MarkM read my mind and typed it out as usual.

I'll only add that the Dianaut figures alone would make me purchase just about anything in scale with them (like Hot Wheels...) but the motivation for the purchase would be the figures and not the building bricks. Mega Bloks / Mega Construx product is really well done and i still have slight reservations regarding the brick built vehicle aesthetic but purchase anyway because the figures are best in their class.

As a kid, my favorite toys were LEGO and GI JOE, but I coveted my Capsenaut microfigures. I was obsessed with them, and still have a couple in my personal collection.

LEGO figures have their time and place. The really, really great ones, like the classic wind-up robot minifig are modern examples of perfect miniature toys... but if you're going for realism, they just don't work.

Mega Construx are the best action figures at this scale, and they're only getting better. There are many ways around the stylized look of the figures, but only by entending limbs and normalizing proportions. I agree about the brick-based vehicles.

To me, the most successful sets are the ones that are the least blocky (that CoD WW2 motorcycle & sidecar RULE) OR the blocks fit the boxy nature of the vehicle design itself. Without a doubt, these little guys are consistently my favorite domestic toys right now. I collect them AND customize with them.

McFarlane's minifigures look amazing, but need articulation (what else is new?) and their poor-fitting bricks & HORRIBLE instructions make me want to kill myself.

SO... Hasbro's only real competition in North America are Mattel and LEGO, who are content to use their resources to battle each other. Why join that unwinnable fight? Why not go even smaller with Dianauts and create a whole miniature world? Hasbro's the only major toy company without a successful brick toy... why? They make some of the best miniature toys around! Something like a Dianaut would pose no challenge, and I'd love to see them go crazy with the modular playsets and vehicles!

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At that size, I wouldn't even mind if they just used a standard blank (a la Lego) and created various characters simply via paint apps.

Absolutely.

If Hasbro (hypothetically) was going to experiment, it would make sense to license the Dianaut mold & design, and use that initial standard buck for the first few waves. Maybe go with a sci-fi/Transformers theme at first, since that's a general crowd-pleaser, and the microfigs could work with Titans Return.

If the line proved to be successful, I could definitely see them branch out and produce different kinds of themes and bucks to re-use. Just like LEGO and Mega Construx, it would be built-in to sustain the line.


EDIT: This is inspiring me to start working on a little project... been planning a Dianaut/LEGO mash-up, but this just might be the spark I needed...

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Yup. 5 or 6 bucks should give them infinite figures:
1) Armored/Robot (the current Dianaut look)
2) Soldier (male) - Basic shirt, pants, boots look
3) Soldier (female) - Same as #2, but feminine
4) Heroic (male) - Muscular, 'nude' look to emulate the spandex look
5) Heroic (female) - same as #4, but feminine
and maybe:
6) Armored/Robot - female (similar to #1 but female armored - not sure how well this would look without being almost cartoonishly proportioned)

With just those 5 or 6 bucks, they could make any and every figure out there with just paint apps and possibly mixing and matching of parts (ie, #1's head + #2's body = Cobra Viper).

Love these ideas.

Hopped onto the official Kre-o site.

Man, what a bummer that was. It's dead, essentially. I mean, I knew this from the lack of product at my local Toys R Us, but that website was pathetic. It's a toyline ripe for a proper reboot, and could easily fill the block toy AND Micro Machines/Action Fleet microfigure void. If successful, I can see Star Wars or Marvel-themed 1" figures and buildable playsets.

How can Hasbro let LEGO and Mattel have all that fanbase & revenue?

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We could have a lot of fun in this scale:
GI Joe - Little green army meen that can be posed. Joe vehicles could be true-scale instead of Joe-scale. Epic battles could be played out. (sadly, still no Flagg, since it would still be about 15' unless underscaled a great deal)

Now imagine the movie/comic tie-ins:

Jurassic Whateversnext - 1" articulated figures with in-scale vehicles and dinos. A $40 price point in this scale could give you a couple figures, a large dino or a couple smaller dinos, maybe a helicopter or jeep, and a basic shell base. Add $10 to the price, and the base can have action features or interact with the figures.

Transformers - These guys are nearly perfect for the current Deluxe and Voyager crop, so next movie, throw some of these guys in the mix to give the human counterparts.

