Aiming for a good Week

Another Monday has cursed us with it's presence, but at least a new week on Planet Zone is here to ... I dunno, do something. Like you all, I wish there was more weekend to enjoy. Such is life I guess, and if it means anything, I've got a fun week of posts to hopefully help get you to next weekend. 

As far as toys go, I got a few. Transformers Earth Spark warrior class Optimus Prime and Tacticons Bumblebee and Megatron. I originally planned to get just a few Tacticons... and since getting Optimus last week... I'm hooked. They give me Mini-Con energy and that's all it took. They're surprisingly fun, simple little bots. Hopefully they'll be as fun to collect as Mini-Cons were.

I stated off Sunday waking up early and watching Tokushoutsu. I do love that channel and Sunday morning just the proper time to indulge in it. A stop by Five Below later provided a little extra fun. I picked up another copy of the Yokaiden manga... I still haven't read the last one, but I do love some yokai. It's February and hankering for Halloween is running wild in my heart. So of course spooky shit is more than welcome. 

The store also had a new surprise for me. Bakugan figurines! Instead of the normal changing little orbs, figurines of a few Bakugan as they appear on the show. I got a white and blue Hydorous. The figures are sold in two alternate colors and come with cards and coins. Pretty neat! I should get this week started, there'sstuff to do. Thanks to everyone for reading. If you could, please share my posts with your friends. That'd be awesome.

Weekly Update- 1/30/23

Unfortunately the weekend has ended, but that just means a new week here on Planet Zone! I spent this weekend mostly at home aside from some shopping. I had intended to get some put off housework done, but that didn't happen. I did manage to pick up some fun stuff. Two Micro Galaxy Squadron blind boxes, two of the new way cool Dungeons and Dragons Dicelings (way cool D&D monsters that transform into dice), Studio Series Core class Laserbeak, a copy of Yokaiden book 2 (Five Below has good deals on manga), and Terror Claws Skeletor from MOTU Origins (random luck at Big Lots). It's the beginning of the year. Stock can be low, but I found some good stuff.

I also ordered a carrying case for my Digimon. The Mrs got me a 20th anniversary unit for Christmas and it's been fun to play again after all these years. I intend to get one of the Digimon X units later. I always liked lcd gadgets and had fun with virtual pets back in the day. This is just a great portable RPG. Now I can carry it around without getting it dirty. I watched some good TV. Lots of paranormal TV and the new episode of 1000lbs Sisters (it's surprisingly addictive, ok). Also finally watched My Amityville Horror. It's a documentary about the oldest Lutz child including various interviews with news personalities that handled the case and therapists. It doesn't try to convince you if it really happened or didn't. Just sort of a look at this persons life and everything that happened because of it. Pretty interesting. I also worked in a viewing of Garfield's Halloween Adventure... look, you know how this works.

I've got a fun week in store for you all. Thank you so much for reading Zone Base. If you like what I'm doing, please share posts with your friends. I've got some chores to do and this Digimon has sone fighting to do! Have a great week!

Weekly Update 9/26/22

Thanks for coming back for another week on Planet Zone! It's the last week of September meaning we've got one more month of Halloween fun! Since it'll actually be October, it's gonna be extra spooky! I had a fun weekend that I wish wasn't over already. The Mrs picked up Legacy  Tarrantulas for me Friday night on a Target run for cat food. Saturday while picking up our grocery order I finally found Studio Series Spike. I love a good Core Class toy. We spent most of the weekend at home, but Sunday we stepped out for a Squishmallow event at Five Below and I grabbed Gorthion from the Bakugan Mystic Pack set they sell there. I neek to research some of the molds they use there as I think some of those versions need to come home with me! I've got a fun week planned for you Zone Base readers. Thanks so much for continuing to support the site. As usual, I don't ask anything from you. No ads, no begging, and no capitalizing. All I ask is that you share with your friends. It's fun that way!

