Jarugar and Trypticon (Transformers: Age of Extinction Kre-O Microchangers)

Some months ago, I reviewed a few characters from the Transformers 4: Age of Extinction blind-bagged Kreons. But I bought several others too – so let’s look at two Decepticons today, Jarguar and Trypticon.

Jarugar changes into a car. This is unfortunate, as I hate the Kreon cars. While some of them look good, the articulation of the arms and legs on the Kreon body makes them quite flimsy, and they don’t hold together particularly well. Move it slightly and wheels start popping off, pieces don’t hold…it’s a pain in the butt. You’ll also notice that there’s no photo of him in alt mode, but if you’re really keen you can see it here. As you’ll read on that link, building him in alt mode works even more poorly than normal cars in this line.   

Nonetheless, he’s a cool-looking grey bot. His burgundy dual-wielded guns are particularly flash, and he makes for a solid, if unspectacular addition to my Decepticon forces.

Trypticon is a little more interesting, given that he is a giant purple tyrannosaurus rex. How could that possibly go wrong? Oh, wait…

Obvious jokes aside, Trypticon is fun in his T-Rex mode, and perfectly serviceable in his bot mode. I’d love to see more of this design in different colourways. My only real issue (and this applies to Jarguar too) is that their paintjobs have clearly been inspired by the Michael Bay style of Transformer, where there are zillions of moving parts -- this works fine for the movies, but for this style of figure, I tend to think simpler is better.  

Essentially, neither of these guys really blew me away, but Trypticon in particular is a fun addition to my small collection. 

It seems that the Microchangers theme has come to an end, but we will see another blind-bagged Kreons line sometime in 2015, re-branded as Kreon Warriors. Will they make it to Australia? Given that these guys are still pretty easy to find almost a year after the movie came out and that Collection 2 of the Age of Extinction Microchangers never made it here, I'm a little sceptical. But it's been a reasonably fun ride while it has lasted.  

Dungeons and Dragons: Knight’s Catapult (Kre-O Review)

It’s been a while since I’ve looked at any Kre-O, and all of my previous posts (and purchases) on the subject have related to Transformers. But today, we take a look at another license that Hasbro is using for these building toys – Dungeons and Dragons.

I’ve discussed on numerous occasions my love for the game here – but these Kre-O sets do not really seem to be intended to be incorporated into a “proper” game of Dungeons and Dragons (though no one is stopping you from doing so). Rather, they seem to be elements for creating a Crossbows and Catapults-style wargame. 

This is a starter pack and comes with two main elements. A catapult (complete with three marble-sized projectiles) and a small barricade with a flag. The catapult apparently goes with the Orc and the barricade with the Barbarian, but I’m sure you can mix them up as you see fit. There are also a few details about rules included too, and some relevant cards. I pretty much just skipped over these, as I won't be playing. 

Kreons – the name Hasbro has given their little Kre-O people—are quite visually endearing. Aesthetically, they sit somewhere between a Minifigure and Minimate; like the aforementioned products, a base body is used to create all the characters, with differentiation coming via paint apps and accessories.

In the plus column, they have increased articulation in comparison with a minifigure. Their shoulders and hips are ball-jointed, and their torso can also swivel. This comes at a price though; the torso is wont to pop straight off, as there is only one plug and very little friction holding it to the waist. As a result, the whole thing tends to feel fragile and delicate in comparison with your average minifigure. In spite of their shortcomings, the two included with this set are both a lot of fun.   

The Barbarian is the main reason I bought this kit. Though I am primarily a DM, Barbarians are my favourite class to play. You can definitely see touches of Frank Frazetta’s take on Conan in him, but he’s distinct enough that they’re not in danger of getting sued. He comes with an axe, which he holds in one hand on promo art – but it seems like it’s actually a greataxe, and he can grip it in both hands.  

Of course a Barbarian with a mighty axe is useless without an enemy to hack into, and so the set comes with an Orc too. He’s wearing heavy armour, in contrast to the barbarian’s bare chest. 

Presumably he’s a devotee of Gruumsh, based on the scar over his eye, and stitched up eyelid. He’s much cooler than I thought he would be – distinct enough to be an individual character, while generic enough to be an army builder. He’s armed with a massive, bone-crushing hammer. You would certainly not want to be on the receiving end of one of its blows.

