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Mixels 2014 Discussion

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Some better pictures of the actual sets from Lego's Facebook:

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Sounds like an interesting concept. I'm already sold on these due to the new ball joints and eyes alone. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

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they seem to have elemental tribes like bionicle. also the siloughettes on the sides are eighther sneak peaks of upcoming sets from the same tribe. or they could be like x pods were they have multiple configuriations that would be cool in the mini shorts to see one guy disassemble and then assemble as a different version of himself. Also i think the other tribes might be air, ice, water, plant, and toxic.

since the normal numbers on the box are gone i believe that that may be the back of the box so you can see the animation for the minishorts.

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what do yall think of the animation i like it but it odd that it doesnt look like legos. are volectros eyes spherical or are they 1x1 round plates?

Edited by Legodude31

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what do yall think of the animation i like it but it odd that it doesnt look like legos. are volectros eyes spherical or are they 1x1 round plates?

His eyes look to be 1x1 round tiles that are printed. Flain's eyes are TECHNIC ball joints though.

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I'm surprised by the hate these guys are getting. I think they've got some charm, and the pieces are undeniably brilliant.

My favourite is Seismo. He has really big feet. though.

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Wow. talk about hyperbole. "Stuart Snyder, president and chief operating officer for Turner's Animation, Young Adults & Kids Media Division." Even his job title is overblown. Self important much?

Good on Lego and CN for forging a strong partnership though. Look forward to seeing the rest of the sets.

I doubt he was responsible for his own job title. In such a large company, specifying a person's role within the company can take a lot of words. The person before him probably had the same title.

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I doubt he was responsible for his own job title. In such a large company, specifying a person's role within the company can take a lot of words. The person before him probably had the same title.

Indeed; it's just the identifier for his position.

"president and chief operating officer" - this is the actual position, or rather, two different positions held by the same person, hence all the words. You couldn't leave part of this out without losing part of what his role is within the company.

"Turner's Animation" - this just tells us who he works for. It's a bit better than "some company," isn't it?

"Young Adults & Kids Media Division" - the specific business unit within the company. Again, this is just basic info.

Jargo's complaint doesn't make much sense. What would be preferable, "some guy working for some other guys"?

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I'm so pleased to see the new ball joint connection system revealed. Been working for many months engineering these.

They open up all new methods of building with LEGO Bricks. They fit quite well into the Bricks system, allowing creatures to be made with ball joints, but also allowing builds with all possible 3D-angles.

Look forward to see what the community can build with these new parts.

Erland

Part Design

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I'm so pleased to see the new ball joint connection system revealed. Been working for many months engineering these.

They open up all new methods of building with LEGO Bricks. They fit quite well into the Bricks system, allowing creatures to be made with ball joints, but also allowing builds with all possible 3D-angles.

Look forward to see what the community can build with these new parts.

Erland

Part Design

And thank you Erland and your colleagues! It's great to have a gamechanging part revealed so far in advance of release. Lots of time to anticipate!

You may be best placed to answer a question someone posed; many of us are assuming the couplings are a tighter fit than the existing towball connectors so that the friction is a bit higher to enable model strength. Is that correct, and have existing elements such as the 2X2 plate with towball been remoulded?

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You may be best placed to answer a question someone posed; many of us are assuming the couplings are a tighter fit than the existing towball connectors so that the friction is a bit higher to enable model strength. Is that correct, and have existing elements such as the 2X2 plate with towball been remoulded?

The towball connection has in principle zero friction, there is a small gap between the ball and the lips. The new ball cup graps the ball tight, creating friction that can support quite some weight (or moment = weight at a distance).

I can't (will not) comment on the amount of new parts or if any existing parts have been redesigned. Time will tell you.

Erland

Part Design

Edited by Front

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I missed this article on Mixels when it was first published a week and a half ago. It's pretty insightful and tells us a lot of things about what this theme's going to be about and how it was planned.

Among the surprises in it, there will apparently be 27 Mixels characters to collect! I'm surprised at this number... it's not an extraordinary number for a "big bang" or evergreen theme, but I was expecting something more along the lines of what I had gotten used to with constraction themes, X-Pods, and the like: certainly no more than twenty, if they were all going to be around the same price point! Perhaps there's some secret we're missing, though, such as the possibility that you might be able to build three different characters with a single set. That would suggest a much more reasonable total of nine unique sets. Nine would be consistent with the number of Mixels silhouettes on the SDCC display, and with a three-wave release beginning with the three we've seen in April.

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I missed this article on Mixels when it was first published a week and a half ago. It's pretty insightful and tells us a lot of things about what this theme's going to be about and how it was planned.

