Happy Halloween 2025!

It's the main event, Halloween is here Zone Base readers! Happy Halloween! Thank you for celebrating my favorite time of year with me again. As much as I love putting up the decorations and handing out the candy, Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem is one of my favorite things to do each year and I'm so happy to have spent it with you all. Speaking of you all, this year we've reached all new highs. A record breaking metric ton of you all showed up to go trick or treating with me this Halloween season.

Thank you all so much for coming and reading Zone Base. I really do appreciate each and every one of you all for supporting my little site. Normal posting will resume next week as we pack away the pumpkins and skeletons for another year. But don't worry, every day is Halloween on Zone Base! There's always monsters creeping out and random scares around every corner! Once again, thank you all for reading and remember to check your candy before you eat it. Mutual Spooky High Fives everyone!

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 other's butts.

originally posted 8/24/18

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

Full Circle of the Moon

I don't know about you, but the first thing that pops in my mind when I think about Halloween is a snow leopard. The Halloween Horrorcons were one of the first Halloween posts I wrote on the site. In short, they were a planned Halloween Walmart exclusive set during the original Universe line that got canceled. Fortunately two of them have been homaged in Legacy. This one is a Walmart exclusive. I'll get to the other later. After all, everyday is Halloween on Planet Zone! It's in the site description... duh. Today though, today we're going to talk about Nightprowler. Older readers will remember that Halloween Horrorcon was the original naming of the spooky season here on the site. Clearly this one is a big deal to me.

Since the original Nightprowler was a repaint of the original Beast Wars Cheetor mold, this new (and actually released) one is a repaint of the Kingdom Cheetor mold. I talked about that one here if you'd like a more in depth look at it. In short, I liked it.

To some people, this might just seem like a throw away repaint. It is a pretty obscure character that technically doesn't exist. They could have made Prowl for obscurity points and had a more recognizable name. Obviously I love it. If you heard a scream around the time it was announced... that was me (sorry). Legacy sure is a cool Transformers line. It cherry picks from random places in Transformers history to really create fan friendly and still fun updates. The store exclusives go a level or two deeper. This is the kind of thing I'd want as a fan club exclusive. But things like the Velocitron Speedia 500 and Buzzworthy Bumblebee have done it better at regular retail. That's pretty awesome.

Filmation's Ghostbusters... the one with the gorilla

Surprise, surprise... I've been thinking about Halloween. The Mrs. and I regularly watch various ghost and paranormal videos all weekend as is which often leads to random viewings of Halloween programing through the year. This weekend such a thing happened and after she fell asleep I found myself watching some episodes of a cartoon I've always loved... Ghostbusters! Not that one! Yes I love Ghostbusters as is, but the other Ghostbusters is also something I enjoy!

Confused?

Prior to the classic Ghostbusters with Slimer and the gang, there was a live action children's show called 'The Ghost Busters' (there's actually a few other Ghost Buster named things prior). This was before my time though and as the movie Ghostbusters became a hit the cartoon soon followed... with a gorilla... who the hell are these guys? Then there was another show called 'The Real Ghostbusters' and I knew those dudes. Those are the ghost dudes I know. Regardless, I watched the other Ghostbusters as well and loved it! Later as I got older I learned the whole story of both Ghostbusters and the various legal trivia involved. Basically, the producers of the film worked out a deal with the producers of the show, later both parties made their own cartoon as there was money in those spooky hills. It's strange and silly, but hell there's two different Ghostbusters cartoons and I like the crap outta both.

You might notice come Halloween.

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.

Pretender Monsters

Christmas in July, Halloween in May. Summer is the prelude to Halloween and I've got monsters on my mind. With so much of my focus on smaller Transformers (and fortunately Hasbro feeding this need) I find myself really wishing they'd do something like the Monster Pretenders again. Not just because it's something I'd personally love (maybe 95% why), but as Generations has been focusing on late G1 the past few series, I think this would be a great fit and add a little variety. That and monsters are hip daddy-o, monsters are on the rise in popularity. Godzilla is doing so well in America that Toho is setting up offices here to capitalize after the deal with Legendary expires in 2020. You damn well know I'm excited about that.

