Leo X Godzilla [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles X Godzilla]

Rounding out the first wave of figures in the awesome TMNT X Godzilla line from Playmates is Leo X Godzilla. Pairing the Turtles’ leader (regardless of what Raphael says) with the King of the Monsters, and utilizing Leonardo’s signature blue alongside Godzilla’s atomic breath, just feels natural.

The blue flames on his katana combine the two characters’ signature weapon/attack perfectly, and it just looks fantastic.

I’ve made the comparison before, but I really feel the need to make it again — these feel more like designer toys than action figures you can just pick up at Target.

After this year, Mattel will be taking over mainline TMNT action figures, and thanks to Turtles of Grayskull, I know they’ll be in good hands. This crossover feels like an excellent finale to Playmates Toys TMNT for me, as I’ve been buying them since I was a kid in the late ’80s.

Once again, the figure has excellent articulation and sculpted detail. It’s pretty amazing just how well the melding of Godzilla with the TMNT aesthetic works. I really like the way his tail and back plates integrate with the turtle shell.

Part of me wishes they’d do a Gamera. Now that I’ve said that, I really want one.

Unfortunately, this is the last TMNT X Godzilla figure we’ll be looking at for a while, as wave 2 isn’t due out until this fall.

Ralph X Rodan [TMNT X Godzilla]

So, if anything, the slightly random nature of the TMNT X Godzilla toys is part of the magic. Clearly there was going to be a Rodan, and since Raphael wears red, they’re a match. However, as a fan, I can’t just let it be that simple. See, Raphael (cool, but rude) has that infamous fiery temper. The Rodans not only died in a volcano in their debut movie, but Fire Rodan was introduced in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, complete with the Uranium Heat Beam ability. The MonsterVerse Rodan was discovered in a volcano as well. See? Spiciness is implied… it works.

The merging of Rodan and Raphael also looks absolutely awesome. Admittedly, combining monsters and mutants is already a winning combination, but all of these designs have been great so far. I didn’t mention it in Mikey X King Ghidorah, but these figures have an excellent amount of articulation in addition to the detailed sculpting and strong coloring. Playmates makes awesome toys, and that’s on full display here.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Rodan thanks to that Shogun Warriors version I played with until it literally fell apart. And even though Michelangelo is my favorite turtle, there have been times when Raphael has taken that spot. Sometimes, when life gets hard and you’re mad at the world, you can relate.

I love how the wings are incorporated, and I really enjoy his trademark sai being enhanced with that fiery Uranium Heat Beam energy. This one really nails the concept and is sitting somewhere special in my heart.

Mikey X King Ghidorah [TMNT X Godzilla]

When I first learned about the TMNT X Godzilla crossover line, I about crapped my pants. Something so right, just sitting there at Target. The Mrs. picked up on that instantly and grabbed me the first wave of figures for Christmas, and we’re about to spend the next few Wednesdays taking a look at them.

It’s also been far too long since I’ve talked about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles here on the site, so this whole thing is prime subject matter. We’re going to start things off with my favorite of the turtles, Michelangelo.

I’m assuming Michelangelo was chosen to represent King Ghidorah because of his orange colors. There is a tie-in comic, which I haven’t read, but I assume it provides an in-universe reason. Either way, it looks fantastic. Mikey is almost completely colored in Ghidorah’s trademark gold, and it works incredibly well. His head sculpt blends the traditional TMNT design with elements of Ghidorah’s dragon head. Ghidorah’s other two heads can be worn as shoulder armor or held to recreate the signature three-headed dragon look we all know.

Of course, being Michelangelo, he’s got his twin nunchucks. Instead of the usual wooden ones, these are translucent energy nunchucks patterned after Ghidorah’s Gravity Beams. There are also two giant wings and Ghidorah’s twin tails to attach, completing the whole package. It’s crazy how good this thing looks — more like a designer toy than a standard action figure. This has absolutely no right to look as good as it does, and yet it somehow pulls it off anyway.

Monday's on it (and is an asshole)

It's time to start another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure Zone Base readers. I had a great weekend and hope you did too! I spent Saturday with the Mrs enjoying Valentines Day. We did some shopping and enjoyed dinner at Outback Steakhouse (despite one long ass wait). Later that night, I enjoyed more episodes of Kamen Rider Zezt. Sunday we spent the day at home with some fun TV. The Mrs made us a wonderful barbecue dinner that I plan on enjoying leftovers from today. Mom came over and we watched The Super Mario Brothers movie with that excellent food. I built several Blokees, including assembling Defender Version Bruticus. We'll be talking about that in an upcoming post. 

