Kre-O Reviews by Scrapper6 (Now with Pictures)

[Scrapper6]

Leaving feedback on Transformers products can be kind of tricky, you never know what you're going to get. Discussing Kre-O however is easy and relatively safe, as it is a sub-line that not too many fans have even gotten into or reviewed as heavily as mainline stuff.

This thread will be dedicated to reviewing all of the Transformers Kre-O Building Sets, they will try to be as informative as possible while also maintaining some level of fun. Over on our sister site, Actionfigure.ca I will also post my reviews of the Kre-O Battleship line.

Let's get started.

Our first review (well second, but first in this thread.) will be the Kre-O set of Prowl.

Prowl is the Autobot's Tactician, his skills are well known by many fans as is his tendancy to be a pretty big stickler for logistics and stuff. Prowl is to Prime what Shockwave is to Megs.

In this Kre-O set you are given two Kreons, Prowl and a SWAT, just SWAT, no other name given on the box. And all the pieces to build Kre-O Prowl in vehicle or robot mode.

Here they are now in a group shot.


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The set consists of 174 pieces, typical retail price is around 20$ if I remember right, I got him on sale, but I'm pretty sure he was marked down from 19.99$

This set is of course one of the earlier sets from 2011, so last year's line of Kre-O sets. Which, unlike LEGO, are a hell of a lot easier to find. I mean a good chunk of last year's LEGO sets tends to dissapear as lines are cancelled or bought out and distribution stops. (Unless you're Star Wars.)

I gotta say the Kre-O brand is a high-end product, equal to LEGO in practically every way, the plastic does not feel cheap, the sets do tend to stay together once built and the Kreons (the answer to LEGO Mini-Figure) are highly detailed little buggers and more poseable than anything you'll find with LEGO.

That doesn't mean there aren't flaws, we are talking about a brand new type of building kit with different styles of plastic manufacturing, they're just learning the ropes. Last years sets are plagued with certain issues, that as time progresses continue to be a bit problematic for some fans.

While the bricks themselves are pretty much standard, the first group of sets suffered flaws with sticker design, which subsequent product waves fixed, the Kreons have issues with stress marks on the wrist sockets and hip joint areas, which can detract from the look of the figure, but if you're willing to ignore them can be accepted as learning curves.

Which are basically what they are.

This is not Hasbro's first foray into the world of building block kits, that right is relegated to Built to Rule, however Hasbro has definitely improved their game since then.

Compare Prowl's car mode here to any of the vehicle modes of the BTR stuff and you'll see a defnite and vast improvement.


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Prowl may look blocky *Snicker*, but his engineering is leaps ahead of the BTR stuff, which I never personally bought at the time. The vehicle is compact, fun, easily built using the step-by-step instructions in the set and features loads of playability as a vehicle.

He has opening and closing doors, real rubber tires for rolling, and stickers for details. Autobot Insignia, the police logos on the doors, even his license plate which says Prowl. (A bit cheesy perhaps, but it seems to be a stable of the Kre-O kits to include the characters name on one of the stickers.)

I don't personally drop my toys, so I can't be 100% sure on this, but I have to say this car holds together quite nicely. The vehicle modes are mostly pretty solid, out of all the Kre-O sets I own I'd have to say that many of them look better as vehicles than robots by a small margin.

Here's another shot from the front.


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While the kit evokes more of a classics Prowl vibe than the G1 Fairlady-Z... Or was that Datzun? I never could keep my models straight with the Diaclone based Autobot cars. It is still clearly Prowl.

Like all Kre-O sets the model isn't quite perfect though, in the fact that it tends to leave a few pieces out. Mostly parts necessary to build the robot mode. Joint pieces and things of that nature.

A clever Kre-O Constructionist however might try using those parts in different ways.


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Here's my Kreon Controlled Prowl Mech-Mode, SWAT is using it to deal with lowlife Decepticon punks. Isn't it fun looking? And as a bonus it has all the right joint types for articulated mech mode.

Speaking of the Kreons...


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SWAT is a human member of a police force, obviously, he has an impressive number of accessories, from a small pistol and radio, to a semi-automatic and ammo case (shown in the first picture I believe.) as well as a pair of handcuffs, which are fully functional (forgot to take a picture demonstrating this.) as well as two seperate head gears, a standard cap and a armored helmet dealie.

Not to mention this impressive looking sniper rifle.


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LEGO Introduced us all to realistic looking accessories, with fun playability, unfortunately they were all pretty uniform and didn't offer up much of a variety for their Police force, hell my old LEGO Cops used to run around with space blasters for guns until they started molding unique pieces.

Straight out of the gate Hasbro with their KRE-O brand name gives us an impressive array of accessories for the little Kreons, from a wide array of impressive military grade hardware to functional looking tools and other accessories for figures like Ratchet's Medic and Sentinel's Fire Chief.

There is only one issue I have with these accessories, the circumference of the pegs seems to be a bit on the larger side, they tend to snap in very satisfactorally into the Kreon's hands, but the thickness of the pegs makes the hands like to stress out. As evidenced by my Flesh toned Kreon's hands and even Ratchet has shown stress marks. (My oldest Kreon, Mirage, even has one hand snapped all because I kept popping the gun in and out of it just to hear that satisfying snap sound the accessory makes.)

This problem could easily be solved by making the hands a bit more flexible or the accessories handles/pegs not so thick, sure they might be looser in the grips of the Kreons, but they wouldn't stress them out so much during multiple play sessions and such.

Kreons make wonderfully detailed display pieces, I mean look at the paint job on SWAT, that is a very realistic looking detailed paint job for a SWAT uniform. They just don't make very good toys, at least when it comes to actually playing with them, by removing accessories and swapping things around. More's the pity as these things make you want to pick them up and play with them, moving their arms about, popping the helmets on and off, just all around fiddling with them to see what kinds of wacky poses you can get them into.

They are addictive and fun, but they do have a few minor flaws, and I do mean minor. If you're giving this set to a kid, eventually their Kreons are going to snap, even LEGO Mini-Figure hands eventually break during continuous play sessions. If you want these things as display pieces though, and you can resist their addictive, cute, fun nature, then you needn't worry.

Be mindful of the stressing issues, try not to let their weapons cause their hands to break if you're into diorama displays and above all, don't worry too much. Hasbro does seem to offer replacement parts for broken or lost items, at least in the US, I'm not sure on Canada.

It shouldn't be an issue though. We are adults right?

So then... On to Prowl's Kreon.


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Look at that little guy, isn't he cute? Again, impressively detailed, includeing the door wings, they even say Police on them. I guess the only thing I'd change on him would be to paint the door wings windows a different color to help differentiate them, also, for some really odd reason his feet have black metallic paint painted over the front.

I say odd because most Kreons do not have their feet painted anything. Barricade from the Cycle Chase set and Prowl here are the only ones so far(Cybertronian Wise) that seem to have this curious feature. Sure it adds a little detailing to break up the solid white of the feet, but it looks off next to the other Kreons.

One nice feature is that his door wing backpiece has a small hole situated directly in the center of it, which again I forgot to photograph. This hole can actually store his gun, either by design or by happy accident, so that he is one of the only Kreon Autobots with weapon storage capacity.



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Here we have the instructions, thick and impressively made booklets they get the job done. Some might consider them a bit too detailed, considering they give you so many pages with step-after-step of one piece at a time building.

It's just a different take on the LEGO Instruction Booklet idea. Some steps may be a bit confusing when first starting out, the instructions don't always make it clear where one of the pieces is meant to go, and if you're not an observant person by nature who can spot the difference quickly you may take a bit longer to build the models.

That isn't a slam against you, it's an honest observation. These instruction booklets were obviously designed by the cerbrally minded. They expect you to be highly detail oriented and observant, hell not everyone is going to be that way and children are definitely going to miss out on a few of the less obvious placements while working with these models.

Design wise these books are impressive, functionality wise, they take a little getting used to and might need a bit of an overhaul, especially when it comes to more complex models like, for example, the Enterprise.


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Something I neglected to mention about the boxes, aside from their bland outer designs, is the fact that they have a lot of empty space.

Hasbro, in their typical fashion of waste-not, want-not, have chosen to design the boxes along the lines of storage cases. Each box is larger so that you can fit all of the pieces in it loose once the bags are open, even some of them can fit an entire model inside fully built (mostly robot modes laid out flat.)

This serves two purposes, one it allows you to store and keep the pieces for each model/figure conveniently inside re-sealable boxes. And secondly, it allows you or your child to build the figures straight out of the box.

Dump all the parts inside, start building, it's that simple. And actually much more functional than LEGO's design for boxes. It also means fewer lost pieces, hopefully.


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This is the second build of the model, using the pieces from the car and the fan-made Prowl Mech-Mode (Patent Pending... What do you mean it's copywrited and trademarked already? Uh...)

This is the official build for Prowl, many fans might think it is ungainly looking and off-puting considering his shoulders are lower than his head.

