Kreon Blizzard Strike Optimus Thinks He's A Microman

Remember that Soundwave I talked about yesterday? While at the Dollar General that day, the Mrs. saw the kreons and grabbed me a neat looking Optimus Prime. I was a big fan of Kre-O during it's run but slowed down during it's last years as a discount chain line. She saw these more deluxe Kreons with the add on parts on the pegs and grabbed me one. The Optimus Prime was differently colored than what his art depicted and she thought he looked neat. She was right, he does look neat.

While I have admittedly slowed down on the Kre-O stuff, it was fun revisiting it and frankly this Optimus was pretty cool. The toy is mostly in translucent blue and clear plastic with some solid white colored pieces. He's pretty dang sharp looking.

I had a hard time finding this version on the TFWiki, so I have no clue what they're actually called. They've had them at Dollar General for a while and I've just now gotten this one. Basically you get a Kreon with the parts to add on to make a more 'deluxe' figure. With all the parts added the figure has knees and elbows and stands a little taller. It's a neat little thing and I'm pretty tempted to get more now.

The funny thing about this figure is the base kreon. Without any of his extra parts, you pretty much have a Kreon Microman/Micronaut.When Kre-O was more of a thing, I thought Hasbro should have made Micronaut Kre-O sets. It seemed like the perfect fit to me. Years later, Kre-O technically still exists with a small amount of product available and I guess they just wanted the Micronauts name. Hopefully something will eventually come of it.

He could be a Henshin Cyborg as well I suppose, but my mind goes to Microman first. I've taken to calling him Microman Orion. A different helmet for the more 'deluxe' figure and he'd make a fine Acroyear. Now that I have essentially that Kre-O Micronaut I wished I had all those years ago, I really wish they would have made that line. The proportions are just right as is the sculpting.  Oh well, at least I have a cool Optimus Prime.

Weekend Reportings

I'd like to say I had an awesome weekend, but that'd be lying. It wasn't a bad weekend, or an ideal one. My mother is moving and I spent a good deal of the weekend at her storage unit unloading a U-Haul. Combined with the near 100 degree weather of August in Georgia and you've got the ingredients for a poopy time.

Friday while I was at work, the Mrs. made a trip to Walmart and found me a Earthrise Snapdragon while there! I've been really looking forward to this bot and finally got a chance to play with him Monday morning. Great figure, there'll be a post on him later this week. I didn't think to ask her to check for the MMPR Megazord, but kinda figured he wouldn't have been there yet anyway. Masters of the Universe and Ghostbusters were still cleared out.

We stopped by a Dollar General and Kroger to look at incoming Halloween stuffs and both stores weren't quit there yet. Kroger had some candy and ceramic pumpkins (that we're a little interested in) and the Dollar General was a wet fart. The one by my wife's work already has already got a ton out. This one had like... the boxes sitting on shelves unopened and doesn't look like it's been cleaned since it opened. 

That's kinda the risk with Dollar Generals, either it's pretty ok or a train wreck. No in between. After looking at their site last week, it doesn't look like there's any new monster army figures. Just a repeat of the 2017 and 2018 sets like last year. Bummer. I did see something unexpected at Kroger though. They had 3 3/4th Kenner style Marvel figures in little bags. These may be the same discount line I've seen at Big Lots a few years ago in different packaging, but I'm pretty tempted to go back and snag a few. At least Spider-Man. 

So how did AC/DC manage to have two different singers who sounded like they were passing a kidney stone?

New Authentics!

It feels good to be a dollar store gangster. News recently broke of more Authentics coming to stores soon! While I haven't gotten any of the Titan Changers recently sold at the stores, I've made no secret of my love for these not very expensive figures. Soundwave looks to be taking a cue from his Cyberverse incarnation... and not a bad step to follow. Ratchet looks pretty good, he'll probably be an Easter Egg shell like the Optimus, but I don't care! It's $5! Like I said, I haven't gotten any of the Titan Changers... but that Grimlock might be the gateway to those. These look like just the thing to hunt in discount stores very soon!

Dollar Rangers

I love running errands. Not all the time kind you, but every so often I'll find myself needing to run a few on a Monday morning and I really make the most of it. With my work schedule I really don't stop by any store aside from a gas station until the the weekend. So those occasional Monday morning runs really can feel like an adventure. A pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt. Maybe a hoodie (weather depending) and my drawstring backpack and I'm off. Maybe I have to go to the post office and drop off a load at the Goodwill. Perhaps grab a few things we forgot to over the weekend or do a few things there wasn't any other time to do. Life is random.

