KRE-O

[Stomski]

Pics of Superion and Devestator

Actually quite tempted after seeing these pics!

[Bogatan]

I'm loving those, not only do some of them manage half decent vehicle modes, the combined forms look like having great potential too.

[The Doctor]

They look hyper-shit. Lego have nothing to fear.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

They look TAT-MUNGOUS!

Andy

[chachi]

Like em, hope i can afford them when they come out. Not that they are that expensive but....

[The Doctor]

Dec 18, 2012 22:31:12 GMT Andy Turnbull said:

They look TAT-MUNGOUS!

Andy

I am the Clown Prince of Tat and yet I detect no tat-ness from the them. Just shit Poundland Lego rejects.

-Ralph

[Toph]

Personally, I think Kre-O needs a new direction, with Transformers (The entire Kreo brand does, but the TF section really needs it)

It doesn't make a lot of sense to have a full scaled TF model kit, with the minifigures representing the same transformer. Especially when this is the first, and best opportunity we've had to have representations of all the popular human characters the franchise has produced. Where's our Spike, Sparkplug, Carly, and Chip Chase?
Where's Buster, and GB Blackrock? Koji, Alexis, Carlos, Rad, Coby, and Lori? Jack, Raph, and Miko? Sari, Sumdac, Fanzone, and the Angry Archer?
Have the full scale sets come with them.
Then on the side, make sets and vehicles to come with TF minifigures. Vehicles for them to pilot (made up "Starscream's Starfighter"), sets of famous TF locations (The Ark Bridge, Spacebridge, The Axalon Bridge and others), and maybe famous scene recreations (The Theft of the Golden Disk, Battle for Autobot City), and general stuff like that.

And in general, more than just movie designs. I'm so sick of movie designs I could puke.

[The Doctor]

I think you've hit the nail on the head with some of the problems with KREO.

-Ralph

[Bogatan]

Just got around to opening my Kreo blind packs from Nigel. I can now understand the complaints, though I should say I still like most of them.

But issues include the socket for the hand to fit into is stressed on about half of them and trying to put Scorponok together caused more damage to its sockets. That's my QC issue and is probably the big issue as it seems to be an engineering tolerance issue rather than simple QC on the production line. The socket is not up to the job, if anything is put in it or around it it seems like a 50/50 chance of serious stress marks.

A similar issue, is the compatibility of bricks. With lego almost everything can be connected to everything else. With Waspinator I wanted to fit its hand gun to the bee behind piece to create Waspy's gun. Except the cylinder on the end of the gun is to thin to tightly fit the brick. The handle is a perfect fit, but the designers didnt consider that making the end of the gun the same thickness would increase the play options. It's very annoying.

The last issue for me is the lack of new head pieces. The first series all got pieces designed for the purpose but the second series and blind packs are just recycling the closest existing match. Thats fine for Cliffjumper, but Vortex using Soundwaves is stretching thing and Waspinator using Jazz's is just silly when the visor covers half the painted face on the head.

Oh and then there's Phil's complaint, the printed chests being covered by the torso covering piece, which is also just lazy, it just needs a few new pieces making that hang around the neck but don't cover the front of the torso.

On the plus side I got two Waspinators which provides enough parts to make one quite awesome Waspinator.

[Deleted]

the prob with KRE-O is that you have to totally disassemble the thing to rebuild it into it's alt mode, unlike the Mega Blocks Built To Rule which has a Trans-Skeleton so no need to disasemble it as it can transform

[Bogatan]

DO you mean Hasbros Built to Rule Armada line? Because they had to be almost totally disassembled to transform them. They were a hell of a lot easier than Kreo but that was because they used a fraction of the number of bricks.

[Deleted]

Jan 28, 2013 21:45:08 GMT Bogatan said:

DO you mean Hasbros Built to Rule Armada line? Because they had to be almost totally disassembled to transform them. They were a hell of a lot easier than Kreo but that was because they used a fraction of the number of bricks.

yes

[Toph]

First: The disassembling and rebvuilding of the Kreos to convert from one mode to the other is one thing I enjoy most about them. And it's kinda the WHOL POINT OF A BUILDING BLOCK SET.
Seriously, I never understood the argument of people bashing Kreo and B2R because they don't transform. If you want a toy that does transform, buy a mainline transformer. That's the gimmick of that toyline. That's the whole point of those toys, is to transform.
Kreo and Legos are model kits, that makes very specific things from largely generic parts. And you can make anything you want from them, permitting you have the imagination (and parts).

Second, and why I came here: I picked up the Predaking Combiner today (First and only one I've found of any of the combiners), and I have to say this:

The kreo Microchange concept has failed for me. They just... don't work. Sometimes they're clever, but overall, they just don't work. Would personally rather see more new parts cast and make the minifigs look more clever, instead of things like Waspinator. (I put some lego insect wings on him, and ditched the flak jacket and helmet and he looks soooo much better)

But the Predaking combiner works so well I'm stunned. The same beast head is used for Headstrong, Tantrum, and Razorclaw, but I'm amazed that it actually looks different for each (With the addition of horns).
Each predacon looks good in both robot and beast modes (A first, IMO), and the combined mode looks better than I ever thought possible.
The minifigure legs being used as hands (Which bothered me insanely in the online pictures) are not nearly as much an issue here, as by plugging in the horns into the feet they look like fingers.
Though I fear this does will not work for the more robotic combiners.