Weekly Update 8/22/22

It's a little late, but it's also the start of a new week here on Planet Zone! The weekend went by faster than I'd have liked, but I still had some fun! I enjoyed some early Halloween stock at various stores and took the Mrs hunting various Krogers for Squishmallows. During the outing I picked up Scourge, Clamp Down, and Road Rocket from the Velocitron Speedia 500 collection at a Walmart. Also picked up Authentics Arcee and a Bakugan Cubbo at Five Below during their Squishmallows event this weekend. A trip to the Dollar Tree resulted in several Final Faction accessory packs I've been needing. Not a bad weekend for toys!

I intended to work on some models, but an impromptu lunch with family killed some of that time. Oh well. I was planning to record this months episode of Transform Squadron today, but things happened. Don't worry, it's still coming! Just sometime soon instead of just coming soon. I almost forgot to mention. The Mrs suprised me Friday morning with a Red Cog and some snacks. I wasn't aware they made jumbo Red Vines. They do! They're just like regular Red Vines... BUT JUMBO! I've got a fun week in store for you all. Hope you like Gameboy games! Thanks for reading Zone Base, I really appreciate it. If you life what I'm doing, please share with your friends. It's all I ask!

Weekly Update 6/27/22

 

NEW WEEK, BRAIN ON! Thanks for coming back for another week here on Planet Zone. Next weekend will be another holiday weekend, so I'll be taking next Monday off. Check my social media to keep up with what I'll be doing. I can't promise it'll be exciting, but... it's something. 

This weekend went by way to fast for my liking. I didn't do much, but managed to find Legacy Blitzwing during a trip to Walmart Saturday. Tried Morning Star vegetarian chicken nuggets and they were great! The rest of Saturday was spent watching paranormal videos and Jetman. Not bad!

Sunday was a Squishmallow event at Five Below. Before the event I played some Demon Slayer on my PS4 while enjoying a bagel and iced coffee. The Mrs found the Squishmallows she was looking for as well as a new plush line the same company had released. I got a new light box for my TikTok/Reels. I can't find my light tent and have been using a temporary solution. So this will be an upgrade in the meantime. 

My little videos are still small, but people seem to be liking them. I'm learning as I go, and they're slowly getting better. Think a light ring may be in my future. I also got volume 3 of the Attack on Titan manga. I've gotten the first two at Five Below and it's looking like that's how I'll keep doing it. No problems there! I spent the rest of the day napping, watching spooky stuff, and playing with my Gundam Infinity figures. Still haven't found series 2, but the first batch is a lot of fun. The idea is to disassemble them and mix the parts. So while they're not models, you can still build a cool new Gundam!

I've got a dentist appointment in the morning to start getting some chipped teeth fixed. I'm looking forward to getting them fixed, but not the appointment. Just don't care for the dentist. Hopefully this won't suck too much and hopefully this weeks content here on the site helps to keep your week from sucking. Thanks for reading and please share with your friends! 

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!

Hot New Week Scamble!

 

It's Monday and you know what that means! It's a new week here on Planet Zone! Speaking of a new week... where the hell did the weekend go? Friday morning I went to Target for the new Pokémon game for the Mrs. While there I found Kingdom Slammer and Pipes. The Toei Spider-Man Hot Wheel was also there. Been looking for that one. Still no Studio Series Soundwave. That's now autofilling itself out.

Saturday was spent mostly in bed until the afternoon when the Mrs and I went to Five Below. There I found a neat Stranger Things field guide and grabbed a Siege Firedrive to give Studio Series Hot Rod. The Mrs pointed out neat plush Mario and Luigi bag clips that I also picked up. A bottle of Ramune was also bought as I've been craving it lately. We then took my mother grocery shopping before ordering food and watching this weeks Mandelorian and 1000 lbs Sisters.

Sunday was mostly spent playing Demon Slayer on my PS4 while the Mrs played that new Pokémon game. For dinner Mom came over and the Mrs made low sodium tacos! I helped set up Mom's new Chromebook we had gotten her for Christmas (she apparently hadn't herself yet). 

