Santa perfers Camels

Don't miss your train

At Toylanta this past year, I managed to get a few Gobots for pretty good prices. I pretty much focused on them at the show and had fun doing so. I plan to do the same again this coming show and opefully bringing even more home. You guys know I love my Gobots. 

Loco here is one of those bought from this years con and man I really won out with him. He was only $5 and in pretty good shape. A few dings in the paint and that's it. His joints are tight and as you can see in the pics, he looks a lot better than I'm used to when buying a used Gobot. Go me.

Loco is a pretty simple robot, but still pretty solid. As his name implies, Loco turns into a train. Not a bullet train like you'd usually expect. Nope, an old timey steam engine style train. I believe the technical term is a choo-choo train. Transformation is pretty simple, his arms poke in and he folds over. Despite the simplicity, Loco has solid train and robot modes. In Machine Robo his name is Steam Robo, can you guess why? Loco is mostly black with some red and gold. Don't forget that classic chrome. His chest stickers are leftovers from Steam Robo and they look great. That's just about the only word to describe this toy. He's pretty great.

The Genesis of a New Week at Christmas

It's a new week and the start of the Christmas season here on Planet Zone! It's also back to a normal work week after the long holiday break. I've always seen the Thanksgiving break as a mid- year vacation and honestly this one was a pretty good one. Between the holiday shopping, taking in the Christmas sights, and some quality time at home. I enjoyed the holiday a lot. Now that it's Christmas time I'm also under the official 'don't buy anything until after Christmas' order. So for toy posts during the next month, we're going through the back log from the time I was getting sick to just too busy to open. There's quite a bit. My Draculus did come in Sunday, so happy to finally have him! Also now that it's Christmas time, we're going to celebrate the holiday here on Zone Base! It's not the same as Halloween time, but it's going to get pretty weird here on the site over the next few weeks. Between weird, cursed, and charming (I do like the holiday you know) we're going to have a good time with Saint Nick. He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good. So share with your friends for goodness sake!

Happy Thanksgiving from Zone Base

Happy Thanksgiving! Here on Planet Zone we're looking forward to the turkey and cranberry sauce! It's a long holiday weekend, so I'll be back Monday with another fun week of robots, monsters and misadventure. I'm thankful for all of you who continue to read and support Zone Base. Pass the rolls and please share with your friends!

Long Neck

A few weeks ago I picked up Sludge from the Transformers Cyberton line. Ok, it's actually Energon Armor Dinobot Sludge from the Transformers: Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures line. At some point in the future the box will just be a page of text. Sludge is a really neat figure.

He's large, about the size of a Voyager Class figure, with a decent amount of articulation. There is a fair amount of hollowness, which keeps the price below that of a Deluxe Class. Cyberverse figures are generally intended for smaller children as opposed to collectors. There's going to be concessions to keep the price lower. 

Aside from the hollowness, Sludge is a nice toy. A big chunky Brontosaurus that turns into a cool super robot. Once again these Cyberverse toys feel like a toy from another time. It's almost like a G2 era mold that was unreleased. The Brontosaurus's tail turns into a big spear/club type weapon that looks like something out of Monster Hunter. Combine that with the Energon Armor and suddenly Sludge is straight out of some anime. Energon Armor? Yeah, he has that. It flips out from the backpack area and covers Sludge's face and chest. You could call it a gimmick, because that's what it is. The armor is a clear blue with a dinosaur shaped helmet. It's pretty awesome looking if you asked me. I'm assuming you did.

Portal to Hell

Phony Baloney

Faker is another MOTU character I wasn't concenred with as a kid. He was just this oddball evil blue He-Man clone that wasn't given much focus. Not to mention, he pretty much flew under the radar. Honestly, I don't remember ever seeing his toy at the store. As an adult toy collector, I'm aware he was just case filler and the most blatant repaint in the line. Also as an adult, I fully recognize just how awesome he actually is. 