Both figures also include a stand for stability in posing. It fits the Barbarian fine, but the Orc seems quite awkward on it, and won’t fit properly in regular standing pose.   

I could see myself picking up some of the blind-bagged army builders that Hasbro has released to support this line, but I don’t think I’ll invest further in the starter sets like these. Though better than I anticipated, I am quite content playing the more traditional form of Dungeons and Dragons, and ultimately my heart belongs to Lego when it comes to building toys. But this kit will make a nice supplement to my Castle-themed sets.  

Silversnout (Transformers: Age of Extinction Kre-O Microchangers)

Company: Hasbro

Year: 2014

RRP: $AUD4

BACKGROUND

I’ve previously reviewed some of the Transformers Kreon blind bags, from the Preview Series and Collection 4. Making my way through Big W today, I came across a new series, tying in with the impending release of Transformers 4: Age of Extinction – though it’s confusingly known as “Collection One” and doesn’t actually include the "T4" logo or the words “Age of Extinction” anywhere. No doubt some eBay confusion and/or fraud is going to arise in the future.

 

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

The most obvious point of reference for those unfamiliar with Kreons is a Lego Minifigure – they’re around the same size, and the Kre-O range as a whole definitely owes Lego a debt of gratitude. However, Hasbro refers to their figures as a “Kreons”.

Silversnout is built on the same basic body as all the other Kreons, and he changes into what looks to be an ankylosaurus – one of my favourite dinosaurs. His “transformation” is incredibly simple – just lie him down on his face and adjust the arms and legs to support him. It’s almost like one of those quick-changing transforming toys. The only part that detaches is his gun, so make sure you store that safely.

If this was a “real” Transformer, I’d be incredibly annoyed at the simplicity of the changing scheme. But as he’s a Kreon, I’m quite happy with it – I don’t want a whole bunch of spare pieces lying around that I have to store somewhere, which is what has happened with most of the other Kreons I own.

ACCESSORIES

Silversnout comes with the same black pistol that has been showing up for some time now, and the standard Kre-O stand.

PAINT

All the paintwork appears to be done by tampographs. They’re mostly pretty clean, but there are some small areas of paint slop on his face. No deal-breakers though.
The tampographs are a little more detailed than most of the other Kreons that I’ve owned, presumably to better fit the movie aesthetic. I’ve got mixed feelings about that; one of the coolest things about the Kreons is their simplicity. But he is a robot dinosaur, so I’m ready to let it slide. The only real point I think they could have added is some dots in his eye sockets, rather than having his head as a big blank piece.

OVERALL

I could see myself picking up a few characters from this Age of Extinction line. There’s some cool-looking Kreons, and now they've added robot dinosaurs to the mix too!  

Silversnout himself is a pretty cool Kreon. He’s not my favourite robot, but he’s one of the Kreons that I’ve actually liked the alt mode on. If you’re looking at picking him up, his bag code seems to be 40551 56.

Kre-O Transformers Microchangers -- Preview Series

Company: Hasbro

Year: 2012

RRP: see below

BACKGROUND

In my previous Micro-Changers review, I mentioned that Collection 4 was the first set I’d seen in Australia…or at least, in Sydney. But lo and behold, I came across a few Collection 3 bags in a local Big W shortly after publishing that article. Swiftly consulting OAFE’s decoder, I decided to pass on them – Nemesis Prime looked cool, but I knew his vehicle mode would be rubbish. And Sharkticons have just never grabbed me in the way they do some of my friends. But looking scanning over the list, I also spied the Preview Series from 2012 – a set of six Decepticons, released as a teaser. Collection Zero, if you will.

“No chance of finding them,” I thought to myself. “They came out almost two years ago, and they would have been some kind of American exclusive.”

Well, I was in for a big shock – the next department store I walked into had them and they were only $2AUD each. Sometimes God will send you a pick-me-up in the most obscure ways.

I ended up buying three, in total – Galvatron, Scorponok and Sunstorm. Some will ask why I didn’t buy the other three (Spinister, Waspinator and Crankstart) when I could have had them all for a mere $12, but it was mostly came down to their designs just not grabbing me as much. I just don’t have the completist bug as severely as I used to.

