Western Animation / Mixels

"Let's fix it with a mixit!" ^note (From left to right: Krader, Vulk, Slumbo, Balk, Glurt)

"Introducing Mixels: colorful creatures that live in tribes of three. Each Mixel is unique, but they can combine to do much more. Some Mixes are good...other Mixes...aren't so good. And when three Mixels join forces, it's a Max! But watch out for those Nixels..."

— Franchise commercial narration

Mixels was a toyline made by LEGO, based on the idea that there are tribes of creatures called Mixels, who have the ability to fuse together using things called "Cubits". Naturally, they fuse at least Once an Episode to solve problems (even when doing so only makes things more complicated), and to fight the Nixels, an army of black and white creatures with no creativity and a strong interest in conformity.

An animated short series was shown both online and on Cartoon Network, which gives clarity to the world the Mixels inhabit. It then expanded to half-hours specials at an irregular schedule of two episodes a year. Some don't realize that it has anything to do with a LEGO toy line at all, though.

The series finale, "Nixel Nixel, Go Away", aired on October 1, 2016.

---

Tropes featured in the Mixels toyline and show include:

Tropes A-M

• Accidental Dance Craze: By the Cragsters and the Electroids in "Electrorock".
• Alliterative Name: The Series 2 tribes (Frosticons, Fang Gang, and Flexers) and Series 7 tribes (MCPD, Medivals, and Mixies)
• All There in the Manual: The character descriptions shine more light on the personalities of the characters, which are hardly shown thanks to the situation-based aspect of the show. Examples include Krader's short fuse and Teslo's fear of heights.
• All Your Powers Combined: The mixes have the combined powers of both mixels involved. Maxes, being stronger, have the powers of all 3 tribe members, plus a special elemental ability.
• Ambiguous Robots: There is debate in the fandom on whether or not the Mixels are mechanical creatures, as they have a robotic look to themselves and their landscape, yet have organic food choices.
• Amusing Injuries: A staple of humor for the series.
• And I Must Scream: Almost all of the Mixels in "Epic Comedy Adventure" were nixed while they're still conscious.
• Apple of Discord:
  • In Cookironi, all the Series 1 Mixels are fighting over the last titular snack, right up until Zorch crushes it by accident. Then they see a Nixel with a box of Cookironis...
  • Also, the key to the lost Mixamajig is this in "A Quest for the Lost Mixamajig".
• Art Shift: In a few of the Mix sequences, there is a simplified and slightly crude design with thinner line work used. Also, when characters get zapped by electricity, they'll sometimes change to an exaggerated black and white silhouette.
  • Also, in Murp Romp, Footi and Torts are drawn in 8-bit video game style for their Mix sequence.
  • The Series 4 intro is animated in a doodle style.
  • In "A Quest for the Lost Mixamajig", the animation was handled by Digital Emation, so there was a noticeable shift from Toon Boom-based animation (often mistaken for Adobe Flash) to traditional animation. Major Nixel was completely redesigned to the design used in the Mixels Rush app. This would continue for the further episodes, with new animation companies.
• Ascended Extra: "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away" turns Blip and Zabo, two minor Mixopolis Middle School students from the previous episode, into major players.
• Ash Face: Thanks to the characters' designs, they use the full body variant during explosions.
• Assembly Line Fast-Forward: The plot of the episode "Hamlogna Conveyer Belt Madness", which also provides the page image.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Zaptor, when he finds a hamlogna sandwich instead of a lightbulb, which would have proven to be much more helpful.
  Teslo: Everyone calm down and look for a lightbulb!
  Zaptor: Hey, I found a hamlogna sandwich! Will this help?
• Awesome, but Impractical: Several Mixes aren't really effective such as:
  • The Seismo/Zorch Mix looks awesome and flies fast, but it is uncontrollable by any means possible, giving him powers comparable to a Murp, rather than the Mix he is.
  • The Zaptor/Vulk Mix can create big explosions, but the results are always really bad.
  • The Kraw/Zaptor Mix shocks himself too much.
  • The Magnifo/Glurt Mix is more likely to cover himself in slime than making magic.
• Badass Adorable: Some of the Mixels have some sort of trait that makes them quite endearing, and they're still able to kick ass.
• Badass Bookworm: The Mixels that are super smart can use their intelligence to their advantage, and it turns out just fine.
• Bad Boss: Major Nixel, who regularly berates his Nixels.
• Balloon Belly: Gobba gets one at the end of "Bar B Cubes".
• Big Ball of Violence: Happens in "Cookironi", where the Series 1 Maxes start fighting over the titular snack. Bonus points that their elements were bursting out of said ball.
• Big Damn Heroes: Flurr and Gobba to the falling Volectro and Shuff in "Wrong Colors".
