Happy Halloween From Zone Base!

Happy Halloween! 

It's hard to believe another spooky season has came and gone here on Planet Zone. It feels like only yesterday that I was lamenting having to wait a whole year for Halloween... and then to top that it's been 2020... So it both feels like only yesterday and 5 years ago at the same time.

Thanks everyone for celebrating the season with me and also for reading Zone Base! I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween. If you feel like checking out how my night went, I'll be posting pictures on my Instagram. 

I guess next week things will return back to normal around the site. I'll put away the pumpkins, and cut out the pumpkin spice mayhem. But don't worry, every day is Halloween on Zone Base!

Halloween Is Not Canceled, Thanks To Dracula

I've been hearing it all year. Halloween is canceled. Yet here we are celebrating the spooky shit out of it. Pandemic be damned, we all flew over the moon and rang in the best season of the year. 

It's not Halloween yet, at least not until we all watch my favorite Halloween Special of all time- The Halloween That Almost Wasn't! Seems a little more fitting this year huh? The video attached above is a pretty good copy of the VHS release (with alternate 'The Night Dracula Saved The World' title).

I'm not ashamed to admit I watch it throughout the year. Just like old Halloween commercials and a few other choice specials, it's some of my favorite things to watch. I love it so. 

The season is winding down, I know. Soon I'll have to pack the pumpkins away and wait another year for... who am I kidding? Everyday is Halloween on Zone Base. They'll be spooky shit all year. It's even in the sites description. It's a site about robots AND monsters. Duh.

If you watch the video from my site, or later on TV, enjoy Dracula and the gang saving Halloween. They had to save it from a fed up Witch. We had to save it from a freaking pandemic. Admittedly he probably had an easier job.

My Energon Goes To Work, I Hear Thunderhowl

I wasn't concerned with getting the deluxe Cyberverse figures. I get warrior class and Turbochangers then call it a day. Focusing my fancier Transformers buying on Earthrise, Siege, and the sort. Then they went and made a deluxe Thunderhowl and I couldn't say no. New characters are rare these days .

Thunderhowl is a Knight of the Primes, giving him a very neat armored look. His design is a mixture of knight armor, his wolf alt mode, and some good Euro G1 style flourish. He looks awesome. 

Being a knight, Thunderhowl has a sword and shield. The sword has a wolfs head in the hilt for a little extra style. Speaking of style, they really added some to the robot mode with various flourishes. He's got a cape and other adornments that really sell the knight theme. Not just a new character, he has a fresh look as well. It's really appreciated. Like really. 

Transformation to wolf mode is a lot more involved than I thought it would be. Instead of the generic lay down transformation, there's a bit of folding and rearranging the body. That cape in robot mode becomes a tail and his shield is the wolfs back. The arms and legs become wolf legs as you could guess, but the way it gets there wasn't the way I thought I'd go. Sometimes it's nice to be wrong.

As a wolf, Thunderhowl is angular and robotic. His mouth opens and you can arrange him into a few different wolf poses. As far as articulation goes there's a decent amount. More as a robot than a wolf. You can't roll him up into a ball, but maybe a wad. 

Thunderhowl has a few extra parts included in the box. A neato energy effect and Maccadam's head. Because he cut it off. Or if you've been collecting all the Cyberverse deluxe figures, it goes into the build-a-figure Maccadam. I haven't been, so he just has a severed head. Don't fuck with Thunderhowl. The energy effect can be either placed on the sword or on a connector in the wolf's mouth. This gives a fire breathing attack or a cool energy attack. 

 

The  effect came bent on mine, so it kinda looks like the wolf is puking. Which as a pet owner I can promise will happen. All over the damn couch. It does make for a cool energy sword, which frankly a Transformer would need. All the other dudes have guns and he's waiting for them to get close enough to whack with that thing. Needs to be a powerful whack to make it count.

Tunderhowl is a... did you see that, I made a typo. Thunderhowl is a good toy. It's nice to see a new character that's also creative. I like his dark blue and gold colors too. Nice and sharp. I hope more like him are on the way. Not that I don't like what they've been doing, just this knight wolf robot is a breathe of fresh air.

 

Trick Or Treating With Michael Myers

While the bag of Chucky capsule toys was pretty great, the best of NECA's surprise offerings is the Halloween II bag. Not only because Michael Myers is better than Chucky, but also because they made a better set of treats. Literally the perfect bunch of prizes for Halloween. As it should. It's the name of the fucking movie.

This bag is specifically themed after Halloween II from 1981. Considering the 2018 film reset everything after the 1978 movie, it's nice to see the original sequel get some love. It may not be the most critically praised film of all time... but movies people actually like never are. 

