Blurr Teaches At Bayside High

If I listened to other people regarding toys, I'd have probably skipped over the new Studio Series 86 Blurr figure. There's been a little derision regarding him due to factors like his arms and face sculpt. None of that bothers me much at all. I expect a little alt mode kibble and what's here is easy to ignore.

His face doesn't bother me. In the cartoon, sometimes it's longer than others. I think it looks fine, and to be frank, I'm really impressed with this toy. I picked it up at Walmart this past weekend and found myself looking at him while I walked around the store constantly. I've always really liked Blurr's colors. I know, I know... it's just two shades of blue and a little white. It also looks super sharp. There's elegance in simplicity. 

True to his classic design, Blurr turns into a Cybertronian race car. It's meant to be sci fi and represent the way off future of 2005. I suppose they envisioned in twenty years cars would only seat one or two and have enormous bodies. Blurr is also some sort of hover car and doesn't have wheels. It's cool looking.

Transformations is really easy. The legs fold up to form the car's backside while the arms form the sides with a few twists and folds. His torso makes up the canopy and front fender. Considering how compact everything folds up and how easily it does, I'm kinda amazed I got it right on the first try.

Blurr comes with the rifle he you saw him using often. I do wonder if some of these guys will get re-released with Targetmasters at some point. For a specific homage to his original animated appearance, it's a great accessory. He also has a welding tool attachment so you can recreate that scene. That's a nice little extra that could have been left out, but I find nice that was included. Both the gun and welding tool can be stored in car mode for an attack mode. I literally have nothing bad to say about this toy. I really like it. Prior to this my favorite Blurr toy was the Shattered Glass figure. I like the mold and just think it looks cool. This time they nailed it. It looks just like Blurr I've seen on my TV and happens to be a good toy while doing so. Twenty dollars well spent y'all.

Not As Brightly Lit: Suicide Hill

We've all heard an urban legend or two that's given us the spooks. This week, Rob talks about one from his childhood called Suicide Hill and the adventure to it's location one spring day.

Hive Class Synthoid

"Synthoids are used in all Kharn operations and are not to be underestimated. They have very advanced technology, a synthetic biology, and are highly intelligent" 

Today we're looking at the Synthoid. These guys look like a cross between a shark and a space ship with some insect thrown in for good measure. The figure comes as you see here out of the package, but can be decked out with the Synthoid Pack accessory set. This gives you an alternate set of arms and back mounted gun pods for extra fire power. It's a pretty cool extra option.

I appreciate the far out sci fi look of Synthoids. The other two Kharn figures look like extras from Doom while these guys are classic B movie aliens. The colors are great, but like others in the Final Faction group... I want to see these guys in translucent colors. The Synthoid specifically would look great in random florescent transparent plastic. I could really see myself driving to a bunch of different Dollar Tree's and stocking up on all the different ones I could find. Maybe stop by McDonald's for lunch. Get a McDouble or two.

McDamned

When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth.

Sky Lynx Is Majectic Nonsense

Sky Lynx from Earthrise was another Christmas gift from the Mrs. He's always been one of the more neat members of the Autobots. You've got a space shuttle that transforms into some kind of dinosaur bird thing, while the booster pack/transporter thing turns into a lynx. The two robots then combine to form Sky Lynx, whom best can be described as something. But a specifically majestic something. He's makes no sense whatsoever and that specifically makes him perfect. Majestically.

This new figure is an extremely solid update. Bringing the original toy to the modern era with all sorts of fancy articulation and improving on the original toys flaws. It's pretty great and he'd tell you the same.

This is a pretty big toy with a bunch of different modes. Despite all of that he transforms really easily. It's a snap to convert everything into everything and combine those everythings into an new everything. He's a lot of things, but not a complex thing. That's a nice thing.

I'm particularly happy that the designers kept him as faithful to the original design as possible while updating him at the same time. Sky Lynx is such an individual, he needs to be stuck in his era. I can't imagine a sleeker version would look any better. Something this weird needs that big chunky 80's super robot aesthetic.