This Italian commercial from GiG's Transformers line calls the Monster Pretenders just Pretender Monsters. This works really well as it flows a little better than Monster Pretenders as a name. At the time I'm thinking Monsters in my Pocket were on shelves as well as other 'gross' toys, so obviously GiG was marketing towards that market with this cool as crap commercial with monster hands ripping away the monster shell. Not to mention that AWESOME logo. I am so freaking jealous of that logo and with the way GiG sold these guys. So freaking jealous.

It's kind of genius in a way, if they really sold well, they could release multiple color variations so you could make your own Monstuctor and even get some cool slime add on for the shells. Just imagine a world where Transformers became a cool monster line. I do often admittedly, but as the line has had so many damn monsters in it already... why didn't it?

Mutant Beast Wars

The year was 2000, and even though Beast Wars was technically over and replaced with Beast Machines, there was still plenty of Beast Wars toys on the shelves. Since reruns of Beast Wars were steadily running on Fox Kids on weekday afternoons, it was natural to stock Beast Wars figures with the Beast Machines figures. The Fox Kids versions of Beast Wars toys were neato recolors of BW toys that took advantage of kids who saw those reruns and wanted a Transmetal Cheetor. With this and Animorph Transformers toys stocked with Beast Machines, there was a lot of beast themed Transformers on the shelves.

Animorphs wasn't a successes (I mean, I liked the toys... but that was something I found out after they went on clearance), however a company doesn't start out to fail at something and there was a few Animorph Transformers toys designed that went unused in the line. Somebody had the idea to remold the human bits into robot parts and release them.

So there you had the Mutants of the Beast Wars, The Mutant Beast Wars! What made them mutants exactly? Well, thanks to a virus unleashed by Megatron, these Fuzors were lost in their beast modes. Transforming from beast mode to beast mode with the robot lost inside (but maybe you could find their robot head peeking out). In case that description and the picture above doesn't clue you in, they don't have a robot mode. Icebird, for example, turns from owl to bear.

Like Animorphs, they were great toys, but now they were actual Transformers (not just in name). Though like their Animorph heritage, they were misfits in the Transformers fan world. As one could expect the G1 Purist crowd obviously despised them. A good deal of the beast era fans also wasn't fond. Though a handful of us did, and personally I loved them.

I was all over the figures the moment they arrived at my local Walmart. In fact the first one I grabbed was Icebird (my favorite of the bunch) one Friday night. I had the night off and took a quick stop to check out the toys and grab a bite to eat. An excited jump in the air lead to grabbing Icebird and a pack of chicken wings. That evening was spent with a toy I couldn't put down and messy homemade buffalo wings. Mutant Beast Wars didn't have any fiction outside the text blurb on the packaging. If I was a better writer, I probably would have written tomes of terrible fan fiction. The Mutants DID however appear briefly in 3H's BotCon comics. While they didn't get the biggest starring role, I was glad for something. Later they made some various low key fictional appearances in IDW comics and Fun Publications Fan fiction. Soundwave even made appearances in E-Hobby and Kre-O manga.

The Mutants never got any extra members, though some fans speculated Savage/Noble (Beast Changer) could be a Mutant. The 'Ask Vector Prime' Facebook Page (ran by Fun Publications) said in some realities he was and in some realities all BW characters were Mutants. Which I suppose in some reality is an answer and in some reality the alternate reality trope isn't played out yet (but Thanos still wins). All jokes aside, I've never considered him to be a member, but if you want to go ahead. There's a multiverse shoehorn for that.

Another would be new member is Leatherhide. A planned repaint of the Soundwave mold for the ill-fated Halloween Horrocon sub-line (that's a nifty name, huh), Leatherhide would probably be released as an Autobot, but a Mutant in any fiction. Leatherhide fictionally did appear in The Allspark Almanac volume 2 and in Fun Publications fiction meaning I'm not the only person who really wanted this toy.

Mutant Beast Wars over the course of time has managed to remain obscure in the greater world of Transformers with a little nod here and there. An odd team of misfits loved by some and despised by others. I suppose for the opposing team it's a good thing they didn't take off. Though as someone who came close to buying a test shot at a BotCon, I would have loved for them to take flight. The little nods here and there are great (and appreciated), but in some alternate universe I have a display of Mutant Beast Wars Masterpiece toys.