As much as I love the original movie, it never quite feels like it takes place on Halloween. Despite a few looks at kids in costume, it could be on any day. They captured that feel of the spooky season much more in all the sequels and I've always really loved them for that. 

The capsules are orange and black again, but this time with the Halloween II logo molded on them. I can't tell you just how much I appreciate that. It's just a little thing, but they could have just did a sticker or nothing at all. Mold toolings are expensive, considering the two different capsule logos when they could have just been plain is impressive. Inside each capsule is an individually wrapped prize.

I got shoelaces, a lanyard, a magnet, an eraser, a pin, a keychain,a patch, and two mini masks. The masks and the patch are the most awesome. Most of the stuff has a general Halloween/Michael Myers theme. The eraser has the Halloween II logo, but the patch takes it a step further. It's the patch an employee of the Hadonfield Memorial Hospital would wear on their uniform. Super cool way to go a little more in depth of the bags theme. But the mini masks? Those are the absolute best part of the whole set.

There's Michael's mask perfectly recreated and the skull Silver Shamrock mask from part III. Despite the set being themed after part II, they threw in a little love for good old Season of the Witch. The little masks are REALLY great considering they're tiny plastic toys based on 40 year old movie props. 

The skull mask looks just like the Don Post mask used in part III. It's hollow, has eye holes, and even the little slit on the back that most masks have so you can fit it over your head. The Michael mask though was the best. The same real mask touches as the skull, but they NAILED they was it looks. 

NAILED IT. 

WITH A HAMMER.

For those who may not know and for those who just like hearing things they already know, I'll go over the history of the Michael Myers mask. When they were making the original movie, the crew had a hard time finding the perfect Halloween. Eventually they took a William Shatner mask, altered it a little and spray painted it white. Voila, scary boogie man mask. 

Nick Castle (The Last Starfighter Nick Castle) played Michael in the original movie (among others) and pretty much just shoved the mask in his back pocket when not wearing it. Afterwards, Debra Hill threw the thing under her bed after filming. There it stayed until the production of part II in which they used it again.

Now after years of being in a heavy smokers house and the rough handling during the first movie it was a little worse for wear. Not to mention, it fit differently on Dick Warlock. That's why it looks a little different in the movie. They captured the way it looks in part II perfectly.

A little more trivia, if you watch part 4, you'll notice a scene in the school where the mask looks weird. They gave Dick Warlock the mask after making part II and recreated it for part 4 with a few new William Shatner masks. Somebody grabbed a non altered one when they filmed that scene and the crew didn't care enough to fix the mistake. Hollywood magic.

 

Scare Glow Is A Fright Knight

I've made the joke again and again that He-Man fights an army of living Halloween decorations. Since it's Halloween week who else could I feature for my recent weekly MOTU post? Non other than Scare Glow, an actual ghost who works for Skeletor. Or is he Skeletor's ghost?

His toy's tagline describes him as 'Evil Ghost of Skeletor!', which lead folks over the years to believe Scare Glow to be in fact the future ghost of Skeletor. Since he (and Ninjor) were pulled from the future via a magic spell to join the Evil Warriors. He could be right? However the taglinewas just used to imply ownership and he just happens to be a ghost from the future employed by Skeletor. Because Masters of the Universe.

In U.K comics he cannot be seen during the day, only by night. Which kinda works and is a little less outright scary than a freaking ghost sold to children. In the early 2000's series he was used in a Halloween comic and in Origins they went more into his prior life as a bounty hunter in the toys bio. As you can see, Scare Glow is pure scary shit. The toy is a glow in the dark skeleton with a purple cape and Scythe of Doom! 

He's a popular character and has had a few toys. Original, Classics, ReAction, Origins, Mega Construx, Funko, etc. Even the Masters of the WWE Universe line has a variation of him as The Undertaker. It's kind of funny how one of the last toys released during the original Masters of the Universe toy line became on of the most popular. If you're going to go out, go out with the perfect example of a MOTU figure.

Tricks Or Treats, You're Dead Meats

Gang, we are just a few days away from the big day. Mere moments from trick or treating bliss. With this in mind, I thought it best to preach about your safety again. Also, I just like this old video. We all win today on Zone Base!

If I may be honest for a moment... did anyone ever follow any of the tips regarding masks? I mean... even the other kids in the video are happily walking around with their masks as is. I'm not saying it isn't hard to see in them, it is, but... man those things are expensive. Who's going to just cut the holes bigger? 

Nobody, that's who.

Tonight On Kate And Allicon

Sharkticon this, Sharkticon that. Where it's really at in on Quintessa is the ranks of the Allicons. An Allicon generally works guard duty for the Judges and other higher ranking Quintessons. They're squat little bots that turn into weird mutant alligator things. Quintessa is a weird place.