• Birthday Episode: "Elevator", which chronicles Balk's birthday, but doesn't reveal his age. At least it confirms that the Mixels have some sort of age system going on...
• Bishōnen Line: There are two Mixeloptor mixes shown. The freakier and less humanoid mix got beaten by a two-Mixel mix, while the much bigger and more humanoid one takes a classroom worth of mix to beat it, by baiting him with the mix's attractiveness to a cage.
• Blank White Void: Nixel Land in Season 1.
  • Vulk and Zaptor accidentally create one in "Pothole".
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: Rokit Sauce. A Nixel eating Crater Tots covered in it goes up in a mushroom cloud explosion. Even Rokit, the creator of the sauce, has his head explode after eating it.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: In "A Quest for the Lost Mixamajig", the Frosticons, Glorp Corp, and Munchos find a capsule underground, and we are given this exchange:
  Slusho: What is it?
  Chilbo: It's a rock!
  Snax: It's an egg!
  Dribbal: It's an eggrock!
• Built with LEGO: In a way. While the figurines are made out of LEGO, the series is completely traditional animation. However, LEGO has made stop-motion videos for the franchise using physical bricks.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes:
  • Happens to the Electroids in "Changing a Lightbulb". Notable in that when Teslo closes his single eye for a moment, the pupil instead "closes", rather than his eyelids.
  • The Glowkies tribe are named for their glowing eyes, which is a gimmick that the figures share as well.
• Call a Human a "Meatbag": The Orbitons are fond of calling the Infernites "Planetoids".
• Camping Episode: The "Mixel Moon Madness" kicks off with an Infernite camping trip...and ends up with an alien invasion. It turns out that the alien invasion was just a... campcube story, so the whole episode falls under this.
• Cast Herd: The benefit of the tribes. Many times, an episode will focus on just a couple tribes at a time, with maybe a quick tribe member from an outside tribe thrown in.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Even in the first commercial for the series, it's stated that "each Mixel is unique". And their designs certainly are! A single Mixel could easily be told apart from another one in silhouette form thanks to how unique they each look. In contrast, this is completely averted with the Nixels to further highlight their uncreative personalities.
  • However, Shuff and Slumbo look somewhat similar, though with enough differences to change them up (like Slumbo's jagged ice hands or Shuff's rocky texture).
  • Flurr and Slusho look incredibly similar. Both are short long dragons (technically, Slusho's a dragonfly) with similar heads, tails, and feet.
• Cave Mouth: The above ground entrance to the Glowkies' underground lair is a cave with openings that look like it has jagged teeth and a single eye carved into its rock.
• The Chase: All of "Wrong Colors".
• The Chosen One: The plot point in "A Quest for the Lost Mixamajig" is who will be able to open up the titular Mixamajig with the key.
• Chromatic Arrangement: The three "headliner" tribes for the first year are the red fire-based Infernites, the blue ice-based Frosticons, and the green slime-based Glorp Corp. These tribes are given extra highlights compared to the other tribes, such as promotions and a second wave of characters in the second year.
• Chromosome Casting: For the longest time, there were no female Mixels at all. They were only mentioned, until "Every Knight Has Its Day" introduced the female Flexer teacher.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Murps, and sometimes Mixes if it suffers either Power Incontinence or that the components aren't getting along.
• Coconut Meets Cranium: Coconapples have the coconut part on the bottom, so a falling one in the same-titled short ends up knocking out Seismo.
• Color-Coded Elements: Each Mixel from a tribe has a specific color that goes with their element. For instance, Vulk is an Infernite, so his color is red, Flurr is a Frosticon, so his color is blue, Shuff is a Cragster, so his colors are grey and gold, and Torts is a Glorp Corp, so his color is green.
• Continuity Snarl: Thanks to being a toyline with backstories and a cartoon running concurrent with each other, there have been misses between the two. These include conflicting personalities, and, most controversially, whether Jawg or Gobba is the leader of the Fang Gang (toys say Jawg, series says Gobba).
• Cry Laughing: Shuff in the end of "Mailman".
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Anytime a single Nixel goes up against a Mixel.
• Cute Little Fangs: Nearly all of the Mixels (and the Nixels) have pointy teeth that make them seem a bit more endearing. Somewhat averted with Vampos. His teeth are gigantic, but give him a dopey look.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • Epic Comedy Adventure. Major Nixel and his minions are that close to winning, most of the Mixels are nixed, the tribe leaders must go into a dangerous journey to find the giant Rainbow Cubit, and and the hula-dancing Kraw and Gobba Mix.
  • Nixel, Nixel, Go Away would later up the ante on this episode, with a town scale Nixelfying.
• Distant Reaction Shot: In "Hot Lava Shower", when the lava pipe clog is just about to touch Krader and Teslo, it cuts to outside their habitats, and a loud scream is heard.