They gave Sky Link a big articulated neck and tail. He's always had a big neck and tail, but the articulation allows for a nice range of movement. My mental go to imagery for Sky Lynx is the episode 'Call of the Primitives'. He's portrayed more like a brontosaurus in that episode and this neck and tail make that more possible than his original toy. By that, I mean, he can actually be bent that way. 

Before anyone tells me a brontosaurs doesn't actually exist, neither does giant alien robots that turn into fifty thousand different things. But they should have feathers. Not dinosaurs, Transformers. 

In case all his different modes weren't enough, Sky Lynx has a base mode as well. Obviously it's meant for Micromasters to function as a base for. However I find it just makes a good launching pad for the space shuttle. Though I guess that would mean the Lynx portion would be left behind. That never stopped Omega Supreme though. It's uh... not a very realistic cartoon.

I do like the base mode a lot, even though mine didn't hold together very well. Admittedly I may not have stuck it all together right. There's a nice ramp that runs up to the shuttles canopy. Said canopy can open, even though it cannot actually hold anything. It's the thought that counts.

It's super hard not to like this toy. Big, chunky, and downright insane. He even comes with some of those plug in action effect thingies. They're all fire blasts. One big segmented one and three smaller ones. You can use them for the space shuttles thrust or Sky Lynx's fire breath. Their may be some other uses for them that I didn't notice.

Like I said directly above, it's hard not to like this toy. It's literally all toy and you can just sit and play around with him forever. There's a real visceral joy to a large dinosaur/space ship thing. Just want to fly him around the house for hours. Watch out for the cat.

The Strange Case Of A New Week

It's a new week here on Planet Zone! Like you I have a busy work week. The stress and pressure can really make a monster out of you! Fortunately I've got a fun week of posts in mind to make things better! There's a new episode of Not As Brightly Lit for your weekly dose of something spooky. ToyLanta is in a few weeks and I'm making plans. Dusty and I have been planning the Transformers panel, not to mention it'd be nice to go to a con again. Not sure how many people will brave it considering everything, but if you're there, feel free to say hi! As always, thank you so much for reading Zone Base and please share with your friends!

Blind Boxed Beast Mode

I had recently started noticing these new WWE Beast Mode blind boxes at Walmart and finally bought one this weekend. I'm glad I did, this is a neat little series. Imagine a stylized mini figure of a wrestler with a Pretender shell. Sounds pretty cool huh? That's exactly what you get with these and I'm definitely getting more. The shell is the 'beast mode' making your little wrestler a monster that's hard not to like.

Unfortunately the shell isn't articulated, but the wrestler is at the shoulders and hips. They're pleasantly rubbery and even have a cool blind box delivery system. The pull tag is a 'chain' that you rip off revealing a red cardboard crate. Tear that thing open to see who you got.

I paid around $5 for one and that's not bad. Unfortunately the cool Undertaker in the picture I used above isn't in the currently available series 1. There's a code system to ensure you don't get a million Triple H's thankfully. Just look at the bottom of the box and you'll see a code above the UPC. The last letter dictates which is inside (I got a Rock).

A: Braun Strowman
B: Finn Balor
C: Becky Lynch
D: Roman Reigns
E: Triple H
F: AJ Styles
G: Daniel Bryan
H: The Rock

The Scourge Tracker

I was lucky enough to stumble across Scourge from the new Transformers Studio Series 86 line. As opposed to normal Studio Series figures, the 86 line focuses on the original 1986 Transformers movie. Bringing nicer quality versions of the cast to store shelves with very screen accurate toys. Paired up with some of the non-beast Kingdom figures being released, this makes for a very good looking movie cast update. 

I've always liked Scourge. Visually, he's the transformers version of an evil sorcerer from your brothers Dungeons and Dragons books. In the 90's a fan described him and Cyclonus as wizard and knight bodyguards for Galvatron. I could never forget that mental imagery to this day. His beard, wings, pointy fingers, and collar just help give him an evil look. 

