Bios- Airwave

My price is too high and you're going to pay.

A black market barbarian. His airport is equipped with retractable tire shredding spikes that prevent enemy invasions. In attack Mode, airport converts to mobile, dual missile battery with a range of over 300 miles. Control tower armed with atomic panels that short out optic sensors.

Friday Night Frights- Swing You Sinners (1930)

I post spooky shit all year on this here site. In fact, part of making this whole Friday Night Frights was a way of working it in all year. The site is a Halloween blog as well as a weird site about robots and monsters... but it's not Halloween all year.. technically anyway. Summer preludes to Halloween with it being a Spooky Season all of it's own. Not to mention, it's like the appetizer before pumpkin spice time. I don't care what any calendar says, Memorial Day is the start to summer and the spooky half of the year is starting on Zone Base!

So yeah, it's spooky shit time every Friday night right?

It totally is! Since summer is a more mean spirited part of the spooky season, what better way to kick that off than with some scary ass shit? I mean... look, I'm not convinced this cartoon isn't cursed. Swing You Sinners is a 90 year old cartoon that's probably the most horrible thing made. Let me give you the run down. Bimbo (I didn't name him) goes to steal a chicken one night. The cops nearly catch him and he escapes into a local cemetery to hide. This is where things go full tilt fever dream insane. The spirits of the graveyard come out to punish Bimbo for his sinning ways and we're treated (damned) to the weirdest nightmare that you never saw coming.

It's terrifying. Enjoy!

The Cursed Kleenex Commercial

Summer is a Spooky Season.

Scrapface Turns Into Fitness

While I was at Walmart getting that mystery box I've been talking about, I also picked up Scrapface. The seemingly only new character in the Netflix Siege figure line (so far), Scrapface is a repaint of Refraktor. While you can combine three into the camera, I was happy to just get one. I haven't seen the show yet, so I don't know who Scrapface is. It might be safe to assume he's the generic Decepticon trooper similar to generic clones of Reflector in the original show.

Scrapface is clearly a homage to Scrap Iron from GI JOE. That's a pretty nice touch that they didn't have to do, but I'm glad they did. I've always liked it when generic soldiers in Transformers are treated as individual characters in the toy line. You can either own one specific dude, or an army of many. Scrapface turns into an artillery hovercraft. That's a fancy way of saying they kinda sorta came up with something. This is a way of selling an individual figure on it's own outside of the camera combination mode. It's not terrible, and makes me think of those things Skeletor rode on when he attacked Charlie's store.

Transformation is pretty basic as you just move things around a little. In this mode Scrapface is doing planks with his accessories creativity placed. No wonder his abs are so tight. The metallic blue looks really great on the mold. So does the red. He's clearly a combiner as the toy is a little basic on it's own. There's a pleasant amount of articulation, not a lot. If you didn't know he was part of a camera, however, you could probably just go on never knowing it. Not too shabby.

There's Something At The Door

Summer is a Spooky Season.

Bot In The Big Grey Box

I took this crooked to piss you off.

Surprise, the other toy from the mystery box I talked about yesterday is Ultra Magnus! I'd continue the spoiler warning stuff but every news site told you this already. That and his picture is on the box. Honestly you probably knew all the other stuff I hid under the break yesterday, but sometimes you just want to put a big ass post under a break so it doesn't dominate your front page. Like the one I just put here.

Don't Look At The KuneKune

Summer is a Spooky Season.

Mysterious Box Of Black Play-Doh and Pink Rungs

This past weekend I picked up the Transformers War for Cybertron 'Mystery Box' from my local Walmart. Like all the other Netflix Siege toys, it's a Walmart exclusive. It looks like an ammo box, which feels pretty appropriate for the subject and toys inside. Not to mention, it looks pretty cool. The spoilers inside as noted on the box are generally in the form of the text under the box flap. It's in Cybertronian and I didn't take the time to translate it. Probably something about Ovaltine.

If the toys inside count as a spoiler, well first off go yell at every Transformers news site, then be advised that I'm going to talk about the contents over the course of two posts. There's a lot too talk about here and dude, it's a holiday week. I'm a little checked out right now. So it's probably best to split it up instead of one giant post. Which the first will continue under the break, because I'm trying to be considerate of those potential spoilers. 

Happy Memorial Day!