Depending on the fiction Faker is a robot either created by science or magic. I like the magic origins because it makes him seem like some weird Eternian Golem. This new toy follows the Origins model perfectly in that it's literally a blue He-Man with red hair and an orange Skeletor outfit. Of course there's the requisite sticker of all his circuitry. How else would you know he's a robot? He has the 'vintage' He-Man head that comes with some figures on the standard He-Man Origins body. There's a ton of articulation included with that. Of course he's sporting his orange take on Skeletor's outfit with a fake orange version of the Power Sword. There's a Powercon Exclusive version of Fake with a slightly different deco and Dupli-Cat. Dupli-Cat is his evil robot clone of Battle Cat. The pun based names never end... thankfully. It's hard not to like Faker, he's a Halloween colored evil robot clone of He-Man that relishes in it's ridiculousness. In the included mini-comic of this wave, it's shown that Skeletor has an army of Faker clones. There's not one fiber of my being that doesn't love that.

Head On into a New Week

It's Monday and that means it's the start of a new week here on Planet Zone! It's Sunday night as I'm writing this at my desk here at work. Thanksgiving is one of the holidays that I work on Sunday night to compensate for the offset holiday week. Even though I only had Saturday off, I still had a pretty good weekend. The Mrs an I got our groceries in person instead of the normal delivery service. Being Thanksgiving we needed a lot and sometimes it's just better to pick things out. Saturday night we saw Ghostbusters Afterlife. Which you've already read about. I totally schedule posts to publish later than when I wrote them normally. YOLO.

After the movie, the Mrs wanted to stop by Target for something and I was hoping to find a Winston with Slimer. I totally failed on that but did get a MOTU Origins Faker. Score. It's going to be a shorter week, I could really use the mini vacation the holiday will give me. However that doesn't mean it won't be a fun week here, I've got one of those in mind. I'm thankful for all of you continuing to read and support my weird little site. Please share with your friends and pass the cranberry sauce!

Ghostbusters Afterlife after all this time

This past Saturday I finally got to see Ghostbusters Afterlife. It was a happy moment as it's been 2 years since the trailer first hit the internet. That was before covid-19 happened and everything changed. I got my tickets last week and happily enjoyed a movie that never seemed like I was going to get to watch. It was well worth the wait, this was a wonderful movie. To give a little perspective, this is Ghostbusters part 3. 

The 2016 reboot is ignored. Like the video game (which at the time was considered part 3) it follows up on the Gozer plot line from the original movie. Part 2 isn't ignored (and it's still cannon) as Ray's book shop is in the movie as is the Vigo portrait. They had more than one adventure you know. If I could compare it to another movie, it'd be Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Strongly played off the original movie while setting up future films. Future films is something I'd be more than happy to see. I like this series. You may have noticed.

I'm not give a review here. Nor am I going to spoil anything(intentionally anyway). I'm just going to talk about something I like. I like Ghostbusters and I liked this movie. I didn't like the movie just because I like Ghostbusters, I liked it also because it was a good movie. Fortunately it was a good Ghostbusters movie. I like the new kids, Phoebe and Podcast were particularly fun new versions of Egon and Ray. In fact Podcast was the one kid I didn't have an opinion about going in and came out liking a whole lot.

Trevor and Lucky I assumed were going to get much bigger roles, but they came in second while still getting decent screen time. Admittedly Lucky got less than all four, but I honestly can't see what else she could have done. Well, I'd like to see more of how she got to the dirt farm in the final act. Not exactly going to lose any sleep over how some characters got to locations. It's a movie and I have a life. Once again it was a good movie, so I wasn't too hung up on 'how' and instead was preoccupied with watching it unfold. It would be a safe assumption that the kids would play out like a copy of Stranger Things. I wouldn't have had too much of a problem with that, but also happy that they felt more like an indie movie initially. Considering it's directed by Jason Reitman, that's not surprising. 

The movie manages to feel like a Ghostbusters movie while also feeling like something new. That's cool, it's a new team, it needs to have it's own identity. It's funny, scary, emotional, and nostalgic. The way a Ghostbusters film with this story should be. It even felt a little like The Real Ghostbusters with some of the equipment and plot. It's nice to wait so long for something and leave completely satisfied. It's been a long two years since that trailer first hit the internet. Here's hoping there's more to come. If not, then hey, they left on a strong note.

