It's been a weird night year huh? Good thing it's the spooky season and we can find fun and laughter in cheap plastic fangs and pumpkin flavored everything. I've mentioned at the beginning of this years shindig that I was going to double dip and I meant it. But how can I not double dip when the pumpkin spice mayhem is so wonderful?
"Witch's Night Out" is a semi obscure Halloween cartoon from 1978. I say semi as every year it seems more people discover it's weird ass. A sequel to a Christmas cartoon called "The Gift Of Winter" (which was even weirder assed) about a Witch who shows some kids a good time on Halloween before her wand gets lost. Two local townies named Malicious and Rotten discover the wand and all hell breaks loose.
This was on my regular viewing list as a kid... and as an adult. After it's initial run on TV, Disney Channel would regularly show it during October (man, Disney is so good at Halloween). It's on one of those VHS Halloween mix tapes I've talked about here before, but thankfully it's widely available to view online. There's some top level talent here. Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, and Catherine O'Hara to name a few. It's kinda amazing.
"Detect the Giganter-class sub-sky gate reaction! Gather the Mobile Interception Unit at the spawn point!"
In response to the intensifying sub-air raid of Walder, the Diaclone corps completed a new combat machine along with the construction of a mobile interception posture by the combat mobile base. A fierce wind fighter that runs through the wilderness, its name is Battle Convoy V-MAX!
I couldn't even come up with a jokey title for today's post. The subject alone man... Lets go back 30 years ago to a world where the first TMNT movie had came out recently and every kid wanted to be Raphael for Halloween. What's a costume shop owner to do? Order some name brand costumes like Walmart has? Nah, put a bandanna on a generic turtle mask and sell it with some green sweat pants. $20 kid, we got all dem turtles. Who ya wanna be? Donald, Lionel?
Bootleg costumes aren't anything new, but when they make the evening news... that's kind of awesome. I miss when local news did stuff like this. 1990 was my first year not going trick or treating. I wore some random make up and weird sheet robe thing my Mom forced upon me to school. Then it was Pizza Hut and staying up all night. The kids at my school were big enough jerks about my non-Pump Reeboks, I can only imagine showing up in one of those turtle outfits. Fast forward to adulthood and I'd win best costume.
I had been looking forward to getting a toy of Meteorfire since first seeing the character. Thanks to a Target stop this weekend, I was able to find the one toy of him that Hasbro seems to be putting out. From the Battle Call series of Cyberverse figures, Meteorfire is a larger figure with electronic lights.
While being a larger figure, he's still a fairly simple toy. Arms move at the shoulders and elbows with a wrist swivel. Legs are articulated at the upper thigh and knees. His head swivels around as well.
Despite the years of plentiful articulation in Transformers toys, I still don't expect more than the basic amount. So I'm pretty pleased with his range of motion. You can't roll him into a ball or anything, but I wasn't going to anyway.
His design is just wonderful to me. Looking like a holdover from an older time of robot toys. Like something out of late Euro G1 or Operation Combination.
Meteorfire transforms into a really bulky jet. Not super sleek, pretty boxy. It kinda makes me think of Sky Garry a little. Not that the two jets are similar, but in that they're big bulky aircraft. With those VTOL blades on the wings, I would think he needs a little help getting that thing off the ground.
I honestly would have made him some sort of troop transport type vehicle fictionally because of this. I can't see anything else when I look at it other than him landing and a bunch of bots loading. Like Astrotrain or Galaxy Shuttle.
I just can't get any other vibe from it. I don't write Transformers fiction though. If I did, so many grammar errors. Probably more than here. But you'd know what I was saying. I think.
I mentioned the Battle Call thing earlier. It includes lights and sounds as well as some clip on armor. I'm going to talk about that now. Meteorfire was in a single episode of Cyberverse, this armor was not featured in that episode, but should have been. It's neat.
Blue and clear, the armor pegs onto the robot mode pretty easily. It gives him a pair of wrist blade things for poking. Know when you punch somebody with your middle finger out a little? Imagine if you actually did that and instead of your soon to be broken finger jutting out, it was a knife. There's also some extra flair for this wing tips and a chest piece that gives Meteorfire a face shield. Now he won't catch covid-19. It also adds to his appearance a little. There's some neat detail work there that you'll see right through instead of. That's a shame because it really is good looking.
The Battle Call gimmick works in both modes, but the armor only attaches to robot mode. It does add to the light up features a little. What's the Battle Call gimmick? You flip a switch and his lights and sounds correspond with whatever noise sets it off. They say voice activated, but I opened a Pepsi and it registered. It's neat, but doesn't really add that much to the toy. I'm sure a kid would really like it though. Considering that's who this was made for in the first place I can't be too judgemental of that.
I really like this figure. Admittedly, I could have done without the
whole Battle Call gimmick. I don't hate it, I just don't particularly
care for it. It's kinda just there and once again obviously not meant
for me, but a child. So I'm not going to be too harsh on it. The figure?
Wonderful. A chunky old school looking super robot toy. I love these
accidental throwbacks that Transformers toy lines intended for younger
kids deliver. He looks pretty great and is pretty fun to play around
with. I'm pretty happy I found him at Target.
Beetleborgs and Halloween seem like a pretty natural fit right? I mean, half of the cast is a haunted house full of monsters led by some cocaine fueled Jay Leno ghost. It's only natural Fox Kids would run a contest to go trick or treating with the Beetleborgs right? Unfortunately they instead ran a contest where you'd win a chance to go trick or treating with the Beetleborgs and said cocaine Jay Leno ghost.
