Toy Review - Kre-O Micro-Changers Preview Wave

[griffin]

(Please post photos, comments or even a fully comprehensive review - these are just some brief details to get you started)

Series - Kre-O
Sub-line - Kreon Micro-Changers
Size/class - (Micro Changer)
Wave - 0 (Preview)
Released here - not yet (globally August 2012)
Approximate Retail Price - ? (US$3)
Approximate Size - 4cm
Main Features/Gimmicks - can build two modes

Spinister (21451 7) - Helicopter/Robot
Galvatron (21451 8) - Cannon/Robot
Sunstorm (21451 9) - Jet/Robot
Crankstart (21451 0) - Truck/Robot
Scorponok (21451 1) - Scorpion/Robot
Waspinator (21451 2) - Wasp/Robot

Spinister
New/remould/redeco - New
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Helicopter
Main Colours - Dark blue, purple, black
Main Accessories - gun, cannon

Galvatron
New/remould/redeco - New
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Cannon
Main Colours - purple, grey, orange
Main Accessories - arm-cannon

Sunstorm
New/remould/redeco - New
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Jet
Main Colours - yellow, orange, white
Main Accessories - cannon, 2 x arm guns

Crankstart
New/remould/redeco - New
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Truck
Main Colours -Yellow, grey, black
Main Accessories - gun

Scorponok
New/remould/redeco - New
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Scorponok
Main Colours - Green, grey, purple
Main Accessories - none

Waspinator
New/remould/redeco - New
Allegiance - Decepticon
Alt-mode - Wasp
Main Colours - Dark green, yellow, black
Main Accessories - gun



(official images of the other three haven't been released yet, and will be added if/when they are)

[griffin]

I ordered a set from BBTS, to be sure I get these in case they aren't released in Australia, so ended up with a lot of extras to sell/giveaway.

I sorted them in their "code" numbers, and opened one of each pack to verify that the code numbers matched up to what they were supposed to.
I found that the box of 32 had 6 of Spinister, Sunstorm, Scorponok and Waspinator, while only having 4 of Galvatron and Crankstart.
Hasbro must have a thing for even numbers because it would have been better to have 5 of each and two extras, instead of leaving us with only 4
sets and 8 extras. I can understand short-packing Crankstart, especially since it doesn't look like Gen1 Crankcase (if it is meant to be Crankcase).
Actually, Galvatron is the most significant character of the six, so why would that one be short-packed?
Seems a bit stupid to me.

Alt-modes, which mostly suck...

More of a "squint to see what it is meant to be".
Waspinator looks best in that picture, but side on it isn't too good. Sunstorm from the top looks okay as well.
Crankstart is the only one that uses up all parts in alt-mode. Actually, Spinister was supposed to as well, but the placement of the gun on the
instructions had it sticking out at an odd position.
On the instructions for Scorponok, it has one part on the tail drawn as being the wrong way around. It doesn't do anything to the alt-mode
though, because the part can be either direction to make the hinge.

In Robot mode.

I started building them from the left (Spinister, Galvatron, Sunstorm), and was thinking that they had managed to design these in a way that they
didn't have any pieces left over in robot mode (a bit like the big build sets that have very few left over bits when building the robot modes).
But as you can see, the other three have several bits left over.

From the side, to show the kibble...

The Crankstart instructions had two of those pieces attached (chest piece and the clear piece), but it covered up half the face, so I left it off... and
it looks better with the painted chest showing anyway.

Actually, that's one of my biggest peeves of the Kreons (not just with these ones - but these have more parts to make this occur more often) - chest
parts (to attach kibble to) that end up covering up the painted chest (which has the Gen1 robot details on it).
This is what I mean...

Five of the six were meant to have chest pieces on them, so I removed the other four (to show what is now wasted paint apps), and put on
Crankstart's to show how the face is half covered up if you go by the instructions.
I want to point out though, that the CG image of Crankstart on the cover of the instructions (you can see it three pics above) has a black chest.
The other CG images have all the other characters with their chest-pieces (except Sunstorm of course), but Crankstart does not, so perhaps the
instructions wasn't meant to have it either.

