Cityville Invasion: Apps All Up In Ma Toys!

So Hasbro creates their own Lego and calls it Kre-O.  You with me?  Well they made the coolest little poseable figures and knew they would be a hit, so they blind bagged those suckers and sold 'em like hotcakes.  However, we know how Kre-O works!  It's pretty much like Lego, except with classic Hasbro properties like Transformers and G.I. Joe.  Are there any other directions to go in?  A way to do their own Kre-O thing without a standard property we all know and love?  Something....new?

That's a yes!  Something new and different!  Well, sorta.  Are you familiar with Lego's line of board games?  I haven't delved into them myself, but you build the game board and use tiny little sort-of Lego men.  They're like super-deformed versions of normal Lego men, but without arms.

So yeah - take that, but add arms and regular sized head and you get these crazy little Cityville Invasion guys!  I took to these things right away, which is nutty 'cause I usually like when they manage impressive articulation in tiny figures.  But WOW these little things have a lot of personality.  Another thing they have a lot of: Price ranges!  You've got blind bagged figure, small boxed, medium boxes, big boxes, and then I found yet another box/bag thing that have vehicles and a figure!  Well, two figures - seems like they like to toss these guys at you (which I LOVE) 'cause each set comes with a mystery figure! 

So lets kick this off with the blind bags; I got myself two of 'em 'cause why not.  I'm sure there are codes online to find out what's in each pack, but I decided to blind it up for my first purchase.  WHA'DYOUGETOHMAN

HOLD YOUR HORSES...lets look at the packaging!  Ooooh yeah...lookit that.  Nothing says "adult collector" like "hey lets see a picture of what the toy comes in."  RIP IT APAAAART!

Wait wait, look at the back!  It's all the stuff you can get--------WAIT LOOK AT ALL THAT!  There's zombies, wolfmen, a robot, soldiers, policemen, firemen, some sorta sea monster WOWZERS!  This series had me as "Hey there's a robot and----"

Oh sure NOW you open it.  Well okay what do we have?  First: Bag in a bag.  Next: Lotta papers whasalldis?

Hey a coupon, all right!  Get them new buyers into the toyline nice 'an easy with some savings.  I'm all for that babycakes.

OH IT'S A GAME!  Duh!  I thought I recognized that "ville" at the end of the name.  It's from those Zynga folks with the Farmville and Cityville an' all that an' all that.

Yeah, I went and tried the game, and yeah it's "free to pay" in that you probably won't be getting much by just playing it.  I was hoping that the little code on the other side of the card there would bring the toys you bought into the game, but no dice.  All it does is give you these tickets that allow you to spin a roulette and gain a random new character.  Still kinda cool, but I was hoping that buying the toy would be the "pay" part.  Sadly it doesn't seem to do much!

On the other hand, the toys stand alone VERY well!

Well...I mean, after you put them together.  Go on.

My first blind pack came with Steve Timber and Willy Werewolf.  MAN!  Right off the bat you've got insanity.  A lumberjack vs a werewolf?  Yes!  Yes sir, indeed.  I do say!

My next pack came with Sheriff Fastdraw and Zombie Outlaw, which brings us home to an old zombie standard.  Still: Cowboys!  This line really feels like they're trying to shove in everything and anything, and I like it!

Now the next thing is...well it doesn't get very much explanation beyond this slip of paper.

Oh!  Geepers, it's not a boat!  It's some sort of...um...

....Comb?  Well no, obviously not.  From what I can gather, given knowledge of Ipad games and other such touch-pad related things: This is probably for use on a touch screen.  The little knobs on the bottom are very soft and would make sense for dragging across a touch screen...I just can't figure out why you would want to.  The game was all controlled with classical directional buttons - granted, they're on the touch pad, but you need your thumbs!  Using the figure-boat like they suggest would be troublesome.  So what the heck is this for?  It's possible I'm missing something in the game.  I refuse to investigate further!  MORE TOYS!

ADDENDUM: Okay so I investigated further.  There's a thing in the directions for the boxed set that says "Use only with this and other Kre-O Cityville Invasion construction sets featuring SONIC MOTION TECHNOLOGY" (yes, in caps) and it shows one of the larger sets.  So I guess it's used with SONIC MOTION TECHNOLOGY.  There you go.

Now as you saw, I also bought one of the boxed sets.  If the back of the blind bags didn't tell you how inclusive this toyline was for all manner of jobs and monsters, then take a look at the back of the box and see all the junk they involve in the bigger sets!

Water problem, the police station is overrun with zombies, the skyscraper is being attacked by a giant money and what looks like and alien, and a haunted house?!  All of it!  All the stuff!  Just add in every problem that any human has ever faces in any old fashioned monster movie.  I love it! 

Now the box comes with similar paper junk to the blind bags, save for the instructions to build your little sets.  This particular pack is what I consider to be the medium boxes, so there isn't much in the way of city stuff, but it's got some cars and dudes!  Each set also comes with a mystery dude, so lets start there:

A jetpack man named Pilot Pete!  Now if you're wondering if they pack a random secret figure in each one, then I can say "no" with 99% assurance, since those stickers on his wings came on the same sticker sheet that held the stickers for the whole pack.  So unless they made a different sticker sheet for each pack, then you're gona get Pilot Pete in this pack no matter what.  Spoilers!  OH NOES!

He's right you know.  I'm not passing on the handlebar moustache and mirrored shades, no sir.  The other guys rock too, though!  I don't know why, but they really pack a lot of personality in a tiny body.  The heads are the same sized Kre-O heads you're used to, along with all the accessories, so mix and match away!

Now the rest of the review ended up being one long comic, so BLEH

So these little things latched on to my brain pretty easily.  It's the collectability, the size, and the WIDE range of themes!  Well okay, the theme is pretty much one thing: Invasion.  But the things invading are all!  All of them.  All the things.  Monstersrobotszombiesfishmendragonssharks what have you!  Some of the sets looked to have some full Kre-O guys (like a winged dragon man) just to bring in some size to the random whirlwind of insanity that seems to be attacking poor Cityville. 

I understand that these aren't for everyone, but I really think this is a prime idea to move Kre-O into it's own thing beyond licensed movies and classic toylines.  Granted, it IS a licensed thing with that Cityville game, but it's not hard to ignore that and see this as a cool little building toyline that won't take up a ton of space and provides a LOT of room for imagination!