Dave's Kre-O Transformers Rant: MicroChange Wave 1 Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/KREO/MicroChange1 I'm going to break format this time and just have the official bio stuff with some capsule-like commentary on each figure, rather than separate capsules and more detailed reviews. Trying to get some backlog taken care of. :) [Later note: Updated Feb 27, 2013, after I got Bludgeon.] Disclaimer: I like minimalist Lego models. One of my favorites is a TIE Fighter that's about a centimeter across. So I'm going to be a lot more forgiving on the altmodes than most people, I expect. Of course, that also means that if I express dislike of an altmode, it's probably pretty horrible. (But not Horri-bull, he's not in this set, but looking at Rampage I think I might like a Horri-bull MicroChanger.) Packaging: The blindbags are similar to the preview wave, but with new art featuring Warpath, Singe and Hook in both modes on front, and an expanded "all the dudes in both modes" photo area on back. The identifying number is much fainter, scored lightly on the upper right of the back and hard to see unless you know what to look for. The other major packaging change is that the figures now come with a 2x4 brick with the Kre-O logo on it, to use as a stand. This is helpful, given how several figures are top-heavy with vehicle kibble, and how the hip joints lead to feet that aren't always aligned for good stability to begin with. Annoyingly, the cases do NOT have two of each figure. I was lucky enough to find a case that had 11 of the 12, but I've heard of cases with only three different figures in them. At the time of initial writing, the only places that had any were Toys R Us (not local to me) and Target (in their Valentine's Day section, one case per store with no restocks). So I will have to add Bludgeon later, once I find one. Assuming I ever do. :/ Oddly, Decepticons outnumber Autobots 7 to 5, or 8 to 4 if you refuse to believe Singe could last five seconds as an Autobot. I guess this is to address the fact that the bigger sets are more Autobot-dominated, so the total number of Kreons will be more even this way. The official bio information is in the form of quotes from the characters, as if they were filling out dating profiles or something. I swear, I did not make any of this up. You have to go online for this, though, as the paperwork in the package just has a picture of both modes on the front, instructions for both modes on the inside pages, and a checklist on the back. Common Issues: The wrists get stress marks on most of the figures pretty easily, I'll only mention it when it's particularly bad. And the fit between the waist peg and the torso is too air-tight, so the air gets compressed inside and tends to force the pieces apart. Nothing with four wheels in altmode has any place to put two of them in robot mode. [Later note: I'm told that the waist issue can be solved by turning the waist a bit after assembly, which makes sense, as any flexing in the process would help air escape.] AUTOBOT (really?): SINGE Bag Number: 40 Altmode: Jeep-ish "INFERNO likes to put out fires, but that's a sucker's game. I like to be where the real action is. If I'm not the one who started a fire, you can be sure I'm trying to keep it going with a double-barreled blast of nuclear heat. I'm not gonna be truly happy until I can watch the whole world burn!" Loves: The smell of burning plastic. Hates: INFERNO. That guy's no fun. Favorite color: Black! Like everything gets when it burns! This toy is based on the "Euro-G2" (yes, it's still officially G1, but I consider everything after Actionmasters to be G2 in my personal reckoning) Turbomaster Scorch (visually...the Turbomaster wasn't a total pyromaniac like this one), and has nothing to do with the Targetmaster Singe. I expect they made him a pyro just to play off Inferno, and maybe to give the Autobots an even bigger jerk than Bumblebee. Scorch was a truck, and a BotCon redeco of Generations Hound called Turbomaster used Scorch's color scheme, so the jeep-ish altmode for this Singe could be seen as a continuation of that pattern. The robot mode uses all but three pieces (two wheels, and a connector that's used to hold the flamethrowers in vehicle mode). Kre-O flame gouts are rather more substantial than the little flickers that Lego gives its sets. Like Crankshaft, this uses the flak vest piece to put the vehicle window on the chest, and