Like many of you, I enjoyed the news from New York Toy Fair 2026. There was SEVERAL exciting products shown off and frankly, I'm excitied. All along the kaiju front was looks at the upcoming Power Rangers x Godzilla figures from Playmates that I'm literally salivating over. In addition, TMNT x Godzilla's second wave was shown off. This is something I've been actually pretty anxious about. I've got the first wave, which does not include Donatello... leaving me feeling a little uneasy. Thankfully Donny is in wave 2 alongside Shredder and Splinter. I plan on covering the series soon after we spend a few Wednesdays finishing up another set started a few months ago. Speaking of Godzilla,  it looks like Godziban will be getting a US release and I about crapped my pants. This is awesome! Speaking of Power Rangers, the Re-Ignition series will also get a version of the Thunder Megazord that I'm looking forward to. There was more looks at the upcoming MOTU movie toys and I'm really excited for the core class toys. Sure, I'll get some Chronicles... but those core class figures look great. 

As far as Transformers go, several were shown off with Studio Series 86 getting more exciting toys to go along with this years 40th anniversary of the 1986 movie. I'm hoping for theatrical showings of the movie this year similar to the Transformers 40th Anniversary Theatrical Event in 2024, I really enjoyed that. Of course Blokees and Yolopark showed off upcoming kits, I'm STOKED for Wheels wave 2. I've been really enjoying building wave 1 and we'll start looking at them soon. Most exciting was the showing of new Cyberworld toys. Outright blowing the prior toys out of the water with exciting and imaginative designs, you can be sure I'll be all over these and covering them here. So far we've covered the complete line here on Zone Base and that's something I plan to continue. The pirate ship Scourge and sea creature Soundwave look amazing and I am VERY excited for more of this awesome and fun Transformers series. 

There was several more cool toys shown off, but that's what's filling my mind as I write this on my tablet while watching a video on Space Godzilla. I got some cool toys this weekend too. While at Five Below, I picked up a new Mutant Monsters ball. There's a few more that so far have only have appeared at Five Below and this was the first time I've seen any. When I get the rest, we'll continue our look at those. I also got a fun pack of Transformers pencils at Five Below that I'll likely never use... but had to have. The newer Authentics were there, but I didn't get them. Maybe one day. Walmart had Quintus Prime and Amalgamous Prime whom I gladly bought. This leaves only Alpha Trion missing in my quest to get all of the Primes in the Age of the Primes line. I left Wreck-Gar behind, though I'll likely get him later. Generations Transformers prices are too high for me to buy that many at once in good conscience. Definitely acquiring them at a slower pace.

Sunday I ordered the Mrs and myself Happy Meals for a quick lunch and got two more Changeables. Unfortunately they were both FR-13S, whom I now have 4 of (dammit). Neatly enough, they came with sticker sheets! So far I haven't gotten any stickers with the new Changeables,  so that was neat. Also we normally get extra fries instead of the apple slices. But since my local McDonald's is a dumpster fire and has a mission statement to screw up every order, every time, we got the apple slices (and a refund... I'm starting to wonder how much money Door Dash makes as they literally refund every order we make). However... the apple slices came in Changeables baggies! Neat! I'll definitely be making some Instagram stories with those when enjoying them as a snack later. 

Well, it's time to get this week started. Household chores and toy picks for upcoming posts need to be done. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. It's extremely flattering to see the thousands of you coming out every day and reading. Please don't forget to share the site with your friends and be excellent to each other!

Still Here

Another weekend has sadly come and gone bringing the start of another work week. Fortunately, Zone Base is here to save the day with robots, monsters, and misadventure! I sure have a fun week in store for you all, but first let me catch you up on my weekend. Well, first off, I hope yours was great. Mine was a nice and relaxing spent mostly at home. It was actually pretty rainy and a tornado even popped up Saturday afternoon. Winter in the American South can be tumultuous. It gets very cold, but storms roll in occasionally bringing humidity and creating all sorts of chaos.

I went out briefly for a few things needed outside of our grocery order and man, it was crazy out there. Too many people for me at the moment, with lots of folks just standing in the way. Good grief! As far as toys go, Target was pretty barren. Being just weeks after Christmas, it's going to be that way for awhile, but it's always jarring. I've been on the hunt for a Big Convoy and Quickstrike (in addition to Combaticons and Primes) and it's disappointing to come up enpty handed. They had a Razorclaw who is the case mate of Big Convoy, so they did have him at one point. I picked Razorclaw already, so the hunt continues! I didn't walk away empty handed this weekend, as Yolopark's mini wave 2 is on the way! I've been meaning to order them already, so it'll be good to finally get my hands on them.

For whatever reason, my temperment wasn't there for video games this weekend. It seems like everything I tried to play felt like a struggle. It didn't help that I'm stuck in a few different games that I've been playing. Oh well, it just goes that way sometimes. However, I had fun with the Mrs opening my new Blokees that came in during the week. I had ordered Defender Version series 04 and 05 with some Christmas money (as well as the Unicron head) and it was fun seeing who all I got. We generally do this together as even though Transformers aren't her thing, she has fun opening blind boxes. We opened them while watching The Twilight Zone movie. 