Hope everyone who celebrates it is enjoying the holiday! I'll return to regular posting tomorrow, just enjoying the little break and taking advantage of the time off to pack for my upcoming move.

Bios- Splashdown

Outflank your enemy and you won't have to outgun him.

A hard-living, hard-hitting, wind-torn soldier. A veteran of battles on 10,000 oceans on 1,000 worlds throughout the universe. At home on water, mercury, even liquid lead. Outer shell armed with long-range, armor-piercing harpoon gun and electro-sword. Robot and hovercraft Modes armed with photon blaster. Outer shell composed of high-density armor impervious to corrosive liquids and strong enough to withstand underwater depths of over 30,000 feet. Transforms to hovercraft with maximum speed of 210 mph.

Friday Night Frights- Banish That Banshee

It's Friday Night, and you know what that means? That's right pizza! Wait... well... that's like what I do and... you know... oh hey... It's time for another edition of Friday Night Frights here on the Base! Filmation's Ghostbusters is kinda weird sometimes. I don't mean the kind of weird you'd expect from a group hunting ghosts. I mean like... they've got to stop a banshee in this weeks episode.

Honestly, that's the kind of thing you'd expect a team of Ghostbusters to do. But first, they need to find a leprechaun. I know I have hard days at the office, but you know, not weird ass wild goose chase days. Normally anyway. You know Eddie eventually quit and started working overnights at Kroger. Stocking Mio > Tracy's farts in the flying ghost car.

Strangers In The Road

Summer is a Spooky Season.

The Grafx Are Turbo, All 16 Of Them

The TurboGrafx 16 Mini will FINALLY be released on May 22nd. That's tomorrow or today depending on when you're reading this. Or last year. Either way after Covid 19 moved the release back (and it changed a few times) it's finally getting released and I'm happy. Mine has been pre-ordered and will probably get here sometime next week. Which being exclusive to Amazon is just how it was going to go. Kinda a bummer seeing how I'll get it after the Memorial Day weekend.

I'm moving in a few weeks, the holiday weekend will be spent packing anyway. So I guess it's fine. After all this time, what's a few more days right? I'm pretty excited, this is a pretty big deal for me. I know it was possible to order one from Amazon's Japanese site early. When the US date wasn't too far off, whats the point? If I would have done that, I would have gotten a PC Engine Mini instead. The difference is mainly cosmetic, but it's a good cosmetic. There's also the slightly different game selection to consider. I could be here all day.

I've always wanted one of these, so the mini will suffice just nice. It was a console I could never get my parents to buy me back in the day. For some reason getting one into adulthood was always just out of reach. Thanks to emulation and the games getting put on other systems, I was able to enjoy it kinda. It wasn't that unchecked box of actually owning one though. Not to mention, I've become a fan of micro consoles over the years as they've become a thing. So this is just perfect.

Snow Tires (health advisory warning)

Summer is a Spooky Season.

Megatron's FUSION MACE

I'd been holding off on a warrior class version of Cyberverse Megatron being happy with his pretty great Turbo Changer toy. That's not to say I wasn't tempted, it was a pretty nice looking figure. After it was retooled to match his season 3 appearance, I knew I had to get one. So I did. The toy in robot mode makes me think of Megatron's Action Master. The colors are off, sure, but the similar visual cues are there. It's possibly one of the reasons I like it so much.

Warrior class figures in Cyberverse have a gimmick similar to Super Powers figures. Megatron's FUSION MACE is a play on his energy mace from that damn dam fight in the original cartoon. With a flick of the lever on his back, Megatron flips his arm about swinging his energy mace like a yahoo. This is actually kind of neat as it unravels from his wrist with a string. Another lever under his forearm will pull it back in place. It's a fun little play gimmick that pays homage to one of Megatron's more memorable moments.

Megatron's alt mode is a Cybertronian tank. Cybertron isn't a real place, so you'll have to excuse it for not looking like a real tank. It's a spacey sci fi type design that looks at home in a old video game. I bet that game has a great soundtrack. I like sci fi spacey designs like this, I bought it right? Why would I buy something I don't like in something that's 100% voluntary like a hobby? Never understood those types.

I didn't like transforming him though. It's not complex or anything, there's just a point of annoyance in his legs. Essentially his boots unfold and create the sides of the tank. If you look at the above picture you'll see the seam in the middle where this is done. In the robot mode pictures, you'll notice a peg on his left arm as well as some little brackets under his knee caps.

