Kre-O Ghoststriker

by KansasBrawler

If you had told me during the 25th Anniversary line that the most fun I’d be having with the G.I. Joe line five years later would be a Hasbro in-house version of Lego, I would have stared at you in complete dumbfoundedness. While I’ve always loved Legos, I’ve never really thought licensed products and Lego go well together. I enjoy the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings sets well enough, but I do kind of miss my classic Lego themes like City and Castle and Pirates (though those have seen a resurgence of late). However, when Hasbro started playing around with building blocks in the form of Kre-O, it only makes sense that its two flagship properties, Transformers and G.I. Joe, would be making an appearance at some point. However, here we are, and while I still love Joe action figures, I have to say, Kre-O is a great addition to the Joe brand. It’s fun and it’s playable and that’s something that I’ve found, at times, to be lamentably missing in the modern line. Don’t get me wrong, Hasbro has done a great job making amazingly-detailed, exceptionally-poseable figures, but outside of the movie lines, I haven’t really found all the figures to really hit it out of the park in the play factor. I’ll admit, I was originally going to just dabble in Kre-O, but the first two sets I picked up were so incredible that I currently own all but two of the sets Hasbro has put out. I’ve already talked about the beginning of my Kre-O fandom, so I figured it’s only fair to mention that this set actually started on the bubble and probably wouldn’t be in my collection had it not been for a great pre-Christmas “Buy One, Get One 40% Off” sale at Toys ‘R’ Us. The Ghoststriker X-16 set consists of the namesake jet and a Cobra ASP Pod. However, for this review, I’m just going to be looking at the Ghoststriker and its pilot because I’ve already covered the ASP since it worked so well with the HISS.

I’ll admit, I’ve always had a weird relationship with Joe jets. I’ve always liked using helicopters more in adventures, but jets just look so cool that it’s hard to ignore them. That said, I felt the pricepoint on the Ghoststriker set was just a little too high. Not much, but a couple bucks would have moved it from “maybe” to “must buy” pretty quickly and that’s what happened when I was able to get it for 40% off right before Christmas. I’ll also admit that when I got this set, I thought they just re-dubbed the Skystriker the “Ghoststriker” to keep a handle on the trademark of that name and maybe to avoid trademark hassles with the third-party block-maker. I’d completely forgotten the Ghoststriker was a thing until I was checking YoJoe.com for some other vehicle that started with “g” and saw that name on the list. Let’s be fair, a lot of the classic Joe vehicles like the VAMP, the FANG and the HISS aren’t actually called that by name anywhere in the Kre-O line. We know what they are because we know what they look like, but the names are kept out of the sets, probably to avoid similar issues to what happened with Paramount during the movie lines. However, the model of the Ghoststriker actually bears a very strong resemblance to the original 1993 Ghoststriker X-16. From the single tailfin to the wingtip missiles and the underslung cannons (originally used to house a pair of lights as part of its projected target action feature…it’s kind of hard to explain but it was pretty cool), it’s clear that the designers spent some time looking at the original vehicle to create its building-block counterpart. Kudos to the designers for really going above and beyond my erroneous assumptions about the set. The bricks fit together quite well, which is not something that can be said for all Lego-like properties, and the Ghoststriker feels pretty solid. The two missile launchers mounted below the wings fire using friction power and do launch the missiles a respectable distance. I’ve had a lot of fun firing the missiles while I’ve been playing around with it, but it avoids the problem of accidental firing that spring-loaded launchers can have. The other “action features” built into the plane are an opening cockpit that opens in two pieces and the foldable rear landing gear. The nose wheel can’t move anywhere out of the way, and I do think that’s a little bit of an oversight on the part of the design team, but since this is Kre-O, you can just pop it off and put it on later without any trouble. As a nod to realism, the Ghoststriker also has a small ladder that can be put alongside the cockpit so that Ace can get into his fighter.

