Dave's Kre-O Rant: Microchangers Combiners Wave 1 Constructicon Devastator Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/KREO/Combiner1 While Kre-O had a full sized Constructicon combiner as part of the second year toys, it was the OMGBBQ-class toy at nearly a hundred dollars. The Microchangers line is a much more natural place to populate with combiners, since the component figures are $3 each in blindbags and an entire team can be sold for a reasonable price. I have all four in the wave, but decided that since each one requires five reviews (four components, combined form) I'd review them separately. All of the general wave-wide comments will be in this one. CAPSULES $10-13 price point. Hasbro's website listed a retail price of $9.99, but I have yet to see anyone carrying them for less than $10.99. Constructicon Devastator: The combined mode is better in concept than execution, plagued by the lower quality control Kre-O has (it'd work fine with Lego bricks, though). However, it's also four non-blind-bagged transforming Kreons for ten bucks or so, and is worth picking up just for the components, even if you find the combiner mode lacking. Mildly recommended. RANTS Packaging: They went for eye-catchingly weird this time, with rectangular boxes about the size of comparably-priced Lego and Mega Blok sets, but with most of the left front cut back at an angle. The top inch or so of the box has a rectangular cross-section when viewed from above, but the rest is an irregular trapzoid with a right-angular right side but an acute left side (between 25 and 30 degrees on the acute part, and 150 to 155 degrees on the obtuse part). The overall size is 7" (18cm) across, 6.5" (16.5cm) tall and 1.5" (4cm) deep. The short side on the front is 4.5" (10.5cm) wide, with the angled-back part being a little under 3" (7.5cm) wide and about 5" (13cm) tall. To give this weird shape a bit more strength, the front panel is actually two layers of cardstock, and opening the box requires cutting the back-side tape on the right panel, not the front-side tape (which is just structural). The flat top part of the front has the Kre-O and Transformers logo. The angled panel shows the four components in both modes and lists the total number of pieces in the set. The flat front panel has a photo of the combined mode in paperback-cover-style (or lunchbox-style) pressed relief, and a second layer higher for the logo at its feet. The top repeats the two logos, the right side has head shots of the four components (drawings, not photos) and what little left side there is shows the faction symbol very faintly in light gray on a metalstreak mix of light shades of gray. The underside just has that streak pattern and the UPC symbol. The back has the two logos along the top plus the Beast Hunters logo (despite all four of these being G1 homages), then the middle two-thirds having a photo of the combiner in the center, surrounded by pictures of the four components in both modes. Tiny co-sells of the other three are along the bottom, along with legalese and webpages. There are no bio notes or techspecs on the box or in the instructions, but once again there's a PDF poster available if you dig around the webpage, and that has bio notes for the entire group, but not for individuals. There are five baggies of parts, an instructions booklet and a sticker sheet inside the box. Four baggies are for the four figures inside, containing all the pieces for both modes of that figure. The fifth bag contains some number of extra parts required for the combiner, plus a single red KRE-O-labeled 2x4 block. There isn't a stand for every figure, just one that they get to share. When I list in each review how many pieces are in the kibble bag, I won't include the red base block. Build Theory: Okay, these are four-figure teams, not five or six. And it's not as simple as each figure becomes a limb, either. Rather, there's a completely new build using most of the pieces, plus the extra bag of parts. The extra parts are mostly joints (i.e. pelvises, hips, thighs, forearms) and some decorative extras like Devastator's chest fins. Some of the figures need to have their arms removed, but they include spare pelvises so no figure needs to have its legs ripped off its pelvis to donate to the combiner. On Devastator, and it seems to be done on the rest, the torso is two stacked Kreon torsos, the hands are sets of Kreon legs, and headless Kreons sit down to make the boots. One head and one helmet (not necessarily from the same figure) get to be the