Admittedly, I don't have any problems with this design personally. I can see where some others might though, he's a chunky looking block-bot with a WHY-MY-SHOULDERZ-HURT look.

I can overlook this flaw because well I try not to let minor things detract from my toys and in all fairness this is a vast improvement over BTR builds, I mean seriously, have you seen those things? They made G1 Throttlebots look like Paragons of Engineering.

Prowl here has all the proper levels of articulation, he's got ball jointed hips, ankles and shoulders and then again he has bending knee and elbow joints and swivel wrists, plus the ball jointed head.

He's a fully poseable bruick built action figure. Hasbro really loves to make these models using a lot of flat pieces too, I've noticed that many of the Kre-O sets are no slouches when it comes to using the tile pieces to their maximum efficiency, this same model, built in LEGO form would more than likely use a lot more bricks as opposed to the flat tile pieces and might even sacrifice some of the functionality of the toy to make it more accurate to on-screen appearances or something.

The oddest part of this design, I find, is the use of the wheel wells? Those curved things you use as part of the axle/wheel assembly, I have no idea what they are called, but that thing. You can't see it head on, but one of those parts is actually on Prowl's back. A very unique and curious design asethtic, I'm not sure how well it works to be honest, but it is different I'll grant them that.


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As with all Kre-O sets, the build leaves some parts out. In this shot we see my initial attempt at using the parts for something constructive, functional and useful to the Prowl robot mode. Taking a cue from RiD/CR Prowl/Mach Alert, I built a large arm mounted shield. (Almost a Riot Sheild.)

I wasn't 100% thrilled with this design, so...


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I disassembled it and re-built it into two seperate weapons, a smaller shield (with the steering wheel in an odd placement, I might try something different next time I build up the robot mode.) and an arm mounted double-barreled gun. (Which hinders mobility of that arm, but looks passable and gives him some firepower.)


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As noted, Prowl originaly retailed for 20$, his piece count is higher than Mirage, however as you can see the two are roughly the same height. (Not counting the antenna length.)

Like Mirage he also has real rubber tires, as I may have already mentioned, which is much more impressive than some of the plastic only tires that other, more expensive kits have. (Lookin' at you Ratchet.)


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To summarize my thoughts on this model. I feel that Hasbro's initial foray into the building block world was an utter failure, BTR suffered greatly for maintaining the transformation aspect of Transformers.

Get away from that and you wind up with a much more improved and less flawed interpretation, including something the BTR sub-line was lacking. Buildable models, Mini-Figure equivalents that upped the play value, and a level of detail and articulation that Kre-O has captured in spades.

Just the head designs alone are a vast improvement.

While Kre-O may not be for everybody, it is after all a bit of a niche sub-line and highly controversy among the fanbase. I strongly enjoy them, and feel that they are well worth tracking down, especially now with everybody putting these sets on deep discount to move them out in time for new stock and the holiday season. (At least I hope new stock will be available soon. Kre-O is definitely a brand name I don't want to see vanish like so many other knock-off LEGO attempts in the past.)

The beauty of Kre-O is not only the compability with LEGO, but the creative way fans have embraced the Create It catchphrase, and attempt to modify the existing models into something more to their liking.

You can buy a dozen different Prowl figures that transform if that's all you want (Classics/G1/Animated/Etc...), but only one version of Prowl allows you to build the toy piece by piece and truly forces you to embrace your imagination to try and improve what the Hasbro designers initially set out to accomplish.

And he comes with a cute little Kreon version to boot.

Solid 5 out of 5 Hasbro.

[Scrapper6]

"Attention all units, Barricade has stolen some Dark Energon and is approaching Autotrooper Blockade #5"

"Roger that, we are in pursuit."


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"MEDIC! I need a medic here, Autotrooper's down!


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"I have the shot, am I go for the kill?"

"Negative, we're not murderers, we're Kreons."

"Then why do we come with these awesome looking weapons?


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Just a bit of harmless fun.

[Scrapper6]

Continuing on, today comes another Kre-O set Review featuring another fun looking set that recently clearanced out at most places.

Today we disucss the Autobot Ratchet Kre-O Building Kit.


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Here is the initial vehicle mode model and Kreons that you will recieve in this set. As with all Kre-O sets the detail work is handled via stickers. Ratchet is one of the better models though as most of his sticker work, if not all of it, avoids the sloped brick syndrom of other models. Meaning you shouldn't have any sticker peeling issues.

This set is 187 pieces, regular retail price, if memory serves is around the same as Sideswipe, who is considered to be in the same size class. (Technically speaking and going by box size.) The price of course being 24.99$ CND if I remember right, I could be off, though I'm fairly certain both sets are cheaper than the Bumblebee Large set which retails at 29.99$ so 25$ sounds right.

You get two Kreons in the set as well as the parts to build in vehicle mode and rebuild in robot mode.


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Before we discuss the model itself let us take a moment to examine the Kreons.

The human included is just called Medic, as you can see in the above image he's dressed in a nicely detailed uniform, complete with printing on his front legs.

Like most human Kreons from the Transformers line though he is admittedly quite generic, his name is only that of his profession and his facial expression is kind of odd for a Medic. I mean, I guess Hasbro wanted to steer clear of the generic all happy smiles of most LEGO Mini-Figs. But I have to wonder, just what happened to this Medic to give him that sort of half shocked half sour-faced look.

His hat is kind of nifty. A common trend I've noticed with 2011 era Human Flesh-Toned Kreons is that their hands tend to develop stress marks quite easily when simply holding any of the included accessories.

Since the same can not be said of any of the alternative colored Kreon hands I have to figure it has something to do with the felsh toned plastics being used.

Speaking of which, aside from a few of them most of the accessories included with the Ratchet set look more like Mechanic's tools than something a Medic would use on fellow humans, he's got assorted wrenches, a hammer, the jaws of life, an axe, a hammer, a screwdriver and... Well a shovel, now what purpose a shovel would have for either a medic or a mechanic beats the heck out of me. Maybe if he was working on a construction site or a grave... And isn't that a morbid thought.

There's also a fun looking stretcher, so really except for the stretcher and the jaws of life none of these accessories are the tools of a field medic. More a mechanic for Transformers and I guess that's the whole point.

At least these accessories are fun looking.


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Moving on to the Ratchet Kreon. Ratchet is awesome, I mean really he's a great looking little representation of the character in Kreon form, sadly he does have a few issues.

Just holding his gun has stressed out his red hands, much like the human flesh toned ones of the other Kreon. The color makes the stress marks very noticeable, I'd caution excessive use of accessories with either of these Kreons.

The other issue.


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His helmet design. His helmet design Hasbro! I get how they want to capture the look and feel, the likeness if you will of the character. Sadly Ratchet is the first Kreon where this issue is a hindrance as opposed to a nifty feature.

Ratchet's helmet has been cut in such a way that the crest his character is familiar with sits down too far, making him look like he's got a big black visor for his eyes, because if you push the helmet down to secure it that's exactly what happens.

Ratchet's eyes are covered up. A problem that could have easily been avoided if the eyes had been painted lower on the face, or more practically, if the cut of the helmet had been made larger so that the visor doesn't wind up so low in the facial area.

This is not an isolated incident, all Ratchet's suffer from this design flaw. At least Hasbro learned from this initial mistake and made a brand new helmet design for Ironhide, who looks ten times better. I'd really love to see them re-visit this Kreon in the Micro-Change Line using the Ironhide Helmet in place of this bulky, eye covering mess.

As it stands now, you'll lose the helmet a lot if you just leave it sitting unsecured on his head so it doesn't cover the eyes. And if you do secure it, you have Robo-Medic, the worlds first police/medic bot ready to met out punishment and heal the sick at the same time.


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It's model time. Ratchet has a real working rear compartment, four clips to store four of the included accessories and a great looking compact vehicle mode.


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He looks like a fully decked out ambulance and not a Hummer turned Ambulance or Medic Vehicle like the Movie design is. (Or other versions of Ratchet in recent years.)

He's not the G1 box style ambulance, but he's a realistic and fun looking Ambulance. Unlike on most of the other Kre-O sets with working driver's compartments however, he does not include opening doors for the driver's area.

He also features plastic clip-style tires as opposed to the rubber wheels of Jazz, Mirage, Megatron, Big Optimus, Big Bumblebee...(I think, as I don't yet own that set.) etc. etc. so when he's rolling you can hear the tires on the surface. Ratchet is a plastic tire menace, if you hate the sound of plastic tires rolling on hard surfaces you won't appreciate him.

Other than that though, the model is a solid looking build. It serves as a great looking realistic ambulance, highly detailed, and doesn't suffer from having any jumbo Autobot Symbols forced onto his vehicle mode. (The set does include a spare giant Autobot Logo sticker, but there's no indication of where this sticker is meant to go in the instructions. In fact I'd have to say this is purely a bonus sticker that perhaps was meant to go somewhere, but Hasbro may have chosen to omit that step in the building design phase in favor of something else and just didn't have time to re-design the sticker sheet.)