I'm okay with that in this case, since the printed chest detail is kinda faded compared to the other colors in the toy. One of the better four-wheeled altmodes I've seen in Microchange, although the Starscream-style helmet results in a pretty blunt front end. I suggest one tweak, though...spin the legs around so that the toes point up in back, and bend them a tiny bit at the hips so that the backs of the legs are parallel to the ground. AUTOBOT: INFERNO Bag Number: 41 Altmode: Firetruck, kinda. "The hotter it is, the better I like it! Whether it's a house fire or a firefight, you'll find me right in the middle of it, pouring on the fire- suppressing foam or the laser blasts. I live to rescue humans and my fellow AUTOBOTS from the most dangerous situations you can imagine." Favorite color: Fire engine red. Favorite temperature: Hot! The hotter the better! Smart AUTOBOTS: Never play with fire. With this set, they prove they can make a backpack connector that isn't the flak jacket, as a 2x2 back connector with no front piece is used on this figure. The robot mode uses all but three pieces, but one of those pieces is a hand...you swap in a gunhand to be more like G1. And immediately get loads of stress marks. The Galvatron-style helmet actually works okay for this, but the ladder being just a 1x4 flat-top piece is kinda weak. The vehicle mode leaves out the small round that's used in robot mode to set the ladder back from the helmet, but I'm not sure why...the model works fine if you leave it in. Both hands are used, with the gunhand put into a nozzle piece on the backpack. The result looks nothing like a firetruck. Or much of anything, honestly. It's a wheeled platform with a gun and a white slat. While it would have hurt the looks of the robot mode, it might have worked better had they used the same helmet as Hook does (see below), since it has truck cab details on the top. Add in a 2x3 or 2x4 flat to go on the back between the figure and the accessories, and it'd bulk out more as a proper truck. At this point, though, it's clearly going outside the budget. (I tried putting the base brick on, and if it were the same red as the figure it'd actually help the truck mode look like a truck.) AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT SPRINGER Bag Number: 42 Altmode: Helicopter "When you need a job done right the first time, you give it to me. I'm the go-to commando for undercover missions deep behind DECEPTICON lines. Whenever you hear about some evil plan getting taken apart brick by brick? That's my work." Partner: I work alone. Unless OPTIMUS PRIME won't let me. Special skill: Disguising explosives as critical building components. Watch out! What's missing: Yeah, I could turn into a car, too. I just don't feel like it. HAH! Well, that's one way to explain the loss of triple-changing. Steal some wheels and a flak vest from another figure and you could probably fake the car mode, though. Robot mode uses all but a double-clip piece (that's used for the landing gear), and uses both front and back of the tabard piece. The printed detail isn't that impressive, at least, so not a big deal to cover up the chest. Of course, since his swords are supposedly his rotor blades, you could remove the tabard entirely for robot mode and be reasonably accurate. He has the Hound helmet rather than the Mirage one, resulting in a blunt-nosed helicopter. Transformation is pretty simple, just remove the piece from the front of the tabard and stick it on the bottom of one foot as a tail rotor, then use the double-clip piece on the chest to hold the katanas as skids. Not as good of a helicopter mode as Spinister. AUTOBOT: WARPATH Bag Number: 43 Altmode: Tank "If it's not explosive, I don't want to hear about it. Boom! Blam! Kapow! Those are the only words I care about. I'm the dean of detonation, the emperor of explosions, and as long as there are DECEPTICONS in the world, my cannon will never cool down." Favorite holiday: Fourth of July. Favorite card game: War. Favorite sound: Take a guess. Robot mode uses all but one piece, the brick used for a turret in vehicle mode. This is one of those rare cases where I'd rather leave the flak vest on, because it lets you mount the cannon on his chest as is proper (although the printing on the chest isn't too bad). He has the Prowl helmet mold, and the tank treads clipped to the arms also look like chainsaw blades in this mode. This one almost transforms