Toys of Scourge never really nailed his classic look from the movie and following cartoon seasons. They've come close. I think until the Titans Return toy, the closest was the Titanium figure. I really liked that one.

Scourge's transformation is pretty simple, though it doesn't look like it is. Head folds down into his chest, legs up, and his arms lay down his side by way of weirdly placed hinge at the shoulders. As you'd expect, those evil wings are the sides of his alt mode. Which is a spaceship that looks like a boat.

The term cybertronian hovercraft has been thrown around a lot, and it originally was intended to be a land based mode. I prefer it as a spaceship though. It's weird and funky looking. If the space robot devil changes some corpses into new servants, they should be weird looking. Dammit.

Scourge's rifle doesn't hide anywhere within his cavernous space ship, instead plugs onto the side. That's the closest thing I can find to a fault on this toy. I don't even mind it, but the point is a screen accurate depiction and that wasn't where he had it in alt mode. Also included is one of those special effects thingies that plugs onto his gun barrels for laser blasting effects action. It kind of looks like a cross between a loogie and a drill bit. I guess it kind of looks like his particular laser blasts in the movie.

This is an awesome toy. It looks just like how I'd think a toy of Scourge based on his 1986 movie appearance should look. Not just that, but it's specifically sharp. It's nice looking. I used italics because I fucking meant it. Upon seeing it at Target, my wife was very vocal about how cool he was and insisted that I get him right then and there. 

I hope to get more if not all of these new Studio Series 86 figures. I'm from that generation of Transformers fans who held the original movie up to an untouchable standard back in the day and kinda still do. Despite how many of these guys I already have, it's nice to have screen accurate figures of the cast specifically meant to represent that particular benchmark. 

The box also states he was made from Thundercracker. Somewhere there's a giant argument over that.

 

Not As Brightly Lit: Seen And Not Hurt

There are many, many, many dangers associated with trick or treating. So many that the topic of safety is as much a part of Halloween as plastic fangs. This week, Rob talks about the importance of flashlights and reflective tape. 

MSGT. Steadfast

I've talked about Final Faction here before, but not enough. This wonderful little line has become quite popular since launching around Christmas. It's a nice throwback to action figures of old and extremely inexpensive. Being exclusive to the Dollar Tree, each figure/accessory set is only $1 each. That's super hard to beat. The figures are 1:18 scale and have five points of articulation. 

This is MSGT. Steadfast, the leader of Alpha Team.1 (the good guys). Steadfast has seen some action as his cybernetic arm would imply. He's decked out out in olive green riot gear and a removable helmet. The helmet offers a full face shield with goggles and respirator so he doesn't catch covid-19.

Also included with Steadfast is a big gun. You can't deal with an alien invasion by talking. With a gun like that, Steadfast isn't mincing words. I'd recommend the Heavy Arms accessory set to fully outfit this soldier with a ton of firepower. He's the kind of toy you want to just pile a million guns on. Just a kick ass type of guy. Steadfast is the perfect figure to start with in Final Faction. Not only is he the leader of the good guys, but an awesome action figure.

Core Strength Is Prime

I picked up the new Core Class Optimus Prime from Kingdom this weekend. It's the first non-beast Kingdom toy I've gotten, so it almost feels weird. Even though it's not a strictly Beast Wars line, that's exactly where my focus towards it has been going. One of the things I like about Kingdom is that it's a solid mix of beast era and classic TF. It's pretty much what I wanted during the beast era. 

I've been pretty fond of these Core Class bots so far and it's nice to get my hands on a vehicular based one. Beast Wars guys usually come off great on a small scale, but the boxy vehicular robots can be hit or miss. From what I've seen so far they look great, but nothing beats having one in hand to form your own opinion. 

Optimus is pretty good. I don't think just how small these guys are comes across well in pictures, but they're pretty small. Some people would compare a Core Class with a Legend/Commander/Scout/Basic sized toy from the past, it's not really a fair comparison. While Rattrap felt pretty similar in scale to his original BW toy, Optimus feels pretty tiny here. That's just the reality of transformers, some toys are going to be a little bigger or smaller depending on things. A box on wheels is going to be more compact than a rat when turned into a robot. The big difference between Core Class and the prior smaller toys I mentioned above is the articulation. 