Superior to the Core

I picked up Core Class Soundwave this past weekend. I really like this new size class Kingdom introduced. Seeing as it's continuing in Legacy and being worked into Studio Series, I'm not the only one. Soundwave is a really nice toy for what's is the new basic size.

He's pleasantly articulation. Mostly due to transformation, but I'm not complaining. In fact, it almost makes him comparable to the Microman figures he originated from. Soundwave turns into his traditional cassette player and even has an opening door complete with Laserbeak in tape mode!

Laserbeak doesn't transform, but it's still a nice extra. I have no complaints with this figure whatsoever. I do wish his robot mode feet tucked away better in alt mode from abetter looking tape player. So far Core Class has had some really great figures. I'm really looking forward to more as it's been great so far. This one though, is going to be pretty hard to beat.

Enfield Poltergeist

Fish Lips

This past weekend the Mrs. picked up the Lords of Power version of Merman up for me. I've been trying to find these guys (damned elusive Beastman) and was very thankful for her efforts. If you didn't already know, Lords of Power was the original name for Masters of the Universe during it's development. These LOP versions are based on the mock-ups for the developing line. MOTU Origins is a very neat line like that, G1 He-Man stuff to the weirdest detail. However in the Masterverse line, they're doing the Barbarian He-Man. I honestly don't know what extent Mattel has in mind with all this. Either way it's super fun.

The most noticeable difference between this and the standard Merman is his head. The sculpt is more detailed and closer to his depiction in the original paintings. That old concept figure was mostly modeling clay meant to sell an idea. Details like the fishy bits stood out more as they were basically glued onto the base toy. Aside from that, Merman is the standard Origins figure with all the bells and whistles you'd expect. As an adult, I really appreciate the weirdness of classic MOTU. Merman is a good example of that.

Bios: Seaspray

"Be unyielding as the ocean waves and your enemies shall fall."

Function: Naval Defense

Displays a zest for his job unmatched by fellow Autobots. Loves the ocean and its creatures... unhappy when he returns to land and reverts to robot form. Loves the thrill of naval battle. Can go 120 knots, 4000 mile range. Has sonar radar and underwater and surface-to-air lasers, also used in robot mode. Wheels allow limited land travel. Not too strong or mobile as robot.

Double Dragon 4: Underground Nightmare!

I was a big fan of Double Dragon as a kid. Don't get me wrong, I still love it, but back then... man. I'd draw the characters, play out adventures using action figures and so on. I still remember the first time I played Double Dragon. My brother and I would go to the neighborhood Circle K. We'd play the arcade games, eat candy, and drink Slush Puppies. It was a pretty popular place for kids in the neighborhood. Much to the obvious annoyance of the cashier.

Occasionally the games would be swapped out and one day there was new game called Double Dragon. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before (never played Renegade until years later on the NES). You had these cool guys fighting other guys, they could pick up things to hit the other guys with, and they all looked like Mad Max. It was amazing. I spent the rest of the day talking about it until I was finally told to not say another word for the rest of the night. Which I did and gt in trouble. I was surrounded by folks who never played Double Dragon. They didn't understand.

Soon enough I was hooked on the NES version and it's sequels. What really added to it all was the instruction manuals. Back in those days game manuals were usually more than just instructions booklets. Often they were the source for a lot of the games fiction. The backstory and characters would get covered with some cool art usually. It was somewhere during this time that I came up the perfect Double Dragon game. Double Dragon 4: Underground Nightmare! Being 12 and not having much of an understanding how the video game world worked, my solution to creating this game was to write and draw the story and characters for the instruction book. Then send it in to the game companies and they'd just throw it together. To be fair I was 12 and admittedly a pretty weird kid. Not at all like the well adjusted adult I grew to be.

*cough*

That story? Those characters? After the events of Part 3, Jimmy turned evil again (he was the villain of the original after all) and kicked Billy out of the Double Dragon dojo. Now homeless, Billy lives underground in the sewers (like the TMNT). It's there that he finds his long lost other brother Timmy! Timmy also is  martial arts master and reveals Jimmy has been evil THE ENTIRE TIME and was behind the events of part 2 and 3 THE ENTIRE TIME! Jimmy also wasn't really their brother, but an evil robot from the future (like T2). Now that Billy is living in the sewers and has found Timmy, Jimmy sends The Black Shadow gang to get rid of them once and for all. But now, they're all mutants!