A new season of 1000lbs Sisters started and we enjoyed the premiere during one amazingly good dinner. It was my cheat meal of the week and we had Steak and Shake! Speaking of dinner, the Mrs made an excellent Sunday dinner that I enjoyed while building more Blokees! I assembled Classic Class 07 Movie Megatron and that Unicron head! I've got quite the backlog that's fun to work on! To be honest with you all, with the way toy prices are going, models might be the main focus of my buying going forward. That's not to say I still don't want regular Transformers. But distribution and rising costs are not making it an easy hobby. So while I'll definitely still be buying regular Transformers, frequency might slow down a little. It's a good thing the universe has been steering my focus towards various model kits anyway. I've built models on and off my entire life. So it's just another day for me. 

Speaking of Transformers I want to buy at stores, Tiny Turbo Changers have returned! I've got the codes for wave 1 ready for packs to appear... now if they'd just appear. Currently they're repaints of the Cyberverse figures from years ago. Seeing that the last waves were impossible to find and I loved them so anyway, no problem! Here's hoping new molds do appear. According to online leaks, there's more Cyberworld on the way as well. I'm chomping at the bit for more Cyber Changers, so here's hoping it's not a long wait.  Generations may be making itself difficult to buy, but thankful there's other retail lines that I've had no problem getting!

In addition to Transformers, I've been on look for a Donatello for my TMNT x Godzilla figures. He's the only one of the set I haven't gotten yet, and when I do, you can be sure to see all 4 covered here on those weird, random Wednesday posts! Speaking of Wednesday posts, starting this week is the first of a cool 5 part series on a neat line I discovered shortly before Christmas. One that Santa surprised me with under the tree! Hope you all are ready for some Blast Processing! 

Before I end this  week's weekly update, about those bootleg Micromasters I spoke about last week. The correct assortment came and they were marvelous! I got a box of 40 Micromasters that despite being unofficial, are really cool! Coming in a variety of wild colors, there was some straight recolors of existing toys, and a lot of original creations using Micromaster skeletons. As in, they made ones with new vehicle bits! New Micromasters! There's a few mystery bots as well, some tiny transforming bots from a line I don't recognize as well as some Hot Wheel bootlegs. Funnily, they bootleged some of the Speed Demons series. That was a line of monster Hot Wheels I loved as a kid and occasionally pick up still. So  those few in my crazy case of bootleg Micromasters were a welcome site. The Micromasters are available on Amazon, but be careful if you buy them. The sellers offer different sizes for different costs. They mistakenly sent me the 16 count case... and those were not Micromasters! It looks like the 40ct will get you the set I got. They're also available in a 28ct Valentines set. I'm not familiar with the cost, but you get 28 Micromasters with Valentines cards. Pretty neat!

Well, I've apparently written a novel this week. I guess after a few weeks of brief updates there was a lot to say. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. You'd never know it from social media, but THOUSANDS of you show up each day to read my thoughts on robots, monsters, and misadventure. That's extremely flattering and it means a lot to me. Thank you all so very much. I don't plan to make the biggest deal about the sites 10th anniversary, but starting the 10th year with all you reading feels amazing. Thank you. Please share the site with your friends and be excellent to one another. 

New Week 2000

Hello Zone Base readers! Welcome back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a great weekend, I sure did! I enjoyed a low key weekend with the Mrs, enjoyed her great cooking, watched Stranger Things with her and Mom, worked on more Halloween backdrops for toy pics here on the site, and played Donkey Kong Bananza! Once again my Walmart didn't have any new toys, but I ordered Cyberworld Bumblebee and Snarl! Bumblebee will be here later this week, but Snarl won't arrive until a little later. I have no clue why he's the harder of the initial batch of Cyberworld toys to get, but I happily got one for standard retail.

My most recent Blokees order came in Sunday and the Mrs and I had fun opening the boxes and checking the trading card to see who as inside! I've got 2 cases of Galaxy Version Defender kits to start work on soon. I'll probably order another soon as well, I really love the Defender type kits and feel like they're perfect for site content. In a conversation on Blokees Facebook page, another poster suggested they do Battle Beasts in the Defender range. What a great idea! Part of me majorly prefers things like Blokees and Yolopark kits these days to traditional Transformers toys. I spent years of my youth painting miniatures and building models and Zoids. I guess these just vibe with that part of my brain. 

Speaking of vibing with my brain, both SCCC and Wonderfest Summer was this weekend. I definitely enjoyed the new toy reveals at SDCC. Transformers, Masters of The Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Godzilla, and others made a great showing with tons of exciting new releases in store. While I appreciate that, I won't lie, it feels like another official reveal like these companies do all year. It's exciting, for sure, but what really gets my heart going is the pictures from Wonderfest. I spent hours this weekend looking them over and wishing I were there. 

