Toy Review - Kre-O Wave 1

[jena]

Darn it griffin, your picture had made me want the big OP now, it looks so nice. I hope my Target has the big Bee tomorrow, they didn't last week.

[bowspearer]

Just picked up Jazz tonight from K-Mart. Honestly have mixed feelings about him. The Kreons first off are really adorable, and the Kreon Driver's racing helmet fits perfectly. To top it off, they actually scuplted his photon rifile at that shrunken down scale. Very nice indeed.

Big Jazz though is a letdown and then some.

Hearing all the hype, I was expecting massive improvements over the old BTR series and boy was i disappointed. I counted 12 pieces left over in both modes, the stickers are horrible quality (to the point where I ruined the roof racing stripe trying to get it off the roof), and the final product in both modes is an horrendous step backwards.

First off, car mode. The top half of the sides of the car has a massive gap, and not in the neatly aligned "windows down" type of gap you get on a lego car. This thing has the windshield piece overlapping half over the doors. Then there are the doors themselves. Unlike Lego where the doors have a complete gap between them and the roof, there is a bracing bar over the top of each one, completely limiting access to the cab of the car when the doors are opened.

With this engineering flaw, you would think the instructions would mention putting the driver in just before the doors go on- especially as the ball jointed hips make the figure far harder to put into the car than a Lego figure.

Besides that, the thing looks rushed in the design stakes, with it looking far more like a jalopy with bits jutting out than a sleek racing car.

Robot mode is for the most part decent, however if I wanted something with such horrible arm and shoulder articulation (especially the shoulder articulation), I'd have gotten myself a Powerdasher.

If I was to give it a recommendation, it would be to get it only for the Kreons.

The actual kit is a major disappointment.

Is he just the bad one out of the lot, are they all generally this bad?

[bowspearer]

Turns out that the instructions neglected to include ways to use up 7 of the extra parts. The 2 smooth silver pieces can go over the mirrors, the windshields can go behind the head, the steering wheel can fit in the gap behind the car roof, and Jazz' licence plate can go on crotch. That leaves 5 parts not including the spare Kreo helmet.

[Hursticon]

Wow!

There are some stunning reviews already guys, KillingSpoon; top bloody job mate oh and with this:

You're probably wondering what happened to these guys.
Well, I didn't like them so I decided to melt them.
I actually recorded it and have uploaded it to youtube just to entertain and annoy some people.

Many obscenities were uttered...

I bought Sideswipe from my local TRU as I thought for his price, size, character and the fact that he reminded me of the Main Car from Carmageddon 2:

He was worth my first Kreo purchase.


I've got to say that after a very long time since I last messed with Lego, or building blocks in general, I thoroughly enjoyed building this kit in both modes; I've got to admit though, I do like the Alt-Mode more but Bot-Mode is cool... for something that is Lego/Brick based.

So here is a pair of pictures of Sideswipe in Bot-Mode:

I did however make some alterations:

• To the lower leg segments, as the instructions required the construction of something that would never bare the weight of a Robot on top of them but also as they looked majory stupid.
• I also added some left overs to his back as I felt he was way too unbalanced 'mass-wise' with his upper torso.

Here are a pair of pics focusing on the alterations I've made to Bot-Mode:

Sideswipe's Alt-Mode though is absolutely awesome and I subsequently took a number of photos of this mode:

Overall, I'm very pleased with this set and am now very much looking forward to picking up a couple more.
I think these sets are going to be an excellent medium for those who may of wanted to get into Lego but didn't like what they had to offer, but also for Transformers fans who have an itching creative bug but don't necessarily have the skills to do customs or full-blown model kits.
I also highly recommend Kreo Sideswipe, his Alt-Mode is totally Killer!

[Sutton]

Wow!

There are some stunning reviews already guys, KillingSpoon; top bloody job mate oh and with this:



Many obscenities were uttered...

I bought Sideswipe from my local TRU as I thought for his price, size, character and the fact that he reminded me of the Main Car from Carmageddon 2:

He was worth my first Kreo purchase.


I've got to say that after a very long time since I last messed with Lego, or building blocks in general, I thoroughly enjoyed building this kit in both modes; I've got to admit though, I do like the Alt-Mode more but Bot-Mode is cool... for something that is Lego/Brick based.

So here is a pair of pictures of Sideswipe in Bot-Mode:

I did however make some alterations:

• To the lower leg segments, as the instructions required the construction of something that would never bare the weight of a Robot on top of them but also as they looked majory stupid.
• I also added some left overs to his back as I felt he was way too unbalanced 'mass-wise' with his upper torso.

