Blood and Brimstone

 

Brimstone/BloodyRock is a pretty awesome toy. As far as Rock Lords go, he's pretty freaking hardcore. This giant red demonic stone robot with a monster head toting a burning axe. I almost wish that his Gobots name was BloodyRock, just to sell how monstrous he was... but Brimstone is a pretty good name too. Most of the evil Rock Lords have wonderfully monstery appearances as is, but they generally still just turn into rocks. Brimstone pretty much turns into some evil stone table probably used for evil rituals. Which of course is ideal for a children's toy.

Happy Memorial Day from Zone Base!

 

It's Memorial Day! The beginning of summer and more importantly spookier times around Planet Zone! I'm currently taking the holiday weekend for a much needed break. Regular content will continue tomorrow as usual. For the moment it's time to get some rest, cook out, and just enjoy life. I hope you're enjoying the holiday weekend as well. Thank you for your continued support of Zone Base! As always, please share with your friends!

When Machines have a War

 

With this weekend being a holiday weekend, I'll be honest, I'm a little checked out mentally. I could use the break. That being said, let's talk about Machine Wars! For those not well acquainted with Machine Wars, shortly after Beast Wars started, MW was launched as a Kay-Bee exclusive (toys were reportedly seen at some Myers stores) Transformers line. It was pretty small and made up of unreleased G2 molds and late G1-early G2 European toy molds.

The cast of characters was mostly the classic crew and the line was basically an experiment to see if vehicular based Transformers would sell well again. While I loved G2, it didn't sell as well as G1 and Beast Wars pretty much brought Transformers back to it's former glory. Unfortunately Machine Wars didn't really take off and it wasn't until the Vehicons of Beast Machines that vehicular Transformers returned to store shelves (aside from the vehicle bots in Takara's Beast Wars series) with RID bringing vehicles back in force. 

That being said, the line has no fiction what so ever. The tech specs pretty much painted the toys as the characters returning without much detail to give you a sense of why they all looked different. Megatron's bio vaguely hinted at him being a jet again after the canceled G2 ATB toy. Thundercracker's hinted at a little character progression, but that was it.

Most fans (myself included) considered them a continuation of G2 as Beast Wars was basically G3 when it first launched before the story line got changed into the one we all know now. You know, I've always wanted to see that idea continued. Maybe I'll look at it some more the next holiday weekend. The closest to actual fiction Machine Wars ever got was tied into the BotCon 2013 exclusive set which had a Machine Wars theme. In it's included comic, the new Machine Wars Transformers followed on from the prior G2 themed set's story line. Which in itself was their take on how G2 would have taken place within the classic cartoon fiction. In all honesty, it wasn't bad.

The above art is a restoration of Optimus Prime's box art from Machine Wars that I found on Google Images. If you or someone you know is responsible for said restoration, I'd be happy to credit you. Please leave me the info in the comments section below. 

Bios: Tomahawk

 

Tomahawk may be slow, but he's made a career out of taking on Decepticons faster than him, and blowing them out of the sky. He uses himself as bait to draw in overconfident Decepticon aces, then he fills the sky around them with heat-seeking missiles. Jetblade and Terradive don't stand a chance. 

Strength: 7 Intelligence: 8 Speed: 5 Endurance: 8 Rank: 6 Courage: 8 Fireblast: 8 Skill: 9

Transform Squadron 32: 8 MEGS to harm you with

 Listen Now!

This month- Rob briefly talks about the days of zines before going into summer leading into the Halloween season. Then he talks about buying Beast Wars toys on clearance back in the day. At some point the power goes out. I don't know... it was weird.

Weekly Halloween: Spooky Summer Approaches

 

Spring turns into summer, and Summer is a Spooky Season. Long time readers know I have a tradition around here, and that's observing the scary nature of summer as the lead up to Halloween. Sure, everyday is Halloween on Planet Zone. However when it's actually Halloween time, we go nuts. A solid 5 months of macabre and mayhem! But before the pumpkin spice flows, there's summer. The little peeps and peaks of our favorite season begin working their way into our spaces. The term that's most recently been used is Code Orange, and that's pretty appropriate as June the spooky signal starts flickering on. 

May began with Walpurgis Night and you've been noticing all month people celebrating Halfway to Halloween. The weather where you're at may vary, but Memorial Day has always been the unofficial beginning of summer for me. That's next week. So Monday will be a holiday and you all will have to forgive me for taking a day off. When I come back on Tuesday, the Spooky Summer will begin. Friday the 13th took place at a summer camp and ghost season in some countries is in summer. Between all those bright colors and festive fireworks, is something scary. Summer is a spooky season.