Star Wars - Hoth Battle with AT-AT and Snow Speeders, Battle of Endor with Ewok Village and Shield Generator, Clone Wars, all the big battles from the movies, with all the characters involved (maybe some statue-figures for lesser-known characters who didn't do much, but can't just be 'painted humanoid', like Yak-Face), Death Star Showdown... just so much...

Marvel -

The X-Mansion, with Danger Room;
a heli-carrier that's not woefully undersized (it'd still be undersized, but not as bad as the attempt we were already given);
Captain America's Railroad Escape - OO or S gauge (close enough at 1:76 or 1:64, respectively) train set with Cap, Bucky, some Nazis, an exploding bridge, all sorts of goodness;
Stark Tower with all sorts of gimmicks built in, including the armor room with all of the Iron-Man armors;
Spider-Man's New York Showdown, a portion of a city block, a la TMNT's playsets, with action features for Spidey to fight Doc Ock, Sandman, etc.;
GotG - The Milano

All the Disney movies -

Princess playsets to appeal to girls - castles that look like the ones from the movies
Adventure sets to appeal to everyone - climactic scenes from various movies

And much, much more

Mind. Blown.

Since LEGO has Star Wars & Marvel, I wonder if Hasbro would be allowed to produce 1" microfigures... nothing stopping them from doing GI JOE, Transformers, Jurassic World, Hasbro Cinematic Universe, generic sci-fi, firefighters, police, construction, etc... that's still A TON of ground to cover.

I guess the best part is, even if it never, ever happens, I can still do custom builds of my own using 1" figures... BUT DUDE... it would be an absolute dream to wake up during Toy Fair 2017 and see Kre-o revived in a new 1" scale, with Dianaut-style super-articulated microfigures...

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I'm not sure how well the Dianaut buck would work (as is) as a non sci fi inspired character I. E. As a robot or armored trooper. The wide hips really make it difficult to suspend my belief if I envision it as a spandex clad hero or civilian . A classic soldier I can see as sculpted padding might help hide the hip width.

I whole heartedly agree that Hasbro should be making Dianauts available as part of the transformer line domestically . Then only thing that might hold them back is the "choking hazard" issue as it's more pronounced at this scale .

I forgot to add....the wide hip issue/ sculpting issue could be overcome by simply increasing the scale to ,say, 1:68.

Hopefully by the point the line was successful enough to branch out beyond a sci-fi theme and go into other licenses, Hasbro would be investing in newly-sculpted 1" super-poseable microfigures.

To test the waters, though, I'd license Dianauts. The fact that Hasbro hasn't done this yet is kinda dumbfounding, actually, especially with how kids 5-9 are collecting small scale toys again. Reminds me very much of being a kid in the 80s.

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I'm thinking they don't even bother doing the brick toys (then they could do the SW and Marvel stuff) and just make a new Micro Machines style world with articulated figures.



This is where they go the Mega Blok route and have different bucks that, while somewhat compatible, are different. The non-armored buck(s) could have the leg balls (shut up) closer together than the armored ones to narrow the hips. It works for MB with the Halo vs CW designs.



This would be a way for them to flex the Micro Machines brand some and make the playsets again, things like this:


And bring back playsets that work by themselves or can be combined for larger play areas:


And of course, the 'large vehicle that opens into playset' would be fantastic with articulated figures:


They've already done all this stuff before with just vehicles or little preposed figures. They just need to put the chocolate in the peanut butter (or the peanut butter in the chocolate) to give us the Reese's Cup that would be world building with the 30mm articulated figures.

I'd buy new action fleet product (even without Dianauts now that they exist and can be purchased separately ) and Micro Machines in scale with them .

High levels of "swoosh factor" exist in both of those ideas.

I'd definitely pick up modern Action Fleet vehicles and playsets if Hasbro put them out. They have so many great licenses now, even better than the 90's.

Hasbro's still lacking a brick-based toyline to compete with the other big boys, though, so I sorta saw it as a perfect opportunity to reboot Kre-o (AND Micro Machines/Action Fleet!)... It's not like Hasbro hasn't rebooted past lines in different scales before.

...Plus Dianauts are superior to crap Kre-ons in every possible way

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Just read this thread.. and Holy crap .. thanks a lot.. now I just need to know where I can get these wonderful toys?

Reminds me a lot of Star Command but the figs being better and at 1 inch scale..

K1

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