Gamer Edition Ironhide [Studio Series/Voyager Class]

Along with the Age of the Primes deluxes I had been talking about, I had grabbed some Studio Series that I had meant to post about a little while back and just completely forgot about. Admittedly, I don't cover every toy I buy, but like to get a good range in. Gamer Edition Ironhide joins the other War for Cybertron figures in Studio Series. As you'd expect he's a repaint and retool of Ratchet, whose toy I liked a lot.

It's probably no surprise then that I'm fond of Ironhide as well, but we should get into the differences first. I do admit, this version makes me think of the Doomslayer (the newer incarnation of the Doom Guy) and that flavors my opinion some. You all know I love to play Doom. It's funny, the similarities to games like Gears of War was an early criticism of the War for Cybertron games within the Transformers fan base. I guess opinions may vary.

In robot mode, the obvious difference is in the colors and new head sculpt. There's also some other new parts that may not be as instantly recognizable. He's got new shoulders, chest, and a new EMP shotgun weapon. I didn't notices the shoulders at first, but they are indeed different. That feels like a little extra effort that could have probably been skipped, but... Whose going to complain about extra effort? Like Rathcet, Ironhide's right forearm can be removed to attach his gun to match the game appearances. He can also just hold it, which I'm more of a fan of. If you so choose to use the gimmick, the arm can store in his robot backpack as can the gun. The axe is the same as before and can be held by both hands. Ironhide looks pretty sharp in robot mode and is very well articulated wielding his weapons in any badass pose you'd want to put him in.

Transformation is my only complaint with this toy. While I don't remember any trouble with Ratchet, Ironhide gave me a little. Those new shoulders combined with some new vehicle mode back panels proved to be a little too fiddly for my liking. There is some panel forming which may not be everyone's cup of tea, but when done well, I generally don't take any issue. The new parts didn't seem to work as smooth as the existing parts did with Ratchet. Considering these parts are usually included at design time, I'm thinking it's possibly a symptom of mold usage. He transforms the same as Ratchet, it just didn't seem to fit into place as well. That was frustrating.

Once transformed, vehicle mode looks great! While I normally like Ratchet more than Ironhide, this Cybertronian Tactical vehicle seems like a better fit for Ironhide and it looks great in his colors. Like I mentioned above, there's new vehicle mode back panels that I honestly didn't notice initially like the shoulders. Once again, I'm not complaining about the extra effort that went into the toy even though they gave me a little trouble in the transform. Thanks to the new robot mode chest, the vehicles bumper is also slightly different. It's just a neat looking alt mode that looks even better in these colors. The EMP Shotgun can store on the backside, while the axe forms a cannon of sorts on the roof. If you didn't get those back panels just right, the axe won't connect right. Be sure everything clicks into place. Ironnhide looks great in both modes, and despite some annoyance during transformation, I really like this toy. It just looks awesome, you know?

Sentinel Prime [Galaxy Version 05-One]

We've reached the end of the Transformers One themed Blokees case with the most elaborate kit, Sentinel Prime! He's the perfect bot to end our look on this series with. If you're bummed that we've reached the end, don't worry, there's a Galaxy Version 05 volume 2 out with even more bots from the movie. I hope to get it soon, but for now let's look at this extremely amazing AMK kit.

Sentinel feels like a much more deluxe figure than the rest of the bots from this case. He's got extra parts and nicer paint. Let's talk about that paint for a second. The armor bits are nice metallic colors that really pop against the naturally flat colors of the robot parts. He's a regal one and wants you to know it.

The kit uses the new sturdier body as a base and it comes with the two sets of hands and base as you'd expect. Once the main body is assembled, there's some extra parts to put on. His wings most noticeably. Then there's the matching chest and knee ornamentation. I appreciate the double bladed sword as the standard release came with another weapon. I don't have the Studio Series toy yet, so having his movie weapon represented is nice. It's actually two swords that can be held separately if you choose. The wings pop into place with some little pegs and are decently articulated. He's very expressive, so I imagine many scenes from the movie could be replicated.

I'm very impressed with this one, everything just feels so extra. Transformers Blokees heads all assemble pretty much the same. There's the little eye color piece that the neck joint attaches to inside the head. The face piece connects through the eyes and the helmet is in two halves that fit over this. Sentinel does all this the same, but with his helmet being closed off at the bottom and not open... it just feels nicer. There's little peg holes in his forearms that you can attach those arm lasers from Death Tracker of you chose. That doesn't even need to be there and it is. It feels like the designers really chose this kit to show off a little and it certainly impressed me. Good job Blokees.

