The 'Shroom:Issue 219/Pipe Plaza

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Director's Notes

Written by: Zange (talk)

Shroom2025 Villains Zange.png

Hello to all our wonderful readers, and welcome to EVIL Pipe Plaza, as part of our EVIL 'Shroom takeover issue! Mwahahaha~ I hope you all have been enjoying the EVIL sections and specials so far.

I'm nearly done with my contract for my carpenter / set building job at the theatre festival I mentioned last month and I'm really sad because I don't want it to be over. Going off of some of the horror stories I heard about last year, this year seems to have gone MUCH better all things considered which makes me happy. I may return next year if timing allows it, because I've had a lot of fun with this job ^^

We have two EVIL special sections this month in the form of LEGO Look (courtesy of Waluigi Time (talk)) and The History of Cozy Glow (courtesy of Sparks (talk))! We also have the rest of the super cool and very EVIL Pipe Plaza sections you know and love! Don't forget that you, too can write a Pipe Plaza section about nearly anything you want and send it in! Just head over to the sign up page to learn more!

That's all for EVIL Director's Notes, enjoy the rest of the month~ (EVIL or otherwise hehe)

Section of the Month

Congratulations to this month's winners! In first place, we have Yoshi18 (talk) with Yoshi18 Previews! Taking second place, we have OH BABY A TRIPLE: Shoey (talk) with What's in a Campaign?, Waluigi Time (talk) with The 'Shroom Report, and Hooded Pitohui (talk) with Poll Committee Discussion are all sharing silver this time! Thank you to everyone who votes for their favorite sections as well.

PIPE PLAZA SECTION OF THE MONTH
Place Section Votes % Writer
1st Yoshi18 Previews 7 41.18% Yoshi18 (talk)
2nd What's in a Campaign? 3 17.65% Shoey (talk)
2nd The 'Shroom Report 3 17.65% Waluigi Time (talk)
2nd Poll Committee Discussion 3 17.65% Hooded Pitohui (talk)
News and information
Mario Calendar
GPM1000 (talk)
Find out all about this month's Super Mario releases.
read more
To-Do Tracker
Camwoodstock (talk)
No clue what to do? Join the fun and see what's been done!
read more
Poll Committee Discussion
MightyMario (talk)
The best analysis of the polls around!
read more
Anniversary Announcements
Lakituthequick (talk)
The ongoings of the Mario Awards.
read more
The 'Shroom Report
Waluigi Time (talk)
All the latest writers and all the milestones of the current ones.
read more
A Section of Muppetational Origins
Zange (talk)
GO NOW AND LEAVE MEEEEEE
read more
What's in a Campaign?
Shoey (talk)
50 robots calls for Sumpthing special to celebrate!
read more
The History of Cozy Glow
Sparks (talk)
Cozy Glow? Maybe not so...
read more
LEGO Look
Waluigi Time (talk)
I find your lack of bricks disturbing.
read more

Mario Calendar

Written by: GPM1000 (talk)

Happy Pride Month, everyone!! I hope you are all doing great, and that everyone has had a fantastic start to their summers. And, big news… the Switch 2 came out!! Mario Kart World is here and, while I haven't gotten a chance to play it yet, I am extremely envious of everyone who has, and can't wait to get my hands on one. But alas… it's Mario Calendar time! Let's get into it!

Region Abbreviations

Abb. Region
ALL All Regions (JP/NA/EU/AU)
JP Japan
NA North America
EU Europe
AU Oceania/Australia
SK South Korea
CHN China
UK United Kingdom

Console Abbreviations

Abb. Console
NES Nintendo Entertainment System
Famicom Family Computer Disk System
SNES Super Nintendo Entertainment System
N64 Nintendo 64
GC Nintendo GameCube
GB Game Boy
GBC Game Boy Color
GBA Game Boy Advance
DS Nintendo DS
3DS Nintendo 3DS
Switch Nintendo Switch
Wii VC Nintendo Wii Virtual Console
3DS VC Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console
Wii U VC Nintendo Wii U Virtual Console
VB Virtual Boy
G&W Game and Watch
64DD Nintendo 64 Disk Drive
MS-DOS Microsoft Disk Operating System
CD-i Philips CD-i
IQ iQue Player
NVS Nvidia Shield
ACPC Amstrad CPC
ZX ZX Spectrum
Coleco Colecovision
TI-99 Texas Instruments TI-99/4A

And that's it for June! There are a few big highlights I could mention, including the original release of Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64 in Japan, but there's obviously one that is more important than anything else right now. The Nintendo Switch 2! The last time we had a Nintendo console release in June was with the release of the Nintendo DS Lite, and Nintendo has come a loooong way since then.

So what do you guys think? Is everyone enjoying the new console and the new Mario Kart game? I seriously can't wait to buy one, it's all anyone is talking about online. But yeah, that's really all the analysis I have for this month - the Switch 2 is out! It looks good! So I hope you enjoyed the Mario Calendar, and I'll see you next month :)

To-Do Tracker

Written by: Cam / Tori / Cecil / Claire / Macy (talk)

(You read the Pipe Plaza section, not expecting anyone to have followed the villainy theme...)

(It generally is a bit more high-brow than other sections of the newsletter.)

(Suddenly, you hear a printer in the distance, whirring and scratching about.)

(...)

(The paper jammed.)

(You meticulously free the sheet of paper.)

(Printed on it, is...)

(A single, really small image of a Pikmin enemy.)

Shroom 219 TDTracker Breadbug.png

(You smile, feeling as though you have not just seen an obligation satisfied, but have witnessed a devilish little critter grace your monitor.)

Hello, there! How are you holding up in this post-Deltarune Chapter 3 + 4, post-Switch 2 Launch world? It's... A lot! Over here! That funny white dog has had his whims with us! And to think that as this article releases, we're just starting the yearly Mario Awards season. 20 whole years of this wiki... How time flies, right? It feels like not too long ago, we were in elementary school, sneakily looking at random pages on the wiki just for fun. This website's grown up with us. That feels really weird, right?

...But, no matter what, through rain, snow, new console, villains, awards, sentimentality, or Dog, we will--nay, we must--make sure the to-do bar is properly accounted for. So, enough with a long-winded opening. Let's get right into it, shall we?

Note: All dates here were taken fairly late at night in EST; around 1-3 AM EST.

May & June To-Do Items
To-Do Item May 14, 2025 May 21, 2025 May 28, 2025 Jun 4, 2025 Jun 11, 2025 Jun 18, 2025
Spotlight focuses 2 5 5 5 4 4
Ongoing TPPs 19 24 29 30 27 20
Unimplemented Proposals 30+ 30+ 30+ 30+ 30+ 30+
Unresolved Discussions 252 258 256 250 258 260
Construction Projects 105 103 104 97 103 105
Rewrites Needed 120 121 126 127 130 131
Sourcing Issues 19,991 19,948 19,934 19,926 19,971 19,933
Stub Articles 656 657 661 664 670 674
Wanted Articles 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+ 1000+
Requested Deletions 3 2 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Suggested Moves 56 55 53 56 60 63
Suggested Merges 76 70 63 64 67 66
Suggested Splits 36 36 39 41 43 44
Deprecated Parameters 2,418 2,170 1,106 N/A N/A N/A
Missing Parameters 993 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Disambigs Needed N/A 1 N/A 1 N/A N/A
Duplicate Arguments N/A 1 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Note Trims N/A 1 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Reference Errors N/A N/A 1 N/A N/A 1
Unknown Meanings 237 13 13 10 5 N/A
Image Quality 3,925 3,923 3,938 3,951 3,951 3,953
Images Needed 725 723 728 716 720 724
Media Needed 217 218 219 232 255 289
Media Quality 6 6 6 6 6 5
Unused Files 200+ 200+ 200+ 100+ 100+ 100+
Files To Be Used N/A N/A N/A 77 77 73

For some observations for how the numbers have progressed, and some potential targets:

  • First of all, welcome a new category to the bar; Files to be used! This split was first enacted in the afternoon of May 31st, 2025, with 60 entries to its name. Unlike the unused files, these are for files that are expressly planned to be used by an editor in the future. Obviously, if you add onto these, make sure to take care of them accordingly, okay?
  • Ongoing TPPs have had wild fluctuations, and it's been a busy month for them. Despite this, unimplemented proposals has held steady at 30+ entries; some of those have been waiting years to be implemented, and could use your help!
  • Construction Projects, despite dipping early, ultimately rose back up to a net neutral. Rewrites, meanwhile, have only grown...
  • Out of everyone's favorite trio (citation needed), moves/merges/splits. the only clear winner is merges, who managed to lose 10 entries! ...Moves and splits, however, have only grown.
  • Sourcing Issues has managed to hold onto its steady decrease throughout the month; the only obvious spike being shortly after the Switch 2 released, which was quickly dealt with. Nice!
  • Deprecated parameters is clearly the big victory of the month, having gone from 2,418 entries to being completely empty by June 4th, 2025! Well done!
  • Also joining the victories of the month is Unknown Meanings, which was just barely able to eke its way from 13 on May 21st, to 0 by the cutoff date. (If you're wondering why we're ignoring that extreme start for Unknown Meanings, it's because it actually ties in with that week's missing parameters.
  • With increased music coverage per recent proposals, it's no surprise that Wanted Media has gone on the rise; just under a 50% increase from last month. Break out the old records and CDs!
  • Against all odds, despite how inactive the category was, Media Quality got another one of its entries taken care of at the eleventh hour. If you've played Donkey Kong 64, own either The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! or The Super Mario Bros. Movie in good quality, or know how to fix audio desync in a video, this category has your name on it!