So, how do these bad boys compare to collection four?

THE BUILDS

Galvatron has a great base body, and I like his lavender colour. However, his backpack is quite clunky, and its base attachment spent a lot of time popping off when I first put him together. His arms are also a little wonkier than I'd like -- they don't sit up too well.

His alt mode is okay – in theory. It’s a big artillery-looking cannon, much as he had back in ye olden days of the G1 cartoon. Unfortunately, you cannot get it to stand upright. It’s very front-heavy and just keeps toppling over. Hence the absence of a photo.  

Verdict: Least favourite of the three I picked up, but he’s still a pretty cool bot.

Sunstorm is what we’ve heard – bot mode cool, alt mode not so much. While the plane definitely works better than the cars we saw in collection four, it doesn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped – the waist is fairly wonky. Sandstorm’s helicopter remains my favourite flying alt mode at this time. 

He also comes with what I assume is some kind of gun. It’s pretty bizarre, and doesn’t look like a gun in the conventional sense, but I still like it.

Verdict: Possibly my favourite of the three I picked up. Sunstorms’ green counterpart Acid Wing (Acid Storm) is in the mail from eBay at the moment, and it will be cool seeing them displayed together.

 

Scorponok is a really cool bot design. Unfortunately, his claws were actually quite difficult to fit onto the Kreon arms, and you can see the white stress marks from where I had to essentially force them on. I was worried they’d either break or just pop straight off again. However, now that he’s together I’m quite pleased with him – his transparent purple claws are surprisingly menacing for such a cutesy design.

The alt mode? Sigh…I’m sounding like a broken record here, but again I find myself being fairly unimpressed with it. I think the cars are more visually appealing, even if they don’t work as well.

Verdict: Awesome bot mode. Ordinary alt mode. Still one of the best bot TF Kreons, once you get him assembled. Easily the best colour scheme of the TF Kreons I currently own – you can’t go wrong with green and purple.  

PAINT

Paint is noticeably better on this series than on Collection Four. Though it doesn’t use intricate tampos in the same way, they don’t suffer as a result of simplicity – and I’d happily sacrifice additional detail for better overall paint execution. I assume we’ll see a Collection Five soon enough, so we’ll see how that one goes. 

OVERALL

Though I may sound underwhelmed above, I’ve actually had a lot of fun playing them since I bought them. I don’t regret buying them – they’re cutesy and a lot of fun just to have lying around the place. Much like their later counterparts, these Micro-Changers are cute and endearing in bot mode, but pretty ordinary in their alt mode. Obviously I enjoyed them enough to have bought more than my initial purchase from collection four, but I certainly don’t see myself spending much more on the line. Maybe the odd character, if they really grab me.

But on related news, I am excited for Kre-O’s Dungeons and Dragons blind bags. While collection one isn’t grabbing me, I think it’s a really cool concept and am looking forward to seeing what future ranges bring. DnD doesn’t get a lot of merchandising love outside of core materials, so it’s nice to see it turning up in this format.

 

Kre-O Transformers Microchangers – Collection 4

Company: Hasbro

Year: 2013

RRP: $5AUD

BACKGROUND

Blind bags. They’re a great way to get collectors interested in your product, and an equally great way to drive them up the wall. Even though we’ve typically got more cash to spend than the average kid, that doesn’t mean that we’re made of money, and very few of us are interested in investing time, money and effort into completing a set that may yield us dozens of unwanted figurines.

Still, I’m a sucker for blind bags, and have been since I was a kid. I’d read about them online (probably at OAFE) and I recognised a photo opportunity – Transformers that were small enough for the TMNT to use as toys!

Epic Autobot vs Decepticon battles in the lounge room

As far as I can tell, they’ve only just started turning up in Australia, though they’re already up to series (“collection”) 4. Looking online at previous iterations, the characters appear to be drawn from a bunch of different sources: G1, Beast Wars, Armada, and even a few “new” characters (they’re not exactly the same as their G1 counterpart, but they’re pretty similar e.g. Acid Wing/Acid Storm in collection 3). Though I’m not an especially dedicated Transformers fan, I was surprised at how few of the characters I recognised – only Kup and Rodimus were familiar names. This isn’t just because we’re on collection 4, either. Looking over the older collections seemed to suggest that there’s been a deliberate focus on more obscure characters.

