Venin/Venom [Age of the Primes/Deluxe Class]

I’m double-dipping into things I love with today’s toy. Both an Insecticon and an Armored Insect Corps Beetras update, Transformers Age of the Primes Venin is a treat for me. Of course, the name Venin is an alternate name for his real name, Venom. Despite the Insecticon Venom pre-dating the extremely more popular Marvel character… he’s only had three toys total. And there was a 29 year gap between the first toy and the second.

During those 29 years the trademark lapsed and Eddie Brock got the symbiote suit… and a ton of toys. Actually, that second toy and now this new toy are both named Venin, so it’s not too hard to adjust. However, venin isn’t just a made-up word — it’s the toxic component of snake venom and literally means “venom” in French. So it works, even if it doesn’t exactly make for the best character name. Much like the rest of the original batch of G1 Transformers, Venom was made from a pre-existing toy mold. The Deluxe Insecticons came from the Armored Insect Corps Beetras toy line. These weren’t from Takara, so they didn’t show up in the original cartoon. Venom was made from the Beet-Zeguna mold, though with very different colors. Interestingly, the Deluxe Insecticons do appear in their Beetras colors on the 1985 Transformers box art. Always found that neat.

Unlike his second toy which I love, this new Venin is a direct update of his G1 figure. The modern engineering gives us one well-articulated bug robot. His bright colors look as great as always. The Insecticons usually stick to darker palettes, so Venom having this bright green and orange with light gray robot parts really makes him stand out. Not just visually, but as a personality among them. It just looks great. His colors and helmet have always reminded me of Samus Aran — same era, so there was probably some shared visual inspiration floating around. Ironically, it occurred to me that one of the core reasons I like Insecticons and insect-themed robots is likely tied to my appreciation of bio-horror. Metroid itself is heavy bio-horror. And yeah, I am really looking forward to Metroid Prime 4.

Venin has recreations of his original toy’s electric-blaster gun and battle axe. I honestly forgot about the axe entirely since my G1 toy was bought loose and missing it. I really like it — it’s not your standard He-Man style axe. Both weapons store on the sides in beast mode. Speaking of, Venin transforms into a cicada. Being from the American South, I’m used to hearing these guys all summer. It’s generally pleasant… unless one gets on your window. Then it’s maddening. I once had one trapped under some porch furniture that screamed non-stop. When I tried to scoop it up, IT GOT LOUDER. I never thought flinging a bug across my yard would be so satisfying. Little bastard.

Transformation to bug mode is pretty easy. His arms fold into the upper torso while the legs fold into themselves. Then it’s just arranging bug bits into a pleasantly blocky robot cicada with the most adorable face. In beast mode, his wings and legs have decent articulation, and the weapons can store on the sides for added firepower. If there’s anything to complain about, his wings can get in the way in robot mode, and folding his arms into place during transformation feels like the toy is about to break. Some sturdier plastic would have helped. But it’s not enough to ruin the toy. I’m admittedly biased when it comes to insect robots and am loving this one unabashedly. It is a good toy outside of my affections, and it’s just great to see a new Venom figure. I wouldn’t mind finding this cicada on my porch. Well… assuming he isn’t loud.

Destoroyah [Godzilla Monster Series 5"]

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is turning 30 this year, and in case last week’s Burning Godzilla Egg Monster post wasn’t a clear indicator, we’re spending some time observing it. This is also totally by coincidence, because I got some toys related to that movie a few weeks ago and am just now getting around to talking about them.

Regardless, it’s an AWESOME movie that came out my senior year of high school and felt so much more dangerous and edgy at the time than it actually is. I was 17 and it was the 90s, bear with me.

This Destoroyah is from Bandai’s 5-inch Godzilla Monster Series vinyl figures, which I’ve become a fan of over the past year. Just the right size and just the right price. And yes, I know the regular-sized Bandai vinyls were $9 a few years ago. It sucks. We’re all pissed about it. Moving on.

This is a great little figure of Destoroyah. Like, the sculpting is really great. I’ve always liked his design, and it’s really appreciated here. Destoroyah is a kaiju that began life as a colony of Precambrian crustaceans exposed to the undersea conditions created when the Oxygen Destroyer detonated in 1954. They mutated and evolved into the monster we have today.

So yes — a bunch of sea bugs got super-powered into a giant death demon because of the nuclear anti-oxygen murder bomb from the first movie. Shit happens. It’s crazy.

For what’s essentially a cheaper toy, Destoroyah looks freaking amazing. His sculpting is excellent and brings out all that nuclear-powered evil. Unfortunately there’s not much articulation to speak of — you can twist the tail and adjust the wings a bit. However, you don’t buy these figures to do the fucking Iron Man pose in your detolf. You buy them because you love these monsters and just want them around. Put him next to your movie collection or by the PlayStation... or in that detolf. He'll look great.

Speaking of, that red really pops. The color looks amazing, and those giant wings? Perfect. I love this design. It’s just pure horror in rubber suit form. I’ve always felt like Gigatron from Car Robots / Megatron from Robots in Disguise (2001) borrowed from his look. If only there was a red version. Honestly, I can’t say anything bad about this. I freaking love it.