Poll Committee Discussion

Written by: MightyMario (talk)

Hello, Shroom readers! It's me, the mightiest Mario around, MightyMario, here with some fresh analysis of the latest Mario Wiki polls! As the Nintendo Switch 2 has released this month, I hope everyone's been having fun with Mario Kart World, and looking forward to Donkey Kong Bananza next month as well! Let's switch gears and see what polls Paper Plumm and her Poll Committee have crafted this month!

Archives

2D Mario platformers have featured varying art directions and styles over the years. Which one has your favourite aesthetics? (Waluigi Time (talk), May 11th, 2025)

2D Mario platformers have featured varying art directions and styles over the years. Which one has your favourite aesthetics?

Super Mario Bros. Wonder 50.25% (1,319 votes)
Super Mario World 15.47% (406 votes)
New Super Mario Bros. Series 12.95% (340 votes)
Super Mario All-Stars/Super Mario Advance series 7.28% (191 votes)
Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario Bros. 3/Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins 5.33% (140 votes)
I have no opinion. 4.61% (121 votes)
Super Mario Bros./Super Mario Land 2.59% (68 votes)
I do not like any of these art styles or would prefer another art style not on this list. 1.52% (40 votes)
Total votes: 2,625

Of the Mario games set to release for the Nintendo Switch 2, which one are you most excited for? (Paper Plumm (talk), May 25th, 2025)

Of the Mario games set to release for the Nintendo Switch 2, which one are you most excited for?

Mario Kart World 65.73% (2,461 votes)
Donkey Kong Bananza 18.14% (679 votes)
I am not looking forward to any of the titles listed above. 5.72% (214 votes)
Mario games on Nintendo GameCube - Nintendo Classics 4.54% (170 votes)
I have no opinion on this. 3.55% (133 votes)
Super Mario Party Jamboree: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV 2.32% (87 votes)
Total votes: 3,744

Analysis

2D Mario platformers have featured varying art directions and styles over the years. Which one has your favourite aesthetics?

Mario and the Gang celebrating Flower Kingdom saved
"This is wonderful, Mario! Oh, let's live in this universe."
"Gosh, it's pretty intoxicating, isn't it?"

Super Mario Bros. Wonder certainly has marked a turning point for the Mario series, introducing vibrant colors and backgrounds, more expressive character designs, and an endless slew of Talking Flowers that always want to talk your ear off. It's no surprise that this was the top choice in regards to which artstyle people preferred. I can certainly see why, I loved the artstyle myself! I'm so happy to see it return for Mario Kart World (it especially goes well with Donkey Kong's new design).

In terms of other artstyles, Super Mario World took the second spot, with the New Super Mario Bros. artstyle (the one the series had been using for quite some time) in third place. The All Stars/Advance artstyle, in all of its 16-bit/32-bit glory, placed fourth, the non-Super Mario Bros. 8-bit styles seemed to fall in the middle of the votes in fifth place, and the classic Super Mario Bros./Super Mario Land style took the last spot in the poll.

Of the Mario games set to release for the Nintendo Switch 2, which one are you most excited for?

Conkdor in Mario Kart World
They're letting anybody on the roster these days.

To absolutely no surprise at all, Mario Kart World takes the gold trophy in terms of how much people are excited for it, and by a country mile, too! Considering it's the only new first-party Nintendo game released on the Switch 2 (besides the Welcome Tour) as of writing, the game will have several weeks to take the victory lap for players before Donkey Kong Bananza smashes onto the system next month. Of course, if you're more of a classic game lover, the Nintendo GameCube - Nintendo Classics app was also released… with no Mario games at launch, but they're coming! And finally, the Super Mario Party Jamboree: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV game (that is a enormous mouthful holy heck) seems to be the least anticipated for and with that novel-length title, I don't blame 'em.

Conclusion

That'll do it for this month's Poll Committee Discussion: The Shroom Edition + Super Mario Wiki TV! Next month, everyone's favorite pony fan and Wiki Administrator, Sparks, will take on the next set of polls!

See you next time, reader!

Anniversary Announcements

Written by: Lakituthequick (talk)

“We voted Mario Party-e as the most forgettable game last year, and now we are worried too many people will remember it?”
—MCD (talk · Boards)

Good day villainous readers of The 'Shroom, it is fiendishly time for a new release of Anniversary Announcements! Evil! ...I got nothing else, let's get into it.

The polls have opened!

The most important thing to mention is, of course, the opening of the polls! Vote now!' Or, if you want to vote on the polls in a random order, just visit the wiki's main page and find the polls there. Note that you can vote in each of the polls once a week; if you already voted, you can vote again seven days after that.

But that is just the Mario and Fail awards! To vote in the Community awards, visit the dossier elsewhere in this edition of The 'Shroom. Note that you can select up to four nominees to vote on for each poll.

All poll categories close a week after this publication, on 28 June.

Tournaments

In this section of AA, I shall update you on all things tournaments, including new ones and progress in ongoing ones.

Last month we only had one tournament's finish to report; there are no other tournaments active at the time of writing.

The events and games thread can be used to discuss and gauge interest for future activities.

The awards

The following lists all discussed awards and notable changes and reasoning. Check out the full list for a complete overview of all additions and removals, and also check out the meeting logs and summaries for a more detailed insight in the changes.

New awards

These awards are brand new, or sometimes return from two or more years ago.

Favorite Non-game Media (new)
An award to highlight publications of Mario media that are not games.
Worst Title (new)
An award to spotlight games and media with cumbersome or non-descriptive names, among others.
Worst Game Aesthetic (new)
An award about games with bad visual design and presentation.

Updated awards

Awards that existed last year and have been updated based on recent releases or with high-ranking write-in votes from last year.

M9. Favorite Super Mario Bros. Wonder Level
Previously undecided, this award was ultimately kept and updated with high-ranking write-ins from last year.

Additionally, the following awards were amended shortly after the release of Mario Kart World to include materials from that game: Favorite Musical Track, Favorite Soundtrack, Favorite Game Mechanic, Favorite Mario Kart Item, Favorite Mario Kart Course, Worst Game Mechanic, and Worst Mario Kart Course Remake.

The bins

The blue bin contains awards that may have potential left, but will only be considered to be kept to fill up necessary awards spots. The red bin contains awards that have been removed entirely.

Favorite 3D Platformer (removed)
Previously undecided, this award was ultimately removed due to a lack of new 3D platformers. Note that more information about Donkey Kong Bananza was not yet available at the time of decision, and that the game has not been released yet. This makes it likely that this award will return next year with said game.

And that covers this evil edition of AA. Don't forget to vote, and be sure to check back next time. Adios!

The 'Shroom Report

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Ah, 'Shroom readers, what an unexpected surprise. And by unexpected I mean COMPLETELY expected! Behold, my 'SHROOM REPORTINATOR! With this, I will compile the statistics for Issue 218 from Meta Knight's spreadsheets and finally take over the TRI-STATE AREA!

Oh no new readers or anyone needing a refresher, don't open that box below!

​
  • First-Time Writers lists everyone who wrote their first section for The 'Shroom in the previous issue.
  • New Sections lists recurring sections that started their run in the previous issue. This includes returning sections that previously went inactive.
  • Guest Sections lists one-off submissions from the previous issue.
  • Milestones covers certain section numbers reached in the previous issue. Writers are mentioned for every 10 sections written in a team and every 50 sections written overall, teams are mentioned for every 100 sections, and The 'Shroom itself is mentioned for every 500 sections.
  • Most Sections Written lists the current all-time record holders.
First-Time Writers
Writer Section
Golddude64 (talk) The Ghostly Dossier
New Sections
Section Writer
Game Corner Aomaf (talk)
The Ghostly Dossier Golddude64 (talk)
Rhythm Review Zange (talk)
Guest Sections
Section Writer
Shop Scout ClawgripFan9001
Quiz Waluigi Time (talk)
Passion of the WAH! ClawgripFan9001
Yoshi18 Previews Yoshi18 (talk)
A Golden Sun Review Finale Paper Plumm (talk)
Video Game Review Waluigi Time (talk)
Milestones
Writer Milestone
BBQ Turtle (talk) 90 Fun Stuff sections
DryBonesBandit (talk) 10 Fake News sections
Hooded Pitohui (talk) 150 Strategy Wing sections
Paper Plumm (talk) 10 Critic Corner sections
Shoey (talk) 90 Fake News sections
Waluigi Time (talk) 160 Fake News sections
Most Sections Written
Team Writer Number of Sections
Main/Staff Henry Tucayo Clay (talk) 142
Fake News Waluigi Time (talk) 160
Fun Stuff Shoey (talk) 157
Palette Swap FunkyK38 (talk) 208
Pipe Plaza Yoshi876 (talk) 128
Critic Corner Hypnotoad (talk) 208
Strategy Wing Hooded Pitohui (talk) 150
Overall Yoshi876 (talk) 747
'Shroom Trivia
The first villain ever mentioned in The 'Shroom was Bowser, in a section from the first issue titled From the Mushroom Vaults which provided game tips. The first villains to appear in each team are Wario (in Fake News' Poll of the Month), Shrooboid Brat (in Fun Stuff's Quiz), Bowser (in Palette Swap's Box-Art of the Month and Critic Corner's Marioverse Reviews), Fawful (in Pipe Plaza's Featured), and Donkey Kong (in Strategy Wing's From the Mushroom Vaults), each one in the team's debut.

A Section of Muppetational Origins

Written by: Zange (talk)

(once again I would like to thank the Muppet Wiki for being a valuable resource of information and images!)