Orion Pax [Galaxy Version 05-One]

Talking about Transformers One toys over the past year has meant talking about Orion Pax a lot... and there's still several more toys I haven't even touched! That's to be expected when you've got the main character of a franchise. Of course Orion is the earlier form of Optimus Prime who gets talked about often too. Main characters, it's going to happen. Orion Pax was really likable in the movie and has had a good bit of good merchandise, but it's been mostly hybrids of him and Optimus Prime.

Model kits, like today's Blokees, have been the main source for direct representations of Orion. I really appreciate that. In this kit, Orion appears as he before receiving a Transformation Cog. The classic Optimus colors look good on just about anything. To be honest, Orion Pax from Transformers One kinda reminds me of Biotron/Robotman. That's probably just a coincidence, but also it's something I can't unsee.

Once again the Blokees style works excellently with the TF One designs and we've got a great little figure once the build is complete. The build is simple and satisfying. The newer style (no, I will not stop praising it) and Orion's design really form one solid toy. This is one of those times someone would think this was a normal action figure, not a model kit. With all the articulation and the standard set of hands, the kit is expressive enough to match several onscreen scenes. He's got the laser pistol and display stand. That's to be expected. This is a solid kit and a nice representation of Orion Pax as you see him in most of the movie. Series-05 really is great.

Monday Rises

Holy Start of the week Zone Base readers! It's Monday again and time for more robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope you all had a great weekend, I sure did! I actually had a long weekend as Friday was the 4th of July and led to a 3 day weekend and a much needed break. I've enjoyed the 4th of July since childhood as it's always meant a cook out and shooting fireworks. Summer may be miserably hot here in the American South, but there's still fun to be had. We had a family cook out at my Mother's house. It was good to spend some time with my brother and shoot fireworks with him after some great food. On the way back home that evening, my entire neighborhood was in the streets shooting fireworks as well. It's fun anarchy that I love taking place in.

Saturday the Mrs and I did some weekly shopping which included a trip to the jewelry store to get her jewelry inspected as needed every 6 months for their lifetime warranty. While there, the Mrs did some shopping and I suprised her with a new piece from the jewelry store. It was our wedding anniversary week and I wanted to get her something special. I didn't find any new toys while out Saturday, but an early trip to Target Friday morning did result in some great deals! I got Studio Series B-127 finally, but on clearance for $12! Ironically that's what he would have cost in 2012! I also finally picked up the Grizzlor and Hordak 2 pack on clearance for $14! This is a cool MOTU Origins set based on concept art that looks quite different than the characters we're used to. I thankfully also found Megatronus from Age of the Primes. Unfortunately he was full priced... which is a little higher at Target now. 

Target also had a newer blind box Godzilla series featuring well sculpted mini figures of Godzilla and company in capsules that resembles buildings. It's a Bandai product, so you know it's quality! The chase figure is a glow in the dark Godzilla, so that gives me an excuse to buy more! I had gotten a Showa MechaGodzilla in mine and he needs someone to battle! While Walmart didn't have much of anything (other than leftover TF One stock), I'm anticipating Cyberworld to show up soon. It starting to appear in stores and the show debuts July 12th. I'm very excited for this series and can't wait to cover them here. It's a combination of Transformers legend/ legion class (in a bigger size) with the play patterns found in Microman and Action Masters. Super fun! 

The rest of the weekend was spent at home enjoying some rest and relaxation. The Mrs and I opened some Blokees that came in during the week, played Mario Kart World, and enjoyed a spaghetti dinner Sunday night. Mom came as usual and our rewatch of Stranger Things is going well. We're 3/4ths into season 2 and Mom is hooked! She literally can't wait to see it each week, while I'm happily enjoying one of my favorite shows. It'll be good to see the new season... and a little sad as it's the finale. Oh well, reportedly an animated series in the vein of The Real Ghostbusters is in production. I hope it's good.

That leads us to spooky season talk. Halloween is around the corner and Code Orange is not only in effect, but has developed into a new form this year. In  addition to Code Orange, many of us have used the term Summerween to describe the early Halloween shopping that takes place in summer. Well, apparently companies have taken that to heart and have made Summerween an offical mini celebration! All sorts of summer themed spooky fun is available with jack o' lanterns carved from fruit, ghosts wearing sunglasses, festive summer colored skulls, and more! It's super fun and another chapter to the spooky season that's became part of summer in addition to fall. Here at Zone Base, I take credit for that partially as our official Halloween Party starts in August, which is the hottest month of summer. While this corresponds with Obon, Hungry Ghost festival, and the spooky summer activities throughout the word- I also can't wait for my favorite time of the year!

