Kre-O Reviews by Scrapper6 (Now with Pictures)

[Scrapper6]

Hey folks it's a tad late, and due to some time restraints I've had to delay my Megatron Kre-O review until tomorrow. As there is a lot to cover and I don't want to rush it.

As a consolation here's some shots of my Shadow Megatron Kreon Custom Attempt. (Not much, just took Meg's head and slapped it on my spare Vehicon Body to see how it'd look. Turned out pretty decently if I do say so myself.)


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Well I hope you like his look, and tomorrow in the early evening be here to check out the Megatron Kre-O review, where parts of this Kreon came from. I'm tempted to track down a second Megs to make this Kreon permanently for my display, perhaps with a different black torso so he doesn't look exactly like the Vehicon.

I'll have to wait and see what kind of torsos we get out of the Micro-Change line, see if any of them look suitably Megatrony enough.

[Scrapper6]

As I said it is now early evening and so on with the review.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

These images are slightly out of proper order for a typical Kre-O review. Transformers Fans allow me to reveal to you the glory, the power, the awe-inspiring-might that is, Megatron!

And forgive me for channeling Lugnut there. This Kre-O model is quite impressive in vehicle mode, and it gives you a total of 4 Kreons. I scored this character from TRU at the discounted/clearance price of 22.98$ His full MSRP is 39.99$ if memory serves, same price as Starscream only with twice the number of Kreons. (What's up with that Hasbro?)


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Based on his DotM vehicle form this version of Megatron is massive, scale-wise he's definitely not in league with his subordinate Air Commander. He uses a lot of stickers for details, and could even pull Prime's trailer if you had both sets. (Stop thief!)

He's just all around bad a$$.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

You can store Kreon Accessories in the compartments on either side, provided they are small enough. He includes six large tires and rolls quite nicely, oh yes, and they're rubber.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

There's also an added play feature, Megatron's rear compartment is a Kreon prison. That's right you can have him capture Autobot or Human Kreons and haul them around while the driver is up front. Or you can store the un-used pieces in there since like all models not every piece is used in vehicle mode. And there aren't enough to even attemp making some kind of mech mode or anything.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Meet the Kreons, from left to right we have, Specialist, Shockwave, Megatron and Police (Officer?), four Kreons. Each one with their own unique look and feel.

I am sad to report that my Megatron Kreon has begun cracking in the wrists up the arm, and I never even put anything in his hands or anything like that.

While the Kreons are all solid looking figures their quality is much to be desired, a few of my Autobots have started cracking as well straight down the middle of the torso, I had a few theories about that, however my primary belief at this time is that the initial batch of Kreons are just too tight at the waist joint. It's fine for standard displays without moving anything, but if you twist the waist so their upper torso is facing sideways and leave it like that for an extended period of display time, the tightness and too-thick nature of the connector peg will eventually cause the cracking of the torso. (I strongly suspect.)

Still. All four of these Kreons are impressive looking, from the cute evilness that is Megatron to the twisted logical mind of Shockwave, the Specialist has a great scarred head piece print making him suitable to act as Megatron's driver and the Police Officer is a victim just waiting for capture.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Here's the image of the box finally, 2011 design is mediocre and tends to give some the blahs. (Myself included.) Functionally though they're superb.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

And the instructions at last. As always I can't get over how refined these manuals are compared to LEGO brand instructions.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

It took a large number of reviews to finally do it, but here's a shot of the interior of the instructions at last here's what a typical Kre-O Set instruction step looks like.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Behold! Leader and Air Commander standing side-by-side for our comparison shot. (This is one of the older reviews where I didn't have him in vehicle mode to do the comparison. Megatron is slightly taller than Starscream not counting his wing assembly.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

In robot mode we naturally have pieces that are left over, my initial attempt at building something was this. I haven't a name for it, just showing it off.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Here are those left-over parts again this time being used to bulk up his shoulder mounted cannon. And that's the last of the images unfortunately, I was trying to streamline a bit when taking Megs photos.

The robot model has been modded by many fans to make it look 'better' than the official build of this model. Personally, I don't think there's much wrong with the model. It is lanky and decently articulated. The smokestacks from vehicle mode also double as missiles, so you'd better not lose one of them by firing it off somewhere. Otherwise the truck model will suffer for it.

Overall I give Megatron a solid 5 out of 5 bricks, he's an awesome looking monster of a truck and a decently impressive looking robot mode, the jail cell even fits on his back and his fully functional in robot mode as well so the added play value is still there for the younger crowd. The Kreons are great too, in spite of the QC problems I feel that these Kreons are perfect for displaying, even playing with if you are careful and avoid too much rough housing.

I hope this review isn't sounding too distracted or anything, interruptions while typing can be a nuisance. Anyway, this time I mean it when I say Friday we'll be covering the large Bumblebee set. His review will be covered in two posts due to the number of photos taken for him.

[Scrapper6]

It's Friday, and so it is time to discuss the merits of Bumblebee and why the largest version of him in Kre-O form might be worth picking up.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Here we find the front of the box, standard stuff really.



This is a shot of the back of the boxes for 2011 Transformers. You can see how bland they looked back then compared to the 2012 designs. Don't get me wrong they serve their purpose well, however they don't look all that exciting which might be one of the reasons not as many kids got involved with Kre-O.



Yep, it's the instruction booklet again. We've all seen how sturdy and well thought out these are.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

And here we find the entire contents of the box, you'll notice that Bumblebee looks a bit darker than you might expect. His yellow is a much different shade from the smaller yellow, almost an orange tone really. Which I'm not 100% sure matches the movie design/color palette that this set is aiming for.