Hello and welcome back to a new edition of A Section of Muppetational Origins! This is Zange, and I am here to tell you all about the origins and history of another wonderful Muppet. However, before we get into it I’d like to touch on something real quick. Last time, we covered everyone’s favorite cookie devouring Muppet, Cookie Monster. In that section, I mentioned that the earliest version of the Cookie Monster puppet was used for a sketch filmed for an IBM training tape. This sketch and many others used for IBM training tapes were developed in part by David Lazer, an IBM executive who would later go on to hold producer titles for many Muppet productions, including executive producer of The Muppet Show. The reason I bring this up is that it was announced last month that Lazer had unfortunately passed away in April of this year. Rest in peace to the man who was an integral part in making The Muppet Show a success and a great experience for all the guest stars.

In honor of this issue being themed around villains, I’ve decided to cover the Phantom of the Muppet Show this time. That’s right, we’re talking about resident spooky thespian turned fashion expert, Uncle Deadly!

Gargoyle Muppet… Color me intrigued…

As with many of the Muppets created for The Muppet Show, Uncle Deadly was designed by Michael Frith, who began his involvement with Jim Henson’s works during his time at Random House. When Random House was beginning to publish Sesame Street books, Frith was named the editor and art director for those books. Frith would later go on to design Muppets for several of Henson’s productions. As far as I’m aware, there are no dates anywhere indicating when the sketches designing Uncle Deadly were drawn. However, we do know there were at least two revisions, the first of which shows Deadly looking more like a gargoyle. It is interesting to think about what that would look like in execution, and if his appearance would have been changed at all after the original puppet was built. The second sketch more closely resembles Deadly’s current design.

If we are going strictly by production order, Uncle Deadly’s first appearance is in the Vincent Price episode of The Muppet Show, or episode 119 if using the production codes. Deadly appears as Price’s ‘beautiful assistant’ during a sketch where Fozzie Bear and Gonzo come to a haunted house in search of lodging. However, due to the WONDERS of television syndication, which was the distribution method used for The Muppet Show, this particular episode was the last one to premiere out of the entire first season. Deadly does receive a proper introduction in the Twiggy episode (episode 121, and yes this episode DID originally premiere before 119), in which he terrorizes the show crew under the guise of ‘The Phantom of the Muppet Show’. It is also here that we learn Deadly used to be a performer in his own right - that is, until opening night of Othello where he played the titular role and was killed by the critics. (His words, not mine…)

You’re a CREEPY COOKIE, Deadly!!

In all of his appearances in The Muppet Show, Uncle Deadly was performed by Jerry Nelson, the voice for which Nelson has stated is an impression / tribute to John Carradine, an actor well known for his hammy performances in horror films.

After the first season of The Muppet Show, Uncle Deadly would go on to make a few more appearances throughout the series, primarily singing songs and making appearances as the villain in the Muppet Melodrama segments from the third season. However, partway through production of season 3, Deadly seemingly vanished from the cast of Muppet performers. He did make a handful of non-speaking cameos in movies and specials after this point, and even appeared in some promo images for the PlayStation game Muppet Monster Adventure, but disappeared from projects altogether in the early 2000s.

There were plans for Uncle Deadly to have his own series at one point in the early 2000’s, titled Uncle Deadly’s House of Badness. This was meant to be a silly horror-type of show, along the lines of Goosebumps. However, the series never made it out of development.

To the shock of many, Uncle Deadly made a return in 2011’s The Muppets, in which he played assistant to Tex Richman, an oil salesman trying to demolish the old Muppet Theatre to drill for oil. In a dramatic scene near the end of the film, Deadly stops the second of Richman’s attempts to sabotage our Muppet performers, proudly proclaiming that he is a Muppet in his heart, before pushing Richman off the signal tower they were climbing. For this appearance, they rebuilt Deadly’s puppet, and cast Matt Vogel as his new performer, since Jerry Nelson was retired from performing for a number of years by this point.

From this point on, Uncle Deadly would continue to hold prominence in various other Muppet media. In the 2015 television series The Muppets (not a confusing name at all, nope…), Deadly was the wardrobe supervisor to Miss Piggy for her late night show - Up Late with Miss Piggy. He would continue to carry qualities of this in future Muppet media - namely the fashion sense and close friendship with Miss Piggy. Additionally, Deadly was the host of the Muppet Thought of the Week videos from 2017-2018, and has one particularly notable running gag of frustration in a week where the videos were posted every single day (though this posting schedule only happened in order to get caught up on missed videos). It will be interesting to see if this version of Uncle Deadly continues to stay similar to how he is now in, say, 10 or more years. Until next time, keep believing and keep pretending!

What's in a Campaign?

Written by: Shoey (talk)

Hello, and welcome to a very special What's in a Campaign! Why is it special, you might ask??? Because this is my 50th What's in a Campaign? and my 50th straight What's in a Campaign?! That's right, fifty straight months of metal-crunching, robot-cutting, bot-flipping action! So I knew I needed to do something special for the 50th What's in a Campaign?, so I decided it was time to cover a truly special robot, a long-standing competitor and a robot truly near and dear to my heart. This month we will be covering the entire career of the low-tech warrior Sumpthing!

It sure is Sumpthing…

Originally appearing in Series 3, Sumpthing was built by Richard "Mr. Dig" Dignall, Geoff Germaney, and John Lort, with Paul Bacon joining the team for Series 6 and Extreme 1. Team captain Mr. Dig (who was notable for constantly appearing, how you say, stoned out of his mind), built Sumpthing as a low-tech warrior built to fight against the high-tech computer age! Which… wait a minute, Series 3??? High-tech???? None of those words go together! Apparently, it took two years to build the bot and the team originally started building it during Series 1… HIGH-TECH??? SERIES 1??? THE SERIES WITH THE BLOB IN IT??? WHAT ARE WE DOING, MR. DIG???

Made from 100% recycled scrap, Sumpthing featured as a weapon a mounted pickaxe that was connected to the drive system. This meant that, every time they went forward, the weapon would fire… for some reason. Surprisingly fast at 20mph, Sumpthing was powered by four 800 car starter motors from Minis, with two of them being used to go forward and the other two being used to go backwards. Aw snap, guys, turns out it also has a forklift lifter on the bottom of its front! It's Series 3! OF COURSE it has a secondary weapon that will never work! Sumpthing was, as its mission statement suggests, a hunk of junk, but let's see how it does in the warzone!

As a reminder, all pictures are sourced from the fantastic Robot Wars Wiki. If you'd like to watch any of these fights, check out the videos. We've got one video for all the main series fights and the side series fights are in their own videos. Timestamps are provided in the section.

Despite apparently somehow having technical problems, Sumpthing successfully managed to qualify for Series 3. It probably made the cut because it was fast and Series 3 qualification was primarily through the gauntlet. Placed in Heat B against the hydraulic jaws of Pitbull, in the back the Pitbull team were apparently worried about Sumpthing, fearing that their jaws wouldn't be able to damage the armor on Sumpthing while the fearsome pickaxe could easily go through Pitbull's armor.

Pitbull pushes a dead Sumpthing.

But, uh, I've got a feeling their worries will prove to be displaced. The fight starts (1:38) starts with the faster Sumpthing charging in, launching a mighty pickaxe attack, and… oop, it's broken! Yep! Sumpthing charges, in launches an attack, misses, and breaks itself. The whole fight lasts about, I don't know, four seconds! Well… huh… It can only go up from here?

Sumpthing would return in Series 4, having successfully qualified by beating Banshee in a fight. Which, woof, I would not want to see that fight. For those of you that don't know, Banshee was a full-body spinner whose body spun slower than my buddy's two year old spinning in circles, so yeah, rough stuff. Placed in Heat K, probably the weakest heat in Series 4, Sumpthing's first opponent is the 28-seeded Weld-Dor 2, who was given the 28th seed with a stunning record of two and two, with wins over Robot Wars juggernauts The Iron Mask and Prometheus. In other words, a seed that again confirms you don't need 32 seeds in a competition with 96 robots in it! That's too many seeds, guys! The other opponent is Little Fly, a robot featuring a tiny spinning lawnmower blade which I'm sure is really gonna take it to 'em, boys.

Little Fly slices through Weld-Dor 2!

The fight (5:30) starts tentatively, with the three robots just kind of driving around. Finally, Little Fly goes in for an attack and actually seems to get its blade stuck in Weld-Dor 2? At the very least, it's on Weld-Dor 2! Sumpthing charges in on Little Fly and manages to land an attack without breaking itself, so, hey, progress! Sumpthing actually starts raining blows on Little Fly, including a pretty solid blow directly on Little Fly's spinner, which I thought was cool personally. Weld-Dor 2 charges in on Little Fly, but I don't think its lifter/flipper is working because it gets under them but does nothing. All three then do a meeting of the minds in the middle of the arena. AKA, they smash into each other. Little Fly gets its blade stuck in Weld-Dor 2 and drags it over the flame pit as Sumpthing, sensing weakness in something that's not itself, drives in and launches a successful pickaxe strike on Weld-Dor 2.

For a second, it looks like Little Fly just randomly died and Weld-Dor 2 comes in for an attack? I don't know; none of Weld-Dor 2's weapons seem to be working. Either way, that's when Sumpthing comes in from the bottom for an attack on the back of Weld-Dor 2! There's a lot of smashing around and I'm like, "man, this fight is long". Little Fly isn't really doing anything. I don't think they're dead, but they might be wedged on something or they could just be slow. They only have a top speed of 4mph. Sumpthing gets to the front of Weld-Dor 2, whose weapon system must be totally busted because they don't do anything, and Sumpthing rains blow after blow after blow onto Weld-Dor 2!

