Kre-O... it's Lego's awkward wannabe cousin, but I appreciate that the parts are Lego compatible and that they have access to licenses that Lego doesn't (like Star Trek... the Enterprise kit was actually pretty decent) and in-house stuff like Transformers and GI Joe.
I've been thinking about buying a lot of Kre-O sets over the last month or so because they would make a great toy for a future mwhittJr. They are really cheap and the Kreons are pretty awesome (the city unvasion sets crack me up).
Picked up more GI Joe Kre-O stuff this week... the Snake Eyes/Storm Shadow showdown kit (small kit with a dojo scene, the above characters, and two Cobra ninjas) and some more blind-bagged Kreons: Major Bludd, Flash, Lady Jaye, Lowlight, Tomax, a Cobra Flight Trooper, and Cobra Polar Eel. They're all pretty awesome, and though I still don't think they're as good as Lego, they're probably the best of the non-Lego building bricks out there in terms of how they look.
My birthday is at the end of April and if I get some money I have designs on the Battle Platform set... cool little base, some nice small vehicles (the RAM motorcycle and a Trubble Bubble), and some big name figs in Duke, Roadblock, and Cobra Commander (as well as a couple of Cobra troops).
Another thing I appreciate about the blind-bagged Kreons... each figure has a specific numeric code printed on the back of the bag, so you can just look up the codes online and save yourself a ton of time when you're looking for specific characters.
Which means someone else can get there ahead of you and pick out the stuff you're looking for - like all of the B.A.T.s, to use an example that in no way reflects my experience this morning! - but still, it makes the hunt easier and (theoretically) less frustrating. :D
i'm really moving away from LEGOs towards MEGA BLOKS and KRE-Os
I was able to buy some used unopened Mega Blok sets for like 75% off retail... people are so blindly loyal to LEGO's that they will gladly sell their competitors for next to nothing!
of course... when it comes to Mega Blok POWER RANGERS... that's a different story... see a lot guys selling it for a premium on ebay
and KRE-O Transformers and GI Joes are expensive too
but if u go with generic Mega Bloks and wait for them to go on sale, you can really make your dollar last longer
I now have all of the Joe Kreo sets and figures that have come out and I think they are really well done. I am looking to try to get the Joe Kreo figures from Joe Con this year. They are expensive, but I'm trying to go all in on this line. I have the set from last year, including the parachute Kreon figure. I am really enjoying getting in on this series from the beginning of it and getting the full line. I'm eagerly waiting for the release of the Terrordrome. That will be the best set ever, and a great price for it (It's only supposed to be $100 for everything that you get with it).
I still love my Lego sets, but they do get way expensive, and you're really just paying for the Lego name. It won't stop me from getting them from time to time and from me making my own Lego projects, but I won't be getting much more than what I have already.
Ned - feel for the tool box Nelson - the bat has a nub on the handle that is easy to feel Itchy - the club easy to find Grandpa has a cone head Bart - the hair and skate board Marge - the hair and super easy to feel Maggie - the hair is easy to find, but you need to feel for the bear or you end up with 3 lisas and 1 maggie. Lisa - the hair and no bear Homer - the head and there is a small circle coin that is pretty easy to feel (usually at the bottom edge of the package) Wiggum - I got lucky and thought I felt the hat and microphone Krusty feel for the head and if you thinkyou have him then feel for the pie
Thanks for those clues mwhitt! Elsewhere online I've been seeing that a few Walmarts (shudder) across the country have been selling the Simpson minifigs, but unfortunately not the couple stores closest to me.
I got lucky finding millhouse and ralph. I would guess the best way to feel for them is the flat 2x2 square news paper tile. If you can, feel the difference in the heads, but I couldn't really tell enough of a difference to say that's a sure fire way to go. Also they have kids legs (as does nelson, but the bat handle really sticks out).
There are three figure that all feel sort of similiar with distinct heads Maggie, Lisa and Scratchy. The points at the top are dead giveaways. Maggie and lisa almost feel the same which is why you feel for the teddy bear, the biggest difference between Lisa and Scratchy is the legs; Scratchy has tradtional movable lego legs and Lisa has kids legs. It's sort of hard to tell the difference. Wiggum and the 3 with above are a difficult to feel for.
All the heads are one molded peice (grandpa feels like a cone with a few points, marge feels like a pickle, Bart like a cylinder with points). A lot of the haeds feel round with some sort of hair, but have very feelable accessories.
I've gone 15 for 17 on the feeling process. It should be 15/16 bt I got tired and forgot to take out the extra Nelsons and Barts I found; then miss felt them in my last check through of my stack. I'm missing Apu which is really difficult to feel for. I've bought 6 minifigs at a time 2x and then 5 yesterday.
Just remembered Maggie does not have legs which helps a lot too. however I did not know this until I got her last night, and it slipped my mind until now.
Has anyone bought any of the Lego knockoff Decool minifigures? I know the quality isn't supposed to be nearly as good, but are they at least passable? Seeing as Lego and TT Games keep putting characters in the DC and Marvel games that never actually make it into sets, this seems to be the only option in a lot of cases (for now) unless you're an awesome customizer.
The Guardians of the Galaxy sets are out, and they are all spectacular. If you'd told me one day there'd be minifigs of Groot and Ronan the Accuser I'd have laughed in your face.
Here's a listing at Brickset of SDCC exclusives. I'm drooling over the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh.
The collector and Batman are pretty great.
The sneaky good thing is that we will be able to get cheap chinese copies of these on amazon in a few months. I've got an exact copy of the Cap. Marvel and Bizarro from a few years ago.
