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Originally Posted by gagagalvatron
And I truly don't get yours. The inability to transform is a liability for Kre-O, not a strength. I applaud your willingness to look to the positives and celebrate what Kre-O does well. But it doesn't change that Kre-O is disappointing to at least some of its potential market.
Furthermore, having building sets that transform does not diminish any of the creative side. Since they're still building sets, you can take them apart, augment them, rebuild them into something else, whatever. Right now, out of the box, you can't make them transform without a lot of effort and additional parts.
I repeat: people are using/augmenting Kre-O sets to make them transform, using only additional building pieces. Clearly some people think this is a good idea, and there is nothing to suggest that having them be transformable would make them less buildable or re-buildable. I think it would be a good idea if they did so out of the box.
I am not the only person who feels this way. I am happy to agree to respectfully disagree with you, but you might want to acknowledge that every person who likes Transformers but won't buy Kre-O because they don't transform is a lost sale in the very audience Kre-O needs to survive.
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BUT KRE-O are not meant to be Transformers, they are meant to be Building Kit style sets akin to LEGO. They are a direct attempt by Hasbro at competing with a recognized Brand Name. The fact that they haven't made any GIJoe, My Little Pony or *Insert Hasbro Toyline that is not Marvel/Star Wars due to LEGO snapping up the licensing Here* does not mean that they are attempting to create a different type of Transformers toy.
In the one sense, they are, but in the other these are meant to be enhanced by pre-existing LEGO collections pieces. That's the ENTIRE POINT of the line. These fans taking their time to creatively and intuitively turn something that DOES NOT TRANSFORM into a Transforming Buildable Kit with some extra bits and bobs from their LEGO piece collections was what Hasbro was
aiming at the entire time.
If they transformed straight out of the box than the already existing LEGO Collectors who see their favorite Transformer character build out of blocks wouldn't bother buying them, or they would probably just ignore them completely after one or two times playing with the damn thing.
LEGO collectors and Transformers collectors are two entirely different type of collectors. A LEGO collector sees a box of new parts with unique looks and says to themselves 'how can I use those parts to build something incredible'?
A Transformer collector looks at them and says, Cool, KREONS, WTF? The kits don't transform on their own? EPIC FAIL!
This is not to single you out, I KNOW you didn't say that, I am simply using the generalization comment above to illustrate my point.
Hasbro doesn't need the Transformers fans to sell KRE-O, Hasbro considers us a bonus when we buy them. Their main goal is to get some of that hard earned LEGO collector's cash away from the LEGO Company by any means necessary.
You can bet your life when the new Joe film comes out I'm confident Hasbro already has a set or two in the KRE-O line planned out and engineered for the market. And if I'm wrong... Well it's a real shame, as I'd love a little KREON Cobra Commander to threaten my LEGO Mini-Figs with, but if Hasbro is too narrow minded to see the vast potential their other brand names can bring to their KRE-O label then that's their own undoing.
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Originally Posted by gagagalvatron
I did not say crap or worthless. Please do not put words in my mouth so you can disagree with them. I said they were a disappointment and/or a failure, and I stand by that. Something can fail at its attempt without being worthless. I think Kre-O are worthwhile (one would hope so, as I bought every set that has a Kreon), but I still think they're disappointing. They don't completely fail at being Transformers as they do transform (with lots of time and effort), but I think they would be much more successful as toys and as a product line if they did transform out of the box.
It's anyone's guess if Kre-O as a product line will survive or fail, and who knows what influence the lack of transformation will have on either outcome. It's one of the reasons I suggested that they release a set that does in order to see what the market would do with it. Lego has lots of sets at lots of skill levels and price points, many of which clock in at over $100. Would a more expensive -- hopefully not that expensive -- but completely transformable set sell well? I hope they give it a shot to see.
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I didn't mean to single you out when I said that, that was a bit of Sarcasm used in a general blanket statement, I apologize if it felt I was putting words in your mouth to get my point across.
If Hasbro DID make a Transforming KRE-O set I think the smallest price point would have been ideal for that. As it would have given those KREON less sets a much better gimmick. Larger more expensive sets don't need the Transforming gimmick to sell, they've got the KREONS, any Mini-Figure or Mini-Figuresque collector has gone GAGA for them.
But those 10$ sets, if they had even just been 2 dollars more and included a transforming gimmick then I could see where they might benefit from it. But then the fans would just be complaining that Hasbro made the smaller sets transform, why not the bigger ones too? Hasbro can not win with us, no matter what they do there are always detractors or naysayers. It's the very nature of a Fan Community.
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Originally Posted by gagagalvatron
I don't now and never did want Action Masters, Robot Heroes, Speed Stars, or most other Transformers toys that don't transform. To me, they're oxymorons. I can see why some people want them for various reasons, and that's great. They are not for me. Knowing that Action Masters are now expensive don't make them any less lame or more desirable to me.
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Well then I guess you are not the target of my little comment there. If you never wanted them to begin with and you haven't changed your mind on that matter now that you're older and suffer from the Want Everything G1 Ever Made problem that some fans fall into, that's your choice.
Personally though, I am not about to denounce Hasbro for attempting to have a broader market and branch out with different sub-lines for the Transformers Franchise. You seem to be the same way, just you don't want to collect Robot Heroes or what have you. And I'm fine with that.
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Originally Posted by gagagalvatron
There's a difference between change and the kind of transformation that makes you stop being what made you great. I think of "Transformers that don't transform" in the same way I think of "live action shows on the Cartoon Network" or "Wrestling/Ghost Hunting on SyFy". They change you into something else that isn't as good as what you had before.
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How do these KRE-O sets make the Transformers stop being what made them great?
Hasbro hasn't gotten rid of their entire brand of Transforming Action Figures toyline and replaced it with these new KRE-O sets. It's just another new sub-line, similar to Built-To-Rule. Weren't the Built-To-Rule sets made to transform? I'm probably wrong about this, but they certainly looked like they could, but if they weren't... Well Hasbro's precent for buildable Transformers HAS always been that they don't Transform. (And Built-To-Rule were God Ugly as Sin compared to these new marvels of buildable engineering. Hasbro's hiatus to go back to the drawing board before really pushing the LEGO like KRE-O brand has done them a world of good.)
I'm hopeful that they will stick around. And I continue to support Non-Transforming KRE-O sets to ensure that we have something of a variety in the LEGO Isle that doesn't just include medoicre HALO Mega Blocks stuff and random other junk from that Group.
I just can't like Mega Blocks, and HALO doesn't do a damn thing for me. When Mega Blocks first started out they tried their hand at diverse Themes similar to LEGO, I remember, that TFing Egyptian Mech and their Dragons stuff looked interesting to me. And I tried it out. I just didn't like it. The feel of the Mega Blocks products has always seemed inferior to me. Hasbro's KRE-O stuff at least is closer in plastic quality to LEGO than those older Mega Blocks stuff were. (And if they've improved their manufacturing practices since then... Well my statement can be partially retracted. I still don't give anything for their HALO stuff, and I much prefer the look of the LEGO Pirates sets over those old Mega Blocks ones.)
