Galidor. A retired theme with a cult following, nearly universally hated by all. Just look at it. What part of this makes you think “LEGO?” Today we’ll take a look at the horrors of Galidor.

At a Turning Joint

From the outside, Galidor figures appear to be just another action figure. But if you start taking pieces off, well… familiar connections start to appear. You’ll quickly discover that Galidor just so happens to be the first theme to extensively use rotation joints!

While rotation joints did originate around the time of Galidor, they are still used extensively. Most large Ninjago mechs use variants of these for their stiffer joints. The notches around the pinhole in the middle of a female socket enable connecting pieces to rotate but also lock in place. Ball joints by comparison offer a higher range of motion but don’t support enough weight.

Look at the hips on the mech and the shoulders for the dragon. Both use versions of rotation joints.

The joy of Galidor is that nearly ALL the connections used these same types of joints, so every limb, arm, head or torso could conceivably be connected to wherever you wanted it to be… but more on that later…

Galidor

Wait, what is Galidor you ask? Here’s some history on the least LEGO LEGO theme. In the early 2000s, LEGO was experiencing some financial problems and started branching out, making new themes to reach new audiences; Bionicle, Galidor, Jack Stone, Clikits, and more. Galidor was launched at the same time as a TV show known as “Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension”. The show was centered around a teen named Nick Bluetooth (yes, that's his name… I promise, I’m not making this up on the spot) and his friend Allegra Zane when they were transported to the Outer Dimension. The show depicts them trying to unlock the key to the Kingdom of Galidor. I’ve seen some episodes on YouTube… it's not great...

I’d kill to have the Toad guy’s weapon prop. Pretty slick, eh?

Gali-don’t

As a heretical AFOL, I've been slowly amassing one of the largest Galidor collections in the world, and of course, I brought it to BrickCon earlier this month. We had a bit of a parts fest there and I asked a bunch of attendees to make whatever cursed creation they could muster. You’ll see even Pixar’s Angus MacLane joined in the fun!

Let’s start with The Exterminator. This is a pretty standard Galidor build with wacky limbs, glinched onto each other.

Not sure if he can go back in time with a flesh suit, I don’t really wanna test it…

Speaking of which, what does “glinch” mean? That’s the ability in the Outer Dimension that lets someone swap their limbs with something else. Yes, its creepy. No, I don’t get it either, but makes for some good body horror.

Like this truly terrifying turkey-eating terror! Lucky for us humans this uh, thing only eats talking Great Danes… zoinks!

Next up is the Hexapod Horror. It eats you from inside out and only appears during nightmares. The head piece is likely one of the most complex molds LEGO ever came up with. While creepy, its a marvel of engineering.

From the first glipse at our next contender, you’ll likely scream THOSE LIMBS AREN’T GALIDOR! You would be correct, they are from the Dino Attack theme (Dino 2010 for our friends in Europe). But all of those dinosaurs are Galidor-adjacent, with limbs that connect the same way, so I’ll allow it. Plus how else would you get such a saggy neck!?

A pile of Nepol heads come in handy when you uh, need hands. Or feet. It might as well be a living COVID virus with all those spores poking out. The Nepol heads also never blink so they are always watching you…

The Not-So-Terrifying

With enough of the wacky armor panels, you can make some sweet botanical builds! This looks right at home next to my bonsai tree and is almost peaceful enough to not be so terrifying.

Following that same vein, it turns out you can actually make cute creatures with some Galidor parts if you try hard enough.

The Truly Terrifying

The Cave Troll from The Lord of the Rings is conveniently the same color as Nick Bluetooth’s jeans! Add some swords on the end of each limb, and voilà, a masterpiece! The Fellowship wouldn’t have stood a chance…

Last up in our Galidor Horror Picture show is this terrifying Mosquito Man. I have to admit, this one wasn’t built at BrickCon but by builder Alex Mertens. But it was too good to not include!

Gali-do

Well, now you know why most AFOLs hate Galidor… and why I love it. It may not be your cup of tea, but it has a noteworthy place within LEGO’s vast and storied repertoire. I can’t wait to get more to make some ridiculously disturbing creations. And if you wanna get some, it isn’t all that expensive, it is just hard to get in quantity. So the next time you are sorting through a bulk bin and see some rotation joints attached to some very non-LEGO-looking parts, stop and ask yourself what horrors you could build!

Do you Galidor? Or do you Gali-don’t? Let us know in the comments below.

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