One of the neat things about the smaller 'master' figures in recent Generations lines is their revisiting older Transformers ideas. Slitherfang his an unused concept for the Autobot Master Warriors from Headmasters. Like Titanmaster Sawback and Ramhorn, Slitherfang here found himself reborn.
The Titanmasters were based on released toys though. This is Slitherfang's first time being an official Transformer toy after being conceived over 30 years ago. Better late than never huh?
Despite being originally designed as a Headmaster, Slitherfang now is a Battle Master. As an Earthrise Battle Master he can turn into a shield or a connector piece/dock plate for Micromaster bases. His robot mode as you can tell is a snake. There's bound to be some
generic 'beast crap' complaints about this, but animals was a somewhat
regular design choice for bot mode back in G1.
I always liked it for the
variety and thought it went well with the monster themed Decepticons
post movie. Add in the purples and teals of that time and you've got some sharp looking robots.
Slitherfang is mostly translucent purple with a gray tail. There's some black and red detail paint in there that really makes the simple colors look great. Small touches can make a big difference.
Speaking of little touches, the tank treads on his tail. I love those little old school robot toy details. He almost looks like a little Starriors toy and that's a good thing. Tomy and Takara merged in 2005. Even if coincidental, it seems intended. Did that make sense?
His shield mode looks pretty good thanks to the cobra's hood carrying over to it's general shape. Included is one of those little blast mark things that has one place to be plugged on. If you're display minded, that's exactly where somebody should be aiming at.
There's not much fictionally for Slitherfang as of this writing. I'm assuming he'll get worked into Takara's ongoing web manga at some point. I'd like to think it would be more related to Headmasters, but you never know. He'd make a good Selector too.
In Earthrise he's aligned with the Quintessons, which is a pretty good fit. I could see him slithering up during an attack and being used by one of the bailiffs to guard a judge when all hell eventually breaks loose.
What if he was a Selector that aligned himself with the Quintessons?
That'd be a neat parallel.
There's not much to say about the connector/dock plate mode. It's a ramp or connector for Micromaster bases. You can plug that blasty thing into this though for dramatic dock plate action.
In all, Slitherfang is a pretty good Battle Master. With these little guys the best part is the bot mode. The shield and dock plate are all pretty similar with small cosmetic differences. But a little purple snake sells itself.
Disney is well regarded as the de-facto source for family friendly entertainment. It's because of this that many spooky urban legends revolve around the company. You just can't have something that pure without a dark secret or two. Thing is, Micky and the gang are no strangers to spooky shit. They do Halloween every year and they do it right. Celebrations, merchandise, TV specials, you name it. At the parks they even have a spooky summer celebration of their own before starting Halloween stuff in August. Just like here! It really is the happiest place on earth!
This is Haunted Halloween, a Disney educational short that teaches a mix of Halloween history and safety. It's a clip show from various Disney cartoons with footage from Disney's Halloween Treat. Speaking of Disney's Halloween Treat, the pumpkin from one of the various editions narrates this with Goofy. It truly is a special pairing.
When I was a kid, about a week before Halloween, either the VCR cart or projector got rolled into classrooms and we'd be shown one of a few different safety videos. I've posted the most common ones before several times (here and here for example). I watch those one a week all year long for my own benefit. Never can be too careful.
Haunted Halloween? Once. I saw it once and never again until finding it on YouTube a few years back. For the longest I couldn't get anyone to believe me about this awesome Disney education short with druids. I wondered for awhile if it was some sort of Mandela Effect thing. Now I can show people this wonderful thing without sounding like some crazy person talking about Goofy being taught Celtic superstitions. Now I just sound crazy. If this was a Facebook post, I would have typed LOL there. Maybe LMAO. That's how hard I laughed, that mother fucker just fell the fuck off.
Among the newer Micromasters I found recently was the Earthrise release of the Battle Squad. I wasn't able to get these guys when they were released in Siege, so of course I jumped on them. Then I got the pack I didn't jump on. Whoops.
Now I just hope I can find the Rumble/Ratbat pack at Ross or something. Then I'll successfully gotten all the new Micromasters from Generations. Go me.
Direct-Hit (right) and Power Punch (left) are both members of the G1 Battle Squad faithfully updated in Siege. The Earthrise version is a straight repack of that. So there.
The two combine to form a cannon transport vehicle. I've always liked this type of Micromaster combiner and was pretty happy to see them make a return here. The two are pretty faithful to the G1 versions aside from the black chest on Direct-Hit and that's great. I always really liked the more interesting colors of late G1 and often they're either muted or exaggerated in newer versions of the characters. They got it just right with some extra detailing color. The guys look pretty great.
Newer Micromasters have slightly improved articulation from the originals. You can't really expect a ton from a tiny toy that comes in a two pack for $10. It's just not going to happen. The newer Micromasters are on pare with most Mini-Cons and that's a pretty good amount of movement for a toy this size. The cannon from vehicle mode or Power Punch's back can be held or mounted on compatible Transformers. Really, these newer Micromasters are almost Mini-Cons by another name, which the reverse of that is how many of us saw Mini-Cons during their introduction. I liked those too.
I live in Georgia, which means I've never had an Arctic Circle restaurant near me. I've never been to Utah or any of the other states in which Arctic Circle has locations in. Which means I've never had a Square Pumpkin meal. One of the greatest disappointments of my life. Have you seen it? You get the Square Pumpkin box, with haunted house game on the back. I will not mince words, that is fucking bad ass.