BLOW AFTER BLOW AFTER BLOW!

Sumpthing begins pushing Weld-Dor 2 around and, oh my god, Weld-Dor 2 has completely stopped moving! Has Sumpthing immobilized Weld-Dor 2??? Yes, they have! Weld-Dor 2 is counted out and, pack your bags, baby, because Sumpthing is going to round two! Oh, but wait… Despite the excitement making it look like it was Sumpthing that killed Weld-Dor 2, it was actually the blade of Little Fly that did the damage. Which, wow, imagine getting KO'd by a lawnmower blade in Series 4 of all places. Robot Wars was a mistake, guys!

In its startling second-round debut, Sumpthing faces off against the unique MouseTrap. The fight (10:10) starts with MouseTrap charging in at Sumpthing, with Sumpthing responding by spinning away. Sumpthing then charges in and ramps off MouseTrap's wedge. And you know what? I always think it's cool when that happens in robot combat! Sumpthing rams into the side of MouseTrap, landing a solid pickaxe hit before backing up and charging at them again, this time just ramming them as MouseTrap flees. Sumpthing pursues, getting to the front of MouseTrap. Sumpthing attempts to hit it with its pickaxe and misses because the front wedge of MouseTrap is too low, but before Sumpthing can recoil its pickaxe, MouseTrap drops the trap and catches the Sumpthing pickaxe in place! Man guys, MouseTrap's such a cool robot and this is such an awesome visual!

Man, robot combat is so cool, guys.

MouseTrap then lets go of Sumpthing's pickaxe and rams them forward, sending Sumpthing into a side spike! But Sumpthing gets away and just charges full-speed right into the wooden side of MouseTrap, sending splinters flying! The two robots begin trying to size each other up, with MouseTrap trying to use its wedge to get under Sumpthing, but the speedy Sumpthing gets away at the last second and sends MouseTrap into the waiting claws of Dead Metal.

MouseTrap gets away before Dead Metal can do anything (guess the claws weren't that waiting…) when Sumpthing charges in. But Sumpthing goes up the wedge of MouseTrap and MouseTrap launches the bladed axe into Sumpthing! Sumpthing gets away as MouseTrap pursues. MouseTraps charges at Sumpthing, but Sumpthing gets away. Sumpthing gets to the side of MouseTrap and down goes the Sumpthing pickaxe! MouseTrap seems to have stopped, but Sumpthing isn't letting up! It bears down with a charge followed by a pickaxe shot followed by a charge again followed by a pickaxe shot.

Sumpthing takes it to MouseTrap.

Sumpthing is pouring on hits in its quest to reach the Heat Final. After what seems like half a dozen blows, Sumpthing backs off the apparently-dead MouseTrap, but suddenly MouseTrap comes back to life, jerking forward in the arena. Seeing that the fight is back on, Sumpthing goes back on the attack, launching a powerful shove to the backside of the barely-moving MouseTrap. But there's still a little life in MouseTrap, so Sumpthing attempts to keep up the attack, charging in from a mighty distance for another attack. But they miss, and not only do they miss, but Sumpthing's pickaxe hits the arena floor. The force of the axe causes something in Sumpthing to snap. The body of Sumpthing is on the arena floor and the tires are just barely -and I mean just barley - in the air. Sumpthing can't move.

Man…

Sumpthing is counted out, and just like that, a sure victory turns into a sudden defeat. Robot Wars is a cruel mistress sometimes. This is a devastating fight to me. Not only is MouseTrap on death's doorstep at this point, but Sumpthing was winning this fight even if it went to the judges. And because the heat final would have been Sumpthing vs Little Fly and Little Fly sucks, I truly believe that Sumpthing would have beaten Little Fly and made the Series Semi-Final… where it would have been promptly mashed to paste by Stinger, but that's not the point of the matter.

Sumpthing would have been, at the very least, a Heat Finalist, and more than likely a Semi-Finalist. Who knows how history would have changed had Sumpthing made the Semi-Final here. They probably would have been given a seed in Series 5 and, you know, personally I like to think if Sumpthing would have made the Series Semi-Final here, the financial crisis of 2008 never happens. But sadly guys, we don't live in that timeline. Also, before we move on, Sumpthing was nominated for the "Most Original Entry Award", which… why? Sumpthing was in Series 3 with basically the same design. How can you get nominated for the "Most Original Entry Award" in your second series? It just don't make no sense!

Riding that momentum from their Series 4 performance, Sumpthing would make some changes for Series 5! That stupid pickaxe gone! Instead, it has been replaced by a swinging arm with circular saws attached to it. The arm can be modified for either a double or single blade system. Boys, I don't wanna be the bearer of bad news, but I've seen this concept used by a couple of robots, and it usually doesn't work out well! With their newfound respectability, Sumpthing was placed into Heat K, where they faced off with Widow's Revenge… Aww, man, how can the producers disrespect Sumpthing like this!?

You're probably wondering what I mean. The reason this is disrespectful is because Widow's Revenge is a piece of shit with a stupid gimmick! Widow's Revenge is built up as a robot built by the upset girlfriends of the Razer team, angry that Razer's team has been wasting their time on nerd shit like robots instead of cool shit like, uh, plowing women, I guess? But in reality, of the three roboteers that built this shitty Series 3-quality robot, only one of them had anything to do with Razer - that being Gillie Blood, the fiancé of Ian Lewis. The other two builders had nothing to do with Razer's team at all. Now, the producers desperately wanted Widow's Revenge to fight Razer because I guess they hate the idea of good television. But they didn't want to make it too obvious, so they picked Widow's Revenge to fight a robot they were sure it could beat, and unfortunately the robot they picked was Sumpthing! But you know what? Sumpthing is going to give it their all and hopefully prove these producers wrong!!!

The fight (14:57) starts with Sumpthing going straight at Widow's Revenge, "cutting" them with their circular saw arm. Sumpthing kind of parks in place and drops the circular saw arm on top of Widow's Revenge, which does, how you say, nothing! Widow's Revenge then hits the blade arm of Sumpthing with their rear-mounted spinning drum, which also does nothing. Then Sumpthing hits Widow's Revenge in the side with their saw arm which also does nothing again! The two robots meet in the middle, with Sumpthing bouncing off of Widow's Revenge before dropping the arm two more times uselessly on the top of Widow's Revenge. Both robots are getting a lot of attacks in, but none of them mean a goddamn thing! The two robots bump into each other as Sumpthing presses the pit release button. This fight must have been just awful, because the countdown clock is already going. Sumpthing is barely working and the fight goes to the judges. The judges rule in favor of Widow's Revenge on… maybe damage, I guess. I don't know. The fight sucked and poor Sumpthing proved the producers were wise in placing their trust in its failure.

After that atrocity, we move onto Extreme 1, where Sumpthing competed in a few different events. In the first event, Sumpthing would compete in a Mayhem (an Annihilator Qualifier) against Pussycat and SMIDSY (technically S.M.I.D.S.Y. but c'mon, lol), and I'm not even going to pretend like there's a chance Sumpthing is winning this fight, lol. The fight (second video) starts with our boy Sumpthing doing nothing as Pussycat and SMIDSY bash into each other. After about 10-15 seconds, Sumpthing decides to join the fray - big mistake!

Annnnnnnnnnd there goes your weapon

One strike from the custom-designed circular saw of Pussycat (the only circular saw that ever really worked in Robot Wars), and the wires to Sumpthing's saw are severed, rendering Sumpthing weaponless. While this is happening, SMIDSY pushes the pit release button and then nearly drives in. Then Sumpthing nearly drives in! Pussycat and SMIDSY battle it out as Sumpthing drives around. Sumpthing decides to go down swinging, attempting to attack both SMIDSY and Pussycat with its weaponless arm. Then, for some reason (probably because it's Extreme 1 the House Robots are just in the middle of the arena), SGT. Bash starts attacking Sumpthing because god forbid we just have robot combat! Sumpthing's spikes get caught on SGT. Bash for a little bit, but Sumpthing manages to free itself.

As this all happens, offscreen Pussycat disables, I assume, half of SMIDSY's drive, because they're spinning in circles. Sumpthing attempts to fight Pussycat which, hey, give 'em credit for the tenacity. It doesn't do anything because they just have an arm, but, still, they're fighting! Sumpthing manages to get one of their static spikes stuck into Pussycat, which does count for damage points as Pussycat drives around, desperately trying to get unstuck from Sumpthing.

Sumpthing holding its own against Pussycat!

As the robots are pinned, Sumpthing drops down its arm. That's right, boys, score those aggression points! Finally, with some help from Refbot, Sumpthing and Pussycat are unglued from each other. Pussycat then goes after the spinning-in-circles SMIDSY, 'cause fuck 'em, points are points. Seeing that this is a cheap way to get points, Sumpthing ALSO decides to go after SMIDSY, but are probably scoring less points because they have no saws. Finally, SMIDSY, who again is just driving in circles, drives just a little too close to the pit. Pussycat shoves them in, scoring mega points, babyyy! This leaves just Pussycat and Sumpthing left in the fight. But nothing more happens as the fight goes to the judges. To be honest, Sumpthing did a lot better than I thought they would. I thought Pussycat would just KO them quickly, but instead they managed to take Pussycat - Series 4 Runner-Up, Winner of the Extreme 1 Tag Team Terro,r and Annihilator 1 Champion, that Pussycat - to a judges' decision. And while it wasn't really close, Sumpthing was sort of holding its own against the far superior machine, so good work Sumpthing!