• Distracted by the Sexy: How the last Mixeloptor Mix is defeated in the near-finale of "Every Kinght has Its Day". By having a classroom worth of Mixels, the teacher and students mixing together to form a Mix so attractive, it baits the Mixeloptor Mix to a cage.
• Disney Death: Near the end of "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away", everyone thinks that Booger is dead, having been trapped in a rocket ship that was meant to eliminate all of the Mixels. Luckily, he was able to parachute down at the last moment.
• Dodgeball Is Hell: Or, rather, Murpball. It has the added effect of Murping the Mixel that gets struck. Naturally, Mixadel chooses the strongest students for his team and isn't above cheating to win.
• Domed Hometown: The Orbitons' habitat, thanks to being in outer space.
• Downer Ending: At the end of "Mixel Moon Madness", all the Series 4 Mixels (save for Flamzer) start crying when the Orbitons and Glowkies hear that they "don't exist" (Burnard and Flamzer just continue crying from the previous scene). To make it worse, the Nixels have found out there's more tribes, and King Nixel is not happy about this news...
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • The series 2 and 3 tribes weren't even hidden before their debuts. Series 2 appeared in the intro screen for a brief moment and both series were spoiled by the series 1 instruction booklets.
  • Glurt also appeared on the Mixels logo pictured at the top of the page long before his debut, usually in advertisements for the series.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The older episodes are about short skits of Mixels life. This setting is dropped after Series 3 began and making the episodes more about experiences and life of the Mixels species are more prominent as plot by Series 4.
• Eldritch Location:
  • Nixel Land. We don't know where it even is, other than the fact that a few Mixels have been to it twice, and nothing else is there other than just Nixels.
  • Also, Mixel Mountain. It seemed like a bright, happy place in Krader's imagination, but in reality, it is a rocky mountain surrounded by dark, swirling clouds, and smaller, jagged mountains. It's also where the Rainbow Cubit is held.
• Electrified Bathtub: Thanks to Volectro carrying electric powers with him, taking a shower temporarily reduces him to a pile of ashes.
• Elemental Nation: Each of the lands of the tribes have motifs that invoke their specific elements (such as the Magma Wastelands being filled with volcanoes and beaches).
• Elemental Rivalry: Despite not being hostile in the slightest to each other, the Series 1 and Series 2 Mixels' elemental themes are juxtaposed against each other, leaving interesting Mixes and embarrassing Murps between them. This includes the fire-based Infernites vs. the ice-based Frosticons, the electric-based Electroids vs. the rubber-based Flexers, and the earth-based Cragsters vs. the plant-based Fang Gang.
• Ensemble Cast: Mixels lacks a defined main character, with various Mixels getting their time as focus depending on the episodes. However, the Nixels are constantly cemented as the villains.
• Epic Fail: A Murp is the result of a Mix gone wrong.
• Escaped Animal Rampage: The unleashing of the Mixeloptors forms the climax of "Every Knight Has Its Day".
• Everybody Cries:
  • In "Mixel Moon Madness", Everyone (except Flamzer) weeps after hearing that they don't exist, with Burnard and Meltus continuing to cry from the ending of the story.
  • In "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away", everyone starts mourning, thinking that Booger has gone to a better place. Luckily, he managed to survive.
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables:
  • Coconapples. The top half is a Granny Smith apple, the bottom half a brown coconut seed. They grow on trees with brownish leaves and grey pipe-like trunks. There are even red variants that are constantly on fire!
  • Another interesting plant of note are Plowers. They grow cream pies like a flower bud.
• Fantastic Nuke: Major Nixel's "Mega Nixel Mixel Nixer", which turns the area caught in the blast radius Deliberately Monochrome and sends Mixels into a zombie-like state.
• Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: The episode "Snow Half-Pipe" plays with it. The sport combines snowboarding and skateboarding together into one sport. As such the ground-based Mixels are wearing helmets...none of them being actual bike helmets (such as Flain wearing a Viking helmet, Kraw a football helmet, and Slumbo a construction helmet). Flurr, being a flyer and not actually riding the snowboard, foregoes a helmet all together.
• Fire-Breathing Diner: All of the Orbitons' food causes this reaction, thanks to space dulling taste buds. Rokit refers to it as "the kind of food that puts the man in spaceman".
• Fireball Eyeballs: Flain gets some in "Coconapple" when he's squeezed tight in the lava hot tub with the Seismo/Zorch mix.
• Fish Eyes: Many characters pull this thanks to their eyes being placed on opposite sides of their heads.
• Flashback with the Other Darrin: The "Mixels Rush" commercial uses Rodger Bumpass dubbing over the lines that Fred Tatasciore said from the short "Another Nixel".