Those are connection points in the transformation where things lock together. It's super easy to wrench something the wrong way doing this and remember that seam in the middle of the tank side? It came apart right there and had to be snapped it back together a few times. That was frustrating and literally my only real complaint. I honestly bough the toy for it's robot mode than anything, the space tank is just a neat extra.

Little Baby's Ice Cream

 Summer is a Spooky Season.

Beast Morphers, Unleash The Wacky Wall Beast

Hey, know how I was at the Dollar Tree the other day? Well, I also got some more Wall Walkers. I had been getting the Transformers variety and if I liked current WWE performers (I don't) I'd probably grab some of those. They're a silly fun blind bag toy for a buck each. I didn't expect to see Beast Morphers in the selection and the surprise of it made me shit my pants. Not literally, I'm joking. You gave to spell things out for people sometimes.

I grabbed four packs. These aren't the kind of blind bag I go crazy over and try to complete the set. These are the kind I'll grab a couple of and hope I don't get too many doubles. Speaking off, I'm like 4 ghosts away from completing the Scooby-Doo Playmobil series and each new shelf box has new codes... it's pretty frustrating. Dammit. Just like the others in the Wall Walker toys at Dollar Tree, the Beast Morpher versions are colored plastic with decals to distinguish each character. The body shape of the walker doesn't look too silly on the Power Rangers as they're people in spandex normally. In fact they make for pretty good representations.

I got two Blaze's, one Roxy, and one Blue Ranger. Not bad. If I were to get two of a Beast Morpher, I'd rather it be Blaze. I like him the most out of the characters. His bat armor looks cool. Just like the Transformers versions, I'll be grabbing a few of these on trips in the Dollar Tree. I've really liked Beast Morphers, it's in it's mid-season break of it's last season. I'm sure I'll enjoy Dino Fury next year, but currently I'm just not as excited for it as I've been for Beast Morphers. Guess I'll just have to throw it to the wall and see if it sticks.

Bios- Hot Spot

Rust never sleeps, and neither do I.

Likes to be where the action is. Charismatic, inspiring... other Protectobots have trouble keeping up with his non-stop pace. Believes in being maximally operational every moment of one's life. His fire truck hose shoots high-pressure water 1200 feet. As robot, can press 60,000 pounds, uses fireball cannons that shoot bursts of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit blue flame 1.5 miles. With fellow Protectobots, forms "Defensor".

Teenage Dollar Store Turtles

I sure do enjoy me some TMNT, but it can be a complicated thing to enjoy. Multiple versions, things change, I change. I've admittedly went back and forth between which version of the turtles I prefer at the moment. I generally hover between the original cartoon, the original comic, and the original movies. I do like the newer cartoons/movies, just not as much as the ones I listed first. It's just a preference.

I don't have to explain to regular readers my love of mini figures or discount stores, but if you're new, I love them. For some time I was eyeing a set of TMNT mini figures at Family Dollar for around $6. That'd get you a turtle and another character toy. The turtle was a pretty good approximation of the original Playmates figures and I wanted them pretty bad. However the other figure were based on newer figures and frankly the sculpts didn't do it for me. Not that they were terrible, it was just jarring enough for me to not want to spend the $24 for all 4 turtles when half the package I had no urge to own. Recently they've been refreshing the sets with newer figures based on the Nickelodeon cgi series.

The cgi series isn't bad and tends to homage itself more on the original cartoon. So these new mini figures from it make for a good set of turtles I'd like, but once again, they come with those other figures. The Dollar Tree, tends to feed my blind bag toy and mini figure hunger on frequent visits and for not a lot of money. I'd like to take a second to explain I just misspelled 'and' and my efforts to correct it resulted in many more misspellings. Fuck you 'and'.

The Dollar Tree had the newer figures individually packaged for a dollar each (it's kinda their gimmick) and talk about an easy sell. I really wish the set I was speaking about earlier was available for the same, but I'll gladly take these little guys. They're simple little figurines of the turtles with basic paint jobs in 'action' poses. Kinda look like something I would have gotten in a box of cereal and now I wish I would have. Because that would have completed the set going in blind. Achievements would have been unlocked.