While out I usually make a point to drop by local Family Dollar/Dollar General stores. Monday mornings are probably the best time to peruse their various discount wares. I've never made my love of discount store toys a secret here and usually those errand runs are the best time to partake in checking those out. The stores are usually not very packed and aside from the occasional weird look from the random disgruntled senior citizen (one flipped me off in the parking lot when I was looking for Transformers Authentics... I have no clue why), I can usually enjoy my visit in a pretty low key manner. Earlier today I was alerted to images of the new value channel Power Rangers figures from Hasbro.

I've been eyeing the similar Marvel, Star Wars, and DC figures at these stores with a lot of temptation. I did buy some of the RID 2015 from a few years back and they're very pleasant basic figures. The initial batch seems to be Beast Morphers flavored and I wonder if other Ranger teams will follow. Or wondering as the initial batch is the original three Rangers from the show if the others as well as the villains will make an appearance. I'd sure like a Blaze in this form factor (love that design).

They're super cool looking and probably the dipping point to get me buying more of these type figures. They're generally pretty low priced, so I can see myself buying one or two on a random trip out. Then one day realizing I've gotten them all somehow.

Army of Darkness building

It's Memorial Day, casually referred to as the unofficial start of summer, but it's been 90 degrees since the beginning of the month already here... so just the start of summer as far as I'm concerned. I've mentioned before that I consider summer to be the prelude to Halloween. Sure, it's all hot and sunny outside while eating some hot dogs cooked on a grill while watching fireworks. Not exactly fall, but where do a million horror movies take place at? Summer camps mofo. How many slasher marathons on cable have you sat through during the summer? Like a million mofo. What's with the last month of summer and suddenly pumpkins are showing up? Halloween mofo.

Like I said, summer is the prelude to Halloween.

Mofo.

Right now I'm likely kicked up in my recliner, alternating between Castlevania Collection and napping. I'm fully taking advantage of the holiday weekend to get some much needed rest, so much that I wrote this post a week in advance (hello from the past!). But like I said, summer is the prelude to Halloween mofo and something Halloween has been on my mind recently is the Dollar General Halloween army for this year. Mofo.

The Dollar General Halloween Army isn't the official name for the series of spooky figures. It doesn't have one, but it's my best way to reference them. Beginning in 2017, DG released the Skeleton Army as part of their Halloween offerings. Ten skeleton warriors for a dollar, what could be better? Last year in 2018, they followed that up with the Mummy Army with the Skeleton Army returning as well. This year I can only hope they keep the tradition going. It's something I've grown to love over the past few years.

I've been speculating what the 2019 set could be. Hoping the excellence continues and hoping for something really great. I've went back and forth on what kind of monsters I'd like to see as an army. I'm strongly resting on 3 ideas. Vampires, werewolves, and Frankenstein Monsters. An army of those monsters carrying swords and axe's seems amazing. Part of me wonders about witches and warlocks, or even a generic fantasy set. But Vampires are the one I'd want to see most. Full cliche Dracula style vampires in capes and suits brandishing mid-evil weapons would be amazing.

Mofo.

Micromasters at Maximum value

With a site named Zone Base, it's not much of stretch to explain that I kinda like Micromasters. In fact, as readers probably have noted, I kinda have a thing for smaller Transformers and maybe even smaller toys in general. I don't have a greater explanation for why I do, I just do. So obviously with Micromasters in stores again in the Siege toy line, I'm one happy camper. Though, I've been having a good time at camp the past few years with a multitude of smaller TF toys at retail on a steady basis. Legend/Legion/Speed/whatever, Titanmasters, Primemaster, Botbots are just a few examples of smaller Transformers on shelves in the past few years.

So,  Saturday I had to make a run to the Family Dollar. While I was there, I took notice of some Primemasters hanging on the hooks next to the odd Legion and Authentics figures they normally have on the shelves at such stores. That's then I took note of things. Most toy lines feature a discount store version. There was Marvel, TMNT, Star Wars, and a few others with lower end toys to sell at these lower end type stores. It's nothing new and in fact something I enjoy keeping up with. It occurred to me while I was standing there that since the Authentics figures seemed to land with a dull thud for the most part as a discount line, what if the lower priced 'Masters' figures of late would/could replace them as the discount line? I mean, realistically the price of a small Authentics figure is very close to the Primemasters hanging right next to them on the shelf.

