Toy Review - Kre-O Wave 1

[STL]

Great pics and review KP.

I'm definitely not interested in these now.

[jena]

Here's some pictures of the ones I have picked up so far. I originally just bought basic Optimus and I had no plans to buy any other the other characters. I loved building Optimus so much that I went to Target the next day and picked up basic Bumblebee and Jazz. Then yesterday, I found myself back at Target purchasing Prowl. They're addictive little creations. I love the process of building them, although I have only built them all in robot mode so far and with how difficult the smaller pieces are to pull apart, they'll probably stay in robot mode.

Pros:

• Fun to build
• Relatively easy to build (my 60 y/o mum built most of Prowl!)
• Great quality plastic (pretty close to Lego imo)
• Look great displayed
• Mini figures are awesome

Cons:

• Too flimsy to handle much play action
• Stickers aren't terribly sticky and the colours don't match (see Bumblebee)
• Heads could have more detail (sharper details)
• The design of the hands in smaller sets is awful

The proportion is a little off too, Optimus is too skinny, Prowl's arms and legs are too long for his body and his head is too small. Bumblebee has great proportion.

Despite the negatives, these are still awesome. I will definitely invest in another set or two during Target's 20% sale. Although I don't see myself investing in the large Optimus set, that just looks annoying and I already bought the SDCC mini figure off eBay.






You can see the stickers starting to peel up where they're meant to be folded over the edge.

[griffin]

I finished all 12 in vehicle mode last night... now to do them all in robot mode.

When I did Megatron, I was wondering why it had a turning trailer hitch on the back, thinking that maybe they were originally planning to have it released with a trailer. After doing Optimus though, I found that since it has the same trailer hitch on the back, I can hook up Prime's trailer to Megatron. Both Trucks are about the same size, and since the trailer is mostly grey like Megatron, it almost suits Megatron more.

Looking at Killinspoon's pics, I'm surprised that Ratchet didn't have any left-over pieces in robot mode (it's the only one I've done in robot mode, so didn't know what the others were like). I thought that maybe the robot mode of each would use up all the parts, or at least only leave one or two parts... but Jazz seemed to have a lot of parts left over.

And yes, I was worried too when I saw the colour swirls in the silver parts... it made me think of the GPS, so was extra careful just in case.

My warning still stands: the big Optimus set is a bitch, and even when completed, doesn't like to stay together (that damn trailer). But it's not a huge deal, as I only bought them all initially for the mini-figures anyway.

I didn't have too much of a problem with the trailer on mine. It does feel like it is very fragile, but was able to carefully put it together, and hook it up to both Optimus and Megatron.

With Jazz, all the stickers are applied except for one remaining on the sticker sheet

Does anyone have any idea what that is for?

Megatron and Jazz each had a left-over sticker... maybe the stickers were designed early for the prototypes, and never redone when the the altered final version went into production. Similar to Ratchet having an extra piece that isn't required (it's even on the parts listing).
That reminds me, Sentinel Prime has the 'license plate' name sticker like the others, but doesn't have anywhere for it, as if it was forgotten or was removed from the final version.

If this concept is to continue or expand beyond Transformers, Hasbro have to do more product testing of these, with regular people or even fans, who would know when something isn't right with the finished product.

[jena]

That reminds me, Sentinel Prime has the 'license plate' name sticker like the others, but doesn't have anywhere for it, as if it was forgotten or was removed from the final version.

I was annoyed that Jazz doesn't use his name plate thing in robot mode, but I stuck it on anyway. I also stuck some of the left over window pieces to his back behind the doors for extra detail.

Random note: Prowl just fell off my shelf and stayed in one piece. They're sturdier than I thought.

[kaiden]

wow those robot modes look horrible.

[jena]

I just pulled Jazz apart and rebuilt him in 'race car' mode and I feel like I just lost the whole point of these toys. I feel like I could have just as easily spent my money on a Lego car if I wanted to build a car. I could be alone in feeling this way, but I'm going to rebuild him back in his robot mode as soon as I can be bothered pulling apart all those bricks again - even if the robot mode isn't amazing, at least it looks like a Transformer.

[Mr Ed]

One more hint guys, these stickers are not LEGO quality.

You cant unpeel them without causing damage.

I learnt the hard way with Jazz's flared guards and Prowl's front grille.

I wonder if I call HASBRO whether they can replace them.

I know LEGO does!

[jena]

Here's some more pictures... Jazz and basic Optimus in their vehicle modes. Basic Optimus is very clever in the ways the ball jointed parts are used in truck mode, I was kinda impressed.







This last picture is just for laughs... I tossed the kreons aside for the photos and this is how they landed... looks like even the autobots hate the other kreon figures!

[Cat]

My large Optimus came with BLACK stickers for the blue pieces. They're clearly black.

Some people are reporting getting correct blue ones, so keep an eye out, and try and make sure you do get the blue ones.

As for Prowl, you can make him look a lot better IMO by moving his wheels to his biceps, ala G1 etc. I also moved the lights higher on his arms.

Excuse the poor quality pic, I don't know where I've put my darn camera.

Here's what I mean:

[liegeprime]

saw a couple of these at Target and TRU today... almost bought 1, but Im really only interested in the Kreons figures so I passed... Ill just get some from ebay