If the boxes in the background didn't serve as a clue in addition to my multiple mentions, I'm moving. My current plan for these little guys is sticking them next to my micro consoles in the new Zone Base headquarters. Or maybe next to the little keyboard tablet set up that'll go in that room somewhere. They're just the right little thing for such a set up. Cowabunga indeed.

TRANSFORMERS Social Media Week

 

The 2022 movie hype is real as, this week, Hasbro is kicking off a week of social media posts of some of their past 2020 Studio Series releases to celebrate the new Transformers film in 2022! 

If you check out the official TRANSFORMERS Facebook and Instagram pages, new posts from Hasbro sharing a look back at the TRANSFORMERS films through the lens of their past Studio Series releases will post over the next six days, with one post per day highlighting a specific figure for each film. 

Thanks to Rogers & Cowan for providing Zone Base readers with this news!

Bios- Overkill

Too much destruction is never enough.

Whether talking, terrifying, or attacking, he does everything to excess. So busy proving how tough he is by snapping cars in half between his jaws, that he forgets his mission. Can record data as a cassette, rip open the hull of a battleship as a tyrannosaurus. Armed with 2 batteries of motion missiles -- each reacts to any moving object bigger than a baseball and explodes on contact.

Friday Night Frights- The Haunted Mask

Time for another edition of Friday Night Frights here on the Base and let me just tell you, Goosebumps is good as hell. I know I said a little while back that I was going to scale back on the Halloween stuff until the actual the season starts here on the site and I lied. I'm not going to apologize about it either. I mean, even Disney is getting in on the spooky shit early. Know what? Disney does Halloween right. If they're pulling my act, so can I. Candy corn y'all.

Goosebumps is good as hell, I've said so a few poorly written sentences up. In The Haunted Mask, we see Carly Beth try to overcome her fear of everything by wearing a scary ass mask for Halloween. She gets said mask from a magic store and boy howdy things go wrong. Fast. For good measure, the sequel episode is attached.

Bios-Chromedome

A battle plan is only as good as its programmer.

Spent several thousand years crunching numbers at Cybertron's Institute for Higher Programming before a Decepticon attack reduced it to a pile of smoking microchips. Binary-bonded to Stylor, an egotistical Nebulan more concerned with personal appearance than warfare. In car mode, maximum speed: 478 mph. Range: 630 miles. Hood-mounted infra-red range finder automatically targets roof-mounted dual lasers.

Keith Courage's Cool Cartoon

I was pretty excited for the Turbografx-16 Mini until Covid-19 pushed back the release. I'm still excited for it, but man that hurt a little. One thing I found odd was the exclusion of Keith Courage in Alpha Zones from the console. Keith Courage was the original pack in game for the system here in the states until the release of the Turbo Duo a few years later.

I've always liked Keith Courage and was really hoping to play it on the mini (whenever I get it), it not being included confused quite a lot of people for good reason. It was just one of the games you associate with the system. Most likely it's due to licensing issues as Keith Courage is an Americanization of the PC Engine game Mashin Hero Wataru, which was based on an anime. The anime itself has had a few other series and other games as it's pretty popular in it's own right. Much more than Keith Courage. It's not surprising that essentially Konami wouldn't deal with the licensing all these years later.

There's all sorts of toys, games, and cartoons of Mashin Hero Wataru. If you really liked Keith Courage and wanted more of it, well there's plenty of it to go around. I'm kinda tempted to watch the anime as it looks pretty neat. I feel like I've seen bootlegs of the mechs at discount stores and honestly tempted to get one of the newer figures. Because dude...Keith Courage.

It's Almost Summer

It's almost summer, and Summer is a Spooky season.

F Is For Firebot

The Letrabots are a blind bag line of transforming robots who as their name would suggest, turn into letters. I've seen other letter based robots come in sets and really have no clue what line those belong to. I was at Target, saw the box, and grabbed a pack. Firebot comes from the series 'COMBO BIG ROBOT ADE' as this team combines into a larger robot named ADE (I know).

This series is specifically a glow in the dark series, I don't know if the other series by Cicaboom feature this, but I'm game to try their other sets if I can find them. They're pretty neat looking in an old school kids meal way. The combination aspect is motivating me into trying to complete the set more so than the toy. The figure is pretty neat, but an end result to completing the series is a plus.

