Hidden Hatchers wave 1 (Fierce Changers)

Fierce Changers is a fun new series of Jurassic World toys that features transforming dinosaur toys. There's a variety of size classes coming, but today we'll be looking at the initial batch of the Hidden Hatchers variety. Hidden Hatchers are a smaller set of figure that transform into eggs. Simple, yet fun little toys that obviously appeal to the egg bot fan in me. In this initial batch, we have Blue (a velociraptor), Tyrannosaurus Rex, Indominus Rex, and Dilophosaurus. The four seem to all share engineering and parts aside from their heads. It doesn't take away from the the little dinos and I had a lot of fun with the silly little things. It's hard not to enjoy the cute sculpts and stomp them around. Transformation to egg form is pretty easy, though in some instances I had to get the head positioned just right to make it work. The Indominus Rex was the biggest trouble maker in that instance. Egg mode isn't as smooth as a Tamagoras, but serviceable. Fierce Changers looks to be a fun new little series of Jurassic World toys. There's figures that change from one dino to another, and even a large T-Rex that converts into the classic Jurassic Park Jeep. I'm looking forward to getting more of these adorable little terrors. Good job Mattel.

San Diego Incident

Nov. 3, 1997

Weekly Update: 10/3/22

Time for another week here on Planet Zone! Thanks everyone for coming back for more robots, monsters, and misadventure! It's officially October and we've only got one more month of Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem. I guess it's time to turn up the spooky dial up! Thanks for supporting the site and continuing to read my badly written nonsense. Don't forget to share with your friends!

I decorated my yard for Halloween this weekend. Well, mostly, I'll add more as the big day draws near. Turning your front yard into a spook show is fun, but a nightmare to keep up with for a month. So stay tuned! As far as toys go, I bought Legacy Elita-1 and a Gundam Mobile Suit Ensemble blind box from Target. I got the G-Fighter. I really wanted the Unicorn Gundam, but I'm happy with what I got. I'd like to complete the series. Couldn't find any Halloween Kinder Surprise eggs, just 3 more to go to complete this years set. Wish me luck! A stop by the Dollar Tree resulted in the new series of Transformers mini figures. They're similar to the prior set, just smaller.

I also found the last Final Faction accessory pack I needed for now. I thought I had caught up with them prior before realizing I was short one. A later stop by Pop Shelf resulted in a Kirby blind bag. The figures are of Kirby in his various forms and I'm honestly not sure what the one I got is called. I've seen if before, but not sure what it's called. He's angry and has a big purple poof coming out of his head. I dunno, goes that way sometimes. 

Transform Squadron 33-Looking like how ketchup smells

 

LISTEN NOW!

In this June of 2022 edition of something- Rob talks about the infamous Walmart Pose Skeleton knock off, Kinder Jurassic World toys, and the Transformers TV channel. He also talks about a few other things, but bullet points y'all.

Weekly Update 6/20/22

 It's Monday and the beginning of another new week here on Planet Zone! This weekend sure did go by pretty fast, but was pretty enjoyable. I went by Target to hopefully find the new Gundam Infinity figures to no avail. I did get, however, some Transformers Micro Machines and the larger Jada Optimus Prime. I've been really looking for these Micro Machines, so that was exciting. Just some regular stuff, not the blind packed city sets. It's still a start. I noticed the Bumblebee playset is also available as a non-Transformers branded red Camaro as well. Weird. Target had New Eternia Beastman, but I wasn't about to pay $30 for him. Waiting for a sale. Wish I could find new Eternia Skeletor and He-Man. Or some new Eternia Minis. 

We stopped by At Home to check on Halloween stocking. Nothing yet, though others have been reporting on theirs getting started. Ours has been starting more around late June/early July the past few years, but I'm too excited to be patient. Picked up the Upside Down glow in the dark Demogorgon and CGI Man-E-Faces at Walmart as well. The Mrs got me a pair of New Balance for cat dads day. Now I've got a sweet pair of vintage type sneaks for hoodie and jeans season. Which is quite a while away, but I'm not complaining. I also picked up a new Jurrasic World Kinder Suprise. The new ones aren't as great as the last set they did, but still pretty cool. 

I've got a fun week in store for you all. Spooky Summer is chugging along and I guess regular readers have noticed the focus on Sparking Transformers over the past few Fridays. Summer is a Spooky season, but also a festive time. Here in the States, there's a lot of fireworks shot from Memorial Day to Independence Day. June is a pretty good time to look at those pretty explosions that are really dangerous! Thank you for continuing to support Zone Base. Be careful while shooting those things and watch out for ghosts while sharing with your friends!

Dinosaur Death Trap In Flordia

Anticipation of my trip to Universal Studios next December is murder. Know what else will murder you? Dinosaurs. One of the things I'm looking forward to is spending some time in Jurassic Park. By the time we go, the new ride will be open and there's gonna be some cool new stuff to check out.

