My kids and I assembled the Alien Strike set together: actually, my five-year-old is showing more of a knack for following assembly instructions than my older daughter, who is more interested in narrating the actions of the aliens. The Alien Strike set has 277 pieces, which make up a large alien ship and has a small boat for the puny humans. (There are two humans and two aliens in this set.) My daughter was able to assemble the spaceship largely on her own with a little oversight from me. The instructions are pretty detailed with very small increments, making the instruction books pretty hefty.
My five-year-old tackles the alien ship.
The alien ship has a lot of hinged wings that can flip up and down, as well as two wings in front that swing forward and back. Not having seen the movie, I can’t really tell why the toy wings pivot this way. My kids really like the big flexible claw on the front of the ship, which can be used to pick up minifigs. In fact, my kids have decided that the aliens are actually the good guys, because it’s more fun to be them than the gun-toting humans, I guess.
The alien ship and the human boat. And some messy hair.
That reminds me of one more difference between Lego and Kre-O: decals. Each set came with a small sheet of decals which are applied to various pieces to make them look like computer screens or control panels. Even that little tiny newspaper from the U.S.S. Missouri set was a decal.
The alien ship also has two spring-loaded guns which launch the large missiles, and the rest of the ship has a lot of decorative, non-firing guns as well. It does look pretty cool but is a little harder to handle because of all the wings — you have to get your hands underneath it, and you need to flip the wings back up a bit if you want to set the thing down.
My kids made these "scuttlebugs" on their own before we built the big alien ship.
My kids have been enjoying both sets, but probably the battleship a bit more — I think it’s easier to play with because it’s like a series of scenes where they can put their figures (including some Lego minifigs that have apparently joined the Kre-O Navy). Of the two sets, I definitely like the battleship better. Of course, you can’t do much else with the ship base other than make it into a big boat, but there are certainly enough pieces there to build other things.
Whether you’re interested in a big-budget action flick based on a board game, the Kre-O building sets are still worth looking into.
Wired: Kre-O minifigs are much more poseable than Lego minifigs; U.S.S. Missouri is an impressive model; spring-loaded guns!
Tired: Looser fits mean models can drop parts easily; Battleship movie may be considered a little hokey.
Disclosure: review materials provided by Hasbro. All photographs by Jonathan Liu.
This article, by Jonathan Liu, was originally published on Tuesday.
