https://nerditis.com...gormiti-luxion/
Why would I review something you'll probably never get to buy? Ah, the mystery of the ages. Luxion is the next-to-last series of Gormiti, and is admittedly about as hard to find as that Boglin I showed off a couple of weeks ago. In case you're wondering what Gormiti is, it was an Italian toyline (and two cartoons) that ran for several years, as sort of their answer to Pokemon. It became popular enough to be released across Europe (particularly in France and the UK), and some of the toys even found their way onto American shelves. Although there were a lot of spinoff lines, such as micro figures and larger, articulated toys, for the most part Gormiti stuck with wave after wave of 2" mini-figures. The basic gist of the line was as follows: You had several elemental-themed tribes on the mystical island of Gorm, based on Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Forest. Later, Light and Dark were added. The Fire and Dark tribes (and sometimes Air) were evil, led by a flaming monster named Magor, whereas the heroes were led by The Great Old Sage. Typically, you had four or five normal figures and one larger "Elemental Lord" per tribe. The toys often included gimmicks, such as thermal plastic, glow-in-the-dark features, and even some photoreaftive toys, which changed color in sunlight. It was honestly a really good toy line - there wer esome duds, but the designers showed immense creativity in working within their elemental themes. Seriously, how many variations on "A tree person" could you make and still feel creative?
The various series of Gormiti were as follows:
- Series 1 (the original figures, in a different art style than later series. Only released in Italy)
- Mystic (repainted Series 1)
- Series 2 (was released in the United States as Series 2)
- Atomic (repainted Series 2, with gimmicks such as glow-in-the-dark or thermal paint)
- Series 3 (introduced Light and Dark tribes)
- Mythos (repainted Series 3, included gimmicks such as glow-in-the-dark or thermal paint)
- Energhia (resculpts of the Series 1 figure in the same art style as the rest of the line. Was released in the United States as Series 1)
- Final Evolution (Half of the figures were repainted Energhia with gimmicks, the other half were resculpted Series 3 with total redesigns and gimmicks for each tribe. Earth became Diamond, Water became Ice, Air became Fossil, Fire became Metal, Forest became Burning Forest, Light became Sun, and Dark became Moon.)
- Cartoon (Resculpts of Series 1 and 2 figures featured in the cartoon, also used the cartoon heroes for the Elemental Lords. The cartoon heroes would be resculpted in every line until Morphogenesis.)
- Elemental Fusion (Bigger sculpts, each figure had a chip in its foot that interacted with a talking altar)
- Supreme Eclipse (more cartoon-based characters, reintroduced the Light and Dark tribes which had been missing in the last two series, also included talking chips.)
- Titanium (Supreme Eclipse characters redesigned as articulated figures with accessories stored inside their body)
- Neorganic (Figures had thermal paint on their armor, introduced generic "soldier" figures, and included the Great Old Sage and Magor as figures. Was the last line to use the Cartoon characters).
- Morphogenesis (Articulated figures with swappable limbs)
- Luxion (glow-in-the-dark figures, slight redesign to the line with the "Evil" tribe based more on the Final Evolution metal design than fire or dark. Also included two brand-new good and evil leaders, Leander and Drakonius.)
- Nature Unleashed (Reboot of the line to tie into the new, rebooted CGI cartoon. All new characters except for Magor.)
Of all those toys, Series 1/Mystic and Luxion were released only in Italy. To understand why, basically, Neorganic came out as the TV show was dying down, and Morphogenesis wasn't very well-made (neither was Titanium. Articulation was a bad idea for these guys). Nature Unleashed had a new cartoon push, so it had a wider European release, but that left Luxion in the middle, abandoned like a kind of placeholder. Luxion only came out in Italy, and is surprisingly hard to find even there. What I had to do to obtain these was talk to a friend in Italy, and spend months compiling them. I ended up with every figure except for three - Kraken (the Lord of Water), and two Fire/Evil figures, Cingolo and Electrowatt. If you want, you can find pictures of those figures HERE. If you want Luxion of your own, the best advice I can give is to find somebody in Italy. So, why show these guys off?
Because of the gimmick! Nearly every Luxion figure glowed in the dark, but get this - rather than glowing in generic white/green, they all glow in the color in which they are sculpted! So orange glows orange, blue glows blue, and so on. For the most part, I've used a black light to trigger and photograph each glowing toy - there is a tiny difference, but not much.