The weekend's over though and time to enjoy my Monday before heading into work tonight. Did you all enjoy the new episode of Transform Squadron? I'd been planning to do it since December. Things happened though keeping recording it delayed a little. I planned on January, just it ended up being a little late. I've got a fun week in mind for you all. Thanks to each and every one of you for continuing to support Zone Base. Don't forget to share with your friends!

Clean up and Slay the new Week

It's a new week here on Planet Zone and one week closer to Christmas! I don't know about you guy's, but Christmas time is a strange flavor of chaotic for me. Between the shopping and holiday gatherings while still working and living my normal life, it's a stressful yet fun time of the year. Though on Christmas Eve, there's a peaceful calm that's never replicated any other time of the year. I spent most of this weekend shopping for gifts as well as another Sunday Squishmallow event at Five Below for the wife (they're practically having one every weekend lately) before having Mom over for dinner that night. Sunday was my Mom's birthday and she turned 70!

We had a wonderful pot roast the Mrs cooked in the crock pot and some cake while watching various Muppets Christmas specials. Mom brought me a Mega Construx MOTU Skeletor head she had grabbed while out. It's the Fisto set, I already have it, but welcome the extra parts. Whenever Mom finds them in the clearance aisle she grabs them for me. I've got a couple extra figures by her doing that which provides excellent extra parts for future use.

While out I did manage to find some if the new Final Faction toys. I got all the new figures, just need the Arrow ATV and new accessorie sets to be caught up. I never thought something like a cheap dollar store toy line would be as popular as it is. Pretty cool to discover something like that on launch as well. Neat. Fun fact, the guy who designed the figures works for Super 7 now. I happen to think very highly of them and happy to see that merging of things I like. This year I missed out on the Lego  Star Wars Advent calendar.

Bummer, but in it's place the Mrs gave me a different kind of toy calendar. The Microbots Advent! These are small block kit robots that are a merge team. There's various sets available, mine is a dinosaur team vs a car team. It's a 12 day Advent Calendar, so I'm just now starting to feature it on my social media. That Instagram of mine is going to be a pretty neat place for a while! Well, I've got some household chores to do in between a little toy pics for this week on the site. Better get to work! Thanks each and every one of you for continuing to support Zone Base. It means so much to me that you continue to enjoy my madness. Put on a sweater (it's cold out there) and please share with your friends!

New Week Build

It's a new week here on Planet Zone! I had a pretty good weekend. Helped my Mom put up her Christmas decorations. Putting lights up outside is so fun I do it at two different places! The Mrs surprised me with a super neat Advent Calendar that I'm looking forward to working through. Speaking of the Mrs, we went to Five Below Sunday for a Squishmallow event. There wasn't much there she didn't already have, but we still got a few. I grabbed a Treasure X Monsters while I was there. I haven't had time to open it, but you can be sure it's awesome. I've got a fun week in mind here on the site. Thank you for your continued support and please share with your friends!

New Week Dash Plus

It's a new week here on Planet Zone and boy are my arms tired... wait. Anyway, it's a new week! I had a pretty good weekend and I hope you did too. The Mrs and I did our spooky season tradition of exchanging seasonal appropriate gifts and watched Halloween Kills on Peacock. More on that later.  We also went to get the annual Halloween set of doughnuts at Krispy Kreme. There was a Squishmallow event at Five Below with Halloween Squishmallows for $4 each. The Mrs collects those and we got her some good ones. I love a trip to Five Below!

Finally found a Dracodon and in the spooky gift sack I was spoiled rotten. A new Fright Features Ecto-1 and some Mini Pufts. Some Treasure X Monsters, Studio Series 86 Gnaw, candy, and this year's Halloween Star Wars Droid! Spooky fun with half the month to go! I've got a fun week in mind here on the Base for your eyeholes. I'm still a little extra busy, so don't be surprised to see some shorter posts here and there. There's no ads either and I buy my own coffee too! Thank you for your continued support and for reading Zone Base! Please share with your friends!

