Who sells KRE-O Transformers Bumblebee Construction Set (36421)

Rather Impressive

I've been collecting Legp's since I was five years old and after about thirty years, I have seen a lot of changes and improvements. I've also had Transformers toys as a child and enjoyed them a great deal. Now we have KRE-O Transformers and frankly, this is a neat combination of the two. Although KRE-O is not LEGO, they can be used with them. The KRE-O pieces on my figure seem to lock together a little bit tighter than with LEGOs but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. To help separate the bricks, LEGO has a brick separator that you can buy at their sight that will help tear your KRE-Os and LEGOs apart.The Good:1. The toy is nicely packaged and is in plastic bags inside the box like LEGOs are.2. The Instructions are well done and for the most part, easy to understand. There are a couple spots that are not as well illustrated as it could have been, but can still be figured out.3. The pieces feel pretty good in hand. The quality is good.4. The pieces hold together well.5. The robot is very impressive and satisfying to build.6. The little "Kreons" are awesome.7. The robot is good articulation and stands very well.The Bad:1. The vehicle mode is not all that impressive.2. I can't help but feel that LEGO would have done a better job with more sophisticated pieces at their disposal.Despite its few flaws, this is a very fun building toy. Expect about an hour to build either car or robot. Some may complain that it does not transform. I am glad it doesn't because the figure is a lot sturdier this way. If you want a transforming toy, buy a regular Transformer. This is specifically a building set and it delievers.Read more ›

Kre-o Bumblebee -- Frustrating for all ages

Kre-o is incredibly frustrating for all ages. Here are my main concerns:1. The Kre-o Bumblebee -- both robot and car -- fall apart over and over again (even as you build them) because the pieces aren't connected firmly on both sides. When it is picked up it will fall apart because the section touched will totter (like a see saw). HUGE frustration as it's being built and as it's being played with.2. Many times you need to place a Kre-o flat brick on top of another flat brick that is the exact same size and colour. Why not have a standard height brick instead of two flat ones on top of each other?3. The instructions are unclear. There should be arrows with each picture so you don't have to try to figure out where the new piece was placed by comparing the picture to the one before it. It's like a "Find the Differences" challenge.The difficulty level of this toy is stated as 4/5. I'm okay with that, but when I spend all that time building something I want it to stay in tact and certainly want my son to be able to play with it! This would work as a decoration on a shelf so long as no one ever touches it.After it was built my son set it aside and went to play with his Lego -- including a helicopter he constructed on his own that stays in one piece while he plays with it.

Transformer Meets Building Blocks -- Well, Almost...

This review comes from my adult friend who is a longtime building block and Transformer fanatic, and he is raising his children to be the same. Understand that some of the review, such as build time lengths listed, may need to be adjusted for younger ages, especially 7-year olds.Packaging=========The box shows the product in both build modes on the front and back, but the images seem to be computer generated. LEGO boxes show actual photos of the product. Also the included KREONS (figures) are shown clearly both the front and back. The box does clearly state that the kit is a "2in1" build which means that even though it is a Transformer it does not unfortunately transform. The box, which can serve as a storage container, does have a cardboard carrying handle. Neither the handle nor the box, however, seem like they can take much abuse. Opening the box is very easy, cut two pieces of tape and it opens right up. I was presented with four bags of blocks, three bags of figures, two decal sheets (only one is used), and a hefty instruction book. Oddly enough, the manual was bent (but not creased) because it wasn't placed lengthwise in the box where it would have clearly had enough room.Assembly========Figures are in four pieces head, helmet, body, and legs. Very easy to assemble.I built the robot first and it took about an hour. Fairly straight forward using the instructions. Only a few minor gripes: several small pieces were stuck in other pieces and hard to get out, the shading on some the images made it difficult to see the orientation, and there were a few steps that would have been a lot easier working if the manual showed the bottom of the pieces for these cases.Read more ›

Ok, but not up to LEGO standards

We have an extensive collection of LEGOs we've built with my now 5 and 7 year old boys and this set just doesn't quite measure up. We are huge Transformers fans so this was a natural toy for their birthday over the summer. Unfortunately its just not up to the quality of LEGOs and HASBRO's customer service for these sets just plain sucks.Let me preface this by saying we have lots of experience building LEGO sets so we know how to not lose pieces while building. Each bag gets opened into its own small plastic container and never onto an open table. This set was missing pieces (which has only happened once with LEGO) so we called Hasbro about it. They can't/won't send out individual missing pieces so the only option is to either send the entire set back to the manufacturer or return entire set to place of purchase. Both were quite disappointing to my kids who had this half built. They won't even send out a replacement set until they've processed the return so we'd have nothing for ~6 weeks. Needless to say it went back to the store and my son picked a LEGO set as its replacement.Bottom line: If Hasbro wants to make a run at LEGO they need to up the quality and customer service as our first experience with them was poor. We're not likely to buy them again despite the fact that Transformers is the most watched movie in our house.