Thankfully with Code Orange and now Summerween, it's the perfect time for Zone Base's annual Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem to run wild. We've got one hell of a Halloween in store this year. I've got a bunch of cool Halloween posts to place in between regular content (which also will be extra spooky) for the entire 3 months of Zone Base Halloween. I hope you all enjoy it as I love doing it! Well, that's still a little off, but we've got an awesome July in store! Thank you all for reading Zone Base. I've got a fun week in mind for you all. Please don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Constructicon Scrapper [Studio Series/Voyager Class]

The Constructicons are one of those eternally cool teams in Transformers. I don't know if it's because they were the first combiner team or what... but I love them too. Being the leader of the group, it's only appropriate that Scrapper be the first one of the new Studio Series 86 set to be released. He was among the group of toys I bought a while back that had been completely forgotten about and it's good to get around to them. I'm hoping to not have any trouble completing the set as there's just something special about Devastator.

Scrapper is a Voyager Class like the rest of the team (I think), though he's about the size of a Deluxe. The Voyager designation was due to the extra jointing in Combiner limb mode. So basically, Devastator will be extra poseable compared to other Combiners who tend to just stand there and maybe have a raised arm. Admittedly being charged more for extra joints feels a little fishy, especially thinking of old Beast Wars or Robots in Disguise 2001 toys that were much more articulated at a much lower cost. Times are different I guess... and a little poopy.

I often see some folks complaining that Generations toys (Studio Series is part of Generations too) are basically the G1 toys with more joints. That's a good thing in my eyes, so I don't see the problem. Not to mention, the same people with that complaint love Missing Link. Maybe they're just stupid. While Studio Series 86 is supposed to be more show accurate, that's not an issue with the Constructicons whose individual members were pretty toy accurate on the show. This toy is a happy middle ground of that as Scrapper manages to look both like his TV appearance and original toy. That's awesome, there's just something about those old blocky designs I love. With Scrapper you've got this well articulated chonky boi who looks like he did in the original Transformers movie. What's not to love? Scrapper comes with his laser pistol as well as Devastator's Solar Energy Beam Rifle. Devastator's gun can be broken up into two smaller guns that can be held by Scrapper. His pistol even fits into one. When you're using guns that big, might as well be flippant with a little flair.

Transformation to bulldozer mode is easy. Everything just goes into place without any fuss. This is one of those toys you can transform just by looking at it. Awesome. The two halves of the Solar Energy Rifle can attach to his sides in vehicle mode. The wings from Devastator's breastplate can fit on Scrappers sides as well if you want to recreate the look of the original toy. I always liked the way it looked when the combiner parts were connected to the alt modes back then. Scrapper is the only member of this set I have as of this writing, so I can't judge his combiner mode form at this time fairly. As a stand alone toy however, I really like him. Both modes are solid. He looks both like he did on TV and in original toy form. There's plenty of articulation and so much satisfying chonky robot fun. Scrapper, you're alright.

Hound [Galaxy Version 05-One]

I've made my fondness for Hound known here before (I've got a lot of soft spots for a lot of characters), so you can imagine my pleasure in seeing his inclusion in this Blokees wave. Transformers One had a large cast of background characters that featured many bots from the 40 years of the franchise. Being an original cast member, of course Hound was there. A minor role as one of the miners (there's no avoiding that pun), he was mainly in the background. But here was there!

Representing his Cog-less form, he looks great as a Blokees. True, we're talking about a basic looking robot... but that signature Blokees style works well with it. Not to mention, Army green just looks great. I wish they'd use it more often. There's a lot of small details in Hound that I really appreciate. I initially assumed he'd be a recolor of Ironhide, but no, there's various sculpted details and details added in with tampos. For a simple bot, he looks sharp.

Of course he's pretty sturdy being the new Blokees build, though his shoulder pads didn't want to stay in place. I've had that trouble with the older style kits before, but this is the first time with the new ones. Not a big deal, but disappointing. Might just be a random instance from the factory. He's got the standard set of open and closed hands and base. Like the others from this set, Hound has one of the generic guns used during the Miners uprising. Like I've said, I kinda like these generic guns. With Hound, however, I wish it could mount to his shoulder as it's similar looking to his original toys rocket launcher. I'm of course smitten with anything Blokees and Transformers One, so of course I'm happy with a character like Hound getting a kit. He looks great and these are just all around good little models. Nice things are nice.

Megatron Type Godzilla [Synergenex]

Megatron, hungry for power has scanned the DNA from Godzilla's scales. Now he has an all new powerful form powered by Godzilla's energy and strength! The Emperor of Destruction can now turn into The King of the Monsters! Takara Tomy's T-Spark Synergenex project has been creating some really cool crossover toys, but I don't think nothing has been as cool as a Godzilla! This collab brings us a Godzilla version of Megatron with a MechaGodzilla version of Optimus Prime (whom hasn't been released yet) set in the Millennium era.