To be honest, I kinda still want to see it made.

Waspinator here looking for Sara Connor

A few weekends ago, when the Mrs picked up Shadow Panther and Tracks for me, she also found the new Kingdom Waspinator as well. Like many of you, Waspinator is a favorite character from Beast Wars of mine. Obviously I was looking forward to this new toy. Like most newer Generations figures, Waspinator looks like he walked off the TV screen. That's a pretty impressive since something like a wasp that transforms into a bipedal robot cannot be easy to design. It's not perfect s there's some left over kibble from each mode slightly visible in each mode and not everything held together as well as I would have preferred. However, I'm mostly happy with him and not to bothered by his flaws. Your mileage may vary.

It's been great having these new updates of classic Beast Wars characters lately. Sure, they occasionally put one out every so often, but the past year has been full of Maximals and Predacons much to my happiness. I'm not sure how many will be in Legacy, there'll be some in the Rise of the Beasts toy line , but that's not due until 2023. Guess I'll just have to see. Good thing I like the way the Legacy figure are looking anyway. Like I said, Waspinator is a fan favorite and it's hard not to be happy when he gets a new toy. Just thinking about it brings up a ton of memories of horrible impressions of him at BotCon (myself included). The last Waspinator mold got used as Waruders at a BotCon which is funny since this one makes me think of Repto. That's probably unintentional, but I wouldn't mind seeing some of those older bad guys made from this toy.

The Elevator Game

Before you play, maybe look over more in depth description. Just to be safe.

See you on the other side.

We need New Week

It's Monday and you know what that means! It's a new week here on Planet Zone! Also, the last normal week on the site for awhile. Next week is Thanksgiving, and it'll be a weird week offset by the holiday. Then starting soon after will be Zone Base's annual Christmas Chaos! We'll be celebrating Christmas together here on the site all December. It doesn't matter if you've been naughty or nice, but a good sense of humor helps.

This past weekend was pretty good. The Mrs surprised me with a MOTU Origins Merman before I left for work Friday. Not just any Merman, but the Lords of Power version. Super cool! The following Saturday we made a visit to Walmart which rewarded me with Kingdom Soundwave! Not just that, but we bought our tickets to Ghostbusters Afterlife this coming weekend. The rest of the weekend was spent decorating our house for Christmas. What? We can love more than one holiday. I need to grab a few more lights for the bushes outside!

I've got a fun week in mind for the site. Thanks to each and every one of you for continuing to support Zone Base. As always, share with your friends!

Tracks in the sky with Diamond Cylones

When the Mrs. picked up Shadow Panther for me, she also grabbed Tracks. I've always really liked Tracks and have been looking forward to this toy despite hearing various people online say he wasn't so great. I don't mean to be totally dismissive of others opinions, but these kind of things are subjective, so I generally decide for myself. Not to mention, some folks just can't be pleased. Regardless of the cries of those with urine soaked beds, I was looking forward to Tracks. Like I said, I like him. I've always thought he looked cool and had a cool personality. Just a good Autobot car, you know?

Tracks is a pretty good toy once you get him into the various modes. Transformation though, wow, really didn't like that part. Lot's of panels that have to be aligned just right and getting his legs into the cars front end was not pleasant at all. Once you got through the frustration of all that, he's a pretty nice looking toy. Tracks looks like he just walked off the TV screen like most recent Generations toys.

He's pleasantly articulated and everything is where it should be. In car mode, assuming you got all the panels to pop into place, he looks great. From car mode, conversion to flight mode is simple. Just fold out the arm parts and wings/fins. Tracks's flight mode is the predecessor of  those Transmetals vehicle modes and similar to M.A.S.K. Basically, it's a car with wings. Before you comment on how that's unrealistic, remember it's an alien robot from outer space that disguises itself as a car. Also remember it's a toy. Then remember the word masticate, it means chewing. Somebody felt another word for chewing was necessary.