I haven't taken any photos of the vehicle modes together for scaleing purposes, though if I'd have to guess I'd say this ambulance mode scales quite nicely with Jazz, Prowl, Mirage, Small Bumblebee and perhaps Optimus, Megatron and Starscream as well. (Large Bumblebee and Sideswipe are completely off scale wise in vehicle mode and small Optimus is just that, small Optimus. So of course he'd be out of scale. Sentinel however I don't want to hazard any guesses until I've seen him in person. Hopefully soon.)


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Like all Kre-Os parts are left over in vehicle mode. Here is my attempt at creative useage of same. Autobot Ratchet Medic Mech Mode, for those tough rescue jobs. :lol


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Ratchet in robot mode is a Kre-O design done pretty damn right to the highest degree. He uses up most of his parts in making a solid looking, well proportioned robot mode, with decent levels of articulation for posing.

And what pieces he does not use are small enough and negligible enough to be stashed on his back without even being noticeable, except for the two pieces I used to make a small medical scanning device or something, which you can see in his hand.

As an added bonus, all four clips used in vehicle mode are built facing towards the back in robot mode, so that he can still store the four accessories he stores in vehicle mode on his robot body. (Why? Well for Storage Purposes of easily lost parts of course! Why not?)

If I absolutely had to criticise this robot mode it would probably be in the hieght department. As we can see by the scaling image below...


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He is suitably tall enough for a Ratchet character when scaled next to smaller sets.

Unfortunately, when he's standing next to Sideswipe and Megatron, well he's just as tall as Sideswipe and a bit shorter than I would expect Ratchet to be compared to Megatron.

Which means once I get my larger Optimus he might be a bit of a shorty compared to his leader, when Ratchet is normally closer to Prime height wise in most forms of media than someone like Mirage or Prowl here.

Seeing him next to the other two I had at the time of this photo shoot however really heightens the look of the Kre-O designed model for Ratchet. Makes you wonder why Prowl suffers so badly with his shoulder placement when they've got such a great placement for Ratchet here.

Then again this is Kre-O we're talking about, I'd wager not all designs are engineered by the same person, and perhaps the less creative and flexible designers have a hard time perfecting the porpotions of the robot modes given to them with the pieces they are going to use for each set.


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To round out the images for this review above we see the box and instruction manual again. I feel I've adressed the pros and cons of this style of container/instruction manual by now. However some of you may wish to see the pictures.

And last, but not least, before sumarizing, here's a close up of the stretcher.


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Quite the impressive looking accessory, I haven't tried using it in Kreon hands yet, I don't want to risk busting any of them, though I doubt it will cause that sort of problem.

Overall, where some of the sets have noticeable flaws if you get nitpicky enough, Ratchet is a solid build as far as models go and a much better proportioned robot mode. With a good use of all the peices in the robot design, with only a few instances of smaller pieces not being used.

One oddity I noticed was a part that seems to have been included as an extra piece, it isn't used as far as I can determine in either model. Of course I might have just missed that step.

The only thing holding this set back is the poorly designed Kreon Ratchet helmet. If not for that I'd give it a full rating of 5 out of 5. As it stands, I am forced to go with a 4.5 out of 5 for this Kre-O Building set.

High praise you might think, but certainly justified here as Ratchet truly captures the spirit of the Kre-O theme and is pretty dang fun. I just wish those plastic tires weren't so... plastic.

Until next time, keep on building.

[Scrapper6]

It's that time again, time for another Kre-O review. Today I'm going to give you a review for the oldest set in my collection, the first Kre-O set I ever purchased...


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That's right, Mirage. (I figured it was high time to get him reviewed as we've seen him in numerous comparison shots by now. )

At 119 pieces Mirage is one of the smaller sets, priced at only 14.99$ he includes two Kreons, himself and a Race Driver, and as always he includes the parts to build either a robot or vehicle mode. You can tell this is the oldest set in my collection just by looking at the box, it's the only one with a peghandle for hanging on store pegs.

I bought him on sale at TRU, and that was back in November or December of last year. What are my thoughts on this particular Kre-O set, read on to find out.


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A common feature of these reviews is to showcase images of the box and instructions, though I rarely discuss them. As I feel that my thoughts on the matter have been made particularly clear, I do enjoy being thorough though.

One problem I have with this particular set is in no way a slam against it mind you, but unlike Jazz he appears to be EVERYWHERE, and in great abudance.

From what I know case assortments of Kre-O's initial sets were one packed in each case, meaning you only got a case of Mirage's or Jazz's, neither of them shared a case. Thus making distribituion a bit... Off, in my opinion.

I am not entirely sure what it is about Mirage that makes him such a shelfwarmer, the set is fairly decent in all honesty and does a fair job of representing the character in Kre-O and Kreon form.

I suppose the real issue is, that after so long, most people who wanted him already have him and so stores are left with overstock. Yet unlike larger sets they rarely seem to place these smaller sets on sale, in point of fact if it weren't for the Liquidation at Zellers and other places clearing out old stock in anticipation of the Christmas rush I'd wager you'd still be finding him everywhere simply because of that fact.

And I'm waxing poetic on this, let's get on with it already.


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Here's what you get in the box, as Mirage was initially in robot mode prior to starting my review phase we see him here yet again as a Robot, this time with the two Kreons.

As you can see the model doesn't leave too many stray pieces, in this shot I used the extra bits as some sort of arm/hand weapon, it isn't very functional looking, it is obvious I just stuck the pieces wherever they'd fit. You can't do much with them. (I mean it's only one-two pieces after all. Not like Prowl's fancy shield and gun combo.)


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This is the Race Driver Kreon, much like other human Kreons with flesh colored hands he tends to stress out noticeably when holding an accessory and constantly removing same from his hand. Even just holding one causes stress marks to appear.

I am confident this is a flaw in the plastic coloring choice used as well as the plastic quality in general for that flesh tone. (Which hopefully has been ironed out by now.)

Another thing to note, his helmet fits fine, the problem is that it doesn't work right because Hasbro chose to paint the goggles onto the Kreon face instead of putting them on the helmet proper. This results in an issue where the goggle eyes don't match the placement of the opening of the helmet, resulting in looking like his helmet isn't fully pushed down enough, when in fact it actually is.

Jazz's Kre-O set included an extra hat for the Race Driver so he could switch headgear, as well as not having nearly the same issue with his helmet. Sadly this Kreon doesn't get the same treatment.

As Kreons go he's ok, his detailing is nothing too spectacular, and his generic look to him is neither a hindrance or a help. He just is. That being said, Mirage's vehicle mode just wouldn't look right without a driver inside and at least he serves the part well, flaws and all.


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Mirage as a Kreon. What can I say? He's really fun to look at and fun to fiddle with, I played with him a bit too much sadly and now he's got a cracked hand, it hasn't broken off, but he can't hold his gun in that hand anymore.

There was just something so satisfying about hearing that click the plastic made every time you inserted and removed the weapon. I can't fully explain it.

Detail wise he's a solid looking Kreon, evoking the character quite nicely. The distinctive looking helmet design, coupled with the seriousness of the facial sculpt, makes him stand out from the simple smiles of most LEGO Mini-Figures. They even got a little number 26 on his abdomen evoking the vehicle mode numbering. He's just all around fun.


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And here at last we get to see Mirage in vehicle mode, as I only took the one image of his robot mode I'll briefly mention a few points about that model before touching upon the vehicle form.

The robot mode model uses mostly every piece to construct the robot form, it is highly dependant on stickers for detail and Hasbro did a lousy job with those stickers for the first run of sets.

Most of them on Mirage are ok, they do however need to be placed just so or you'll wind up with the issues I've found as time progresses.

One of the number 26 stickers is frayed and peeling up at the bottom, this is because of a slight misplacement and when I attempted to lift the sticker back up to correct this... Well the stickers of the earlier sets from 2011 did not lend themselves well to this. They tend to bond much too well to the plastic, so much so that just removing them to try and get good alignment causes the underside to tear and lose the residue/glue/whatever in order to stick right.

Hence why one of my Energon/Grilly Detail stickers is also peeling up, because there just isn't enough substance left to keep it adhered to the plastic after a bad alignment issue.

And then there's the Autobot Logo, you can see it quite clearly peeling up on both ends and it's crooked. (This is because when I got it ligned up incorrectly, having already experienced the cheapness of the stickers from the other two I screwed up on, I just left it as is, and it is still peeling up. Because the slanted piece it is meant to adhere too just doesn't do stickers well.)

Either cut the logo sticker in half before using it so you can put one on either side of the hump/curve of the brick in question, or just leave it off. It doesn't help that this is the only set that you can't use the new blue colored square tile Autobot Logos from the 2012 sets to replace Autobot logos from the 2011 sets.

In vehicle mode Mirage looks like a Formula 1 Racer, he's sleek, he's aerodynamic and he has rubber tires. So he rolls quite well.

