Given their decades of immense success and the thousands of extremely fun toys they’ve produced, LEGO has earned my trust and respect. Even so, occasionally LEGO will reveal something that will make me raise my eyebrow a little bit and make me wonder what in the world they’re thinking. Such was the case when I saw one of the big new LEGO 2014 themes for the first time: LEGO Mixels. Having now read all of the available materials on LEGO Mixels and observing each 2014 LEGO Mixels set closely, I’m now willing to give Mixels the benefit of a doubt…

In some ways I find the upcoming LEGO Mixels themes to be among LEGO’s most ambitious ideas yet, and in other ways I find the Mixels LEGO figures to be deeply unimpressive. Basically, LEGO has partnered up with Cartoon Network to create the new line of LEGO Mixels toys and a series of LEGO Mixels cartoon shorts to coincide with them.

This is a little bit different than previous LEGO themes that have had cartoons air on Cartoon Network, as this time LEGO and Cartoon Network worked together in developing Mixels (as opposed to Cartoon Network making cartoons based on the preexisting concepts of Ninjago and Legends of Chima).

For the LEGO 2014 Mixels Series 1 assortment, there will be nine different polybag sets featuring three characters each from three different groups.

The yellow group will be called the Electroids (because they’re yellow, obviously) and will consist of: LEGO Mixels Zaptor 41507, LEGO Mixels Teslo 41506 and LEGO Mixels Volectro 41508.

The red group is the fire-themed Infernites Mixels and includes LEGO 41502 Zorch, LEGO Mixels Vulk 41501, and Flain LEGO 41500.

The gray/black group is the Mixels Cragsters, and features LEGO Mixels Crader 41503, LEGO Mixels Shuff 41505 and LEGO Seismo 41504.

The big incentive to buy all of the LEGO Mixels monsters toys in a grouping is that the pieces can be combined to create larger and (maybe) cooler monsters. It’s a neat concept and one that longtime Transformers fans know that kids will have a difficult time resisting.

On paper, this all sounds terrific. The problem is that the actual LEGO Mixels figures are not exactly what most collectors think of when they think of LEGO.

Although this is the first time I’m talking about LEGO Mixles on this blog, I’ve previously posted photos of the Mixels theme a few times now to the Bricks and Bloks Facebook Page, and the readers following us on Facebook almost universally loathe the Mixels LEGO 2014 theme.

That said, Mixels aren’t aimed at most of us–they’re aimed at children (primarily young boys). So even if collectors completely hate the LEGO Mixels sets, if the Mixels shorts are a hit with kids the theme could be a big success for LEGO. With these sets being low-priced polybags aimed at children, I think it’s very possible that these could do well with Pokemon-loving kids. Whether or not they actually will is anybody’s guess.

LEGO Mixels Series 1 figures are scheduled to be released in late winter 2014. While the official estimated release date is March 2014, my intuition tells me the first LEGO Mixels figures sightings will pour in in February 2014. I’m a long way from being sold on this new LEGO Mixels theme, but I’ll definitely pick up a couple of the low-priced sets to review when they arrive in a few months.

What do you think of this all-new LEGO Mixels theme, LEGO collectors? Are you intrigued by this new concept, or are the preview images enough to make you certain than Mixels aren’t for you?