While the regular content will stay the same around here, there will be more of a slant towards the scarier stuff (BTW, turn on the captions on the video above if you need help understanding what they're saying). There will be more and more posts about scary toys, cartoons, games, and maybe a paranormal post or two (hundred). All leading up to August, when the pumpkins come out. At this point, I know you all love it. However, if you're new to the Base...

Hold onto your dooky, summer is spooky.

Load Disk

 

Sometimes it's pretty to look at something you never had the option of using and think that you'd love to have had that. I'm sure we're all that way about a few things. One such thing for me is the Famicom Disk System. Growing up in the States with the NES, it was never available to me. I'd occasionally read about it in various game magazines, but being younger and accustomed to the NES, it wasn't something I thought about until getting a little older. Then it became something that seemed so very cool to me. Like the Satellateview and SEGA Channel, it was another neat way to expand your console. 

A brief explanation for those not in the know. The Famicom Disk System was a disk drive that worked with the Famicom (NES). The games would come on the cheaper disks and re-writable disks were available. Those re-writable disks could be used at kiosks to purchase games at a lower cost that on a cartridge. Buying a new game on a used disk would re-write a new game over the existing game. In Japan, games rentals wasn't a thing and this made a fine substitute. Considering the legal battles going on over game rentals here at the time, I'd like to think it would have replaced that market. 

It was pretty popular and the kiosks could be found up to 2003 still operating. This is something I'd have loved. I can see myself buying boxes of disks and buying up games from machines in early adulthood. Back when I'd travel to different stores toy hunting. Back in those days, I'd often hit up different grocery stores to collect Homies and other coin machine toys. Hey, this one kiosk a few miles away has a special edition game? Off I'd go! I can see it clear as I'd travel an hour just to follow up on a lead. Admittedly, I'm enthralled by Gatchapon machines in general and would probably have a page here with my open trades if I were local to machines.

Here's where I admit that I'm day dreaming. Whenever you mention some older tech looks, someone will chime in with whatever negative things it had. It's probably true, but obviously wasn't a big deal as some of those kiosks were around so long. Cartridges did eventually have tech that wouldn't work on the disks and apparently piracy was an issue. Whatever, right? Piracy is still an issue and technology eventually moves on. It's easy to look back from the future and judge the faults later. I admit that I'm looking through rose tinted glasses on the subject. In my minds eye, it looked amazing.

Weekly Update: 5/23/22

 

Its a new week here on Planet Zone and the week before a holiday weekend. Memorial Day is is the beginning of summer and a well deserved break. Of course here that also means the beginning of the spookier times of the year! 

I had a pretty decent weekend. Took the Mrs shopping and she got some good stuff. She had picked up  Legacy Laser Optimus Prime and Dragstrip for me earlier in the week, so I wasn't planning on picking up much. A trip to Walmart resulted in a Marvel Mech Strike Monster Hunters Loki. While I'm enamored with this line, I'm also taking my time with it. I'll have plenty of time to get the toys I want. Not to mention, stretching it out will allow me to get more enjoyment from it. I had a great dinner consisting of Morning Star vegetarian buffalo wings with some Nathan's crinkle cut fries while we watched Ghost Adventures: House Calls. It's a nice spin on the show focusing on investigating average homes that happen to be haunted. I got some Million Warriors in our grocery order. 

Sunday had a Squishmallow event at Five Below and we went first thing in the morning. I had planned to grab some Bakugan while there, however the first store we went to didn't have the full assortment the Mrs was looking for. So we checked out with what she grabbed and hit up another 20 minutes away for the rest. That store was sadly out of Bakugan unfortunately. I did grab a neat Gundam sticker while there though. We needed a few things that was forgotten from the Walmart trip and decided to stop by Target on the way home. I grabbed a MOTU Origins Jitsu on sale and a Ferascal Ultra from Bakugan Geogan Rising while there. 

The rest of the day was spent napping and playing Kirby on my Switch. We had a wonderful supper of tacos and a strawberry shortcake the Mrs made before retiring for the evening while watching Halloween specials. Next weekend is a holiday and I'll be off Monday. So there'll be a little break in the regular programming. I do plan to have an episode of Transform Squadron out soon as well. I think episodes will likely release toward the back end of the month. It's more fitting considering the next few months of spooky shit. 