• Flintstone Theming: In reference to the Fusion Dance aspect of the show, various objects, sports, and ideas are themed around combining two real-world items into one new unique one (such as coconapple trees or ice-half pipes).
• Flushing Toilet, Screaming Shower: The setup managed to be inverted in "Hot Lava Shower". Thanks to the Infernites clearing the pipes of the titular lava shower (which really is a stream of lava treated like water), the clog goes through the pipe system of Mixel Land, superheating both Krader's toilet and Teslo's drinking fountain, making them the ones to scream out from the heat instead.
• Foil: Occurs quite often in the series, where one Mixel will have certain traits that contrast them from the other. This would include Zorch to Lunk, Krader to Teslo, Flain to Seismo, Torts to Mesmo, etc.
• A Friend in Need: In some episodes, the Mixels will do something that is intended to help the others. For instance, in "Murp Romp", Mesmo helped Glomp, Torts, Footi, and Hoogi catch the Scorpi/Glurt Murp by mixing with Torts, instead of performing with the other two Wiztastics.
• Functional Magic: The cubits work as device magic - an object that allows anyone who touches it to combine with another who is doing the same. Normal cubits require 2 Mixels of their respective matching tribe colour of the cubit to mix, but rainbow cubits allows the user to Mix with any other Mixel they please.
• Funny Background Event: In "Mixel Moon Madness", when the Nixels steal the food, in the background Flamzer ends up hitting Niksput in the head with a volleyball.
• Funny Terrain Cross Section: In the episode "Mixel Moon Madness", when the Nixels are digging through the moon for an ambush, Coconapples and Hamlogna sandwiches can both be seen underground, along with a random pair of headphones.
• Fusion Dance:
  • The selling point. If they're compatible, it'll create a power booster/mixed form shapeshifter mix, with one as the dominant personality and the other as support, and mixing all three member of a single tribe together creates a max, which are the strongest type there is. But if they aren't compatible, then they'll create a murp, a distorted mix with its own personality and no control over its own powers.
  • This trope is exaggerated as the series went on, going as far as mixing at least hundreds of Mixels at once.
• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • A glitch in Calling All Mixels sometimes causes Major Nixel to get stuck in midair during his jump attack, making the level Unintentionally Unwinnable, forcing the player to restart it.
  • When you complete all three objectives on a level Mixels Rush, you get a card. However, the cards associated with Weldo Land Level 7 and Glorp Corp Land Level 6 have major glitches, and unlocking them causes the game to crash permanently, unless reinstalled on the device. Because of this, Glorp Corp Land Level 7 can only be unlocked through using a code from the instructions booklet of a 2015 Glorp Corp member's LEGO set.
• Gangplank Galleon: In Calling All Mixels, the Rubber Lands are represented by a gigantic ship's deck floating in midair.
• Giant Food: The Frozen Volcanoes have giant ice cream scoops and popsicles as part of its landscape. Also, the Rubber Lands have giant teapots, cupcakes, and jam cookies around its area in Calling All Mixels. Meanwhile, the Food Plains are made entirely of food.
• Glass Smack and Slide: The Infernites as soon as the Orbitons' ship-space causes them to hit the glass dome of Orbitopia after a kick in "Mixel Moon Madness".
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: The Nixels are black and white - extremely boring colors, just like their personality. Even their base is just a white backdrop. Meanwhile, the Mixels' world is as unique and colorful as they are.
• Happy Birthday to You!: The Mixels sang this in "Elevator". It has nearly the same lyrics as the real song, but to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star".
• Heroic Fire Rescue: In "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away", the MCFD, the actual fire department of Mixopolis, fail to be this because they refuse to team up with each other thanks to the negative vibes that the Nixels have been spreading throughout Mixopolis. As such, they argue on working together to save a Mixie Cat from a burning apartment building. However, this leaves the Nindjas free to swoop in and save the day, saving the Mixie Cat while the building crumbles to ashes.
• Horrifying the Horror: In "Mixel Moon Madness", Globert, Boogly and Vampos gets scared off by the three Infernite/Orbiton Mixes, causing them to go back into their cave.
• House Fire: In the episode "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away", an apartment building catches fire, leaving a Mixie Cat stranded inside it. Unfortunately, the MCFD, the city's fire department, are so caught up in arguing with each other, that they don't even bother to put out the fire. After the Nindjas save the Mixie Cat, the whole building crumbles to ashes.
• Hybrids Are a Crapshoot: The possible result of Mixels performing their species' Fusion Dance are "Murps". They are wonky amalgamations of whatever Mixels happen to be in the combination, have their own personalities instead of a Mixel taking the lead, and have out-of-control and destructive powers. Most of the time, the powers are a detriment to either the environment or the Murp itself.