Of course you also get food, but dude, square pumpkin with haunted house game. A Google search shown me years of amazing Halloween kids meals from Arctic Circle. I can't believe just how much I've missed out. I didn't I even know about this place until I found this commercial. I'll be honest, I kinda forgot Utah existed too. Working the graveyard shift for 10 years has have altered my world view a bit. I'm not kidding, the first time I see the sunrise in spring scares the shit out of me every year.
I'm pretty sure if Arctic Circle was available to me the Square Pumpkin meal would be a hotly anticipated item each year. It's pretty badass. McDonald's can't decide if they want to do Halloween pails regularly or not. Starbucks kinda shit the bed with the Halloween drinks after 2018. It'd be nice to have something like a Square Pumpkin to look forward to each year. I crave annual fast food spooky shit. I don't even want the food, just the haunted house game.
I picked up Soundbarrier in June shortly after moving. Like other toys bought during that time, I've just gotten around to opening him up. Soundbarrier is a Battle Master from Earthrise which makes him a tiny bit different than the ones from Siege. Instead of a weapon, he turns into a shield and a connector for Micromaster bases.
I had been looking forward to this guy as he just looks neat. The shield kibble on his back looks like wings giving him a much cooler look than somebody who turns into a dock plate should look.
The bright blues with the grey robot parts with accenting red makes for a sharp looking little robot. I'm sure this mold would look good in almost any color you throw on it. He looks like he turns into a jet almost.
Almost.
I mentioned he turns into a shield right? Two things, he does in fact turn into a shield and I've had to right click on shield every time I've typed it. Clearly cannot spell that right. Considering it's basically just a dock plate that doubles as a shield, it doesn't look too bad.
He comes with one of those blast mark thingys and two places to connect it. So you can have him being a barrier for blasts as well as sound.
There's some silver paint here that's pretty nice looking and dresses it up a bit. It mainly dresses up dock plate mode and adds to the appearance when connected to Micromaster bases.
Not to mention is helps hide the robot hanging off the other side in clear view. You think Micromasters flip him the bird when they drive over? You know they do.
Jerks.
In dock plate mode, he can connect to any Earthrise Micromaster base or so they say. He can serve as a connector to provide a road from one to another or a ramp for driving up or off. You can still plug the little blast effect thingy on here to make it look like somebody is shooting at Big Daddy.
He's Autobot in Hasbro releases or on the Japanese side a Selector like Smashdown. Considering his alt mode, it's a good fit for the new group. I could imagine a dock plate having enough of others bull crap and revolting.
He's pretty great. I'd love to see recolors in blind packaging.
There's probably more forgotten Halloween specials than fondly remembered ones. While that's mostly a tragedy, in the Case of 'Boo!', it's for the best. It's not a bad idea. Take the classic monsters and put them in a silly variety show together during the formats heyday. Couple of musical numbers, a bunch of silly skits. Sure fire idea right? Unfortunately it's probably the worst thing ever made. I would say it's arguably worse than the Star Wars Holiday Special... but I've been able to watch that in it's entirety. I can't get through the first 15 minutes of this. Sure I've skipped around and watched a bit here and there. But straight forward? No way. It's fucking horrible.
If you can make it to minute marker 9:16... or just skip forward... you'll notice who gets top billing. Peter Cullen as the werewolf. The Peter Cullen? Maybe there is another? Possibly. But I can't find any other with a Google search. I also can't find this credit on any of his profiles either. Would you put this on your resume? It's fucking horrible.
The special is only an hour long, which you probably won't watch the entirety of. If I haven't been clear enough, it's fucking horrible. I first ran across it last summer while digging for material for the site. You guys think old Pop Secret commercials just fall out of the sky? I sat through 10 minutes before passing out thanks to that way Dracula kept singing 'do' rendering my brain incapable of thought for a full 10 minutes. Know what can happen in 10 minutes? You can hit the back button on your Roku remote, that's what.
Micromasters are a wonderful thing. Purple Robots are a wonderful thing. Bright yellow on robots... These guys are wonderful. In fact, you could call them majestic. I do.
The Earthrise Race Car Patrol is an update of Roller Force (purple guy) and Ground Hog (blue guy) who were members of the Race Track Patrol in G1. Things change, names change, sometimes colors change. Ground Hog was purple in G1 for instance. They also change into robots, it's the gimmick of the toy line. I'm ok when things change.
I got these dudes last week and was pretty happy to do so. I'm gobbling up all the Micromasters and Battlemasters I can until the seeming end of tiny robots in mainline TF for the time being. Assuming the individual Titanmasters don't get re-released in that upcoming Headmasters thing. If that happens, then game on. Either way, I'm enjoying them while I got them. Surely there will be new tiny robots in TF sooner or later. Humor me.
These two turn into, you'd never guess, race cars. Weirdest thing right? The two can combine to form what's supposed to be a gun, like other newer Micromasters. I didn't take a picture of that. Sorry. I kinda forget they can do this as it just looks like two robots stuck together. Like the designers were told by higher ups to do something like that and they did whatever they did out of spite. "Fine, here's a fucking gun."