I've got a fun week planned. I want to thank you all for continuing to support Zone Base. I hope you all have a good week and a great holiday weekend. Please don't forget to share with your friends!

Two all Bot Patties, Special Plot, Let us See

 

It was the early 2000's and Transformers had been slowly growing from this kids thing with a small adult fan following into a pop culture phenominon. This was years before the live action movies propelled things into the strotosphere and you had Bumblebee on bottles of Mtn Dew. However thanks to places like Hot topic selling shirts with Autobot symbols on them and the then new Dreamwave Transformers comic flying off the shelves, things were growing.

Armada was a much bigger hit than anyone expected, leading to stores demanding more toys faster than they could be produced. Not to mention, the adult fan community was growing now with the internet getting into more homes and connecting people in ways it wasn't before. Repainted toy molds are a common thing in every toy line. However, for the most part, only a handful of Transformers would get a repaint up to this moment. Suddenly Hasbro needed to get more product out.

Toys take longer to develop than you'd think. There's a lot of hands in the pot all working on the same project. Transformers is a toy line with a longer developmental timeline due to the engineering involved. The fastest way to get stores new stuff out ASAP is to reuse existing resources and that's what they did. Practically every toy in Armada was repainted into a new version of the toy. At BotCon 2002, the exclusives bore the new label 'Expanded Universe" similar to Star Wars. Before then, they'd have the current lines logo. The ongoing story line would take place off screen of the current fiction usually with non-show toys serving as characters. 

Expanded Universe toys were still starring in the ongoing convention story line. Honestly it seemed like a good way to brand the convention toys and let those who used them fictionally to place them wherever. Halfway through Armada, something called Transformers Universe happened. It all but replaced the former BotCon, now called OTFCC's storytelling. Now all of their exclusives bore that title instead of Expanded Universe.

Transformers Universe ultimately was a brand new toy line made completely from repainted existing toy molds that sold right next to Armada (later Energon and Cybertron). At the time, Transformers didn't have the standard amount of shelf space most of us are used to. There was an entire 6-8ft section in most stores full of product. It was cool, and maybe a little overwhelming. You might hear the occasional older fandom member say "it used to be about 20 toys a year". It really was, and now there was a ton out seemingly nowhere. Add in things like G1 reissues, odd merchandise that kept popping up, or the cool things going on in Japan like when Robot Masters came out. There was just a ton of stuff!

Lots of stores had exclusive Transformers, mostly under the banner of Transformers Universe. There was a mix of Beast Wars/Machines, Robots in Disguise, Armada, and even older G2 and Machine Wars molds! Want a toy in exciting new colors, here ya go! Miss out on a toy before, well, here's another chance! It was great, and according to the Hasbro Transformers team, they were working on getting Brave molds into the line. Neat! Fictionally, all the Transformers throughout the greater Transformers Multiverse were all brought together inside Unicron. They'd fight to the death while Unicron would feed off the death and anger. OTFCC was directly selling comics to further the story... and that's where this story takes a nose dive.

There's some of you who read the name OTFCC and said 'what?'. Some of us collectively exhale. I've talked about it before, but let's explain it as simple as we can. Prior to Fun Publications BotCon was ran by 3H. 3H was the convention founding Hartman brothers and their friend Glen Hallit. They split up shortly after BotCon 2002. The brothers took the BotCon name with them and Glen continued to run the convention and now fan club named simply 'Official Transformers Collectors Convention/Club' or OTFCC for short. IUp to this point Hasbro supported BotCon, but by 2002, they had secured a license.

OTFCC didn't go as planned. Delays and other issues cause the show to fail and shortly after the 2004 convention the license was taken away from Glen. A little later Fun Publications was the new holder with the Hartmans back on board. Those 3H comics had sporadic releases and the story line ultimately went unfinished due to 3H closing down shop. The toys, however, went strong for a few years before dwindling down in 2005 before living out a few years as a discount store line. As a discount store line, the toys were generally lower cost figures repacked from prior lines such as Energon or Cybertron in a generic Transformers Universe packaging. The name itself got another life years later. What we now call Generations, went through a few names changes initially and was called Universe for a while. 