Prior smaller toys normally had an acceptable amount of articulation. Core class so far has had quite a bit. Usually I don't hark on things like toy engineering. Mainly because it's only common sense that things improve over time. However in this case, it's actually impressive in just how far the skill of the designers has come. These are much nicer toys than the smaller toys that were out just a few years ago. Slightly smaller, but for the same price. That's a fair trade off. I will say though, I did have a little trouble transforming Optimus here. He wasn't difficult, but that smaller form did cause my giant hands to fumble a little bit. A couple more transformations and it'll be second nature, I'm sure. That's going to happen occasionally and not really a problem. I've been pretty happy with Core class so far and Optimus is another happy toy purchase.

New Week Combine!

It's time for another exciting week here on Zone Base! There's a new episode of Not as Brightly Lit available in case you missed it. They'll be another every Thursday, so please check that out. I've got some neat stuff to talk about this week. As always, please share with your friends!

Double The Deal, Double The Clouds

Earthrise Doubledealer here was a Chriatmas gift from my wife. I super like him. I've always liked Doubledealer, but I really like this one. Like most War For Cybertron figures, they nailed it. I've got an odd relationship with Doubledealer. He's one of those characters that's been a constant in my Transformers fandom.

When I was a kid, the double Powermaster gimmick blew my mind. If you weren't aware, Doubledealer isn't your average Transformer. He's a double agent! Either posing as the Decepticon Dealer or the Autobot Double depending on the situation. Whichever side he's on at the moment dictates his Powermaster partner and alt mode. With Skar, a Decepticon. However bonding with Knok makes him an Autobot. What dictates who he is? Money. Doubledealer is a Mercenary.

He's that guy who works at McDonald's and Burger King at the same time without one knowing about he other.

I didn't get a Doubledealer in G1. It wasn't until I was an adult that I finally did. Though, it can be hard to get a complete Powermaster. After a lot of searching I ended up with an amazingly good Chinese knock off that was a perfect copy. All features, Powermaster partners, stickers... literally an identical copy. So that's my G1 Doubledealer. He's a little weird, but so am I.

There was another Doubledealer finally released in the Generations Thrilling 30 series. Unfortunately it was just a repaint of Blitzwing. At least the toy looked really good in those colors. Luckily Doubledealer was made in toy form again for Earthrise.

It's great. His chest works like Soundwave's cassette compartment which allows his Powermaster buddies to return. They were released in a Selects gift set much earlier in 2020. I've got them... but not sure what box they're in. I'm still a little unorganized from the move. Dude, this is a really good toy. A really good toy of a guy I've always really liked. Life is rad.

Not As Brightly Lit: Ancient Burial Grounds

From The Amityville Horror to Pet Sematary, ancient burial grounds have long been the cause of haunted houses in popular fiction. Rob talks about the graveyards he grew up around that are now the site of newly built homes.

Diaclone X Gridman

The Dark Pharaoh's Curse

I don't know if it's been noticeable, but I've got a really big toy back log. This isn't a problem, and if it is, it's a good problem to have. Because it gives me plenty of material to work with here. Speaking of here, today we're talking Machine Robo. You know, Gobots.

I have two boxes of Mugenbine I bought in 2019, Mugen Saga to be exact. Machine Robo Mugen Saga is a series of Mugenbine candy toys Bandai has been putting out the past few years. Dark Pharaoh here is the 'evil' version of Mugen Pharaoh and released with a new Arthur Paladin (I'll get to him later) in the same series. Mugenbine's gimmick is that every robot can combine with each other. The possible combinations are only limited to how many you have. It's pretty neat.

