Alien 1979

Count Creepy Head

Count Creepy Head is one of the few times Play Doh REALLY attempted to cross the line. Usually the scariest they ever got with their sets was a Scooby-Doo monster. However this mofo is borderline upsetting. Just like other horror toys, he's not specifically a Halloween thing... but dude's totally pumpkin spiced season appropriate.

Return of the Galaxy

I've been having a great time with my Guardians of the Galaxy advent calendar this Christmas season. Normally, I do a Star Wars one, but like last year, they sold out before I could purchase one. However, like the GOTG movies... it's kinda the same thing. Before any of you coming in give me the 'well actually' treatment... let me explain. I'm well aware of the GOTG prior to the movies, but it wasn't until the movies until I became a fan. They were just kind of in the various comics I'd read and frankly not much more. I do wish now that I would have paid them more attention, but if I had a time machine there'd be more pressing issues I'd focus on. The movies though, *chef's kiss*.

I enjoyed the Star Wars prequels, but not as much as I wanted to. I'd have liked them to be a lot better. Before Disney restarted Star Wars, I has accepted things the way they were. The GOTG came out and well, felt like a pretty decent Star Wars movie. No, it wasn't exactly the same, but pretty close. It's in that space opera nebulous that Micronauts falls in. It's like Star Wars, but different.

So what's that got to do with the above commercial? Well, the toys came out after the movie and well... how many of those mofo's were dead by the time you got the figure? It sure was exciting to get that Boba Fett or Darth Vader on Christmas morning. The Jabba's Palace play set was an amazing gift from Santa. But uh, I already knew what happened to those dudes. Did that have any effect on my enjoyment of the toys? Absolutely not. Sometimes I'd recreate scenes from the movie. Maybe they'd be adventures prior or even after and the guys somehow lived. Sometimes I just played with my toys and didn't care. I think that's where GOTG kinda falls into this. It's that side thing that also works. It's totally Star Wars, while being it's own thing.

Did that make sense?

Super Freaking Powers

The new McFarlane toys version of Super Powers is pretty great. So far I've gotten Batman and Superman and plan to get more. The original line by Kenner was a lot of fun back in the day. I can't help but to want all the new ones with all the fond memories of these guys I have. I hope they make more, but I should focus on getting the ones out now. The new figures are little different, but still have the same charm of the old ones. They're currently Walmart exclusive, but I hope to one day find them at other stores. Just so I can one day walk into a grocery store to find a years old Green Lantern with yellowed packaging still on the shelves. Just like in the good old days.

A Rhino sized Concussion

That new unofficial Thunderhawk has had me thinking about M.A.S.K in general lately and I'm not sure if I've told this story here before... but I'm gonna today. I was fortunate to have quite a bit of M.A.S.K toys as a kid. I'm not sure if they were inexpensive or if I just got lucky, but I'm not complaining. Picture it, Christmas 1985 I hit the mother lode. The Fright Zone, Cobra Moray, Captain America Turbocopter, figures galore, and quite a bit of M.A.S.K! Included in that M.A.S.K haul was the Rhino! The Rhino was probably the coolest of the lot as it was this big semi truck with all sorts of action features. To this day I swear it's one of the better looking toys ever made. 

However... there's no way it would pass a modern safety test. In the picture above, do you see that big rocket firing out the sleeper cab? That thing is DEATH TRAP. By pushing a button on the backside of the truck, with a loud KACHUNK, that rocket would fly out of the sleeper cab with the force of a thousand... I don't have an analogy, but it came out fast and hard. So hard that it knocked the roof open as it flew out with a vengeance. Because it flew straight up so hard and fast, the rocket itself was kinda heavy. I guess so it would fall down and not take the roof of your house. It was this big, thick heavy black plastic with a sharp point for some reason. 

So there I was, happily placing the stickers upon the Rhino at the dinner table while my dad watched. Mom was in the kitchen cooking Christmas dinner. I rolled my new truck toy around after finishing stickering and played around with it's many features. Hey... how do I shoot that rocket? I looked all over, holding the back of the cab. Looking directly over the cab section when KACHUNK!

SHIT!