Here he is, G1 Kreon Bumblebee, one of the big reasons for getting this set if you prefer to have the Kreons of G1 characters as he hasn't been made available in any other sets. (Stealth Bumblebee features a Prime inspired one and next year we get Beast Hunters Kreon Bumblebee along with yet another Kre-O model... Can anyone say too many Bumblebees?)


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

And here's Bumblebee with Cliffjumper, notice how the detailing on the chest is pretty much identical, the only difference is CJ has painted white horns on his helmet.



And say hello to Red Alert, ultimately this is a great looking Kreon except...



As you can see by this side-by-side shot he pretty much shares every single part, in the same colors, with Sideswipe except for the torso. Yeah Red Alert is supposed to be a straight up repaint of Sideswipe in white, so why does his legs have to be red? I mean I know his name is Red Alert, but I don't remember his legs being all red, if anything they should be the same white as his torso with a bit of red paint on his toes or something.

His helmet also should have been red if they were going for accuracy and his gun could have been a different color too.

Overall while Red Alert is a nice bonus to recieve from this set I can't help but feel that Oxford over-produced too many Sideswipe parts, so Hasbro just had them make a new torso slap it together and call it a new figure. Nothing a bit of customizing can't fix, and yet why should we have to customize this guy to make him G1 toon accurate?

Ok so maybe I've ranted a bit here, still I'm justified, out of all the Kreons we've gotten this is the weakest slap-dash of parts that Hasbro oked. Hell even Skywarp and Thundercracker got unique torso printing, unique colors and unique heads. (In-spite of reusing all the parts of Starscream.)



Look out folks it's Movie Bumblebee in all his oversized glory. Yep this model is one massive Concept Camaro, as you'll find when we get to the comparison shot. I'm actually surprised at how many pieces this model uses in vehicle mode, and I'm really pleased that the doors aren't as hindered as Sideswipe's similar yet not identical build.



As you can see here instead of being one solid piece the doors are built, and open and close flush with the body of the car, allowing for easy and simple access for the Kreon driver.



One odd note is that long plate piece used for the dashboard, it doesn't actually connect so, when you roll Bumblebee around very quickly to simulate racing, or just reach your finger in and touch it, it will slide down into the driver's compartment.

Really the only complaint I have about this model (aside from the plastic tires and the hastily slapped onto the roof missile launching joke of a weapon.) You don't need to put the weapon on in this mode though, and some might prefer to leave it off.



NONONONONONONONONONONONONONO! BUMBLEBEE! Yep, while the box calls him Driver, with that hairdo and goofy looking smile this Kreon can be only one character, Sam 'The Beef' Witwicky. And it looks like he's taking fashion advice from Prime, note the flame detail he's added to his shirt/torso. LOL



And these are all that's left once the car model is built, slap them all together and you've got something of a figure stand or small outpost dealie for your Kreons.



See, Bumblebee is manning the field base. (Or whatever you want to call it.) No psuedo mecha/mech mode here, the car uses up most of the robot's joints in its construction.




Et voila, Starscream and Bumblebee comparison shot I promised, look at this terribly bad scaling... Oh who the hell cares it's a Kre-O set based on Transformers, if I wanted scale I'd be going for only the sets that scale well together.

Well, this reaches the maximum of fiteen pictures in one post allowed, see I told you there were a lot of images. Be here in three minutes when we come back with the robot mode images and reveal what I think of this set.

[Scrapper6]

Last time on Transformers Kre-O, Sam Witwicky was driving Bumblebee to Mikeala's place to get some gas, and have a quick look over for a tune-up and lube job when suddenly, out of nowhere, Starscream the evil Decepticon Air Commander attacked! The horror left us with this unfortunate development.



But Sam has the technology and he can rebuild him. We now return to your regularly scheduled Kre-O Review.



After that bit of harmless fun, and showing off what it looks like when you've emptied all the plastic bags in the box, we now present Bumblebee in Hasbro Officially Approved Robot Mode which is to say un-modded Bumblebee.

He's got a fair decent range of motion, looks surprisingly close to his on-screen model in many ways and even gets to have a real, working weapon. Sadly his weapon is really just a brick that launches a missile.



With these parts left over you can once again build a little station for the Kreons to man while Bumblebee takes down his nemesis... And since Barricade hasn't been made in Kre-O form yet, that means he's going to fight Starscream.

Still that silly looking brick gun needed something...



So I used some of the spare parts left over from the vehicle build to bulk up the gun and make it actually look like, well, a gun.



What's truly interesting to note, Bumblebee's head is a combination G1 and Movie. There aren't any horns to speak of, but he does have an actual face and then, almost like he's wearing some kind of helmet, his chin strap thing looks like the vocoder box of the movie design's mouth.

Admittedly it makes him look kind of odd, is he G1 playing at being Movie or Movie playing at being G1?



BEHOLD! I just love shouting that, lookie what we got here, a couple of pint sized knuckle draggers... Uh, I mean, it's a smorgasboard of Autobot Kre-O sets and our good friend Bumblebee towers above them all.

Since when did little Bumblebee become such a giant of a mech? He's totally out of scale with anybody, except Optimus, Sentinel, Megatron and Starscream who are all taller than him.

But again, who the slag cares so much about scale where Kre-O is concerned? Certainly not I. (Well maybe just a teensy bit, but this doesn't bug me too much.)



G1 and Movie together at last, not that anybody wanted to see this kind of crossover. You can really see the difference in the yellow colors between the two models here.

Another huge difference is the detailing involved thanks to stickers. You might also notice a slight difference on the smaller Bumblebee compared to his review's images, that's because I slapped the extra two black stickers on him to get rid of the sheet. They don't take away from his look either way.



