Toy Review - Kre-O Wave 1

[5FDP]

I like these but would only buy the Kreon's if sold separately.

The size of Starscream with assorted other figures:

Your idea of a few 'assorted figures' would be considered a collection by most

[Decepticon]

Thank god I dislike these Kreo things! I am saving money for 'REAL' Transformers! Though I must say, if the Kreons/minifigs were sold separately, Id buy those.

[jena]

I just assembled my small Optimus in robot mode (not really interested in truck mode) and it was an enjoyable experience. The textless instructions aren't complicated but they weren't confusing like IKEA instructions either. I'm happy with the final result, although he's a little top heavy. He's a good height, taller than DOTM deluxe Optimus but not by much. I wasn't planning on getting any other sets, but after seeing the quality (easily on par with Lego, to me at least) I'm definitely thinking of grabbing some of the others. I hope Target have a sale soon.

[griffin]

Managed to get a few more done, while watching some DVDs in the last few days.

Megatron (at Demonac's suggestion), small Optimus, small Bumblebee (to see how quick the small ones are), Big Bumblebee (to see how it compares to the small one) and I decided to redo Ratchet into vehicle mode.



Plus, I decided to do all the Kreons as well, for a group photo:



Ratchet is the only one I've done in robot mode, and in both modes so far, and I found that the Robot mode used up every piece, while the vehicle mode had about 20 pieces left.... so maybe they design the robot mode first, and then work out a vehicle mode that uses up as many pieces possible from that robot mode.
But it might take some time to test that theory with the other sets, as I'm working through them all in vehicle mode first, and they are taking 1-3 hours each. (so unless I get some volunteers to speed up the process, it might be a few weeks before that happens).


A few more things I've found to comment or criticise...
- The sticker sheets are loose inside the boxes, so can be easily crushed (my Starscream sticker sheet was a crumpled mess). Even the instruction book inside my Sentinel box was all messed up in transit.
- While on the topic of stickers, some don't match the size or shape in the instructions, so ones like Starscream (the wing stripes and nose stickers) and Ratchet's roof stickers are either way too small, a little too big or not the right shape. And Megatron has an extra sticker on the sheet that doesn't go anywhere.
- I ended up finding out that the extra piece for Ratchet's Robot mode that I mentioned in the first post is not even required for either mode. When it was one of the pieces left behind in the Vehicle mode, I looked through the instructions and noticed that it wasn't needed... and yet, it was included on the page of parts. More evidence perhaps that these undocumented parts and unnecessary pieces are carried over from an earlier prototype. And there were a couple of parts in Megatron and Bumblebee that were not the same 'colour' plastic as in the instructions (Megatron had a black piece left but required a grey one, and Bumblebee needed 2 solid yellow pieces near the end but only had translucent ones) and I rechecked the instructions but didn't mess anything up.
- When doing up all the Kreons, I found two more with wrong size helmets that ended having the eyes too high or too low. Shockwave's arms were already assembled, but with the hand on the right instead of the left. Skywarp is the only one with shiny 'metallic' deco on it for some bizarre reason. And Thundercracker is such a dark blue, I thought it was Skywarp at first, until I did Skywarp later.
- The missile launcher on the big Bumblebee looks stupid and out of place (and I can't think of any Bumblebee toys with a missile launcher in car mode like that).
- The end of the Ratchet Vehicle instructions show the top of the driver-cab section being lifted off, which I'm assuming was meant to show a Kreon going inside, but there is no wording or any visual explanation as to why that last step is there.
- I was surprised to find that the two doors for Megatron's set were both still on their tree, so I had to cut them out. Not sure if this is standard, but it seemed a little strange (and lazy).
- I found it takes almost as long to pull apart a figure, as it does to put them together. I didn't want to damage the blocks, but I ended up having to use a carton cutter (has a thin blade) to separate every single part before starting the construction of Ratchet's Vehicle mode.
- The big Optimus has 2 big books of instructions for the two modes... that'll take up a whole day, building one mode, pulling it all apart piece by piece, and building the other mode.