The War for Cybertron trilogy continues to deliver exactly the Transformers product I want. This new toy of the Allicon is part of the Earthrise line and might I say they did one awesome job.

In robot mode, it's a short and squat fellow with some spikey armor and trademark spear. Looking directly out of the 1986 movie and pretty well articulated to boot. I really like this toy.

 

It's not an unfair comparison to call the alt mode a robot Street Shark despite these little monsters coming first. That's where your mind will likely go to when you see that characterful sculpt. One again in alligator freak mode, the toy looks like it just hoped off my TV screen. That is awesome.

Transformation is pretty easy, but just involved enough to get everything in place. This is how most Earthrise Transformers have been and I've been thankful for that. Looks like they hired some designers who were able to get a toy from faithful mode A to faithful mode B without accidentally calling forth Pinhead. Little swivel of the waist, locking parts into place, and you've got the weird robot alien alligator mode the guards turn into. 

Quentessons are so wonderfully weird that their far out designs contrast nicely against things like a realistic truck. Groovy weirdos from space man. Dig it.

 

The tip of the space gator's tail is also an additional sword as well as the spear can store on the space gator's back. The sword blends in seamless with the tail but the spear is kinda just mounted. That's probably a strike against the toy for some, but I thought it looked like he was wearing it on his back. The spear can be mounted in either mode or held by both arms. For those moments he'd need to poke somebody. 

I wish I could find something negative to say about this toy. I'm lying, I'm glad I have nothing bad to say about this toy. It's perfectly perfect and I love it. Hasbro and Takara Tomy really nailed it this time. I'm tempted to get a few extra to troop build. The Earthrise Allicon is a great little figure that looks like the character just walked off the screen during a viewing of Five Faces of Darkness. That ain't bad y'all, that ain't bad.

Bag Of Chucky

I don't know who at Neca started reading Zone Base, but they made exactly the perfect thing. Upon first seeing the Chucky and Halloween capsule bags on Instagram I knew I had to have them. This lead to finding them just in time for Halloween! These bags contain 9 gashapon style capsules each containing a prize. I'm not certain if the prizes differ per bag, but everything indicates that each bag is the same.

Starting off with the Chucky bag and I have to say the attention to detail is great. The bag itself is in the style of a Good Guys package aside from the Chucky logo up top. A small touch maybe, but than appreciated one. This leads me to wonder if any later bag series will be themed to other Child's Play movies.

Tear the bag open and you get 9 capsules each with Chucky's logo molded onto the plastic. Another nice little touch.

 

Each capsule is orange and black leading me to believe these are a special release for the Halloween season. I don't recall seeing anywhere if they are or aren't. I'd think the Chucky balls would match his packing more if not. Each ball contains an individually wrapped prize matching the theme.

The bag contained one of each: shoe laces, lanyard, pin, eraser, magnet, key chain, iron-on patch, bracelet, and a Chucky pencil topper. Either directly featuring Chucky or based on Good Guy packaging. Honestly I really liked that. I've been required to wear lanyards at previous jobs and something cool but not completely obvious like this would have been great to use.

 

My favorite prize was the Chucky pencil topper. It's a dead on head sculpt of him that can slip right on top of your pencil or pen. I really like how it's based on his Good Guy toy more so than the scowling expression it takes on when he's not playing possum. 

While I could see where somebody would prefer that or even his more popular sewn up appearance from Bride of Chucky, following series could be based on other movies. I also prefer the original the most. Not because it's the first, but because it's a great story.  

I like the Good Guy theme overall. It's not completely obvious and makes the prizes a little more varied than just a bunch of Chucky logos. Of course there is a good balance of direct Chucky stuff as well. Neca could have went the easy route with what's basically a novelty item. Instead they put some thought and followed a general theme. The original Child's Play had that level extra thought and that's one of the things that helped make it a great movie. Remember the ending song they originally intended?

Headmaster Horrorcons Run A Scary School

Apeface and Snapdragon. Decepticons, Headmasters, Headmaster Decepticons. I just said what they are three times. If you like what I do, please ... just kidding. Maybe because it's Halloween week I'm trying to do something spooky with every post. Maybe. Also I wanted to share this cool U.K version of their commercial with you.

These two specifically are the Headmaster Horrorcons, which leads me to believe they are in charge of a prestigious school for scary Transformers. I don't specifically know what makes them the Horrorcons and why Mindwipe isn't a member but... they're pretty cool toys non-the-less. If I put dashes in between those words spellcheck doesn't act up.

Godzilla Singular Point

OMG

Let's Make This New Week A Monster!

It's Monday and that means a new week on Planet Zone. It's the last week of the Halloween season, but let's not be sad, let's blow the roof off with pumpkin spice mayhem! I've got a week full of fun posts for you all to enjoy. As always, thank you for continuing to read Zone Base!