Skydive [Age of the Primes/Deluxe Class]

In our ongoing quest to complete the Transformers Age of the Primes Aerialbot team of five buttheads, today we’re looking at Skydive! Skydive is the bookworm of the squad — well-versed in aerial tactics, strategy, and history. He's also the most visually distinct member of the team thanks to his mostly black color scheme, compared to the primarily white look the rest of the Aerialbots have going on.

This figure is a remold of the Air Raid toy we looked at a little while back. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have noticed if it hadn’t been pointed out, but side-by-side the shared engineering is clear. Still, the sculpting and new parts are handled so well that it doesn’t feel like the same toy with a new coat of paint. And really, it makes sense to stretch the tooling budget when the original characters themselves shared similar silhouettes in the first place. Skydive and Air Raid have usually been “same shape, different guy,” so this is just accurate to life.

As I’ve been saying with these current Transformers Generations figures — Skydive looks like he stepped right out of the cartoon. Which would be terrifying if he did that while I’m napping during G1 reruns on the Transformers channel. Damn.

Skydive is nicely articulated and comes with two blasters. They work well in robot mode and can also peg under his wings in jet mode. Transformation is quick and easy: legs compress, arms fold in, the backpack settles into place — your standard modern jet-transforming-guy routine. In jet mode, Skydive’s unique colors stand out even more. The darker gray body and lightning pattern on the wings look great, and now that I’m thinking about it, that kind of flashy detail seems to originate back to his G1 toy. I don't remember similar patterns before him, but plenty after. Neat!

Like his teammates, Skydive forms part of Superion — and we’ll take a full look at that combined mode once Fireflight finally joins the squad. These Age of the Primes combiners are a big improvement over the Combiner Wars versions from ten years ago (which I actually liked a lot at the time), so I’m excited to see Superion come together here on Zone Base.

Monday Fighter

Hey there Zone Base readers, thank you for coming back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! It's been a little longer since my last weekly update thanks to a slightly busy Monday last week, but we're back to the non-spooky routine after one hell of a successful Halloween season. I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was pretty low key. Saturday was a somewhat rainy day with a trip to Walmart and a great hamburger for supper. The Mrs and I finally watched Jurrasic World Reborn... and unfortunately it wasn't great. Still, I enjoyed the dinosaur action and world building. I actually thought the movie had a good story, it just wasn't told very well. 

Sunday, we had plans to do some housework that fell through as time got away from us. That and I fixed a drawer with a broken runner leading to an achey body for the rest of the day. The fix itself wasn't terribly hard, just twisting myself into where I needed to be was. Next weekend, we'll make up for lost time. I plan to do some toy organizing. Not hard or exciting, but time consuming and fun. And now that it's November, I'm on the annual 'don't buy yourself anything until after Christmas' rule. Don't worry though readers, there's plenty of content coming for your eyeballs in the coming weeks. After all, I get and have more toys than covered here. I'll always find something to talk about.

I did pick up a Funko Pop Rhinox this weekend as the Mrs suggested I should. Just need Black Arachnia to complete the Beast Wars set of Pops. I've really come to enjoy their mini Pop line this year, those are pretty neat. Unfortunately Funko doesn't seem to be doing so well business wise, which is a shame. I hope any employees that might loose their jobs bounce back quickly. Since I didn't post last week, I got some neat toys last weekend. Ordered Cyberworld Cyber Changers Starscream and Armored Cyber Changers Optimus Prime. At this point I've got the entire Cyberworld toy line and if things go according to plan will cover the rest of the line in the next coming weeks.

I'm sure more Cyberworld toys are on the way, hopefully 2026 will provide more of that neat little series. I also ordered the Blokees Transformers Defender version Devastator kit and one blind box from Galaxy Version series 08. I was trying to keep my last toy purchases for awhile simple and completing the Defender version Devastator is a goal I must finish! Actually, Defender version series 04, 05, and Galaxy Version 08 are sets I'm highly anticipating. I let Santa know how much I want them, let's just see if I was good enough all year to find them under the tree.

I also find myself wanting an Atari Gamestation Go as it looks awesome! I've got the Atari Gamestation that was released a few years ago and initially wrote off the Go when it was revealed. However it's proven to be an improvement of the original Gamestation all together and I'll be needing to get my hands on that! They've improved things like updating firmware and adding game roms making for a better experience. Not to mention it has a number pad incorporated in its design as well as in the extra controllers. Extra controllers? Yes, it's portable, but can be connected to a TV and used as a traditional console! Modern day Atari is a really neat company with some cool products. Admittedly a little under the radar... but that's where this site lives. 

Speaking of this site, I hope the various improvements make your experience as a reader more enjoyable. I'm always trying to improve myself and that extends to this podunk site. Thank you all for reading and continuing to support Zone Base. I guess it just goes to show how many of you just want to enjoy your hobbies without all the click bait trash nonsense. Bird fingers all around, but Mutual High Fives everyone! Be sure to share the site with your friends. There's another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure coming up!