Saturday, August 13, 2011

Tremble Before the Might of (Kre-o) STARSCREAM!!!!

First off, I'd like to say hi and thank-you to the various members of Fruitless Pursuits for inviting me to contribute to what is bound to be an extremely amusing, internationally spanning waste of time!   Those are my favourite kinds!!  And Mike Taylor (who let me in the door here) also told me I could steal posts from my own blog.  So in lieu of doing any actual work, here's the last post from Stryder's Dementia.  It's surprisingly relevant to the topic at hand. 

At TFCon (the local Transformers convention here in Toronto, Canada...read about it HERE) last week the Hasbro rep mentioned a new line they are releasing of Transformer-themed, Lego-like building blocks called Kre-o.  When I saw some at Toys R Us the other day I figured I'd give them a shot, so I picked up Starscream.  

Tremble before the might of STARSCREAM!!!!
The blocks themselves are nearly indistinguishable from standard Lego blocks and obviously would work well with them.  They aren't doing anything too fancy.  Of course, robot hands and heads are not too standard, but otherwise there are no big surprises here.

Read on after the jump...



Actually, there was ONE big surprise.  I had assumed that once I built  Starscream he would be transformable from jet to robot.  This was not the case.  As a matter of fact, you have to COMPLETELY disassemble one mode to build the other, and both modes leave left-over pieces.  A little disappointing, however I can understand that the two modes are actually better this way, since they don't have to incorporate a transformation. 

Jet mode with the left-over pieces
So Starscream's jet mode is actually pretty cool.  He looks fairly F-15 like, I suppose.  I'm not a jet enthusiast but he looks "Starscreamy" enough for me.  Best part of the jet mode is that the landing gear folds up into the jet in a clever way that pleases me.  Worst part is trying not to lose the nosecone piece, which only barely stays attached.


More jet mode pics
Starscream rides himself!  Sounds dangerous...
Robot mode Starscream....hmmmm.  Well, he was a lot of fun to build but the final product is sadly lacking.  The arms barely make sense and the torso suffers from not tapering to a natural waist.  I tried to reinvent both arms and torso using the leftover pieces since robot mode leaves a lot of pieces behind, however, I couldn't satisfactorily make much with the blocks at my disposal.  Perhaps someone with a bigger Lego collection could.  On the plus side he has ball-joint articulation for his head, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles and he has wrist swivels and posable wings and engine block, so there's lots to do with him.


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He's definitely BIG

Fist Bump!
Die, Autobot!!!!
All the pieces you need for the jet but not the robot...
The best thing about this set is that it includes two minifigs, what Hasbro are calling "Kreons".  The pilot figure is not much to look at, but the included Starscream "Kreon" is adorable.  Mine came with a little paint scratch on his chest but I still think he's awesome.


Someday I, Starscream, will be the adorable leader of the Decepticons!!!
Overall, I don't expect I'll buy more of these.  The toy was MUCH cheaper than Lego but at the end of the day the only thing I see myself keeping around is the Kreon Starscream.  If Hasbro decides to release just these tiny figures, maybe in blind packaging, I'll be hooked.  I'd also be interested in base (Ark Playset, maybe?) or vehicle playsets for the little guys.  Or forget Transformers and start making G.I. Joe Kre-o.  Vehicle with a little dude.  I'd be much more interested in something like that.  Still, it was a fun afternoon of building for a fairly reasonable price, so I can't complain.  Too much.  I mildly recommend these to Transformers fans, unless you're a Lego junkie as well and then I'll just flat-out recommend them.  Have fun!

4 comments:

  1. Welcome to the site! I think we've successfully grabbed everyone now. 13 contributors! That's a Dirty Baker's Dozen.

    These are a cool idea and there are some decent Lego rip-offs (homages?) around. I have a couple of the Halo megablock sets in a cupboard somewhere and they are decent for what they are. The bricks never quite seems as solid though and have a cheap plasticky sheen.

    I agree that the minifigs here are the best part. I don't think I'd collect them, but I'd like to look at more.

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  2. The Kre-O blocks seem to be a higher quality than the Mega Blocks, imo. I don't have a lot of experience but if you give me a handful of mega blocks, kre-o and lego, I could easily separate the mega blocks but not necessarily the kre-o and lego.

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  3. and thanks for the welcome! Thank-you for having me!!

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  4. I wish the Mega Blocks had a tighter fit. The Halo sets are really cool, but I can't get past the shoddy bricks.

    I saw these at Target and I really liked the minifig style.

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