Fright To The Finish (1954)

In Fright to the Finish, Popeye and Bluto are spending Halloween night with Olive Oil reading scary stories. Sounds like a good time with friends right? It would be if Popeye and Bluto were friends and not mortal enemies forever locked in combat over the affections of Olive Oil.

Bluto pretends to go home, and then begins slinging spooky shit all over Popeye and Olive's evening. Ghosts, headless horseman, and all sorts of classic scares are in his arsenal. The jerk then lays blame on Popeye leading Olive Oil to kick the sailor man out of her house and onto her yard in which her milkshake brought both boys to.

Popeye ain't having this shit though and pulls his own ghostly pranks, running away Bluto and winning some smooches from Olive. Make no mistakes about it, this is a classic Halloween cartoon. TBS always included it in their annual Tom and Jerry Halloween Special. I grew up watching this every year as the spooky season went on. Honestly, I don't think I ever grew out of it.

Bio- Barbearian

Sometimes, crazy also works.

Clad in the hide of a black, wild bear, Grizzly-1 gained fame early on in the Beast Wars, becoming a hero regarded as a living legend. Having gone missing during a mission in the Arctic region, he has now awakened from his icy stasis lock and returned to the lines of battle! Due to compositional flaws in his organic structure, he secretes a toxin that induces extreme agitation and confusion, increasing his ferocity to an astounding level. But by switching between his mutant head, which receives the toxin and hormones, and his rational robot head, he retains perfect control over the wild "Barbearian" within him. In order to display his destructive power most effectively, he commits himself to solo actions of guerrilla warfare, demolitions and front-line combat. He fires powerful energon bolts from his chest, while the power claw equipped on his left shoulder can cruelly tear off an enemy's head module. He forms a team with his robotic bat partner Nightshriek, who transforms into a sonic pistol that can scramble an enemy's brain circuitry, but Nightshriek's the first to disappear when Grizzly-1 goes into his berzerker state. He has the makings of an excellent commander, but is blessed with few opportunities to display his true ability there.

Constipated Dracula Shops At Sears

We're in the endgame now. Halloween is NEXT WEEKEND. Did you get your pumpkin? Do you have your candy? How about a safety reflective strip? Ok good... YOU FORGOT YOUR COSTUME?!?!?!?! Well fortunately for you, when Sears was a place people shopped at, they had a costume shop. Because they used to be ran by people who wanted to make money. 

Uh... you ok Dracula?

Grizzlor's Scary Face

On Eternia, He-Man and The Heroic Warriors face a living horror show on a regular basis. You've got Skeletor and The Evil Warriors. King Hiss and the Snake Men. Then there's Hordak and The Evil Horde taking Skeletor's gimmick and turning it up to 11. Instead of a skeleton faced wizard, you've got a skull faced demon. Instead of Beastman, you've got Grizzlor. Beastman is basically a jungle wild man who can control animals. Grizzlor is a freaking murderous urban legend that works for Hordak. 

Literally.

In his introductory mini-comic, Grizzlor is the scary story told around the camp fire by The Heroic Warriors, Eternia's version of Cropsey if you will. Like all urban legends, Grizzlor is based on something real. Unfortunately the real thing he's based on is actually the same thing told on Eternian creepypasta and has started working for Hordak. His one weakness is his own reflection. Which scares him away.

Other depictions of Grizzlor tone that down a bit. In UK comics he got a different background, being a raging beast among his normally peaceful people before being noticed by Horde Prime. In cartoons, he's more or less a monster henchman. Grizzlor was to be in the early 2000's cartoon, but it got canceled with The Evil Horde making a brief appearance in a flashback. He's in the Netflix She-Ra cartoon, but honestly I haven't watched it. I'm pretty G1 about MOTU.

I made the comparison between Hordak and Skeletor up above. Somebody behind the scenes clearly got the two mixed up also as Beastman in the Master of the Universe movie is seemingly based on the cartoon version of Grizzlor. Grizzlor's gotten some toys over the years. His original featured a ton of fur that often got pretty gross overtime from kids and their inherit grossness. Like most Evil Horde members, he comes with the skull crossbow.

There's some releases in the Classics line, one's a homage the original figure and another his cartoon appearance. There's a ReAction figure and a Pop. There could be others that I'm unaware of, but the most famous of them all is the black variant of the original figure. In which so many were produced with a black face instead of a brown one. It's pretty gnarly looking, almost makes me wish that was the normal one. 

Skeleton Frolic (1937)

Everybody has seen The Skeleton Dance, which I posted yesterday. It's a classic. What many don't know is that it got something of a spiritual sequel. The Skeleton Frolic by UB Iwerks (whom was the primary animator of The Skeleton Dance) takes the same idea and delivers it again with improved animation and better overall presentation. All the classic spooky shit is back, but a lot more frightening this time around. The Skeleton Dance is a Halloween institution, but it's follow up is Halloween master class.