Aside from the frustrating transformation, I don't have a single bad thing to say about this figure. Generations has really been on a roll in the past few years. As an adult who grew up with Transformers since it's inception, these are exactly the toys I want as a fan of the line. Classic characters updated with improved designs that look as they should. While I absolutely love it when we get new characters, I'm not going to pretend that new toys of classic characters aren't great. Even as frustrated as I got with Track's transformation, I still liked the toy. The colors really look great and he's fun to fiddle around with. Kingdom made Tracks pretty good.

I tried to think of the most harmless thing

I finally found the new Fright Features Stay Puft Marshmallow Man last week. I say finally because it took a long time. I know that's obvious, but sometimes you really have to explain things. Now got to find Winston with Slimer and the kids! If I was really crazy, I'd look for the Ecto-1 with alternate box art. Not doing that, it's literally the same toy in the same box with the same art(just slightly different). Toys can be weird. What's weird in a good way is Stay Puft's Fight Feature. In fact... it's a little morbid. If you squeeze together those marshmallow man legs, his upper torso spins upwards while raising arms. Now the ghost has been pulled apart showing marshmallow cream seemingly made of Mini Pufts (potential spoiler?) and a spinal column made of jumbo marshmallows. I never knew the intestines of a Sumerian deity could look so tasty!

Bios: Jazz

"Do it with style or don't bother doing it."

Function: Special Operations / Saboteur

Optimus Prime's right-hand man. A danger-loving daredevil with a bottomless bag of tricks. Loves Earth culture, particularly rock n' roll. Outer shell armed with semi-automatic ion pulse gun and deflector shield. Inner robot armed with photon rifle and hydraulic lifters in legs that enable him to jump over fifty feet. In race car mode, equipped with blinding, full-spectrum headlights and deafening 180 decibel speakers. Nitro-injected 12-cylinder engine allows him to reach speeds in excess of Mach 1. Thermal-sensitive windows also provide supplemental solar power.

Shut your Trap

The new He-Man and the Masters of the Universe toys have finally started showing up at my local stores and I was happy to see them. I loved the show and couldn't wait to get a few of the figures. Honestly this new He-Man renaissance is pretty great. There's so much new stuff available that it's a MOTU fans dream come true. It's been super fun in the MOTU groups talking the various different toys. I grabbed Trap Jaw this past weekend happily. He's my first figure from this new line and what a cool toy he is. These new figures serve as a core class for MOTU at $10 each and more basic articulation. It's not much of a concession as they look great and even have gimmicks. 

Trap Jaw is a departure from his classic look, while still looking familiar. He's a nice mix of cyberpunk and fantasy with that robot arm and goblin boots and stitched tights. The helmet is a play off the original design while being more scary. There's even a throw back to his classic zip line loop. Trap Jaws gimmick is that energy projectile can be shot. It's not on a spring, instead if you twist him at the arms and waist, he'll bend around as if putting some effort into the attract. Let go and the toy swings around flinging the blast out towards the Masters. Pretty neat.

Notice I said Masters? That's because in this new series there's no more Heroic and Evil Warriors. Instead we have the Masters fighting the Dark Masters. You can guess which side Trap Jaw is on. It's a reinvention of a classic story that still manages to homage the original. Obviously intended for smaller kids, but so far us adults seem to really like it. I've even been seeing adult fans praise it over Revelation. I'm sure that's pretty surprising to Mattel who you can bet are paying attention. I'm usually very G1 about MOTU, but am happily enjoying this new series a lot. 

Living on the edge, not afraid to die

A few weeks ago I spoke about how excited I was for the new Kingdom version of Shadow Panther. Fortunately the Mrs found him a little bit back and I now happily have one. If you don't know who Shadow Panther is, let me educate you a little on him. His bio reads-Outer appearance looks like a Cybertron but in fact he is a Predacon soldier. Shadow Panther specializes in performing surprise attacks from the darkness. He doesn't stop his hunts until he has preyed upon countless Maximals. Depending on release, he may or may not be Ravage. That's because he was originally a Japanese exclusive character, however Hasbro chose to import him when they ran a collectors web store (pre-Hasbro Pule). Initially sold as Shadow Panther, however at some point they renamed the toy Tripredacus Agent.