Ah yes, and before I forgot, in robot mode he doesn't have knees, so his posing is a bit stinted. His arms are also fairly lackluster, but he still looks nice, in either mode, and could easily be modified if you wanted to take the time to better the look of the model.


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Sadly, unlike just about everybody else I've built so far, Mirage's vehicle mode leaves pieces behind in the build. And these pieces just can't be turned into anything, I've tried, I've tried from this way to that and there's just no getting them to appear like anything.

No fancy looking Mech Mode, no fun little vehicle (which you'll get to see when we review Starscream) and no storage space to put them (which we'll mention when we do Megatron's review.) they are just there. Looking like pieces used to build some kind of robot.


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As we have seen numerous comparison shots in robot mode with Mirage already, here's our first Vehicle Mode comparison shot. (Something I really need to remember to do more of.)

Since I took these photos over the course of a few weeks you get to see Mirage with Jazz in vehicle mode, Mirage and Jazz share the same size/price range, give or take, I believe Jazz includes a few more pieces number wise.

And as you can see here, Mirage is longer than Jazz, but the two are fairly even in size as cars. Since they are both meant to be race vehicles this makes sense.

Overall I'd have to say Mirage is simply OK, he's not stand out awesome like some Kre-O sets, he doesn't offer much in the way of unique pieces or Kreons (aside from his namesake of course.) and he's a bit of a nuisance for stickers on slanted surfaces, or placement issues.

He's still a pretty damn fun looking set though and it is a real shame he's shelfwarming most places. Even the liquidating Zellers can't give this guy away.

Mirage gets a solid 3.5 out of 5 from me, he's great to have for the Kreon and parts, the models are fun and simple to build and do the part of looking like they are meant to. Those stickers however really detract, and if they detract then they lower the score. That fact that his hands are both two different looking pieces also makes for an odd design choice, and cause the right arm hinge joints to wear out faster due to the weight of the larger blue piece, which means he has floppy arm syndrome after a while.

Still you can't go wrong with a Kre-O set priced so cheaply, especially on sale, and you'll want to have him if you're aiming to complete your Kreon/Kre-O collection.

I hope this review helps you, and always remember, you can't Create without Kre-O... Or some kind of catch phrase that sounds classy. More reviews will follow of course, and don't forget to check out my Battleship Reviews at...http://www.actionfigurenews.ca/board...ad.php?t=11639 for all your Kre-O Battleship Review needs.

[Scrapper6]

Good Morning all you Kre-O Enthusiasts, today we begin the day by taking a look at the final of two sets in a certain size category.

Priced at 14.99$ when not on sale and consisting of 122 pieces, which is 3 pieces more than price size mate Mirage, today we disucss Autobot Jazz.


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Autobot Jazz... Or just Jazz to avoid having to type up Autobot every time, is small silver looking sports car. This review will start out by discussing the model above. Rather than my usual method.

As you can see Jazz uses silver and black pieces instead of white, like his G1 counterpart. The model resembles more the G1 vehicle mode with the Movie's coloring scheme, which isn't entirely a bad thing. Either color scheme works well for the character.

The vehicle also uses stickers for detailing, the rim stickers on the rear wheel rims are a real nuisance with this guy, if they aren't lifting up from piss poor adhesion they're tearing in half when attempting to remove from the sticker sheet.

It is a damn shame that Hasbro has yet to embrace the printed elements LEGO has for their brick building line, I recently acquired the Kre-O Mine Stryker set and was shocked to discover they actually went out of their way to print an element with detailing in that set. (Which begs the question, why only that set's particular piece? Why not others?)

Jazz's vehicle mode is sturdy, and aside from the sticker issue looks nice. It's a bit blocky and chunky looking for Jazz's usual sleekness, that being said in Kre-O form it works.


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As with all Kre-O sets certain pieces are left out from the basic model design. Unlike with Mirage you can actually do something, it's no battle mech mode like with some of the larger sets. However these pieces could be imagined to be some sort of weapons emplacement for the Kreons to use against enemy Kre-Os.

Hey, it might be stretching a bit, at least I'm trying to be creative.

I am only slightly concerned about the swirly nature of the silver plastic pieces with Jazz, I do not want to see Kre-O sets start deteriorating due to stuff like GPS because they wanted to make the silver pieces more attractive looking with swirls.

Moving on, it's KREON time.


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As is typical with a set of this size, at least for the early days of TF Kre-Os, we are given two.

The main man Jazz himself (also called Autobot Jazz on the packaging.) and a Race Driver, which we'll discuss in a moment.

But first, Jazz. Kreon Jazz is based on his G1 colors, he's white instead of silver. Which might confuse some children who are more familiar with the silver of movie Jazz... Then again it has been close to five years since the first movie came out, so probably not that confusing.

He's awesome, plain and simple, this little dude evokes smooth and cool while being cute and typical Kreon aesthetics wise. His detailing is simple, yet evocative of the character. His helmet design is awesome, his facial expression (while not unique due to re-use of head pieces) is still unique enough due to the visor eyes on the helmet.

His door wing accessories could have used paint on the windows, this is a common complaint though, as they are a little stingy on the paint apps for this particular accessory all across the Kreon board. And his weapon evokes the original's gun. (Even if it is shared by Mirage, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Prowl and Bluestreak.)

All in all this is a great little dude and well worth picking up the set for.


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The Race Driver, you may have spotted him inside Jazz's vehicle mode earlier. Well here he is, similar to Mirage, Jazz has a Race Driver. Not just an ordinary Driver.

This one however has different detailing, as you can see, he isn't wearing goggles, which means his helmet looks good on him and not like it is placed incorreclty like with Mirage's driver. And he as an extra accessory so you can swap out the helmet for a gray hat when he's not driving Kre-O Jazz in races.

What more can I say? These human Kreons are well made, decently detailed and for the most part come with great looking accessories. A few tools or something might have been appreciated in these sets so they could tune up their Kre-Os, still it isn't a deal breaker by any means.


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And here's everything included with the set, a great looking trio isn't it?


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And here's what they all come in. The smaller sets do not suffer from too much space syndrome with their boxes. Something that wasn't really a concern for me until I got a few of the larger sets (Bumblebee) with instructions that had moved around and become stuck in one place so they bent/curved up.

While the box design is a step up from LEGO, at least LEGO has learned to avoid instruction book bending/curving/creasing by limiting the amount of free roaming space found in their boxes.

As I said though that isn't a large problem with the smaller sets, although it is a possibility.


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As you can tell by this image here. Yeah, while made out of a sturdy and durable paper stock these things really don't like being confined into tight spaces very well. What I said up above about how it shouldn't be a problem... What I meant by that is that it shouldn't be a problem because the smaller boxes don't have enough space for the instruction sheets period.

They aren't wide/long enough to fit them in flat on the bottom like the larger boxed sets, so while you won't have them moving around, you will have them being bent and curved to fit into the smaller available space.

If you're in to keeping things pristine and looking nice, might I suggest steam ironing these things out. (If it doesn't damage the paper or burn it... Haven't tried it myself.)

I applaud them for their instruction and packaging design only so far, Hasbro should have really thought things a little bit better through before implementing them. A fact that, happily, they learned as most of the second year's worth of smaller sets avoid the creasing issue by making the instructions smaller fold-out pamphelts as opposed to the thick booklet look.

Doesn't always prevent creasing though, as one of my duplicate Ocean Attack Battleship sets can attest to.

All in all though a minor complaint when you get right down to it, at least it isn't as bad as the terrible, horribly mashed up bookelt I got in one of my LEGO Space Police sets. Kre-O instructions aren't going to ever look like that straight out of the box. Thank Primus.


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Moving on we come to the robot mode design/model. This is what you get, like with many of the small models we see no true hands. Unlike with Mirage however Jazz at least has two identical looking hands, he isn't sporting a large extra piece of plastic on one of them.

This design is really quite clever actually, it is built in such a way so that the doors and spoiler fit nicely on the back. The doors are not as big as the typical doorwings found on other Jazz figures, still they evoke the character well enough.

Unfortunately, much like Mirage, Jazz doesn't have knees. Smaller modle means less pieces means no knee articulation.


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Another difference from Mirage is the number of left over pieces, Jazz doesn't use up nearly as many as Mirage did. Which means...

Huge honking gun! That's right I managed to make a convincing looking gun for Jazz using the left over parts. Isn't it neat? Or at the very least, functional?


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Here's the comparison shot of the robot mode, and once again we use my go-to comparison figure Mirage.

Notice how Jazz is indeed shorter than his size-class counterpart. In fact Jazz is one of the most compact looking Kre-O robots out of the entire first batch of Kre-Os.

Some might consider this a downside, as models like Prowl, Ratchet, Sideswipe, the larger Bumblebee and Prime tower above him making him look like a Mini-Bot. I am not that turned off by this scale in-consistenceny.

While it is true that Jazz's G1 form was equal in height to characters like Prowl and Ratchet, his movie figure, which this model attempts to emulate was a much smaller character. In fact he was actually the smallest of the first group from the film.