Scourge Of The Studios

Another way cool part of Hasbro's most recent Fan's First Friday was looks at some of the new Studio Series toys. Next year the line will shift away from the live action movies to focus on the 1986 movie. G1 is a heavy focus of Generations as is. You might ask yourself, well how did I get here? How do I work this? Where is that large automobile? At this point you've started singing Talking Heads and I'll kindly ask you to stop. 

What is a shotgun shack anyway? What are you doing with your life?

Despite the G1 focus of Generations, this is Studio Series, meaning a higher level of screen accuracy. So unlike that Hot Rod you got a few years from Titans Return, this one will look like the one that was fishing with Daniel. I'm excited for this. The original movie has always been one of the benchmark moments of Transformers for me and the generation of fans I come from. Even now as I'm getting older and it's various flaws are more obvious, it's still one of the more important parts of Transformers.

 

One of the new figures I'm definitely looking forward to is Scourge. The trio of Galvatron, Scourge, and Cyclonus have always been something badass to me. I've always thought of them as Galvatron the evil king. Scourge the dark wizard and Cyclonus as the dark knight. They're some Dio song turned into robots.

One of the more important details of Scourge was thankfully not left out. I'm talking about those pointy pink finger tips. Most people ask why he has those and it's simple. When you're sleeping, he sneaks in your room. Then he slips one of those long pointy finger nails up your nose and pokes your brain. True story.

The Skeleton Dance (1929)

There's nothing more Halloween than this old Disney cartoon about a bunch of skeletons dancing around a graveyard at night. All the classic spooky shit is on full display. Black cats, big spiders,a howling dog, an owl, and of course the skeletons. The ghouls dance around, playing each other as instruments (don't be weird), and having a grave old time. You saw what you saw. All hell breaks loose and the grim reaper gets served before sun rise. Which of course means it's time for the skeletons to rush back to their graves.

What's New Is Old Chromedome

After a few weeks/months of rumors about the new Walmart exclusive Headmasters line, when it was previewed on the latest Fans First Friday, I was ecstatic. I've been a fan of the 'vintage' G1 reissue exclusive line at Walmart, but felt like it was coming to an end with Blaster. 

While I understand these things don't last forever, it was the 'vintage' packaging I liked the most. These figures had been re-released multiple times before, but getting them in classic packaging on a Walmart shelf was a bit of a thrill for me. I generally don't have nostalgia for Transformers as I've been buying them through the lines life. But that did.

The replacement 'vintage' line is Titans Return figures in 'vintage' G1 packaging. The new Headmasters line is basically delivering on the nostalgia of the packaging with a newer mold. A happy middle ground for the concept. Considering Generations figures from the past years have been described as 'G1 with knees', it's a pretty good idea. Readers of the site know that I loved Titans Return, so obviously seeing the molds again is a welcome sight. 

 

The figures aren't just straight reissues of the toys. Instead the new releases have G1 accurate decos and the show accurate heads used in the Takara releases. Needless to say, I think this is awesome.

I've always liked Chromedome. Getting this neat version of him will be a lot of fun. You can't always say shades of brown and red make for a good looking car, but it does. The robot mode is pretty sharp too. Nothing about it is really standout or new, but it just works.

Let's Take This New Week Head On!

Heads Up Zone Base readers, we've got a whole new week ahead of us! I've got a week of posts planned following all the news from Hasbro's Fans First Friday! After they sent me the press release, I felt instead of just doing the copypasta routine, I'd use the image assets for individual posts relating to the new toys. I'm really excited about the new Headmasters 'vintage' line for Walmart. Even though they're reissues of Titans Returns toys, putting the Takara show accurate versions in those classic G1 boxes really makes them special. It's the perfect follow up to the Walmart reissue line!

I'm out to try and go to early voting again. Wish me luck, I had car trouble last week which was completely resolved and all repairs and even the towing was free of charge the following day. Sometimes the universe has a weird way of things. I'll take good fortune any day. Thanks for continuing to read Zone Base!

Dammit Loomis

Halloween (1978) is a classic. One of my favorite movies of all time and without doubt a tradition for many to view at least once during the spooky season. I could and would normally shower it with love and admiration, but that's not what we're here for today. Today, I'm going to point out one of it's faults. Of course even with it's faults I still love it, but part of loving something is recognizing such things and loving it anyway.  The movie has it's faults, most are pretty easy to ignore. It's such a well made movie that you can look past John Carpenters cigarette smoke in one scene, crew members shadows and reflections in others. However the older I get, the more the most glaring error gets more noticeable.