And here we have a much better Kreon manned battle station, using the same pieces that were left out of the robot model the first time. I just wasn't feeling the original extra build so I fiddled around a bit and got something I like a whole lot better.

You can see there's place to store weapons, an extra table where the Medic can help other injured Kreons on the stretcher, and some controls for... Whatever purpose you'd care to use them for.

My overall thoughts on this set. It's pretty big, a bit pricey honestly and the missile launcher just looks stupid in either mode so you might want to do some tweaking with it. The Kreons are great, I dig Bumblebee in all his G1 glory and even Sam looks decent, if only Red Alert wasn't such a cop out. If the Micro-Changers give us a red Sideswipe helmet I'm buying two of that guy to at least swap the black one out. Maybe even add some white legs to him because as it is Red Alert is a real downer and the weakest Kreon in existence. (Even compared to the human Kreons.)

The models are pretty great, by the time I'm done collecting all of Kre-O though I'm going to wonder if we wind up with more than Four Bumblebees, it seems every year has seen him in some form or other. So where's Movie Barricade to fight this one? He's pretty poseable too and the stickers aren't as obtrusive as on some models.

I still have to wonder why part of the dashboard for vehicle mode wasn't locked onto any studs though. It's a bit of a head scratcher.

Ratings wise, I'm going to say this set deserves a solid 4.5, especially if you scored it from TRU this past week for 10$, I got him for 15$ at Zellers and... That wasn't so bad of a price either.

Whew, now we're all caught up. The only other Kre-O set I've already photographed is Decepticon Ambush and I think I'll give you all a break/chance to catch up here and wait for next week to post it. Which will give me more time to prepare Sentinel for his photo shoot and finish taking the pics for the Micro-Changer Preview Wave.

Until next week, may your brick building fun continue and let's hope to see many creative mods to existing models just to see what you might come up with.

[Scrapper6]

In three days time 2012 will officially be over, the end of another year means many things, some that you might find... Chilling, depressing, envigorating, uplifting, hopeful, and so on and so forth. What does it mean for me? Finally getting caught up with my Kre-O Reviews, until I pick up something new of course.

Don't get me wrong, we've still got a certain traitor of the Prime's waiting for the editing and picture quality assurance set raring to go. But I think I'll save the Douche for an early 2013 Kre-O Review.

That being said, let us discuss Cannon Fodder Steve in all his glory! (And no, this does not mean I endorse stupid internet Memes, I just know when to employ them for added comical effect.)



14.99$ is the asking price at retail, last I checked, for a deliciously wicked looking bunch of Kreons. The set is similar to Cycle Chase in that it wants you to own more of them for a little Kreon army, however where Cycle Chase had a fairly decent looking model to accompany the Kreons, I'm a bit more leery about the model included with Decepticon Ambush.

(This photo was taken before I got my replacement Kreon Head for the lone Headless Vehicon, so you'll only be seeing five Kreons with actual heads in this and the following images.)



This is Cliffjumper's Off-Road 4x4 Buggy thing-a-mabob, I have no idea what you'd prefer to call it, I'm sticking with ATV and being done with it. The ATV Model is built differently from the one we've previously seen in Rotor Rage, and I think it suffers a bit from lack of fun features.

In Cycle Chase, Barricade is allowed to drive a Motorcycle with a Missile-Firing Side-Car or Drone Robot. But here in Decepticon Ambush, Cliffjumper is given a stupid looking quad-wheeled death dealer, that can't actually fire any missiles, rockets or anything else.

On top of that the official build for the vehicle doesn't allow for much grip on those cannons on the back, or locking in, or however it's explained. Basically if you're fiddling around to get them to point at the Vehicons you're just going to pull the whole damn thing off like that *Snaps Fingers* because there is nothing holding it onto the back of the ATV for secure measures. And there aren't really any useful parts left over to try and actually make it better.



The alternative mobile assault weapon is, I suppose somewhat decent, but again it lacks in fun factor due to the absence of any actual real working missiles like with Cycle Chase.



Then too there's this abudance of left over parts that don't really work out as anything other than a cluttered mess on the shelf.

I haven't really experimented too much with the parts offered up for this model, however I'm not too sure what, aside from the main models you can actually manage to pull off and still look half-way decent. Honestly if it weren't for the Vehicons in this set, this thing would not be worth picking up more than one of, on deep clearance at that. I get that some people actually like this type of vehicle, however it just does not look like something that Cliffjumper would be driving. Something like the Tron Light-Cylce or some kind of tri-wheeled, arsenal loaded, over-compensating death dealing menace of doom would have been a better all around model to include for a character like Cliffjumper.



What the vehicle model lacks the Vehicon add-on model/elements more than makes up for it. Here you see two sets total making a little road-block, ambush station thing. Four of this set alone would make an awesome four-corner outpost that the Vehicons man, or you could try just getting the parts to build up the little doo-dad with the light on it.

The spiky tire-busting thing isn't much to look at it, considering the number of pieces used in it, however it doesn't only work on Cliffjumper's ride. You can place it anywhere and all your Kre-O sized Autobots better watch out lest they lose their tires.



Here is Cliffjumper with Cliffjumper, since I had two sets and one of the arms was royally cracked I decided on opening up the second one. The parts are all the same from Bumblebee, only this time they are in a nice almost shiny looking red, the only thing I might not agree with is the little white paint job on his horns.

Sure it's cute and all, but they don't wow me as much as others might. Also it kind of detracts from the familiar single-toned coloring that the original duo of Cliffjumper and Bumblebee had.