This takes the two versions of Jazz most recognizeable and blends them together quite nicely, giving us a compact looking scrapper, a 'bot who won't back down from the larger bots.

And a bot who can... Awww slag, I didn't take that picture. It didn't just occur to me until now, oh well, Megatron will just have to be content without ripping another Jazz in two. (Or several pieces.)

There is one up-side to this model being such a shorty... And here's a sneak-peak as to my next review(s).


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He can be in-scale with either larger 'bots or smaller 'bots. Yep, the smaller of the two Prime's fits quite nicely in scale with him.

And that's what we'll be reviewing next time, Small Optimus and his companion Small Bumblebee... Now on to the ratings and final thoughts of Jazz here.

Overall I'd have to say this set is worth looking into, the model form of Jazz is fun and easy enough to build, he's compact, and takes two seperate iterations of the characters and blends them together far better (IMO) than the Movie 1 repaint of Jazz in G1 colors ever managed to do.

I'm kind of surprised actually that Takara hasn't re-re-issued Jazz's mold in movie 1's colors. That might look pretty damn cool.

The Kreons are a must have too, well Jazz is and the human is a nice bonus, if you aren't too thrilled with the Human Kreons though you might want to just track down Jazz on his own.

I'm giving Jazz here a solid 4.5 out of 5, there are only a few minor things that prevent me from rating this set higher. Namely the creasing of the instructions might be a real downer for some collectors (though personally it doesn't irk me nearly as much as I let on.) and the coloring might not be to your liking either. I am also concerned due the swirly nature of the silver plastic pieces. And as I said, all of the smaller sets fail to have any knees, so they lose a point for that. (Arm poseability isn't the best either in all fairness.)

Still I strongly recommend you take a look at this Kre-O set. If Hasbro does one thing good it's how realistic and impressive their car modes look when compared to LEGOs... Oh yeah, and the rubber tires. LOVE the rubber tires, why they don't use them more often with these Kre-O sets I'll never figure out.

Return next time for a double-review special, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, two sets that don't include Kreons. Should you pick them up anyway? Find out!

[Scrapper6]

It's two for the price of one time, that's right I'm back to review more Kre-O. Specifically both 9.99$ retail items Optimus Prime and Bumblebee.

Originally I wasn't too interested in these things to be honest, the Kre-O sets in question are the only two not to include any Kreons. Why waste money on a simple building set without any Mini-Fig style items?

Well, why do we buy Mini-Star Wars sets from LEGO? Because they represent smaller easily displayable versions of larger vehicles. (And on top of that once you start going nuts for Kre-O on sale you just can't help yourself.)

Be that as it may shall we begin discussing the sets?


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We start with Optimus Prime, the Autobot leader in small Kre-O form. As models go it isn't too bad, and I will say one thing about this set, it incorporates pretty much all of the pieces from the set minus three left-overs, only three. A far cry above some of the larger sets that leave a mess of parts behind once the model is in vehicle form.

Optimus looks almost as if he could transform, many others have even found ways to mod this little dude so he does. Personally I don't care much for TFing Kre-Os, I can live with what Hasbro gives us as there is very little compromise in the look of either vehicle or robot IMO.

I really dig the look of this model, it evokes Prime's G1 and Classics look both at the same time.


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The instructions are a real shame, crammed into a too-small box they will always come out creased. Which can make it difficult to actually turn the pages and leave them open while building.

I would suggest a good steaming to make the paper stock flexible if you can manage it, I have yet to attempt it so I'm not sure if it might cause worse issues, but I do detest the look of curved/creased instruction manuals for my building kit toys.


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The box isn't much to look at, much like the rest of the 2011 figures you will get some bland uninmaginative images slapped ona boring white box. I'm very glad Hasbro improved the box design for the Quest for Energon sub-series of Transformers Kre-O.

Of course it isn't something I haven't said before in past reviews. Moving on shall we?


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Moving on we get to see the robot model, which uses up every single piece except one. A long flat piece used to make the truck mode is left off of the robot mode in the official build.

Fortunately you can easily modify him if you prefer to attach it to Prime's back.

As I noted in the Jazz review this figure is surprisingly tall, unfortunately, just as with Mirage and Jazz this version of Prime has no knees. He's got wierd placement for the hip joints as well, and poseable ankles.

There aren't too many stickers either for the details, not like with some of the larger sets.Prime has a quirky look to him too due to the nature of the model's build, it is limited after all with a finite number of pieces. Still it's still heavily evocative of Optimus Prime and he is roughly the height of one of the larger deluxe figures.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with what Hasbro managed to acomplish with this mold, he isn't 100% perfect, his arms and the lack of knees all add up to strange proportions and limited posing possibilites. That being said he's still a decent little set for a display piece. And I'm sure a lot of kids would love to play with him. I mean I loved rolling him back and forth on the computer desk when he was in truck mode.

Still I do wish he had rubber tires instead of plastic, the plastic is LOUD when he rolls around. And the wheels are really tight on the axles, I'm a little concerned of possible breakage because there are two seperate axle pieces used, one set for vehicle mode and another for four of the tires on his legs in robot mode.


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Moving on to Bumblebee, we'll rate both sets at the end of this review, here we see his vehicle mode with a few special guests.

Bumblebee pulls off a nice little chibified camaro mode, this is not the G1 car mode, obviously. And stickers are used for the detail work. The sticker sheet was actually slightly bent in this set, fortunately none of the stickers were destroyed, just fair warning that it is a possibility.


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Unlike with Optimus, Bumblebee does not use as many pieces when building the vehicle mode. Sadly there really isn't anything you can make with them, unless you want to mod your smaller BB into a transformable version, they just stick together to be put to the side until you build the robot model.


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Just a few quick shots to show off the instructions and the box.


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Here we find Bumblebee in robot mode, with the great looking G1 inspired head sculpt, up to this point the only Bumblebee Kre-O that features a G1 inspired head, the larger set using a combination Movieverse, G1 head and the Stealth one from this year being more inspired by the Prime iteration.

This model also uses all of the pieces pretty much, I think I slapped a few extra ones on the back, though it's difficult to recall honestly.

I like this model, I'll be honest it isn't super poseable, it doesn't have ordinary hands, and it does look a bit weak, but I still like it. He's cute, he's a better scale than the 29.99$ set with the rest of the Autobots and he's just classic G1 Bumblebee with the Camaro vehicle mode instead of the Volkswagen.

I also appreciate that Hasbro gave us the option of buying a cheap set to have Bumblebee as a Kre-O or a larger set with Kreons to sweeten the deal. Cheaper alternatives are always a plus for budget conscious individuals.


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See, just look at how impressive these three scale together. Simple to build, easy to modify if you want and cheap. This version of Bumblebee is a decent Kre-O set.

Granted both of them are better when on sale compared to full price, even at full price they are worth looking into. I can honestly say I like what Hasbro was aiming for with the smaller models. I do think they could have easily included a Kreon though for both sets, instead of giving us a Kreon version of Bee and Prime these two sets would have been prime means of giving us Rumble and Frenzy as Kreons. (And as a bonus the Kreons would have been scaled properly for the two sets to do battle with the Kre-Os themselves, something like that would have made these sets a much better recieved pair than what they have become.)

These sets both shelfwarm a lot, mostly because Kre-O collectors don't all share similar tastes and prefer collecting only sets with Kreons.

A real shame, they have some decent executions and they are all around F U N fun. Since they are both so fast to build to in either mode these two sets are easier to play with compared to larger sets that take more steps.

For Optimus I give him 3 and a half stars, he's really a good little set and scales quite nicely with the three other smaller sets. (Since he is shorter than Ratchet, Sideswipe or any of the other larger sets he does lose a point.) If he had a Kreon included he would easily make four out of five.

Bumblebee suffers a bit more from having way too many left over pieces in vehicle mode that don't make for much of anything like other sets. So I give him 3 out of five. I really think these are worth looking into, if anything getting them on sale will give you extra parts for moding larger sets into transformable sets with the joint pieces and all.

I really don't understand why Hasbro didn't give them Kreons to be honest. I mean I get the cheap sets angle for people who like building Bee and Prime, as it stands though these are the only Kre-O sets to date that lack Kreons. Which contributed more to them being so panned and shelfwarmed.

Hopefully these reviews are helpful to everybody, and informative enough. Now that we've gone through the last of the smaller priced sets next time we'll finish off the medium priced sets with Sideswipe and then... At long last... DECEPTICONS!

[chans formers]

cool reviews so far.

all the decepticon seekers(not icluding sunstorm) also have the metallic toes.

[Scrapper6]

Howdy folks it's that time again, time once more to review another Transformers Kre-O set. And as promised we're going to be reviewing Sideswipe.

I took the photos for this review in a slightly different sequence, so we're going to be starting with a shot of Sideswipe's vehicle mode.