And just like that, it was forgotten. The Multiverse comes up time and time again and gets used differently in various fictional outlets. The word multiverse gets thrown around a lot lately, that's what inspired me to write this. Some people have outright forgotten about the original Universe or maybe never learned about it depending on their fan experience. Often you'll hear G2 colors either mocked or loved, but the often weird purple's and wine colors used in Universe go by unmentioned. That's a shame, it was fun. I thought so at least, I mean, I just wrote a lot of words talking about it. 

Bios: Jolt

 

"Live fast, ride hard, and leave a great looking chassis!"

Function: Sneak Attack Specialist

As mean as he is fast, but fearful of Autobots when outnumbered. Peels out at the first sign of trouble. Equipped with turbo-charged, V-12 engine with dual carburetors and side pipes. Too fast to be clocked by radar. Specializes in sneak attacks when armed with light saber. Steals from gas stations for spare parts.

Strength: 7 Intelligence: 6 Speed: 9 Endurance: 5 Rank: 3 Courage: 4 Firepower: 4 Skill: 6

Weekly Halloween: The Haunting of Grayskull

 

Castle Grayskull is a spooky place. It's a big, old,and decrepit castle with a freaking skull for a front door. Inside is all sorts of magic and sorcery. Hard to believe this is the good guys place, but it is... well unless Skeletor takes over and becomes Master of the Universe. While there's all sorts of scary things within, one particular ghost serves a purpose. The Spirit of Grayskull is the voice of the castle itself. He serves to guide those within on matters like the power sword and becoming King of the Castle. 

Originally the spirit was depicted as a cloud like skull face and was a more involved  fictionally in the early days, but did stick around. He appears in the original Filmation cartoon as a disembodied head. Later in Classics, it was established to be the ghostly form of King Grayskull himself. Personally I prefer those earlier depictions. Eternia and all it's citizens were more raw and that floating skull coming out of a skull shaped haunted castle was just perfect.

Had my Atari those days

 

The other day something got me thinking about playing Atari back in the day. I was a 2600 kid, had a few different units. One would seemingly burn out in time to find a replacement at a thrift store. Said replacement would last the same amount of time. I think my last 2600 was actually a Sears Video Arcade. The Sears Video Arcade was the Atari 2600 sold under Sears branding for whatever reason that was. The person who'll inform me why will also correct me that the 2600 was originally the Atari VCS. For that person, thank you for your input. Because of my age it will always be the 2600 as by the time I got mine, it had been renamed.

I loved my Atari and have some fond memories of playing it on my little 13" black and white TV while listening to the radio. Of course the NES surpassed it in every way, but I still played my 2600 during the time as well. After all, a NES game could be pretty exspensive and an 2600 game could be bought for pretty cheap. I had to wait for a holiday to get Megaman 2, but got Vanguard for a few bucks on clearance. Fortunately the same place with those cheap Atari games turned out to be a cheap NES game outlet eventually. Good old Kay-Bee.

One thing that I never liked about my trusty 2600 was all those switches. They served a purpose, but I never liked them. Speaking of things I didn't like, I hated switching between the paddle controllers and joysticks. With my NES, all I needed to swap around was the light gun occasionally, and that was a big occasionally. It wasn't until adulthood that I learned of the Atari 2800. Which would have been the ideal Atari (other than an ST) for me at the time. 

The 2800 started it's life as a Japanese version of the 2600. It featured a more slick looking console to compete with the Famicom and other newer consoles at the time. This was just before Atari updated the 2600 with a sleeker looking box (at a much lower price) to try and compete with the NES. It looked sharp, replaced those switches with much more modern looking buttons. Most importantly, the controller was a hybrid paddle and joystick unit. A good update that corrected some issues.

Unfortunately for Atari, this wasn't much of a success in Japan. It wasn't even their first attempt at marketing the 2600 over there. The 2800 was about $100 (in US dollars) more than a Famicom and was almost a 10 year old system at this point with no real way to compete with the then hot new thing. So the 2800 bowed out of the race in Japan quietly before finding a new life here in America as the Sears Video Arcade 2. Don't ask me how we got back to Sears, history can be weird sometimes.

Weekly Update: 5/16/22

 

I had a pretty good weekend. Saturday the Mrs and I had just a few things to do. It was time to upgrade my trusty S10 after two and a half years of service. I'm going to miss it, but this is the way of mobile devices. I now have a shiny new S22+ for the next few years and thanks to device share, it's got all my old stuff still. Though it's definitely an upgrade. We then made a quick stop at the nearby Best Buy for a new case. Got to take care of my investment and personal electronic companion!