Firebot is a little bot who turns into a capital F. His included card has reversed colors than the actual toy and I'm not sure of that's a case variation (one proper colored, one reversed per case) or just a production change. Despite being a simple little toy, his transformation is a little more involved that I expected going in. There's actually a swiveling part in between his torso and legs which has you doing an additional twist to put everything into place. It's not super complicated, but I didn't see it coming.

I didn't take a picture of the extra bits in the bag. One is a hand and the other is part of a gun for ADE. Firebot is ADE's left arm and I swear the combiners name is going to give me a coronary. For a basic little toy, it's pretty neat. I can't tell if there's a code system or not for the baggies, but there is little peep holes which may or may not be any help. I guess I could feel what letter is in each one, I just grabbed one blindly and got Firebot here.

Shin Godzilla's Pretty Gnarly

The other day I found Godzilla 2016/Shin Godzilla from the Playmates Godzilla and Kong line. I had been looking for this guy as his face sculpt has been in multiple memes in kaiju groups. Despite the many jokes... in person it ain't so bad. Silly, sure, but a little better paint detail could fix that. Really it's a pretty decent sculpt full of Shin's gnarly features.

Like the prior Playmates toys, Shin is a hard vinyl toy. He feels more like an action figure than a sofubi, but fits right on in next to my Bandai Creations toys. I prefer sofubi toys for my kaiju, so this is welcome. You really can't complain about walking into your local Walmart and buying a Godzilla for $12. Unless you're an asshole.

Shin is in his 4th form from the movie as it's the 'adult' version of the character and most recognizable. Sure, he's a gnarly mutant, but still looks like Godzilla. My last toy of him was the 2nd 'baby' form from Bandai's 65th Anniversary boxed series (I really need to get the rest of those) and before that was Necca's Atomic Blast figure. He's not my favorite incarnation, but I sure do like him. Know that song 'Life is a Highway'? Love it.

Shin's  got some decent articulation. His head and little grubby arms move as do his legs and tail. He actually has ankle swivels, which help stabilize the toy when standing. The tail is segmented in 2 parts and can move around a touch. Not enough to point the second head in his tail at anything (it's a weird movie), but you can adjust him enough to not fall over. You'd think with the bulk of his design in the legs and tail he'd have a more stable center of gravity. It's not really much to complain about and despite initially wanting this toy due to silliness, I've found myself liking it quite a bit.

Hoist Sounds Like Moist

I was pretty surprised to see some Earthrise deluxe class toys at my local Walmart this past weekend. Figuring the Netflix toys would take the spot for the time being, but was happy to see a Hoist mixed in with leftover Siege, Netflix Siege, and the million Chromia's from both nobody is buying. I guess somebody else grabbed the others in the assortment and that's ok. I'll get them eventually. Honestly I was aiming to get Hoist first anyway, so it worked out pretty well.

I've always liked Hoist. In G1 he came from the same Diaclone mold that Trailbreaker came from, but I've always like Hoist better. The green and white with a more characterful head sculpt just looks great. Not that Trailbreaker looks bad mind you, it's just a preference. Earthrise is about faithful recreations of those classic G1 characters with modern toy engineering. This is an update of a Transformer, which was a living alien robot, while a Diaclone was just a mech piloted by a driver. The updating makes Hoist look more like a character than a vehicle, and that's great. So far that's been true for all the Earthrise toys I've gotten and I love it.

Hoist turns into his classic pick-up truck with a towing kit. It's a nice local mechanic look which gives a little variety to most medics being Ambulances. Being from the south, he reminds me of that guy everybody knew who usually had some odd lawn mower or car to fixed in his front yard for sale. Had a garage full of oddball contraptions and a model train. Might of been the local high school shop teacher or worked at the hardware store. I've known a lot of guys like that and I don't know if's part of the reason I like Hoist so much or not, but it makes for a great character. I look at his truck mode and I hear some old country song coming from his garage as he fixes somebodies weed eater.

I mentioned his towing kit. While I'm not 100% certain if it actually works and Hoist could tow an Autobot, but it looks like it could. The tow boom unfolds and looks like it could fit underneath a car mode Earthrise toy. I didn't think to try it out while I was playing with my new toy after eating breakfast this morning. You might notice the connector  at the end of the tow boom, that indeed is a working Micromaster base connector allowing Hoist to link up. His laser/welder can be stored on the towing kit, which matches the look of it all. It can be held like a pistol in either hand and thanks to a cuff at the base contributes to Hoist's classic appearance.