Well, I've got a fun week in store for you all. This is the prelude before Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem starts next week! I'm so excited that I swapped the site over to fall colors last week! It's good to freshen things up occasionally and with the 100+ degree heat I'm having...  the cooler temperatures of fall feels forever away. It's about to get extra spooky around Planet Zone for the next 3 months and I'm excited! Well, thank you all for reading Zone Base. Your support means so very much to me. This isn't one of those corporate sites that just want your money and you all are real ones for just wanting to enjoy our hobbies. Please be sure to share the site with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Scrambled New Week

Hello Zone Base readers, thank you all for coming back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine sure felt like a holiday break. Saturday the Mrs and did our weekend shopping which included a visit to At Home to look at whatever new Halloween stuff they had stocked. There was quite a bit with room for more to come! It's quite exhilarating and even refreshing to see it out in the middle of summer. Here in the American South, it gets very hot in the summer. We'll be having 100 degree days from now until September, so a reminder that fall is coming is nice. We picked up a few items and a little more at TJ Max whom also starts early. We had a delivery from Target who begins their Halloween stocking online in summer. This would be our second shipment this summer and they're looking to have a great selection this year. The neon colors are returning alongside their trademark cozy offerings. Of course Lewis has more cool merchandise as well. We're fans of him in our household and can't get enough! 

We picked up Donkey Kong Bananza Saturday as well. What a great game. Action platformer games are my favorite video games to play and this is one for the record books. It's open world with a ton of collectibles to search for with a great setting and story. Add in tight controls and pure fun. It's just so much fun! You can literally spend hours not doing anything important and still feel satisfied with doing so! Walmart didn't have any new toys still, which is getting pretty frustrating. I have a few more Turtles of Grayskull figures to get and it'd be great to find new Transformers on shelves. I love Transformers One, but seeing the same stock for a year now is exhausting. Fortunately my Cyberworld order came in during the week and another Blokees order was made this weekend.

Cyberworld is providing to be a great line that's going to be fun to cover here on the site. While I talked about Grimlock in June, it's going to be great to show the main figures. So far I have Optimus Prime, Megatron, Skybite, and Galvatron. Bumblebee and Snarl have been tricky to find at the moment, though I'm sure will be easier in the coming days as stores stock the toys. They're online at some retailers for a much higher price than Walmart and Amazon. Of course sites with related ads won't tell you that! These figures are essentially sized up Legends/Legion class figures with the higher priced ones coming with large weapons. Simplicity being their nature, you shouldn't pay too much. Don't let the basics fool you though, they're a lot of fun. My look at them will start next week, remember, I'm generally a week or two ahead on scheduling content.

After some sleep Saturday afternoon, I woke up that evening (at that point I'd been awake for 24 hours) to enjoy some good food and TV with the Mrs. She made me french bread pizza which was great! It's worth nothing the entirety of my food Saturday was some sort of pizza breads. Lunch was pizza bites from Wetzel's Pretzels and a boba. Dinner later that evening was some delicious home made french bread pizza. The Mrs feel asleep on the couch, in which I enjoyed some videos on YouTube before the power suddenly shutting off. We had a blackout! Fortunately the Switch 2 had a full charge to entertain in portable mode untill the power came back on. Well that and a nice nap. When the power came back with some much appreciated air conditioning (it's still at least 80 degrees at night) the Mrs went back to sleep while I watched those videos. I spent most of the night enjoying the Retro Kids channel. His content includes assembling and customizing vintage models kits mostly with other fun stuff as well. I greatly enjoyed one with trip to a recent model show in Japan. It sure was cool seeing all that mecha! Between his content and Donkey Kong... somehow I didn't get any more sleep after that blackout nap. It was dawn before I knew it and the magic of a Saturday that felt like a weekend upon itself was over. 

Sunday was spent with a wonderful breakfast made by the Mrs, more Donkey Kong, a nap around noon, and several episodes of Stranger Things with Mom ordering us dinner! I had some wonderful sushi and ice cream as we enjoyed the first half of season 3. Our rewatch of the series is chugging along and Mom is hooked even more than I realized. She literally called me after getting back home that evening to ask me about it! I then spent some time working on spooky backdrops for this years Halloween time content and... more Donkey Kong. It's really that good!

Well, I've got a fun week in store for you! Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem starts in 2 weeks and I've got my hands full getting everything in place. For those who haven't experienced a Zone Base Halloween yet, it's a mixture of Halloween and regular content with a little extra spooky flair! It's a ton of fun, a ton of posts, and a ton of Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem for 3 months. It's our Superbowl, our Wrestlemania, our big event of the year... without one cent asked from you readers. Zone Base is about having fun with our hobbies from the bottom of our heart, not your wallets. All I ask is that you share the site with your friends. Well, I'm going to enjoy the rest of this strawberry acai refresher before getting to work on some household chores. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. We have fun here and that we includes each and every one of you. Mutual High Fives everyone!