After that fight, Sumpthing and SMIDSY apparently got together and decided that they should team up and enter the Tag Team Terror together. Or they got randomly paired. I don't really know how that all actually worked! Their opponents in the first round are that sexist jerk lobster Thermidor 2 and its partner, the shiny dog of war, Cerberus.

GET OUT OF THEIR MOUTH!

Naturally being the better robot, SMIDSY would start the fight (22:39 third video) against, surprisingly, Cerberus, which is weird. SMIDSY immediately drives straight into the jaws of Cerberus… which, uh, guys, probably not a good start. The two spin in circles, trying to push each other around. Cerberus then lets go of SMIDSY before landing a broadside attack with its tail as SMIDSY attempts to reposition. After a little bit of bumping, SMIDSY hits Cerberus with its backside spinning disc, putting some dents in the shiny tail of Cerberus before deciding to tag in Sumpthing! Oh wait, nevermind guys, SMIDSY decided to just hit Sumpthing for no reason! SMIDSY then drives right back into the jaws of Cerberus, which, guys, stop driving into the crushing jaws! Drive anywhere else!

Sumpthing once again breaking itself

Apparently SMIDSY is having really bad radio problems, because they just drive right into the arena wall, stuck in forward drive and unable to move. So with SMIDSY dead, Sumpthing joins the fray in an attempt to salvage the situation. This doesn't last for very long because that misogynistic crustacean Thermidor 2 ILLEGALLY enters the fight and flips Sumpthing. The flip causes Sumpthing's spikes to drive into the ground. Because of this, Sumpthing is unable to move and both him and SMIDSY are counted out after a less-than-stellar display.

Despite a less-than-impressive résumé in Series 5 and Extreme 1, Sumpthing still managed to qualify for Series 6, defeating two unknown robots and Turtle Terror, which is, I kid you not, the only robot with a worse win-loss record than Sumpthing (no I will not be covering Turtle Terror)! Realizing that the saws were stupid, Sumpthing would go back to ole reliable, AKA the pickaxe.

Placed in Heat J, Sumpthing would face off with the 6th-seeded fellow axe bot Dominator 2, the combo lifter and spiked hammer bot Hydra, and finally Axe-C-Dent, who despite the name is using a hammer. Get your story straight!

The fight begins (18:26, first video) with Hydra quickly flipping over Axe-C-Dent in like two seconds, immobilizing it because, of course, it doesn't have a self-righter! That move leaves three robots remaining in this fight. Sumpthing really doesn't do a whole lot this fight. They attempt to face off against Hydra but are absolutely dominated by Hydra and pushed into the CPZ, where fellow axe bot Shunt shows them no mercy. As Sumpthing is being axed by Shunt and Axe-C-Dent is being counted out by Refbot, Hydra is kicking the shit out of Dominator 2. They're throwing them all over the arena and axing the shit out of them; it's really impressive.

Sumpthing's fight "highlight"

But back to our hero Sumpthing! They manage to escape the grasp of Shunt and attempt to get back in the fray. But I don't know what they do, because there's no real focus on them. Instead, the focus is on Growler picking on the counted-out Axe-C-Dent and Hydra and Dominator 2 slugging it out. Sumpthing finally manages to get something going, ramming the backside of Dominator 2 and pushing them slightly. At some point, Axe-C-Dent gets pushed back onto its wheels and Dominator 2 and Hydra land some blows on it before Hydra flips it back over. Sumpthing then launches itself at Hydra, ramming it, but Hydra quickly turns the tables on Sumpthing by pushing it into Growler.

RIP Axe-C-Dent, killed by floor flipper

Sumpthing and Hydra briefly team up against Dominator 2 when suddenly Axe-C-Dent is launched from the floor flipper. They actually hit Hydra while going through the air, nearly toppling Hydra over before just exploding when they hit the ground. It's pretty cool. Suddenly Sumpthing is being counted out because I guess at some point they lost mobility? I don't know when it happened exactly, but, yeah, one of their tires isn't spinning. So Sumpthing is counted out after a very chaotic fight with a very underwhelming performance from Sumpthing.

This would be the last time Sumpthing would fight in the main Series of Robot Wars, but Sumpthing would make one last appearance in Extreme 2. After the rousing success of its partnership with SMIDSY in the last tournament, the two would decide "fuck it, boys, let's run it back" in the Robot Wars: Extreme 2 Tag Team Terror Tournament. In their first-round fight, Sumpthing and SMIDSY faced off against X-Terminator and Mini Morg (another of my great robot loves), the team that I was personally rooting for as a child! Once again, SMIDSY would start the fight (4:10 fourth video), but unlike the last time, SMIDSY isn't having radio problems here so it's actually able to drive, which I hear is pretty important for robots! SMIDSY attempts to take advantage of its superior speed, getting around to the side of X-Terminator and shoving them for a brief second but failing to really press an advantage

Stop driving right into the front of your opponent, SMIDSY!

SMIDSY then attempts a push from the front, but this proves a mistake as down comes the axe of X-Terminator, piercing right through SMIDSY's armor. SMIDSY, with the axe of X-Terminator still stuck inside of it, flees in terror before managing to tag in Sumpthing. Keeping on the offensive, X-Terminator uses its superior pushing power to shove Sumpthing into the angle grinder before deciding to, for some reason, tag in Mini Morg. This quickly proves to be a stupid call, as Sumpthing would tag in SMIDSY, who quickly gets to the side of Mini Morg and shoves the small yellow bot right into its tag team partner! Mini Morg then attempts to damage SMIDSY with its rear-mounted spinning disc, but it does nothing. The two robots drive around each other as Mini Morg tries but fails to lift the quicker SMIDSY with its flipper. For some reason, SMIDSY decides "fuck you, X-Terminator" and drives right into the front of X-Terminator, only to be met by an obvious axe blow.

Seeing this, Sumpthing proceeds to illegally enter the fight, landing down a sick axe blow on Mini Morg. SMIDSY then tags in Sumpthing, but then Shunt drives into their CPZ and, like, get the fuck out of here, Shunt. What's going on!?! The fight completely breaks down from here. For some reason, Mini Morg is completely on the wedge of X-Terminator and Sumpthing is being chased by House Robots. I don't know why this fight broke down so quickly, but it sure did! SMIDSY then pushes Mini Morg into the wall before being met by, you guessed it, more axe blows from X-Terminator. Sumpthing tries to rejoin the fight but does nothing as Dead Metal continues to chase down Sumpthing. Seeing that this fight has become total bullshit, SMIDSY pushes the pit release button. SMIDSY then attempts to save Sumpthing from the House Robots, so X-Terminator attempts to pursue SMIDSY because, you know, there's a fight going on. This leads to X-Terminator getting caught by Dead Metal, who puts its circular saw through X-Terminator. Somehow this leads to X-Terminator pinning SMIDSY on the arena wall and raining down more axe blows as Mini Morg attempts to enter the fight, still being generally useless.

This fight is the reason SMIDSY has more losses than wins…

As all of this is happening, Sumpthing starts getting counted out by Refbot, being successfully counted out with like less than a second left before cease is called. Which, like, I know it's the rules, guys, but, come on! When it's that close, go to the judges! Because Sumpthing was counted out, SMIDSY and Sumpthing automatically lose because the rules apparently say a team with one immobilized robot loses a judges' decision automatically against a team with two working robots. So yeah, the SMIDSY-Sumpthing team? A real top-notch team, I'm glad we ran it back!

That would be the end of Sumpthing's Robot Wars career, a career that spanned six different series and which saw it fighting in eight fights with a record of one win and seven losses for a 12.5% winning percentage! The only two robots to compete with that level of combat futility are Velocirippa, who went zero for five in its career (although it scored a sort-of-win in the first round of the Series 3 Robot Soccer Tournament), and the king of losing, Terror Turtle, who managed to score zero wins and seven losses in their illustrious career!

Sure, Sumpthing wasn't a great robot, but they weren't here to be a great robot. They were here to have fun, to do the whole low-tech gimmick and get as far as they could (which wasn't very). Like, could Sumpthing ever make some noise in a series? Not really. I mean, sure I think if they get past MouseTrap, they win that Heat in Series 4, but that was a uniquely bad Heat and was really the only Heat they could have ever won. But they weren't built to be competitive. They were built for fun, to get on TV and to have a good time. They're the kind of robot that's really missing in these days of highly-polished robots. What I'm trying to say is Sumpthing failed its mission; the high-tech robots won and we're all worse for it!

That's all for this month's campaign! Join me next month for another robot!

The History of Cozy Glow

Written by: Sparks (talk)

What's this? Another section about ponies? YAY!!

Back in February I educated you all about Trixie Lulamoon (AKA The Great and Powerful Trixie) and that was fun. Of course, that couldn't be the only pony I talk about! With the Villains issue now here, it's the perfect opportunity for me to inform you of a very devious pony! Villains come in all kinds of shapes, sizes and personalities, so I present to you Cozy Glow! She's a young pegasus (about the same age as the Cutie Mark Crusaders) who appears in seasons 8 and 9 of the well-known cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Her history's not as large as Trixie's, but it'll still be fun to discuss! How could sweet little Cozy Glow be so cunning and mischievous? Find out by reading on!

Cozy Glow used to be one of my personal files on the wiki. That is, until I replaced her with Minuette. Thanks to this section, I can finally get her back on my userpage... justice for Cozy Glow! Hopefully she won't cause any mischief this time.

I'm only covering her history in Friendship Is Magic. Cozy Glow doesn't appear in Equestria Girls and Pony Life, but she does appear in the IDW comics and the My Little Pony mobile game.

Some images and information in this section are courtesy of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Wiki.

Concept and creation

Screenshot from the Equestria Daily post depicting Cozy Glow's leaked appearance.