The two are pretty faithful recreations of the original toys (aside from colors) with improved articulation. I really can't find anything bad to say about these toys. If this was an email, I'd end it with a bunch of hearts. Like this. <3 <3 <3 <3
Sgt. Hound, as a scout for Optimus Prime throughout the
third Cybertronian war, was instrumental in the victory of the
Autobots over the brutal Decepticons. Along with Special Operations
Officer Autobot Jazz, Sgt. Hound presented the General with precise
intelligence that allowed the newly-reconstituted Autobot Firestormers
to route Megatron's expansion of the Decepticon Star Empire before it
could attack any other worlds. The battle ended when the experimental
energon refinery that Sgt. Hound had forewarned about was struck by a
Decepticon missile. The Decepticons destroyed themselves, but the
explosion also cast Sgt. Hound and General Optimus Prime through a
rupture in reality.
With the war over in his own universe, Sgt. Hound
attempted to find peace in his new home. Unfortunately millions of
years of conflict, honed military skills and alertness prevented him
from finding it. When General Optimus Prime joined Security
Administration Officer Cheetor's task force, Sgt. Hound once again
enlisted under his commanding officer. Even with war and military
service being all that he can remember, Sgt. Hound is still as
friendly and compassionate as the day he came online. He befriended
many Low-Techs, including fellow former soldiers Dia and Cline.
Join us as we celebrate the Ghostbusters franchise in a three-part panel filled with HUGE surprises and reveals!
Part 1: Classic Ghostbusters
Panelists: Ernie Hudson, Hasbro Ghostbusters Brand Team
We’ll begin by celebrating the iconic 1984 film. Tune in for ghostly surprises, classic toy news, and a visit from a very special guest: Ernie Hudson, otherwise known as Winston Zeddemore from Ghostbusters! Get ready to hear him answer your fan questions!
Part 2:The Making of Kenner The Real Ghostbusters Toys
Panelists: Mark Boudreax, Hasbro Ghostbusters Brand Team
We’ll continue our journey through the 80’s with an inside look at the making of The Real Ghostbusters toys from original Kenner toy designer, Mark Boudreaux. Next, you’ll see behind the scenes of sculpting with Dave. Finally, meet the Hasbro team that relaunched the Kenner Real Ghostbusters toys in 2020. Hear about how they answered the call to bring this beloved toy line back for the fans and be the first to see the next Kenner Real Ghostbusters toy to hit shelves!
Part 3: Ghostbusters Afterlife
Panelists: Jason Reitman, Hasbro Ghostbusters Brand Team
We’ll end our celebration with a nod to the future… the new Ghostbusters Afterlife feature film, coming to theatres in March 2021. Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning filmmaker Jason Reitman, director of Ghostbusters Afterlife, will take you on a tour of the Ecto-1 that was used in the new film. He’ll end his tour with an exciting reveal! You’ll then hear from the Hasbro team about the next toy inspired by the Ghostbusters Afterlife film to hit shelves!
Thanks to Rogers & Cowan for providing Zone Base Readers with this awesome news!
HASBRO
UNVEILS ALL-STAR LINEUP FOR HASBRO PULSECON, GIVING FANS A VIRTUAL
FRONT ROW SEAT TO PANELS, CELEBRITY GUESTS, MUSIC AND MORE
Special appearances by John Cena,
Joe Manganiello, Ashley Eckstein and Henry Golding,
music performances by Fall Out Boy, Lights and Jack Black and Kyle Gass
of Tenacious D, and 2-days of interactive experiences, new reveals and
exciting
guests behind Hasbro’s iconic fan brands; Only on the Hasbro Pulse
YouTube Channel
While
the 2-day virtual event hosted by SYFY Wire on-air correspondent,
writer, and producer, Jackie Jennings, begins on September
25, fans can expect a few fun surprises leading up to that date – including an advance sneak peek on the
Hasbro Pulse YouTube ChannelSeptember 22 at 12pm EST. In addition, Hasbro and eOne are
thrilled to be launching a PulseCon Spotify list which will be available
on Friday 25th and consists of a number of songs from eOne artists,
including The Lumineers, Powfu, Brandy, Alice Ivy
and Lights.
Included below is a peek inside the programming that will be available exclusively on the
Hasbro Pulse YouTube Channel.
Programming
takes place on Friday, 9/25 at 11am EST and Saturday, 9/26 at 10am EST,
with each day ending around 5pm EST for exciting musical experiences
with its lineup of artists.
After the assault from the past few days of Kidding Around, I felt like you all would appreciate something... better. Will Vinton's Claymation Comedy of Horrors is a claymation Halloween special that aired in the early 90's. I didn't see this on Halloween though. My first exposure to it came from a random re-airing of it in the middle of the summer. On a local CBS affiliate no less! Back in those days I'd regularly look through the TV Guide for something cool and usually tape it.
I was always nuts for Halloween, so I had started a Halloween special tape that summer. Most sitcoms would rerun holiday episodes regardless of the time of year. This doubled for shows that had went to syndication. TV Guide was pretty dependable for a brief synopsis of what episode was coming on, so I was able to curate a tape full of specials pretty easily.
From summer break to the actual season, I somehow made a full 8 hr VHS of Halloween specials that year. The tape is still in my Mom's possession, but I have no clue if it's even watchable. It was on regular rotation in my bedroom throughout the years. Last time I watched it the auto tracking couldn't keep up and it kept making weird squiggly noises. If you lived through the VHS days, you know the ones I'm talking about.
On it is this little show that I saw listed on a random summer evening on CBS. It's pretty fun. Basically a pig and his snail employee find a treasure map which leads to Frankenswine's (pigs, get it?) Castle on Halloween night. They encounter all sorts of monsters in a pretty great looking production. It's pretty obscure, I don't think it has much of a fan following like other Halloween specials. That's ok, not everything has to be a cult classic. I suppose anyway.