The specific team that makes up Dark Pharaoh is the Dark Five God Beasts. Individually: Dark Anubis, Dark Sphinx, Dark Ra, Dark Scorpion, and Dark Sobek. I'm pretty sure you've picked up on the that it's an Egyptian themed set. You may have also noticed it's dark. Dark Sphinx comes with a tiny pilot figure. The human pilot is a designation of a good guy as the robots without pilots were turned evil.

There's not much of a story to Mugenbine outside of a few blurbs of text and commercials (maybe a pack in manga). Mugen Pharaoh has a Buildroid so presumably he's a good guy... but this is Dark Pharaoh and dark versions are traditionally evil. Because of that and based on the teams individual forms, I've mentally classified the them as newer Devil Invader members. Because I like Monster GoBots and they pretty much fit the bill. Just look at how disapproving Lorraine Warren is towards Dark Pharaoh in the top picture. That's not just because I was watching spooky shit on Discovery+ either.

The set is pretty great and no matter how slick the combiner looks, the individual members still feel like old school GoBots. It's a nice balance between new and old. The combination isn't a simple affair, you literally have to completely dismantle the team and assemble it from all the parts. Not to mention, these are candy toys. Which are basically model kits that need to be individually assembled themselves. Opening up each members box, assembling, and then assembling Dark Pharaoh was almost an all night affair. It was a lot of fun and I've got three more teams waiting in their boxes. Good thing I've got Discovery+ and Doordash.

Maybe Dark Sphinx's pilot is a ghost. Ooh SpOoKy!

Cyber Police!

Star Troopers, Inc.

Lanard makes really neat toys that don't cost a whole lot. That's hard not to like. Their current Aliens (now with Predators!), Jumangi, and standard bearer Corps! lines sell steadily with practically no advertising or marketing outside of word of mouth. I remember during their Skull Island line hardly seeing anything about it, but those jumbo Kong figures were a pretty hot commodity. 

The newest line to that'll be arriving in stores presumably soon if they haven't at yours already is Star Troopers!. A throwback to their S.T.A.R Force figures Star Troopers! pits way cool astronaut soldiers against space bugs. How is that not awesome?

Like normally, there's a bunch of mold reuses, but in space adventure deco that makes them look new. Not to mention the new space alien toys really work well with the old toys to make them fresh. Lanard has a really good way of making toys that seem like they came from an old video game. These guys definitely have that vibe. I feel like there should be a Star Troopers! game by Sunsoft.

That's a good thing.

Keeping up with Lanard releases can be hard. News of this line broke last June when my attention was mainly on moving. So the random posts just flew under my radar. It wasn't until this past Sunday that I discovered them. There was a posts in Final Faction and Microman groups I was browsing whilst watching Ultraman. Pretty much everyone in both groups was excited. 

Like minded people, you know.

Merge Into A New Week

 
Hey, remember when I said I'd be stopping these 'new week posts'? I lied. It's Monday and you know what that means? A brand new week here on Planet Zone! Before you say it, yes I was originally intended to launch Not As Brightly Lit today... and changed my mind. If you've gotten the chance to listen, I hope you like it. It's been on my back burner for a long time and it feels good to finally do it. I record episodes in advance, so you'll probably notice little improvements over time. Not as many pops in the next episode and the show is also available on iHeart Radio and Breaker now as well. Though it'll be a few episodes until that's mentioned because it wasn't ready when they were recorded. I plan to put it on more services, but I'm taking one thing at a time.

I'm looking forward to the new Pacific Rim anime on Netflix. Also the new Godzilla anime and Ultraman season 2 are coming soon. It's great that Netflix has such cool stuff, especially considering how uninterested I was in it's streaming initially. Power Rangers Dino Fury will be starting soon as well. I kinda forgot about it until the past few days. I'm glad it's been brought to my attention. The new Zord toys look neat and I'm looking forward to the show. From the cast descriptions I'm kinda excited. The Red Ranger is an alien, the blue a skeptic, and the pink is very into the paranormal. For a person who's TV stays on Travel Channel and got Discovery+ just for paranormal entertainment...

I know that'll all be dropped after the first few episodes, but man, I can dream right? Thanks everyone for continuing to read and support Zone Base. Please share with your friends, it's all I ask.