The Slime Pit

Slime is great. It's like a giant booger that you willingly buy and when used by Hordak a torture device that creates mindless zombies! I buy a lot of slime. Little dollar cans here and there in weird colors. For my wife, even more. Random types in random varieties with all sorts of stuff mixed in them. We have a slime loving household and we're damn well proud to call it home. This weekend while she looked at expensive slime (there's a boutique market) online I pondered about making a new version of the classic Slime Pit for my newer Master of the Universe mini figures.

It couldn't be too hard I recon (famous last words) and something I'd love to have. Though I want to make a smallish castle for my fantasy figures to display on. An included Slime Pit would be perfect and probably make for something great. Dang, now I have to find the appropriate Halloween decorations to craft this from.

Son of Frankenstein

Without a doubt, Son of Frankenstein is my favorite Frankenstein movie. I've always loved the plot and mood of the overall film. The monster is clearly a villain, shedding his sympathetic plight and working with the murderous Igor. As the movies title suggests, Dr. Frankenstein's son is the one causing all the havoc. Moving to his families castle with his wife and child, he soon discovers the monster and sets out to restore his fathers good name... and pretty much fails when a bunch of people die. The monster looks great here with his fur vest, making him look more barbaric than before. The presentation of the lab's ruins with the family mansion gives the movie a great haunted castle vibe. At any minute Igor is peeking through a window or hidden door causing all sorts of chaos. It's monster mayhem with a great story to boot.

The Monster Squad

Monster Squad is the best movie ever.

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

I grew up watching The Phantom of the Opera on a VHS tape given to me by my aunt over and over again. I was an early lover of the Universal Monsters and the Phantom was one of the first members of the crew. I like to look back at the movie, because it's just so damned weird. The Phantom is human (spoilers, almost 100 year old movie), but seems like some demonic ghost due to his presentation. It doesn't help that the overall presentation of the movie comes off like some macabre art project, only aided by the quirks created by film making of the time.

Frame rates and low resolution make for unnatural movements performed by ghoulish looking people. The opening title screen of the movie with the ghost floating about over the opera house is scary enough alone. It's funny, this trailer almost seems like a cursed video and not like the advertisement for a big production studio movie. Considering the actual original movie is lost to time and whatever version you can watch now is loosely stitched together from odd clips... it could be a cursed video at this point.

Oh my BotBot

News broke today of all the new and upcoming Botbots on the way and every single one of them is amazingly amazing. But that's not why we're here. Well, I guess it is, but there's one particular bit from the news as to my excitement. Other than all the other cool stuff... 

*sigh*

Know how I've been hoping for holiday BotBots? Well gosh dand and holy crap it happened. Just look at that. 

LOOK AT THAT.

 

Happy Halloween from Zone Base!

The big day is here! Happy Halloween! Hope everyone has fun watching spooky specials and eating weird colored candy!

Halloween Saftey (1985)

Gang, it's Halloween... I'm very concerned about you all having a safe and fun Halloween.

Halloween Saftey (1977)

The big day is officially here! I've been saying it and I mean it, I'm really concerned about your saftey while you trick or treat!

Cinderella's Castle Mystery Tour

It's hard for me to think Halloween without thinking of Disney's Halloween Treat, the classic Halloween Special (and it's man versions) that's a definite must watch each Halloween season. Though it's long gone, there was a Disney attraction that was seemingly right out of that very special. Cinderella's Castle Mystery Tour was a haunted cave type attraction located within Cinderella's Castle at Tokyo Disneyland that focused on the more scary villains spooking the poop out of guests. Most notable is the large animatronic Horned King from The Black Cauldron. While I always wished my older brother would have went went us on our family trip to Disney World, this would have been a real treat to go with him on. During the olden days of The Disney Channel (when it was AWESOME) they'd regularly show The Black Cauldron and I don't think he ever missed it.

Megaforce Halloween Saftey

I don't think I've made it clear just how concerned I am for your safety this Halloween.

Montser Mash- Boris Pickett

It's not Halloween without The Monster Mash. 

This video is a Halloween fever dream.

The Halloween that Almost Wasn't/The Night Dracula Saved the World

This is my favorite Halloween special.

Just bask in it's glory.

They go disco dancing.