On May 5, 2018, My Little Pony community website Equestria Daily published an article about Cozy Glow being leaked from a My Little Pony UK magazine. One page of the magazine was dedicated to characters associated with Twilight Sparkle's School of Friendship. These characters include Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, the Young Six (Gallus, Silverstream, Smolder, Sandbar, Yona and Ocellus) and Cozy Glow. Cozy's first episode appearance is season 8 episode 12's "Marks for Effort", which would aired on June 2, 2018 (May 16, 2018 in Finland), almost one month later for most countries.

Cozy Glow was inspired by late child actress Shirley Temple and the character Mary "Baby Doll" Dahl from Batman: The Animated Series, both of whom have curly hair similar to the filly. She was designed by art director Matt Herring and character designer Kora Kosicka.

Jim Miller, the supervising director of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic ever since season 5 episode 14, received many questions from fans regarding Cozy Glow's parents on Twitter (now known as X). Miller had many responses to these inquiries, including "Maybe she has no parents?", "Who says she has parents?", "It was never discussed. Her parentage was irrelevant to the story we were telling.", and "We never discussed it. 🤷🏽‍♂️". Cozy Glow's parents are never seen, heard, or mentioned in the show.

Sunni Westbrook provides the English voice for Cozy Glow.

Appearance and personality

Cozy Glow may look innocent, but she's hiding one heck of a dark side...
Cozy Glow may look innocent, but she's hiding one heck of a dark side...
Cozy Glow may look innocent, but she's hiding one heck of a dark side...

Cozy Glow is a young female pegasus pony who has a very unique curly manestyle. It contains several "coils" of hair, with one making up her tail as well. Tan ribbons are present in Cozy Glow's mane and tail as well. As for her Cutie Mark, it is a red-orange rook. Like with Trixie, I had to consult the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Wiki to accurately display Cozy Glow's colors:

  • Cozy Glow's coat is pinkish gray.
  • Cozy Glow's eyes are moderate scarlet.
    • Her eyes become brilliant amber with brilliant red irises when she has Discord's chaos magic.
  • Cozy Glow's mane is pale, light grayish arctic blue and light arctic bluish gray.
  • While in her Alicorn form, Cozy Glow's magic aura is moderate amaranth.
Cozy Glow's Alicorn form (left) and her chaos form (right).
Cozy Glow's Alicorn form (left) and her chaos form (right).
Cozy Glow's Alicorn form (left) and her chaos form (right).

After absorbing some of Grogar's powerful magic from his Bewitching Bell, Cozy Glow becomes an Alicorn. Her wings expand to resemble those of an Alicorn, although not as large as Princesses Celestia and Luna's are. They are more comparable to Flurry Heart's and Twilight Sparkle's wings. With this new transformation, Cozy gains a horn that's the same color as her coat and a tan chestpiece (with the same color tone as her ribbons) with sharp edges. In addition, Cozy Glow's flight capabilities are improved thanks to her larger wings, and she's able to cast powerful destructive beams of magic.

After absorbing Discord's tremendous chaos magic, Cozy Glow's appearance is drastically altered:

  • She grows humongous in size (about as tall as five healthy Tireks standing on top of each other!)
  • Cozy's physique resembles the slender build of Princess Celestia.
  • Her wings become large bat wings, her mane and tail increase in length and size (along with their accompanying ribbons), and she gains a red helmet and shoes. Additionally, her new chestpiece and shoes are shaped like rooks.
  • More ribbons are present on Cozy Glow, wrapped around her stomach and extending in various directions.
  • Her eyes are Brilliant amber with red glowing irises (see above list of colors for samples).
  • Finally, Cozy Glow's Cutie Mark is taller and a little more spread out.

Due to the difficulty of controlling the chaos magic, Cozy Glow is only able to cast spells that create colorful rubber chickens and angry sentient pineapples.

Personality-wise, Cozy Glow is very sweet and innocent, rivaling that of even Fluttershy. At least, that's what she wants you to think! Deep within, Cozy Glow is deceitful in nature, using her cute charm to her advantage. Nopony's even aware of how evil she actually is! You'd never guess somepony so adorable would want to take over Equestria for herself.

Cozy Glow forms an alliance with Lord Tirek and Queen Chrysalis in season 9, after Grogar tasks the three of them to work together. This shows that she is willing to work together with others, but the alliance is only temporary, as all three villains plan to go their separate ways and rule their own kingdoms alone once they conquer Equestria and defeat its protectors, those being Twilight Sparkle and her friends. She still tries to get the two to say nice things to each other, even though they don't like it...

History in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

Season 8

The Cutie Mark Crusaders first see Cozy Glow outside of their club house.

Cozy Glow makes her debut in the season 8 episode "Marks for Effort". While the Cutie Mark Crusaders (Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle) brainstorm ways on how to enroll in the School of Friendship, they hear the sound of crying outside their clubhouse. After speaking to her, Cozy Glow tells the trio that she recently moved to Ponyville to attend the school, but she finds it too hard and is having trouble adjusting to her new setting. The Cutie Mark Crusaders decide to help her with her friendship lessons and homework. Cozy Glow was tasked with helping out three ponies: Bon Bon (AKA Sweetie Drops), Mrs. Cake and Big Macintosh. She gives Scootaloo's helmet to protect Bon Bon from a cactus, works with Sweetie Belle to organize the colored sprinkles into color-coded containers for Mrs. Cake, and gathers buckets of Apples with Apple Bloom to make Bug Mac's chores go faster.

The next day, Cozy Glow tells the CMCs she got an "A" on her homework! After a quick celebration, Cozy informs the three that there is a bug test at the end of the week, and politely requests help with studying for it (while making a cute face). A montage about the study sessions then ensues, with Cozy Glow learning the Elements of Harmony and performing various activities related to them. Everything goes well and Cozy understands everything she needs to know... until after she takes the test. Despite that amazing study montage, Cozy Glow failed the test. Ouch! This causes her to cry and run away, while Twilight Sparkle rebukes the Cutie Mark Crusaders due to believing they set her up to fail. Oh dear.

Cozy Glow witnesses what happened to her new friends and goes to guidance counselor Starlight Glimmer for advice. She admits to her that she failed the test on purpose, because she thought that if she showed Twilight Sparkle the Cutie Mark Crusaders are bad at friendship, she'd let them attend her school. Starlight Glimmer understands Cozy's good intentions and brings the fillies to Twilight. Accompanying them are the rest of the Mane 6 and Cozy Glow, where she tells the truth to the CMCs. Due to their knowledge on friendship, Twilight Sparkle gives the three of them honorary diplomas, indicating their graduations from the school. Not only that, but they're also official friendship tutors! Hooray for a happy ending, but unfortunately Cozy Glow isn't all cuteness and sweetness. You'll see...

Now, we have a bunch of episodes where Cozy Glow appears but only in minor roles. So... I'll just go over them in a bullet point list. Here we go!

  • In "A Matter of Principals", Cozy Glow appears in a few scenes in the middle of crowds. She has no dialogue however.
  • Cozy Glow is seen exiting the School of Friendship in "The Hearth's Warming Club", after Twilight Sparkle dismisses everyone for holiday break.
  • In "Friendship University", Cozy Flow brings the mail (which consisted of sewing machines and flyers for Friendship U) to Twilight Sparkle and Rarity at the School of Friendship. She also appears at the end of the episode, delivering more sewing machines.
  • In "Road to Friendship", Cozy Glow is part of the line of ponies waiting for Starlight Glimmer's guidance counseling.
  • In "A Rockhoof and a Hard Place", Cozy Glow is seen in the crowd of ponies when Twilight Sparkle tells the students about Rockhoof joining the staff at the School of Friendship.

After several minor appearances, Cozy Glow gains another main role in the episode "What Lies Beneath". While the Young 6 (Sandbar, Gallus, Smolder, Ocellus, Yona and Silverstream) cram in studying for a big test about the Tree of Harmony, Cozy Glow tells them that she finds it interesting that they're all trying to learn about friendship, even though they are all different species and aren't familiar with it. Cozy then leaves to get notes to help the group study, but while she's gone, the group get into an unexpected adventure underground where they're all tested by the Tree of Harmony itself. When they get back, Cozy Glow apologizes and tells them she was jealous because they were all getting along so well. Cozy Glow felt left out, and she worries that her actions will get her expelled. Cozy Glow begs the Young 6 to not tell anypony about this. The good news is that they agree, but they're very tired after what happened and they go to sleep. Cozy Glow then offers to tell Twilight Sparkle that they helped Cozy with organizing books, thus giving them an extension for their test. Before the episode ends however, Cozy looks into the grate leading underground where the Young 6 were, smiling. This serves as an indication of something very evil... oooooh!

Cozy Glow sure knows how to rally everyone together. That's honestly impressive considering how young she is!

We've reached to the two-part season 8 finale - "School Raze"! And it's heavily foxused on Cozy Glow!

In part one, Cozy Glow (who is now Twilight Sparkle's friendship assistant) performs various kind deeds as she enters the school and makes her way to Twilight Sparkle's office, like catching the dropped mail of Muffins and helping a new filly with finding her class. She also informs Twilight that Rainbow Dash has taken the students on a field trip to Cloudsdale to cover for her, but during the trip Starlight Glimmer's magic suddenly ceases, almost causing a disaster. The magic of Twilight Sparkle and Rarity is also acting up, so something is clearly wrong. The Mane 6, Starlight Glimmer and Princess Cadance are summoned to Canterlot, where they and the Princesses discover that magic is being drained from all of Equestria, and it will completely vanish in three days. Everyone also believes that Lord Tirek is responsible for draining the magic, despite him being trapped in Tartarus.

