It was a marketing issue, not a quality issue. Evident because they were the same bricks as City.

Sorry I insulted your precious Bionicle (which is garbage - now THAT's trolling!), but I think you need to take a step back and look at things from a broader, non-Lego fan perspective sometimes.

@DanRSL: The problem with that is that we KNOW the different design language was a component in Jack Stone's failure. As the book Brick by Brick explains, even a vehicle as simple as a fire engine looked more like some futuristic space rover than any kind of real, modern vehicle. Whereas in LEGO City, vehicles tend to look considerably more realistic, and thus resonate with far more people, even among average buyers.

And having SOME of the same bricks as LEGO City doesn't mean buyers will be as satisfied, because buyers of LEGO City will get lots of versatile pieces and buyers of Jack Stone will get a few basic bricks and a lot of large, clunky, specialized parts that they might struggle to put to other uses. Thus it hurt LEGO's reputation as a toy that kids will continue to play with again and again.

For reference's sake, here's a link to page 126 of "Brick by Brick": http://books.google.com/books?id=4YgAjv9bdT0C&pg=PA126 Pages 126 through 129 talk about how LEGO City reinvented a Town range that had gone from stagnant to self-destructive in the past decade or so. I encourage you to buy "Brick by Brick" sometime. It's an exceptional book that goes into all kinds of detail about how LEGO got their mojo back after their disastrous performance at the turn of the century.