So, let's show these incredible figures off! We'll go tribe-by-tribe, starting with the two Leaders, and ending with the Globosphere accessory. Which is ironic, since the leaders came with the Globosphere.
Leander, the sole memebr of the Light tribe in Luxion, is the leader of the Good forces. Instead of the Old Sage, he's an armored, glowing centaur! He and Drakonius are pretty large, but not any bigger than the other Elemental Lords in the set.
Leander's glow color is some of the most "normal" in the line - he's very similar to the Earth figures in color, actually.
I made a mistake with my black light, ambient light, and camera's white balance in this picture, but it looks like a cool photoshop effect!
Drakonius is the new Lord of Evil, a multi-headed (see his etra heads under his arms?) dragon, as opposed to Magor's fire elemental design. Interestingly, as the Fire/Evil tribe uses a metal theme this time around, it makes Drakonius one of the few genuinely fire-themed figures in the set.
Drakonius is completely at home in a fiery environment, but the really fun surprise is watching him glow!
I love the orange glow that the evil figures use in this set. It just looks so striking, doesn't it? The two leaders came with the Globosphere accessory, which will be covered at the end of the review. So, let's talk about the individual tribes!
The leader of the fire/evil tribe, Cerbante is a large robot with a vague Cerberus theme. His design is actually fairly creative even when you realize that it's a generic '50s sci-fi robot with three heads.
He glows orange, and the sheer size of his sculpt makes him stand out even more!
I want to emphasize that orange glow again.
Il Plastiforme is the other fire-themed figure in the Fire tribe. Although his name basically means "malleable form," he's essentially a fire mummy. Seriously. A fire mummy. This is why I like these toys. I actually had this figure for a few years, as I had managed to pick up Plastiforme when the line was still new.
And here he is when glowing. I won't show off every figure glowing, because you can pretty much guess - though I admit, I went a little overboard on the orange ones.
Oleodoctor's name is a pun that really only works in Italian. "Oleodotto" means "Oil pipeline," and calling him "Doctor Oil" or "Dotor Pipes" just isn't as much fun.
Again, the orange glow is just awesome.
Gazmazk is one of my favorite figures in the entire Gormiti line. Even though it's just a guy in a hazmat suit, he's made insanely well.
His glow is perfect for an irradiated, post-apocalyptic landscape, isn't it?
Kompaktator is, of course, a giant trash compactor. As I said, the "Fire" tribe in Luxion took its cues from the MEtal tribe in Final Evolution.
Kompaktator glows quite well, too!
Each tribe has a generic soldier figure which is smaller than the other figures, and does not glow. In case you needed any more confirmation about the Evil tirbe being metal and not fire-based, their generic soldier is an armored knight!
The Earth tribe is led by Bisamonte, whose name literally means "Steak Mountain." Bisamonte is the biggest and heaiest figure, sporting a very thick, powerful physique. He isn't the tallest, but he's definitely got more mass than the others, except perhaps Leander.
The Earth Tribe has a fairly generic glow, although without a black light it's got a tiny bit more of a yellow tinge than most glowing figues. Still, Bisamonte's almost bigenough to be a nightlight.
Stalagto, who is obviously made of Stalagmites, is a nice raw "rock" figure. As much as I like him, I'm not accompanying him with a glowing picture - not everybody gets one!
Rozen has stone blades attached to his arms, and a fairly dynamic pose. The Earth figures, when taken as a whole in the entire line, have a surprising amount of variety despite all being variations of the same basic theme of "rock stuff."
And here's Rozen, glowing. The radioactive look fits, even though he's just rock.
Granellus has a really intricate granular texture - the exact shade of yellow he's sculpted in makes it harder to see, though, which is a little bit of a shame.
Marmorius is a large marble guardian, with smooth surfaces as oposed to the rougher textures of Granellus or Stalagto.
He's also got a decent mount of surface area to glow.
The Earth Soldier is kind of small, but he actually looks the most like generic Earth Tribe soldiers from the other sets. It's interesting seeing a non-glowing interpretation of the tribe's primary color in Luxion, too.
Although I do not have Kraken, the Water Tribe's Elemental Lord, Hippobraccius can stand in for now. He has seahorses for arms! SERIOUSLY.
