Diver
1 1/2 Inch scale
By: Lego
$2.99
Perhaps the best figure of the bunch in Lego’s Series 8 of Minifigures, is the Diver. He seems like a deep sea diver to me and he’s got all the traits of a classic, fun little figure. Sure he’s not as exciting as an alien or a robot, but it’s the little things that help this figure stand out. From the magnifying glass in the helmet to the lead boots, there’s just enough small details to make the charm factor on this figure, second to none.
Evil Alien Queen
1 1/2 Inch scale
By: Lego
$2.99
You may recall that I mentioned that I recently hit the jackpot as it were, with the Lego Minifigures Series 8 collection. I bought three figures and managed to get the three that I wanted. That’s probably pretty rare, but of course I fond them all by mashing around on the package so it’s not like I was that lucky. None the less, the Alien figure was amongst those scores. Lego had a whole series a while back called Alien Conquest, which featured a ton of similar designs. I always wanted to buy some, but never did for one reason or another.
Oddly enough, I ended up seeing that series on clearance, but I never did bite the bullet. Oh well. At least I got this little Alien figure. So how does she stack up?!
Evil Robot
1 1/2 Inch scale
By: Lego
$2.99
Lego has been cranking out these blind bag minifigures since 2010 and they’ve really added a whole new genre of toys to the collectible market. Lego’s concept isn’t one that’s wholly original to them, but since their introduction into the marketplace, dozens of imitators have come along. For the most part I’ve avoided the minifigure craze, but Lego’s series 8 got me to buy a few. Thankfully, I managed to snag the ones I wanted.
Scooby-Doo Mystery Mates 5 Packs
Scooby-Doo and the Monsters
2 Inch Scale
By: Character Options
$5-$8
I remember watching episodes of Scooby-Doo as a kid and it was usually pretty hard to differentiate which incarnation of Scooby-Doo I was watching. It all flowed together seamlessly, to me. Obviously there were some exceptions, such as the 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.
I’m glad that Scooby has managed to live on and remain mostly unchanged. That allows for products such as the toy line from Character Options, to hit both the nostalgia market and the kids market. There’s something heartwarming about being able to buy your kids toys that remind you of things you enjoyed as a youngster.
For years I’ve wanted some of these smaller Scooby-Doo figures and when I saw the 5 packs for $5 at Toys R Us, I couldn’t resist. So today as part of our Halloween countdown celebration, we’re going to take a look at two different five packs of Scooby-Doo Mystery Mates.
Character Building Mini Figures (Series 1)
Special Ops, Black Knight
2 Inch Scale
By: Character Options
$1.99
It’s 8 days into Mego Month and I haven’t gotten a single bit of Mego content up. That’s not exactly a good thing, but I promise Mego goodness is coming. Truth be told, I’ve sort of got caught up in the mini figure world, along with being really busy. Which brings us to a review for this morning, on something I found at the local Toys R Us by total surprise.
It’s Character Building micro figures! You may remember I reviewed the Character Building 11th Doctor set a while back. Up until now, that set was either imported or carried in specialty shops. While over in the UK, Character Options had managed to get their brand of mini figures into stores, I never expected to see them in the US. Surprisingly it’s the generic figures that are showing up and not the Doctor Who licensed ones.
Still, I love mini figures and I liked the Character Building Who figures, so at $2 per figure, I decided to give it a whirl. I went in completely unaware of what most of the figures are (they only showed 6 on the package) and I wanted to get the Frankenstein/Zombie guy. Alas, I didn’t score him… But do I like what I did get?
Packaging:
These come blind bagged, in a pretty simple bag similar to all the other ones out there on the market. Although it says 12 to collect on the package, only 6 are shown. This leaves half the figures as a mystery.
The back of the package is really plain. That seems to be a common trend with these mini figures or “Micro-Figures” as they’re called here. Honestly you’d think these companies would find something better to do with that space. It does mention that these are distributed in the US by some company called Jonic Distribution North America… Whoever the hell that is.
