Name of Toy Line: Gormiti
Production Company: Grani & Partners/Gruppo Preziosi (Giochi Preziosi)
Distributor: GiG, Giochi Preziosi, Flair, Playmates + more
Characters and Elements: Grani & Partners/Gruppo Preziosi
Years of Production: 2005-2008
Countries/Regions Available: Italy, Europe, US
Size/Scale: 1.5" - 2"
Figure Trade Markings: China
Approximate # of Figures: Hundreds
Details: Gormiti started life in Italy back in 2005 as The Invincible Lords of Nature!
"The magnificent Island of Gorm was once inhabited by peaceful, nature-loving
people until Magmion, the lord of magma destroyed everything they knew. By
awakening the sleeping volcano Fire Mountain Magmion destroyed the entire island and all its inhabitants. Only the wise Old Sage survived and using his
extraordinary magical powers he gave life to new creatures to rebuild their
once-great island. From the natural elements the Old sage created the Gormiti
tribes. The four good tribes of Earth, Forest, Sea and Air whereas Magmion
created the bad tribes of Magma and Lava. Great conflict has broken out again as Magmion tricked the good tribes into fighting each other as well as their sworn enemies. Can the Old sage’s dream of peace be restored? Which heroes will emerge in this titanic struggle? Who will survive and claim the Island of Gorm?"
Series 1 has 42 figures from 6 different regions; People of the Earth, Forest, Sea, Air, Volcano Magma, and Volcano Lava. Six of these figures (one from each set) are slightly bigger than the rest. Each figure comes with a game card that you'd expect to see with mini-figures.
Credit Gormiticlub.com for several of the below images.
December 2005 saw the release of Serie 2: 35 new sculpts this time split in to 5 different regions, Magma & Lava being replaced simply with Volcano. Again one figure from each region is larger but now each region also has a play set exclusive figure.
Barbataus | People of the Forest
People of the Air
Play set exclusives
La Tana di Murena (with Tartantica)
Part of Serie 2 also included metallic repaints of all 42 of the original series - these repaints are known as Serie Mystica!
The Gheos character was also available in a much larger, articulated version accompanied with a DVD.
After a long wait, in July 2006 something interesting appeared in Italian news stands... the first Gormiti Magazine! Not only was there a very cool magazine/comic and a diary with amazing illustrations but something exciting...a new figure! This was a repaint of Gheos from the first series, not any repaint though - it glowed in the dark! Was this going to be the next series? Glow in the dark first series sculpts?
Another magazine came out in September this time accompanied by a translucent green Tasarau!
Well we didn't have to wait long to find out where these pointers were leading us - still in September, Serie Atomic was released!
Atomic used the same new sculpts from Serie 2, but each region had something new to offer.
People of the Earth: Glow in the dark highlights
People of the Forest: Semi-transparent parts
People of the Sea: Change color in cold water 8°
People of the Air: Transparent parts
People of the Volcano: Change to color in lukewarm water
And here's a look at the color changing ones in both states:
Hot & Cold!
Atomic (left) and Original Tartantica
The 5 large figures were also available with 12cm versions of themselves with interchangeable magnetic parts!
In February 2007, Serie 3 was released - new characters and the introduction of Light and Shadow regions.
Display box Artwork
People of the Light
People of the Shadows
People of the Air
People of the Sea
People of the Earth
People of the Volcano
January 2007 saw the release of Gormiti Mini Figures as premiums with potato chips:
These 15 mini versions of Serie 2 figures were later released with other products; and there was even a set for Serie 3:
In March 2007, another strange little set of small Serie 2 sculpts in the Atomic colors was released - Gormiti Minimagnetici:
Tartantica People of the Water
Sentinella People of the Forest
More Minimagnetici figures were to be released later, slightly larger than the originals and with vehicles!
Next in the standard line came Mythos & Energheia.
Mythos were repaints of Serie 3 sculpts and in a similar pattern to the Mystica and Atomic series, this time they had metallic paint, new bright colors and translucent plastic!
People of the Water
People of the Forest
People of the Earth
People of the Air
People of the Volcano
People of the Light
People of the Shadows
Energheia were Series 1 characters, in the original color styles, but much chunkier versions:
People of the Earth
People of the Sea
It's at the Energheia series that much of the rest of Europe and the US picked up the line (at last!). To confuse matters Energheia is known as Series 1 in these countries!
UK Packaging
The Italian Serie 2 playsets are re-used in Europe and the US, just packaged with different figures:
Next for Italy was Final Evolution.
As we've seen before in the Gormiti line, this series is set in to 2 parts. Re-sculpted Series 3 characters:
Part of the Final Evolution story involves the creation of two new groups, People of the Sun and People of the Moon. You may also notice that the existing groups looks somewhat different....they've evolved!
People of the Air -------> People of the Fossils
People of the Earth -------> People of Diamond
People of the Forest -------> People of the Forest Infuocata
People of the Sea-------> People of Ice
People of the Volcano -------> People of Metal
The second part is repainted Energheia sculpts in the style similar to the previous Atomic series.
People of the Forest
People of the Volcano
It looks like the rest of Europe and the US will pick up the Italian Serie 2 as Series 2 (minus the Mystica set). Lets hope Final Evolution isn't the final installment for Italy!
This line has seen many many spin offs. Everything from underwear, to trainers, to scooters, to video games -- the list goes on! -- has been released with Gormiti branding. It's a truly successful line, showing that mini-figures can still hold their own in a modern market flooded with hi-tech toys.
Related Web Sites:
Official Gormiti Site
Discuss Gormiti at LRG
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