• Hypocritical Humor: Zaptor says that potholes are "an unsightly blemish to our beautiful and precious, to-be-protected landscape". Then he and Vulk mix, and destroy said landscape. But at least they fixed the pothole.
• Impossibly Delicious Food:
  • Cookironies. They're so addicting that the last one turns into an all-out Max brawl between three of the tribes.
  • Crater Tots also qualifies as this to Nurp side of Nurp-Naut, as in Mixel Moon Madness, Nurp threw a gravity-defying temper tantrum because Naut didn't allow him to have any.
• Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: The episode "Snow Half-Pipe" plays with the idea. After Flain and Krader fall into the frozen water of the ice half-pipe, they float up entirely encased in ice, shown by their bodies colored entirely blue with stiff expressions. No extra ice cubes, though Flain's fire is also frozen as well.
• Instrumental Theme Tune: The theme song has no words, and variations of it in different styles pop up throughout the franchise.
• Involuntary Shapeshifter: A few times, the Mixels end up touching Cubits completely unintentionally, often Murping them when they don't want it.
• iPhony: "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away" uses an "I-Cubit" as a major plot point. It's a Nixel-controlled Cubit that is exchanged for real ones, sapping the creativity of Mixels to slowly turn them into Nixel zombies. The only reason the Mixels start to want it is because it's "new". Booger avoiding trading his Cubit in for one is what saves the day.
• Junior High: "Every Knight Has Its Day" takes place at Mixopolis Middle School.
• Just Shoot Him: Seismo in "Nixels" first just opts to kick away the stray Nixel in the beginning. Then, at the end, just steps on the remaining Nixel.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In "Hamlogna Conveyor Belt Madness", Zaptor gets too impatient with the speed the sandwiches are being made, so he amps up the conveyor belt, causing Lunk and Tentro to have to mix to keep up. While in the end, a large amount does end up being made, Jawg ends up eating them before Zaptor gets any.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: The Infernites Kingdom. The stuff is treated like water to them (from giant slides to hot tubs and showers). However, the lava can seriously burn the others (as shown in "Hot Lava Shower").
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: "Wrong Colors", which introduces the series 2 mixels, acts as if they've been there the whole time, and that we just never saw them because we were focusing on series one, this whole time. To be fair, though, they were never too well hidden, anyways.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Magma Wastelands.
• Lightbulb Joke: The set-up for the short "Changing A Lightbulb".
• Mad Eye: A common design quirk for some of the characters: a lot of times, one pupil will be drastically smaller or have a ring around it to make it larger than the other one. Most noticeable on the Nixels.
• Megaton Punch: Vulk does this to Shuff in "Cookironi".
• Merchandise-Driven: Not that some notice.
• Merging Mistake: One of possible fusion options known as "Murps", where the result ends up a misshapen creature that still has the abilities of the original tribe members, but is unable to properly utilize them, often causing destruction to either themselves or to their environment.
• Mineral MacGuffin: According to Calling All Mixels, Cubits are a type of ore that has to be mined.
• Mix-and-Match Critters:
  • Shuff's ceramic figurines, which combine two animals together. They include Piranharex (piranha and T-Rex), Tigerscorp (albino tiger and scorpion), Porciocobra (porcupine and cobra), and Teddy Butterfly (teddy bear with butterfly wings).
  • This is also the premise of the Mixels themselves, with the use of Cubits to achieve this.
• Mobile Phone Game: Calling All Mixels and Mixels Rush.
• Mook Maker:
  • Nixel Spawners in Calling All Mixels. They're giant pipe systems that randomly spew out more Nixels into swarm battles. Interesting in the fact that the player is actually forced to destroy them before they can continue.
  • A foreign commercial would later reveal that all Nixels are formed through one of these, being cloned from three base Nixels.
• Mundane Utility: The Mixels use their powers for simple things multiple times. Zorch uses his super speed in his job as a mailman and the Electroids use the electric parts of their bodies as flashlights. Most of the Mixes are used for very mundane things as well, like assembling sandwiches or performing in a talent competition.
• My God, You Are Serious!: The Cragsters' reaction to Flain wanting to join them in playing Rockball.
  Flain: I'll play.
  The Cragsters all laugh
  Krader: Oh, you serious.

Tropes N-Z

• No MacGuffin, No Winner: The fate of the Mixamajig to the dueling parties.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: In Epic Comedy Adventure, Major Nixel comes dangerously close to defeating the Mixels.
• Ocular Gushers: A variation: When a Mixel cries, it usually comes out like shower sprinklers, but with a Frosticon, they can cry ice cubes.
• Offscreen Inertia: In "Fang Gang Log Toss" when Chomly and Jawg accidentally pound Flain and Slumbo into the ground with the log they get annoyed and Flain destroys it, so Chomly tricks them into using a Cubit to Murp into a log. When he throws them between the totems they never stop.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The lone Nixel in "Cookironi", when the Mixels all begin to chase him for his box of the titular snack.
