G.H.O.S.T. Megatron in Deluxe Missions

It's not often that I like a Megatron enough to actively pursue a figure of him (outside of beast era). It's not that I dislike him, it's just that I vastly prefer other Decepticon leaders. That being said, I really enjoy the Earth Spark version of Megatron. The bad guy turned good gimmick has been used before, but I kinda like it this time. After all, most bad guys don't think they're doing bad. Earth Spark seemingly follows the G1 cartoon (thematically, it's not a super definitive relation) with Optimus Prime and a reformed Megatron (he's changed his ways... but it's still him) working with the Earth military organization named G.H.O.S.T. (whose symbol I REALLY like).

This is the deluxe class toy of Earth Spark Megatron and a pretty decent representation of his on screen character. I very much like the mixture of classic Megatron with a decidedly more heroic look. Clearly the same guy, but those hard lines are softened. It's a good look. In this version, Megatron transforms into a tiltrotor/osprey type vehicle. It's an oddly fitting alt mode for a flying vehicular form. As a weapon, Megatron is carrying a variation of his trademark Fusion Cannon. It can be held in hand or arm mounted traditionally. The cannon splits in half to be part of the tiltrotor's wings. It's pretty impressive how everything comes together uniformly.

The toy transforms pretty easily, though I did get stuck in a few places. Nothing major, just getting it right types of mistakes. Robot mode is pleasantly articulated, though some of the alt mode kibble will need to be adjusted at times. Like Cyberverse deluxe toys, Megatron comes with a build-a-figure piece. Specifically Mandroid in this case and Mandroid's left arm with this toy. I'm not sure if I'll complete this figure as my focus with Earth Spark toys will likely be warrior class and turbo changers. In case it's not obvious... I like this toy. He's perfectly satisfactory on all fronts. I'm sure others may take issues with things and that's fine. For me... he just works. This is a good toy of Megatron with a slightly different take than you expect coming in.

Earthspark is good

Transformers Earthspark, the newest TF cartoon, premiered today on Paramount Plus. The first episode was available via a few sneak peaks that I wasn't privy to and the pirated copy floating around on Facebook that big name sites hid behind click bait links... I never had time to watch. It's an extremely busy time for me and things happen. I did manage to watch a few episodes of Earthspark today and want to talk about it a minute because I really liked it. I had been looking forward to the show and am really glad that it's turned out so good.

I won't intentionally get into spoilers, the show just came out and I'm sure you'd rather find out stuff for yourself. I will talk about things I feel are fair to talk about publicly. Lot's of this is already out as part of the marketing blitz, so you probably know most of it already. The basic premise is that the Autobot/Decepticon war is over. Megatron has joined up with Optimus Prime and other Autobots as part of an X-Files style government organization called G.H.O.S.T. that are gathering up all the remaining Decepticons that are still doing bad guy stuff.

Dialing into EarthSpark

 

Earlier today, Hasbro previewed the new Transformers cartoon "Transformers Earthspark". It's coming this fall on Nickelodeon and hopefully Paramount Plus. It should to no surprise to any of you that I'm looking forward to this. While it's too early to form an opinion, the clip looks great. I like the designs quite a bit and hope some cool toys come from it. I'm certain they'll be previewed over the next few months. If they're like the Cyberverse toys before, I'm looking forward to some cool old school super robot style figures. It's always exciting when a new Transformers cartoon is debuting. Here's hoping it's as good as it looks so far!

Merge Into A New Week

 
Hey, remember when I said I'd be stopping these 'new week posts'? I lied. It's Monday and you know what that means? A brand new week here on Planet Zone! Before you say it, yes I was originally intended to launch Not As Brightly Lit today... and changed my mind. If you've gotten the chance to listen, I hope you like it. It's been on my back burner for a long time and it feels good to finally do it. I record episodes in advance, so you'll probably notice little improvements over time. Not as many pops in the next episode and the show is also available on iHeart Radio and Breaker now as well. Though it'll be a few episodes until that's mentioned because it wasn't ready when they were recorded. I plan to put it on more services, but I'm taking one thing at a time.

I'm looking forward to the new Pacific Rim anime on Netflix. Also the new Godzilla anime and Ultraman season 2 are coming soon. It's great that Netflix has such cool stuff, especially considering how uninterested I was in it's streaming initially. Power Rangers Dino Fury will be starting soon as well. I kinda forgot about it until the past few days. I'm glad it's been brought to my attention. The new Zord toys look neat and I'm looking forward to the show. From the cast descriptions I'm kinda excited. The Red Ranger is an alien, the blue a skeptic, and the pink is very into the paranormal. For a person who's TV stays on Travel Channel and got Discovery+ just for paranormal entertainment...

I know that'll all be dropped after the first few episodes, but man, I can dream right? Thanks everyone for continuing to read and support Zone Base. Please share with your friends, it's all I ask.

Beast Morphers Premiere!

POWER RANGERS BEAST MORPHERS

PREMIERES SATURDAY, MARCH 2, AT 8:00 a.m. (ET/PT) ON NICKELODEON

 

Power Rangers returns to Nickelodeon with an all-new series from Hasbro and Allspark Pictures at an all-new time

 

BURBANK, Calif. -- FEBRUARY 15, 2019 -- Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), a global play and entertainment company, and Nickelodeon today announced that the iconic, long-standing Power Rangers franchise is returning with an all-new television series, POWER RANGERS BEAST MORPHERS, premiering on Saturday, March 2, at 8 a.m. (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon in the U.S. In this brand new season of Power Rangers, the Rangers are sporting tactical leather suits with their ‘Beast Bot’ sidekicks and elevated battle footage with an all-new cast of dynamic heroes, evil villains and imagination defying monsters.