Monday Burst

It's the start of an new week of robots, monsters, and misadventure here on Zone Base. I hope you all had a great weekend, mine was pretty good... and went by way too fast. The Mrs and I did our weekend shopping and even checked out some early Halloween stock in our local At Home and Cracker Barrel. We got some great spooky stuff and had a lot of fun. 

Ealier in the week my Godzilla Megatron came in and I didn't expect my happiness to be that high. I knew I had it on the way and that it was real. But actually holding it in my hand... wow. I'm not sure when the MechaGodzilla Optimus Prime will ship, I guess it's coming later as it doesn't look like anyone has gotten theirs yet either. Speaking of Godzilla, the Mrs picked me up some fun Godzilla stuff while on a shopping trip with her friend. She got me a bag full of Godzilla blind boxes and bags along with some Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Stranger Things, and Shin-Chan stuff. That was super nice of her while they were in Popmart heaven.

My local stores are still pretty barren. I've still not gotten the rest of the Turtles of Grayskull figures and that's causing me some distress. I really want to complete the line and feel so close to my goal. Not to mention,  not a single new Transformer in some time. I haven't gotten the Studio Series B-127 yet... and that's all they seem to have other than leftover TF One stock. It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't anticipating Cyberworld so much. I really can't wait to get my hands on those! Considering the show is premiering July 12th, I'm hoping they'll be on shelves soon. I did order a case of Blokees. I sure do love them... I just wish they were easier to get!

July the 4th is Friday and I'm gearing up for the holiday weekend. It's going to be a short work week and probably a hard one too. I'm looking forward to the break though and getting some rest. Well, we've got a fun holiday week in store for you all. Thank you for reading Zone Base. I really appreciate your support and just ask that you share the site with your friends. Mutual High Fives everyone, let's get this Monday started!

Monday! Change to Memorial Day! Holiday is Go!

It's Memorial Day, meaning I'm enjoying the holiday with my family. Of course normal posting will resume tomorrow as usual. In the meantime, I'm enjoying some much needed downtime and cooking out! I hope everyone has a great holiday and I'll be back later with more robots, monsters, and misadventure!

Take Monday with You

It's Monday, dammit. Thankfully you've found yourself on Zone Base to get you through the week. My weekend was pretty good, even if short lived. Thankfully Memorial Day weekend is approaching for a much needed break. The Mrs and I enjoyed some weekend shopping and good food. I ate plenty of Sushi on Saturday as the Mrs and I watched the newest episode of 1000lbs Sisters and rented The Minecraft Movie on Amazon. I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. While I haven't played Minecraft in a while, but I've always enjoyed it. The movie, however, was hilarious and felt more like a Tenacious D episode than a video game adaptation. 

I intended to buy the new Doom game this weekend, but decided to hold off for a little while. I'm still playing though the 2016 Doom game I recently bought on sale. I really want the new game, but think I'll get it a little later. I found Turtles of Grayskull Mechaneck and ordered ZombieTrack from Amazon. Surprisingly, ZombieTrack came in within hours. I've been wanting him since announcement, but waiting for 52toys to stock him in the US Amazon shop. I generally get my BeastBox toys there or in person and have had great success. I think there's a fun monster robot week in Zone Base's future. Speaking of fun, Cyberworld toys are starting to materialize and I can't wait to cover them here on the site. They feel like the successor to the Beast Alliance figures that I loved so much and were so fun to blog about. Please look forward to upcoming posts about them as they become available to me. I spent Sunday evening playing Doom and building Blokees. Such a fun way to spend an evening. 

Speaking of fun, that's the kind of week I've got coming your way Zone Base readers. Thank you all for coming back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone enjoys the content and hope you all share it with your friends! 

Shoot... it's Monday

Welcome back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I had a great weekend and hope you did too! It was Easter and a pretty good time! The Mrs and I exchanged Easter Baskets and man did she pull out all the stops! Transformers, TMNT, a squishy Cody Rhodes, and some candy was much appreciated! She even put Blokees in eggs and hid them around the house! I'm now the owner of a case of Transformers One Blokees and look forward to putting them together! We had Easter fun at my Mom's house with my brother's family before enjoying a relaxing Sunday evening at home. The 2016 Doom remake was on sale on the Nintendo e-shop for just 5$, so that was an easy purchase.

Speaking of Blokees, it looks like Walmart is making a solid effort into including them into their normal stock. I've been seeing Reels with folks not only finding Galaxy Version boxes at stores, but the larger kits as well. Hopefully they'll be able to keep them in stock as they are popular. I sure love them! Hopefully my Galaxy Defender case ships soon and didn't get back ordered (I swear I hate pre-orders). Of course there's more than just Blokees as far as new Transformers goes... but it's hard not to just focus on them.

There's other toys as well coming out that I'm loving, it's such a fun time on Zone Base! Speaking of, I've got a fun week in store for you all. It appears that an anomaly has been detected in orbit over the planet thanks to those darn quantum computers. Weirdly enough, Planet Zone has been registering as Planet Micro again on various notes around the base. Weird, wonder what's going on? I'm sure it's small. Regardless of universal streams distorting everything, thank you all for reading Zone Base. Don't forget to share with your friends!