After a white flash I found myself reeling back in my chair, holding my head that now throbbing with pain. A small dent in my forehead, missile in my lap, and ANGRY father staring daggers at me from across the table. That shit I wrote a few words up there? Yeah, apparently I instantly screamed it out as the rocket knocked me back. Dad demanded to know what I just said. Myself afraid of getting in trouble while trying to see straight. In wrestling they call this getting your bell rung. Dad made sure I knew that I better not ever say that again while telling me to better be glad it was Christmas or I'd be in BIG trouble. Ironically we had just watched A Christmas Story the night before... but I never got the luxury of having my mouth washed out with soap. *ahem*

These days things like child safety laws come up and I'm usually pretty supportive. Between kids getting shot after pointing realistic toy guns at people, choking on missiles, or the above incident... I'd rather not see anybody get hurt. Some folks get all worked up over these laws, but oh well. They'll live... and so will the kids hopefully. I'm not sure if The Rhino had some sort of industrial strength spring in that thing or if the missile needed to be a potentially dangerous weapon but... I actually don't have a clever way to end this. That really hurt.

Fox Wars

 

I obviously love Beast Wars as do a lot of folks. It's this great period in Transformers history that's been pretty hard to recreate. Though I do appreciate the return of sorts it's had lately. A particularly fun time during the beast era often goes by without a lot of talk. I don't know if that's slowly getting lost to time... or maybe just meant more to me than others. That would be the Fox Kid's Beast Wars. Beast Wars was originally a syndicated show. Beast Machines, it's follow up, was on Fox Kids. For a while during this time, Fox Kids also ran older Beast Wars episodes. For me this was pretty great as I wasn't able to watch every episode during the shows original run. However now these reruns fit my schedule better and I managed to catch the ones I missed. Honestly, it was aired at a particularly sweet spot for me that I never missed an episode and watched the series in it's entirety over and over until the eventual end of the run. That was great.

Fox Kids Beast Wars wasn't just reruns to supplement Beast Machines either. Hasbro/Kenner re-released some of the toys in great new colors as well. I liked Beast Machines, don't get me wrong, but I vastly preferred Beast Wars. So I was really happy to see the figures on shelves a little longer. This was still during the time where older toys had a longer shelf life. It wasn't uncommon to still find something like an Inferno or B'boom in 2000. In fact, as I was starting to have a disposable income, it wasn't until then that I was able to get some of these great toys. 

Those Fox Kids Beast Wars toys themselves were something special. Like I said, they were released in fun new colors. If you didn't already have a character, there was another chance. If you did already have a character, maybe you'd like it in fun new colors. Initially these recolors were listed as powered up versions of the characters. Energon Surge Rhinox, Live Wire Dinobot for example. However they were released as their normal names. The Fox Kids toys ran for about the same length as the show aired on Fox Kids with the later figures sharing cases with the Mutants. It's not often that reruns get their own figures or can be partially credited for expanding the toy lines shelf life. But, these did. I'm not sure anyone at that Walmart I'd frequent remembers the kid in a Static-X t-shirt and a grubby hoodie late at night buying these. But 22 years later, I still look back at it fondly. It was pretty great.

When Machines have a War

 

With this weekend being a holiday weekend, I'll be honest, I'm a little checked out mentally. I could use the break. That being said, let's talk about Machine Wars! For those not well acquainted with Machine Wars, shortly after Beast Wars started, MW was launched as a Kay-Bee exclusive (toys were reportedly seen at some Myers stores) Transformers line. It was pretty small and made up of unreleased G2 molds and late G1-early G2 European toy molds.

The cast of characters was mostly the classic crew and the line was basically an experiment to see if vehicular based Transformers would sell well again. While I loved G2, it didn't sell as well as G1 and Beast Wars pretty much brought Transformers back to it's former glory. Unfortunately Machine Wars didn't really take off and it wasn't until the Vehicons of Beast Machines that vehicular Transformers returned to store shelves (aside from the vehicle bots in Takara's Beast Wars series) with RID bringing vehicles back in force. 

That being said, the line has no fiction what so ever. The tech specs pretty much painted the toys as the characters returning without much detail to give you a sense of why they all looked different. Megatron's bio vaguely hinted at him being a jet again after the canceled G2 ATB toy. Thundercracker's hinted at a little character progression, but that was it.

Most fans (myself included) considered them a continuation of G2 as Beast Wars was basically G3 when it first launched before the story line got changed into the one we all know now. You know, I've always wanted to see that idea continued. Maybe I'll look at it some more the next holiday weekend. The closest to actual fiction Machine Wars ever got was tied into the BotCon 2013 exclusive set which had a Machine Wars theme. In it's included comic, the new Machine Wars Transformers followed on from the prior G2 themed set's story line. Which in itself was their take on how G2 would have taken place within the classic cartoon fiction. In all honesty, it wasn't bad.

The above art is a restoration of Optimus Prime's box art from Machine Wars that I found on Google Images. If you or someone you know is responsible for said restoration, I'd be happy to credit you. Please leave me the info in the comments section below. 