Inside is a double sided sheet that shows off the other figures. I think it’s a little strange that the ninjas aren’t advertised on the front. You’d think a ninja figure would be a big draw. Likewise, I think it’s a little odd that none of these figures are labeled with names. I do appreciate that they tell you which ones are rare.
I used the old tried and true method of feeling around to figure out which guy I was getting. I was able to figure out a Knight pretty easy (at the time I didn’t know there were two knights) but I failed at getting the monster man. I felt the vest of the Special Ops guy and thought it was the brain head of the monster zombie dude. Oh well, I was 1 for 2.
Sculpt/Paint:
The bodies are a complete reuse of the simple bodies that we saw with the Doctor Who figures. This is the basic Character Building body. All of Series 1 use this very basic body, just repainted. So there’s no unique sculpting on the bodies themselves.
Each figure comes complete disassembled. I don’t really get the point of this, for the record. I guess it helps in keeping the “mystery” element alive, but it’s not like there’s a whole lot of fun in assembling these guys. It takes under a minute to pop them together.
The Knight is really cool, with the big bucket style helmet and the cross opening in the front. It’s not your standard generic knight. He has a little bit more flavor to him. The tampo work is really nice and clean which gives him a pop of color. It definitely works to brighten up the otherwise pretty monotone figure.
The shield is pretty basic, but the dragon on the front is great. It matches the dragon on his chest. The sword, although only one color, has some sculpting elements to it that are really nice. There’s even some detail on the hilt. He comes with a small cape as well.
The helmet is the full head. There isn’t another head underneath or anything. I think it looks good, although perhaps a little paint on the helmet would have made it stand out a bit more.
The Special Ops guy is a bit more boring to me, but he could work as a member of U.N.I.T. or something. Actually it almost looks like he’s been designed to be Barney Ross from the Expendables or something. Maybe it’s just me that sees that in the figure.
It almost looks like he has sloppy paint work on the face, but it’s actually a very detailed tampo application that makes the face streak paint look like it was actually done by hand. You can almost see fingerprints in it. It’s a very nice bit of detail on something so small.
His vest is a semi-hard rubber and it is removable. On the plus side, he’s got a shirt printed on underneath so you can have him go without the vest.
Or you can swap heads with another figure in this range.
Articulation:
The articulation is really basic with swivel neck, swivel wrists and hinged arms and legs. It’s basically the same amount of movement you can get with a Lego man. Although the way the bottom half connects, you can also get a swivel at the waist, but it’s awkward.
Posing is going to be pretty basic, but I do feel like these guys have a bit more heft and charm to them than a regular Lego.
Accessories:
Each figure comes with a couple of things and a stand.
The Special Ops figure has a black stand and a gun. His vest could also be an accessory. The stand is nicer than any of the other mini figure stands I’ve seen to date. It has a knife printed on it and a CB logo.
The Knight has a brown stand with a sword printed on it. He also has his cape, sword and shield. He’s got some nice gear all in all.
Value:
At $1.99, these are some of the cheapest mini figures around. I don’t know how well they’ll do in the United States, given that they almost come across as bootlegs. Not in quality, but in presentation. If you’d never heard of these guys, you’d think they were come cheap junk. However the truth is that these are very nice little mini figures. I think they have more charm than Legos, at least on the base level. However the choice of characters is pretty bland.
Score Recap:
Packaging – 5
Sculpting – 8
Paint – 8
Articulation – 4
Accessories – Sword, Shield, Stands, Cape, Vest, Gun
Value – 10
Overall – 8 out of 10
These guys score a pretty high 8 out 10 for me. While they lack the depth in character selection of Lego, the base body appeals more to me because of it’s rounded features. Each guy comes with a couple of accessories and although I much prefer the Knight to the Special Ops guy, both are pretty neat. Part of me wants to get quite a few of these Knights. They could come in handy for some Doctor Who mini figure time traveling stories.
