Lego Mixels Lego Mixels (stylized as
LEGO Mixels) was a
Lego theme based on a variety of tribes living in a fantastical diverse world and are small creatures that can mix and combine with one another to create new characters. The theme was first introduced in 2014. It was eventually discontinued by the end of 2016.
Overview The Lego Group handles all toy merchandise for the Mixels franchise, and
Cartoon Network handles all non-toy merchandising. The Lego Mixels buildable collectible figurines went on sale on March 1, 2014. Each character has their own set, and nine were released as part of series one. For each tribe, one of the three sets contains a Nixel. Series 2 was released at the end of May, and Series 3 was released at the end of August. Series 4 was released on February 1, 2015.
Development Before Cartoon Network came to Lego, Mixels was called
Monsters. It had sets of five in a tribe with overly simple designs. Some design changes include Shuff and Seismo's names being swapped with each other, Shuff having a looser crystal on his head that would have looked more like hair, Vulk's ears being red instead of black, the Nixels coming in various shapes, and Balk originally being shorter and squatter with thinner tentacles and smaller pupils. Kraw was originally named
Bouncer, Gobba was
Chippo, and Tentro was
Flexi; other sources still slip up on Tentro and call him Flexi, though, including the Lego Magazine once. Lego designer Gemma Anderson explained the importance of the Max figure in designing each tribe's individual figures and stating that, "During the sketching phase, I would consider what the tribe theme is and then work out what the max could be, at the same time wondering how I can use certain parts from the Max in the 3 small Mixels. It's often a case of going back and forth between the 3 models and the Max." Anderson also highlighted the importance in the characters' faces in capturing a unique personality and explained, "The eyes and mouths are a huge part of the personality of the Mixel, changing the eyebrows for example can drastically change the expressions from sad to happy, or even angry! We would often brainstorm on the names of the character; some of them might be inside jokes with the team. One example is 'Tuth' in Series 8, it was a joke in the team that me being from Wales, I pronounce some words a little differently, such as 'tooth' sounding more like 'tuth'. We decided during the naming process, we would try to name that one Mixel how I pronounce it, and we succeeded."
Construction sets According to
BrickLink, The Lego Group released 90 playsets as part of the
Lego Mixels theme.
Discontinuation Shortly after Cartoon Network announced that the episode "Nixel Nixel Go Away" will be the series finale, The Lego Group cancelled production of the toy line. As a result, the theme was discontinued. ==Controversy==