Last time we were there, while eating lunch at one of the JP restaurants, this kid randomly yelled "WWE SUPERSTARS!" and slammed down his soda. There we were, an entire theme park restaurant staring at this kid like a freak. 

 

The main focus of the area is the Discovery Center and River Adventure. They manage to recreate the look and feel of the original movie really well. The River Adventure is the second version of the Jurassic Park ride that originally opened at the Hollywood Park in 1996. 

The ride was in works before the movie believe it or not. If you look at the images behind John Hammond during the dinner meeting scene in the original movie, you'll see conceptual art from the ride. It's in the 'future attractions' slide. Pretty cool huh? The version in Florida opened in 1999 and is clearly version 2.0 as there's a few differences. 

There's another version in Japan, which is a little different as well. The Singapore ride follows a similar idea, but is a river rapid style ride instead of a boat ride with a flume drop. Recently they upgraded the Hollywood Park ride into a Jurassic World version with new scenes and upgraded effects. It looks great... but I still think I like the original better. It just has a charm, you know?

 

I Just Want To Talk About Jurassic Park

I like Jurassic Park. It's a franchise about a theme park full of dinosaurs and incompetent management. It's a franchise based around one really great movie and a bunch of high budget B-Movie sequels. It's big, dumb, and a ton of fun. 

It's not a hard concept to like, everyone loves dinosaurs. I don't think anyone would not love the chance to see them alive in person. It would be amazing. A theme park full of actual living dinosaurs would be something everyone would love. Dinosaurs are cool.

But dinosaurs would eat everything they saw and cause chaos, so an actual dinosaur theme park would result in anarchy. Which is literally the plot of the movie.

I think one of the things I like best about these movies is the additional media/merchandise. This is something I've liked best about other things as well. I grew up with Star Wars. It wasn't until I was an adult until the prequels and sequels came out. 

Know all those cool Kenner toys? Well, what the hell was that guy who was in one second of the movie somewhere in the background supposed to do? In fact, what was all these other guys supposed to do? There was 3 movies and they had a definite end. Darth Vader was dead and not even a bad guy anymore, and here I was with his toy on Christmas morning. I wanted more and you know where more came from? Those goofy little story books and oddball video games. 

So the first JP comes out and honestly it's not like it took forever for the second movie to come out or anything, but I wanted more and what I got was things like video games and weird other stuff. Then more movies came out and really felt more like other media more than anything. I kinda like that.

The closest to a thematic sequel is the ride at Universal Studios. It began development before the movie began filming, so it's got that same time juice going on. When riding it, you're at the now open Jurassic Park and of course things go wrong. Because if they didn't, it'd be another franchise. Like Steel Magnolias.

The park was open in Jurassic World and I really liked that. But I found myself appreciating that little touch the prior sequels had, the wreckage of the original unopened park. I don't know why I like seeing that so much, but I do. I guess what could have been is the overall theme to to movies and something we can all relate too. That and dinosaurs eating people on a toilet is pretty awesome.

 

Battle at Big Rock

The new Jurassic World short 'Battle at Big Rock' is out and it's a pretty fun little adventure. Taking place after the events of Fallen Kingdom, the dinosaurs are now causing trouble on the main land! I personally enjoyed the clips of dinosaur mayhem during the credits. Made me really think of those old Dinosaurs Attack trading cards.

Jurassic Park- The Ride

Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous

Hot dang!!

The Lost World: Jurassic Park watches at Burger King

Got an idea (I originally spelled that eyedeal), how about we all go buy whatever Jurassic Park/World watch we can find at our local stores and go to Burger King. Let's all be a special kind of rad.

Jurassic Park Cup Noodle

Basically, you could win a T-Shirt and everyone will want your new t-shirt. 

I think.

Micro Morphers in a plastic shoebox

Simply put, Micro Morphers are driving me crazy. Because not only are they type of thing I go crazy over, but also because I haven't found any yet. It's hard not to want these things. Blind bag toys, check. Blind bag toys of something I like, check. Neat looking blind bag toys of something I like, check. It's not helping that Target hasn't restocked the blind bag Jurassic World Dino Rivals in a minute, but man when they do... oh man. Freaking check.

I'm anticipating getting multiple extras as it's obvious that the molds are getting heavily reused. Hoping for available codes, preparing for a million extras. You get two figures per pack, which is pretty good. In the Zords packs you get 2 figures and a Megazord. I'm mainly worried about getting too many extra Megazords as they look like they'll take up more space. A bunch of the regular figures, no problem, I plan on just putting them in one of those plastic Sterilite shoe boxes anyway. One of those boxes are $1 and stack. No problem. But those Megazords might require they're own box.

I have hopes and plans of some weekend hitting Target/Walmart to buy a ton of Micro Morphers and Dino Rival blind bags. Then maybe get pizza on the way home and have a helluva good time opening them. That would be a busy time on my Instagram. I know how to party.