Fossilizer Age

Not all of Kingdom is updates to classic characters, fortunately there's some new bots in the mix as well. Not just new bots, but a  new kind of bot even! Paleotrex is a Fossilizer. A Fossilizer is similar to a Weaponizer, but made of bones. That's right, Paleotrex here can be taken apart and fashioned into armor and weapons for other Transformers. However those weapons and that armor is made of dinosaur bones. After the initial confusion of what I just said, the inherit awesomeness of it just rushed through your mind. I know. It's metal as fuck.

Paleotrex is a skeleton robot Predacon that turns into a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. It's just as awesome to say that as the fact of it is. His robot mode head has a flip down mask that's really similar to the old mutant heads that Beast Wars toys originally had. Speaking of original Beast War toys, with his mask flipped down, his head becomes Optimus Primal's missing skull mace. 

Let's put that into perspective, Optimus ripped this guy's head off and is using it to beat other Predacons. Kingdom is metal as fuck.

Paleotrex turns into a T-Rex skeleton, like I said above. Because of the gimmick of turning his body into other things, he's a partsformer. You take him apart and rearrange him. That kind of thing bothers some folks, but is unavoidable here. 

In both modes Paleotrex looks great. While I vastly prefer the mask down, keeping it up is a good way to remember this is supposed to be a robot. I say that, because his robot mode isn't very robotic. Paleotrex is a an alien robot dinosaur skeleton. With that many descriptive words something's got to give. In a line full of robots that turn into things, the skeletons that turn into skeletons get a pass. Not to mention, it's rad as fuck. I mean, just look at it.

LOOK AT IT.

I can make jokes about how metal Paleotrex is (as fuck), but there's more than meets the eye (*cries*) here. This is a new character, which is rare these days in Transformers. Part of Beast Wars magic was that it was a mix of new and old. Even now that Beast Wars is being revisited, there's something new with the old. Transformers is a giant iceberg that keeps getting bigger every time you look. 

Hasbro bought Kenner in the 90's and later had Kenner run Beast Wars. After all these years Beast Wars is back in the forefront with these new skeleton dinosaur robots included. Dinosaur skeleton robots that you take apart and use their bones to make other things. Hey, didn't Kenner... 

I talk about Microman a lot here. Microman is part of that iceberg. In formation and ongoing growth. There was a bootleg Microman line called Dokuroman. The toys were casts of Microman toys (with less joints) and given skull heads. Here's a skeleton robot. I'm sure that's an accidental homage in this case, but it's still there. Oh hey, what was a feature of Microman again? The Transformers iceberg is neat, huh?

Not As Brightly Lit: Bootleg Jason Costumes

In the debut episode of Not as Brightly Lit, Rob talks about the infamous dollar hockey mask. Everyday is Halloween and what better way to enjoy the spooky season than one of it's more common costume choices!

King Sphinx Is A Pretty Fly Guy

 

With a little Christmas gift card money, I picked up the MMPR Lightening Collection version of King Sphinx. I had completely forgotten this toy was coming out, but jumped on him immediately. King Sphinx has always been one of my favorite monsters from MMPR. He was heavily featured on merchandising in the series since he was in the unaired pilot. However they called him Fly Guy in that pilot and frankly, I don't 100% hate that.

In Zyuranger he was known as Dora Sphinx. The differences from Super Sentai to Power Rangers is really clear in these episodes. King Sphinx is a big threat for the Rangers, but an even harder obstacle in Zyuranger. I'm not saying one is better than the other, that's up to personal tastes. I find the differences very neat.

Despite being all over the place merchandise wise, he's only in his particular episode and I've always been a little let down by that. King Sphinx is just so cool looking, I've always wanted him to be a regular character. He's paired with Goldar during the big fight of his episode and they make a good team.

This figure is pretty nice like most Lightening Collection figures are. He has articulation in ways that never would have occurred to me before. The arms just don't rotate or swivel and the shoulder, but they also move outwards. Fancy figures with a billion points of articulation are hardly a new thing, but I'm still a little amazed by them sometimes. 