without going partsformer. Turn the head around, bend the legs back a little, and insert the turret block between the chest and the cannon. The turret is the main "that doesn't look like a tank" point, but it does turn. You might prefer the look if you switch the direction of the treads and make the head the front, it makes a virtue of the blocky turret and looks more like a WWII or even WWI tank. AUTOBOT: QUICKSLINGER Bag Number: 44 Altmode: Jet "Some of the other AUOBOTS [sic] call me small, and I'm all like, 'All KREONS are the same size!' And anyway, most AUTOBOTS can't fly, can they? Well, check me out! Not only can I fly higher than just about anyone else, I've also got the fastest blaster this side of CYBERTRON." Dislikes: Short jokes. Favorite aerial stunt: The Iacon Twist. Signature weapon: Deconstructo Blaster. This is Slingshot's new name, although interestingly the name has been used before as a female redeco (BotCon toy, AllSpark Almanac II mention). Fanon has started to gel around the idea that this is the never-shown Fembot mentioned by Kup in Rodimus's entry in the AllSpark Almanac. Quickslinger is one of the orphaned combiner team members, resulting from the fact that MicroChange combiners only use Kreons as limbs, not in the torso. [Correction: Kreon bits are used in the combiner torsos, but they still only make use of four Kreons in the build.] Quickslinger has the eye-covering Ratchet helmet. Most of his vehicle kibble is used to beef up his pistol, and the one unused piece can be added as an extended magazine. I think one of the better parts of the Seeker-style transformation is that it uses a wingpack instead of the stupid flak vest, so you don't have to choose between leaving pieces off or covering the chest details. Vehicle mode is similar to the Seeker transformation from the preview wave, leaving out the helmet and the pistol. The way the tail is done is pretty clever, though, and the pistol can be mounted on the center of the wing piece, just leaving the helmet orphaned. Alternate construction suggestion: leave the wings attached at the belt (vehicle position) in robot mode. It gives him an outline more like the G1 Aerialbots. Unfortunately, this blocks the helmet, so you'll get some stress and a chance the helmet will pop off spontaneously. Mind you, even in the official setup, the helmet bumps up against the wing piece a little, preventing the head from turning without the helmet riding up. (They really should make a second wing piece, this one down-swept.) DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON RAMPAGE Bag Number: 45 Altmode: Tiger, sort of. "Rooooooarrr! I don't have time for you! I'm too busy shredding things with my claws and blasting AUTOBOTS with my lightning rifle. Raarrr! I hate talking! Why do I have to talk to you? Why can't I just go outside and destroy something?!" Hobbies: Clawing things. Pouncing on things. Likes: Jumping. Running. Destroying stuff. Favorite restaurant: Anywhere that serves raw meat. Another of the orphan combiner team members. They created a new helmet for the Predacons, a sort of all-purpose animal head with holes into which you could plug bull horns or a rhino horn or both. Rampage comes with neither, since he's supposed to be a tiger. Robot mode sort of uses all the parts, although you have to pick between either dual pistols or a pistol and a sword. However, it looks better if you leave off the orange flak vest and wedge piece and expose the printed chest complete with tiger face. Beast mode switches the flak vest around so that the orange wedge is on the back, puts the figure on all fours and sticks the two pistols into the rear leg holes. It works surprisingly well, although I'd have replaced the orange wedge with an orange 1x1 flat with barrel so that the guns could mount on the back. Putting them on the forelegs as with the G1 toy would be impractical, but the back would work better mechanically. Already plenty of stress marks on the wrists. DECEPTICON: INSECTICON Bag Number: 46 Altmode: Beetle of some kind "A lot of these other guys are into philosophy. What's good, what's evil - all that junk. Me? I'm into food! Give me a big field full of grain, or - yum! - a refinery full of crude oil, and I'm one happy bug. I'm drooling just thining about that big stinky mess. Nom!" Hobbies: Talking about food. Favorite food: Natural gas. Oil. Anything smelly and explosive. Hydraulic kicks: Strong enough