World of Gormiti: Series Review #1: Nature Unleashed (2012)

This is the first in a line of reviews in which I will look closer at the individual Gormiti series (2005-2012). The plan is to review all of the series, but to celebrate the non-chronological and ‘backwardsy’ way I tend to do things here on the blog, why not just start with the sixteenth and last one ...?

My first meeting with the series “Nature Unleashed” was in 2013 (which, as far as I know, was the Danish release year). I was in a toy store with my son, at this point a big kid who no longer collected small plastic figures (he was probably into soccer cards or something like that), and we stumbled upon this new Gormiti series we just had to check out.

Our initial reaction was shock to see that little telltale window in the ‘blind bag’. WHAT a way to spoil the fun! Later I learned that Giochi Preziosi had already done the same thing with the series Neorganic and Luxion but I still have no idea why they decided to remove that whole 'lottery element' which was such a big quality in the Gormiti toyline.

Maybe they thought people were getting tired of duplicates and that damaged the sale, who knows?

But the result, obviously, was that all the small sorry figures was left in the bin at the toy store.

Gormitis? You call THOSE Gormitis?

Basically, tiny plastic crap that looked like it was bought from a vending machine at the mall. My son and I agreed that these Gormitis sucked big time. Not at all like in the good old days (that would be around 2010) when we collected those big chunky Supreme Eclipse figures.

Fast forward to 2018. I was now myself a Gormiti collector buying big job lots of second hand Gormitis. I would get a Nature Unleashed figure every once in a while but my focus was not at all on completing this series. Because, obviously, I was prejudiced against this crappy series (it sucked, remember?).

But even though my focus was mainly on the earlier series, I little by little started to enjoy the utter weirdness that is Nature Unleashed. They don't in any way match the awe-inspiring homogeneity you see in, for example, series 2/Atomic – Nature Unleashed is bonkers, random madness! Some of the figures don’t at all look like Gormitis.

"Blart" ... possibly the strangest Gormiti in existence?

So, obviously not a homogenous series but there is definitely appeal in this randomness, this insanity! You have some of the least Gormiti-looking Gormitis in this series (aside from maybe some of the Neorganic bosses that look like Ben 10 figures), some are absolutely absurd. It was actually this bubbly floating guy Blart (above) that made me obsess with Nature Unleashed.

Other figures also display an amazing sense of humour. "Vomica" is a fish with arms and legs and it vomits on its enemies. Vomica would actually be great for army building. Imagine a whole army of these fish!

I considered making a leash for this guy so he can be out walking his 'fish dogs' or something.

Something I also discovered when my focus moved to this series was that some of the figures were actually quite large, not just the small rubble I had seen in that toy store years ago.

Size comparison ... "Soldier" (l) and "Magor" (r). Unbelievably, from the same series.

Like the very first Gormiti series, only released in Italy, some of the figures are MASSIVE and some are ridiculously small. If this was deliberate – as to sort of ‘come full circle’ with this last series – or just coincidence, I don’t know.

Another great quality with Nature Unleashed is the great detail in the sculpt. Especially the forest tribe. If you look at, for example, "Burning" and "Sentinel" (below), these display some of the most detailed sculpts I have ever seen on such small figures. Just look at those microscopic veins in the wood, done with such precision without any deformation of facial features or excess PVC. Amazing!

"Burning"

"Soldier"

So the verdict? Well, Nature Unleashed is a strange series. Not homogenous at all. Some figures are cool and scary looking, others are downright ridiculous. Some – like the volcano tribe – are sloppily painted, others are absolutely beautiful in both sculpt and paint.

Bottom line is … absolute chaos! But a chaos I love! A highly unpredictable Gormiti series and in no way boring or ordinary.

Here’s a gallery of the complete series and an example of the character cards.