There are 12 characters in each collection. A few of the major characters like Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee and Starscream have seen released individually. A couple of the gestalts – Menasor and Computron – have also been released too. How many make it to Australia remains to be seen – so far I’ve only seen the blind bags in Big W and my local comic store. 

So, how do they stack up to your average regular Transformer?



"Change to da choppa!"

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

The most obvious point of reference is a Lego Minifigure – they’re around the same size, and the Kre-O range as a whole definitely owes Lego a debt of gratitude. However, Hasbro refers to their figures as a “Kreons”.


Brawn


Kup


Brake-Neck



Iceberg

So far, I’ve got five characters from the line – Sandstorm, Kup, Iceberg, Brawn and Brake-Neck. Four Autobots and one Decepticon. They’re all built on the same basic body, with the variation coming in colouration and accessories. Their shoulders and hips are balljointed, which gives them a wider range of motion than a Minifigure. Heads are attached via a neck peg, so they can swivel from side to side, but can’t look up or down.

I like that the Kreons are more articulated than Lego Minifigures, but the articulation also makes them feel much more fragile. This isn’t a major issue for adults playing with collectibles, but it certainly could be for kids who tend to be rougher with their toys.

Kup is probably the one who resembles his animated counterpart the most – though Brawn looks really cool, he does look quite different to his animated form. Brake-Neck is hard to tell…TFWiki tells me that this character has gone through a few name and appearance changes, presumably for legal reasons. Apparently he was once one of the Stunticons that made up Menasor, but he doesn’t seem to be included in the Menasor set that’s advertised in the accompanying booklet. So your guess is as good as mine here. Iceberg was originally a Mini-con from Armada – he looks nothing like his original counterpart, but does looks considerably better as a bot. Sandstorm kind of gives the same vibe as his original form, but he was also originally a triple-changer. Still, they’re all quite endearing and cutesy, “accurate” or not.

Accessories vary slightly across the series, but in the case of my guys, all of them came with a gun. There seem to be a few basic gun shapes across the range – pistol, blaster and rifle – which are then moulded in different colours as necessary (or in Sandstorm’s case, combined with parts of his vehicle mode). I like Brawn’s the best – it’s translucent blue, which gives it an interesting dimension, as opposed to basic black or blue.

These figures don’t actually transform, as such. Rather, they can be reassembled into an alternate form with extra blocks that are included in the bag. It’s a cool idea, but one that’s better on paper than in execution, particularly with the cars. Why the cars? Well, the arms are supports for the front wheels. However, the ball-jointed arms mean that they tend to be a little wonky, and the whole thing looks a little weird once it’s complete. In Brawn’s case, the front of his car just won’t attach to his neck properly.

Iceberg's vehicle mode

Brake-Neck's vehicle mode

Brawn's vehicle mode

Kup's vehicle mode

Sandstorm (helicopter) doesn’t have the same problems, and looking at the diagrams in the instruction booklet seems to suggest that the airborne vehicles generally don’t have the same wonkiness. However, I’m yet to see any of the planes in person to confirm. All of mine are currently on display in bot form – they won’t be getting changed back and forth too often.

"This choppa won't be able to take us anywhere!"

PAINT

Paint is not bad, but definitely not up to Lego standards. Kup had some wear on his legs straight out of the bag and Sandstorm’s shoulders have been painted orange in a very sub-par fashion. Each character has a chest tampo, most of which seem to be slightly misaligned. Still, I’ll give them a passing grade – the tampos are still impressively detailed for such a small scale – but there’s definite room for improvement.
OVERALL

Transformers Microchangers are pretty cute and endearing in bot mode, and the inclusion of obscure characters who rarely get a look-in is nice. However, I’m less keen on their alt modes. I’d like to get Slipstrike – his bot mode looks great and I think his alt mode will work well – but I’m not sure that I want to invest a ton of money into different bags to find him. I may just try and track him down on eBay.

Still, these are a fun sidenote to “real” Transformers toys. Vehicle fans need not apply, but bot modes definitely come recommended.