I would like to see this group reworked and redesigned as Magnaboss (Maybe use Rhinox as the fourth member?)

But I do absolutely hate Hasbro's use of the flack jacket vest on everything. It ruins so many figures, like Waspinator. And it's unfortunately present, here as well. I swear, I wish they'd just put a peghole directly into the back of the torso (Like they did in the sides of the legs). Or made a cape piece that has the peg, but doesn't onscure any of the wonderful painted details.

Would also be cool to see a twopack of Bruticus and Devestator repainted and slightly retooled into a Ruination vs Landfill set.

EDIT:
Also, a friend of mine who has all four says each set comes with an additional hip/shoulder piece that you can then make your own combiner out of other kreons with.
I fully plan to use this to make a combiner out of Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty.

[The Doctor]

I've seen the new Microchange blind pack wave in both Tesco and Asda. The former for £2 and in the latter for £1.47. Interestingly, the packaging notes the figures are copyright Oxford, which explains a lot. Oxford have been churning out low quality Lego KO kits for years. Do Hasbro actually make Kreo themselves or sub-contract it out to Oxford? Could anyone who collects the kits have a look at the boxes and see if the Oxford logo is there, please. I am very curious!

-Ralph

[Toph]

Three different packages I have (One Beast Hunter small set, Microchanger combiner Predaking, and one battleship set) all say "Componants made in the Republics of Korea and China."

I do not have any blindpack packages to check those. But that's what it says on american released packages.

[The Doctor]

Is there a company logo which says 'Oxford'? I'm trying to work who makes the sets rather than where.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_(toy_company)

thebrickblogger.com/2011/07/oxford-toys-overview/

-Ralph

[Toph]

Found it, and yeah. It's printed in a stupid weird font that made it kinda hard to read. Also, was thinking of oxford the location, didn't know there was a company.

[The Doctor]

Intriguing! I must research this further!

I think I must grab a cheap Oxford set and a cheap microchange figure from Asda to compare!

It would make sense for Hasbro to have outsourced their brick toys to a brick company.

-Ralph

[Nigel]

Ooh! Did you spot these?

Kre-O Command Centre! www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/san-diego-comic-con-33/sdcc-2013-kre-o-on-display-178030/

New Micro-Changers! www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/san-diego-comic-con-33/sdcc-2013-kre-o-on-display-178030/

Rescue Bots Optimus Prime trailer! www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/san-diego-comic-con-33/sdcc-2013-rescue-bots-on-display-178028/

[Bogatan]

I think I've given up with the larger kreo stuff. The Bricks just dont hold together well enough. I was trying to make my own version of the smaller Prime set that transformed without having to be totally dismantled I got a pretty decent design working, but it would collapse with the least pressure.

Lego would have held together.

Kreons though must continue.

[Stomski]

Oooh, new Kreon Starscream with extra accessories! Will probably combine with existing Starscream for correctly coloured black helmet.

[Nigel]

Oh! That's unexpected. I've just taken delivery of a couple of cases of Kreons, which I expected would be the Wave 1 assortment (these guys: www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/kre-o-42/kre-o-microchangers-wave-1-identification-guide-176373/ ) but it turned out to be the assortment in those pictures. They're already at UK retail! (Damn, that means I might have missed out on an entire wave.)

[Bogatan]

Is it the purple packages ones or the figures with all the chrome parts in the photos?

[kayevcee]

Where the hell is My Little Pony Kre-o, dammit?

-Nick

[Nigel]

I see that there are no Kre-O Transformers in the new Argos catalogue, which perhaps doesn't bode well for a UK release for the newer sets. However, they do have the new Kre-O Cityville series. Click on the individual products and zoom in on the pictures for a close look at the mini-figures. www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerms/KRE-O.htm

[Toph]

I would love to see those mini-kreons used for micromasters, minicons, and nebulons for the normal sized tf kreons.

[The Doctor]

They have tiny legs and big bodies. Saw them in John Lewis and Tesco. They look utter poo.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Gone off Kreo.

Then I saw this:

www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=HAS23217&mode=retail

extra bits in clear and chromed plastic? Take my money!

[Toph]

The clear and vac-metal parts kill them for me. Robots are not see-through. So I don't see the point of the translucents. and the random bits being chrome, and not offering normal counterparts kinda kills that for me, too. Optimus with a random chrome head just looks off.
Ashame, because I'd have been all over them, otherwise, since I don't really care for microchangers.

[Nigel]

I spotted this upcomong book on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Transformers-Kre--Character-Encyclopedia-Special/dp/031627819X/ref=sr_1_37?ie=UTF8&qid=1383729998&sr=8-37&keywords=kre-o


Meanwhile, posted yesterday by Sven on Facebook: "Just heard from Hasbro UK; Kre-o Microchanger Combiners have now, apparently, been discontinued for the UK market due to poor sales, and also the Kre-o Transformers Customs and Kre-o Transformers Autobot Command Centre have been cancelled. The future of Kre-o Microchanger blind bags is currently being reviewed and wave 4 may or may not be coming to the UK."