The Mane 6 and Spike decide to visit Tartarus to see if Tirek is indeed the problem. Before they go however, Cozy Glow prepares all of them sandwiches, but is disappointed upon realizing Starlight Glimmer is staying to run the School of Friendship. Her mood quickly brightens when she realizes she'll be her assistant, and eagerly wants to start working on Starlight's substitute headmare plans. Cozy Glow then informs all the students of the school about her being the new headmare instead of Starlight Glimmer, which everyone but the Young 6 believe, raising suspicion. Apparently, Starlight Glimmer had to go with the others to Tartarus and left behind a note for Cozy Glow, which is how she got to this position in the first place. Hm...

At night, other students happily talk about all the kind things Cozy Glow has been doing, such as giving out cupcakes and friendship bracelets. In the library, the Young 6 discuss their suspicion of Cozy, wondering if she's trying too hard or up to something. They then see her emerging from the vent where the underground area is, and the group secretly follow her outside the room. Cozy Glow travels to the main office, only to discover Chancellor Neighsay occupying the seat. He asks where Twilight Sparkle is, to which Cozy replies that she's off on a quest. Wanting to stop Twilight's follow from earlier in the season, Neighsay makes himself the head stallion of the facility. He wants to make the school only for ponies, believing the other kinds of creatures are responsible for the magic draining across Equestria. The Young 6 overhear the conversation and accidentally reveal themselves to the two, causing the chancellor to imprison them in a room in the school. Sandbar however pretends to agree with Neighsay, allowing him to become free.

Meanwhile in Tartarus, The Mane 6 and Spike confront Tirek, who tells them he has a pen pal, a protégé, who's been writing letters to Tirek on how to drain magic. It turns out that protégé is none other than Cozy Glow! Sandbar gets the help of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the four of them go down the library grate. They discover a horrific plot: Cozy Glow wants to drain all of the magic of Equestria by using 6 powerful artifacts. Once all the magic is gone, she'll become the Empress of Friendship. Oh, and she also trapped Starlight Glimmer in a magical barrier. Cozy Glow lied to everyone! Applejack isn't proud of ya, Cozy.

A crime so horrendous that Cozy's sent straight to Tartarus rather then Juvie.

Part 2 now! The first thing Cozy Glow has to do is to somehow get rid of Chancellor Neighsay. Despite her efforts, Neighsay doesn't budge and excuses her from his office. After the new head stallion tells the students that he will take over the school and make it follow EEA guidelines, Cozy Glow cleverly rallies the public against Neighsay by telling them about how Twilight Sparkle made a successful school by not following EEA guidelines AND that Princesses Celestia and Luna supported her goal. Cozy then straps him to a chair and throws away his medallion in the garbage. She also tells Neighsay that friendship is the mist powerful thing there is, and with Cozy Glow as headmare, nopony will have more friends than her, making her the most powerful pony in Equestria! That's very devious! I mean, I see... (drinks cocoa)

The Young are back together, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders distract Cozy Glow for long enough so they can free Chancellor so he can inform the princesses... even though the CMCs get locked in a closet by the troublesome filly. As the Young 6 figure out how to stop the magic from draining and free Starlight Glimmer, Cozy arrives with a large army of students, who're all believing her about the friends planning to destroy the school. After witnessing the Young 6 risking their lives to save Starlight and each other, the students realize Cozy Glow is the one who's wrong here. The Tree of Harmony saves the friends and gives them power, and they remove the artifacts and stop Cozy's plan. Additionally, all of the magic is restored, and Cozy Glow is apprehended for her crimes. She's imprisoned in Tartarus too - right next to Tirek! Right before the episode ends, Cozy asks if Tirek wants to be friends with her in an ominous way. Wow, Cozy Glow was one bad apple, eh? We haven't seen the last of her!

Season 9

“So let's increase our chances By working as a team To crush our enemies to dust And laugh as they all scream!”
—Cozy Glow, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic ("Frenemies" episode)

Moving on to season 9! Cozy Glow appears in the two-part premiere "The Beginning of the End". Now in Tartarus with Lord Tirek, Cozy Glow makes a best friends rock sculpture of the two of them and wants to make sure her new friend can see it. Suddenly, the two of them are whisked away by mysterious magic. They, along with Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra, have been brought to Grogar's lair deep underground. He brought all of these villains together for a plan to get rid of Twilight Sparkle and her friends once and for all. If they all work together instead of separately, they'll have much more potential and power. King Sombra disagrees however, and he sets out alone to conquer the Crystal Empire. Grogar advises the remaining three to prepare to work together. Cozy Glow thinks of it as making friends, something she's an "expert" at! Tirek and Chrysalis aren't enthused about it though.

That's... everything about Cozy Glow in part one. She isn't seen again until the end of part two, where she holds hands with Tirek and Queen Chrysalis, and also encourages them to say nice things about their species. Chrysalis hates the idea however. Grogar then tells the three about King Sombra's defeat, and commands them to work together. Right before the credits play, they all awkwardly laugh along with Grogar's evil laugh.

An alliance is formed! Well, for now at least.

The next time we see Cozy is "Frenemies"! Annoyed at the three because of them not getting along well, Grogar leaves the lair to concentrate, once again commanding the trio of villains to work together. While he's away, Cozy Glow hangs up an inspirational teamwork banner and schedules a team meeting (cupcakes included!) with Lord Tirek and Queen Chrysalis. She wants them to trust each other, which is pretty difficult to say the least. Cozy Glow even starts a song about being bad ("Better Way to be Bad"), although the three get into an argument at the end of it. Grogar returns during said argument and has a test for the villains - to retrieve his Bewitching Bell, a powerful artifact containing most of Grogar's magic. It's sealed away at an enchanted cave at the top of Mount Everhoof, protected by strong winds. And by the way - it's not as easy as it sounds.

Unsurprisingly, the three go their own ways to reach the top of Mount Everhoof. Cozy Flow however scales the snowy part of the mountain and comes across a guard named Rusty Bucket. Cozy Glow pretends to be an innocent lost filly and requests the guard to take her to the peak. Rusty Bucket refuses however, claiming it's his duty to prevent ponies from advancing towards danger. Cozy Glow befriends him, and once again tries to get him to help her up Mount Everhoof. Rusty Bucket however has a copy of the Journal of Friendship, which states that "real friends don't ask others to do something they arn't supposed to do". Angry, Cozy Glow yells her famous "ARE. YOU. KIDDING ME?!" line, nearly causing an avalanche. While leaving, she tells Rusty Bucket she didn't want to be friends with him anyway, making him sad.

In a short montage, Cozy Glow attempts to get up the mountain while Rusty Bucket watches her fail. After a pile of snow falls on her, Cozy Glow yells at Rusty Bucket in anger, which causes an avalanche to occur, resulting in the filly getting caught in a giant rolling snowball. Tirek has created a campfire at the base of Mount Everhoof, which is where a wet and cold Cozy Glow arrives afterwards. She gets into a fight with Tirek, where the two complain about each other. During the argument, a large snake/bull creature attacks them, but Queen Chrysalis rescues the two of them and drain it of its love. The three then laugh and bond over their accomplishments and make fun of Twilight Sparkle. They also realize that working together may not be so bad after all!

Using the power of teamwork (not friendship), the trio successfully reach the cave containing Grogar's Bewitching Bell. Unfortunately for them, a magical barrier protects the cave. It can't be absorbed by Tirek, so he has to absorb some of Queen Chrysalis's magic to break it open. Tirek is only able to create a small hole in it however, so Cozy Glow must get through and retrieve the bell. She's successful, and Tirek returns Chrysalis's magic to her. The trio realize that working together is great, but they almost succumbed to the power of friendship, something they don't want. They all agree to be Grogar's servants until they can betray him. When he's dealt with, they can go back to destroying each other. When they return to the lair, Grogar thinks they didn't retrieve his bell, but he doesn't realize they're hiding it...

Up next is "The Summer Sun Setback". Still unaware about the trio actually retrieving his Bewitching Bell, Grogar sets out to find another artifact of similar powerful magic. Cozy Glow, Queen Chrysalis and Lord Tirek decide to travel to the Archives in Canterlot, more specially the restricted area of it. Surely there'd be a solution on how to use the bell, right? Of course! Just one problem - everypony's preparing for the Summer Sun Celebration. This makes it practically impossible for the bad guys to get the information they need unnoticed. But they do have a plan!

Tirek absorbs the magic of the earth ponies to make them believe the food they made is a the cause of it, Cozy Glow offers to help a pegasus with the aggressive weather (by making lots of storms), and Queen Chrysalis disguises herself as a unicorn to get the firework unicorns to quit after telling them of their huge magical potential. With everypony distracted from the chaos, the villains get inside the castle and make their way to the archives. Once there, they find the book about the Bewitching Bell, protected by a chain. Cozy Glows breaks the chain with a key book, allowing the three to acquire it. Back at the lair, Grogar informs the trio about successfully locating a powerful artifact, which he will retrieve soon. Before he returns however, the group must study on how to use the Bewitching Bell to betray Grogar, and maybe get the ponies to turn on each other... what will happen next?

And here we are! The epic three-part finale of the show: the two-parter that is "The Ending of the End" and "The Last Problem"! First up is part one of "The Ending of the End". Queen Chrysalis spreads distrust between the earth ponies and unicorns, while Cozy Glow "freaks out" the unicorns. At the same time, Lord Tirek has read up on how to use the Bewitching Bell. Before Grogar returns, the three of them absorb all of the magic inside the bell, making them much stronger and transforming Cozy Glow into an Alicorn. When Grogar finally returns with a powerful artifact, the group betray him and Cozy Glow uses her newfound powers to destroy the artifact. Not only that, but Grogar's magic is drained from him into the Bewitching Bell, revealing him to be Discord in disguise all along. Now's the perfect time to ruin Twilight Sparkle's coronation!