Fuzzy Pumper Monster Shop

 

Fuzzy Pumper Monster Shop is probably one of the the worst names for a toy that I can imagine. There's just no way to say that out loud without feeling a little embarrassed. Oddly enough, Fuzzy Pumper (sigh) was a line of Play-Doh sets that still continues to this very day! Now they're called 'Buzz n' Cut' or 'Crazy Cuts' because... dude. Awkward names aside, this is the classic Play-Doh barbershop. You know how it works, Put the head on the thing, push the 'doh' through and watch the wacky crazy hair grow! Then give it a hair cut, any crazy style you want. Any color!

What's so special about this set is that it's a particularly spooky themed one. MONSTERS! The wolfman's got a funky green and red beard! Frankenstein's got a pink dreadlocks! The Zombie has a Chelsea because it's into 90's alt rock! Then when your monster customer gets mad at the terrible job you did on it's precious hairdo, you can just lock it up! There's a crypt to store your monster away with a chain! Everyday is Halloween on Planet Zone. With the Fuzzy Pumper (sigh) Monster Shop it can be Halloween at your home base too!

On Fright Features Night

At this point I feel like I've been waiting for Hasbro's Fright Features toys since the 90's. Spiritually I have as they're a follow up to the Real Ghostbusters toys. Since The Real Ghostbusters are the exploits that the movies are based off of, these would be those toys in cartoon world. So in theory, if we were living in a cartoon produced by DiC, these actually would be The Real Ghostbusters toys. I should probably stop myself before going any further... we might open a worm hole in reality or something.

After a year of covid-19 based delays, Ghostbusters Afterlife is finally getting released this November. With it is a slew (that's right, a damn slew) of various tie in merchandise. You already know the Fright Features line is the most interesting to me. A spiritual follow up to Kenner's classic Ghostbusters toy line is just the perfect thing. Sure, there's things like Plasma series and other neat stuff. Just nothing feels as right as these, THIS is what goes through my mind when I think Ghostbusters action figures. The kids from Afterlife will be featured in wave 2 with some familiar looking ghosts. I hope this goes on past wave 2. I'd love wacky variations like the original Kenner line, or even the girls from the 2016 movie. While we're at it there's Janine and Louis. There's no limit to where they could go with these. Or at least no limit I want them to hit.

Fearsome Flush Ain't Taking Crap

When The Real Ghostbusters get scared, they flip the crap out. That's fair enough. Think about it, if you or I saw a ghost, we'd probably run away screaming. These dudes, they literally deal with ghosts all the time. So when they get scared, it's pretty serious business. That leads us to this commercial.

Happening upon a werewolf in a junkyard scares Ray so much that he has to take a shit then and there. Right in front of Winston. Fortunately there's a random toilet just laying there. It's probably not connected, but at least it's better than making a Fright Feature in his pants. Unfortunately, the toilet is FEARSOME FLUSH! The demonically possessed toilet!

I'm not sure if a sudden mouthful of poop is what pisses him off so much or that he's just being a scary ghost. Who's a toilet. Either way it sends Winston and Ray packing as other ghosts kiss their back causing them to display new Fright Features gimmicks. I'll be honest, this is a pretty weird commercial. Also, what happened to the Werewolf Monster? Was the plan all along to send them to Fearsome Flush? Or did he just leave?

Fearsome Flush will be re-released at Walmart this summer. I'm pretty happy more Real Ghostbusters toys are on the way. It's a nice way to lead into the all new Fright Features figures coming soon. Not to mention, who wouldn't want a ghost toilet? Just think if it was a Conjuring movie. Ed and Lorraine Warren have this old toilet in their basement museum... it's evil is truly unknown until Judy make a terrible mistake on Taco Tuesday...

Speeder Bikes: A Star Wars Story

The Return of the Jedi Speeder Bike is badass. If any part in the movie sold toys in the entire Star Wars saga, it's the Speeder Bike scenes. Part of me wishes they got their own movie. The part that likes badass things. Of course Kenner was quick to introduce the toy as obviously every kid would want one. The toy was a pretty well done replica of the vehicle as seen on the movie.

Even with the limitations the classic 5 points of articulation imposed on it's design, the toy still looked the part. Newer toys of course have been more accurate, but I'm talking about the original. The spring loaded explosion was a great way to have a dramatic death of your own creation. Not even going to lie, I had Luke crash one into the Emperor. Much more satisfying than throwing him down a randomly placed hole in the Death Star... why was that there? Nobody thought to put a fence over it or anything?