Jurassic Park for Genesis/Mega Drive

Transform Squadron Episode 7: Harold of Unicorn

Transform Squadron Episode 7 : Harold of Unicorn

This month Rob talks Beast Morphers and new Power Rangers blind bag toys. Speaking of blind bags, he also talks about Treasure X and Jurassic World blind bag toys. Not to mention Toylanta and Saber Rider talk. Mix in some Bumblebee movie and looks like you got the March 2019 edition of Transformer Squadron!

Jurassic Park River Adventure

I've been paying a little extra attention to the developments to the Jurassic Park sections of Universal Studios in recent months. It's no secret that the Jurassic Park ride in the California park has been under renovations since around last fall. The ride is old, older than the movie at development (if you look at the screens behind John Hammond when he's talking to Dr. Malcom, Dr. Grant, and Dr. Sattler about the park some of the pics are of the ride). Despite regular refurbishments, it's an older ride in a theme park chain that does a lot of refreshing.

The California ride is getting converted into a Jurassic World ride which by all appearances seems to be an upgrade of the original ride. I have no complaints, it's an modern upgrade and not a replacement. That's good. What I do feel conflicted about is the Orlando Jurassic Park in Islands of Adventure. The ride is under regular refurbishment at the time (it's a water ride, winter is a good time) and the construction walls are up for the construction of the new JP roller coaster, which I also have no problem with (hoping it's a clone of the Japan JP's coaster). Some folks are upset that it will change the visual of the Discovery Center, but that's not that big of a deal to me. I've been following this story on theme park blogs that get inside information and ever since the news broke, I was ok with it. I mean, the visual from across the lagoon at Port of Entry is the center, Mythos, and Hogwarts Castle with the Incredible Hulk coaster to the side. Another roller coaster isn't going to change much and might even look more cool.

My concern is the ongoing rumor that the Jurassic Park Orlando area is going to be converted into Jurassic World as the coaster has the JW symbol on the walls (not to mention Blue in the section already). This seems like a silly thing to be concerned with (and it is), and hypocritical as I didn't care about California (which it is). My beef is that unlike California's JP section, in Orlando it's all part of a themed land and not just a ride. A themed land meant to resemble the park as it's seen in the first movie which is pretty different looking than in JW. The River Adventure is based on a scene from the original novel that's visual is excellently directly themed from the original movie. The Discovery Center is identical to the one in the original movie. The parks look different in the movies, refacing it could clash thematically.

Universal Creative is really good at what they do, and their themed lands are amazingly accurate. So I have no doubt that they'll do a good job. Perhaps they'll even spruce the rest of the land up to match the overall look. It's not much of a stretch as the parks restaurant area visual in Jurassic World is obviously based on City Walk as is. Just the fit and finish needs to be fitted and finished to make a complete package. That's my only and main concern. I don't want hodge podge in what was a really good recreation of the original park. If it is, it is and I'm sure it'll still be amazing.

Kind of want a turkey leg now.

Transform Squadron episode 4- New Glowstick Crunch

Listen Now!

In the December 2018 edition of Transform Squadron: Rob talks about the Christmas robot toy selection at his local Family Dollar. Then about Kinder Jurassic World toys before looking back at the Night Slash Cheetor Mold.

Dino Size

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I miss when McDonald's was awesome. Now I have to make sure the cashier didn't ring me up for just the sandwich when I say "I'll have a number one please" and am starting to think the shake machine is just a facade.

*grumble grumble* I'd say dino size and they'd give me a small cup *grumble grumble*

Golden Lagoon reference in post title

The new night-time  lagoon show at Universal Studios Orlando has started shows recently, and man is it something to see. If you skip ahead to 11:59, you can see the ultra cool Transformers segment that uses scenes from the various movies, but also from the ride. Or you can just watch the whole thing, it's neat.

Universal Studios Japan Nightime Parade featuring the Transformers

Some time back I posted about the then upcoming Nighttime Parade at Universal Studios Japan that would feature Transformers, Jurassic Park, and other park characters. Welp, it's finally became a thing and video from the parade is starting to make the rounds. Check out just how awesome the Transformers look in those parade floats. That certainly would be a spectacle to see right in front of you.

USJ 新ナイトパレード

『トランスフォーマー』①

シカゴの摩天楼にそびえたつ、巨大なバンブルビー！ 高層ビルがドリラーの攻撃を受け 見ると、その先にいるのは……#USJ #トランスフォーマー #TF #TRANSFORMERS pic.twitter.com/SFX5jy2IiI

— USJ情報局 L.C.A.STUDIOS (@LCASTUDIOS_USJ) May 14, 2018

USJ 新ナイトパレード

『トランスフォーマー』②

バンブルビーの先にいるメガトロンはシカゴの街を破壊します！

さらに大型トラックからオプティマスプライムへ変身するシーンも再現される予定でしたが、今回は中止に…

どうしたコンボイっ(笑）!!#USJ #トランスフォーマー #TF #TRANSFORMERS pic.twitter.com/QrXXQOjKVI

— USJ情報局 L.C.A.STUDIOS (@LCASTUDIOS_USJ) May 14, 2018