Hasbro Reveals KRE-O Dungeons & Dragons Play Sets

[StewShearerOld]

Hasbro Reveals KRE-O Dungeons & Dragons Play Sets

Hasbro is assembling new Dungeons & Dragons play sets for 2014.

Tabletop role-playing games are beloved by their players in no small part because of the freedom they grant to build experiences and worlds of fantastic proportions. Perhaps seeing some parallels between that experience and the joys of building with tiny plastic blocks, Hasbro, Inc. has announced that it will soon be launching a new line of its KRE-O construction sets based on Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons game.

The announcement came at Comic-Con International where the company revealed the new line of toys in addition to showing off its recently revealed Cityville Invasion line. "Since launching the KRE-O brand over two years ago, we've been able to tap into some of Hasbro's most iconic brands and premier pop-culture licenses and bring them to life in a whole new way for kids and fans," said Kim Boyd, Senior Global Marketing Director for the KRE-O brand. "We are excited to add fantasy inspired sets featuring DUNGEONS & DRAGONS as well as CITYVILLE INVASION to the KRE-O portfolio."

The new Dungeons & Dragons sets, due for release in 2014, will be joining other geek friendly KRE-O lines including Star Trek, Transformers and G.I. Joe. While we wait for them to hit store shelves, we can't help but wonder how in-depth the KRE-O D&D play sets are going to be. Anyone who's ever played a tabletop role-playing game can tell you that sometimes the supplies for it can get expensive. Depending on what's offered by the forthcoming KRE-O sets, we could see some players using them to build environments for actual D&D games.

Source: <a href=http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=106513#qHOBk14OutrorLep.01>Coming Soon


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[CriticalMiss]

I have to admit that I've never heard of 'Kre-o' before. Is it just rip-off Lego?

 

[StewShearerOld]

I have to admit that I've never heard of 'Kre-o' before. Is it just rip-off Lego?

Pretty much yeah, lol.

 

[AidoZonkey]

Didn't Yahtzee Do a joke about this in his Lego Indiana Jones review, this just seems weird to me. D&D and Lego knock offs just don't go together in my head

 

[piinyouri]

Wonder why Lego didn't just take this deal. Or if they weren't, why wouldn't they try to get the real deal first?

Either way, being that I was most certainly a Lego kid, this seems pretty neat.

 

[Chaos James]

While I find the Kree-o peices to be of low quality, I might pick up a wack-ton of the figurines if they are cheap. I'd love something cheap to use at the game table.

Glad it's not Lego though. That stuff is expensive as hell.

 

[StewShearerOld]

While I find the Kree-o peices to be of low quality, I might pick up a wack-ton of the figurines if they are cheap. I'd love something cheap to use at the game table.

Glad it's not Lego though. That stuff is expensive as hell.

Hmm... I had been thinking of picking up some of the Star Trek sets. Sucks to hear they're not the best quality...

 

[Albino Boo]

Wonder why Lego didn't just take this deal. Or if they weren't, why wouldn't they try to get the real deal first?

Either way, being that I was most certainly a Lego kid, this seems pretty neat.

Hasbro have the licence and they some kind link up with the KRE-O brand.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

*sigh* Remember the days when building block sets were able to make profits WITHOUT brand licensing? I was alright with LEGO getting the Star Wars license back in 1999, but as the most recent years it's just downright ridiculous. Whatever happened to trusting kids to their own creativity?

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Lego-like version of Drizzt Do'Urden? Throw in a Lego-like version of Gwenhwyvar and you might color me interested...

Anyways, sounds like fun. Might wait to see what else they're going to come up with. Hell, if they can make those kinda versions of D&D, I wonder if they can make stuff from the Warmachine line. Then I might be interested further to re-make the Khador army I once had.

DAMMIT, too many good memories...

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast, which owns Dungeons and Dragons... they also own Kre-O, makes sense that they'd want to internalize as much of their brands as possible but considering they also own Star Wars and have handed that out to Lego... yeah... gotta wonder why DnD Kre-O is a thing... honestly it's probably Hasbro trying to make DnD more profitable, Wizards has been constantly at odds with Hasbro over the fact that DnD isn't anywhere near as profitable as Magic.

 

[JamesBr]

*sigh* Remember the days when building block sets were able to make profits WITHOUT brand licensing? I was alright with LEGO getting the Star Wars license back in 1999, but as the most recent years it's just downright ridiculous. Whatever happened to trusting kids to their own creativity?

Wait, your ok with Star Wars branded LEGOs but not D&D? Why? Why would a themed set diminish a child's creativity? I took those Star Wars sets and made my own Star Wars themed ships since they came with parts that weren't common or didn't exist before. Why would this be any different?

 

[Scarim Coral]

I kind of find KRE-O to be alright since that label was made for their Transformer franchise and I do like the Micro Changer made from Kre-O (Lego size Transformer that can somewhat transform by switching the part around).
I will give credit that that Kre-O figure are abit more poseable compared to the standard lego people (you can bend the leg and arm wide out).

 

[arigomi]

Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast, which owns Dungeons and Dragons... they also own Kre-O, makes sense that they'd want to internalize as much of their brands as possible but considering they also own Star Wars and have handed that out to Lego... yeah... gotta wonder why DnD Kre-O is a thing... honestly it's probably Hasbro trying to make DnD more profitable, Wizards has been constantly at odds with Hasbro over the fact that DnD isn't anywhere near as profitable as Magic.

Hasbro doesn't own Star Wars. Hasbro and LEGO have separate licensing deals with Lucasfilm (now owned by Disney) to make Star Wars toys. Hasbro's deal covers action figures while LEGO's deal covers building sets.

Hasbro has been trying to break into the building toy market for a very long time. Hasbro's earlier attempt was called Built-To-Rule and lasted from 2003 to 2005. The Transformer and G.I. Joe sets for Built-To-Rule were horribly designed and ended up in the bargain bin. Very few people remember it's existence because it was such a failure. It would be years later before Hasbro would try again under the new name Kre-O.

It will be interesting to see what form Kre-O Dungeons and Dragons will take. Dungeons and Dragons appeals to teenagers and adults but the majority of building toy sales comes from purchases for children.

 

[LiMaSaRe]

Oh nice, the poster is a mock-up of the cover of The Thousand Orcs by R.A. Salvatore