Once again there is the Energon Torso included, in blue for the Autobots, Yeah this is the first time you've gotten to see it, as this is the only set so far I've picked up with an Autobot Energon Torso. I still think the gimmick is a bit goofy, and really wish they'd added the painted detail of the main character's torsos like the box art shows. Still it works well enough for the kiddies I suppose. (Or do they just lose it as soon as they open this set up???)



Army of Faceless Warriors. Deluge of Cannon Fodder. Soldiers of the Decepticon War Machine. This is the main reason you want this set, possibly even three, four or more of this set. That's right, it's an army of Vehicon Kreons. (I really hope a later wave of Micro-Changers will include another Vehicon we can use as a General or something, maybe even an easier way to army build the Kreon without also having an army of CJs.)

Each Vehicon, much like each Autotrooper has its distinctive class. There's the Aerial Unit with the new, smaller wing pack. The Ground Unit with the tires and the hand-held gun. Then the lowly Support Unit, or Grunt, or something, with an Arm-Cannon and pretty much nothing else.

As you can tell by the above image all of these guys have the same details, the same colors and the same faces, so mixing them up to differentiate them is all done with the accessories. Right now I've got four aerial units due to the extra wing pack that came in my headless Vehicon bag. I'm strongly thinking of grabbing a fourth set, however Kre-O would have to be on a really great discount, like 50% off the small sets before I even think about grabbing another one of these. Either that or a BOGOF deal, I just do not care for the main vehicle build in this set.



And here, showcasing the lovely Decepticon Symbol Piece, is our friend Headless Steve... Or maybe Headless Joe, what do ya know Headless Joe?



Dark Energon Pieces!

Not much to it, you get a clear purple brick and one of those clip pieces that Kreons can hold in clear purple. (Again I caution you not to put it in any actual Kreon hands, even if they can hold it it can be a bear to get out.)



Using both Cycle Chase parts and both Decepticon Ambush parts I managed to build... Well some sort of cannon thing, it wasn't much, but it was something you could do to combine the parts.



And here is the Decepticon Ambush box, a great looking little box, and despite my meh feelings about the vehicle in this set the image really makes it stand out as looking cool.



This is the back of the box. See how much it shows off the fun contents of the set? Yeah, maybe not as thrilling as what LEGO has to offer, but it works at grabbing the kiddies attention.



The Instructions are pretty much identical to Cycle Chase, a fold-out sheet that tells you how to build everything. Nothing much really, however it is straightforward enough and easy to follow.



We end this review with a little bit of fun, here you see what you might be tempted to build with three of these sets lying around. You've got the regular version of the ATV for Cliffjumper, then using the spare parts from the second set who is permanently in weapon emplacement mode you can build a little extra trailer or something for other Autobot Kreons to ride on into battle.

You also get a slightly alternative take on the rear mounted cannons, this method makes them much more stable as they are actually held onto the back of the vehicle properly. I can't understand why Hasbro would think one little plate piece would work better than that other square piece to hold everything on?

Well there you have Decepticon Ambush, a fun little troop builder set, at least where the Kreons are concerned. I think it could stand a bit more polish honestly, and I find myself rating accordingly. This only gets a solid 3 out of 5 from me, that vehicle, if the wheels weren't so monstrously huge it might actually work better, as it stands if it weren't for the Vehicon Army Building potential this set wouldn't get higher than a 2 from me. I'm just that mehed out from the main vehicle build.

Feel free to agree or disagree all you like.

Be here next year for our first review of 2013, Sentinel Prime, ironically enough a set released in 2011. And all throughout 2013 expect more great Kre-O reviews, I'm planning to pick up both Devastator sets, all the Micro-Changers I can lay my hands on and everything still to go from 2012, 2011 and whatever new sets are on offer for 2013.

Actually I'm kind of hoping the little set with Trailcutter, or whatever Hasbro's calling him, and Windcharger show up in January. At least it'd be nice to find some cheap Kre-O sets to get while I focus more on preparing for the Fort Max release at Spring Time.

[Scrapper6]

Welcome to 2013, well you know it's been a few weeks and so I've finally finished the editing process now that I've had time to get down to it. So we're going to discuss the second last 2011 Kre-O set today, the second largest 2011 Kre-O set as well as far as piece counts and box sizes go.

This review will take two posts to show off entirely, as there are more pictures than the site will allow in one post, mostly to showcase every possible thing about the models in question I found relevant.

The MSRP for this set was, if I'm very much not mistaken, around 54.99$ Since I bought it from Winners for 25$ I can't fully recall what the actual price was before everybody started clearing it out. Good luck finding this one, anywhere, even TRU no longer seems to have any in stock. I certainly hope it won't be too hard to track down a 2011 Optimus Prime real quick next week, for a deal of a price, as that one is also hard to come by now-a-days and the last one I need to pick up.

Anyway, here's his box, so you have an idea of who we're talking about.



That's right we're talking Sentinel Prime, someone who was just a throwaway line back in the 80's Marvel Era of comic books, it was said Optimus succeeded him as leader of the Autobots. There was very little known about his characterisation, however he was always quite benevolent or at least we were meant to assume he was as noble and self-sacrificing as Optimus.

Then along came more modern interpretations of the character and Sentinel is now considered to be the biggest Douche this side of actually joining the Decepticons. (And in one reality he even did join them.) Yes, Sentinel Prime has become synonymous with traitors, jerks and douchebags.



Here's a first for my Kre-O reviews, a glance at the contents of the Kre-O Container before fully opened, yep those are all the parts in the set still bagged, pristine, waiting to be open.