  • Flain and Seismo when the nixel Seismo just kicked calls an entire army to his aid, in "Nixels".
  • Volectro and Shuff, as they fall off the cliff in "Wrong Colors", though were already a little like that by the beginning of the show, thanks to the nixel army chasing them.
  • The painted Nixels when Major Nixel calls for the rest of them to attack.
  • The Orbitons (Rokit, at least) when the Glowkies entered Nurp-Naut's room. This happened when the Glowkies were still considered as the Orbitons' enemies.
• Once an Episode: The mixes, maxes, and murps.
• Orphaned Etymology: Places such as Florida and Rancho Cucamonga are mentioned throughout the series, despite the fact that it takes place on a planet other than Earth. Gox also sarcastically calls Snoof "Einstein", even though there are no human traces on the planet either.
• Orphaned Punchline: Starts up the episode "Pothole".
  Zaptor: So then, he says "Don't take any wooden Nixels!"
  • The last act in "Vaudeville Fun" is capped off by one as well.
  Kraw/Gobba Mix: That's no Nixel, that's my brother-in-law!
• Orphaned Setup: Ends the episode "Pothole"
  Zaptor: So, two Mixels and a Nixel walk in a juice bar...
• Our Vampires Are Different: While not actually vampires as some of the Mixels thought, The Glowkies have some pretty strange and fascinating features that count. This includes their glowing eyes, large jaws, and multiple limbs. The biggest example is their Max, which includes Globert's giant eye, Boogly's feelers act as arms. Both Globert's and Vampos's wings, and Vampos's large set of fangs.
• Painting the Frost on Windows: A minor variant comes from the Electroids. Thanks to their electrical abilities, combined with their electricity-harvesting mountaintop habitat, they have the job of turning the sun on and off. In the case of the Mixels, the sun is a giant light bulb in the sky.
• Palette Swap: Various background filler Mixels share the same character models as each other, only using a different color scheme to represent what tribe they belong to.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • In "Nixel Mix-Over" Major Nixel paints two Nixels as a Frosticon and a Flexer so they can steal a Cubit. The disguise works not only on the Mixels, but Major Nixel himself falls for it despite him disguising them in the first place, leading to the other Nixels attacking the two of them.
  • In "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away", Booger, Scrud, Zabo, and Blip use boxes with holes cut out of them to disguise themselves as Nixels. Despite their size, color, and the fact they're still speaking English instead of the Nixel language for the most part (save for Zabo's "funny story"), the Nixels are none the wiser.
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Flain's line "Aw, schnixel!"
• Picked Last: A variation. In "Every Knight Has Its Day", during the game of Murpball, Mixadel picks his team members first. Naturally, he picks all the tough and imposing students for his team, leaving Camillot's team filled with the weaker and smaller ones, including one student that is smaller than the game ball.
• Pie in the Face: Hits the Kraw/Gobba mix in their attempt at stand-up comedy, complete with a splash image comparable to the "Mix" one.
• Pokémon Speak:
  • All a Murp can do in terms of speech is laugh and say 'murp'. This was eventually averted in "Mixel Moon Madness" onwards, as the Murps spoke in perfect English.
  • Nixels, meanwhile, only use "nix" for their vocabulary, with only random uses of English, while King Nixel and Major Nixel fully avert this.
• Power Incontinence: The biggest drawback of mixing. The Mix choices can always end up being different and unexpected with powers that they have no idea how to use and sometimes even end up as Murps, despite the fact they recently mixed fine before. Krader once put it best in the episode "Murp".
  Krader: But sometime work, sometime no!
• Promotion to Opening Titles:
  • Every series adds a scene with the three new tribes that were introduced in that wave, extending the theme song a bit.
  • In 2015, it was shortened to just Series 4, and the same thing was done for the Mixamajig special, having only Series 5 and 6 in the final 2015 opening, continuing with the 2016 specials as well.
• Remember the New Guy?: In the sections of seasons that introduce the new waves of characters, the original Mixels seem to already know the never-before-seen Mixels. However, they were never hidden that well in the first place.
• Required Secondary Powers:
  • "Coconapple" shows right off the bat that Mixes don't necessarily know what their new abilities are, or how they work, when Seismo burns his face with his Zorch-mixed feet, before flying off uncontrollably. Also, Murps lack the ability to control their abilities. Heck, some of the Mixels themselves suffer from this, especially in the second series;
  • Flurr is the only member of the Frosticon tribe that isn't lethargic or slow from the temperature, with Slumbo actually being able to freeze himself in his own frost tunnels.