combiner head, and various kibble bits sprinkle throughout the figure to make it look like a combiner rather than a plain giant robot. The articulation is pretty good, with dedicated ball joint hips and shoulders, plus hinged elbows and knees. The Kreon hips make for hinged ankles and two independent fingers on each hand. The head turns, as does the waist, but with the same problems as any Kreon neck and waist. The bag of kibble isn't really meant to build into a "kibble jet" or whatnot, but I was able to fake up a sort of gun drone thing out of Devastator's kibble bag: http://www.dvandom.com/images/kibbledrone1.JPG (seen with a flak-vest-modded Mixmaster). Sir Not-Appearing In This Set: Each combiner set has at least one "blindbag buddy", a team member that didn't make the four-member cut but showed up in the blindbag assortment somewhere. I list those in the review as well. Those Accurs'd Flak Vests: Yeah, they're here with a vengeance. Scrapper is the only one who doesn't have a big green vest covering all the chest printing. So I've been modding mine. DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON DEVASTATOR Assortment: A2224 Components: Bonecrusher, Scavenger, Scrapper, Mixmaster Total Pieces: 77 Kibble Bag Pieces: 16 Leftover Pieces: 21 Blindbag Buddies: Decepticon Hook, wave 1; Long Haul, wave 3 Bio: CONSTRUCTICON DEVASTATOR cannot be defeated. Puny AUTOBOTS are always scorching me with their tiny lasers, but nothing hurts CONSTRUCTICON DEVASTATOR. I smash and dismantle all who oppose me! Then I kick their bricks into the closest river! Hates: AUTOBOTS. Thinking. Favorite TV Show: The one with the guys who blow stuff up all the time. Prefers: Devastating to constructing. So, Devs is a fan of Mythbusters. Wonder how Mixmaster reacted to the one where they blew up the concrete mixer? Looks: 4" (10cm) tall at the head (although the figure slowly grows an extra quarter inch thanks to the way Kreon waists self-separate), with Scavenger's shovel rising a bit above that. The unavoidably gray upper arm and thigh pieces throw off the color balance a bit, but there's more than enough green and purple in the mix. And, of course, since the Constructicons are more color-coordinated than most teams, Devastator's color scheme works pretty well. The instructions use Bonecrusher's head, but the package photos use Mixmaster's head. I think it looks better with Mixmaster's. The three unused heads and helmets are among the leftover pieces. As are four wheels, two arms, the three small pistols (one of which can be held by Devastator's off hand), and...a spare set of thigh/shin pieces. These aren't accidental extras they're listed in the parts sheet. I guess the idea is that if you snap a joint on the combiner, you have a spare set. Stability: Iffy. A lot of the kibble pieces pop off with little provocation, and the perennial problem of Kreon waists slowly coming undone (even if you do the twisting trick) is multiplied by the fact that the center of the spine adds another such joint. An extra 2x1 flat to put on the chest behind the purple crest would have helped a lot, in terms of keeping it from popping off so easily if you grab the figure by the torso. The wheels held in the hands against the small of the back also tend to pop off easily Overall: I like the idea, and it looks good, but it really depends on Lego-level tolerances to work, and Kre-O can't pull that off. DECEPTICON: BONECRUSHER Altmode: Bulldozer Robot Mode: Uses the black truck cab helmet and black tread pieces clipped to the arms. The torso, flak vest, arms and legs are green plastic, the hands and pelvis are purple, the dozer blade backpack is a couple shades of gray. The face has orange goggle visor and a sneering mouth. Decent chest deco, and treads printed on the legs. Two pieces are left out of this mode, a 1x1 brick with a side stud that makes the nose of the vehicle mode, and the 2x1 triangular smoky clear cockpit window. It is possible to incorporate these into the backpack, but it makes the figure a lot more back-heavy. Vehicle Mode: Actually pretty good, one you allow for the inherent instability of the tracks-on-arms bit. The dozer blade can be lifted up, and the legs are bent up to make the back of the cab area. Actually, an opaque green wedge piece would have worked better than the smoky clear one, but they might only make that shape in clear. Does not use the head, helmet, or flak vest. The pistol is stuck into one leg, but can also be left out. Overall: Slightly cheaty transformation, but looks pretty