 

Set in the future, a secret agency combines a newly discovered substance called Morph-X with Animal DNA to create the Power Rangers Beast Morphers team. The Rangers must fight off an evil sentient computer virus bent on taking over the source of all ranger power, the Morphin Grid itself!

 

“We are extremely thrilled to have Power Rangers under the Hasbro family and to celebrate over two decades of this iconic brand,” said Simon Waters, Senior Vice President and GM of Hasbro’s Power Rangers franchise. “We're eager to bring exciting new products to fans this year and introduce all-new Power Rangers entertainment and content from Hasbro with the POWER RANGERS BEAST MORPHERS series on Nickelodeon. From the captivating storyline to the action-packed scenes, this new series is sure to entertain Power Rangers fans and new audiences of all ages.” 

 

ABOUT HASBRO

Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) is a global play and entertainment company committed to Creating the World's Best Play Experiences. From toys and games to television, movies, digital gaming and consumer products, Hasbro offers a variety of ways for audiences to experience its iconic brands, including NERF, MY LITTLE PONY, TRANSFORMERS, PLAY-DOH, MONOPOLY, BABY ALIVE and MAGIC: THE GATHERING, as well as premier partner brands. Through its entertainment labels, Allspark Pictures and Allspark Animation, the Company is building its brands globally through great storytelling and content on all screens. Hasbro is committed to making the world a better place for children and their families through corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. Hasbro ranked No. 5 on the 2018 100 Best Corporate Citizens list by CR Magazine, and has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies^® by Ethisphere Institute for the past seven years. Learn more at www.hasbro.com, and follow us on Twitter (@Hasbro) and Instagram (@Hasbro).

ABOUT NICKELODEON

Nickelodeon, now in its 39^TH year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, digital, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon’s U.S. television network is seen in more than 90 million households and has been the number-one-rated kids’ basic cable network for 22 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc.

Thanks to Hasbro and Rogers & Cowan for providing Zone Base with this news.

Beast Mode

Despite all the cool stuff for Shattered Grid going around (man, I'd love that Lord Drakkon figure... or an Imaginext of him... actually that'd be awesome) I've been more focused on developments from Beast Morphers. The entire Hasbro involvement has really caught my attention and I'm super interested in how things will go. I still have the back half of Super Ninja Steel to go before I even get to this show that won't even air until a year from now, and I'm in no rush for the year to fly by, but man I'm really focused on this. So I've started taking note of the casting calls for the show and comically enough saw one with the typo Power Rangers Beast Mode (which isn't too bad of a name) that I wish I could find again to link to. One that really caught my eye was this one . 

While Hasbro has the master toy license from Beast Morphers going forward, they haven't acquired the IP yet. Yet the show is listed as a Hasbro/Nickelodeon production instead of a Saban/Nickelodeon production. I don't know if this is a typo like the prior mentioned Beast Mode (really wish I saved that link) or perhaps news that hasn't come to light yet. Either way, it's interesting.

Giving the Islands a new Adventure

It's another Rob imagines Universal Studios stuff post

As my readers know, I love me some Universal Studios Orlando. I'm regularly dreaming up fantasy situations for the park and while I've been having a ball doing it, I feel quite bad that I've ignored Islands of Adventure, the other park on the resort that's really awesome in it's own right. Islands has the awesome Hogsmeade from Harry Potter, a great Jurassic Park area, and that extremely rad new Skull Island. While I certainly love the other areas, the subject of how to reinvigorate them comes up often in various circle and I've put my noggin to use figuring out how to work with some of the other Islands. But, keeping with my sense of economy, I tried to figure out how to do it without sacrificing too much of the great stuff that's already there.

Just picture it

Everyone speculates that the Lost Continent is on the chopping block. Personally, I think the area (what's left of it post Harry Potter) is a really pretty landscape that just could use some sprucing up. With the new Super Nintendo Land coming to Universal Studios, it would be a good use of that license to adapt The Legend of Zelda to the land. Some costume changes here, some decoration changes there. Maybe something extra over there, and it pretty much does itself. Poseidon's Fury could get retrofitted with a new show inside with some of the facade redone to sell the show as a temple or dungeon experience. Mythos just could use a few touches. People complain about the Sinbad show, welp, let's do a new Zelda show in the theater. I honestly think just a little fine tuning, a little re-theming, and a little new bits and bobs and this area could be given a new life that would probably be a hit.

They've already got park history

Folks regularly say Toon Lagoon is also on the chopping block. While I dig the Newspaper comic pages characters, I could see where it could be lost on another person. How about Nickelodeon characters? The water rides could be re-themed to Sponge Bob (he already has a store at Studios!) and I could easily see the stores be re-fronted as newer Nickelodeon characters. Maybe work that boat ride into a multi character ride.

This would be awesome

I think Marvel Island is completely awesome. I'm a big fan of the overall 90's comic vibe and think the Spider-Man ride is amazing. That being said, Disney own's Marvel and it's created a weird situation that many wonder will eventually result in Marvel Island getting removed sooner or later. Going with that trail of thought and working with the fact that Marvel Island already kinda bleeds into Toon Lagoon, what if it became a TMNT/Power Rangers section? TMNT is already owned by Nickolodeon and Power Rangers has been airing on the channel for about 7 years now. That great city facade would lend itself into both quite well. I could see Spider-Man's ride system redone as a new TMNT ride. The Hulk repainted into a Power Rangers coaster (the roar could be the Dragonzord). Doctor Doom and Storm Force is a free fall and tea cups ride respectively that also could be realistically re-themed to the characters.

I know I'm just shooting from the hip as an arm chair quarterback. I have no real knowledge of how these things work past a fans general knowledge. But I see opportunities and things I'd think would be really fun. Not to mention, I kinda really like that park.

Don't look at me like that.