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Sideswipe makes an impressively scaled vehicle, I took these shots at a time where I kind of forgot to keep a few of the others in vehicle mode for showing off the scale. My bad. Still you can get a decent aproximation of how large he is.

Priced at 24.99$, sharing a price point with Autobot Ratchet, Sideswipe's model here is close in size to Ratchet's vehicle mode, though obviously much wider and I believe he is just a bit longer too... I think.


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The model has got a lot of great steps to make it look like a sports car, it isn't the same as a Lamborghini of course. It doesn't even match up with his movie incarnations vehicle form, it is far similar to a slightly smaller red camaro or something. That is to say the model's build is strikingly similar to the larger Bumblebee set.

Naturally there are of course differences in the pieces used, the detail work and such, but I feel confident in saying that both Autobots share a similar look to them in car mode.

The driver is one of two so far that feature hair in place of a helmet or hat, as you can see with him in the driver's compartment here.

Oh yes, there is a reason for why I took the shots like this. As you can see in the above picture the door is completely shut. This is because I closed it, however the official build of the model has the door remaining partially open. Why? Because unlike the other Autobot cars, for some very frustrating reason Sideswipe has car doors that do not function.

Either you leave them half open instead of flush shut with the car so you can still open and close the doors properly. Or you leave them completely closed to have them look properly flush with the vehicle and then can't get them open again.


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The fault lies in one step of the build where you place a 2x2 tile in the spot where the door will go. This is probably easy to modify to restore functionality of the doors, however I have to wonder why Hasbro's official build of this model renders the functionality and look of the doors on this model so odd looking.

Either you have doors that work right, or Sideswipe is driving around constantly with his doors half open, this is not aerodynamically sound for hot pursuit of Decepticon foes.


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A shot from above demonstrating this fact. I hope you can make out what I'm talking about.


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Sideswipe is unique, here you find the left over pieces, with one obvious exception. When building a pseudo-mech mode for the Kreons with his parts I didn't have to use his head, that's because Sideswipe's head can fit in the passenger side area of the vehicle mode, reminescent of RiD X-Brawn.

I'm really quite proud of the mech mode I managed to make here, it looks like it can be piloted by a Kreon or act as an independant assault drone controlled via radio signals from Sideswipe to launch laser blasts.


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Ah, and we once again show off the box, see the glory that is Sidesipe in all his photoshopped fashion. Thank the powers above Hasbro learned how to make much more dynamic looking packaging designs with the newer Kre-O sets.


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Thick sturdy instructions. Simple and easy to follow, pretty much the same thing I've said before many times over.


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Here's something you wouldn't ordinary see, mostly because this page is usually attached at the end of the instruction booklet. In the case of a few of these kits however the parts' list is a seperate piece of paper.

A bit of a nuissance as it means you have to be careful not to lose it. Unlike with LEGO however what you see is what you get, there are never any extra pieces in case one is lost or broken upon arrival, LEGO understands that smaller pieces could potentially get lost or broken. This is why they tend to include extra pieces of certain types in all of their sets.

Not Hasbro, if you lose or break a piece you are out of luck. Either buy another entire set just to get that one piece (As sending it back in to Hasbro doesn't always guarantee recieving the exact same item purchased.) or hunt down a spare piece of similar design from LEGO.

Once Kre-O get's to be large enough and stable enough I sure hope we see a pick-a-brick style function for pieces that wind up lost or broken.


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And here is the model built up in robot mode. Notice anything? Why yes that is a honking huge gun attached to Sideswipe's hand, this is the first Kre-O Autobot or Decepticon with a hand held weapon. Ratchet, Jazz, Mirage, Small Bumblebee and Small Prime do not have weapons.

But because there are so many pieces with Sideswipe they actually gave him a gun, isn't it neat? Well I think it is.

The model looks very nice, it is highly detailed, features some decent poseability and even has a weapon. Some of the stickers (which I neglected to mention 'til now.) are located on curved pieces again, which means they'll lift up.

And even some of them don't have to have that, it must be the way the first batch of stickers were made or something, but the two Autobot symbols which are placed onto relatively flat surfaces seem to want to constantly lift up as well. Poor adhesion I'd imagine.

Sideswipe also has a bulky chest, that is to say he's the most muscular of all the Autobots. His proportions are not as great as Ratchet's, as you can see the shoulders are a smidge lower than you might expect, however they are much better than Prowl's.


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Here's a shot that doubles as showing off everything you get in the set, and show's off what I did initially with the left over unused bits of Sideswipe's build.

A shield, it was the first idea that popped into my head back when I initially took the photos of this set, however as I discovered much later on during a different photoshoot these left over pieces actually work much better as an actual jet pack. (After I discuss the two Kreons I'll show you those pics.)


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Sideswipe in Kreon form, with a black head instead of red, I'm still not sure why they gave the Kre-O version a red head, as every version of Sideswipe I've ever known seems to have a black head.

Oh well, it makes for some interesting variety, and if you were so inclined you could always just paint it black or use it to MOC yourself a Kre-O Red Alert.

Er, anyway, Sideswipe in Kreon form is great. I love the serious/angry look he's got on his fact and his helmet is pretty nifty looking. My only complaint, which is a minor one, is the size of his gun. And the overall shape of it, the weapon doesn't match what Sideswipe's gun looked like on the show. Or the original G1 toy. It does have a few elements that are similar to it I'll grant, I just do not like how large it is as it makes for some difficult stability when posing and not attached to any studs.

He's a great Kreon, I hope that if they ever make a Sunstreaker though they give him a new head and helmet.


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Here is the driver. Included with this Kreon are the same acessories you found with Prowl, the packaging shows him wielding the small pistol and I think that would be suitable for him.

I don't know what exactly this guy could be, other than a Miami Vice dude. Maybe that's what Hasbro was aiming for. As I noted earlier he's the only Human to have hair, besides Sam in the large Bumblebee set. He's a blonde.

All the humans without a profession of any sort seem to have the same flame pattern on their chests, personally I would have preferred something less ordinary, like maybe giving us an Autobot logo shirt. Or even better, a bit of printing with letters, something like MtMtE or RiD, that would have been better in my opinion.

Flame patterns remind me of Baysplosions. Hey, is that who this is supposed to be then? Micheal Bay in Kreon form. Someone for Sideswipe to just step on and put all the haters of Bayverse out of their misery. Heh, heh.


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As promised here's the new jetpack, not as sturdy as it could be, it is only held on by one piece to the back and it also hinders arm mobility. But it does look better than that outlandish shield I first built.


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And from the front.

Overall what are my thoughts on Sideswipe, he's a great looking Kre-O set with some decent details, awesome fun factor and great poseability. His proportions aren't too funky, for a warrior class Autobot, and scale wise he's at least as tall as the other Autobots without being too tall. (You'll get to see all of my current Autobot Kre-Os in the Large Bumblebee review.)

His price is decent, especially if you can find him on clearance. In fact I bought him at RCSS, he was 12$ and change instead of the 6$ and change another location had marked him down to, but the price was well worth it.

He does however suffer from similar issues that most of the medium to large scale sets have. Plastic Tires. Yep, not rubber like Mirage and Jazz, but plastic like BB, Op and Ratchet. You can hear them from a mile off when you roll him around... Well maybe not a mile, that's an exageration, however you'll still hear them. He is a toy.

Rating. I rate him a solid 4.5 out of 5, much like Ratchet this is a decent looking set. The vehicle is a bit large for a car, I mean he dwarfs Jazz and Mirage, which isn't at all accurate to their on-screen counterparts. That being said, Kre-O doesn't really represent a single TF era. You've got Transformers Prime, G1, Bayverse, and even a few other eras brought in for reference. Truly this is the Universe of the Transformers brand. It's its own thing really, the Kreoniverse. (Or Kreoverse if you prefer.) Scale isn't that big of a deal, unless you're totally anal about such things.

Join us next time as we delve into the world of treachery and deceat known as the Decepticon Empire. We begin with that well renowned and well known character, AIR COMMANDER STARSCREAM OF THE DECEPTICON BATTLE FLEET!!!

[Scrapper6]

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You would never guess what I'm about to talk to you just by looking at the image above, I have no idea what the slag I was thinking when I numbered my photos afterwards in sequence for this review.

So you get to see my Kreative talents first, in the above shot the pieces used to build those two initial model items are the left overs after building Starscream in robot mode.

With this Kre-O set I was concerned about space issues and so built the robot mode first, then went back to build the vehicle mode. Hence why a lot of my other reviews over on AF.ca for the Battleship series use Starscream's vehicle form as a comparison item.

I did say initial attempt, a lot of these pieces have been re-used in other un-official models, which we'll discuss as the Review get's on. So let's get on with it properly right?


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Ah Decepticons, forever relegated to the ranks of outnumbered amongst Hasbro's numerous toylines, and Kre-O is no exception. Out of a grand total of about twenty Kre-O sets featuring the Transformers, from both 2011 and 2012 we have recieved a grand total of four Kre-O Decepticons, with double the number of Megatrons.