KRE-O Transformers
Kreon Micro Changers Preview Series
Galvatron, Scorponok
1 3/4 Inch Scale
By: Hasbro
If there’s two weak areas here at Infinite Hollywood it would be Legos and Transformers. While I have fiddled around with Legos before, our coverage hasn’t been super extensive. Likewise, Transformers has never really been my bag. Outside of Generation 1 and some random episodes of Beast Wars, I’ve never been a Transformer guy. I had a fair amount of Transformers as a kid, but I always though they were either a cool robot or a cool vehicle, but rarely both.
I realize that Transformers have evolved quite a bit in the last few decades and I also understand that they’re probably the second most powerful toy brand behind Star Wars, but nothing much has made me interested in them. At least until the KRE-O stuff came along. KRE-O is Hasbro’s attempt to move into the Lego market. The first KRE-O Transformers products were simple cars and trucks that could be built as either the vehicle or the robot forms.
And then someone realized that nobody buys Legos anymore to build stuff (okay lots probably do, but I digress) and instead people care about the mini figures! And so, like so many other companies, Hasbro began making Kreons, their versions of mini figures. Unfortunately for Transformers, they got off to a slow start, only including Kreons in the HUGE most expensive sets. But finally they’re on board the blind bag concept that everyone loves and are now offering Transformer characters in Kreon mini form at an affordable price and without all those extra bricks nobody wants.
As long as I don’t have to buy a bunch of bricks, I’m happy! To make matters even more interesting, this preview series of the blind bag minis is also the first version of these Kreons that can “transform” into a second mode. Transformers have come full circle. So how do these mini figures rate with a guy who’s not really into Legos or Transformers? Read on…
Packaging:
The packages are simple and mimic every other blind bag on the market. There’s no new ground being broken here people. I guess don’t try to reinvent the wheel if you’re KRE-O. Right now we’ve got Lego, Mega Bloks, K’Nex and a few others flooding the shelves with these blind bag minis. Blind bags are nothing new, they did this in the 80′s with M.U.S.C.L.E. and such, but they’re definitely all the rage these days.
The front shows off colorful cartoon versions of each Kreon in the series, while the back has a pretty basic checklist. It also shows that they’re 2 in 1 with the transforming mode and whatnot. It doesn’t mention anything about rareness or ratio, so I’ll assume they’re evenly packed, I guess. One of the gimmicks of these blind bags “gotta catch em’ all” elements is that some guys are usually a lot harder to find than others.
Inside each guy is wrapped up in a little bag, meaning you have to completely build him. It makes sense for these kind of transforming guys, but having a mini figure dissembled is pretty much par for the course with these types of figures. I’m not really sure why, but I assume if they’re in a bunch of pieces it makes it harder for you to feel on the bag and figure out what you got.
There is also a small instruction sheet with more info on it. This is important because it tells you how to get the Kreon in both forms.
Sculpt/Paint:
Believe it or not, the first Kreons I was attracted to were not the Transformer ones. Instead I loved the design of the Battleship KRE-O figures. Crazy, right? Of course it’s not really a fair comparison because the Battleship Kreons were out before the Transformer ones. Hasbro sort of kept these Transformers KRE-O mini figures kind of low key for a bit.
Each figure starts out as a bunch of parts and once you decide which way to build him, you either have extra pieces laying around or he’s fully together.
While I’m not a big Transformer guy, I’ve always thought the robots looked cool. Particularly in their robot forms. I feel like the toys never properly replicated their robot forms right, because they looked like something that transformed into a robot, as opposed to actually being a robot… Yeah I get that it’s the whole gimmick, but I still always felt the figures lacked.
But cool looking robots I can dig and Transformers have always had cool looking robots.
Each body is pretty basic, with a Lego-like head. A body that’s similar to Legos (but designed just different enough to not be stealing) and some different tampo prints for details.
It’s nothing revolutionary, but immediately the bright colors and neat robot designs strike me as awesome. I guess it’s just the fact that this a much more colorful property and it doesn’t seem as limited as Lego does in terms of doing something neat with the Kreons.