good. DECEPTICON: MIXMASTER Altmode: Cement Mixer, in theory Robot Mode: The backpack is meant to evoke having the mixer barrel behind the head, and it does a so-so job of it. If you rotate it so the wheels are at the small of the back, you can plug the figure's pistol into the top to get Mixmaster's head cannon. This uses the black truck cab helmet, has green arms and flak vest, purple torso, pelvis, legs and hands. The backpack is a mix of gray and purple, and the wheels are black. The face is printed with orange eyes and a bared-teeth grimace, the chest decor is forgettable. Only one piece goes unused in this mode, and that's a 2x2 flat that can be used as a base for the figure to stand on. Vehicle Mode: Yyyyyeah. There was no real attempt to give him a mixing drum, he just got one of those Oxford-unique thick smokestack sort of pieces to stand in for one. If you borrow the head from one of the others (not all of them use their heads in vehicle mode) you can put it in line on the barrel and make it look a little more like a cement mixer, but it's still pretty sad. It really needed a cone piece and a 2x2 cylinder to make a proper drum. Anyway, transformation involves moving the wheels from the backpack to the hands, spinning the backpack around, putting the 2x2 plate on the back of the legs and raising the arms alongside the head. Overall: While it makes efficient use of all pieces, the vehicle mode is just a write-off, and the robot mode isn't exactly impressive. The weak link of the set. DECEPTICON: SCAVENGER Altmode: Power Shovel Robot Mode: With the power shovel up over the head, it looks quite a lot like Scorponok, but the shovel has multiple hinges so you can fold it down against the back if you'd rather a more G1-ish look. It has the black truck cab helmet, and treads printed on the fronts of the legs. Green torso, flak vest and arms, purple pelvis, legs and hands. Black treads clipped onto the arms, and the shovel on the back is a mix of gray and green pieces. The face has an orange goggles-visor and a simple frown, and if you do the flak vest modification trick (or replace with a Lego piece) there's nice G1-accurate printed details on the torso. Just like Mixmaster, the only leftover piece is a 2x2 flat meant for the back of the legs in vehicle mode, which can be used as a stand. Vehicle Mode: This reminds me of the Giant Planet Mini-con that was a long vehicle with construction arms stuck in the middle. It's just badly proportioned, with the shovel barely able to reach past the cab. Transformation is fairly simple here as well. Put the 2x2 on the back of the legs, flip the tread pieces around, stick the pistol in one leg (optional). No pieces left over. Like others using the treads on arms trick, it's not very stable. An alternative transformation removes the legs entirely, raises the arms alongside the head and swings the shovel around so that the waist is the front. It's more wasteful of pieces, but looks a lot more like a proper power shovel. Overall: Okay robot mode, weak but easily fixed vehicle mode. DECEPTICON: SCRAPPER Altmode: Front End Loader Robot Mode: In addition to being the only one with a backpack piece that doesn't cover the chest, it's also the only individual figure that uses the sticker sheet (all the other stickers are for Devastator-only pieces). It's the only one to use a helmet other than the truck cab, using the black Starscream helmet instead. Also black wheels and a large black rifle. The torso, pelvis and hands are purple, the arms and legs are green. There's bronze smokestacks clipped to the arms, although they tend to fall off. The backpack piece is light gray, as are most of the pieces that go into holding the shovel onto it. Leaves out five pieces, two of which are wheels. Can't really do much with them, although I suppose you can put the non-wheel ones together into a sort of stand. Vehicle Mode: This mode also uses one of the stickers, on one of the pieces not used in robot mode, for the front window. It suffers the usual problem of arm-mounted smokestacks not really looking right in a horizontal placement. Other than that, though, it's pretty good, even if it's another "ditch the head" cheater design. The cannon doesn't officially go on this mode, although there's a few places it can go. Overall: Cheats the most in transformation by having unused parts in both modes, but at least the result is decent. Dave Van Domelen, suspects some people who like the looks of the combined mode might just get a spare set and glue the parts together.