So while the Autobots have a veritable army of overgrown Kre-O bodies running around the Decepticons only have four... Wait a minut, what's this you say? I'm wrong, the Kre-O sets are actually more even than that, why you're right. The above statement has omited a rather important member of the Decepticon Kre-O Collection.

And for good reason, I honestly forgot about him for a moment, so I recind my previous statement. Out of a total 20 or so Kre-O Transformers sets there are in fact eight Decepticons, nine if you count the big-boy as a seperate entity rather than a merging of his component parts.

However, the amount of Autobots still outnumbers the amount of Decepticons. A sad trend really, omitting the 2012 sets, last year we recieved a total of 10 Autobots and only two Decepticons, and with the apparent scaling back of the number of sets for each theme each subsequent year we haven't seen much in the way of improvement in those odds.

And I'm not talking about Kreons here, the Autobot and Decepticon Kreons are woefully outmatched, even without purchasing doubles or triples of the troop builder sets you wind up with far more Decepticons than Autobots, and most of that comes in the form of the numerous Decepticon Micro-Changers who haven't seen release yet.

But I digress, let's move on with set details.


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Starscream shares a size-class with his leader. Together they have close to the same number of pieces, though Megatron has a few more pieces due to the fact he comes with four Kreons instead of two.

Starscream's original retail price is either 29.99 or 34.99$ depending on retailer outlet, I'm pretty sure he was more expensive at TRU, though I could be mistaken here.

His box and instructions are the same as always, from 2011, and the stickers are also the inferior learning what works versions.


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Here is Starscream's robot model, a pretty simple build, he looks solid and despite haveing a bunch of areas that could potentially fall apart with just handling the figure he stays together actually quite nicely.

Merging the G1 robot mode and the more hunched movieverse robot mode, this figure is a blending of the two aesthtics that comes out quite nicely. Even the missile pods and bombs aren't prone to falling off too often. (As long as you avoid touching them while handling him.)

He has a whopping sixteen points of articulation in this form, his shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, ankles and neck are all on ball joints. His wings are on swivel style joints and his wrists also turn, as well one section of the reare fuselage forms a back mounted jet propulsion unit which can raise and lower for different poses on swivel joint pieces.

Overall I find this robot mode pretty impressive, size wise he towers over all the Autobots, well all the ones I own so far, and his proportions don't bother me that much honestly. There are ways of corse to modify him to your hearts content, but the official build is still a fun looking toy and display piece.

One arm uses all of the missile pods from vehicle mode to form a weapon while the other creates a dual-barreled null-cannon of some sort.

My one complaint with Starscream is really a minor bit of perplexing nuissance, the Decepticons all have much larger heads, don't believe me just check out Vortex as well. All of the heads, while impressively detailed and G1 accurate, are much larger than the Autobots. True the models are also larger, but the size of the heads looks a bit odd when you have them side by side.

It really looks terrible when you take the Megatron from Battle for Energon, which uses the same head as the first Megatron set only in newer colors. We'll discuss that more detailed in the BfE review though.

I really can't put my finger on why, but the size of the heads just bugs me for some odd reason. There is also a really anoying empty space on the outside of his arms, two 1x1 sections are left open when they didn't have to be. In fact, though I haven't taken a picture of him yet, when I rebuilt him back into robot mode I used the 1x1 sized red sloped pieces to fill in that unsightly gap. (Those pieces are on the mobile Kreon transport seen in the first photo.)


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Or in this Kreon Transport here, which incorporates all of the left-over pieces much better IMO. Really Starscream leaves so many pieces off of his official robot mode you can turn them into anything, or modify the robot mode to incorporate most of them if your heart so desires. Except for one piece that is more of a set piece than anything important to either mode.


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Here's everything you can build in this set in one shot. Two Kreons, one Robot Model, left-over parts to use as you see fit and the lone piece that is kind of an odd-one out, the ladder.


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Rather than discuss the two Kreons with seperate images, for this review I was trying to cut back on the number of pictures taken, so here's both in one shot.

Starscream his a treacherous looking G1 inspired Kreon, with twin cannons on his arms, a back-mounted wing pack and a great looking smirk on his face. He's vintage Seeker goodness wrapped up in a cute little chibified package, I find the Seeker helmet to look a little bit too big for the Kreon head to be honest, that adds a bit to the charm though once you get used to it.

He also has fairly limited detail work, evoking his vheicle mode on his chest. His companion is a highly generic looking pilot, his name is Pilot and he's dressed all in black, with printed detailing on his torso, legs and helmet. In fact the detail work makes it look like he's wearing a parachute. (Either that or Hasbro figured he would always look like he's strapped in via his seatbelt, even when he's outside the Cockpit.)

I like the menacing look of his eyes too, this Kreon is really quite evil looking. I do think however they could have improved upon the content of this set, there are no accessories at all for the Kreons, except for the null-rays on Starscream's arms. Since this is a Decepticon themed set this would have been an excellent opportunity to make a Kreon Accessory resembling Reflector's alt form.

Having a tiny camera mode Reflector to hold would have added to the fun factor of this set, hell since both sets (Megatron and Starscream) are identical in box size and price point I fail to see why they didn't add two other Kreons with Starscream here too. A Reflector would have been awesome, what's more they could have slipped an Autobot Jetfire Kreon into this set using many of the same pieces as Starscream had without adding to the cost too much, and would have played nicely with their history on the original show.


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And here is the final shot, Starscream in vehicle mode, I do appologize for not taking nearly as many images comparison wise, but since I built him first in Robot mode, and he was one of the earlier sets I picked up so had less sets to compare him with, you'll just have to check out other reviews to get more comparison shots.

If you've been following my Battleship reviews you've probably seen this vehicle mode before, I might have even shown it in this thread in an earlier review, though I don't think so.

This build is highly impressive, it looks like his G1 vehicle mode, incorporates pretty much all of the pieces excepting a few, which if I'm not mistaken are shown in the above image as a sort of refueling cell for Starscream. (Or at least that's what I called it.)

Some reviewers have complained that parts fall off of him too much, I have found this is an exageration, perhaps they failed to press the peices together firmly enough as none of my wing assemblies ever fell off. The only pieces in this model prone to detaching are the missile pods/bombs, and even the cockpit when you're trying to open it likes to pop off the hinge it rests on some of the time.

This thing is huge, larger than most LEGO Passenger Airline Jets I'd wager, and it's only designed to seat one Kreon. (Of course nobody ever accused LEGO of sticking slavishly to scale, if they did that those Passenger Airline Jet sets would cost three times as much and feature more pieces than the Death Star.)

A curious thing to note, the bombs are two pieces that are not glued to gether, they can be opened up to reveal a hollow space inside, haven't tried this yet, but you might be able to fit a few small pieces or accessories inside of them for storage, or realistic explosive display action.

There are very few moving parts in vehicle mode, and they incorporate all of the robot mode joint pieces in the build, something not even Megatron can boast, basically you can open the cockpit or work the landing gear up and down. Ah yes the landing gear, so far the only aerial vessel out of Kre-O that actually has real working landing gear, and for that I am really impressive.

If it weren't for the fact these are bricks I'd go out of my way to say this is an almost 1:1 scale model of a fighter jet, a bit plainer in the detail levels mind you, but still functional. Oh yes and the forward flaps can move on hinges, not sure why, but those slanted parts near the front of the plane can move.

All in all I'd say this is a great looking set, there's nothing majorly wrong with it and I adore the character of Starscream. A few minor nitpickings aside this set is a worthy addition to your Kre-O Transformers collection and I award it one of my first ever 5 out of 5 star ratings. Even in spite of those nitpicks this set is great fun, simple and easy to build, incorporates a lot of the parts in vehicle mode including all of the robot mode joint pieces, so you're only left with a head, two hands and a few other odds and ends to do whatever you'd like with. (Like Refuelling Cell.)

And even with the number of parts left over afterwards, there is no end to the possibilities of building something functional and more importantly FUN for your Kreons to interact with. The addition of the ladder used by the Pilot to reach the cockpit is true to life and a great little aspect of realism for the display. (Even if it is prone to falling over at the drop of a penny.)

I can't even dock half a star for having less Kreons than Megatron at the same price point, because... Well Starscream! Yeah so I might be a little biased, still worth picking up, and earns every bit all five of my stars.

Now how come Hasbro hasn't thought of giving us Kre-O versions of Skywarp and Thundercracker? So what if we already got their Kreons in different sets, they could slap a G2 inspired paint job on Thundercracker's Kreon, while keeping the Kre-O G1 inspired like they did with Devastator... Or even better release the duo in Kre-O form in a special TRU Exclusive set including Micro-Changer versions of the three seekers Kreons, including Starscream. Maybe modify the design to add different weapons for the other two, and perhaps give each pilot a different face to reflect their personalities.

I know I'd buy it, and I'm sure a lot of Seeker enthusiasts would enjoy collecting all three of them in proper colors rather than being forced to use LEGO Pick-a-Brick and extra Starscream sets to get all the necessary pieces to make wrongly colored versions of SW and TC.