If you couldn't tell, it's a repaint of Cheetor. However not a direct repaint as Shadow Panther has a different head. The first bath of Beast Wars toys had the mutant head gimmick. This would usually give the figure another head that could be swapped out to represent a battle mask or helmet. When it came to repaints, these mutant heads would usually serve as the new characters head. Shadow Panther normally used the standard Cheetor head, but for this release he has the mutant head. Considering there's another Cheetor likely on the shelf nearby, that's a pretty good idea. Not going to lie either, it's a good choice. Makes him look more savage. With that sickle/whip weapon and the black colors, Shadow Panther looks like the anime shadow warrior the bio makes him out to be. 

The black on yellow with silver colors look as good as ever to me. Silver on black is a classic look and the yellow is so strikingly different that it contrasts nicely. Not to mention, makes me think of a Henshin Cyborg. There's a pretty big Transformers iceberg, and it's probably a coincidence, but the similarity is hard to ignore. As you've guessed by now, I'm happy with this toy. You might be too. The base mold is already a good one and it's a character I have a fondness for. I'm pretty happy that Hasbro went with Shadow Panther for Kingdom. With the Netflix version of Cheetor also available, I would have assumed they'd pass over another use of the mold on the shelf at the same time. Sometimes it's good to be wrong.

New Week in Monster World

It's Monday and that means a new week here on Planet Zone! I had a low key weekend spent watching Kaiju Masterclass panels and playing Gundam Breaker on my Galaxy Tab. The Mrs and I did make it out to some stores for a few things. While out I managed to find Cyberverse Sludge, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Trap Jaw, MOTU Mega Construx Scuba Attack Zodak (finally), and the Ghostbusters Fright Features Venkman with Terror Dog. I was starting to think I'd never find that Zodac and now just got to find the Winston with Slimer before the kids come out.

I intended to straighten up my toy room, but looks like that's going to be a project for next weekend. I've got a pretty big backlog of toys (mostly Transformers) to work through as well. I started feeling sick in the spring before everything came to a head mid summer. That lead to a lot of time resting and not feeling like doing much of anything. Of course I'm feeling much better now and have a small mountain of unopened toys purchased during that time to go through.

It's Monday morning now, though still Sunday night as I'm typing this. I have a late night tradition of watching Beyond Belief on Amazon Prime untill I fall asleep Sunday nights. It's probably one of my favorite all time shows. I'm happy. I haven't talked about my health issues much since everything happened this summer. However I have some good news. You see, I'm on a lot of medication and go to the doctor a lot. I had my first Heart Echo since I was in the hospital this past week and got the results this weekend. While I'll always have a condition and have to take care of it, I've also recovered quite a bit. Guess who's got two thumbs and an nearly normal operating heart?

This guy.

Thanks everyone for reading Zone Base. It means so much to me and I appreciate the support. As usual all I ask is please share with your friends.

Cyberverse Season 4 Trailer

He has CLAWS and he's AWFUL

Sometimes I'll completely miss something obvious. It took me forever to realize the pun in Clawful's name. You see, he's a bad guy, so he's awful. Also has claws. Admittedly it's because he came out when I was a kid and completely oblivious to such things. Regardless, despite being such a silly idea, Clawful is a pretty great toy. 

As a member of the Evil Warriors, Clawful is a crab/human hybrid. You'd think he'd be more aquatic based, but nope. He's just walking around anywhere. Ready to pinch Fisto's ass and hit him with that shell cracker. Considering the majority of clothing on Eternia, it makes sense as to why he's so threatening. 

Depending on the fiction, Clawful is either a serious threat or an idiot. Sometimes Skeletor's right hand monster and other times not trusted. I'm pretty sure they wanted to eat him. The right claw alone could feed Snake Mountain for days!

7 Days

Convoy to the Stars

I had no clue Star Convoy existed until I was in college. Here I was, some doofy kid who really liked these things, but only knew the ones I grew up with. As the internet became a thing and entered my life I got educated on the stuff I didn't know about. That's what pre-internet life was like when you were a dorky kid. Maybe you got some information from random magazines (professional or fan) or oddball conversations. I knew they came from Japan (more or less) and there was ones released around the world that weren't here. That was about it. Sometimes some different looking ones would pop up as bootleg robot toys at discount stores. That was neat. Turns out there was this thing called Brave a well. Thanks internet!