And here we have the instructions and even the un-used (for the moment) sticker sheet. You'll notice a different slant to the review this time over, for most of the pictures I had a bit of fun, here's the Kre-O reviewed as he is built inside his Kre-O Container.



After fully building the main vehicle model you're left with this as the contents of the box. Look at that level of detail, this version of Sentinel Prime borrows quite heavily from the DotM version, for the most part. And that fire truck is gorgeous to behold, I haven't built many fire trucks out of bricks in my time, I tend to get very few of the modern LEGO City sets as I focus more on licensed and other Themes before the more commonplace and constantly available ones. So I was really impressed with Sentinel here, this is a very accurate interpretation of the real life model for the vehicle... I've plum forgotten the name, sorry.



A lot of details are achieved with stickers, Sentinel however is still truly breathtaking. He's got fully functional doors, a raising and lowering water cannon, two side-ladders for Kreons. (Although the ladders aren't the best accessories as they don't connect to anything when in use and so are a bit tricky to get the Kreons actually standing on them without causing them to fall flat on their face.) And space for a good number of Kreons in his front cab section, if I were to hazard a guess I'd say four could sit there quite comfortably.



The water cannon uses a pressure based missile, similar to Megatron and Bumblebee's weapons, the front of the cab as seen head-on is truly marvelous, Sentinel here has the most detailed looking vehicle mode out of the first bunch of figures and surprisingly enough he uses a pretty fair number of pieces. I think out of all my 2011 Kre-O sets the absolute favorite vehicle mode so far is Sentinel, with Megatron and Starscream tieing for a close second. And the price... A set like this from LEGO would more than likely cost you a pretty penny, and more than likely would be scaled in the Technic range rather than the Mini-Figure range for accurate detailing and scale.



He's even got fun little details on his rear end. Although the sticker with his name on it is my own interpretation, to date this is the only 2011 Kre-O set I've picked up where the nameplate sticker is not actually placed on the model in the Instructions, it's completely optional. As there are no 1x2 white plates for it to be placed on included with this set as there are in all the others, you'll recall all the 2011 sets put the name on a white plate, but here it's on a red one. That's because Sentinel didn't have any white plates, in fact he's got extra red ones that aren't really used. Spares in case of lost parts I'd wager.



There are of course a small number of pieces not built into the vehicle mode, once again I give you my Mech Mode for Sentinel's unused parts. This is the first attempt, I think the second one you'll be seeing later on is a much better looking Mobile Mech design.



Sentinel includes four Kreons, just like Megatron. Here we have Soundwave, a fun looking Kreon with a very G1 accurate approach, in fact underneath his helmet instead of a regular mouth is a speaker to explain why he's always talking in monotone. To this point I believe Soundwave and Shockwave are the only Kreons to feature different head printings, without regular looking face designs for the 'Protoform' state.



Then we have Thundercracker, who is much darker than the box would lead you to believe. On the box his Kreon is colored more in tone with his G1 Animation model's light blue, the actual Kreon however is a much darker color, closer to Soundwave in color and also to the original G1 toy if I'm not mistaken.

The Seekers all have different faces and chest detailing, the only thing they share is the weapons and the helmets.

It's nice to see Hasbro including some characters we might not have gotten otherwise, the seekers are highly collectible and sometimes it takes a while to get the complete '84 set. This time all it took was three Kre-O set purchases and you'd have them all.




Here we have Sentinel Prime's Kreon, I am not 100% sure on which version this is trying to emulate, as it clearly does not take cues from the Animated or DotM designs, some have pointed out it's more in legue with IDW Comics design or something, the way the helmet looks I couldn't be sure honestly... All I know is it's nice to see him, the details on his chest are pretty unique looking too... I just wish they'd given him a different weapon.

He's using Sideswipe's cannon in Black here, which probably should have gone to Red Alert, or perhaps Sideswipe himself. The gun is too big for Kreons, renders them top heavy and looks a bit unwieldly. I'd much prefer to see him using his trademark blade and shield weapons, it would have been nice to see him with melee weapons instead of a generic gun that many future Autobots would recieve in Kreon form.



Our human Kreon is called Fire Chief and includes all of the accessories found with Ratchet, except for the stretcher of course. In place of the stretcher we have two yellow blowhorns, or something, at first I thought they were part of the vehilce mode, horns for the truck. But the instructions do not show them being used anywhere, so I have to assume they are meant to be Kreon accessories.

All four Kreons are pretty solid, although the Fire Chief being a nameless human is automatically the less desireable out of the entire set, as far as Kreon only Collectors are going to think.



Here's the second attempt at a Mech Mode, which I found to be a bit better than my first attempt.

As I had no Kre-O sets built in vehicle mode except Sentinel, here we find the comparison between Sentinel's vehicle mode next to two LEGO vehicles.



The Republic Cruiser of course is much longer, I do believe however that both sets look cool side-by-side, and the little Toy Story army jeep is just dwarfed by Sentinel's fire truck mode.

Well that covers the entire Vehicle Mode portion of the review, check below for a quick follow up on the robot mode and stuff, as I said there are too many pictures to put in a single post.

[Scrapper6]

And now for a quick follow up with Sentinel's robot mode and my ratings for the set.

But first...



Like with all models once you've built the robot mode you get parts left over. In this case there weren't enough to really try to make much out of, however there were enough to make a sort of storage area for the Kreon Accessories. And the ladders, with a bit of careful balancing. It's crude, ungainly and not the best model, but it's the best attempt I got out of all the left over parts.



Much like the vehicle mode, Sentinel's robot mode borrows heavily from his DotM model, he's got the large shield and double-bladed weapon and he's got all the right points of articualtion.

