Hey, these actually have quite some character and readability considering they're only some 5 or 6 pixels high. I'd love to see these in a game actually, something along the lines of a platformer with graphics in the vein of Swords & Sorcery.
Not all of the colors seem to agree with the color of the forum background, but that's just the color of the forum background, of course. It could very well read against a different-color.
Simplicity is spot-on.
The sprite would actually benefit from being flat at this size. Too many colors, and it'll start to look like some sort of blob.
Boring? Right now, I think they're fine. Wouldn't hurt to see the contrast upped a bit, perhaps, though. But that really depends on the atmosphere you want to give off.