Note: Some of these Scorponok builds are using two figures, as I ended up with a duplicate of him.
Like Scorponok, who has different hand connectors to his body. He also has translucent parts. There seems to be a lot of translucent stuff in this line. I LOVE TRANSLUCENT STUFF! I would buy a turd if it was translucent plastic. I’m a grown ass man, but I’m not afraid to admit that I am transfixed by translucent toys.
They’re pretty much the exact same scale as Lego mini figures, but smaller than some of the other minis out there. They can interchange parts with Lego, with not much of an issue. That’s one of the pluses of KRE-O.
This allows you to interact Lego parts as well.
Although you can’t interchange the midsection. That’s pretty much the only part that’s constructed differently.
Each guy has a unique build. While I’m not really much into the “Transformer” part, it does give these guys added value. Scorponok’s two builds are kind of unique. He definitely has some real pop with his claw hands and stinging tail. I had a lot of fun swapping parts around with him.
Galvatron’s vehicle mode is kind of stupid though. It’s sort of similar to the G1 version, but it’s a pretty big stretch. I guess you shouldn’t expect these guys to transform into anything great. At least you could sort of use him as a vehicle if you wanted.
Supposedly in his robot mode you can connect this crap to his back, but it does not work. That’s one area where I did find some trouble with these guys. Some of the stuff that they’re supposed to do feels a bit weak.
As does the plastic at points. One of my figures has a pretty loose shoulder and several times as I was popping parts in and out, stress marks appeared. I’ve owned a lot of Legos through the years and never, ever had a stress mark appear, so that’s pretty alarming.
Articulation:
The one problem I have with the Lego mini figure movement is the articulation. While I’m hardly an articulation eliteist, I do think that the Lego model is starting to show it’s age. Kreons offer a nice little update to that basic concept.
You can do a lot more with the KRE-O mini figures than you can a Lego. Of course, the robots and the vehicles have different levels or articulation, but all the basic Kreons have the same articulation.
This means you’re going to get a lot more poses out of these guys.
Accessories:
Obviously it’s kind of hard to say that these guys come with accessories, since everything is sort of built into their design.
However Galvatron most definitely does come with a shoulder cannon and I can’t tell you how in love with it I am. It’s such a neat little recreation of the vintage Transformer cannons. Kudos Hasbro!
He also has wheels that can plug into the side of his legs. Everyone has holes on their legs for wheels, in case their vehicle mode used wheels. I don’t care for the look of the wheels on him, but it’s pretty neat that they’re there. It’s also cool that you can remove them.
The ability to mix and match parts to create new bots and such, is something I really like about these figures. I realize you can do that with a lot of Legos and stuff too, but it just exudes some awesome play elements in these Transformers KRE-Os.
I was even building stuff with the extra bricks and pieces. It was like the old days again!
Value:
Value is sort of tricky, because although these guys have a lot of play value and they’re generally inexpensive at $3 a pop… They’re blind bags. So in my case, I spent $9 but only got two different figures. I guess one nice element here is that since they’re Transformers, you can make new robots out of them. As opposed to say if you got two Lego fishermen or something.
Score Recap:
Packaging – 7
Sculpting – 8
Paint – 8
Articulation – 8
Accessories – Shoulder Cannon, Vehicle/Beast Mode
Value – 8
Overall – 8 out of 10
With the exuberant colors and neat designs, the Transformers KRE-O Kreons are a lot of fun. Giving these guys the extra transforming modes and lots of fun little details definitely makes even a guy who’s not big into Legos or Transformers, enjoy these little guys. Both Galvatron and Scorponok are really neat little desktop toys.
Being able to change these guys around and use them in different ways, definitely adds to their uniqueness compared to pretty much all the other mini figures on the market. Certainly Lego has embraced this idea for years, but the Transformers property definitely gives KRE-O new legs in this area. If the figure plastic quality can live up to the potential of the lines, KRE-O may be a nice challenger to the Lego monopoly.