Here’s some odds and ends that don’t really fit into the Transformers Wiki’s coverage.
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- This is where they make all my favorite tv shows! And Perfect Couples.
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- Here’s a version of 30 Rock in a language we can all understand. The LEGO store faces this.
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- YOU’LL BE DEAD
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- They said that they weren’t trying to adhere closely to the cartoon’s animation designs. And that’s precisely when I stopped caring.
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- The requisite MLP photo. I know some of these are in stores already, if not most of them. But I liked the balloon.
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- WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN
During the G.I. Joe portion of the introductory presentation, a memorial clip was shown that mourned the loss of Renegades character designer Clement Sauvé. A piece of music was composed just for the presentation, a Sad Piano version of the Renegades theme song. It was very touching and I’m glad they put that together.
Hasbro has a new Totally Not Lego brand coming out soon called “KRE-O,” and this section was put in a tiny room away from everything else and heavily guarded. No photographs were allowed. Hasbro was afraid that somebody from LEGO might get inside and find out how to make construction bricks or something. And then they put a bunch of photos of three of them in their press kits. Well, yeah, sure, but now LEGO will never know that Hasbro is also making kits of Jazz, Ratchet, Prowl, Cliffjumper, Megatron, Sideswipe, and Sentinel Prime!
Crap.
Anyway, it looks really neat, and I will probably get Ratchet. I loves me some Ratchet.
Addendum: “KRE-O” must be pronounced as if you are Dr. Cliff Huxtable yelling at your son. I’ve decided this.
A lot of the elements in those KRE-O sets look a lot like regular Lego elements.
Anyways, it reminds me of Built to Rule, except that the sets look a lot better.
Kre-o, like Megablocks and Built To Rule and every other construction brick brand, is intended to be LEGO-compatible, so it’s bound to still look like LEGO bricks. All of the dozens of bricks in the showroom were Hasbro’s, though. I looked through them searching for an errant actual-LEGO-brick, but there were none.
Well I knew that those brands are all compatible. Usually their basic elements are very very similar, and then each brand has it’s own set of unique elements (Mega Bloks, for example, has many specialized parts for its licensed themes). What I was saying is that there are some pieces in those models that I would mistake for LEGO pieces as there are molds in those KRE-O sets that are similar to more uncommon LEGO molds (the fenders and some of those clip type pieces come to mind)
Really, what I think is neat is that Hasbro has definitely been showing some interest in the building block toys area, what with their U-Build series of board games and now this.
I agree with you, Prhymus. Most of the building block brands have a lot of the same basic pieces: bricks, plates, tiles, clips, and the like. However, some of the pieces on these Transformers are exactly like relatively new LEGO pieces. For example, the slopes on each of OP’s feet. Ditto the weird crotch slopes; I’m surprised they emulated those, because I’ve always thought they were goofy pieces. The 2 x 4 tiles are also something brand new in LEGO sets as of 2010.
I’m not saying that Hasbro’s done anything wrong, doesn’t bother me at all. But some of the pieces on the sets do jump out at me as ‘LEGO’ in a way that other pieces in these Hasbro sets don’t, if that makes sense.
wow, those sets look pretty good. I kind of gave up on the btr transformers sets awhile ago because I thought they looked pretty crappy.
I need that optimus prime. It genuinely looks like a well produced version of him besides being lego.
But the million dollar question: when assembled, to they “transform” in the traditional sense, or do they have to be dissassembled and reassembled? each would have it’s pros and cons.
They have to be disassembled and then reassembled, following the logic that if you want a toy that transforms, you’ll just buy the action figure. Construction brick toys should be built.
Do the rest of the figures follow the same aesthetic, where they seem to be based on the movie designs but have G1 styled heads and (in Starsceam’s case) color schemes? More importantly, is Ratchet’s head Marvel or Sunbow?
I’m reluctant to say definitively, because nearly everything there was unfinished. The heads on most of the product displayed were temporary heads knocked off from previous toys. Ratchet’s construction toy was his Universe (2008) head with the same white-and-red color scheme pattern. His mini-figure was Sunbow colored. Mirage’s construction toy head was his Classics head. But that could easily change.
Damn You Willis! I was in New York the DAY before that Lego store opened. THE DAY!!! And it was our last day in New York.
Wow, I normally actively avoid knockoff legos (out of respect for the probably long-since uncopyrightable originals), but some/all of these, I must own.
And the (only?) way they’re distinguishing their pieces from the real thing is randomly making some of the bumps hollow? WTF?
Mega Blocks: LEGO’s shitty younger cousin. They try to make up for their lack of production quality with admittedly cool build sets.
They’ve gotten a lot better recently. When I was really young I swore off Mega Blocks “eternally” because the quality was *extremely* bad, but the first wave of Dragons sets pulled me back in, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the quality since then. They’re still not quite Lego-quality, but in my mind that’s compensated for by some of the joint designs and the presence of better-articulated minifigures.
Most Joe collectors are glad that the Renegades figures are in the realistic, modern style. The real problem is this, do we really need another Duke, Snake Eyes, Cobra Commander, Scarlet, Roadblock and Tunnel Rat?
I think that, excluding Duke and Snake eyes, getting new versions of those guys isn’t too bad a problem. They fill the required big name slots without being yet another straight rerelease of the stuff we’ve been getting since the 25th anniversary line began.
No Toy News/Shortpacked! strip this week?
I don’t think Lego Transformers would be as amazing as some might think. A lot modern Lego sets have pre-made sections of the toys, stuff that doesn’t need assembling. Hasbro’s KRE-O does appear to require a person to build the entire Transformer.
A common malady among people who haven’t been into Lego for a while is failing to distinguish “specialized parts” from “large pre-built chunks.”
The latter is really more typical of Mega Blocks in my experience, where for instance they once had a big “space shuttle” set that consisted of a crapload of standard bricks and plates… and then a big “interior of the space shuttle’s cargo bay” piece.
I still doubt that Lego Transformers would be as interesting as these. There’s a fan out there who has been building Lego Transformers for a while now. His work is able to transform and is made up of ordinary bricks. I don’t think that Lego themselves would be even close to what he’s been doing.
“A” fan? Dude, I do that.
LEGO could do that, but I imagine the number of pieces needed to make a fully-transformable Transformer out of LEGOs is cost-prohibitive to sell in stores.
But it’s okay to sell an Indiana Jones mine cart chase set for $100?
I hate it when they do that.
Can…can you swap out the robot heads with Lego-man heads?
err, you mean the mini-figs or like, bionicle?
as a lego guy im not so sure what to think of this kre-o brand. ill, just wait and see when final products come out
Didn’t see much of anything in terms of Generations/RTS stuff as I had hoped. But its good to see the confirmation the line is continuing at least through 2011. And hope more Kyde-insipired designs grace our shelves in the near future. Now the countdown to Botcon officially begins!
Looking forward to getting back into collecting gi joe figures but im abit worried that the renegades line may be abit hard to destinguish from the rest and seems abit limited considering it’s the main gi joe media line at the moment(till a new film comes out), still some of the other regular joe figures look cool aswell so i may just grab a bunch of both lines