I'm kind of pissed that they're making the '66 Batmobile a Comic-Con exclusive. They'd sell a ton of those at retail. Limiting those to just 1000 is kind of a dick move. I hope that at least the instructions wind up in the archives at the Lego website, or that someone is decent enough to scan them (with parts list).
Glad he mentioned Joe Meno’s Wall-E build. Joe (the editor of Brick Journal magazine, which TwoMorrows publishes) built it for the San Diego Comic-Con the summer the movie came out, and we had it on display at our table. It was very fragile, but as mentioned, it was motorized so it could roll around, turn in circles, etc.
The Lego Ideas Research Institute set, the one that got all the buzz for being the "women in science" one, is sold out. Not listed as "out of stock," but full-on sold out. I've read that in some places that it sold out online in a day, other places say a week. Either way, they obviously WAY underestimated interest and demand. I hope they go "back to press" on that one, or they'll have a lot of angry fans who missed out.
Like me, who was in Canada the entire time it was on sale and couldn't order it!
First the SDCC-only 60s Batmobile, now this... they're not getting on my good side lately! :D
Put my Ecto-1 together last night. First Lego I've done in probably 15 years. Loved it. Gonna pick up the Deloreon next. 80's movie nostalgia + lego nostalgia = awesome!
The Delorean was a great set and fun to build, but I liked the Ecto-1 better... less fussing with tiny pieces than the Delorean, and the end result looks a lot more like the actual car is supposed to look.
Just picked up the smallest of the Guardians of the Galaxy sets, the one with Star Lord and the Nova Corps ship. Really looking forward to putting that one together. Then I have to start saving my pennies for the Rocket & Groot set, and then the X-Jet!
Comments
My birthday is at the end of April and if I get some money I have designs on the Battle Platform set... cool little base, some nice small vehicles (the RAM motorcycle and a Trubble Bubble), and some big name figs in Duke, Roadblock, and Cobra Commander (as well as a couple of Cobra troops).
Which means someone else can get there ahead of you and pick out the stuff you're looking for - like all of the B.A.T.s, to use an example that in no way reflects my experience this morning! - but still, it makes the hunt easier and (theoretically) less frustrating. :D
I was able to buy some used unopened Mega Blok sets for like 75% off retail... people are so blindly loyal to LEGO's that they will gladly sell their competitors for next to nothing!
of course... when it comes to Mega Blok POWER RANGERS... that's a different story... see a lot guys selling it for a premium on ebay
and KRE-O Transformers and GI Joes are expensive too
but if u go with generic Mega Bloks and wait for them to go on sale, you can really make your dollar last longer
and they are compatible with LEGOS!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_clone
I still love my Lego sets, but they do get way expensive, and you're really just paying for the Lego name. It won't stop me from getting them from time to time and from me making my own Lego projects, but I won't be getting much more than what I have already.
I've not bought any KREO sets, but Megablocks are very shoddily manufactured and poorly-designed compared to LEGO.
The KREO sets I've looked at (mainly Star Trek) were not designed to what I consider LEGO standards.
Ned - feel for the tool box
Nelson - the bat has a nub on the handle that is easy to feel
Itchy - the club easy to find
Grandpa has a cone head
Bart - the hair and skate board
Marge - the hair and super easy to feel
Maggie - the hair is easy to find, but you need to feel for the bear or you end up with 3 lisas and 1 maggie.
Lisa - the hair and no bear
Homer - the head and there is a small circle coin that is pretty easy to feel (usually at the bottom edge of the package)
Wiggum - I got lucky and thought I felt the hat and microphone
Krusty feel for the head and if you thinkyou have him then feel for the pie
Elsewhere online I've been seeing that a few Walmarts (shudder) across the country have been selling the Simpson minifigs, but unfortunately not the couple stores closest to me.
Part 2
I got lucky finding millhouse and ralph. I would guess the best way to feel for them is the flat 2x2 square news paper tile. If you can, feel the difference in the heads, but I couldn't really tell enough of a difference to say that's a sure fire way to go. Also they have kids legs (as does nelson, but the bat handle really sticks out).
There are three figure that all feel sort of similiar with distinct heads Maggie, Lisa and Scratchy. The points at the top are dead giveaways. Maggie and lisa almost feel the same which is why you feel for the teddy bear, the biggest difference between Lisa and Scratchy is the legs; Scratchy has tradtional movable lego legs and Lisa has kids legs. It's sort of hard to tell the difference.
Wiggum and the 3 with above are a difficult to feel for.
All the heads are one molded peice (grandpa feels like a cone with a few points, marge feels like a pickle, Bart like a cylinder with points). A lot of the haeds feel round with some sort of hair, but have very feelable accessories.
I've gone 15 for 17 on the feeling process. It should be 15/16 bt I got tired and forgot to take out the extra Nelsons and Barts I found; then miss felt them in my last check through of my stack. I'm missing Apu which is really difficult to feel for. I've bought 6 minifigs at a time 2x and then 5 yesterday.
Maggie does not have legs which helps a lot too. however I did not know this until I got her last night, and it slipped my mind until now.
The Guardians of the Galaxy sets are out, and they are all spectacular. If you'd told me one day there'd be minifigs of Groot and Ronan the Accuser I'd have laughed in your face.
The sneaky good thing is that we will be able to get cheap chinese copies of these on amazon in a few months. I've got an exact copy of the Cap. Marvel and Bizarro from a few years ago.
Like me, who was in Canada the entire time it was on sale and couldn't order it!
First the SDCC-only 60s Batmobile, now this... they're not getting on my good side lately! :D
Just picked up the smallest of the Guardians of the Galaxy sets, the one with Star Lord and the Nova Corps ship. Really looking forward to putting that one together. Then I have to start saving my pennies for the Rocket & Groot set, and then the X-Jet!