Fossilizer Age

Not all of Kingdom is updates to classic characters, fortunately there's some new bots in the mix as well. Not just new bots, but a  new kind of bot even! Paleotrex is a Fossilizer. A Fossilizer is similar to a Weaponizer, but made of bones. That's right, Paleotrex here can be taken apart and fashioned into armor and weapons for other Transformers. However those weapons and that armor is made of dinosaur bones. After the initial confusion of what I just said, the inherit awesomeness of it just rushed through your mind. I know. It's metal as fuck.

Paleotrex is a skeleton robot Predacon that turns into a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton. It's just as awesome to say that as the fact of it is. His robot mode head has a flip down mask that's really similar to the old mutant heads that Beast Wars toys originally had. Speaking of original Beast War toys, with his mask flipped down, his head becomes Optimus Primal's missing skull mace. 

Let's put that into perspective, Optimus ripped this guy's head off and is using it to beat other Predacons. Kingdom is metal as fuck.

Paleotrex turns into a T-Rex skeleton, like I said above. Because of the gimmick of turning his body into other things, he's a partsformer. You take him apart and rearrange him. That kind of thing bothers some folks, but is unavoidable here. 

In both modes Paleotrex looks great. While I vastly prefer the mask down, keeping it up is a good way to remember this is supposed to be a robot. I say that, because his robot mode isn't very robotic. Paleotrex is a an alien robot dinosaur skeleton. With that many descriptive words something's got to give. In a line full of robots that turn into things, the skeletons that turn into skeletons get a pass. Not to mention, it's rad as fuck. I mean, just look at it.

LOOK AT IT.

I can make jokes about how metal Paleotrex is (as fuck), but there's more than meets the eye (*cries*) here. This is a new character, which is rare these days in Transformers. Part of Beast Wars magic was that it was a mix of new and old. Even now that Beast Wars is being revisited, there's something new with the old. Transformers is a giant iceberg that keeps getting bigger every time you look. 

Hasbro bought Kenner in the 90's and later had Kenner run Beast Wars. After all these years Beast Wars is back in the forefront with these new skeleton dinosaur robots included. Dinosaur skeleton robots that you take apart and use their bones to make other things. Hey, didn't Kenner... 

I talk about Microman a lot here. Microman is part of that iceberg. In formation and ongoing growth. There was a bootleg Microman line called Dokuroman. The toys were casts of Microman toys (with less joints) and given skull heads. Here's a skeleton robot. I'm sure that's an accidental homage in this case, but it's still there. Oh hey, what was a feature of Microman again? The Transformers iceberg is neat, huh?

Bustin' Makes A New Week

It's an all new week here on Zone Base and I'm pretty disappointed that Ghostbusters Afterlife has been delayed again. Fortunately it's just a few months, but I'm hoping the merchandise doesn't get delayed as I freaking want the new Fright Features figures SO BAD. What isn't delayed is this week, which has got a whole slew of new posts for your eyeballs! 

I don't know how used to these 'new week' posts you are. I hope not a whole lot, because while I appreciate you reading and sharing with your friends, but this is going to be the last one. There's something new coming to Zone Base starting soon that'll come out every Monday (normally) that I'm going to introduce to you in this space next week.

Bios- Megatron

Millions of years ago, Tyrannosaurus Rex ruled the earth. Today, Megatron plans to do the same! Duplicating dinosaur DNA stolen from human research labs, the evil leader has re-engineered his body structure and equipped it with fearsome high-tech firepower! Poisonous paralyzer fluids blast from his gaping jaws, while his powerful pincher claw can cut an enemy in half! Be afraid, earthlings. Be very, very afraid!

If There's Somethin' Strange Under Your Christmas Tree

I'm pretty sure Ebenezer would have employed the Ghostbusters if possible.

After Christmas, Hills hired them to get rid of that weird little elf guy.

Ghostbusters Get The Power Pack

Every once and awhile there's new equipment for the Ghostbusters that seems like a step backwards. From the start of business they used lasers to hold ghosts and a trap to catch the ghost. Pretty strong start, but a step forward in equipment would be an improvement overall. Various new equipment to ensure bustin continues to make them feel good. 

Then on occasion they got new equipment that makes me wonder if Egon had some sort of quota to meet. For example, the Ecto-Bomber plane. They mainly serviced New York City. Which is kinda hard to believe they got anywhere on time in the Ecto-1 already. Where did they land that plane anyway and who had the pilots license?  

That brings us to the Power Pack Heroes around when Louis and Janine joined the ranks adding some variety to the line up. Kenner was clearly taking whatever idea they had and making it a toy. That's one of the drawbacks of a successful toy line: constantly coming up with new product. 

The Power Pack Heroes are the Ghostbusters with new ghost busting equipment that by all means is pretty hit or miss. Ray has a capture claw type device, ok sure. Just it's inside a giant box he has to ride around on to use. Remember that big staircase they had to climb to fight Gozer?