Playmates Godzilla toy line matches the definition of kaiju in that it is a strange beast. You've got a mix of Bandai soft vinyl released through the brand as well as hard vinyl original creations by Playmates. Add in the newer Kong vs Godzilla movie action figure line and you've got a weird mixture of toy types hanging on your Walmart shelves.
I've said before how the hard vinyl figures are visually similar to the soft ones. Aside from varying sculpt quality, you might not notice the difference when they're next to each other. I've chalked it up to a mixture of whatever deal they have with Bandai and Playmates own facilities for the differences in the lines. Admittedly I'm being a nerd about this, but when you collect these things, it tends to be a sticking point.
I've grown quite fond of the Playmates figures regardless and even find the random sculpt issues pretty funny. It's fun to point out something and just say Playmates. It's just their thing. Then they go and release a soft vinyl figure on their own and we're back to square one. However instead of focusing on that for too much longer, I'm just going to relish in the fact that they made a pretty decent one.
A little while ago, I talked about Playmates Shin Godzilla figure. This particular toy was subject to a lot of poo pooing in various kaiju groups. Fair enough, despite growing on me, he definitely isn't for everyone. I don't know what the plan was at Playmates, but they swapped him out in newer shipments with a new Final Wars Godzilla figure. A soft vinyl one to boot! I've seen various discussion on the source of the mold and some have speculated it's a laser scan recreation of a Bandai figure. Maybe. There's a little rounding of the edges.
The only really iffy point is those eyes. I don't mind them as it's different and reminds me of older dinosaur toys. Final Wars may not be everyone's favorite movie, but folks tend to like the movies designs and they find their way to toy form often. Especially with Godzilla, it's a pretty defining look for the gorilla whale.
It's a pretty good figure of Godzilla regardless of all that nerd stuff I just said. You've got the standard amount of articulation for a figure like this. Shoulders, legs, neck, with a little bit of tail. Don't be gross.
For me he hit's all the points and like I said, I kinda like the cludgy Playmates vinyl toys. I don't know why either. If you don't like the eyes, I'm sure you could probably fix it with a little paint. I've seen some pretty good fixes on other Playmates toys recently.
We now come to the final installment of the Kidding Around Halloween episode trilogy of terror. A year has passed and now it is 1984, a new co-host has joined since the ritual consumption committed by the Looney Ballooney Band last year. However the atrocities of the past have not been forgotten as the forever yin and yang of morality is presented by the hosts in their devil and angel costumes. We can all sleep well at night knowing that the FBI raided the shows production and shut everything down. We can hope anyway.
Horrors inflicted upon decency in this last episode include.
Horrific offerings to the dark lord via pumpkin art including an uncomfortable moment between a gourd and the young co-host.
Another Halloween dance routine performed by the souls of the damned.
An animal presentation including a crow flipping the fuck out and another fucking tarantula.
An uncomfortable cooking segment.
More viewer submitted 'art' and 'jokes'.
The host displaying the children he has held prisoner to produce this show.
I picked Smashdown up in June shortly after moving, but just got around to opening him up. Life found a way. I was happy to get him as the Siege version never shown up in my area, so when he was re-released in Earthrise. I uh, got him. I really like Battle Masters. A nice evolution of the Targetmaster idea, where not everyone has to be a gun.
Speaking of variety, I really like it when there's variety in robot modes. Keeps things fresh. Smashdown has a bulls head instead of a standard robot one. No real reason either and I'm not complaining. He looks like a Battle Beast and I freaking love Battle Beasts.
Smashdown turns into a hammer. Which seems pretty pointless in a gun fight, but so does a sword and we're all ok with those. The idea here is that he's an ideal weapon for one of The Wreckers. On the Japanese side of things, Smashdown is a type of Selector, another faction of Transformers.
Selectors are a race of Transformers created by humans using Angolmois Energy as a working class for construction needs. Smashdown is a type of Selector that turns into a hammer. Get it?
Whichever fiction you prefer, Smashdown is a great little toy. The handle from hammer mode can be used as a gun for bot mode. In hammer mode that handle can be held by most Transformers toys in case they see some watermelons nearby.
Like most (all?) Battle Masters, Smashdown comes with a little energy
special effect piece. This is to emphasize the force from a good whack
from that hammer. Considering his body is that hammer, I wonder if that
hurts? It's a neat little extra that I'd like to think is appreciated
more by those who like to display their toys in action poses or in
dioramas. Smashdown is a neat little Minotaur robot that turns into a
hammer. I don't think I can find enough words to explain how great that
is, it's pretty a pretty universal idea. Go buy one.
In case 1982 wasn't enough, Kidding Around struck back in 1983. This time the Halloween episode was an all out assault on decency. The hosts present the half hour of madness under the guise of new wave rockers. There's a lot to take in, somewhere between listening to Men at Work for a minute and the sent in "art" I have no clue what I just watched.
In this Halloween edition of the show from 1983, you'll bare witness to the following things.
A pumpkin being eating by a pig while the hosts shit themselves laughing.
Child labor laws broken at a pumpkin patch.
Cult members display offerings to the devil made from pumpkins.
The Looney Balloney Band performing a demonic ritual in which they conjure hell on earth.
Animals presented by a lethargic 12 year old.