He's pretty big too, unfortunately after I took the first half of the photos for this review I re-organized my bedroom and got rid of the much larger dresser you're familiar with from my reviews and group shots. So I couldn't take a shot of all the Autobot Kreons together, I'll be sure to rememdy that when I finally get and review the large Optimus Prime from 2011.



While most of the model is obviously inspired from his DotM character model, Sentinel here is bearing a much more familiar looking head design. Yep, wheras Bumblebee sort of merged two iterations into one head design for the larger model, Sentinel here is squarely using a head design based off his Animated version, in a less super huge chin version.

I guess this means that Kre-O Sentinel Prime is not a Dark of the Moon version, but more of a combination, more than likely because the Dark of the Moon's unique facial design just wouldn't fly with the kids. I mean who wants to own an old man face robot? (Besides us hardcore adult fans of course still clamoring for Alpha Trion.)

Overall this is a very solid looking model and one of the best Kre-O based designs out of the lot, it incorporates a lot of the pieces in both modes (in fact, the water canon is still on his back and I added a few left over parts to the back that wouldn't fit on the accessory storage rack properly.), the Kreons included in the set are all very well detailed and very much desireable characters. (With exception to the bland generic human Kreon.)

Sentinel is a top rated set I feel deserving of five bricks out of five. He's got awesome detail work, accurate to the on-screen counterpart, his weapons are integrated into the hand builds quite well, his robot mode is solid and sturdy and doesn't have any odd proprotions really. Plus the animated head design on the DotM body is a fun little combination. Not even the fact that his Kreon is missing trademark Melee weapons can bring this set down any marks, yes he's a solid model all around and well worth tracking down. I highly recommend him.

Our next review will feature the Preview Wave of Micro-Change Kreons, and after that, provided I can track them all down, we'll be seeing Wave One of the Micro-Changers and the first batch of Micro-Change Combiners... With possibly more 2012 sets to showcase and the 2011 Optimus Prime Large Set... But for now just stay tuned to see what I think of the Micro-Changers in general, and also for a very special guest as part of that review, one I hadn't known was going to be around for it.

[Scrapper6]

Well folks it's that time again, time for another Kre-O review, this time we'll be discussing the Micro-Changers Kreon Preview Wave (with Special Guest), and much like some of the larger set reviews this one actually has a lot more images than I thought it would, so we'll be breaking it up between two posts. On with the show.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The Micro-Changers are a new style of play pattern for Kre-O, taking a cue from similar brick build toylines the fellows over at Hasbro have introduced individually packaged Kreons. The big selling point for these are the fact that with a small number of pieces you can have a Kreon in Robot mode or a 'Vehicle/Beast/Alternative' Mode.

The packaging is special envelopes or pouches with easy to tear off tops (making thievery simplistic for shoplifting kiddies), inside you will find a second plastic bag (the same kind that all Kreons come in) with all the parts and a folded sheet of 'instructions'.

The packaging is pretty simple, it's a basic white color with Kre-O Micro-Changers stamped on the top and an image of some of the Kreons in 'Dynamic Action Poses!' For the Preview Wave you have all six available on the package, from left to right there's Scorponok, Galvatron and Sunstorm on top with Crankstart, Spinister and Waspinator on the bottom.

The back of the envelope shows you the entire Preview Wave available and gives you the standard copywright information. Unlike similar brands the Kreons are numbered, for the Preview Wave you will find these numbers on the bottom of the envelope, what I believe is a batch number of some type or something followed by a single digit number which reveals who is who.

7 for Spinister, 8 for Galvatron, 9 for Sunstorm, 0 for Crankstart, 1 for Scorponok and 2 for Waspinator.

This makes it much easier to buy who you want and what you want, it also makes it easier to select which doubles you'd care to pick up for either extra Kreon parts or to have one for Robot Mode and one for Alt Mode.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

We'll start things off with Spinister, a personal favorite of mine. Spinister is a little purple and dark blue Kreon based on one of the Dual Targetmasters from the good old days of G1, a curious choice for our first batch of Not-So-Blind Packed Kreons.

As you can see in the image above he uses all of his available pieces in both modes, in robot mode the undercarriage gattling cannons becomes a hand-held variety, while his vehicle mode uses them to great effect. (The Clear Stand is from a LEGO set, it does not come with the Kreon sadly.)


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Like with most Kreons who wear something for kibble the chest detailing is partially covered up by the Helicopter Backpack, it isn't as bad though as the Tac Vests from Battleship that a lot of these first batches of Micro-Changers are using.

His vehicle mode is nothing more than the swapping of parts from his weapon sitting on his face kind of transformation/parts-formation, but for something as small as a Kreon it is serviceable.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Up next we have Crankstart, I believe a name re-use from one of the Triggercons of G1, this is another curious first outing for the Micro-Changer line, it isn't a big named character we've commonly seen up to this point. He's like D-Level or E-Level Characters, someone you wouldn't expect to see as a Kreon until all of the typical 84-86 characters have shown up.

As you can see I picked up three of him, he looks generic enough that he could pass as a Decepti-Trooper, or Decepticlone, and here we see the Tac Vests of Battleship used for his front kibble.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Or in the case of my alternate robot mode configuration the back-kibble. While these Tac Vest parts serve to cover up the unique torso printing Hasbro insists upon for each of their Kreon Micro-Changers, I think the beefer looking version of Crankstart's robot mode is pretty nifty. Plus it has the added benefit of allowing for all of his parts to attach to him in robot mode. (Minus the extra wheels, in case you were wondering the extra wheels from two of these Crankstarts are currently being used to give two of my kibble-free Autotroopers wheels to simulate Motorcycle Variants.)