We visited the the PopShelf store that recently opened near us. It's actually in the former location of Spirit Halloween, so we're well acquainted how to get there. Don't worry, Spirit moved a few buildings up last year due to this being constructed. PopShelf is a pretty neat little store. It's owned by Dollar General and a new chain of household stuff at fair prices. Think of it as a hybrid of Five Below and a general store. It's actually pretty nice inside and almost feels like something fancy.

They had a great little toy section full of blind bags. I got a Beyblade micro, a BotBot (haven't opened those yet), a little wind up ghost, and a Legend of Zelda Four Swords capsule. I did open my Zelda capsule and got a green Link! The series is by Tomy and each capsule has one of the four Links from Four Swords games. The figures are pretty nice and articulated mini figures with the gimmick that where you turn Links head, his eyes look that way. He has a sword and shield as well. There's so much personality in this little guy. I also got a G.I.JOE Snowcat building block set. My favorite JOE vehicle.

We then went to Walmart where I picked up Legacy Bulkhead. Friday the Mrs had grabbed me a Legacy Arcee. Here's hoping this one came with everything after the last one didn't. Thursday I had picked up Legacy Skids after a doctors appointment. Just a good few days for Transformers! The Sandstorm and Nightprowler I pre-ordered should be arriving this week. I decided to take my chances with finding Buzzsaw at retail. So I hope my luck continues next weekend. 

We ordered from Johnny's Pizza for dinner. I enjoyed a salad and two slices of pizza. I had mapped out my sodium intake all day and somehow ate two giant slices of pizza within my daily allotment. The Mrs fell asleep on the couch soon after leading me to watching Voltes V. She woke up near the end. It's pretty funny watching her reactions to my shows. She still doesn't believe Masterforce is Transformers and couldn't believe the name of what I was watching was called Voltes V. She swears I made the name up and asked why Voltron was fighting the devil. 

Sunday was a relaxing day of watching Ghost Adventures, napping, and playing Kirby on my Switch. Mom came over for dinner and we were going to cook out. However a sudden rainstorm led to cooking on the Foreman grill instead. It was still delicious and next Sunday there's a Squishmallow event at Five Below to prepare for. Looks like I'll be bringing home some more Bakugan!

I'm watching Haunt TV and drinking a Melon Ramune as I write this. I like to have a bottle of Ramune on the weekend. It's a silly tradition, but a good one. I don't drink  alcohol anymore and always have liked Ramune. Somehow that weekend beer became a weekend Ramune and I think I like it better that way. Of all the millions of Ramune bottles I've tossed, I've never saved the marble. Wonder if I should start? Thank you for continuing to support Zone Base. I've got a fun week planned and as always I ask that you please share with your friends! 

Scorponok the 13th

 

It's Friday the 13th and a pretty good time to enjoy some of the more spooky side of things. I could point out how various talent from Transformers and Friday the 13th have worked on both franchises again, but I thought it'd be a good day to look at a more forgotten member of the scary robot crew. Dark Scorponok! Now, Scorponok is hardly forgotten and generally a featured character, but in the case of Dark Scorponok he was literally just a repaint used to fill out some gaps in Cybertron when the line was just releasing.  With a Black Zarak inspired deco (I'm regretting skipping that Legacy one now, dangit) Dark Scorponok was a pretty good looking update to the Energon Scorponok toy mold. I strongly recall many of us in the Transformers fandom speculating that he was going to be a BotCon exclusive based on early leaks.

This was when Fun Publications first took over and nobody knew what to expect yet. He wasn't a BotCon exclusive, but a normal retail release! However, his characterization was solely in Fun Publications fiction. During Cybertron, the fan club magazine's comic was a side story to the Cybertron cartoon with a variety of exclusives and non-show toys led by Vector Prime addressing the problem on Cybertron. I quite liked the comic and had fun seeing all these toys get some form of life. Dark Scorponok was among the bad guys. As he died in Energon, Scorponok was resurrected as Dark Scorponok on this wasteland of Cybertron that's being destroyed by Unicron's evil.

Dark Scorponok is a almost mindless monster who's main focus is devouring the sparks of other Transformers. He's a pretty big threat whom is eventually dealt with by the Autobots. As a toy, Dark Scorponok is mainly a repaint of the Energon toy with a remolded tail piece. Now instead of a lever to control his 'Hyper Mode' guns, there is a slot to insert a Planet Key matching Cybertron's toy line gimmick.

