Toy Review and Coupon: KRE-O Transformers Mirage

Posted by Jeff on October 6, 2011 at 11:09 pm

Hello KRE-O!

This summer Hasbro launched a new brand of construction block toys called KRE-O along with KREON, the accompanying figures. Sounds a little bit Star Trek-y but it’s not, it’s actually a whole lotta Transformers.

LEGO enthusiasts and Transformers lovers alike will become quick fans of these well-built blocks and sets. The thick instruction book is impeccable and tremendously easy to follow; I made it through the construction phase with minimal screw-ups – and I can’t build anything! The Bear, age 7.5, would be well equipped to handle the step by step photographic guide to the assembly of KRE-O sets all by her lonesome.

The set we were sent to test was Mirage. He, apparently, is one of the AUTOBOTS (I have no problem admitting that I had to look up that information!) and can be transformed into either a racecar or a robot. The girls opted for the car which took the three of us about 20 minutes to build and that included the Mouse misplacing several of the pieces she was in charge of dispensing! Once we joined together the 100+ pieces (many of which are quite small which is why this set is recommended for ages 6+), the Mirage car pulled in next to the Playmobil vehicle in the parking lot of the Connectagons® museum that has been a fixture of my living room floor for the past week.

As neat-o as the design, color, and frame of a play car may be, it’s the wheels that will ultimately make or break the product. One that won’t cruise with ease might as well be a dishwasher with a steering wheel. With that said, the tires of the KRE-O Mirage are quite impressive; sturdy, smooth, attached cleanly, and have showed no signs of a wobble or of coming loose. Their roll is steady and the pieces stay tightly connected; this KRE-O car is a well conceived and constructed machine.

We have no frame of reference for Transformers (unless you count my love of version 1.0 when I was a child in the 80’s) proving that a child – girls, even! – needn’t be a fan of or even familiar with the trio of big-budget films to enjoy KRE-O Transformers. To my giddy daughters, Mirage is simply a cool car that they got to build from scratch together. And that’s pretty awesome in its own right.