Here are a pair of pics focusing on the alterations I've made to Bot-Mode:

Sideswipe's Alt-Mode though is absolutely awesome and I subsequently took a number of photos of this mode:

Overall, I'm very pleased with this set and am now very much looking forward to picking up a couple more.
I think these sets are going to be an excellent medium for those who may of wanted to get into Lego but didn't like what they had to offer, but also for Transformers fans who have an itching creative bug but don't necessarily have the skills to do customs or full-blown model kits.
I also highly recommend Kreo Sideswipe, his Alt-Mode is totally Killer!

It's really strange that the instructions and box art for Sideswipe show the legs in that retarded 'sideways' config (I don't honestly know what to call that) when the promo shots show it more like you've got it. There's inconsistencies like that all through this first run that make me feel like these have been really rushed out to market for some reason - not sure what the big hurry was.

Still, I'm warming to them more now that I've looked at the instructions on line a bit closer - big Bumblebee and Big Prime are on my 'get' list for sure, and Sideswipe's a maybe. The problems I have with either the alt-mode or bot modes in those sets can be fixed because, hey, it's LEGO.

Prowl's car mode is solid but that robot mode needs a complete overhaul - what is with those shoulders?

[griffin]

Just made up Prowl in robot mode, and it is soooo different to the official product image. The arms, torso and legs are all completely different... it's like I built a completely different figure with just the same colours and robot head.

Both versions look too anorexic though... it needs more bulking out in the torso.


As to what some others are saying - I am preferring to use up left over pieces on the robot modes if I can, not only to bulk them out a bit, but to have less left over that should have been included.

[Sutton]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYQn17r263k

A much better looking robot mode for Starscream...

Hasbro needs to fire the guys who designed some of these things...

[jena]

I built my Kre-O Optimus Prime yesterday/last night and in total it ended up taking me around 4 hours to build. I did spend a bunch of time at the beginning organising all the pieces into piles of the same sizes and colours so it would be easier to find what I needed. I kept a lot of the smaller pieces in their bags rather than tipping them all out into the box. I suppose this is common practice for seasoned Lego veterans - either way, I recommend doing it to save yourself time and frustration later.

The truck itself is nice and heavy and feels really, really solid, except for the sleeper part of the cab which is meant to come off anyway because it doubles as a little command station or something. It's weird. The instructions were fine, though one annoying thing I noticed is that the image of the side mirrors changed from being rectangular to more circular pieces which would have been so much nicer than the rectangles that you actually get.

The truck and trailer are huge when made up, I've included a size comparison picture with Stealth Force Optimus Prime because they're very close in size. I just feel as though Prime's Kre-O trailer is too short. It's certainly not like the trucks I see driving around here. The trailer also can't stand on it's own, some kind of stand for it would have been a nice addition, particular since it folds open. I have read that a few people find the trailer flimsy. I honestly have to disagree. I made sure I connected all the pieces nice and tight while building it and I think it really is quite sturdy. I must add, I'm really glad the stripes and Autobot logo are painted on the plastic because they would look awful as stickers and be a total pain in the neck to apply.

Speaking of the stickers - they're kinda sucky. In the picture, the Autobot logo on the bonnet is split in half across the two pieces but in reality, it's just a whole sticker. I haven't applied any stickers yet but I am thinking of carefully cutting the sticker in half with a craft knife so I can apply it to each half in the way it is shown in the promo images.

The Kreons are cool. The drivers are lame but we know that already. Skywarp has some awesome metallic detail on the feet which is badass. They're great little figures. That's common knowledge now.

I found the build enjoyable even if it did take forever. Optimus looks awesome in vehicle mode but I don't see myself pulling him apart any time soon to build him in robot mode. If I had money to burn I'd buy a second set so I could keep one in truck mode and build the other in robot mode but I can't justify another $99 just for that. They'd certainly look brilliant together.

So is it worth $99? Heck yes! I got so much enjoyment out of building it and it feels far more rewarding than getting a regular Transformer and just transforming it because you actually build these yourself. You start with bags of bricks and you end up with something you've built with your own hands and I just really like that. I think I've had more fun with this than any of my other recent TF purchases. It's fun to get others involved too, like I mentioned previously, my mum and I built Prowl together and she wants to help me build Bumblebee. It's just cool like that. I'm really very happy with my Kre-O Optimus Prime. It looks really great. And from a distance when looking at it displayed on my shelf, it doesn't even look like bricks.


How it looks when you first open the box. The instruction books are huge (you can kinda see them under the bags of bricks).


The remaining pieces. There really isn't many, most are meant for the other modes - the head and hands and the cones for the base station mode.




Kre-O Optimus Prime VS Stealth Force Optimus Prime

[SkyWarp91]

Damnit Hursticon, you've convinced me to get all of them now...

[Decepticon]

God they are hideous things!! Hasbro! please invest in REAL TFs!!!