Bios: Scorch

 

"No-one gets past me. If they know what's good for them."

Function: Rear Guard

A formidable defense shield. Fiercely loyal to the Autobot leader and courageous to the point of recklessness. Is proud of his position in the Autobot ranks and enjoys teamwork. As vehicle, central turbine provides super defense power. As robot a formidable turbo-shielded presence. 

Strength: 6 Intelligence: 10 Speed: 8 Endurance: 6 Rank: 7 Courage: 7 Firepower: 8 Skill: 9

Weekly Halloween: Make mine Monster

 

As we're heading into the Spooky Summer, Marvel Mech Strike is taking a rather nasty turn. Mech Strike Monster Hunters is the new expression of the line that's taken my attention completely by storm. I was already enjoying Mech Strike (I do need to get a few more toys though) and seeing it go whole hog into a monster theme is just wonderful. Dr. Doom is using the 'Eye of the Kraken' to give himself some ghoulish new powers that he's shared with his fellow evil companions. The Marvel Heroes have no choice but to use the Eye of Kraken on themselves to combat this threat! Now their mech suit enhancements are full of supernatural powers! 

The delightfully monstery new toys are wonderful. There's a range of action figures, role playing toys, Funko pops, and other merchandise with this cool mix of monsters and mechs. I'm mainly here for the action figures, but maybe tempted by other stuff as it's all so cool. The larger mech suits have changed since normal Mech Strike. Instead of a pilot figure that fits inside the suit, the line features larger mech versions of the characters. I'm not complaining though as the toys are solid. The addition of horror really ads something, and not just because I'm crazy about this stuff. It almost has a Ultraman slant that works pretty well. I could definitely see a tokusatsu show based on this.

The bad guys are obviously the more monster flavored, while the heroes have a more knight like appearance. I see a lot of Lovecraft in the designs of the bad guys. I'm sure that's the idea, the Eye of the Kraken (itself used in gaming before) does hint at ancient evils. With some of Lovecrafts works not aging very well (it was a different time and can be rough sometimes) I'm sure Disney/Marvel would like to keep potential problems from popping up. There's a comic as there was with Mech Strike. I haven't read any of it, but may. Personally I like my little head cannon that I've formed. Which is really just the lines basic description but with zombies and skeletons. I'm a little ridiculous. 

A day with Shockwave

 

About 2 weeks ago as you're reading this, I finally bought a Turbo Changer Shockwave. I'd been wanting this figure since it came out in Cyberverse and for some reason never got it until recently under it's re release as a Buzzworthy Bumblebee figure. I've made my love for these simple figures know often here, so I'll spare you the details, but he's a pleasantly old school vibe robot toy. A week later after buying him, and a week before you'll read this, I opened him. I've got a pretty good backlog of unopened toys and the bulk of posts here are written in advance. I'm sure I've explained that one here as well, but thought I'd repeat it in case that wasn't clear. 

I've spent all the day with this Shockwave by my side. I work at night (I'm also sure I've said that before), and it was a Monday. I woke up early to see my wife off to work and spent the day doing odd tasks between goofing off and napping. Monday's for night shift folks are like Friday evenings for day shift folks. Shockwave got transformed a million times. If you look at the delightfully buggy alt mode, you'll see those rear legs. Squeeze them to auto-transform him into bot mode, pull them apart to go back. What kind of insect is he supposed to be? Maybe one of those flat grey ones I always see on my porch?

I spent a good deal of time playing Dig Dug 2 on my Switch. By my chair was a TV tray (the one from my Instagram). Shockwave stood there next to my Galaxy Tablet. When I wasn't playing, the pro controller would sit there with the two. I really wish this toy would get re released in different colors as someone else, just so it could get a little more out there. He really feels like a lost Beetras/Deluxe Insecticon. Maybe with a new head or in different colors he could be a new one.

He was by my side as I finished the current (and sadly last) season of Pacific Rim: The Black. Overlooked the making of my lunch that consisted of some tortilla pizzas and grapes. What's a tortilla pizza? It's a little pizza you make on a tortilla instead of a crust. I'm on a low sodium diet. With the right sauce, cheese, and tortillas, a pretty easy lunch that's tasty and also nothing to worry about. He found it logical to add some Mrs Dash prior to cooking. I thought it was a pretty good idea myself. 