Smol Week, Big Smile

Another week is beginning here on Zone Base and with it robots, monsters, and misadventure! I'm sad to see the weekend end, but thankful to see you reading my nonsense. Not much really happened this weekend, spent time with the Mrs and played Kirby games. I should have worked on organizing toys... but ever just enjoy a lazy day? Maybe next weekend. I did find some toys on a shopping trip. Apparently my Walmart had gotten some Transformers One Blokees in during the week that had been cleared out by the time I got there. Fortunately, I found a lone box sitting on a shelf. Add that to the case of Galaxy Version Defender kits I ordered and I've got a whole lot of fun coming! The TF One kit was Orion Pax btw, I look forward to building him soon... and hopefully finding more. These little shits move fast!

I also picked up Age of the Primes Waspinator. The Mrs suprised me with Age of the Primes Slingshot and a Turtles of Grayskull Rattlor! The Reptile Wars have begun! Not to be outdone, the Mrs cooked a fantastic chicken dinner Sunday night that was enjoyed while we watched IF. Who'd of thought that would have been as good of a movie as it was? Well, I've got a fun little week in store for you all... we're going to focus on some smaller toys. I sure do love them and considering the site is named after a Micromaster base... it's time to get back to the little guys. Thank you all for reading Zone Base, please don't forget to share with your friends!

Weekend HENSHIN! Cyborg Monday

Hello Zone Base readers! Welcome back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was pretty good itself. I can't say I did a lot, but enjoyed it all the same. The Mrs and I made a point to do our weekly shopping early Saturday morning to be home in time for the severe weather awaiting us that night. Like last weekend, I didn't buy myself anything toy related as my birthday and Toylanta are in 2 weeks. But did finally find a can of BBQ Doritos Minis. I vastly prefer the mini Doritos and really love the BBQ flavor. Now that they're available in the smaller size, I can indulge without worrying about eating too much. I love them, but still need to watch what I eat!

Saturday evening as the storms came in, I enjoyed some sushi the Mrs had ordered while I was sleeping. I had a wonderful meal of spicy yellow tail roll, sweet potato roll, and of course a cucumber roll. I normally get a spicy tuna roll, but think I'll be getting that yellow tail more often! It was so pleasant and this was my first time with a sweet potato roll. I'll definitely be getting it more. It had some tempura inside and went perfectly with the spicy yellow tail. Of course I enjoyed my cucumber roll, it's a favorite. I love cucumbers and you all know I love my spooky stuff. Nothing like a kappamaki roll to polish off a great meal! I had some rainbow sherbert for dessert and an overall wonder meal. The weather was not so great as spring is settling in and that means lots of storms in the American South. There was severe weather all evening including tornadoes. We made it out ok, but unfortunately others didn't. I wish the best for them and their families. After dinner, I rode out the storm with various ghost and robot videos in between playing Shredder's Revenge. That might just be my favorite TMNT game ever! 

Sunday, the weather was much better and I went to the local Kroger to renew my license tag for the year at the Tag Renewal vending machine. Afterwards, I decided to check out the Pokémon machine to see if they had anything cool. Normally there's a line, but the store staff had blocked the machine with online order pick-up carts. Jerks! I'm always annoyed when staff are inconsiderate to customers. Thinking how many people are usually in line at that machine, I know there was several unhappy people that morning. I worked retail and fast food when I was younger and remember how these sort of things were often because of incompetence more than anything. That's a large portion of my annoyance towards these types of situations. I still remember getting in trouble for things like this by the manager whose idea it was in the first place! Oh well, hopefully others got to use the machine later.

I organized my toys some more (I've got quite a mess to get under control) and enjoyed a wonderful dinner the Mrs cooked. Mom came over and we enjoyed Sunday dinner while watching the first half of The Electric State. I look forward to finishing it as it's really good! We had salad, spaghetti, and some awesome lemon cupcakes! After Mom left, we watched some Leemax and other companies Halloween offerings preview videos. It was a great weekend and hopefully this will be a great week! Being Monday, of course I have some household chores to do and some toys to picture for upcoming posts. It's finally happening, I'll be finishing our look at Beast Alliance Transformers. Of course I'm 2 weeks ahead as usual, so please look forward to it shortly after Toylanta. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. I really do appreciate it! Don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives!

In Christmas Zones

The Thanksgiving break is over meaning Christmas is in full gear here on Zone Base. I hope everyone who celebrated had a great holiday and everyone who didn't had a great week! I definitely enjoyed the days off as this time of the year is pretty tough at work which added to the busyness of the holidays can make for one burned out brain. That being said, this year to celebrate Christmas, we'll be letting the random Wednesday posts focus solely on Christmas fun! It's the holiday season and we're gonna ring it in! 

