Here are my previous reviews of the 2011 and 2012 Kre-O sets, Micro-Changers Preview and First Series, and the Toys R Us exclusive Ironhide.  Here are links to the newest Kre-O toy reviews, Beast Blade Optimus Prime, Battle Net Bumblebee, Dragon Assault, Mech Venom Strike, and Ripclaw Strike.

Transformers Kre-O Beast Hunters Beast Blade Optimus Prime

Beast: I wish I could tell you what this guy’s name is, but in their infinite idiocy, Hasbro didn’t give him one.  Colors aside he looks a lot like Ravage.  While I like the color scheme, I think someone may have been high when they came up with it.

Kreons: The new Optimus Prime Kreon is really nice, but I wish they had made him a Micro-Changer.  More interesting is the human partner he comes with.  It’s Kicker from Energon.  I’m not sure why they decided to include Kicker, but he is a great addition.  The only thing I can think of is that someone noticed the slight resemblance in vehicle design between Energon Optimus Prime and Beast Hunters Optimus Prime.

Vehicle Mode: This might be my favorite Kre-O Optimus Prime yet.  His vehicle mode is well designed, and you can turn around those missiles on his back and point them forward over the cab (though I didn’t get a picture of it).

Robot Mode: His robot mode is really great looking.  Like many Kre-O robots, his shoulders sit a little low in relation to his head, but it’s not bad looking because the plates on his shoulders cover it up.  His head looks very G1 inspired, and I really like the missiles on his back.  He comes with an additional set of hands.  They are a softer plastic.  That’s not a huge deal, but I still prefer the standard fists to the ones they have been using of late.

Overall: Each round of Kre-O toys has gone down in size and number of sets (though at Toyfair the literature claimed there would be 8 sets, and they have only released 5, so there may be a few more coming).  With the announcement of the new Construct-Bots coming this summer (think Lego Hero Factory) it seems that the Kre-O line (for Transformers at least) is coming to an end.  The only other upcoming toys are the Micro-Change combiners.  Four of them are trickling out, though I haven’t found them.  The Toyfair literature lists seven of those, so we should be getting three more.  My guess is that will be it for Kre-O Transformers, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Thanks for reading!