If you couldn't tell, I like Hoist. Like all of Earthrise so far, he's wonderful. Just a great update of a classic character that's faithful to the original toy. He's pleasantly articulated and looks sharp. I'm not trying to give constructive criticism here or give a review here. I'm talking about something I like on a site about things I like. I like Hoist.

GeGeGe No Kitaro- GeGeGe Panic!

Bios- Landfill

Adventure is found in unlikely places.

A four-wheeled garbage site. Leaves a trail of decaying refuse wherever he goes. Friendly, cheerful, but a bit of a slob. His Nebulan partners are Silencer, a noiseless, recoil-less proton rifle, and Flintlock, a heat-targeting stress pistol which induces metal fatigue and fractures in steel. Fellow Autobots dislike working with Landfill because he's filthy and smells so bad.

Friday Night Frights- The Haunted House

It's time for another Friday Night Frights here on the base! That little taste of spooky shit to end out the week and this week... well... let's watch one of the classics. The Haunted House starring Mickey Mouse finds the mouse in a house full of ghosts and goblins! While known for their family fun and wholesome imagery... Disney gets dark often. In this awesome old short, Mickey finds himself inside a haunted house and it's pretty amazing that he lives to be honest.

Headmaster Of The Class

For some reason, Hasbro had a really hard time explaining Headmasters to the general public. It seems like a natural evolution of an idea, robot changes into things, robot's head now is the pilot of thing it changed into. This lead to fiction of two minds sharing a body, where in Japan, the head just controlled the body when connected. I like Takara's take on the concept better, simple is usually better.

It does make me wonder why Hasbro chose to make the Headmaster a different character. Part of me wonders if they planned to make the Nebulons a thing. Like, down the road, individually packed Nebulons or something. Takara did. It would make sense if that was the original plan and things changed. Later they revisited the idea in Titans Return and it was a pretty big success. Little robots, drive big robots and bigger robots are also play sets.

I wonder if Micromasters was ultimately the evolution of that idea. I mean, obviously it was in practice. Little robots turn into little things and have play sets that transform. Maybe that was the idea of having the Headmasters be separate characters to begin with. Like, it just occurred to them while playing with the prototypes. Or on the toilet.

Bios- Cannon Transport/Cement-Head/Terror-Tread

We aim for nothing less than total victory!

The essence of Deceptiocn evil. Moves twin turret, high-impact cannon into prime position to unleash earth crunching firepower. Able to change into all-terrain micro vehicle, ultra-force battle platform or two battle-ready micro robots. Micromaster Combiner Mode allows armored transport to fuse with other Combiners for fast attack capabilities. Equipped with state-of-the-art, cybernetic scanner that detects Autobot troop movements up to 20 miles away. Commanded by Cement-Head and Terror-Tread, two swaggering braggarts who enjoy trashing enemy installations.

Turboranger Sausage

I don't understand my fascination with licensed character meat snack commercials, but fortunately there's an abundance of them to be fascinated by. I've also learned that without spell check, I cannot spell fortunately. This commercial for said meat snack features the heroes of Kousoku Sentai Turboranger selling snack sausages. It's pretty standard fair as far as these things go. Action footage with voice over with a shot of the Red Ranger holding a box.  

It's the very end of the commercial that really grabs my attention. Inside each box is a randomly packed Turboranger keshi toy! I don't know if they were the same from capsule machines or brand new figures for this promotion, but that's the kind of thing I go nuts for. I do wonder just how tasty the sausages are? I like meat snacks as is, but the ones here look more like Vienna sausages compared to the Jack Links jerky sticks I normally buy.

Pacific Rim:Shatterdome Strike

Ghostbusters Vs The Mummy

Regardless of your belief in the paranormal, between a pandemic and GIANT FUCKING MURDER BEES, this is clearly the year The Ghostbusters needed to be called. While I haven't found any of the new Real Ghostbusters toys yet, needless to say, I... uh... want that stuff. I can hear Egon figuring out just how to deal with those bees right now, and Venkman wondering if maybe the city should have called the zoo.

It's probably not a shock to any of you that I was a big fan of the Ghostbusters Monsters series of figures. Cool versions of classic monsters to scare the absolute shit out of Winston with, what's not to love? In the above commercial, we get to see the boys break out some new gear to battle The Mummy with... and they go a little overboard with. Admittedly if I had a giant vacuum car for battling ghosts with, I'd probably look for reasons to use it also.

