Purity: A0794 Battle Boat Review

This one has been out for a while.  It's finally dropped down to an affordable price with TRU's Clearance sale.

Bag.  Normal retail is $4.99, and that gives us a price per piece of $0.19.  Which explains why I waited so long to buy one.

Instructions.

Parts.  There's not really much here.  Those funky brick + round brick SNOT pieces in black are nice.  I also like the two piece steering wheel.  The sci-fi bazooka could also come in handy.

There's a poster included that really pads out the polybag.

Front.

Back.

Kreon.

Here's a quick IO Frigate I built.  This is about the most you're going to get out of this set.  It does come with its own stand though!

The Questions:
Can you build a frame, or frames, right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: B- (-5).  Buy this one if you want the parts.  Otherwise it really doesn't have much to recommend.  It's currently on 60% Clearance at Toys'R'Us so you should be able to get it for a decent price.

Purity: 38952 Ocean Attack Review

Now it occurs to me, that while I compared some of the parts from this set to Lego parts way back in the day, I never really did a proper review of this set.  So let's give it a shot.

The box.  Nice and solid.  This is currently running $6.98 at Toys'R'Us.  It's listed at $7.99 on the Hasbro site.  It has 66 pieces.

The instructions and stickers.

Parts 1.  One of those "gun muzzle" 1x1 Rounds, two of those multi-clip 1x2 bricks, two round end 1x1 rounds, three of the modified 1x1 Brick w/a 1x1 round sticking out of the side are what catch my eye right away.  Oh, what about the 1x1 round with studs on both sides?

Parts 2.  I might as well just say that everything in this picture catches my eye.  Except for maybe the 4x4 plate.

Here's the Kreon.  I really want to make use of that helmet/backpack piece.  The speargun and flippers could come in handy too.  You could also use this as a mecha stand in at 4P scale.

The Questions:

Can you build a frame, or frames, right away? Not really, I tried.  (-5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? Above.  (-10) @ $0.11 or $0.12 per Piece depending on source.
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? Yes.  (+5)
Score: -5 (B-).  You should be able to build a station or two right away with this set, or use it to enhance another set you have.

Purity: 38954 Combat Chopper Review

To finish out Review Week 2, I present to you the Kre-O set "Combat Chopper".

The box.  Once again, something I purchased on Clearance.

Instructions and stickers.

Kreons.  Just two this time around.  I can't quite figure out what to do with that Alien Kreon body.  It's like the Lego Robot Bodies but bulkier.  There's also a "flame" piece that might look good in action pictures.

Parts 1.  See those bricks in the middle-bottom section?  They don't have studs on the other side.

Parts 2.  Bricks and clips and tiles and plates.  Oh my!

Parts 3.  Those landing gear pieces in the lower left look like they might be interesting.  The Kre-O version of the Lever & Base in the upper middle section of the picture is pretty neat too.

Parts 4.  Yeah, you get a fair amount in this set.  A lot of it in Olive Green.  That canopy piece will be hard to work with though.  That brick with the red protrusions in the top left corner is for rotating the helicopter blades manually when the set is built.







Using the new rating system -- which I'll share in a future post -- this set comes out with an A.  Once again, try and get this on sale or marked down in some manner.

Purity: 38953 Land Defense Battle Pack Review

Continuing on with another week of reviews, we come to my first Battle Pack review.  Essentially an "army builder" set it features a bunch of Kreons with enough parts to build a small playset for them.

The box.  As you can see I purchased this one on clearance.

The instructions and sticker sheet.  The stickers are a little on the large side and probably won't come in that handy for other builds.

Here are the Kreons from the set.  Three good guys, one bad guy.  If you look at the upper left bag you can see a treat.  There's a minifig scale shoulder mounted rocket launcher.

Here we have some of the parts from the set.  I really think the ring w/handle in the middle of the picture will make a great greeble.  The clip on wings are nice.  As is the 1x2 w/handles in the lower right corner.  The "seat" in the upper left should have lots of SNOT uses.

Here we have the remaining pieces of the set.  You can see the 1x1 Round Brick "gun muzzles", textured Cheese Slopes, and Ammo Chains everyone likes.  What intrigues me is the two part "turntable" that is two plates thick as opposed to the standard Lego version.  Theose are the grey and black pieces over in the two left-most columns.  Then there's the two "Handles w/Stud" in the upper middle of the photo and the weird SNOT Clip block, that's actually a two part launcher, in the lower right.

As you can see there are a fair amount of useful parts in this set.  Unfortunately at $13 for 81 pieces that's $0.16 per piece.  On clearance at $7.99 it's $0.10 per piece.  Luckily I bought it during one of Kmart's "1/2 off Clearance" sales and I only paid $3.99.  You might be able to make a complete mech from this set, but at that price I have to give this a C+.