Before making their move, Cozy Glow encourages Tirek and Chrysalis to get along one more time. Cozy Glow also volunteers to be the guinea pig for taking in Discord's recently absorbed magic. Can she control it? No she can't! The magic is too overwhelming and Cozy is forced to have it removed from her. The group set out to conquer Equestria: Tirek deals with the Pillars of Equestria, Chrysalis gets revenge on Starlight Glimmer, and Cozy Glow infiltrates the castle at Canterlot and attacks Twilight Sparkle and her friends. When Princesses Celestia and Luna attack with their magic, Cozy Glow uses the Bewitching Bell to drain the two of their magic, making them powerless. Despite their efforts, the Mane 6 are unable to defeat Cozy Glow, and her two allies arrive and destroy most of the castle. Twilight's friends stall the bad guys wile she escapes to think up a plan.

She may be a villain, but this is too harsh and cruel a punishment for somepony who's only a filly.

In part two, Twilight's friends are now imprisoned. Cozy Glow wants the magic of Celestia and Luna for herself, but Lord Tirek and Queen Chrysalis disapprove of Cozy's selfish actions and guess what? They get into another fight. Using his magic against him, Discord manages to free Starlight Glimmer, who frees all of the other prisoners with her magic. While the rest of the Mane 6 and Spike search for Twilight Sparkle, the rest of the former prisoners stay back to stall the villains.

Due to the distrust of the ponies caused by Queen Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, there are now windigos making everything cold, much to the dismay of Cozy. Before they're dealt with however, the group must deal with Twilight Sparkle and her friends. In an epic showdown, the heroes battle against the villains. Actually they want to obtain the Bewitching Bell, but they're outmatched due to the incredible power of the evildoers. Thankfully, an army of ponies and various creatures arrive just in time to save the heroes! Together, they use the power of friendship to remove the powers of Cozy Glow, Queen Chrysalis and Lord Tirek. Pinkie Pie then briefly absorbs Discord's chaos magic from the Bewitching Bell, causing a giant cupcake to fall on the bad guys. When all of the magic is returned to their rightful owners, the villains receive their punishment - petrified forever! This marks Cozy Glow's final physical appearance in the show.

In "The Last Problem", a stained glass window depicting the defeat of Cozy Glow, Queen Chrysalis, and Lord Tirek is present in Twilight Sparkle's castle in the future. Additionally, during a flashback of Twilight Sparkle preparing for her coronation, an image on a newspaper shows the villains turned to stone.

Mentions

  • Cozy Glow is mentioned in two different season 9 episodes, both of which feature no appearance of the character.
    • In "Uprooted", Yona mentions Cozy Glow indirectly when recalling the events of School Raze. "Friends save whole school from evil Pegasus!"
    • In "She's All Yak", A sad Yona tells Sandbar to name two ponies worse than her, to which he replies "Cozy Glow and Sombra".

Summary

“This is not the real me! I'm cute and lovable!”
—Cozy Glow, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

Sorry Cozy Glow. Unfortunately for you, this isn't fake news; everything in this section is evidence that proves you're evil. I guess you're still cute though... appearance-wise at least.

Well! Now you all know of the conniving filly that is Cozy Glow. A fitting pony for an issue all about villains.

Will there be any more pony analyses? Maybe! But for now, goodbye and thanks for reading!

LEGO Look

Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)

Hello there, 'Shroom readers! Welcome to LEGO Look, a one-off section (for now...) where I'll be examining a specific character's depictions as a LEGO minifigure over the years. I want to say right off the bat that this will not be a comprehensive discussion of every single minuscule change and set they've ever been in, because that would be a bit much and I want to keep this fun and simple! This will just be the broad highlights with the facts I find most interesting. Also, this will only cover physical minifigures, depictions in other LEGO media don't count. For the villains special, who better than one of my favorite villains and one of the most iconic film villains of all time, Darth Vader! Also, getting this out of the way now - technically speaking, any depiction of Anakin Skywalker after his fall to the dark side is technically Darth Vader, but I'll only be talking about depictions of him in the iconic suit here. That's how LEGO labels them, and more importantly, that's the way I like it, so that's what I'm doing.

The original 1999 minifigure

Darth Vader first appeared in 1999 in the first wave of LEGO Star Wars sets, specifically TIE Fighter & Y-wing. As you can see here, he's pretty plain by today's standards with a very simple torso and unprinted legs. Of course, a special piece had to be made for his helmet, which was one of two new minifigure pieces in the original lineup of four sets (the other being the Rebel pilot helmet). This design would largely carry Vader forward over the theme's first decade with minimal changes. The first tweak was in 2004 when LEGO updated some of their colors, so Vader's head was now produced in a slightly different shade of gray. His head print was adjusted the following year to remove his eyebrows and add additional scarring, presumably for consistency with the Return of the Jedi Special Edition which came out the year prior. By the way, 2002 marks the cheapest set Vader was ever in, Final Duel I, for a mere $7.

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The battle damaged version
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The 2008 minifigure, the first major revision of Darth Vader

The first variant of Darth Vader came in 2008, a battle damaged version from the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game. His mangled helmet here isn't a new piece, it's actually an underwater visor that had been in use since 1995 applied backwards! This year also introduced the biggest revision to Vader so far, giving him a much more detailed torso print and an updated head matching the Force Unleashed version. This version was introduced in the $400 Death Star, so I guess LEGO wanted to make sure customers were getting their bang for their buck. This design would once again carry him forward for a while with only one revision.

A few more variants came out too! A special chrome version was produced in 2009, marking the 10th anniversary of the theme. 10,000 minifigures were produced and randomly included in LEGO Star Wars sets, so if you have one, consider yourself lucky. There was also a version of crispy-fried Anakin wearing the Vader helmet, which counts I suppose, and a version of him wearing an Employee of the Month medal included with the direct-to-DVD LEGO Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Out.

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Santa Vader!
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The updated prints from 2014 and the new helmet from 2015

He was updated again in 2014 with another revision to his torso, and leg printing for the first time to complete the effect of his flowing robes! Trust me, in LEGO circles, leg printing is a big deal. These updates were carried over to the Santa Darth Vader minifigure included in that year's Star Wars advent calendar. Can I just say, I love these goofy figures they make? But an even bigger change was just on the horizon - in 2015, the original helmet piece was retired and replaced with two new pieces. Aside from looking much more accurate to the on-screen costume, this made it so that when the upper part of the helmet was removed, it matches the ending of Return of the Jedi when Luke takes off Vader's helmet. Also, his head was updated to now depict Sebastian Shaw (who played him in Jedi) for the first time, as up until this point the face print had always depicted Hayden Christensen (who played Anakin in the prequels) or been ambiguous. It makes a lot of sense considering these changes were introduced in the Death Star Final Duel set! These changes to Vader have been maintained since then, although Christensen's likeness is still appropriately used for sets based on Revenge of the Sith and Kenobi. This version of Darth Vader was used in the most expensive set to date, 2016's Death Star priced at a whopping $500 (albeit with the older paper cape replaced with a fabric one, a decision that LEGO continues to waffle on to this day).

I don't mean to go off-track with my own opinions here, but I have to say, it's kind of a shame to lose the aesthetic of the older parts. The new helmet certainly looks good, and you can't deny it's more accurate to the films. But to me, the original part with its shaping and proportions looks like what Darth Vader would wear if he was a LEGO minifigure, while the newer part is just a recreation of the costume sized down to LEGO scale. Everyone's preference differs on accuracy vs. stylization, and they're certainly not going back, so it's probably not worth dwelling over.

2016 also introduced a variant based on his more stylized appearance in Star Wars Rebels, appearing much closer to the costume design from A New Hope than other figures. In 2019, another variant was made with his suit removed from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and the original figure was reproduced for the 20th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars, featuring an appropriate logo on the back. As of now, this marks the last time the original helmet piece has been used in a set.

New printing and fancy arms

In a case of history repeating itself, the 2020 remake of the Death Star Final Duel updated Vader again! The most notable change is that he now has printed arms (again, in LEGO circles, arm printing is a big deal), and this, for the most part, brings us to the Darth Vader minifigure currently used in sets. His head was updated in 2023 to appear less friendly and be more appropriate outside of Return of the Jedi contexts, but aside from the aforementioned cape waffling, he maintains the same pieces from 2020 otherwise.

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Sweater Vader!
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Beach Vader!
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Jedi Vader!

And now to wrap this up with the last few variants, and get ready because they're all pretty silly. The advent calendars in 2020 and 2022 introduced Vader wearing a Death Star-themed Christmas sweater and in beach attire from the LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation special, respectively. Finally, 2024 introduced a Jedi version of him wearing white armor from the alternate universe seen in the LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy series. This design is especially interesting because it actually comes from a 2004 Star Wars Infinities comic depicting an alternate series of events from Return of the Jedi, so they really dug deep for that one!

So that's Darth Vader in LEGO. Will there be more of him? Yes, definitely.

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The 'Shroom: Issue 219
Staff sections Staff Notes • The 'Shroom Spotlight • Poochy's Picks • Credits
Features Fake News • Fun Stuff • Palette Swap • Pipe Plaza • Critic Corner • Strategy Wing
Specials Community Awards Dossier • Classifieds • My Switch 2 Unboxing
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