The Legion molds that have been in use for years now have probably seen the end of their molds viability and while the Authentics were an attempt to replace them, they clearly didn't. I mean, I admit to enjoying them, but that's because I like oddball things. They were cheap toys, especially compared to the Legion figures they were right next too. That was probably a pretty hard sell. Or if you look at the other discount toys, hell... those are still pretty good quality looking toys. So I wonder, just like in the past with discount versions of TF being smaller inexpensive molds reused to death, what if they used the well received recent smaller toys. Titanmasters, Primemasters, Battlemasters, Micromasters, even the newer Speed Series all generally sell for around $5 at most stores. Ok, Micromasters are $10, but that's a two pack. Like the former discount store versions of Spy Changers, Mini-Cons, and Legions I could really see these priced similarly in reuse for years. Wacky repaints and odd name uses up the wazoo as well!

I'd wholeheartedly welcome that. In fact, I'd love that. That's just the precises kind of thing I'd go nuts over.

Transformers Authentics Latino America commercial

You know, I had such a good time hunting the first batch down earlier this year, I really hope they make some new ones and I get to repeat that. It can be fun to hunt regular toys already, but something like these intended for discount chains that don't have the best distribution for toys, it can be a challenge. Not to mention, you can go into two Family Dollars just a few miles apart and feel like you've been in two different stores. One will be nice with recent merchandise and well kept, another can be a dumpster fire with a can of Chef Boyardi from 1994 still on the shelf. If it's during a holiday time frame, that can add into the equation more.

Not to mention, I like oddball things like this. I often snatch up cheap licensed stuff regularly, so a quirky line of low rent figures is just the thing. Some new molds or repaints of existing molds are just what I want. Maybe something like red repaints of Bumblebee into Cliffjumper, white repaints of Optimus into Ultra Magnus. Random 'stealth' versions of Megatron, obvious seeker repaints. Maybe a Trypticon made from the large Grimlock. Or hell, just versions of the characters in crazy colors. Actually, that'd be neat. They're so cheap, I wouldn't think twice in buying a hot pink Optimus.

Now if news sites would stop calling them Cyberverse or Evergreen.

Authentic hunt

These guys, right?

I've mentioned here before just how excited for the new Authentics Transformers figures I am. In fact, probably pretty often. Well as news of them popping up at Dollar Generals started last week, I couldn't contain myself. I started hoping I'd find them only to no avail.

So, today while promising to run some errands for my wife,  I took it upon myself to hit up a variety of stores in hopes of getting my Evergreen on. I live in the rural outskirts, so fortunately there is plenty of the 'dollar' stores local.

I first did a Google search for Dollar Generals near me from my last errand stop. Amazingly there was one 5 minutes away that I never knew about prior.

An old man shot me the bird in the parking lot when I left

Well, I walked in and man this was one big Dollar General... it took me a minute to find the toys.

Farts, not yet

So, I walked around and Googled the next store local... oh the one one the way home. You know what, I'm going to the Family Dollar instead. I always liked those better anyway. There's even that new one just down the road.

Oh hey, not even busy.

So I walked in and looked around for a second and... and... well they had nothing new on the shelves. So, I think about where to go next and there they were just laying on the bottom shelf just out of site. I did a jump with an excited gasp.

The store employees were looking at me dissaprovingly as I took this. 

I snatched up one of each and then noticed there was no price to be found. I looked here and there and saw a price nowhere. So I went to the cashier for a price check. $5.75 each. The same price as legions at Family Dollar. Wondering if my theory that these will replace Legions (movie ones are $8 at my local Walmart, a dollar less than Legends, which really defeats the purpose and these match up to Legends in scale).

So I walked around with my robots as I waited for my wife to text me back incase I needed to grab anything else. Purchasing my robots the employee mumbled something about not understanding. I then left and went to the grocery to buy my wife Cellas. Thats where I took this selfie. Because I was proud of my find and shared it on Talk Transformers.

My eyes always look googly in selfies.

As I went home I wished that song about this is how we do it was on. I think it's called 'this is how we do it'. I'm not sure what the it they're talking about doing in that song is, but I'm sure they were buying Transformers as well.