I'm still not ready to rate these yet, or know if to recommend them yet either... maybe someone who is more experienced with Lego can post up some impressions on how well or bad Hasbro have done on this latest version of Transformers 'Lego' compared to 'the real thing'.

[i_amtrunks]

I only have Mirage made (Ratchet and Prowl in transit), but after making both modes in about 35 minutes I must say so far so good, if the other sets are similar in quality.

The plastic quality is good, far superior to any lego competitor I've ever messed around with, but still not the same quality as the real deal, you won't get the two confused with each other.

The designs are clever without being intricate, and as Bossbot said, there are steps where you are using smaller blocks to make larger ones just to use up blocks from the other mode, its clever and in a way neccessary to limit loss of pieces. The car mode was nicely down and instantly recognisable as Mirage, while the robot mode was plainer, it makes up for it with the sheer size and the clever use of the car mode features.
If the designers can continue to improve their designs and integration of pieces as they gain more experience with the medium, we should have some fantastically intricate and poseable figures in years to come.

It is obvious that Hasbro have taken all the things that work from lego, the instructions are similar but use a slightly worse angle.

There are some negatives:
- The stickers are far smaller than the instructions indicate, and will fall off easily. Perhaps a new market for reprolabels?
- The minifigure accessories do not fit correctly. Mirage's driver figure helmet does not go down far enough on the head. It is lazy and does not reflect well on the product that an easy to notice (and potentially fix) error like this was not rectified.
- the price. Not so much for the smaller sets, but the larger ones do not represent value for money.

The poseability due to specialised ball jointed pieces gives the kre-os an edge that will be interesting to see if Lego try to compete with, or ignore.

I only have Mirage, so I won't give a comment about the overall wave, but I am very impressed and happy with Mirage's design and construction, and if he is an indicator of the line, then these will be worth ordering from overseas where the prices (including shipping) make them only marginally more than half of the retail price here in Australia.

I do not recommend purchasing them if you are scared of developing a lego addiction, these things are a gateway product!

[KillinSpoon]

ball jointed pieces gives the kre-os an edge that will be interesting to see if Lego try to compete with, or ignore.

Bionicle and Hero Factory.
They're essentially ball joints on ball joints. (GP, Arcee and I were discussing this yesterday haha)

[Decepticon]

These ball joints are the things that turn me off these Kre-o things. Look soo cheap an nasty.

[Sutton]

As a big Lego fan/collector, I think the vehicle modes on most of these things are very basic and ugly - way too many studs showing and not even close to the quality of vehicles Lego has been producing recently. Hell, even Megabloks did a great job on the Halo series compared to these.

If this series was going to forgo transformations, then it really needed to make sure that both builds were really solid. I don't think they've achieved that on most of the models.

The large Optimus is the exception to this, the truck looks really nice (despite the fragility of the trailer), and the robot mode is pretty well proportioned. The shoulders in particular look right, as opposed to every other Kreo robot where for some reason the arms look like they're poking out of the robot's lower ribcage.

Mirage is fairly successful at what he does too, some hands would be nice but overall not too munted.

The mini Prime and Bee deserve special mention for achieving a lot with a little. The smaller scale makes the vehicles more forgivable and the robot modes are surprisingly decent. They're worth collecting by us AFOLs for the nice head sculpts alone, so we can get to work on some proper well designed (transformable!) designs...

[Sutton]

Meanwhile, there's plenty of fans showing Hasbro how it should be done...


Wheeljack
http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/207314

Prime
http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/223339

Smokescreen
http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/283457

Devs (not really transformable but still very nice...)
http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/194587


There's plenty more good stuff out there...why didn't Hasbro hire these guys?

[Stompy]

Oh WOW. Those are some neat MOCS Sutton. Totally doable as actual sets, not too complex or full of specialized parts. Awesome!

So I finally made Jazz into car mode. The build was ok and the finished product is too plump and bubbly to be taken seriously. The actual build engineering is pretty average compared to contemporary Lego cars, especially the creator sets, but it's ok. Overall pretty disappointing kit for both robot and car mode. I'd have liked it more in white, and would have hidden many of its ugly features. Just look at Prowl.

Anyhoo I decided to make Junker Jazz with the remaining parts...



Hehe.