Immortal Bumblebee Toy

The Legends/Legion Bumblebee mold from Reveal The Shield has been re-released so many times over the past decade that I'm amazed it's still in use. I think it's run as a discount store toy has been going for a steady 6 years straight with no end in sight. I don't know who's counting, but this is probably the longest running Transformers toy of all time.

The figure gets random changes as time goes. From different releases or just whatever random reason, they'll be something different about it occasionally. That was the reason I got it again recently. In October actually, my wife was at Five Below and sent me a picture of the toys asking if I wanted anything. I spotted the Bumblebee and asked her to grab me one. It'd been a while since I'd gotten a version of it (maybe the Cliffjumper from 2015) and I was curious to see what was different this time.

If you've never had the figure, it's still a good one to get. Classic Bumblebee as you expect him updated to transform into a sporty hatchback. The toy predates the current return to VW Bug Bumblebee toys and was released during the time VW wasn't ok with their car being used.

The sporty hatchback has always been a good replacement to me and kinda looks pretty similar to a Bug. This figure is pretty close in size to the original Microman toy and it's always felt like a natural evolution of it to me. 

The toy itself it pretty good. He's got the basic level of articulation you'd expect from a Legion Class toy. In robot mode it looks like Bumblebee got a new alt mode on some episode and it walked off the screen.

His transformation is pretty similar to the original as well. Pull them legs up and fold those feet down. Push those arms in and fold the back over to cover the head. Classic Bumblebee. They were clearly updating the original toy.

He wasn't too different from what I can remember of the last time I got this toy. Same stripes and Autobot symbol placement. The grey on his robot parts looks darker and I swear the yellow is a little too. Not enough to qualify as a new variation, but it's darker than I remember. I'm sure.

The plastic felt a little flimsy this time. Not sure if that's from mold degradation or maybe just a cheaper plastic used. Considering the toy only costs $5, I'm sure they've needed to adjust the recipe a little over the years.

They downsized the bubble on his card and MADE the figure fit inside. Bumblebee is crammed inside the packaging half transformed. At first I thought I had gotten a broken one. Apparently all of them at the store were that way... in 10 years a fan who was a kid in 2020 will make a custom Bumblebee based on this. I really look forward to it.

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!

Programing Note: Zone Base VR

So, I've become a fan of VR videos. While I've always held a curiosity in virtual reality in general (including my time spent with the Virtual Boy in high school), I've recently let my fandom of POV theme park ride through videos guide me into getting one of those cell phone VR set ups. I have no clue what took me so long as I've been eyeing them for quite a while now (the mask was literally 5$ at Five Below, and I bought a controller for 5$ also), but I recently bought the needed stuff at my wife's insistence ('just buy it already, you want it and it's not expensive') and I owe her flowers for that. I love it.

After some basic experimenting and switching around phones in the headset (got a few older phones not in use that make for good fodder for a good set up), I've got myself going with my wife's old S4, which is doing a good job. It took a minute to get used to the controls and figuring out that on screen mouse that the controller I bought serves as (might be getting a better one in the future, you never miss a spring in a joystick until a 5$ one doesn't have one) to really get the swing.

360 VR video is really neat, though you really need to sit in a swivel chair to fully enjoy it without tripping over your own feet (that and you're not actually in the surroundings you see). Though I enjoy the 3D POV style videos the best. There's a basic narrative device in treating your point of view as a camera that really makes the experience a lot of fun (and downright frightening in those scary videos).

It's inspired me to start sharing some of these videos here. Seeing as I've already posted about Universal Studios a few times here, I figure regular readers might enjoy these experiences. All you need to enjoy these is a smart phone (one with a gyroscope for 360 videos) and a VR mask (they run in price ranges, but I got one for 5$ as I said above). They make controllers that are optional, but you don't really need one if you don't want to use one (it's just handy for clicking stuff and maybe volume). Perhaps headphones would be handy depending on where you're enjoying the VR.

So, from now on, whenever I use VR in a post title, well... it's a VR post. There'll be VR tags to for easy searches. This is going to be a lot of fun come Halloween.