  • Balk's head might be strong enough to use as a rubber mallet, but that doesn't translate to the inside of his head, so now he's going crazy from cranial damage.
  • Chomly, a living trash compactor, doesn't have the teeth to chew everything he eats, and had to replace one of them with a gold tooth as a result of chipping.
• Rule of Cool: All logic and plausibility of events is abandoned.
• Rule of Funny: It can happen at any time, because this show is pure comedy.
• Rule of Three: Bended a little. Three series, three tribes in a series, three Mixels in a tribe, and three different Nixels that act as Major Nixel's lackeys in Another Nixel.
• Rump Roast: Befalls Krader in Hot Lava Shower, thanks to the Infernite's Max blowing heat through the water system as soon as he was about to sit on the toilet.
• Running Gag: Hamlogna sandwiches and Krader's large arm misplacement error:
  • The origin of the gag is in Changing a Lightbulb, when Zaptor finds a hamlogna sandwich instead of a cubit.
  • In "Wrong Colors", Shuff pulls out a hamlogna sandwich in place of a cubit, then mentions Zaptor.
  • Hamlogna Conveyer Belt Madness is centered around the food.
  • Krader's large arm misplacement error appears on six episodes.
• The Runt at the End: A Running Gag involves a large Nixel swarm running after the Mixels...and then a single one trailing after.
• Sailor Earth: Many fans have created their own tribes based around different elements and themes. Notably, LEGO encourages the fans to design their own creations with the characters.
• Scenery Porn: Many of the tribe lands are high-detailed and well-designed.
• Serial Escalation: How many Mixels they can cram into one mix? It pretty much downscales the fusion Steven Universe does.
• The Smurfette Principle: It took the third year of the series' run to introduce a female Mixel, that being the Flexer Teacher.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: In Mailman the Cragsters manage to stop Zorch and get the ceramic statue that Shuff ordered, only for Shuff to accidentally smash it when he does a touchdown dance with it.
  • Almost the entirety of Mixel Moon Madness was a campcube story.
• Shout-Out:
  • When the Cragsters have their digging contest in "Electrorock", they make the sound Pac-Man does when he eats pellets.
  • When Zorch bounces on the Cragsters in "Mailman", he imitates the popular game of Whac-A-Mole.
  • Volectro references Tom's single phrase of spoken dialogue^note "Don't you believe it!?" in "Rockball".
  • Rock Pops in "Bar B Cubes" are a parody of the popular candy Pop Rocks.
  • Lunk and Tentro reference I Love Lucy when they work in a hamlogna sandwich factory in "Hamlogna Conveyer Belt Madness".
  • Some of the level names in Calling All Mixels include titles such as Cartridge Family and I Love Lamp.
  • The Mix sequences in the "Murp Romp" section of the "Mixed Up Special" reference Space Invaders and Monty Python's Flying Circus.
  • Vaka-Waka's name is a reference to the sounds Pac-Man makes. As Vaka-Waka eats round candies, this is appropriate.
  • A Quest for the Lost Mixamajig's plot is somewhat similar to The LEGO Movie, as both includes a character that wanted to be special (Snoof for QFM and Emmet for TLM) and a faked phropecy that tells them that they're "the chosen one".
  • Also in "A Quest for the Lost Mixamajig", King Nixel proclaims that he "hates the Mixels to pixels".
  • There's a reference to The Lion King, in "Every Knight Has its Day". Right before Mixadel chucks his Murpball and defeats Camillot, he says, "Long live the king."
• Show Some Leg: How the Maximum Mix defeats the final Mixeloptor Mix. Being controlled by the female Teacher, she's able to attract and distract the Mixeloptor to get it back into its cage.
• Slapstick: A heavy factor of the show.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Frozen Volcanoes.
• Squashed Flat: Happens to the Nixel that bothers Seismo and Flain at the end of "Nixels", after Seismo stomps on it before going to the lava slide alongside Flain. Said Nixel was stuck onto Seismo's foot and kept saying "Nix" a couple of times every step Seismo took.
• Stock Scream: "Every Knight Has Its Day" throws in a Wilhelm Scream during the Murpball game.
• Sugar Apocalypse:
  • The Nixels turn the colourful Mixel world gray by their Mega Nixel Mixel Nixer in "Epic Comedy Adventure".
  • In "Nixel, Nixel, Go Away", Mixopolis is invaded by Nixels.
• Sugar Bowl: The bright, colorful setting of Mixel Land the series mainly takes place in. In contrast, Nixel Land completely averts this trope with only a black and white backdrop and nothing else, which makes the location seem strange and bleak.
• Tempting Fate: The Nixel that bothers Flain and Seismo in "Nixels", especially after the entire army was beaten, at the end.
  • Volectro gets into this twice; first, in "Rockball", when he's sunbathing as the sudden heatwave starts heading his way...
