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Kre-O Mech Venom Strike set by Firestorm

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             I had been wanting this set for a while, and so was fortunate that I managed to pick it up on clearance. It would appear that Kre-O Transformers, as a brand, has not been doing all that well, and so a lot of sets are getting marked down of late. Note, of course, that I write this in January of 2013.

            Like the other “Beast Hunters” Kre-O sets, this set consists of an Autobot fighting against a Predacon of some sort, in this case, we have Windcharger manning a gun emplacement and fighting a snake of some kind. Or do we?

            To begin with, this set doesn’t actually happen in a single continuity. Although the box says “Beast Hunters”, this is G1 Windcharger that comes with the set. Although he does not suffer from the same blaster-in-lieu-of-hand issues as Trailbreaker, he does share the same general “clumsy” transformation process. In order to produce the front end of the truck, a single 1 * 1 brick with two male connectors was used in lieu of the figure’s head; while the 2 * 2 flat tile that is used for the hood mounts securely on one of the connectors, the 1 * 2 arching tile used for the grill does not. And as is usual for Kreons, transformation requires swapping parts out with each other, leaving a number of pieces that either go unused or must be affixed on as kibble whenever the figure is transformed.

            The gun emplacement is meant to resemble a Gatling gun on a turret mount. A Gatling barrel is attached to the front, a ball-and-socket joint represents the pivot, an ammo belt is hanging off to one side (although a darker color of gold than shown on the box art), and a handle is in the back. However, this emplacement is actually a spring-loaded missile launcher, and the barrel is part of the projectile. If you ask me, while I can understand the use of the launcher as a selling point for young(er) children, the system would have been better off if we were simply looking at a Gatling to begin with.

            The winner here is the snake creature. The critter in question is, in essence, a series of nine of the ball-and-socket joints daisy-chained together; not only is this a creative use of the piece, it also provides for a perfectly-articulated beastie. The head has the articulated jaw design of the dragon, and this time it works as there are no other bricks competing visually. And the tail ends in an articulated pincer that can snatch up a Kreon with ease.

            A problem inherent with both figures, meanwhile, is the stickers. The stickers are printed on a clear plastic, and so the coloration of the bricks the stickers are mounted on shows through. This is one case in which paper stickers (which sometimes have a reputation for being cheaper and therefore less desirable) would have been a better choice.

            It’s a better set than the previous one, but not by all that much. The Autobot Kreon still has a number of flaws, and the issue with the stickers and the missile launcher isn’t helping any. Rating: 8.5 / 10.