You've probably noticed just how good looking this figure is from the pics. Or you're looking at my living room closet door. We keep our jackets in there. King Sphinx is better sculpted and painted than the actual costume used to portray him in his episode. I said what I said. The paint job is downright immaculate and I'm still blown away by the details. The toy is around $30 at Target, but looks like it should have cost way more.

King Sphinx comes with his scepter and one of those special effect thingies. The special effect represents his magic spell and fits over the scepter nicely. It has question marks which work well to represent his riddles. I literally have nothing bad to say about this figure. It's freaking awesome.

Soda Monster

Score One For This Cool Cat

Oh hey, when I got Rattrap, I got some other Kingdom figures. Cheetor here is one of the new bots I absolutely needed to have. I mean, I need all the new Beast Warriors, but Cheetor was a priority. He's always been one of my favorites from the beast years and honestly one of my favorite characters. So I'm easily sold on new toys of the guy.

This new Cheetor is a really good update of the classic design. In beast and robot modes he looks like he walked off the cartoon screen and onto a TV tray in my living room. I'd like to point out that I capitalized TV, because spellcheck goes nuts whenever I don't. Happy now you toxic asshole? Where was I? I love his head sculpt, you know Cheetor was originally intended to be Prowl right?

This new toy features a bunch of articulation. He bends and twists in all sorts of ways. I do wish the designers would have included the gut and tail gun, instead they opted for the tail weapon from his Transmetal toy. It's not bad, but for such a good homage, the guns do feel left out. That's the closest I have to a complaint about this guy, and it's just a minor nitpick at most. I'm totally happy with my new Cheetor. His transformation is natural and everything just works for me. It's pretty great.

Batman Bell Grande

Rats Off To You

After spending much of Saturday attending to Ia-Con Online, I had to make a run to Walmart for a few things as well as pick up some take out. Of course I checked the toy section as was happy to see new Kingdom figures in stock. Nothing said I've been at a Transformers convention (virtual or in person) all day better than bringing home a bunch of Beast Wars figures. 

The first I grabbed from the pegs was Rattrap. Rattrap is in the new small figure Core Class and is a pretty good update of his original design. Robot mode is pretty accurate to the cartoon, while the beast mode is much more life like. The original Rattrap toy was a basic and seemingly pretty close in size to this new toy. 

Unlike the original toy, this new Rattrap doesn't have a spring loaded auto-transformation. Instead you manually put the parts into place as you would traditionally. Like with older beast era toys, much of the beast kibble folds around the robot parts as they tuck away into crevasses. This can be a little tricky as there are a few tabs that lock into place. If you don't get them right, nothing else will go right.

It's not terribly hard or anything, but the first time will definitely be a little frustrating. Unlike an original Beast Wars toy, Rattrap doesn't store his weapon within his beast mode. Instead it connects to the rat's side. I'm sure some folks are complaining about this, but the sight of a rat with a side mounted gun sells the idea to me quickly. 

Rattrap is pretty great. A good update of a classic character that I'm happy with all around. He's got quite of lot of articulation for such a small toy and really delivers the update of an older design. I hope Kingdom is just the beginning of a Beast Wars renaissance. Buying beast era basics was a regular weekend occurrence when I was in college. Even though time has passed and a lot of things have changed, picking up small beast bots feels natural. So far Kingdom has been the best of both worlds. Traditional Transformers and beast era. It's exactly what I wanted then and I'll gladly take it now.

Soon It Will Be, Not As Brightly Lit

"Why don't you do Halloween all year?"

I get that question sometimes. It's no secret that I love Halloween and spooky things. Judging by site traffic... so do you. 

I can hardly contain myself all year holding back the annual Halloween celebration until August. So much so that I have cheat days throughout the year. So much so that I started doing Spooky Summer just to extend Halloween. So much so that I made a new podcast.

Want to hear something spooky? This is Not As Brightly Lit, where everyday is Halloween.

Starting soon.