  Volectro: I'll never get a tan!
  *Gets violently scorched by heatwave*
  Don't you believe it!
  • ...and when he asks Teslo in "Changing a Lightbulb".
  Volectro: When will we ever need to know that?
  *Lightbulb in the room bursts*
  Teslo: Right now!
  • Flamzer in Mixel Moon Madness, after Orbitopia's dome has been shattered by Nurp's tantrum.
  Flamzer: Huh, so much for the "hideous vaccum of space"!
  *Cue a huge vaccum cleaner sucking out Orbitopia*
• Terrible Interviewees Montage: The entirety of "Vaudeville Fun", with the catch that the interviewees are all Gobba/Kraw mixes.
• The Worf Effect: The MCPD Max makes an appearance just to easily get defeated by a Mixeloptor to demonstrate that Maxes are not always the best kind of mix out there.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Mixels like to use mixing as a means of solving everything. As a result:
  • Infernites Max fixing the pipe system by blowing fire through it, burning Krader and Teslo who were also using the water system at the time, in "Hot Lava Shower".
  • The Zaptor/Vulk mix to completely annihilate the scenery, in an effort to fix a single pothole, in "Pothole".
  • Electroids Max blowing out the main lightbulb to the city by feeding too much electricity through the plug outlet in "Changing a Lightbulb".
  • In Rockball, the Infernites and Cragsters created "Mixelball", then launched three flaming boulders into each other, creating a scorching heatwave through the air. And also giving Volectro a tan.
• Thick-Line Animation: Given the traditional black borders. However, some parts of the Mixels, such as electric or ice motifs, are given colored thick outlines instead. Backgrounds are often full color outlines, too.
• Tipis And Totempoles: The general aesthetic of the Fang Gang's land. It contains totems that Gobba carves with his teeth and large tents, all in bright technicolor.
• Too Fast to Stop: Seismo in "Coconapple", when he fuses with Zorch.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Seismo with coconapples, Nurp's with Crater Tots, and Zaptor and Jawg with hamlogna sandwiches, the latter of which is referenced in "Wrong Colors" when Shuff tries to pull out a Cubit only to find that Zaptor replaced it with a sandwich. And all the Mixels (and even Nixels) love Cookironies.
• Transformation Sequence: Very creative ones at that. Each episode has their own unique one, most often involving the two or three Mixels that are combining being launched into each other in some way (like being grabbed by a fist and thrown together or launched towards each other in double cannons).
• Traveling-Pipe Bulge: The lava clog in "Hot Lava Shower", once unclogged, travels throughout the pipe system as a red hot bump in the pipes. When it makes its stops on Krader's toilet and Teslo's water fountain, it causes the items to have the same red color.
• Treasure Chest Cavity: In "Murp Romp" Glomp hags out the Glorp Corp/Spikels Cubit out from his nose.
• True Companions: Despite the fact that some Mixels may not get along well, they really see each other as friends and will help out if one of them is in trouble. Some notable examples include "Rockball", when Flain agrees to play the titular game with the other Cragsters and accidentally creates Mixelball, and "Epic Comedy Adventure", when the Series 1 and 2 tribe leaders (sans Jawg, Gobba went in his place) went to save their friends by going to Mixel Mountain to hit the giant Rainbow Cubit and restore color.
• Underground City: Nixel Land is located under Mixel Land, in the core of Planet Mixel.
• Underwater Fart Gag: The animated "Meet the Infernites" clip in Calling All Mixels features the three original Infernites in a lava hot tub. A bubble rises out of the lava, which then pops. Flain and Vulk react in disgust, while Zorch grins at his handiwork.
• Vague Age: All of the Mixels range throughout personalities, making it hard to tack on an age for them. They can be as mature as young adults or as immature as young children. However, a few have known age groups, such as Nurp-Naut (one side a baby, the other an elder), the Klinkers (at least elders, they had a heyday in the past), and the students of Mixopolis Middle school.
• Weird Sun: It's a giant light bulb in the sky and is connected to the Electroid domain, as seen when they blow its fuse in "Changing a Lightbulb".
• Weird World, Weird Food: Many of the Mixel foods border on the strange side, such as Coconapples (an apple with the bottom half a coconut seed), cookironies (chocolate chip cookies studded with macaroni noodles), and plowers (flowers that grow full cream pies as vegetation).
• What Were They Selling Again?: Some people who only see the show on Cartoon Network fail to know this has anything at all to do with Lego.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: The Mixels love using mixes to solve or enhance everything. Even when it's unnecessary.
• World-Healing Wave: The result of breaking the rainbow Cubit in "Epic Comedy Adventure".
• You No Take Candle: The Cragsters talk this way.
• Zombie Gait: Mixels when "nixelfied" gain one.

---