to bust any KREON in half. The kicks imply this is supposed to be Kickback, a name that they've managed to keep (as shown by the disappointing Fall of Cybertron toy), but I suppose they wanted to keep Insecticon in circulation too. And visually it's more of a Prime-style Insecticon. Robot mode uses all but two pieces, but there's not much added by having a couple stuck on the backpack, so might as well ditch the flak vest in this mode. It has a Megatron-mold helmet, and has a sword for a weapon. Insect mode is a bit more clever, although it ditches the head and helmet entirely. The two unused pieces from robot mode form a new insect head, with the sword forming a beetle horn. It has a similar leg setup to Scorponok, but with the robot arms forming the front pair of legs so that there's a proper six legs. Not bad, but insect altmodes still stretch the illusion and require too many parts to be abandoned. DECEPTICON: BLAST OFF Bag Number: 47 Altmode: Space shuttle "Ooooooh, lucky me! I get to tell you pathetic humans all about myself. Well, listen up blockheads! I don't care what you think of me! I'm built better than any other KREON out there, and I know it. I'm perfectly happy hanging out in deep space, all by myself. All alone." Favorite sound: The silence of space, where I spend all my time so very, very alone. Hobby: Blasting targets to dust from orbit. Favorite snack: Liquid oxygen. It's the fuel that keeps me going! Eeeeeeemo. Like Quickslinger, some of the leftover vehicle bits go to making a bigger pistol, with only one piece unused...and it also looks pretty good added onto the gun. This set uses the same backpack as Inferno. The tail assembly is similar to Quickslinger's, but without the extra 1x1 round to symmetrize things. Vehicle mode uses all but the pistol, and other than that lack of symmetry in the tail looks pretty good. Use of the Mirage helmet gives it a nicely recognizable shuttle shape. Unfortunately, unlike Lego, Kreons don't include extras of the really easy to lose tiny parts, and I lost one of the yellow rounds for the thrusters. I had to go into my bucket of Lego spare bits to replace it, but I couldn't match the color, so I put in two orange ones...and as long as I was in the bucket, I grabbed a spare black round to address the symmetry issue (it just makes the gun even beefier in robot mode). DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON HOOK Bag Number: 48 Altmode: Crane "You think you're good at building? No one is better than me. Back on CYBERTRON, I was the master of construction. The other DECEPTICONS - those peasants - don't understand my art. But I shall persevere. I'll build what I want, no matter how often they knock my structures down and laugh at me." Favorite structure: The Kreonsler Building Special building material: Bricks. Obvs. Hates: Round edges. There's actually more than one orphan from the Devastator set, especially when you consider they didn't get to keep all the G1 names, but they only dropped one Constructicon into this wave. [Later note: Turns out they got all the original names back, and didn't try to sneak a Hightower or whatnot into the mix. They also included some Hook pieces, for obvious reasons.] Hey, they made a new helmet for this one too. Three pieces (two wheels and a connector) go unused in robot mode. If the pistol barrel was a little wider, the pieces could be attached as a barrel extension, but the fit is too loose. Also, the crane stuck on the back doesn't stay on very well. This is a good candidate for snipping the front off the flak vest, though, since the peg side goes on the back but abandoning the vest all together leaves too much off. Vehicle mode involves putting wheels in the hands and using the connector piece to move the crane to the back of one of the legs. The new helmet has truck windows and grill molded on the top, so the front of the vehicle actually looks like the front of a vehicle...once you see the unpainted details. A touch of silver paint, or some rectangles cut out of silver sticky sheet (i.e. reprolabel borders) would go a long way to improving the vehicle mode. I suppose purple windows would be more G1-accurate, though. The pistol isn't used in this mode, but can always be attached to the back. http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/kreonhook.JPG shows some quick modifications I did to mine. I made similar changes to the flak vests of Rampage, Airachnid, Insecticon