Gormiti: Plastic Crack
Known simply as Gormiti, Gormiti: The Invincible Lords of Nature is a mini figurine base trading game. They were introduced by the Italian company Giochi Preziosi, the biggest player in the Italian toy market and fourth largest toy operation in the world.
Gormiti was first introduced in 2005 in Italy, and then hit Denmark in 2007. I had passed them by time and time again in stores without even batting an eye until just recently, but was more than aware of their existence thanks to my younger students, who know all of their names (despite some Danish fans’ beliefs, even first grade Danish students can pronounce the weird Gormiti names without even batting an eyelash) and come to class kitted out with Gormiti pencil cases, shoes, hats, and backpacks.
At any rate, I came across a Gormiti picture online of a guy that looks like a shoe-in for an avatar of Cthulhu, called Poivrons/Polypus (seen on your left), and once I started looking closer, I couldn’t help but notice that these guys were all a lot like my beloved Battle Beasts from the 1980s.
So, being the natural collector I am, I went out to find me this awesome-looking dude. Of course, I couldn’t find him anywhere – so I ended up getting a metric ass-ton of others instead.
And ya know what? Gormiti are really awesome. I know that it is on the way out in the United States, as American distributor Playmates decided that they were not going to do anything more with the property as of third quarter 2010, but here in Europe – the line is an absolute monster. There are licensed items out there rivaling that of LEGO. From school supplies to bedsheets – you really can’t turn around without bumping into Gormiti.
So, just how many Gormiti are there?
Series 1 - 42 characters in 4 Tribes. Made up of the People of the Volcano (Magma / Lava) People of the Water, People of the Forest, People of the Earth, and People of the Air
Mystica - Repaints of series 1 – 42 characters
Series 2 - 30 characters plus 5 “Magic Egg” characters. Magma and Lava now just known as People of the Volcano
Atomic - Repaints of Series 2 with gimmicks, like transparent parts, color-change, and glow-in-the-dark – 35 characters
Series 3 - 42 characters – Light and Dark tribes added to original 5
Mythos - Repaints of Series 3
Energheia - Series 1 characters “bulked up” (Released as Series 1 in Europe (outside of Italy) and America – 42 characters
Final Evolution 1 - 42 Characters. New sculpts of Series 3 along with repaints……the tribes have now evolved again as:
- Volcano – Metal
- Water – Ice
- Forest – Burning/Burnt Forest
- Earth – Diamond
- Air – Fossil
- Light – Sun
- Dark – Moon
Final Evolution 2 - Energheia repaints in similar fashion to the Atomic series – 42 characters
Cartoon Series/Series 4 - A return to the original 5 tribes with brand new characters and some old from the cartoon series – 30 characters in all
Elemental Fusion - Brand-new characters besides the Lords – 35 figures across 5 tribes with an additional 5 limited-edition “newsstand” figures
Supreme Eclipse - A return of the Light and Dark tribes – 36 figures in all over over 7 tribes (Light and Dark contain only 3 figures each) plus an additional 4 newsstand limited-edition figures
Titanium - 36 figures spread out over 7 tribes
Neoganica - 30+ figures spread out over 4 tribes
As you can see… as of now there are hundreds, and the line seems to have no sign of slowing down whatsoever in Italy. Like I said, the property is a monster! Gormiti is the fastest growing Boy Brand in Europe with over 100% annual growth in the past three years and more than 75 million figures sold to date. That makes it bigger than Star Wars or Transformers, believe it or not!
On the cool side, there are hundreds of figures to collect, they are of a very high standard as far as quality and detail, and are actually very inexpensive. If you’re into it – there’s a very simple card game aspect of Gormiti, and when I say “simple”, I mean (and I quote) each player adds the points printed on his or her Gormiti’s foot to the points listed on the matching Gormiti card. The player with the highest score wins.
On the downside, there’s a really lame cartoon that accompanies the series (isn’t that just always the case?), and here in Europe, the small figures are sold “blind-bagged”, meaning they come sealed and you have no idea what you’re buying until you’ve got it home and opened up, which could lead to a hell of a lot of doubles.
For me, the fun of Gormiti isn’t just that they are pretty visually stunning, but the figures themselves serve as excellent monster encounters with Dungeons & Dragons or with Clix-style games. And while I still haven’t found my Polypus figure, I’m going to keep looking.