Specifically the setting from Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla and Tokyo S.O.S. Which has been perfect for past collaborations and one of my favorites. You've probably noticed that Megatron uses the Studio Series 86 Grimlock figure as a base. I've seen some complaints online regarding this, but personally don't mind. I've gotten several versions of this mold because I like it. Could they have done more? Maybe, but I'm happy with what they did. Not to mention, similarities to Grimlock and Godzilla have been made since Dinosaur Robo Tyrannosaurus. 

Megatron is a Leader Class figure, thus larger than your standard Transformers toy. This is obviously fitting all things considered. It's also a nice hefty and chunky robot, which is super satisfying and fits the character well. His chest for example, with a little clever paint, actually evokes the look of classic Megatron. I really like the little Godzilla Transformers plaque dead center in his chest. A neat touch is the new head, the sculpt originated for Sludge. Thanks to some creative painting, it looks a lot like Megatron with some scale like ornamentation. A nice little touch is that his face is painted a different gray than the silver of his helmet. It may not be immediately noticeable, but looks pretty nice and provides some depth in a mostly same colored head. Megatron has a silver repaint of Grimlock's blaster that looks nice against the Godzilla green. There's a lot of good color contrast.

Transformation to beast mode is pretty easy and fairly similar to the original Grimlock toy. This was something that stood out to me the first time I transformed the Studio Series 86 Grimlock. They really improved on the original. Considering so many toys these days have what feels like unnecessary steps in the transformation, an updated version of the original just works so well. There's something to be said for that.

Once transformed into beast mode, you've got Godzilla! Godzilla mode is clearly Grimlock in a new coat of paint, but it works pretty well. The Godzilla green carries over from robot mode and there's even more scale detail added that really looks great. Some of the translucent bit from his neck has been colored blue to represent him powering up his Atomic Breath. There's no spines sadly, but this little touch conveys it well and breaks up the green nicely. The gun can store on his back and there's some blue effect pieces that connect inside of Godzilla's mouth for that trademark fiery blast!

I'm admittedly on a high with this toy and cannot fairly find any fault with it. A Godzilla and Transformers crossover is a dream come true. I'm really impressed by the creativity used to turn one figure into the cool concept of Megatron modeling himself after Godzilla. The original mold already was a pretty nice toy, but with the new paint and details has made for one premium looking figure.

I'm really happy with it and am looking forward to the MechaGodzilla Optimus Prime. There's some upgrade kits on the way for those who want to add on some extra flair, or may be unhappy with these. I'm obviously enjoying mine, but do think the kits are neat. I hope they come with a bus for him to pick right up and throw back down. I've never said he's got to go. Go! Go! Megatron Type Godzilla!

Monday Burst

It's the start of an new week of robots, monsters, and misadventure here on Zone Base. I hope you all had a great weekend, mine was pretty good... and went by way too fast. The Mrs and I did our weekend shopping and even checked out some early Halloween stock in our local At Home and Cracker Barrel. We got some great spooky stuff and had a lot of fun. 

Ealier in the week my Godzilla Megatron came in and I didn't expect my happiness to be that high. I knew I had it on the way and that it was real. But actually holding it in my hand... wow. I'm not sure when the MechaGodzilla Optimus Prime will ship, I guess it's coming later as it doesn't look like anyone has gotten theirs yet either. Speaking of Godzilla, the Mrs picked me up some fun Godzilla stuff while on a shopping trip with her friend. She got me a bag full of Godzilla blind boxes and bags along with some Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Stranger Things, and Shin-Chan stuff. That was super nice of her while they were in Popmart heaven.

My local stores are still pretty barren. I've still not gotten the rest of the Turtles of Grayskull figures and that's causing me some distress. I really want to complete the line and feel so close to my goal. Not to mention,  not a single new Transformer in some time. I haven't gotten the Studio Series B-127 yet... and that's all they seem to have other than leftover TF One stock. It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't anticipating Cyberworld so much. I really can't wait to get my hands on those! Considering the show is premiering July 12th, I'm hoping they'll be on shelves soon. I did order a case of Blokees. I sure do love them... I just wish they were easier to get!

July the 4th is Friday and I'm gearing up for the holiday weekend. It's going to be a short work week and probably a hard one too. I'm looking forward to the break though and getting some rest. Well, we've got a fun holiday week in store for you all. Thank you for reading Zone Base. I really appreciate your support and just ask that you share the site with your friends. Mutual High Fives everyone, let's get this Monday started!