Well, that's my Kre-O Starscream review. Next time we'll continue with the Decepticon love and review a set from 2012 featuring a very colorful looking Kre-O figure. That's right, get ready to build up your rage, your Rotor Rage!

[Scrapper6]

Yikes, almost an enitre month has gone by without any new reviews. My apologies fellow Kre-O Enthusiasts, I've been so busy reviewing my latest LEGO acquisitions I almost forgot to finish off all the Kre-O sets waiting in the wings.

Well let's get started shall we?


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This is Rotor Rage, a purely Decepticon Themed set released in 2012 it features one of the members of the Combaticons in a new form. No longer a Huey style helicopter, Vortex has adated a much smaller single person craft with winch and cannons.


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The instructions and the box are the same as always, I'd forgotten how less detailed LEGO Instructions are, some of my recent re-builds have left pieces/steps out by accident due to the difference in detailing where each piece goes. KRE-O gives you a much more detailed level of building instructions and rarely will you miss a step. (Though it can happen after you've built the models a couple times and tend to jump ahead when re-building them.)


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This image shows off nearly everything you get in this set, unfortunately at the time of taking these photos over a month ago I forgot to grab Vortex's Kreon out from amongst the rest of the Decepticons for this shot. My bad.

As always you can build the model in either vehicle mode or robot mode, and as you can see this is the single most colorful looking Kre-O model to date. Vortex is built up of mostly tan, pink, purple and gray colors.

Personally I think the color choices for the pieces here are nice, certainly different and certainly capable of drawing the eyes when placed next to other Kre-O models. Sadly though the color palette isn't for everyone. Considering the Battleship line gave us a much more miliatristic version of a helicopter in standard army green I have to wonder why the designers chose to make Vortex here more colorful than his G1 design. (Which if memory serves was a mostly dark gray in coloring.)


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Odd color choices aside the Vortex Vehicle Model is fairly decent, not too bulky and with a very nice workable winch feature. His rotor however spins by twirling it with your hand instead of the cool button pressing feature/block that was used for the Battleship Combat Chopper. Kind of a let down honestly, although I can see why they might have needed to compromise for the sake of transformation... Well both modes at any rate. Because the block used in the Combat Chopper would have looked strange sitting on Vortex's robot mode back.

The open nature of the cockpit doesn't bother me as much as it might bother some fans, and by open nature I mean unfinished, unpolished lacking a fully enclosed area. The model when compared to the Combat Chopper leaves the cockpit a bit more open and slightly less detailed. A clever building kit enthusiast might have some fun re-working the cockpit to serve as a better represenation, as I said, personally it doesn't bother me that much. (LEGO has done it for years and it didn't bother me then, so why should it bother me now?)

Vortex's arsenal includes two rocket firing pieces with the standard push-to-fire brick and a winch. I enjoy the added play feature, the rockets are on ball/socket joints so they can rotate 360 degrees (with a bit of fiddling due to kibble and stuff), the winch is less than impressive for some. Instead of using a working winch geared piece you basically just string a few plates together, you can pull it up or lower it that's about all, and the purple piece that represents the winch mechanism can pop off with enough force applied to the pulling of the stringed pieces.

Shoring it up would be better, some of you may even opt to not include it in the construction, again I don't mind it, however it does feel a bit tacked on last minute.


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As with many models there are pieces left over, in point of fact this is quite a bit of pieces left over because Vortex has a lot of joint parts for his robot mode that aren't used in vehicle mode.

So I give you E-Something-Or-Other from Robocop. Or some equally odd looking mecha design.


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And here's the ATV, this set is focused on Decepticons and the pursuit of the Dark Energon piece, however this little vehicle with Kreon doesn't strike me as very Autobotesque. Personally since these are KRE-O sets linking in with the Prime toyline I'm inclined to believe that this little dude is secretly a MECH soldier.

This ATV is similar to the one found in Decepticon Ambush with Cliffjumper, and yet different. I like the uniform red color scheme and the rear mounted machine guns look much more menacing and attach better than Cliffjumper's poor excuse for a rocket launcher. (Although it is just as prone to popping off when you try to rotate it to face a threat as Cliffjumper's are.)

There are stickers for detailing on the rims, or... Whatever you call those things. And the red-on-black colors match the body armor worn by the Kreon.


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ATV Driver and Commando, two excellent little human Kreons. The Commando uses parts found in the Battleship line, he does have a unique torso print however, all of the Kreons pretty much get their own unique torso prints when it comes to the humans in military outfits.

He's carrying a familiar looking weapon and sporting the night-vision goggle helmet. While the ATV Driver only re-uses the weapon (a gattling style gun of some sort) and I think the helmet was first seen on the Pilot found in Combat Chopper.

Both Human Kreons are a step up from 2011's Kreons and can fit in great with your Battleship sets, if you'd care to mix-and-match or crossover Kreons.


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One Dark Energon piece built out of four small parts. Unlike with Cycle Chase you can actually have a Kreon hold this, I wouldn't bother though, it is such a tight fit you're likely to see stress marks or breakage, and it is a bitch to get out of the Kreon's hand. (Vortex's hand popped out of the socket before relinquishing this thing after the photo shoot.)


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Speaking of which, here at last is Vortex's Kreon. I do not yet know what he'll look like in the Micro-Changer Bruticus set, however this version makes for a nifty looking Kreon and a suitably colorful soldier in a sea of Vehicons.

Vortex reuses Soundwave's helmet, he has a seriously impressive printed chest with awesome details that are mostly covered up by the propellor armor attachment piece, but. You can see his little Decepticon symbol through the open hole in the front of his chest, sort of harking back to the Energon figures Spark Crystal gimmicks.

The propellor itself I find spins much better than Spinister's does. Perhaps a quality issue with Spinister, who knows. All I know is when this guy is flying, he's really flying. He also has one seeker weapon and that is the extent of his arsenal.

Vortex had two guns though so why they didn't just give him two is beyond me... Then again he'd look like a helicopter version of the Seeker if they'd done that.


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Comparison shot of Screamer's and Vortex's vehicle modes. scale wise they look good together, don't ya think?


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And here we have the official build of Vortex in robot mode. All those left-over joint parts from the vehicle model get used here and to great effect. Vortex is singularly one of the most poseable Kre-O's I've got.

True he has that awkward looking winch hanging off his left arm, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Vortex here is the only Kre-O in robot mode that can have Kreon interactivity thanks to the winch and not look odd because the Kreons attach to the bricks/plates on other Kre-O models by their legs. You can have the Commando or any human Kreon hold onto the winch and dangle off Vortex's arm, almost like he's holding on for dear life as Vortex whips him about, or tag-teams the Autobots with his special automatic weapon.

There is a lot more purple visible in this mode too, and pink, hell if you're a fan of the Friends LEGO theme Vortex would fit right in as the suitably menacing looking big brother of the Friends. lol


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And here's Vortex with his leader in robot mode, note the perfect scaling here as Megatron towers above his subordinate. The propellor on his back spins just as easily as it does in vehicle mode, and the rockets fire quickly too.

Also the head is one of the oversized ones, like all Decepticons seem to be. It works on this torso though and isn't out of place.


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Here's everything together, including the left-over parts not used in the robot mode construction. There are so few this time and they are quite large that integrating them into the build as some form of additional arsenal, or added armor or something is difficult. So my first attempt built a little display stand/hover board for Vortex. (Balancing him was tricky.)


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And just in case you thought I forgot, here's Vortex with his transparent purple chest/torso. A really useless gimmick I feel, Hasbro should have at least kept the printed detailing of the chests like the images on the box show, but I guess they figured the kids would want to mix and match and use the purple dark energon and blue energon powered up torsos with all their other Kreons too.


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Last, but never least, is my second attempt at building something out of the left-over parts. What I have dubbed the Assault Sled. Useful for ramming through Autobot Road Blocks by Decepticon Kreons, or transporting a hoard of Vehicons rapidly from one battlefield to the next.

Overall the Rotor Rage set is a solid offering by Hasbro and Oxford, there are a few minor quibbles, the colors for one might not be everyone's cup of tea. However it is a great set, and Vortex is full of joints that allow him to strike any pose you can imagine, plus since he isn't that top heavy he balances fairly nicely.

My rating for this set, is a solid 4.5 out of 5, with only a few things preventing it from being a complete 5 brick rating. (Such as the odd placement of the stickers for the forearm detailing when in vehicle mode. Seriously Hasbro could have skipped that part of the application in vehicle mode as you don't even see those stickers until robot mode. And as I said the open style cockpit will not be to everyone's tastes, so I rate it accordingly despite it not bothering me.)

Tomorrow (Yep you read right) we'll review the leader of the Decepticons in all his glory, and on Thursday expect to see another review of the YELLOW CURSE BRINGER HIMSELF! Large Bumblebee. Until then keep on building.