Megatron and Shockwave [Swapticons]

These Swapticons sure are fun, but they need someone to fight. That's were the bad guys come in! This is a pretty fun little duo as the two combine to form a vehicle similar to Ironhide and Ratchet's alt modes from the Cybertronian scenes in Bumblebee.

It also looks like the vehicle from Moon Patrol (sorta). Regardless of whatever you compare it to, it's a neat looking little vehicle. Each half has a little gun. I wish the robot modes could hold it, but oh well. Robot modes are chonky little shits with devious little faces. Swapticons really are a fun little set of toys. Probably not for everyone, but great for those who'll like them. Seeing as the faces are printed on, I figure there's a lot of mold reuses in the future and this one has potential for some fun sets. Neat.

Halfway 2 Halloween~Tonight we Scream

fatsAlien Nation was a science fiction/crime drama hybrid that delt with lots of social themes. It was also pretty dang good. Of course we're here for Halloween and hey, this pretty good show had a Halloween episode! It's the spooky season as as the Newcomers are adapting to life on earth they're of course learning about our cultures and holidays. Halloween is pretty weird for people that don't celebrate it as is, but imagine being from another planet. It's a pretty big culture shock, not to mention dealing with jerks. Emily is looking forward to her first Halloween, but some of the kids are of course not to friendly towards somebody different. Did I mention the social themes? Yeah, they go pretty hard. The Francisco's are having an interesting spooky season.

It doesn't help that George is tracking a serial killer. Oh hey, a serial killer at Halloween! This episode hits all the major notes! The killer however is targeting Newcomers in a very specific way. In their old culture, there was Overseers and slaves. Now on Earth, they're all equals... but the former Overseers still think they're better than others... sound familiar? It gets pretty heavy. Well the killer is specifically targeting the former Overseers in the manner of a scary folk legend the Overseers would use to scare the slaves into obedience. Needless to say, this isn't your average show or Halloween special.

Originally Posted: 09/01/2023

Jetstream BB-68 [BeastBox]

[Dual Shape of Mecha Jetstream and Cube] Transform Jetstream from cube mode to mecha model and back again in minutes! The whole body of it has fully adjustable joints, allowing to display in a variety of poses.

It's no secret that I joke around a lot, but I mean this with all seriousness. This is one badass toy we're going to be talking about today. Jetstream looks cute and by all means is, but he goes hard. Jetstream is a robotic Rockhopper Penguin with a great backpack.

As of this writing I don't have a bio to go by, but it has a digital readout of 40 degrees. I'm assuming our dude is doing some cold weather research. That backpack has an articulated antenna that looks like a cannon, so maybe he's going to give someone a cold blast with it. As cool as the backpack looks and as much of a Battle Beast vibe it gives me, it's just an accent to the excellent toy penguin Jetstream is. With a small amount of articulation (which is all you'd expect for this beast mode), 52Toys really produced one expressive bird.

His beak can open, his head can move all over the place, those wings move as do his legs, feet, and tail! One fun little feature is the wheels under his body and tail. Jetstream can lift his legs and roll around on them ala a Transmetal vehicle mode. I wasn't even aware of this when I first saw him, nor when I happily found him among my birthday presents from the Mrs. He can just scoot around if he don't feel like walking and I love that about him. Now, one thing about BeastBox is that they can be extremely deceiving. This little penguin converts into a box, how the hell is he going to do that?

Transformation isn't too difficult, but has it's moments of getting everything just right. His chest opens up and each side unfolds. It's just a matter of tucking everything in and plugging everything else into place. As a 4CM scale BeastBox, his Box Charger is one of the newer unfolding versions. Box mode slides locks into place securely allowing it to be stacked with your others. I think I prefer the standard Box Charger... but these little ones sure are neat. Jetstream is another outstanding effort from 52Toys and a solid example as to why the line is so good. Not to mention, who can look at that little guy and not like him? 

Halfway 2 Halloween~Haunted House (1929)

Man, Disney is #@%#^&$* awesome. One of the biggest companies in the world and they do Halloween better than anyone ever gives them credit. Disney's Halloween Treat is still a favorite of the wife and I (we literally have every single version of it... there's a lot of versions) and we're all over everything Disney and Halloween. We hope to make it out to the Not So Scary Halloween party next year because that just looks super amazing. This old Micky Mouse cartoon has the mouse exploring a most radical haunted house with skeletons that play songs on each others butts.

Grim grinning ghosts indeed.

Originally Posted: 08/24/2018

It's Halftime to Halloween!

It's the start of a new week, but not just any week, we're now Halfway to Halloween! This week we'll infuse a little of that Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem into the site to help hold you over until August and the start of the Zone Base Halloween party!

It may be spring with summer just around the corner, but there's plenty of chills to cool you down! In addition to the spooky fun, we'll be looking at some neat stuff  too! There's BeastBox and more Swapticons in between the tricks and treats. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. Please don't forget to share with your friends and Happy Halfway to Halloween!

Baron Karza [ReAction+/Micronauts]

Following up on yesterdays heroic Micronaut is the evil Baron Karza! Baron Karza is the leader of the Evil Acroyears and general scourge of all that is good. Super7 is using the toy fiction, which makes me happy as I like Acroyears EVIL! As a Reaction+, the Baron is an O-Ring style figure and not held together by magnets like his original. I had the Palisades version with Andromeda for years before giving it to my father in law as those magnets always made me super nervous around my electronics.

That was probably a little too cautious for any rational reason... but a lifetime of being told not to bring magnets around my electronics outweighs any logic. Considering those Palisades ones were notoriously made of brittle plastic, that one's probably a pile of rubble now anyway. With this O-Ring version, I can enjoy my toy without worrying that my computer is going to randomly zap out. Not to mention, I do like him being in comparable size to the other figures. Just feels nice in hand.

Baron Karza was sculpted by Mecha Zone like Biotron was and he really nailed it. That classic head looks fabulous and the body still looks like the Steel Jeeg toy that was reused on the original. While no longer using magnets, he's sculpted and colored to not ignore where they would have been. That's a nice touch. His belly button missile launcher is sculpted in, but obviously doesn't fire anything. I do wish his missile jet pack separated to be used as individual weapons, but understand it not doing so. The look is there, so I'm happy. He's nicely articulated and makes a fine addition to my micro ranks.

Considering the other ReAction ride-able animals, I hope an Andromeda is on the way. As a horse or with a removable head for that sweet centaur action... or both! I also hope a Force Commander is in store as the head swap and recolor should be easy enough. This toy would look so good in white! Knowing Super7, there's likely a bunch of repaints coming. I've got high hopes for alternate color Time Travelers and Acroyears in blind boxes... but would love to see some of those alternate colors for Baron Karza show up. I never could get my hand on those translucent ones Palisades did. The sky's the limit and I'm in for all sorts of variations. I'm so freaking happy that these are getting made!