Possessed by the demons summoned from their ritual, the Looney Balloney Band storms the stage and devours Jenny the co-host. If you listen closely, you can hear her scream.
There's a problem with Eternia Minis, and that problem is that you have to strike when the iron is hot. They don't languish on the shelves. When news of series two already hitting Walmart shelves, I mobilized. Thanks to the help of an patient wife, I managed to track down the entire batch last Saturday across two different Walmarts.
Something I wish I had done with the last series, I did this time. I took the display box home. Just look at it. It's majestic. Before any of you get the wrong idea, I just got one of each figure. I left the rest behind on the shelf.
One of the more cool things about this line is the castle themed capsules each figure comes blind in. Series one was Castle Greyskull. Series two, Snake Mountain. These little capsules are perfect little recreations of the original castles. I've been seeing folks get creative and give them paint jobs that look great. They also make a good stand for the figure.
As you could expect with the Snake Mountain theme, this is a villain heavy set of toys. There's two repeats from last time here. Regular He-Man and Skeletor, it's safe to say variations of the main two will appear in each batch. This time it's almost double as you get Faker and Golden Armor Skeletor is the set as well. Faker is a different character, but still basically He-Man and Golden Armor Skeletor is a straight repaint. If repaints bother you, there's only two molds that haven't been released already in this series. You also get First Appearance Trap Jaw and Snake Armor Man At Arms which are straight repaints from the last set. For me funky colored recolors are part of the fun in stuff like this.
Trap Jaw appeared in a slightly different color set in his mini comic debut and that's fully represented here. Snake Armor Man At Arms is a throwback to the snake armor variations of the Heroic Warriors from the 2002 MOTU line. The two new molds are Beastman and Stinkor. Stinkor is one of my favorite classic MOTU characters so having a little one of him here is awesome. No signature stinky smell unfortunately. Can you imagine opening that little capsule and getting a face full of skunk funk? I think about it all the time. You can probably tell by the picture mine got a little over spray on his face. I may take a sharpie and fix that eye later. The original Stinkor was a Merman repaint with Mekanecks armor. These are solid body molds with parts swapped, so I'm guessing both Merman and Mekaneck are on the way.
Beastman looks great. I've always liked his armor and everything just comes together perfectly here. I'm pretty surprised he wasn't in the first series as he's one of those main guys you expect in a first batch. I wonder how many repaints his mold will get as the upper body is pure Beastman. The original mold reused parts to make Stratos and flocked without armor to make Mossman. These solid body parts throw a wrench in that old method, so we'll have to see where the parts end up. I kinda hope they make Grizzlor and later use his head on this mold to make a movie Beastman figure.
As with series one, these are great figures. So far I love collecting them even though it can be a headache. I hope after the Walmart exclusivity ends they'll be easier to get. Something like this has Walgreens or Five Below all over it and I'd be all over that. There's a pretty easy code system of letters printed on the bottom of the capsule. You can either go by the list I've got for you here or just keep count of A-H.
I'd apologize for the pun in the title of today's post, but it's part one of a multi-part post. I've posted cursed videos, videos with heart attack warnings, and even that damn clown cereal commercial. None of that compares to this. Something wicked that way went.
I'm not from Chicago, so I never experienced "Kidding Around" when it was on. I however have sat through it's various Halloween episodes and cursed. Loudly.
In this Halloween edition of the show from 1982, you'll bare witness to the following things.
Uncomfortably costumed hosts.
Arts and crafts with visibly nervous children.
An allegedly Halloween dance routine set to "Eye of the Tiger".
A cooking segment hosted by a child whose apparently married and using the most melted stick of butter ever created
Viewer submitted "jokes".
A Halloween animal segment in which the bat may be taxidermy.
I was pretty happy to find the new Earthrise Micromasters at Target this weekend. I know I don't have to explain my love for Micromasters. I'd hope you've figured it out by now. As the norm since Siege, current Micromaster teams are released as a two pack.
Fuzer (Phaser in G1) and Blast Master are members of the Autobot Micromaster Astro Squad and combiners as well. Instead of a bigger robot though, the two combine to form a vehicle together. In this case, a Space Shuttle. Duh.
These two are pretty great. I loved the original Astro Squad and I'm really happy with this update. The updated articulation of modern Micromasters is really good here. Not to mention, the space shuttle colors and kibble makes for good looking robots. The additional reds and blues with those little hints of grey really pops.
While I really love Fuzer's molded in pistols, I like Blast Master a little more. The proportions from being the rear section of the shuttle makes for a great looking bot. It's a slim fraction in his favor against his team mate. Both are great.
If I have any complaints, it would be limited more to my big fingers and folding together everything to make the combined shuttle mode. Which isn't any fault of the toys. I promise it comes together better than it does in the picture. Somebody just didn't take a new picture once he had them better assembled. Whoops. Once again, it's a great set and a solid update of an older couple of figures. If you're a fan of Micromasters, then you're going to be happy with these two. I sure am.
The weird thing about a normal weekend after a holiday one is completely obvious. It's shorter than the one you just had, so it just kinda vanishes on you. However it was still a pretty good weekend. Saturday morning after I got home, the wife and I headed out to check out a few things. I had two missions in mind. Find Shawn a Slitherfang and find myself Eternia Minis series 2.
After a quick Wendy's breakfast in the Dollar Tree parking lot, the Mrs. and I went inside to discover all they had to offer us. We bought quite a bit of Halloween treat bag supplies. Let me clue you in to our Halloween plan. Two different buckets of treats for the kid to choose from. They can pick candy or toys. That way we can account for allergies or various issues with candy. Also, so the wife can spend her Sunday's putting together little treat bags. She loves that sort of thing. We're going to have the best house in town.