During another round of Dig Dug 2... have you played it? It's really fun, I like it a lot better than regular Dig Dug. But anyways, while playing I found myself thinking Shockwave would be at home in an old 8 or 16-bit video game. Probably as a bad guy in some space shooter, his design would make for an excellent general soldier. I can really see him on the cover in that old school painted art style. If this really was an old toy, he might have actually popped up in one. Unofficially of course, but there he'd be. 

I'm at work now as I write this. Just sitting at my desk working, typing out a few lines here and there between working. Sipping on my water flavored with orange-vanilla Mio. About to eat my little Ziploc baggy full of low salt Ritz crackers that I'll dip into a cup of peanut butter. It's the simple kid, not much sodium. Kind of wish I'd have brought Shockwave with me. Not sure why I didn't, there's been plenty a work night with a Bumblebee nearby. I'm not sure if you're interested in getting this Shokwave toy, but he's good company.

Weekly Update 5/9/22

 

It's a new week here on Zone Base and I've got a fun week planned for you all. This past weekend was a peaceful one. I don't have much to really tell all you happened though. A trip to Target resulted on finding Mike and Lucas from the Stranger Things Features figures. Just need Will and I'll have the line finished.

I hope they continue making them, it's a really fun little set of figures. I also found Legacy core class Hot Rod. Walmart had Legacy Blaster much to my surprise. Their Transformers was mostly over stocked with bots I already own, so finding him floating around in the wrong area was unexpected. Dollar Tree still didn't have any new Final Faction toys, but I grabbed some wacky Block mini figures while there.

I happily watched Demon House for the millionth time with the Mrs while eating dinner. I really like the Morning Star vegetarian buffalo wings with some Nathan's crinkle cut fries. Straight from the air fryer and into my belly! I dozed off towards the end of the movie. Don't worry, I know what happens.

Sunday we spent some time working in our flower bed and cleaning up the front porch. Every spring means time to clean out the old mulch and put new in! We had gotten some new solar lights to put out there. The old ones still look good, but after a year of being outside have lost a little luster. They'll be going in the back patio replacing the former old solar lights currently there. Unfortunately those got broken by some preasure washers who weren't paying attention while working. 

The rest of Sunday was spent playing Kirby on my Switch while enjoying a strawberry Ramune before Mom came over for dinner. She usually does on Sunday, but seeing as it was Mother's Day this time we had a present for her. I had surprised the Mrs Friday morning at her job for the occasion. The cats wanted me to get her something you know. I guess I had something to tell you all about this weekend after all. There is a fun week of posts ahead, I mentioned that earlier. Thank you for continuing to support Zone Base. Please share with your friends!

Up to Energon

 

The Unicron Trilogy era was a pretty fun time. Transformers as a brand was huge and there was a ton of available product for fans at pretty fair prices. Didn't like Armada/Energon/Cybertron? There were reissues, Universe, Alternators, Robot Masters, etc to pick from. Armada has a lot of derision in the fan base. Well, it had a lot of derision from the loud mouths who talk over everyone else. It was fairly popular and sold gangbusters. To be fair, the cartoon had it's issues and the toys were quite different from what came before. Like I said, it sold very well. Money talks and bullshit walks.

By summer 2003, Energon was gearing up to take over and fan excitement was high. After initially being developed as Super Cross, the line as a whole was very similar to Multiforce with the combination gimmick for the Autobots. As early looks and leaks made their way out, fans eagerly gobbled up every bit of it. Rodimus was a big deal. At the time, the only Hot Rod or Rodiums Prime stuff was from the G1 version. The only new products of him would be reissues or random merchandise as well. Several (including myself) wanted a Rodimus Primal in Beast Wars or thought Sideburn should have been Hot Rod. So when Rodimus finally made a return, it was a joyous occasion. Energon was a pretty good time with some great toys. Sure the cartoon had it's issues, but once again it sold well. For a pretty good reason.

Bios: Demolishor

"As you command."

Demolishor fights ferociously in every battle to which he's sent, regardless of the odds. If Megatron tells him to do something, he does it without hesitation. To Demolishor, a leader must always be obeyed at any cost. Megatron values the unswerving loyalty of his best soldier, but abandons him, when necessary, to save his own life. Demolishor has never resented any of these betrayals. But will there come a day when Demolishor questions the orders of his leader?