One of the problems I had with the Ghoststriker does still exist, however, and that’s its colors. The bulk of the plane is a very nice gray but there’s some inexplicable tan on the back edges of the wings and around the cockpit. I don’t mind the throwing a little color in here and there, but tan just doesn’t really make that much sense on a jet fighter. Had they gone with some additional black or even a red or blue stripe like on the Skystriker, I would have been fine with it but tan just seems a little strange. Even though I’m not wild about the colors, the stickers are great. I’ll admit, I’ve been out of Lego and its related brick sets for a while and didn’t realize that generally even the big dog is using stickers instead of tampos, but what Kre-O did here was great. First of all, the tailfin logo is a nice reproduction of the 1993 Ghoststriker’s logo and that’s always nice. I only wish it stood out a little bit more from the tailfin. It kind of blends in to the black tailfin due to the transparent nature of the sticker. The white isn’t that strong of a color and so when it’s put against a black background, it’s a bit grayer than it should be and makes it hard to notice. This problem is pretty prevalent with the stickers that are all white (like the stars on the side of the cockpit). However, the other, slightly more colorful stickers—the G.I. Joe logo for the sides and the cockpit display—do fare a bit better. I was surprised at how much I actually enjoye putting the stickers on the Kre-O model. It’s not something I was used to at the start, but it really did kind of bring back memories of putting the stickers on old school Joe vehicles and that’s a nice nostalgic throwback that I can get behind.

Of course, what good is a jet without someone to pilot it and of course, since it’s a jet, that means the pilot is Ace. While I would have liked Ace to be wearing the same, more realistic g-suit he wore in 1993 when he came with the original Ghoststriker, Ace is always associated with the more test-pilot inspired suit he wore back in 1983. Though I was disappointed in how this look was translated into the 25th Anniversary styling, it really works well as a Kreon. All Kreons are built around the same body, so anything unique has to be done from the tampo work and they really did a great job with Ace here. What I really love about the Kreons is that they have more articulation that the classic Lego figures. They have balljointed arms and legs and twistable waists and heads. The heads are designed a little differently in a way to make them more distinct from the classic Lego minifigure. I really love articulated minifigures like this. I’ll always admit, the one thing I disliked about playing with Legos growing up is that they couldn’t really move all that well. They looked good standing and they looked good sitting in a vehicle, but they didn’t really feel all that playable otherwise. Kreons, on the other hand, look at home just about anywhere and I like that. Even when Joe moves into new realms, they up theante in the articulation department. Ace’s tampo work is very crisp and does a great job of referencing all those original molded details. Like always, this version of Ace is mostly white, but with some red and gray accents. The helmet is a funky little bubble that is removable, though I have found that with some Kreons (Ace included) the helmet can become stuck. I was able to get Ace’s helmet off for the photos I took, but oddly, now it’s stuck on his head and I can’t come up with a good way to take it off. It’s not a big deal, but it shows that in certain respects, Hasbro and Kre-O haven’t quite worked out all the kinks in their designs. I’ve never had a Lego minifigure get its helmet or other head gear stuck on, so just a little warning that it can happen. With Ace, it’s fine since he’s going to be sitting in a cockpit all the time so I’ll want his bubble helmet on, but with someone else, it could potentially be a bigger problem. I’ll also admit, I find Ace’s face to be almost a little too generic. He never really had the most unique look back in the day, but since all the Joe Kreons have the same head construction, his genericness becomes a little more problematic. Ace’s helmet does help make him look a bit more distinct, but I do kind of wish they’d found a way to do some paint work to represent Ace’s pretty high forehead from the original figure. Ace also comes with a small pistol and it’s good to see that Kre-O vehicle drivers still get accessories, even if their larger scale counterparts don’t always get the same treatment.

Kre-O was something I wasn’t initially that excited for…until I bought my first set. I found building each set to be a very enjoyable experience and the fact that it was G.I. Joe stuff only made it better. I do wish that G.I. Kre-O wasn’t a Toys ‘R’ Us exclusive just because it makes it a little harder to run things down, but so far, my TRU has kept Kre-O sets in very good supply so it hasn’t been an issue. However, some of those first wave blindbagged figures were pretty maddening to run down (in fact, I’m missing quite a few of the ones I wanted), and it was made worse by the fact that the only place you could get them was Toys ‘R’ Us and when there’s only one in a reasonable distance from you, that means if they’re out, you’re out of luck. While I understand that Kre-O may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it does two great things in my mind. It’s a great way to get vehicles out at a far less cost-prohibitive fashion and it’s a great way to increase the Joe presence in the toy aisles. Anymore, the action figure aisle is pretty crowded with all sorts of different toy lines (some from properties I’ve never even heard of), but the Lego aisle is pretty wide open. I’ve seen a few kids at Toys ‘R’ Us with Kre-O Joes that from the looks of things may not have been interested in action figures at all, but snapped up a building block set and got introduced to some classic Joes. Joes will always be action figures to me first, but as an ancillary line made by Hasbro and its partners, I’m fine with Kre-O. It’s just plain fun and isn’t that what toys are suppose to be first, anyway?