For the most part the Power Packs seem pretty useful though. Janine has a little go-cart, and Louis has a big trap. Then there's Egon's new equipment and remember, he made all this for the team to begin with. His Power Pack is some sort of flight pack, which on the surface makes sense. He can take flight after a ghost flies away. However if you'll notice it's capture action in the commercial, the propeller turns toward the ghost and grabs it. So... does he just fall from the sky then?

Warriors In The Stars

It's Christmas time, I'm sure you've noticed. Another thing you may have noticed is all The Mandalorian merchandise available while you've been Christmas shopping. Star Wars has been synonymous with Christmas my entire life, which is probably why I was so welcome to the Disney movies (aside from Solo) being a Christmas season thing. It just seemed natural for new Stormtroopers to raid Walmart just in time for seasonal shopping.

The Mandalorian now has two seasons under it's belt, both of which dropped just in time for all those cool toys to be on wish lists. After all these years of my wife tolerating my love for Star Wars, now she's enjoying it quite a bit herself. So I can't help but to indulge her with every Baby Yoda thing we can get. 

I think one thing about the show I definitely love is the redemption of Boba Fett. Trying to avoid spoilers as much as possible here, but he's on the show. He's on the show and he's a badass. I won't go into too many story details or anything, because a few of you may not know more than seeing folks talk about him on social media. But he's alive and he's the Boba Fett we all wanted him to be in the original movies.

Like others my age, Boba Fett was always the biggest bad ass in the galaxy. This was 100% due to him looking cool and having the best action figure. In the movies he was awesome, but didn't live up to the fanfare dorks like me produced. The prequels built on that a bit with the introduction of his father, Jango. 

The various cartoons did as well with other Mandalorians. Then The Mandalorian comes along with a hero in that familiar armor and he's the bad ass my old Kenner action figure was. Though the actual Boba didn't get to shine as much as we wanted. Until now, anyway. Now he's the character we all said he was thankfully. 

There's always a contingent of self righteous nerds who'll crap on Boba and anything else that has the nerve to be popular. They'll still have a problem with him... and The Mandalorian. Magically, go figure. But for us who love the guy, we're happy to see him get his moment. Also the show, it's a good show that does the legacy proud.

Dropping Bombs On Ghosts

One thing I can never love enough about The Real Ghostbusters is just how insane things got. It's a far fetched idea to begin with. A group of guys who shoot lasers at ghosts. As a service, it's a solid idea. Your house is haunted? Call an exterminator. As the line went on though, lasers just weren't enough.

In the above commercial we're treated to Ray and Louis busting ghosts at the Statue of Liberty. Not only does it advertise the cool color changing Slimed Heroes figures, but also the Ecto-Bomber. Which is literally an early 20th century bomber plane outfitted to fight ghosts. How in the hell did they even get that?

The Ghostbusters outright bombed ghosts to bust them. Let's think of the implications of that one. In the commercial alone, Nasty Neck is terrorizing Ray on Liberty Island when the Ecto-Bomber drops a bomb from the sky...

It's safe to assume sometimes the Ghostbusters generated future business.

Bio- Barbearian

Sometimes, crazy also works.

Clad in the hide of a black, wild bear, Grizzly-1 gained fame early on in the Beast Wars, becoming a hero regarded as a living legend. Having gone missing during a mission in the Arctic region, he has now awakened from his icy stasis lock and returned to the lines of battle! Due to compositional flaws in his organic structure, he secretes a toxin that induces extreme agitation and confusion, increasing his ferocity to an astounding level. But by switching between his mutant head, which receives the toxin and hormones, and his rational robot head, he retains perfect control over the wild "Barbearian" within him. In order to display his destructive power most effectively, he commits himself to solo actions of guerrilla warfare, demolitions and front-line combat. He fires powerful energon bolts from his chest, while the power claw equipped on his left shoulder can cruelly tear off an enemy's head module. He forms a team with his robotic bat partner Nightshriek, who transforms into a sonic pistol that can scramble an enemy's brain circuitry, but Nightshriek's the first to disappear when Grizzly-1 goes into his berzerker state. He has the makings of an excellent commander, but is blessed with few opportunities to display his true ability there.

Bios- Cheetor

Like a bolt of greased lightning, Cheetor strikes fast and strikes hard. Quiet and confidant with incredible reflexes, he is equally efficient when battling in robot mode or in his artificially enhanced organic earth form. Cheetor constantly stalks the jungle in search of Predacon enemies, daring them to challenge him and his laser-powered quasar cannon.