Strength: 8  Intelligence: 5  Speed: 6 Endurance: 6 Rank: 7 Courage: 8 Firepower: 8 Skill: 7

Weekly Halloween: May the 4th Behead You

 

What do you get when Star Wars day falls on our weekly observance of all things spooky here on Zone Base? Creepypasta from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... Depending on your age, you likely have some Star Wars related Halloween memories. I've seen plenty of costumes from the movies. From the originals as a kid, to the more recent movies. There's been plenty of trick or treating options from Lucasfilm availible. The most memorable for me is my brother's Gamorrean Guard mask. Bought shortly after Return of the Jedi came out to wear on Halloween.

He wore that mask every year until reaching the dreaded 'too old' stage. Aside from the mask though, the rest of the costume wouldn't be very Star Wars. The first year wearing it, he wore a flannel shirt with a pillow stuffed underneath to make him fatter. Later years the mask was wore with a horror robe, thus making it terrifying in every conceivable way. Up until recently I still had the old mask. I was sadly forced to throw it away as time had made it start decomposing in storage.

Exploding with Nanogan

 

My descent down the Bakugan rabbit hole continues to be a fun dive. Nanogan are a newer thing that I'm enjoying a bit. Smaller Bakugan that attach to the larger toys. They're pretty charming and cute. I appreciate the simple designs as well. I don't play the game or watch the show, but they serve a purpose there. I definitely appreciate the overall design aesthetic of Bakugan. They're original looking, but remind me a little of other toys. It's a real cool mixture of design and simplicity. Not to mention creativity. Those characters have to fit into that little ball shape and spring to life when they transform in usually one step. Such a fun and cool series of toys.

Weekly Update 5/2/22

 

It's the start of a brand new week here on Zone Base! This weekend was a fun one, even though things didn't go according to plan. Initially I had wanted to stay home all weekend aside from a trip to Walmart for a few things. Well, our grocery order had an issue, leading us to cancel and have to do in person. The trip to Walmart was decided to visit a slightly out of town Walmart and there was a surprise Squishmallow event Sunday. So, we ended up not spending as much time at home as I'd liked. 

The Walmart I mentioned had quite a bit of Transformers I've been looking for, so I bought a lot. I try to keep my toy purchases around a certain amount each weekend, so I didn't get everything. I'll be going back next weekend for more. They had more Marvel Mech Strike Monster Hunters, but since it was all wave 1 (which will be in abundance) I held off. 

I picked up Legacy core class Skywarp (still no Hot Rod), Beast Wars Cybershark, that cool new Nano Metalfig TRANSFORMERS set, and stand back faithful readers...

I FINALLY GOT STUDIO SERIES SOUNDWAVE!

The quest is over! It actually does exist! There was some Legacy figures still there that I'll be picking up soon as well as those Monster Hunters, Bakugan, and MOTU. With inflation driving everything on top of other financial responsibilities. I'm not dropping that much cash on toys in a weekend. I may be crazy, but not irresponsible. After heading back to my area, we ordered from Tokyo Steakhouse for dinner. The order took longer than scheduled resulting in a trip to Target while waiting. While there I picked up Studio Series Wheeljack. We got our food, I had a bunch of sushi, and Halloween specials was enjoyed before falling the crap asleep. 

Sunday morning was for picking up groceries (Avengers bananas!) before the Squishmallow event at Five Below. Ours gets a good crowd, but not like other stores where you have to line up hours before opening. The Mrs got the toys she was looking for (not including the ones from Saturday) happily. The rest of Sunday was spent playing Switch, watching spooky stuff (worked in The Conjuring between paranormal shows and Halloween cartoons), and odd chores. Odd chores outside led to a small war with insects. It's spring and the bees are out in force. Not to mention hornets and all sorts of nasty bastards. I got out my electric tennis racket and went to war! Before you ask, it's a real thing sold to kill bugs. It's exactly what it sounds like, a tennis racket that takes batteries with a metal net that basically zaps the bugs. There's a small graveyard of bug corpses in my driveway of the little jerks. Well, until birds look over our multiple feeders and eat the fresh cooked hornets.

I've got a fun week planned for you all. I hope you enjoyed the spooky flavored week we just had. Walpurgis Night is over and this year lots of companies really got behind it as Halfway to Halloween. There was lots of spooky content floating around and I'm glad to have done my part. Spooky Summer is right around the corner and with it code orange fun! Thank you for continuing to support Zone Base. We're entering the more exciting times of the year and it's super awesome of you to enjoy it with me here on the site. As always, all I ask is that you share with your friends!