Among the surprises in it, there will apparently be 27 Mixels characters to collect! I'm surprised at this number... it's not an extraordinary number for a "big bang" or evergreen theme, but I was expecting something more along the lines of what I had gotten used to with constraction themes, X-Pods, and the like: certainly no more than twenty, if they were all going to be around the same price point! Perhaps there's some secret we're missing, though, such as the possibility that you might be able to build three different characters with a single set. That would suggest a much more reasonable total of nine unique sets. Nine would be consistent with the number of Mixels silhouettes on the SDCC display, and with a three-wave release beginning with the three we've seen in April.

Nice find 'Aanchir'! I missed that too. :classic:

I think you're right with that we'll get nine unique sets. Maybe the characters can be mixed and matched to make a new character, but I also think it's likely that you're right about them having three different models. Twenty-seven unique sets is incredibly unlikely. I'm guessing these will be released around the same time as The Simpsons CMFs or the House set.

Edited by just2good

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Well, the article says that Mixels will be released "in 2014 in three series, starting March", so I'm guessing there will be 3 series of 9 Mixels in 2014, much like there are 3 series of 16 CMFs each year, with the first series being released in March and the other two later in the year. The silhouettes on the SDCC display might just depict the March wave. That's what I got out of it anyway.

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Well, the article says that Mixels will be released "in 2014 in three series, starting March", so I'm guessing there will be 3 series of 9 Mixels in 2014, much like there are 3 series of 16 CMFs each year, with the first series being released in March and the other two later in the year. The silhouettes on the SDCC display might just depict the March wave. That's what I got out of it anyway.

Nine sets per wave seems like an awful lot, especially since only three have been announced for the first wave. And in terms of contents, these seem a lot less like the blind-packaged CMFs and a lot more like the Ninjago booster packs and LEGO Friends animal packs, which tend to be three to a series. I'm not a business expert but the idea of nine unique sets appearing in a single three- or four-month wave seems dubious to me.

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Nine sets per wave seems like an awful lot, especially since only three have been announced for the first wave. And in terms of contents, these seem a lot less like the blind-packaged CMFs and a lot more like the Ninjago booster packs and LEGO Friends animal packs, which tend to be three to a series. I'm not a business expert but the idea of nine unique sets appearing in a single three- or four-month wave seems dubious to me.

Keep in mind, though, that the Ninjago booster packs and Friends animals (Frienimals?) are just meant to compliment their respective themes. Mixels are different since they represent their entire theme, so I think they are more comparable to Bionicle/HF sets in that they are buildable characters from a Cartoon Network show which also come in waves of around 9 if I'm not mistaken. And since these are relatively small and cheap, I think they can afford to release them a bit more rapidly.

EDIT: Looks like the sets will be 3.99 Euros/dollars each.

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Keep in mind, though, that the Ninjago booster packs and Friends animals (Frienimals?) are just meant to compliment their respective themes. Mixels are different since they represent their entire theme, so I think they are more comparable to Bionicle/HF sets in that they are buildable characters from a Cartoon Network show which also come in waves of around 9 if I'm not mistaken. And since these are relatively small and cheap, I think they can afford to release them a bit more rapidly.

BIONICLE and HF do usually have a sizable number of sets per wave (up to twelve), but there's one trait of them that I do not think will apply to the Mixels: BIONICLE and HF sets are staggered into separate price points. There have only once been more than six BIONICLE sets at the same price point within a six-month period. And nowadays, Hero Factory never has more than four sets at a single price point within a single wave. Also, BIONICLE and HF only ever have a new wave every six months. That allows much more time for stores to clear out stock of sets from previous waves.

From what we've seen and heard, most or all Mixels sets will be very around the same size. If you have nine sets out at a time at the same price point, you run the risk that they'll compete with each other.

I guess it's possible that these concerns will be a little less pressing if it turns out there are some sets with multiple characters in them, like the Ninjago spinner arena sets that include two spinners each, or one spinner and additional accessories. That would mean fewer sets per wave as well as more varied price points.

Edited by Aanchir

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From what we've seen and heard, most or all Mixels sets will be very around the same size. If you have nine sets out at a time at the same price point, you run the risk that they'll compete with each other.

But don't you have the same problem with the CMFs or any collect-them-all themes for that matter? If the sets were any larger/more expensive, I could see how that would be a problem, but at only $4 per set, I don't think they'll have much of a loss if some are less popular than others as long as at least half of them sell well. I'm no business expert either, but that's what I think. :shrug_oh_well:

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But don't you have the same problem with the CMFs or any collect-them-all themes for that matter?

Speaking of CMFs and Mixels, this listing on that shopping site is pretty interesting. For $4, it seems like there will be Mixel sets with a mystery build? I'm not sure.

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