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christmas-with-the-kraangs

Christmas With The Kraangs!

by -RoG- on 12/05/2013, 4:26 pm

I'm not gonna lie, I really love the title of this blog entry. Christmas With The Kraangs! Come on, who wouldn't want to see that movie? Well, speaking of Christmas, I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season so far this year. I kicked mine off with a viewing of Christmas Vacation 2, which probably wasn't the best way to get myself in a festive mood. Fortunately, one trip to Target put me right back where I needed to be... behold!

Merry Kraangmas!
[click to enlarge]

If you've ever shopped at Target during the holidays, you know they usually have an awesome little "stocking stuffer" section filled with affordable candies, toys, and other seasonal trinkets. Sure enough, they didn't disappoint for the 2013 season, for you can get this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "Kraang's Turtle Target Practice" set for about four dollars. Considering I already bought a dozen packs of Peppermint Crunch Junior mints, I figured I should pick up something different from their stocking stuffer section. And boy, was it ever worth it:

Behold the Kraang (or Krang) LEGO figure!
[click to enlarge]

I think it's safe to say that the highlight of this LEGO set is the Kraang figure. Now I grew up on the original TMNT series, so it's still weird thinking of Krang as the "Kraang" - a species of brain-like aliens rather than an individual character. Whether you prefer Krang or Kraang, there's certainly room for everybody's favorite slobbering brainy alien in our Christmas holiday celebrations. He's always been one of my absolute favorite ninja turtle characters, and if you've never heard the fantastic voice work that Pat Fraley did for him in the original cartoon, you're really missing out.

In this version of the LEGO figure, we have a Kraang comfortably residing in his robot or "Kraangdroid" suit. I like how it almost looks like he's in a robotic children's safety car seat, nestled in the belly of an android. It's kind of fitting, since I always thought his personality was a lot like a whiny infant, prone to throwing temper tantrums.

Stocking Stuffer: The TMNT Kraang Laser Turret (Turtle Target Practice) Set!
[click to enlarge]

Also included in the set is Kraang's laser turret. Now on the package, it looks like the turret actually shoots projectiles, but that's unfortunately a bit of false advertising on LEGO's part, because this thing doesn't fire at all. I guess they expect kids to use their imagination, which is fine, but they shouldn't show it firing off on the package. That's just setting somebody up for a small disappointment. Nevertheless, it's a nice enough crab-like robot turret.

One of my favorite things in the set has got to be the turtle targets. Sure, they could've included all four of the real ninja turtle LEGO figures, but why do that when you can be cheap and have them represented in a purely minimalist form? Yep, they're actually represented with green bricks that have their individual head band colors in the center. If you've been searching for the smallest representations of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael, look no further. No wonder Kraang needs a robotic laser turret... these things are too small for anything else to target. Cheap as they may be, I kinda love 'em.

All in all, it's a really nice little set for any TMNT fan, and you get a seriouly great Kraang figure out of it. You can even turn it around and look at the Kraangdroid's spine. Sounds like a magical Christmas moment in the making, doesn't it? Well there's still more Kraang to see.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Capture The Kraang Fishing Game!

I'm calling it here and now: Kraang is the official mascot of the 2013 Christmas holiday season. Believe it or not, there is now a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "Capture The Kraang" fishing game. I've been trying to track this big one down, but I've yet to get my hands on it, so I'll have to do with making this graphic from a photo of the box. And who wouldn't want it? It's a four-player game where you get to be one of the turtles, armed not with their traditional weapons, but fishing rods. And you are actually fishing in a pool of hungry snapping Kraangs! How incredible is that? Who in their right mind wouldn't want to fish for Kraang!?

While it's honestly no different from one of the bajillion other classic fishing games, you're getting twenty-one Kraang fish here. Considering the set sells for less than $20, that's less than a buck per Kraang, and that's what I call a steal. What's funny is that you probably wouldn't even know it was a Kraang toy if it didn't come with the TMNT branding on the set, because they look like mutant pink fish instead of Kraang. Actually, their faces look more like C.H.U.D. monsters more than anything. That's fine though, because I've always dreamed of a movie where the turtles have to battle C.H.U.D. monsters to see who truly rules the sewers.

I should note that there's also a smaller stocking stuffer version of this same Kraang game that Target is currently selling in their Christmas holiday section. Definitely worth picking up if you can't find the larger one, because everybody deserves to have their stockings stuffed with an alien who constantly makes jokes about not having various body parts. "If I had hands I would cover my ears, if I had them!" Good one, Krang... good one.

Christmas With The Kraangs!
Sorry, I just couldn't help myself. Merry Kraangmas, everybody!

P.S. Hit the jump to see a brief, yet poignant discussion between our tiny ninja turtle LEGO heroes: (more...)

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