We then went to Target which had a halfway set up Halloween section. More treat bag goodies were bought as well as odd decorations. We'll wait a little closer to the date for candy. Because I will eat it. Upon approaching the Transformers area... no Slitherfang. A ton of Rung, but no Slitherfang. Dammit. Nothing else I needed either (or was allowed to get, Christmas). Oh well, off to Walmart!
Walmart had a lot more Halloween stuff stocked and we spent a lot of time looking through it all. Some more decorations were grabbed. They have a cool 18" blow mold that's the same sculpt as a mini one I got last year. I plan on grabbing him next weekend. My plan is to get a little at a time so I don't go home empty handed all spooky season. The blow mold is a recreation of a vintage one that I admired quite a bit as a child. I've been content to have the mini one, but there's no way I'll miss big one.
As far as Transformers go, Walmart had stuff I already have. Dammit. No Slitherfang. As for MOTU, they had a ton of Skeletor and 4 series 2 Eternia minis. All four were the same two guys, so I grabbed one of each. There was no new Star Wars I was allowed to buy (Christmas, yo) but they did have the new Playmates Final Wars Godzilla figure. I've been taking my time with the Godzilla vs Kong figures since the movie isn't' out for a few seasons and to be honest. Christmas. These are easy things to tell my Mom I don't have yet. Yes I'm 42, but for the rest of my family my interests are confusing. I try to make things easy for them. It's this or get random "do you have this" texts all December.
The Final Wars Godzilla I mentioned? It's part of the Godzilla/Kong line Playmates has been selling at Walmart which took the place of Bandai's line (it's a weird business deal or something). The Shin Godzilla they had in the assortment was swapped out with this new Final Wars figure that's surprisingly really good. It gives me vibes of older vinyl figures and yes, it's a normal vinyl. Not hard vinyl. Neat. We got other things while there, but you don't care about my socks. I hope you don't. Please don't.
We then headed to the neighboring town (it's maybe a 20 minute drive) and the Walmart and Target located there. That Walmart was completely Halloween stocked. It was great! We bought more shit. They also had a full shelf of He-Man and only He-Man. The MOTU Origins figures come one character per case. Stores tend to stock one case at a time. They also had an entire shelf display of series 2 Eternia Minis. I picked out the ones I needed and put what was left of the boxes content's on the shelf. I took that beautiful Snake Mountain display box home with me! I really should have done that with Castle Greyskull. The Transformers, GI JOE, and Star Wars? You guessed it, Christmas.
Target was kinda a wet fart for Halloween stuff. This one always takes forever with any seasonal stuff other than Christmas. They did have this years Halloween cat scratch houses though. We get one for Halloween and Christmas every year. It won't last the entire season, the cats will destroy it. Target also had none Slitherfang. None. But they did have new Micromasters that I was allowed to buy.
I checked with Shawn to see if he was in need of those micro dudes and no, he was not. My quest for a smol robot snake continues. I will be victorious. Even if he already has one by the time I find another, he's getting it. We got some Subway and went home. They have a BOGO on subs BTW, was eating that shit until this morning. We ate our subs and watched some TV before I needed to take a nap, which turned into waking up around 8am Sunday morning. Dang. To be fair, I decided to take that nap at 8PM Saturday night. I has been up since 2:30PM Friday afternoon.
Sunday was filled with some household work, a visit from Mom which resulted in a massive Olive Garden take out order, and watching a lot of spooky shit. Between ghost videos and me taking a look at some more Halloween content (I make a point to watch it first, you can never be cautious enough yo). Today was full of errands and posting toy pics on Instagram. The same pics that will be used for future posts here. Happy fall y'all!
Megaplex was built by Jhiaxus as a clone of Megatron, copying the
Decepticon tyrant’s aggression, cunning and battlefield skills into a
brand new body ready for the modern age. Charged with leading an assault
against the planet Cybertron and securing the heart of Jhiaxus' new,
unified Cybertronian Empire, Megaplex uses the traits he has inherited
from Megatron with chilling efficiency as he smashes through
planetary defenses and culls the planet below.
Megaplex must be cautious, however, since under his armor plating he can
feel Megatron billowing to the surface, screaming to be let free. The
chaos and destruction wrought by the invasion of Cybertron has fed
the psyche once buried by Jhiaxus' tutelage, and it may only be a
matter of time until Megaplex can do nothing else but let Megatron
loose against his enemies. Whoever they might be.
As a bling bag toy addict, I don't have to explain why I like Kinder Surprise eggs so much. The combination of random toy surprise and pretty tasty candy is usually just the thing for not a lot of money. Not just content for regular changing assortments, Kinder also jumps on holidays. When they do, they absolutely kill it. Which brings us here.
I honestly didn't think they could beat last years awesome Halloween monsters figures (which I should have wrote about... dang). They were these great little figurines with plenty of character. I was wrong, they completely out did it this year.
This years Kinder Surprise Halloween theme is amazing. Y'all ready for this? Trick or Treating mini-figures with removable glow in the dark costumes. I know, it's wonderful. I cried.
You can get the eggs individually or in a cool box set of four. The box set is themed as a little street full of houses our little gang can trick or treat at. Wanna know about something called the extra mile? You can tear each house off individually and it's got a little from/to spot on the top for gift giving. You get enough of these little houses and maybe a decorative tree or two. You've just built a neighborhood for your toys to spend Halloween night at.