In recent years I started noticing it more and more. I don't know if it's the millions of viewings or just getting older and experience starting to make me think more. What is it? Well, the movie is one part Laurie and her friends being stalked by Michael. The other part is Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett looking for Michael. The Myers house is like a block or so away from where Laurie is babysitting. Know all that yelling she does while running away from Michael? Loomis is literally standing outside just down the road.

In the beginning of the movie we see Laurie stopping by the old Myer's house to drop off a key for her dad. Tommy Doyle meets her along the way as their both walking to school. He meets her right after she leaves her house and they stop at the old house right after. Clearly it's not far of a walk from Laurie's right?  Later Annie picks her up to drive to their respective babysitting jobs and drive through town. Remember Tommy walking to past Laurie's house earlier? Admittedly this could have just been teens goofing around as teens do, they smoke a joint and we don't know if maybe they were stopping at the store or something. That's fair right? But it's established already that Tommy was in walking distance from Laurie's house and the old Myer's house.

Later that night Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Brackett are waiting at Michael's old home expecting to catch him there. The sheriff leaves to respond to a call, but Loomis stays. He's outside, up front behind some bushes. Waiting for Michael to come home. Remember that one point where he hears some kids and it startles him? Clearly he's on guard. So during this time Michael kills Annie, Lynda and Bob. Mind you those were done pretty quietly... except for Annie honking the car horn the entire time he's killing her. Later when Tommy and Lindsey run away from the house screaming is when Dr. Loomis sees them and runs to help. One minute later he's upstairs saving Laurie. HE WAS A FEW HOUSES DOWN. He didn't even hear all that honking, neither did Laurie, but she was inside with some loud kids. A little later, Laurie is outside screaming bloody murder for somebody to please help her.  

LOUDLY.

People that are sleeping wake up, turn off their lights clearly thinking it's a prank. She's LOUD. I literally have to turn my TV down during this part. SHE'S SCREAMING VERY FUCKING LOUDLY. I can hear car horns in the front of my neighborhood and I live in the back. I can hear kids playing loudly in the nearby neighborhood on a quiet day. It was a quiet night. Did Loomis hear all that damn screaming a block or so down? While on the lookout? Nope, just digging in his ass.

Let's Transform Cyberjet Jetfire!

Good old Jetfire. One of the more popular Cyberjets and for a while there, one of the more often used molds. Chances are you've probably got a version or two of it and let's transform it? As you can see above your figure should have two missiles. These fire from the launcher on the top of the jet which is also the robots right hand. It only fires one at a time, so the spare is often held in the other hand as a club.

 

In jet mode, the spare missile can be stored underneath the jet. With both missiles in place he looks pretty heavily armed. The jet itself is pretty neat. It's small, but not tiny. The wings can open up as well.

To fire the missile, just push on the end and it pops out flying a few inches. Instead of a spring trigger, the launcher has a sort of marble mechanism. 

The launcher clamps around the ball shape on the missile. The pushing plays with the friction of the holder and it just pops out. This works really well and is very handy as you won't loose missiles by accidental firings.

Let's start transforming him now. simply unfold the jet's undercarriage out. It's pretty obvious that these are Jetfire's legs. Thanks to the sculpting they blend in pretty well. There's also some fold-able landing gear built into them which stores out of the way in robot mode.

After you flip out those legs, adjust those arms into place. The missile launcher is one and by now you've noticed the other was the storage for the spare missile. Spread them out like in the picture. Just like the picture, don't get creative. 

By now you can probably see the robot's head, that's generally where you need to start folding. So do that. Fold it. Now. As you do this everything will fit into place with a little adjusting. Maybe a lot if you got creative with those arms like I told you not to.

You've mostly got Jetfire transformed. Just fold those arms up into place and you've got a pretty good looking robot.

 

Place one of those missiles in the launcher so Jetfire can shoot it at somebody. The other can be held like a club or stored on the underside of his arm. It's the same place you had it stored in jet mode and looks like an arm mounted gun when done so here.

Like I said before, this mold got a lot of use and chances are you've probably got a version or two of it. There's five different versions of it out officially and I still see bootlegs of it occasionally. 

It was used twice in G2 as Hooligan and Jetfire. In Robot Masters as R-Blade and Wind Sheer in Universe (v1). The last use was in the BotCon 2005 exclusive set as Ricochet. Each version is pretty different from the other and are pretty sharp looking toys. Go get one if you don't already own a version. Then fly him around your living room. Make "pew pew" noises.

Ghost Toast

I watch this thing all year. I love it so. This or the 80's edition (that I also post a million times a year) would get shown to my class every year at Halloween. They'd roll in the projector and make sure us damn fool kids didn't do anything crazy Halloween night. Or get ourselves killed.

