Hellboy by Kubros

This scan doesn't do the box design justice. Kubros really went all out on it to give the set a premium art toy feel.

I didn't know about the Kubros line initially, I don't know if I was living under a rock, but somehow I missed the boat on the number of IPs that MegaBloks/MegaBrands/Mattel (who puts out Kubros) had managed to get, and put out in this line, which is very much a push in the direction of LEGO group's BrickHeadz (wtf LEGO, is this the 90's?! Who in your marketing dept thought adding the letter "z" at the end was still trendy?)

If you don't want to watch the video, the essential facts are I did enjoy the build, the quality isn't on par with LEGO, some blocks and bricks don't lock together easily. BUT, it's freaking HELLBOY. I actually went in to see if there were any Brickheadz (stupid "z", I suddenly want to watch Saved by the Bell), but Hellboy is far cooler than the Avengers that were available, and then I noticed that it was on clearance, and for this budget minded collector, that was all I needed.

As a display set, it's pretty awesome, and the overall design is very cool. The thing that struck me was how similar in some ways these art toy inspired Kubros figs were to an early and odd effort by LEGO called CubeDude (maybe 1990's Rob Liefeld had some part in naming the line, because it totally sounds like some jacked up superhero he would develop. At least it doesn't end in a "z").

Incredibly rare to find in package now, but actually kind of quirky and cool.

If you happen to want these scarce boxed sets of CubeDudes, expect to pay around $150 to $200 (current ebay listings) since they were SDCC and Star Wars Celebration exclusives.

But back to the much more affordable Kubros sets, that while they might not be LEGO, they are compatible, look actually a bit cooler (if not with a bit more unique parts and ways they are used, check the video for the way the eyes are built for them). MegaBloks has been around for a long while (founded in 1967, after LEGO and Batima Blocks who were the first two major building block players on the scene), and has almost always been the premiere off brand LEGO compatible system. But with these sets they are raising the bar, and truly are making good strides to being close to LEGO in variety and themes, but user/build quality is still just a bit under what we've come to expect from LEGO.

Stats	Rating/Information
Items	Kubros Hellboy
Made by	MegaBloks / MegaBrands / Mattel (bought by Mattel in 2014)
Rarity	Uncommon.
Classification	Retired product.
Condition	New
Procured	Toys R Us
Worth	$15
Investment	$5 (on clearance)
Build Time	22 minutes.
Trivia & Fun Facts	Ron Perlman was the main choice to portray Hellboy in director Guillermo Del Toro's mind. He waited over 10 years to make the first movie, dropping many offers from studios to have Hellboy made, because they did not want Ron Perlman to be the main character. Also, I can't stand Rob Liefeld.

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue

www.theartisanrogue.com