robots/monsters/misadventure

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Chinese Dragon MB-14 [MEGABOX]

[CHINESE DRAGON Legend] For thousands of years it has symbolised prosperity, strength, luck and imperial authority. Unfolding into a 29cm long mythical creature, the exquisite MEGABOX MB-14 Chinese Dragon has descended!

2024 isn't just the 40th anniversary of the Transformers or 50th anniversary of Microman and Hello Kitty. It's also the Year of the Wood Dragon! To celebrate, we're taking a look at Megabox Chinese Dragon MB-14. Megabox is a companion line to Beastbox that has featured licensed characters or in this case, characters from East Asian mythology. Chinese Dragon is exactly as his name implies, a traditional Chinese Dragon. I'm saying 'he', but no gender has been implied to my knowledge. Chinese Dragon is a really ornate looking toy. The green and gold colored plastic really compliment each other as does the translucent orange bits. This is a really pretty figure. Chinese Dragon is also very long, with plentiful articulation allowing for cool flying poses. I get the mental picture of Mythical Qi Beast RyuseiOh/Red Dragon Thunderzord flying into action. His legs also are articulated and the mouth can open.

Transformation into box mode is a little involved to say the least. It's pretty hard to imagine Chinese Dragon's serpentine shape forming a square... but it really can. This involves a lot of folding and splitting the tail right down the middle. I'm used to the BeastBox's folding into boxes with obvious corner points forming pretty quickly during the transformation process. With Chinese Dragon, you actually form him at an angle. It took me a second to realize I had made the box after I had formed the corners together. Once finished he fits into his Box Charger for storage. Speaking of, the Box Charger is a nice green color that really pops. This really is a very good looking toy. I've been enjoying BeastBox quite a bit and a part of that is based on the creativity each toy has. It's hard to imagine a shape like Chinese Dragon's turning into a box... let alone something angular. Once you've done it, it takes a moment to let it sink in. That's really cool.

Monday, November 4, 2024

New Week, New Future

Monday has happened again. Of course that means a new week of robots, monsters, and misadventure is starting here on Zone Base! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was busy with lots of house work to be done. Halloween is sadly over, meaning lots of decorations had to be put away. Not to mention a good household cleaning. Some shopping did happen and I brought home some fun stuff. Target had the new Bandai Godzilla Monster Series 5" figures just in time for Godzilla Day this weekend. I picked up the Godzilla 1954 figure and the Skeleton Godzilla 1954 ReAction figure. I felt that was a solid way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the original movies release. Unfortunately Target didn't have any Transformers I needed, but did have a Turtles of Grayskull April O'Neil. I got her, leaving me just needing Man-at-Arms to have the line complete until the newest wave releases. 

A later trip to Walmart also resulted in no new Transformers. I still need to find the remaining Star Raiders and the new Legacy/Studio Series figures as well. In due time I suppose. I did pick up a Culturefly Meltz Transformer toy and got Shockwave! These are neat little blind bags that are the characters represented as ice cream bars. Neat! I was hoping to find Blokees now that Walmart is carrying them, but no such luck. I guess it just wasn't in the cards this weekend. Of course I also played some Astro Bot (still avoiding completing it) and got some Transformers Minecraft levels completed. It's fun, but it's becoming clear that I need to remap some controls. Speaking of games, the new Nintendo Music app is on mobile and a lot of fun! You need a Switch Online account to use it (which I have), so thankfully there's no ads. It's great digging into various game soundtracks without the same commercials every few songs like on Spotify. Well, time to get my day started. I've got a few chores to do and pictures for upcoming posts to take. Halloween may be over, but Zone Base is still here. Thank you all for reading, please don't forget to share with your friends!

Thursday, October 31, 2024

Frankentron [Universal Monsters x Transformers]

Like Draculus before, I was super excited when Frankentron was announced and pre-ordered one right away. The Universal Monsters have been a life long fandom of mine and having them Crossover with Transformers is just pure bliss. If you would have told the small child version of myself always toting his Remco Frankenstein Monster around that one day there would be a Transformers version of it... well, you'd have one happy little boy. Frankentron is a pretty heavy remold of the Siege Impactor toy with several new parts. I really liked Impactor and think it was a good choice for a base mold. His blocky yet well articulated design really lends itself to the classic Frankenstein Monster look. Let's talk about the new parts. Frankentron has open palm hands perfect for classic lumbering poses. Then there's his new chest that looks like a bare chested monster.

Of course there's the new head with that signature flat top. It's really a great robotic take on the classic Jack Pierce design. Last, but certainly not least is the new Tesla Coil weapon with electricity effect. This serves as the monsters tank cannon, or a weapon in robot mode. It has a cool burst of purple energy that can be attached for an attack effect. I like to pose it upwards in robot mode with the intention of generation energy for the creature to use in a rampage. Transformation is pretty easy. Aside from folding a few parts here and there, Frankentron basically folds over in a 'touch your toes' position. Those few parts I mentioned fold into place and with that Tesla Coil weapon inserted you've got one wild Cybertronian Tank that shoots electricity. It's as though Dr. Frankenstin developed a Maser Tank. After Draculus I wasn't expecting another Universal Monster to get the Transformers treatment and they made a really great figure. I hope the rest of the monsters find their way to Cybertron. Happy Halloween!