I don't think there really was much fear of any actual harm. Well, we were all afraid of a razor blade stuck in something. That was the only real worry most of us had. Parents usually checked the candy and threw out anything shady or unwrapped. But you never know.

One guy in my neighborhood always gave out donut holes. As in he had a box from Dunkin Donuts and would just throw a few in your bag. Now there's just random powdered sugar on everything. Dammit. Fortunately, I avoided the razor blades. A kid in one of the other classes had to go to the emergency room. That's what everybody said.

Be careful out there guys.

You just never know.

Eternia's Tower Of Power

There was a lot of members of the Heroic Warriors, each pretty unique in their own right. You had flying dudes, dudes with big fists, dudes with guns, and then you had Extendar. Extendar was a cyborg knight who had the ability to extend himself (get it) into a giant when things got tough. 

Fictionally he was a friend of Prince Adam's who was just a regular knight. Wishing he had special powers (I mean, apparently EVERYONE else has them), Hordak promises him them and does follow through. Giving him the power to transform into his new Tower of Power mode. 

Also Hordak turns him into his mindless slave because bad guys generally do that sort of thing. He-Man helps him break free of Hordak's spell and Extendar now has the super powers he craved. Also now his name made sense after all this time. Before that was just his name. Because Eternia.

There was also another origin story featured in UK comics in which Extendar and Dragstor of The Evil Horde were originally friends. A kidnapping by Hordak turned them into their super powered cyborg selves. Extendar was able to break free of Hordak's mind control, but Dragstor wasn't. Extendar went on trying to free his friend of Hordak's control as an ongoing plot. 

As a toy, Extendar is a more complex than the standard MOTU figure. He's thicker knight with basic standard articulation except for his waist and head. A really sharp looking figure too, pearlescent white with copper accents and a big red shield. To transform him, you literally just extend out his parts. It's in his name.

Knees, elbows, waist, and neck extend to form the Tower of Power. The extensions are sculpted with circuitry detail and a peace symbol on his neck. Because Eternia. The shield also unfolds into a larger shield as now he's a much bigger target. There's a MOTU Classics update in which the extensions are snap together parts instead of the extending gimmick. Also included is a lance that really fits in with the whole knight theme and I wish was included with the original toy.

I hope Mattel fits him into the newer toys. He was always this great figure that stood apart from the others. I don't want to say because he was a giant... but that was why. However, he transformed into the giant, making him even more unique. If he was a knight that didn't transform he'd still be pretty great. Wonder what his name would be then? Earl?

Maybe They Didn't See Us

Garfield's Halloween Adventure is a spooky season institution. It's one of the best specials of the holiday that's unfortunately been swept under the rug by time. Because time is an asshole. We get to see Garfield and Odie go trick or treating which leads to a scary run in with some pirate ghosts. All the ingredients for a perfect Halloween cartoon!

I don't know about you, but I remember always being slightly worried that we'd run across some actual ghosts while out on Halloween night back then. With all the spooky shit going on and being the hey day of Satanic Panic, there was the real possibility of running into a real monster. Like a real monster, not that old guy who won't take off his wolfman mask. Jerk.

I think that's one of the things that makes this special so... special. I didn't want to be that corny, but there's not any other words for what I was trying to say. It combines everything about Halloween night into a 22 minute cartoon. There's not a lot of Halloween specials that manage to do that and let's face it, I'll post those that do here. Either during the season or in January.

Bios- Doubleheader

Burn, baby, burn!

Double trouble for the Decepticons! All functions and personality traits are divided between his two heads -- the right head sees, smells and analyzes; the left hears, talks and makes decisions. Cool under pressure. Jet boosters in feet provide lightning-fast maneuverability in the air. Coil springs in legs also provide incredible jumping ability. Armed with semi-automatic, acid pellet pistol. Inner robot armed with rust-ray gun that corrodes metal on contact.

 

Very Much Candy

To quote Zack Gibson whom aspired to be a ninja in 1990, 'I like to get very much candy at Halloween'. Well, real talk kiddo... your costume sounds like it sucked and you didn't get very much candy at all. Or maybe he did.

I dunno. 

His ninja costume didn't sound like a lot of effort was put into it. Now what he should have done is wear that Crash Dummy mask with his ninja costume. Then he would have been a Crash Dummy Ninja. Doesn't that sound better?

Stupid ass ninja costume.

That Time Smokescreen Became A Decepticon

I've said before that I don't care for things if they felt too much like fan fiction. Which is true, however it's not completely a hill I'll die on. There's been some fan works I like a whole lot. Sometimes so much I think of it as legit fact.

Transformers Chronicles by Hirofumi Ichikawa is one of those that I'm going to talk about today. It's a fan comic released around the late 90's/2000 (little fuzzy on a time stamp) firmly during the beast era of Transformers.