The costumes are a gallery of Halloween's greatest hits. A skeleton, werewolf, ghost, etc. The gangs all here. The costume can snap off and be exchanged with other figures too.
Each figure is in a different color and face in addition to the costumes. It's a cool little extra touch that gives the set some variety and character. They're smiling, winking, got their tongues hanging out. They really look like kids excited for a spooky night of ringing bells and getting candy. The multiple colors remind me of "Witches Night Out" also and that ain't bad. That ain't bad.
So far I've got two pumpkins, a devil, Dracula, and Frankenstein. I've got another boxed set waiting for me at home thanks to the wife. I'm trying to complete the set, I want to complete the set. You just try to stop me from completing the set. Show no mercy.
The costumes even glow in the dark. I didn't get a good picture of that, but believe me they do. Which means the kids will be safe out there while trick or treating. That's a nice extra touch in what's already a stand out toy. It's still pretty early in the Halloween season to call something the stand out of the season. If this is just the tip of this years Halloween iceberg, then we're in for a record year.
Takara's Diaclone reboot series has been going strong for awhile now and it's pretty dang impressive. Really sharp looking bots and that classic Diaclone story line updated for the modern world. It's really cool. They recently announced something really special though. DA-65 Battle Convoy V-Max is a re-imagining of the classic Diaclone Battle Convoy toy, which we all know as Optimus Prime. It's big and it's badass. I want one.
It's weird after all these years of various Optimus Prime toys, a redo of his toy's original use is so appealing. It's hard to believe so much fresh air can be breathed into such an old concept. It's still Battle Convoy without a doubt, but looks so new. Well, admittedly it does resemble Sentinel Maximus quite a bit. Actually, a whole lot. I still want one.
Real talk, I love Pepsi. You might have noticed. You might have noticed I love the Universal Monsters, or even the reason we're here right now. Halloween. I love all three. For a while in the 90's Pepsi and Universal Studios had a partnership with some sort of promotion usually around Halloween. It was great. Normally you could win tickets to Halloween Horror Nights or free snacks. Pepsi products even had great clip out art of the monsters. Times were good.
The point I'm about to make isn't about the good times, it's about Dracula needing his ass kicked. I hope you've already watched the above clip. There's Frankenstein (let's not be that guy) carrying a Pepsi truck. Really struggling too. Sure he's strong, but you know that thing is heavy. As a big guy, I often get stuck carrying the heavy thing while the others just walk the fuck off. I feel your pain Frankenstein.
Then he gets to the party where everybody else is having a good time. He brings some soda and chips and what does Dracula say? "What? No dip?" Look at his face, I felt that. I FELT THAT. FUCK YOU DRACULA AND YOUR STUPID CAPE. Take your fake fancy ass down to Kroger and get some your own damn self. Fucking asshole.
What did the Wolfman bring? Weed? Great, like a small portion of the party is going to enjoy that while the rest just try to pretend they aren't uncomfortable. Meanwhile, the Phantom is really upset about it. What if the cops come? What if I get a random drug test at work tomorrow and that second hand shit makes me fail it? I have bills man! You know the Mummy brought a snack tray and everybody saw the Aldi label. He's like royalty or something. I'm not saying he should have went to Whole Foods or anything, but come on. Seriously.
Know what Dracula brought? Jack shit. He just showed up acting like Mr. Cool and everyone just loved him. He's that guy who shows up late and just takes charge after everyone has been working the whole time. Did you decide to bring everybody donuts? He's the one who's going to complain that it's not another brand. Know what, I hope Frankenstein got some dip with a lot of garlic. Fuck that guy.
Decepticon Banzaitron is a master of at least seven different martial
arts for one reason, and one reason alone -- his fighting skills easily
allow him to defeat and dismantle his opponents. Then he gathers up the
pieces and sells them to the highest bidder. No one's parts are worth
more than the Autobot leader's. He looks forward to commanding the
highest prices imaginable for even the smallest piece of Optimus Prime.
The Spooky Season is upon us and Zone Base has its pumpkins on the porch! This month Rob talks Transformers Generations and random thoughts on figure sizes before talking about the days leading up to Halloween!
Who doesn't love ice cream? Despite the normally cooler temperatures of fall, a ice cream cake from Carvel shaped like a pumpkin is just the thing for a spooky dessert. The wife and I often get one ourselves, they're great. We're definitely getting one this year, especially after last year's Baskin Robbins Halloween Ice Cream cake fiasco.
What happened? Pure incompetence when trying to order one lead to a corporate complaint and a complimentary one. I'd like to say all was well, but even the act of picking it up was a nightmare. So, we're gladly getting another Carvel this year. Unfortunately we don't have access to a Carvel store here in Georgia, but they're readily available at most grocery stores.
You think the mummy is overdue for some ice cream goodness? He's been in that tomb for what, 50 billion thousand years? You know his dry ass could go for that pleasant vanilla taste and he'd probably savor the coldness after being buried in the hot desert for so long. I'll tell you what, though. No matter how cool I think the mummy is, that fool tries to steal a piece of my Carvel and I'd have to whoop that old ass. He's like a King or something, he can buy his own.
This was an unexpected surprise. Readers know how this is specifically something I'd go nuts for, so you can be sure that I'll be hunting for these. It doesn't hurt that I specifically prefer Hershey's chocolate to supposedly superior fancy brands.