The helmet on Waspinator goes down too far on the face, covering up the over-sized bug-eyes completely.

Word of warning - just like with the Stealth Bumblebee set (in Series Two), you need to sand down the wrists of Scorponok, as they are two big to fit
into the two grey cylinder, causing stress marks if you do.

All the Kreons I now have (still missing the small two sets from Series Two though).

[Deonasis]

Griffin, i thought Ironhide was only recently part of a devastator set? Did you buy it before it was more widely available?

About the Kreons, just looking at griffin's images I like the first series better without the "transforming" aspect. I think they have far better chest paint and accessories.

[griffin]

Nah, the regular Devastator set comes with Ironhide (6 Kreons in the set - with Devastator and 4 construction workers)... The TRU exclusive Devastator set has 7 Kreons, but the extra Kreon is a driver for the Ironhide build-figure.

The bigger set needed extra Cybertronian Kreons (like in the first series sets), so adding in Ironhide was probably an intentional choice (not just a random character choice like in other big sets) as it would then be in the Exclusive set to match up with the Ironhide build-set.

The non-convertible Kreons are indeed better looking (Sunstorm is probably the best one though), but I think I might strip them down of their unnecessary kibble and chest-plates, as they look a lot better that way.

[UltraMarginal]

I'm interested in these but I can see them being between $6 and $10 here, which I just can't justify, if they were $2 to $4 each I'd be much more likely to pick them all up. I didn't start buying the first series of sets till they started going on clearance, simply because I couldn't justify the price before then. I realise that Kreo is fairly well priced next to lego, but I think Lego is ridiculously expensive. With a limited budget for collecting it's necessary to pick and choose sometimes.

I agree with the comments above in so much as there is definitely a different aesthetic between the changing and non-changing Kreons. I like the extra kibble on some though, makes it look more like a transformer and less like a lego mini figure.

I'm surprised how good Galvatron looks from the top down. I think he'll be my priority, though I'll probably be thinking about Sunstorm so I can eventually have a full squadron of decepticon jets.

[i_amtrunks]

I was really looking forward to these, for the robot modes but alas Hasbro QC strikes again!

Why you would make it so that the detailed chest pieces are covered by mostly terrible chest armour that is mostly used to hold some of the leftover alt mode kibble. On top of that, as Griffin mentioned, Scorponok needs his arms sanded to get his hands on, and half of the Kreons (in my case, Waspinator, Galvatron and Spinister) had stress marks on their wrists straight out of the polybags. Scorponoks arms have a tendency to fall off without much provocation and again as Griffin mentioned, Waspinator and Scorponoks helmets are too long, Spinisters too short.

I've taken all but the essential (for the character) kibble off mine so the can keep the chest armour off. Sunstorm and Galvatron really benefit from this the most.

Overall, pick and choose what you want. Sunstorm and galvatron are my picks, I want to like Scorponok and Waspinator more, but their QC issues really limit their effectiveness.

[Trent]

Picked these up the other day at target. Thought they'd make a nice little display on my work desk.

[Bidoofdude]

Picked up Galvatron from target for $4 (pretty good for what you're getting) and I am quite impressed, although he is 100 times better without the chestplate.
I might get Sunstorm too, since he looks alright.
They're not perfect, but they fit as nice little display pieces, that look awesome in groups. The alt modes aren't too flash but then again, who here can honestly say that they're going to display them in alt mode. (not counting doubles)
They get a tick in my book. I honestly might start collecting these kreons.

[GoktimusPrime]

Did anyone else have a helluva time trying to shove Scorponok's forearms in?!? Mine ended up with several stress marks on the plastic as a result. :/

[i_amtrunks]

Did anyone else have a helluva time trying to shove Scorponok's forearms in?!? Mine ended up with several stress marks on the plastic as a result. :/

Once I tried with reasonable force I gave up. I figure I'll have to do what Griffin did and sand them down. Not good quality control.