In Space, Nobody Can Feel Bumblebee Sting

I had been putting off buying a Warrior Class Bumblebee. I haven't gotten any version of Cyberverse Bumblebee in warrior class yet, but when I had seen this newer Cybertronian version solicited, I knew it would be the one to buy. Not that I've got anything against Cyberverse or Bumblebee (if you read the site, you know I quite like them both), it's just the way things have worked out. Representing his 3rd season look, Bumblebee is not very much different from his prior versions. His Cybertronian alt mode is a flying car that's pretty much a modification of his Earth based car mode. It's a little silly, but I dig it. Honestly it looks more like a submarine than a flying car, but still pretty neat.

Bumblebee has a sparkle to his yellow plastic. I don't know if that was present in prior versions, but I notice it pretty clearly when holding the toy in light. BB also features some metallic blue circuitry detailing with the metallic coloring on his Sting Shot stinger as well. It looks really good against the yellow and makes me think of him as a Microman toy. Not just in the way that the original Bumblebee toy was derived from a Microman, but this toy looks like it would fit in next to your Spy Magician figure. His alt mode kibble and spacey alt mode makes me think of him as a newer Micro Robot. He just has that look, or at least to me.

I had mentioned his Sting Show earlier, that's the figures action gimmick. Mounted on his left arm is the stinger, pull said arm down, and it spring loaded pops back up with the stinger spinning. Makes me think of a Kenner Super Powers figure. I really like this guy, he has that old school super robot vibe that Cyberverse warrior class toys generally have. I get warriors for around $11 at my local Walmart and that's a great price. It's a nice little something to grab for not a lot of money during an errand run.

Transform Squadron 21- PVC

Listen Now!

This month Rob talks about various Star Wars things before marveling at the amount of Transformers he wants to buy. Podcasts are exciting things, huh?

May The 4th Be With You

Happy Star Wars Day From www.zonebase.org! 

Bios- Guzzle

Abilities: Proud of his land attacks. He produces flames from his mouth which melt the ground and advances, dashing to the ground.

Weapons: Unknown

Final Attack: "The Ground Fire" - He is able to shoot flames into the ground which appear under his enemy's feet.

Friday Night Frights- Ghost Hunting In A Chinese Cemetary

It's time for another edition of Friday Night Frights here on Zone Base, a weird ass site about robots and monsters. This week we have a live stream from ghost hunters in a Chinese cemetery. The crew of Bajul TV manage to contact the spirit of a woman buried in the cemetery. *cough* It's TOTALLY REAL GUYS. Outside of the *cough* ghost, they had a pretty good video going on here though. Streaming from a cemetery late a night would have made for a good spooky time even without ghost hunting on the itinerary. It's a pretty fun time still and admittedly the effects aren't bad for such a small production.

Only We

Various bootlegs and unofficial toys have pretty much been consistent throughout the history of the Transformers brand. It's an ongoing thing with varying opinions on the matter. It's not exclusive to Transformers either, but that's what we're specifically talking about here. Being that the initial batches of Transformers were made from prior existing toy molds, bootleggers had an early start. When you add in Diakron was on shelves not long before Transformers, there was a lot of grey area for off brand Transformers to thrive.

Any trip to your local discount store around the holidays can prove it's a ongoing issue. That's not even counting today's adult collecting world of unlicensed 3P toys adding to Hasbro/Takara's ongoing legal department dilemma. I'm not here to shame on anybodies preferred way to buy Transformers, I'm just setting up today's post centered around an old commercial. But man, I had no clue why my brown Ravage from K-Mart's feet kept falling off.

There's a variety of methods that Transformers as a brand has deployed to emphasize that there's is the official 'real' Transformers. The most famous would be the heat rub symbols. Honestly, I loved these things so much I was a little bummed when they went away. I didn't know what a bootleg toy was when I was a kid, but I loved putting my finger on those stickers and watching the symbols light up in a variety of colors.

Let's be honest though, this commercial is a bit harsh. The Transformers are saying very firmly that they are  the only real Transformers and the others are fake. It's harsh and I like it. Not for any other reason than 'whoa dang,'. If at any minute if they started cussing, I wouldn't be surprised. I was pretty much expecting Optimus to lose his cool at any minute.