Review: Mixels Series 8 Pyrratz
Posted by TheBrickPal,
Mixels has proven popular enough to continue on into Series 8! Myself and many others are surprised that the line has lasted as long as it has... but I am not complaining. The city and tribe aesthetic of Mixopolis sticks around for even more fun adventures (and will for the rest of the year)!
It's the third summer for the theme and perhaps the most action-packed yet, with three tribes that follow the same pattern as February's Series 7: two occupational tribes and a 'historical' one, with each containing a thematically appropriate Nixel. We first caught a glimpse of this eighth wave of sets back in October after LEGO inadvertently put the photos of them in their online cache. At that time they looked pretty superb... but do they hold up against months of anticipation?
The Pyrratz, a pirating crew of swashbucklers, are the odd-tribe-out of the wave and the first I'm reviewing. So let's get going!
41566 Sharx
Enthusiastic captain Sharx is the leader of the Pyrratz and works alongside his cutthroat brethren staffing Mixopolis Wharf's Sea Dawg restaurant. Suitably aggressive in appearance, his body resembles a grey shark to match his name!
Sharx certainly looks the part with a captain's hat, hook hand and black boot. And that wooden barrel as the peg on the opposite leg? It can contain Sharx's gold! That sneaky scallywag.
What might not be entirely realized at first is the fact that Sharx's left eye is not the standard Mixels voodoo eye. It's instead a black Technic ball to represent an eyepatch!
I genuinely like Sharx, but he is probably my least favorite of the Pyrratz; fairly generic.
41567 Skulzy
Skulzy may not look it at first, but this Mixel is as greedy as they come! The detailing of the skull for his face is absolutely fantastic and the clam piece used for his bottom jaw is still quite rare, so its inclusion here is very welcome. Skulzy sports a red banana which makes use of a red flag piece for its tie on the back!
Similar to Sharx, Skulzy has a hidden area to store away his stolen riches; the eye socket behind his black (flag) eyepatch, of all places! He creatively uses another doubloon as an earring. Sprinkled onto him are 1x1 flower petals in green to represent aquatic foliage; possibly seaweed.
Skulzy is also equipped with a rugged sword. But that's not all! Finally, he is the Mixel of his tribe to have a Nixel - one who also happens to be a pirate... perhaps they will duel for the treasure? They are on opposing sides, after all! Anyway, this Nixel ends up as one of my favorites of the year, but he really deserves something extra such as a cutlass.
Overall, Skulzy is my second favorite of the Pyrratz, since no one can possibly beat...
41568 Lewt
You have probably been wondering where the other two Pyrratz have been getting their golden coins. Well, they have been making use of treasure chest crab Lewt! Lewt is the best of the Pyrratz in my opinion, looking absolutely adorable and allowing so much expression to be conveyed with the use of ball-joints for his eye stalks.
The third crab-like Mixel after Kraw and Gox, nervous Lewt is the table waiter at the Sea Dawg dinner theater and always fears being looted (get it?) by Sharx and Skulzy.
Of course, Lewt's top jaw is on a hinge and it can be opened up to reveal the shiny contents of his mouth. Completing the figure are three pairs of legs, as well as two arms; one with a large claw and one with a regular hand. Worthy of mention is the printed 1x1 tile used for a lock.
Verdict
I love the Pyrratz! They are, in general, just a great improvement over the last secondary tribe of a series (the Medivals). I might be slightly biased considering I prefer the LEGO Pirates themes over Castle. If you like history, pirates or Mixels in general, this tribe is for you!
We are taking a trip to the Medix office next...
Thanks to Huw for the photos.
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17 comments on this article
Skulzy will probably be the only one of these I get, but these are really sweet designs!
Lewt in person wasn't as good as I hoped. I thought it will be slightly bigger, so you can actualy put something inside. So I will mod it for sure :)
Love the way each of them hides gold!
Great job on the review, these guys look awesome!
Lewt is so cute!
These are adorable and I need them urgently.
The only reason that I would buy any mixels would be for parts other then that I really don't care for them but these look pretty cool with lots of unique pieces.
Bought this series just recently but haven't built them. First set of Mixels and possibly last as it was the pirate theme that had me intrigued. However I keep hearing people talk about them as parts packs so perhaps I should buy a few more along the way.
Yep, will be getting lewt, mainly for gold bits. Claws for my gold dragon.
Lewt worth it for the printed lock alone, may well pick up all three.
I always pick up the Mixels (several of each) as parts packs. Especially as they are often available for between 1,99 and 2,49 Euro over here. Almost nothing beats that on a price per part ratio, and those are often quite rare parts too.
@ AustinPowers: May I ask where you buy them at that price?
All three of these mixels look adorable, because of the good combination of pearl gold and dark brown. Best wave of mixels so far!
@BeaR the Builder: I buy them at various outlets both online and offline here in Germany.
Online: Lego LEGO.com, galeria-kaufhof.de, valuebrick.at, besserepreise.de, exoneit.de
Offline: Kaufhof, Müller, Lego store Frankfurt, Toys R Us
Those cheap prices are of course not available all of the time. I keep checking back regularly. The series 7 Mixels for example were 1,99 at Lego LEGO.com recently, or 2,25 to 2,49 at the other shops I mentioned. Some shops have introductory discounts, others have high discounts near the end of the series run, again others in between. Good times for discounts are also the "usual suspects", i.e. before Easter, Christmas or around Black Friday / Cyber Monday. That basic rule of course goes for all Lego themes, not just Mixels.
@giantorange and you get a spare lock as well. Which is nice.
The Pyrratx and Medix Mixels are showing as Sold Out on shop.lego.com in the US, and it's only the seventh of June. I'm sure I'll be able to pick them up if I want them (I found a complete series of Klinkers (from season five, I think?) at a Target locally, and there are still Orbitrons in Walgreens) but it's still interesting. Perhaps they're all going to people nudging orders over $75 to get the fountain?
I have Sharx and I really liked it. Mixels represent a good budget buy, and I always find them interesting.
@AustinPowers: thank you for your reply and sorry that mine comes so late!