The story pretty much involves the introduction of G2 into a generally cartoon based timeline (there's a little dash of the creation matrix involved). The art is very toy based and it looks fantastic. There's a few different things going on in the book, but one thing in particular that I feel like talking about right now.

Earlier this weekend there was the revelation that the Earthrise Bluestreak toy is exclusive to Walgreen's. So today while I was heading out with the intention to run some errands, stopping by Walgreen's to hopefully find him was on my to do list. Unfortunately I had some car trouble and I'll just have to do that stuff later, including looking for the toy.

Stopping for some lunch after dropping my car off at the shop it occurred to me. It was Bluestreak at Walgreen's, not Smokescreen. I got the two mixed up. It happens sometimes. Which is what brings me to talking about Smokscreen today. Because I was thinking about him. Deep content here folks.

Early in the book, Smokescreen is among some Autobot's who fight Decepticon Sky Scorchers and Predators led by Skyquake. Smokescreen is seemingly taken out in the fight only to reappear later as the Smokscreen from the G2 Dreadwing set. The Decepticons rebuilt him as a new bad guy and he's pretty ok with it.

The books not official story telling, but I occasionally forget that fact. I just love it so much. The art is really great and the story is pretty cool too. Hirofumi went on the do official work on Transformers not long after this. If you've enjoyed the e-Hobby exclusive bios or the Binaltech fiction, then you've seen some of the great stuff he's done for Transformers. I wish he had something to do with the Walgreen's Bluestreak that I got confused for Smokescreen earlier. That would have gave me something to end this with.

Dracula Lives On Zone Base

It's another Monday morning on Planet Zone. Fortunately we're still in the spooky season and can enjoy Dracula while we get ready for another week. I've got some fun posts in mind for you all this week. 

Hope everyone has a good day! I've got to get dressed for early voting and a few errands. If only I could vote for Dracula.

 

*edit*- I had some car problems and wasn't able to vote or run my errands. Next week when I go vote, I hope I can still vote for Dracula. 

The Last Halloween (bullshit)

In 1991 Hanna-Barbera took a dump upon the face of released this live action/CGI Halloween special. In it a group of Martians are on a mission to gather what we call candy to bring back to Mars. 

Well, golly shucks, good thing it happens on Halloween. 

The name of the special comes from the sub plot that the towns lake has dried up. Said lake generates the local candy factory which now will have to close down. I guess nobody buys Skittles at Walmart there. 

At least the lake is named Crystal Lake and I can't help but to dream a sequel where Jason exacts his revenge. Revenge for the gall of one business to try and cancel Halloween. We all know all that place only makes crappy peanut butter chews to begin with. Utter bullshit.

The Aliens also appear in Halloween commercials for Mars candy... which Mars branded candy isn't featured in the special... which likely the town was giving out instead of the factories brand to begin with... the call candy coobi. Did I mention that? It's uh... it's not good.

Seeing R.E.D Over MEGA SCF

The new Transformers R.E.D figures appearing on store shelves have been drawing a lot of comparisons to Action Masters due to the non-transforming nature of the figures. That's a fair comparison, but Action Masters aren't the only non-transforming Transformers toys (or even the first). I'd compare those more to the ReAction figures by Super7. While an Action Master has a little more articulation, they look similar. 

My mind instantly goes to MEGA SCF when looking at R.E.D figures. They're pretty similar in sculpting and honestly the R.E.D figures seem like an evolution of them more than anything. 

Super Collection Figure (SCF) was a blind box figurine line by Takara in the early 2000's that I was a very big fan of. Great little figurines that were perfect little representations of G1 Transformers based on their cartoon appearance. The line went from the early years to Victory before ending with Legends of the Microns (Armada). 

Hasbro brought the line to America as Heroes of Cybertron and was generally sold in smaller stores. I was in heaven with these figures and was pretty sad when it ended. They were very fun to buy and collect. I still  remember gathering around a table with a few others SCF fans at BotCon 2002 and talking about the different chase figures for what felt like hours. Shortly before the con, a local comic shop had a box of the Masterforce series and I bought the entire thing one Sunday morning. Having that Black Zarak build figure was something I was very proud of at the time.

As the line progressed the MEGA versions came out and they were a pretty big step up. Larger and featuring a good bit of articulation with extra parts for all sorts of scene recreations. Like regular SCF they ranged from various points in G1 and Armada. 

Some people make the comparisons to Revoltech when talking about the R.E.D figures. Those are nice, don't get me wrong, but their sculpting was very different. These look more in line with the sculpting style of R.E.D. Which admittedly is part of the draw to R.E.D for me. They seem like a continuation of a former line I liked a lot.

I'll just have to buy them too. 

Darn.