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

And here we find an alternate variation on his Vehicle mode transformation, using two Crankstarts you can make a double-barreled ground vehicle, simulating the Triggercon effect of his G1 days.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Next up is the Emperor of Destruction himself, Galvatron. Quite an effecting looking Kreon is he not, he's got some really great chest detailing that sadly get's covered up when you turn him into Kibbletron, seriously with the Tac Vest on him and all the parts to his 'vehicle' mode on his back he's basically a top-heavy disaster.

As you can see in this shot I found a much more effective use for all those extra parts. Leaving the torso print free to show off the great looking Galvatron chest detailing. Yep you can build a standing cannon of some type, much better use for all those parts and it even incorporates the Tac Vest so you aren't left with any loose parts.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Here's a side shot of the cannon and the official 'alt form', seriously Hasbro made up something that looks atrocious as far as alt modes look. It's worse than Cybertron Metroplex's sit down on my ass and curl up to pretend I'm some kind of vehicle alt mode. It is utterly a disgrace to call this thing an alt mode.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Fortunately there are alternatives. Take this attempt for example, instead of making him look like a splayed out statue or whatever here we have a cannon mode that, while not accurate to G1, at least looks like something menacing. (And not the AHHHHHH FEAR ME FOR I AM THE BOX GHOST patheticness of the official mode.)


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Waspinator here is another fine example of a Kreon who has gone to waste, but first of all let's adress something much more important.

Wazzzzzpinator izzz prepared to infiltrate the competition's offices because Wazzzzzpinator has yellow hands.

Yep, Waspinator is the first Kreon to use the same yellow coloring that is found on all of LEGO's Mini-Figures for his hands. He also reuses Jazz's helmet quite effectively as the alternate non-mutant head of the original Waspinator toy.

If only they'd made a piece to mount the wings better so it wouldn't cover up the exclusive torso printing.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

As you can see from this shot there are two ways to make Waspinator, the official use less parts way on the right and my alternative take giving him a proper thorax in robot mode. Take a spare C-Clip part from your existing parts bin and you too can mimic this re-build of waspinator's back assembly.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Here's all the wonderful printing that Hasbro included on the Kreon that the Tac Vest and Jazz's helmet cover up. A shame really, but I'm not about to break the toy just to show off that alternate printing. Although it is an option, as many fans have simply hacked off the front of the Tac Vest, personally I think that's a crying shame as the part is pretty fun looking in that green coloring.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

And last, but certainly not least, for part one of our look at the Preview Wave is Waspiantor's official Beast Mode. He's pretty fun looking, even if you are left with a spare set of legs once he's transformed.

Also I don't think his arms should be facing forward as they are here, because it looks a little off honestly. Still that's the official build so I pretty much stick with that, for the time being.

In a few short moments we'll discuss the last two members of this Preview Wave, the overall thoughts and of course our special guest.

[Scrapper6]

And now our last two Kreons, Scorponok and Sunstorm.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Scorponok is another interesting choice to see, based on his G1 design he uses the helicopter backpack piece for his tail, which as you can see doesn't quite reach up above his head.

By adding all the extra bits it does go a bit higher, but looks terrible and not very accurate. He also doesn't come with ordinary Kreon hands, instead you attach the two round pieces to his arms and then slide the claw-weapon pieces found in Battleship Kre-O sets to simulate the claws of the G1 toy.

These are notorious for stressing out the plastic, a common problem amongst Kreons in general, to date I haven't heard of any breaking or anything, just stressing.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The backpack covers up some nice chest detail printing that the character has, most unfortuante, but easily remedied if you prefer not having the tail on his back.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Scorponok's official transformation in the instructions seems to indicate that you just balance the upper torso and scorpion tail kibble onto the lower leg holding piece and it isn't meant to attach. This is never going to work, because balancing Scorponok is already a pain even if you could balance it on that piece the way the instructions seem to say you can.

In reality you have to attach the piece with the clip onto the chest armor piece, which rotates around for the beast mode, and then you still have to fight to get him balanced just so as he can be rather top heavy.

And you also get a spare set of legs lying around as loose parts once the build is done.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

The last member of the Preview Wave is the only one to date I've picked up only one copy of, for the most part I originally had no plans to pick up two of any of them, with exception to generic looking Crankstart and Spinister (because I like the character and design a lot here.), however I began to get a bit concerned that constant transformations would damage or break the clips on Scorponok and Waspinator, so I wound up grabbing an extra set of them.

Then I snagged another Galvatron just for the hell of it, I'm still debating if I want to get doubles of all these Micro-Changers.

Sunstorm is a great choice for this set, he's a seeker so everybody loves them. Plus he fits in nicely with Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker. (Which I'll be doing a photo of during my Big Optimus review, if I ever can get that last 2011 set.)

His kibble or extra parts unfortunately don't integrate very well, Hasbro says they are supposed to be some kind of blaster weapon with dual barrels or something, I think he doesn't need them as a robot and they proove superfluous.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

His vehicle mode is fairly simplistic looking too, but it is fun to fiddle with and incorporates all of the pieces except the helmet, the only Kreon that uses all the parts is Spinister, officially in both modes, while the others fail to incorporate every piece in both modes. Galvatron (who's helmet isn't used), Scorponok and Waspinator, Crankstart also technically, but since I gave his spare tires to other Kreons he doesn't really have left over parts around.