I spent my holiday break with the Mrs and family getting rest and enjoying some video games. The Mrs and I did get out Friday for a day of Christmas shopping and even though I'm not focusing on myself this month (it's a time to think of others, dangit!), I did manage to grab myself a few fun things. I checked out Ross to hopefully find some of the amazing Transformers deals others were finding. While mine came up mostly empty handed, I did finally find a Legacy Shrapnel! Target had the Super7 ReAction Transformers blind boxes and I grabbed two which ended up being Optimus Prime and Bumblebee.

These are great little figures and it's no secret that I love ReAction figures. I also picked up my Advent Calendar for this Christmas season. Jada Metalfig Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! This looks like a fun advent and full of two things I can't get enough of. TMNT and Metalfigs! Like the advent calendars from years prior, I'll be opening one every day on my Instagram. Please give me a follow while you're there. If you like my content here, you'll sure to enjoy what I post there. Well, speaking of content, I've got to get to work drumming up pictures for future posts. December is a hectic month, but I'll stay on top of the robots, monsters, and misadventure here on Zone Base! Thank you all for reading and please don't forget to share with your friends!

Michelangelo [Turtles of Grayskull]

Mikey may be a party dude with pizza on his mind, but he has a new purpose: be the Most Powerful Turtle in the Universe. He grabs a blonde wig and begins emulating Eternia’s greatest warrior, He-Man.

I've probably mentioned it before here on the site, but Michelangelo is my favorite of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I've also mentioned before that the late 80's/early 90's incarnation of TMNT is my favorite. That being said, my specifically favorite version of Michelangelo is perfect for an adventure on Eternia. Not because I particularly prefer him... he just fits. Perfectly.

After meeting the MOTU gang, Michelangelo decided he wanted to be just like He-Man. So here he is dressed just like him, yellow wig and all. Neatly enough, he kinda resembles Flying Fists He-Man in this armor (the colors are off, but the idea is there) and his nunchucks could be considered similar to the spinning weapons that version of He-Man used. Michelangelo's turtle shell can become a shield like all the other turtles, but I wish it had some sort of spinner on it as well. Just to play into that some more. There was the Rock 'N Roll Michelangelo figure from the original turtle line that had a spinning hand. Of course his nunchucks were the ideal weapon for that gimmick, but he also had a shield that worked well with it. That's where my mind is going with this guy. Of course the similarity might not have been intentional. Regardless, this is another excellent figure in an awesome line. The wig is removable in case that's too silly... but that's why I like it there.

New Week, New Future

Monday has happened again. Of course that means a new week of robots, monsters, and misadventure is starting here on Zone Base! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was busy with lots of house work to be done. Halloween is sadly over, meaning lots of decorations had to be put away. Not to mention a good household cleaning. Some shopping did happen and I brought home some fun stuff. Target had the new Bandai Godzilla Monster Series 5" figures just in time for Godzilla Day this weekend. I picked up the Godzilla 1954 figure and the Skeleton Godzilla 1954 ReAction figure. I felt that was a solid way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the original movies release. Unfortunately Target didn't have any Transformers I needed, but did have a Turtles of Grayskull April O'Neil. I got her, leaving me just needing Man-at-Arms to have the line complete until the newest wave releases. 

A later trip to Walmart also resulted in no new Transformers. I still need to find the remaining Star Raiders and the new Legacy/Studio Series figures as well. In due time I suppose. I did pick up a Culturefly Meltz Transformer toy and got Shockwave! These are neat little blind bags that are the characters represented as ice cream bars. Neat! I was hoping to find Blokees now that Walmart is carrying them, but no such luck. I guess it just wasn't in the cards this weekend. Of course I also played some Astro Bot (still avoiding completing it) and got some Transformers Minecraft levels completed. It's fun, but it's becoming clear that I need to remap some controls. Speaking of games, the new Nintendo Music app is on mobile and a lot of fun! You need a Switch Online account to use it (which I have), so thankfully there's no ads. It's great digging into various game soundtracks without the same commercials every few songs like on Spotify. Well, time to get my day started. I've got a few chores to do and pictures for upcoming posts to take. Halloween may be over, but Zone Base is still here. Thank you all for reading, please don't forget to share with your friends!

Casey Jones [Turtles of Grayskull]

On earth, Casey fights baddies as a hockey-masked vigilante using the sports gear he can fit into his bag. Now, on Eternia, he loads up on Castle Grayskulls’ best battle gear to join the fight against evil.

I've always loved Casey Jones. One of the coolest characters in TMNT whose just a human who happens to be friends with the guys. He's romantically linked with April usually and generally something of a misfit. Casey Jones is a vigilante who attacks criminals in the streets with sports equipment and wearing an old hockey mask

Just some crazy punk rock badass fighting ninjas and aliens alongside a bunch of turtle mutants who were trained to be ninjas by a rat. I enjoy how that sentence is totally factual. Like the rest of the gang, Casey has ended up on Eternia and joins the fight against the Evil Warriors and Foot Clan. In all honesty, Casey already looks like a MOTU character, so he was an easy fit. There's some lateral moves to make it work and it does very well. Instead of his sneakers, he's got those furry boots. Some tights instead of sweat pants. The odd bits of football/soccer/hockey guards are swapped out for Eternian style armor.

