Man! I gotta tell you, your friendly neighborhood jman took a bunch of crap when people heard I was doing this article. I got crap like: “Ohhhhhhhhhh! Lego’s gonna be mad at you”. Ok. Like, I’ve got some sort of lucrative contract with Lego.
Believe you me, I don’t.
I’ve been curious about Kre-O for some time now, but really haven’t had a reason to buy a set. So, when I saw they had the Star Trek movie license, I realized this was probably going to be the best opportunity to buy a set I was ever gonna get.
But, enough of the blahblahs. Let’s just get to it, shall we?
First thing…probably the most important thing…the bricks. The bricks aren’t bad. They’re very similar in weight, feel and color to Lego bricks. Unlike that other construction toy you find on the shelves. Man! Those are terrible bricks. The Kre-O bricks on the other hand? They’re a reasonable facsimile to Lego bricks
Then there’s the other really important part of any construction toy, the figures. The minifigures Kreons are…ok. Their limbs have this nice feature where they swivel around at better angles then Lego minifigures. More like the design of the fore-unmentioned awful construction brand. Also, the Kreons’ head pieces are more “head” shaped then Lego figures. Their hair pieces are a bit oversized, making them look just like that…hair pieces. All told, I can’t say I was all that crazy about Kreons.
That being said, though, the build itself wasn’t bad at all. Now, I’m not a fan of big, fabricated pieces. And the body of the Enterprise is a big fabricated piece. That was disappointing. But…it’s out of necessity, because the model features lights. So, there has to be a place to put the battery pack/wires/etc. And a big, fabricated piece is probably the way to go. Unfortunately.
Speaking of lights, the line of Kre-O Star Trek sets features what’s called “Light Tech”. On this particular model, the Nacells and the main sensor light up, which is really cool. The thing is…that’s all they do. Light up. There’s something missing. Sure, it’s cool the ship lights up, but without any sounds? Bor-ring! If cost is a problem, and it very well may be, then Hasbro should just dump the light feature altogether. Otherwise, if they’re gonna have a light up action the ships gotta have sounds
The price for the sets seemed a little on the high side. It may have been in line with Lego sets of comparable size, but it felt like I was paying more and getting a bit less.
All in all, I probably wouldn’t have a problem buying more Kre-O sets. If they had sets that I was interested in, that is. And therein lays the problem for Hasbro. Licensing. They really don’t have any licenses that I care all that much about. Star Trek, being the exception. And, really…it’s not much of an exception. I’m not that big a Star Trek fan to buy multiple sets.
Right now, Lego has the market cornered on licenses. Until that changes, they’ll have the corner on my construction toy dollars, as well.
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