After learning of Star Convoy I had to have one. Unfortunately it was pretty hard to get. How hard? Real hard. Was that filler? Yep. Like I said it was hard to get one, and if you were in that position, very expensive. Eventually in 2005 Unicron came, but also Takara re-released him. Now you could just get one affordably! Which I did! The reissue was a little different though. Now the yellow chest... thing was gold chrome. That and his box was more in the style of earlier G1 than the late G1 style Takara boxes. I didn't care, I finally had one. Now I just need the new versions. Well, eventually.

Cuts like a Laser Blade

Godzilla vs Hedorah 2021

Today is Godzilla's 67th birthday. Toho threw him a birthday party in the form of a new short featuring the suits from Final Wars. Happy Birthday Godzilla!

With a yellow Spoiler and red Helmet

I've always been partial to Rodimus Prime. There's something about a cocky hot shot that turns out to be the chosen one who has imposter syndrome. I think we all can relate with being suddenly thrust into an important role and plagued with self doubt. It's an analogy for growing up as a late bloomer, something I can definitely relate with. I also think he looks cool.

It's hard not to like that mixture of orange, red, and yellow. The Winnebago of Doom alt mode is pleasantly weird too. In either the aerodynamics of it's original design, or the more blocky military-esque recent looks. It's just a neat vehicle. As much as I love the original years of Transformers with it's hybrid of Diaclone and Microman designs, I do favor the space opera post movie years more. Being raised on an unhealthy diet of Star Wars will do that to you.

Spooky in Singapore

Halloween may be over, but just like that tuft of fake spider web that you'll never get out of your bushes, it's always a little spooky here. This is a haunted web site, you know.

2010

T-Rex wins the Belt

Last weekend I found the T-Rex Champion Zord after what felt like looking forever. I hope to get the accompanying Zord sets soon to build the various Dino Fury Megazord formations. In the meantime I'm appreciating the big red guy who's the main component needed for all of the forms. He's a pretty cool toy on his own. A big Tyrannosaurus Rex with laser guns and drills that transforms into a robot. You can add other Zords onto the robot to form the various Megazord formations. It's pretty cool.

Not only that, but there's different heads for each formation. This is a holdover from Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger, the series Dino Fury was made from. I didn't watch that show, but enjoying Dino Fury is making it more tempting. These heads are an enlarged Ryusoul form in the Sentai series. That's not elaborated into on Dino Fury. There's just this random Ranger that turns into the Megazord's head during the sequence. I understand that they're working with reused footage, but you'd think they'd have an explanation. Regardless, the heads transform into the random Rangers. The back of the head even pops off to reveal a Ranger piloting the Megaord. That's a neat little detail. I wish they explained it more fictionally. I'm still enjoying the weird little mini figure regardless. You guys know I love partner figures.

If you don't like part-formers, you'll probably not care for this toy. Due to the various Zord formations (I am using that word so much today), transformation by parts swapping is how everything is done. Speaking of, that green crotch piece in the pic is for one of those formations, I just forgot to take it off when I took the picture. I just noticed it, and the dinosaurs big tail isn't visible either. I never claimed to be an expert photographer. Or a good photographer even... damn cropped off robot toes. It's a fun toy and you can give him a sword via parts from other Zords. I plan to get those eventually. 

Return of the New Week

It's a new week and another Halloween season has passed. Time to adjust back to non-spooky season life and prepare for the Christmas season. Which according to the Mrs starts now. We had a fun Halloween Weekend including a Saturday night drive looking at lights. Sunday, the big day, was spent setting up for trick or treaters and watching Halloween specials. Then trick or treating and watching Halloween specials. Well, sad as I am to see it end, it's the nature of things. Fortunately I like Christmas too.

Friday the Mrs picked up Kingdom Shadow Panther, Waspinator, and Tracks for me. Not sure when I'll get to covering them. I've got a busy few days coming up but there's a very big backlog of toys of content to get to. That and the 'whatever I think of' nature of things here. No rhythm or reason, Zone Base is a place of personal insanity. Speaking of, thanks everyone for continuing to support the site. It means so much to me. Don't forget to share with your friends!