Water figures glow a cool blue, which is just as rare as orange when it comes to glow-in-the-dark toys.
Impetus is a rarity in the Water tribe, an actual water elemental! Nearly all of the others are various permutations of aquatic creatures, but Impetus is prety obviously a living tempest.
This makes his glow effect work even more - though all the same, there are plenty of bioluminescent sea creatures in the real world, too.
Mytiles is a conglomeration of mollusks. A decent amount of Water Tribe figures are like him, or Hippobraccius - clearly a conglomeration, a colony of more than one animal!
Barrakuda looks better in-hand than in a photograph due to his pose, but the concept is there. He's a shark (or Barracuda) with another face inside his mouth!
The Water Soldier is small, fishy, and has quite the scowl.
Arboricus is a viking. It doesn't say so on his card, but he's got a viking beard, viking helmet, and even a shield on his back. Usually, Forest Elemental Lords are just giant ents (except fo rthe Cartoon character), so Arboricus is actually a really nice changeup to the formula!
The Forest figures glow green. And yes, generic glowing toys glow green, but it's more of a happy coincidence in the case of these guys. They are, after all, very green.
It should be obvious what kind of plant Cactus is patterned after. I love how his arms are either tiny branch-tendrils, or giant hands.
I'd also argue that Palmizio is obvious - he's the first palm tree Gormiti, too (Another one cae out later, in Nature Unleashed). Although his design looks simple at first glance, he actually has a pretty intricate leaf pattern all over his body.
Palmizio glows very well, with his non-glowing face giving him sort of a headless effect.
Rovo is a bramble bush reimagined as a thorny, tentacled monstrosity! Forest GOrmiti actually used vines as tendrils a lot, and Rovo upholds this tradition.
And here he is glowing, his body shaped like a lightbulb.
Forteceppo's name literally means "Strong Stump," and he's actually the most "ordinary" tree monster in the set. Although his wood grain clashes with the color green, he still looks quite good.
The Forest Soldier is an armored little sapling. He, like the Earth Soldier, sort of vanishes in the crowd, though he's cool in his own right.
The Air Tribe has never been my favorite, because usually they're all generic birds. Mystral is... a big bird. Not to badmouth him, but he design is fairly simplistic for an Elemental Lord.
Although the black light emphasizes it, the Air figures do havea blueish tint to their glow.
Buferios is a living storm cloud. A ir elemental designs were actually rare for the tribe (again, BIRDS), but the base plastic color for Luxion Air figures really fits Buferio's design.
And when glowing, he looks like a lightning storm!
Aduncus is just an eagle. Compare him to Mystral to see what I mean.
Saettante is a lightning-wielding storm creature - Luxion had more "elemental" types than the Air tribes in other Goriti series, which, as previously said, works really well with the glowing theme. My figure came witht hat missing paint chip.
When glowing, it emphasizes the lightning a little more.
It should be really obvious what Tornado is based on.
Tornado's face is a little like a Japanese Haniqa statue, which helps differentiate him from the other elemental figures.
Okay, the Air Soldier is... well, look.
These are just Pokemon evolutions, right?
The Globosphere is Luxion's electronic accessory. It operates on ordinary watch batteries, available in any continent (yay). You get one with each Leader, so if you've got both Leander and Drakonius, then you have two. The Globosphere has lights inside, to show off your figure's glowing effect as well as "charge" him up for the outside.
It opens in the front, and has room for all the figures - Leander, Drakonius, and Bisamonte have no trouble fitting inside.
I didn't use my black light for this. The Globosphere has little UV LEDs inside! I expected an ordinary set of lights, but the fact that it uses black lights is just fantastic!
The Globosphere doesn't just "charge" the figures to glow, it actually shows off the color in which they do glow, thanks to those black lights.
So, what shall we say about this line? GOrmiti Luxion is unfortunately hard to find, because the figures are really fantastic. They're creative (well, mostly), the glow effect is really fantastically-utilized, and they look great in any mini figure collection. I'll probably show off the last three if I find them - Kraken has tentacles, Cingolo has a tank turret for a head, and ELectrowatt is made up of power outlets. But, in the meantime, enjoy this gallery of Gormiti Luxion, and good luck finding your own!