My reviews of the 2011 and 2012 Kre-O sets.

New this year, Hasbro has begun releasing blind buy (Well, they aren’t really blind, you can tell which is which from the numbers stamped into the from bottom of the packs) Kreons called Micro-Changers.  They differ from the standard Kreons in that they can sort of transform.  I say sort of, because there is little chance of a really great transformation when you’re adding parts to what is essentially a Lego mini figure.  Having said that, some of them aren’t too bad.

One thing about them I want to say right off the bat is that all of these accept Spinister had left over parts in either robot or vehicle mode.  It’s annoying, but what can you do?

Most of these guys have a major design flaw.  Many of them have “vests” (yes, repainted vests from the Battleship line, but also ones that are flat on one side) that are needed to connect parts onto the Kreon’s chest or back.  They cover over the painted graphics.  This sucks.  Essentially you are left with either having a nicely painted figure, or one with parts on it.  This is a major design flaw.  Surely they could have designed a better way to do this, but clearly didn’t want to go to the effort to design more new pieces than they had to.

Lastly, they continue to suffer from white stress marks around the wrists, and I had another deformed part, though not as bad as my last one.  They are clearly going cheap on these, which is funny since they seem so intent on making the line succeed.  They’ll have a much better chance of doing that if they increase the quality.

Crankstart

Crankstart is probably my least favorite of the bunch.  His robot mode is okay, but I’m not certain what his vehicle mode is supposed to be.  Seems like it should be a truck, but with the wheels connecting to his hands, the smoke sack can’t be stood up straight.  Clearly the one that needed the most work.

Sunstorm

Sunstorm has one of the nicer vehicle modes.  His jet mode is not perfect, but very well done.  His robot mode, like the previously released jets is great.  He gets an odd weapon to hold, but it’s better than having to store the parts.

Waspinator

Wings are a bit small, but other than that, I really like Waspinator’s beast mode.  Robot mode is nice but suffers seriously by having his chest graphics covered in order to put on his wings.

Scorponok

Scorponok is sort of middle of the road.  Good but not great in both modes.  Mine has a malformed piece, the hole on one of the parts that fits over the wrist is too small and you have to force it on while the other slides on easily.

Spinister

I think Spinister is my favorite from this series.  He looks great in both modes and has no left over parts in either.  The helicopter mode doesn’t have a very good tail, but you can only do so much.

Galvatron

Galvatron’s robot mode is absolutely awesome.  Probably the best robot.  His gun mode isn’t so great.  It tends to topple over forward (though the surface I had it on may not have been perfectly flat, but it was pretty close, it really should have stayed up).  I like his orange gun.  It would have been nice if it was partially painted purple with just the barrel orange, but that would have been asking too much apparently.

Thanks for reading!