Here's a group shot (with Official Galvatron) all in vehicle mode, I took this shot before I modified Galvatron into the better alt mode. Something I forgot to mention, his legs aren't supposed to be splayed out like that according to the instructions. However since he's so top heavy you can't just leave them facing backwards like Hasbro would want you to. He just falls over alot.

Gotta love those clear LEGO stands for aerial modes, if they offered up those pieces by themselves I'd be tempted to pick up a bunch to show off the aerial Kreons.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Here's a group shot in robot mode, Spinister can use the stand even in this mode to help him balance while holding his massive weapon, as the weapon renders him top heavy in robot mode unless he's attached to something.

Overall I think this first batch of Micro-Changers is ok, it certainly has some design flaws. The Tac Vests and covering up all the chest details, as well as the stupidly tacked on alt mode for Galvatron, but this style of play is fun and cute enough to make highly collectible Micro-Changers really sought after.

I'd rate the first batch at a solid 3 out of 5, for the most part I like the looks of them and what Hasbro is attempting, points are marked off for Galvatron's horrible alt mode and the very genuine fear that certain fragile parts could snap or break easily after multiple transformations.

Still, you can't go wrong with the Kreons Hasbro have been making in the sets, and being able to buy a bunch of characters on the cheap side instead of going after the larger sets... Well you'd have to wait an awfully long time to get a set with Spinister and Crankstart or the Beast Era characters. It's just a shame that the entire Preview Wave was only made up of Decepticons, to date the Autobot to Decepticon Ratio with Kreons is a bit skewed in the 'Cons favor.



Now we'll move on to that special guest I mentioned, above you will note a new type of packaging. This is how the exclusive Orange G2 Constructicon Devastator Kreon came packaged.

A giveaway from Hasbro at TRU (apparently only in Canada) for spending a certain amount on Kre-O sets, this giveaway unsurprisingly resulted in less stellar sales than Hasbro was thinking (I'd wager) as I managed to get this puppy for free without haveing to actually buy any Kre-O sets. Then again my situation was probably a fluke as I had made a rapport with one of the cashiers and she gave it to me in January.

I really dig the packaging on even this little Kreon, Hasbro put a lot of attention to detail in it, it's just such a shame that it is such a limited quantiy item as not a lot of people have been able to enjoy it. (On top of that I'm kind of worried about hands snapping due to the unique weapon he uses and being difficult to replace.)


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I hope this picture shows off the orange correctly. Devastator here is a unique Kreon, and now that the Micro-Changer Combiners have been introduced may be the only combiner to recieve his own Kreon.

He's got a lot of frontal printing showing off the details found on his original G1 model, there are the wings on his chest, a little piece to represent Mixmaster's drum on one leg and the other where Scrapper goes to show off that shovel arm. (Although I think this detailing is slightly inaccurate.)

The regular Devastator set features a version in Green, a special TRU exclusive set with Kre-O Ironhide buildable features the G2 Yellow colour, which was more common. This version represents the rarer G2 Orange colouring found mostly in the UK I think... At least I don't remember seeing the Orange Constructicons in Canada during the G2 days, but then again it's been so long ago it's hard to recall.

His weapon is a small representation of Megatron's alt mode, in translucent purple. Not the same dark purple that the Energon Bodies of last year were found in, no this is an almost pink purple colour, which isn't very menacing. It also includes the stock and rifle parts, so you can only put it into his hand one way, which stresses out the hand a bit with repeated use.

Overall I'd have to say, if you managed to get this little bugger he's a really great looking collector's item to have. Since he is just a Kreon I'm not going to bother rating him, I can't wait to grab the other two Devastator sets to show him off beside his buddies, expect to see those by the summer time I'd wager.

I'm not sure when my next review will go up, it depends on what I choose to review next out of all the wonderfully fun Kre-O sets I get around to grabbing. Hope this review has been enlightening, or at least informative.

[Scrapper6]

Well folks it's official, I hate the internet, I hate it so much I'm prepared to simply just image dump and let you sort it out.

Spent an hour typing up my review, internet explorer encountered a problem and had to shut down.

F it I say, f it all to hell because copy paste failed to preserve what the hell I was doing at crunch time.

Here's the shots for the review, take a look at the toys, enjoy them folks, I'm not wasting my time trying to type back what the hell I said originally and there's no point in working on a new bloody review.



Dragon Assault box, box fun.



Instructions.



Back of box.



Contents, two characters, Trailcutter: Autobot. Grimwing: Predacon.



Vehicle Mode, fairly decent improvement.



Kreons in scale with Grimwing when in vehicle mode? Maybe.



Mech Venom Strike.



Cross Promotion on back of instructions first time all Kre-O sets from a year have been shown. Combiners optional.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Action shots on back of box. Fun.

Eh, kinda.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Two characters and a gun this time, but meh, Dragon Assault is better out of the two I think.

Windcharger: Autobot, Corhada: Predacon (Only place found so far from the Beast Hunters sub-line.)


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Vehicle modes first to rely on stickers in these sets. Fairly decent alt modes though, compared to some Micro-Changers.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Missile launcher, kids might like it. Bang, bang, pew, pew. Takes away from Predacon build potential though.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Full contents in action pose and such, ooooo battle pack... Not so much.

Final thoughts and ratings.

Dragon Assault: 2.5, alright set even at full price, could have used parts to make Grimwing Kreon.

Mech Venom Strike: 2, weaker of the two found in this assortment of sets, missile launcher used to pad out. Corhada decent enough, but need Kreon form badly, nice nod to Beast Wars Neo character of the same name, though different faction. Buy at discount.

There we go, in the future remind me to type reviews in Microsoft Word, then if the stupid Internet crashes I won't have to deal with these headaches and hassles.