The Jitsu glove cracks me up, I can see Casey picking up and immediately wanting to slap someone with it. He's stuck some spikes in his hockey stick and replaced his golf club bag with some sort of Eternian carrying case full of swords, spears, hammers, and axes. These aren't simple pick pockets he's about to beat the snot out of, it's the living Halloween decorations that populate Eternia. Just for good measure, time to swap out that old hockey mask for a gnarly metal face guard. You know, I clearly love a character in a hockey mask. Jason Vorhees, Rick from Splatterhouse, and Casey Jones. This is a great Casey figure that really fits the theme. I've loved all the Turtles of Grayskull line so far and have yet to get bored. It's so creative and fun, especially considering it's based on two series that are fairly old and seen plenty of revisions. Good job Mattel.

Mer-Man [Turtles of Grayskull]

The Ocean Warlord heeded Skeletor's beckoning from Snake Mountain at his own peril. The two always held an uneasy alliance, but Mer-Man did not suspect that he was walking into a trap. He was taken by an alien called Krang, covered in Mutagen, and awoke forever changed in both his mind and body.

I've been saying this entire time that Turtles of Grayskull feels like a designer toy line and nothing is a better example of it than Mer-Man. I am not a professional photographer, so hopefully the picks can come close to just how cool this toy is. Freaky sculpted detail and colors brings this classic character to life in an all new way. Mer-Man has been mutated and is even more monstrous now.

You can swap out his traditional legs for a fish tail for a more... mer-person... appearance. Just LOOK at this thing! A small detail that really blows my mind is the use of translucent plastic. It's not just really pretty, but makes Mer-Man look like he's from the deep dark ocean. Speaking of, they've given him a Angler Fish flavored mutation. Which just makes him look even scarier. In addition to the freaky looks, he's carrying a trident and a gnarly take on his classic sword for battle. Both weapons are super fitting. It's really hard not to be enamored with this toy. The Creature from the Black Lagoon is one of my all time favorite monsters, which makes me appreciate Mer-Man as is. However, the new mutated version of him is AWESOME. Dang, Angler Fish are scary.

Hordak [Turtles of Grayskull]

While Skeletor pouted over He-Man, Hordak plotted from afar, using his new minion Shredder, to infiltrate Snake Mountain. When the time is right, Hordak will strike, and all of Eternia will be his!

Being one of the big baddies of Masters of the Universe, it's not to any surprise that Hordak has made an appearance in Turtles of Grayskull. Being that it's Hordak, there's a twist! He's been secretly working with The Shredder under Skeletor's nose for an eventual swerve! Well... where a nose would be... Anyway Hordak makes an awesome appearance. I've made my affection for the Slime Pit known in the past, so it's to no surprising how excited I am to see TMNT worked into it. Hordak now runs the Ooze Pit dealing with Mutagen! He even has a Mutagen sprayer equipped to spew the potentially toxic stuff whenever the mood strikes! However, the leader of The Evil Horde mutated himself a little too. Those trademark bat Evil Horde symbols now extend to a pair of articulated bat wings sprouting from his back! Hordak is now the embodiment of that symbol! Like all Origins figures there's plenty of articulation that works well here. This is another solid figure in this awesome line... hey... now it makes sense as to why The Shredder came with that Horde style crossbow!

Splinter-Skull [Turtles of Grayskull]

Master Splinter followed the call of the Turtles to Eternia and appeared at Castle Grayskull as the spiritual embodiment of the Power of Grayskull itself.

I think that scene in the original TMNT movie where Splinter appears to the guys as a vision through meditation stays with everyone who've seen it. Using those same abilities, Splinter travels to Eternia and his ethereal form is a hybrid of himself and King Grayskull! This figure is a great way to work Splinter into the MOTU. Splinter-Skull is a very neat looking and very buff rat mutant wearing King Grayskull's outfit. I'm not sure just how much of this toy is reused parts, though the chest armor is certainly from the Origins version of King Grayskull and maybe 2002 He-Man.

His staff/spear is a cool mixture of walking stick and removable Power Sword. I really like the slightly translucent blues of the sword tip... it looks like a mint candy. Splinter features a tail that can articulate at the base and a really near head sculpt. I really appreciate the braids. Frankly, they look so at home on Splinter that I wish future figures of him would have them. He comes with an additional open palmed hand and a really neat cape. I'd like to think one could put him in some really neat mystical poses using those. Splinter-Skull is another Turtles of Grayskull figure that feels like it should be a higher priced boutique item.