By Loran

When I was a kid, I was really into LEGO, even more than I was into action figures. As the years went on, though, I noticed the sets were declining in quality, mostly due to the amount of effort they were funneling into the Star Wars sets. As a result, I got more and more interested in Gunpla and began focusing my efforts there. I can’t say I regret it, since I’ve gotten much better at that than I ever was at LEGO. Still, once in awhile, I go back to it or maybe even those neat HALO Mega Bloks sets. But I’m not here to talk about those—I’m here to talk about Kre-O.

Now as much as we want to forget it, Built to Rule happened. It was a great concept, but horribly executed. For those who don’t know, Built to Rule was Hasbro’s last attempt at a building block series, and it wasn’t very good. The bricks rarely stayed together and the end products were pretty disappointing once finished, especially the Transformers. This time, though, it seems Hasbro got a few things right, but there’s still room for improvement.

I made my first foray into Kre-O Sentinel Prime, since I like buying the characters we DON’T see every year. And because he was cheap for me, but that’s neither here nor there. Unsurprisingly, his design here is based on his appearance in Dark of the Moon, but there are a few other influences which I’ll get to later.

His vehicle mode is the similar to the airport firetruck he transforms into in the movie, and is surprisingly big, certainly bigger than any time LEGO did a vehicle like this. He has opening doors and a positionable, spring-loaded water cannon and ladders that don’t really do anything. Unfortunately he only has one seat for the driver, but I can’t say I’m that surprised.

There’s a bit of a blessing and a curse with the Kre-O sets. The Built to Rule sets had a basic frame they were all built around that could transform, with some parts being rearranged for the robot mode. Here, the ENTIRE SET needs to be disassembled to switch between the modes, which can take quite awhile. On one hand, both modes look better, but on the other, it’s very, very tedious, so I suggest just building it in the mode you want and keeping it there.

Much like his vehicle mode, Sentinel’s robot mode draws heavily from his movie incarnation. He’s a bit spindly, but the overall design is pretty cool. My only real complaints come from the weight that hurts his articulation, and the fact that his weapons are built into his hands. Of course, you can just take them out, but it’s an odd design choice. The joints are coated with a soft plastic, which seems to hold some poses, but not others. They’re like polycaps, but not as resilient.

What amazed me the most about this toy is the head—yes, it’s based on Transformers: Animated Sentinel Prime! It’s AWESOME, and I can see plenty of people buying this guy just to make customs.

But of course, nobody cares as much about the sets themselves as they do the Kreons, Kre-O’s answer to the minifigure. They’re awesome and adorable, and Sentinel comes with a Kreon of himself (based on his design from the comics), Skywarp, Soundwave, and… a fire chief with a ton of gear, but nobody cares about him. Of the four, my favorite is Soundwave. Just look at the mouth under the helmet! Awesome.

Kre-O is still in its infancy, but I can see it becoming much better as the years go on. Sentinel Prime is definitely recommended for his great design and Kreons. And before you ask—yes, FPNYC does carry these, so if you want to literally build your Autobot army, come on in!

…

Remember, for the evening’s festivities:

• 21 and over only
• Limited seating
• Limited capacity
• 1st 100 people will receive an autographed item from Robert Kirkman
• 1st 50 will receive a free gift bag from Forbidden Planet
• Doors open at 6PM
• 6:30 Panel starts
• 7:30 Meet and Greet (if you want to bring something to be autographed this is possible- just note there will be no autograph line and no guarantees you’ll get one)
• Food and drinks provided

You MUST RSVP to attend.  To do so send an email to events@futureus.com with the event name in the subject and “FP” in the body.  Include your name and contact info.  We expect to fill our guest list quickly, so hop to it.

See ya Friday night!

Thursday Aug 4, 2011 – 9:30pm

Tonight at the Nitehawk Cinema there will be a live TV Carnage event featuring some dudes from the Found Footage Festival, a must for all you boob tubers.

Nitehawk Cinema

136 Metropolitan Ave.

Brooklyn, NY 11211

If I wasn’t working tonight I would be at this…

The unquestioned master of the video mixtape, Derrick “Pinky” Beckles (Adult Swim, Street Carnage), hosts this night of TV Carnage that will “stab your tender brain-sac with deliciously infected shards of the worst, most cringe-inducing sights ever to come to life on the electronic devil we have come to know as video.” Nick will be there to present some FFF goodies and short films. It’s at the new and awesome Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn.

“There will be food, drink, merriment, smiles, more merriment, a heckler or two, a shouting match between Pinky and an audience member, and most likely a straw hat choc-full of aggravated assault charges. Come participate and/or bear witness to the mayhem ultimately to be labeled by local papers as a ‘tragedy.’”

If you go… don’t rub it in.

Screw your Blew-Ray Player, VHS is alive and well… but should I really be hipping you to this,  or should I be hording all the info in fear of increased competition?  Of course I’ll let you in on it (not like anyone reads this anyway) and what better way to see the medium strive than by spreading the gospel.

“VHS is alive”, “Fear of competition”, you probably think I’m some paranoid nut job, but… Just to prove to you that I’m not some crazy Luddite (ok maybe just a bit, I still don’t own a computer) feast your eyes on this… www.LunchmeatVHS.com!!! Thats right baby, everyone’s favorite VHS themed magazine has gone all internety.  The fact that there is a magazine dedicated to the subject should be validation enough, but for those of you who get all your info through the computer and think print is just as outdated as VHS, the website should suffice.

I spent the better half of this past weekend with Lunchmeat’s Chief of Marketing John DeSantis and Editor-in-Chief Josh Schafer.  They were supposed to be working on the new issue but if they didn’t get as much as they hoped done I take full responsibility…. but I will not apologize.  We did a lot of yang talking about the recent “VHS boom”, caught a midnight screening of Slumber Party Massacre at The Spectacle Theater, watched the insane video comp Brain Bludgeon, and of course did some serious VHS shopping.

I feel that I did a pretty good job proving that it will be a very long time before VHS becomes strictly a collectors market, that is if you know the right places to look.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nice use of the 11 Doctor Action Figure Set!

Here’s a link to the exclusive scoop at Deadline.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“At last,” he said. “An outfit that would make Emma Frost say:  Pull it back, dear, you look kinda trampy.”

Honestly I don’t think it’s that bad, but I’ve only seen Grey Gardens once, what do I know?  Although I do think the bottom half would make for a cool Blue Beetle outfit, otherwise leave me out of it.  John, on the other hand, couldn’t help but drag as many customers as possible into the controversy.  “It’s almost like Halloween Adventure ran out of naughty nurse costumes and someone went “Oh, I have a party to go to in two hours.  I’ll just take it.”

But he’s just glad to see Wonder Woman back on TV, he’ll happily watch anything with an invisible jet and a tiara in it.  Let’s face it, no matter how much he complains he’s still gonna dress like that this Halloween.

We all love John from his role as Uncle Jesse on the show Full House, but if you’re looking for a deeper cut to satiate your Stamos while waiting for him to take over for Sheen, take a look at this…

Click here to view the embedded video.

John Stamos is Lance Stargrove, Vanity is Danja Deering and Gene Simmons is Velvet Von Ragner the hellish hermaphrodite!

NEVER TOO YOUNG TO DIE!