Although I don’t pick up all–or even most–of the LEGO Mixels sets released, I make it a point to always pick up the ones that I like the best. And from the 2015 LEGO Mixels Series 4 sets, the single Mixel I liked the best was the Glowkies Tribe bat, LEGO Vampos 41534. As soon as I saw images of Vampos, I thought he was irresistible. Now that I have him in-hand, is this cute vampire bat everything I’d hoped for?

The Right:

Mixels are a theme that’s more “miss” for me than “hit”, as I tend to only like the Mixel sets that I find super-cute, and not the ‘bizarre’ sets that seems to make up the bulk of each series. Luckily, the Series 4 LEGO Mixels sets include several adorable creatures, and chief among them is the LEGO Mixels Glowkies Vampos figure.

The LEGO Mixels Vampos 41534 set includes 59 pieces, making it an above-average value at just over 8 cents per piece! So even though I could complete the simple build in well under 10 minutes, I didn’t feel ripped off at all by this value-priced monster.

Like most Mixels toys, Vampos includes several micro ball-joints. In this case, there are three: two for the legs and one for Vampos’ head. Thanks to these ball joints, LEGO Vampos enjoys fantastic posability as far as his head and legs go, and can take on many personality-rich poses.

With his two enormous vampire front teeth, you might think Vampos would be scary–but I just want to give him a hug. He’s oozing with personality, and is easily a friendly vampire bat Mixel.

But wait–there’s more! LEGO Mixels are a real oddity in the world of LEGO sets as one-third of the sets released include a special, unadvertised bonus–LEGO Nixels figures!

Because I pick-and-choose my Mixels toys and don’t buy them all, I’ve ended up missing out on the Nixels pack-in figures–until now. When I started assembling the LEGO Nixel figure included with Vampos I actually thought I was building some sort of crazy clock (thinks Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast) before I realized what it actually was!

The LEGO Mixels Nixels are a small addition with just a few pieces and two points of articulation (swivel arms), but they’re a free bonus–and an exciting one to boot. Very cool of LEGO to include these antagonist enemies of the Mixels at all. Thanks, LEGO!

The Wrong:

As much as I want to just slap an ‘A+’ grade on the 41534 Vampos Mixels figure for his sheer cuteness, the set does have some deficiencies.

First off, I was really disappointed with the special glow-in-the-dark feature on Vampos. While I had assumed that the light-greenish pieces on Vampos’ feet and sides of his head were glow in the dark (as is usually the case with GITD toys), that’s not reality.

In fact, the only thing on the LEGO Mixels 2015 Vampos set that glows is his eyes. No more, no less. Given that this is the “Glowkies Tribe” and many were anticipating the glowing feature, this is definitely a disappointment (although Vampos’ eyes do glow very well).

The other thing about the 41534 LEGO Vampos figure that really bugs me is his wings. While a micro ball-joint for each wing would be absolutely ideally, Vampos’ wings are actually on swivel joints.

As a result, the wings are looser and have a far smaller range of motion than I’d hoped for, and also pull out of their sockets way easier than I’d like. Not a deal breaker, necessarily, but certainly not as fun and well-designed as they could be.

Overall: LEGO Vampos 41534 is a real cutie with a strong value of less than 10 cents per piece, a bonus Nixel included and three useful micro-joints; but I was disappointed that his wings are so loose and unstable and that his glow-in-the-dark feature is limited to his eyes. He’s pretty adorable (as far as vampire bats go), and well worth his $4.99 price-tag. Recommended.

GRADE: B+