and Dirge, as seen in this pic: http://www.dvandom.com/kitbash/kreondeflacked.JPG DECEPTICON: DIRGE Bag Number: 49 Altmode: Jet "You'd think being one of the only KREONS who can fly would be great, but you'd be wrong. Flying is depressing. It's cold, and lonely, and all you can see are a bunch of tiny things you just want to crush like bugs on the ground. But being on the ground is just as depressing. Ugh. Let's face it. Everything's pretty pointless." Favorite childhood pet: I had a pet toucan, but it ran away. Afraid of: Clowns. Best friend: No one. Friends always just betray, anyway. Ennui-mo. Yep, another one that's going under the Dremel to carve away most of the front of the flak jacket so I can see the chest detailing. If you remove the flak jacket from robot mode, you lose the wings. As a conehead, they kind of had to make a new helmet, and they went all out...there's even a fully molded cockpit window on the back of it. It splits the difference between F-15 and A-10, so I expect to see it on a Powerglide figure eventually. All pieces are used in both modes, but transformation just involves flipping the arm cannons over and laying the figure on its belly. An alternate build that looks a bit better involves putting the wings on the arms, flipping the flak jacket and using what had been the wing connector to hold the guns on the underside. It's a little less stable, since the arm clips are usually pretty floppy, but I prefer the aesthetics. DECEPTICON: AIRACHNID Bag Number: 50 Altmode: Spider "Ooooh, MEGATRON demands loyalty. MEGATRON demands obedience. Whatever. I'm not much of a joiner. I'll work with the DECEPTICONS when it suits me, but all I'm interested in is my own gain - and maybe a little excitement here and there." Rival: ARCEE. The more damage I can do to her, the better. Greatest fear: A giant Energon-powered flyswatter. Fondest memory: The time I webbed ARCEE to the floor and let INSECTICON tickle her. Point one: This is the TF:Prime character, but the only Arcee Kreon we've seen (and that one's a mockup) is G1. Point two: How the SLAG did this bio note get past the censors? Your kink is not okay, Airachnid. Another where you may want to trim the flak vest, since doing without loses too much stuff in robot mode. But all parts are used in both modes. Of course, transformation just involves lifting the arms up over the head, and then pulling out the struts for the spider legs so that they can support the prone figure. The arms with their seeker-style guns form the chelicarae and pedipalps. It's actually pretty good, but I have two quibbles: One, the arm guns don't stay on very well, and two, the handlebar pieces used to hold the legs are awkwardly angled so that the legs go all pigeon-towed if you don't get all the angles just right. DECEPTICON: DECEPTICON BLUDGEON Bag Number: 51 Altmode: Tank "These other fools dishonor themselves with their prattling. I am a true warrior, who follows the code of Brickshido. I respect all those who fall before my sword - although my code doesn't prevent me from surprising AUTOBOTS with the occasional electric fireball from my cannon." Proudest moment: Getting my brick belt in Metallikato. Favorite possession: The energo-sword given to me by my master. Rival: BUMBLEBEE. That guy has no respect for a proud warrior. It has the same style of tank tread pieces as Warpath and a similar transformation, but since the cannon doesn't need to come out of the chest in robot mode it has a different style of attachment in vehicle mode. This cannon is a sort of "beta club" shaped piece plus a ventilated 1x1 barrel, and it simply pegs into the flak jacket hole directly in either mode. You have to switch the flak jacket around and reverse the treads as part of transformation, so it's a little more involved than Warpath's. The robot mode can hold all the parts, but the vehicle mode has no place for the katana that comes with the toy. It's not a particularly impressive tank, especially given the somewhat chaotic color scheme imposed by the robot mode's late-G1 roots, but it's not like the Pretender inner tank was that impressive either. Since the cannon goes on the back in robot mode (unofficially he can also hold it as a hand weapon), I was able to do my de-flacking trick so that my copy has the chest printing visible. Dave Van Domelen, now has a rather large backlog of things to review...Bot Shots, Beast Hunters, Fall of Cybertron.