I swear it was just Sunday...

Good morning! Another week has begun on Planet Zone. Another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was just what I needed after a rough week. The last two weekends had been ones spent at home due to the winter weather, so getting out was a lot of fun. We finally finished the Mrs birthday shopping weekend with a trip to Daiso! We really love it there, if only one were closer with the closest being about 40 minutes away with some less than ideal traffic. While my focus was on showing her a good time (we also went to other stores she likes), I picked up a few fun things for myself. Some new tweezers for smaller parts and stickers for when my bent tweezers aren't a good fit. Some retractable cutters for various reasons and to fill in for that missing hobby knife. I also picked up a Shin Chan pouch to store the new site stickers in when out and about. A Street Fighter acrylic standee and an eraser set of a gorilla, toilet, and poop. Yep, I bought pooping keshi. I got a few other things, but those are most notable. I doubt my new tablet bag is that interesting to you.

I also picked up Blast-Off and Sureshot from Age of the Primes. I guess the universe heard my annoyance at being behind on the line and threw me a bone. I spent a lot of time catching up with Kamen Rider Zezt some and playing games this weekend. I finally got that SD Card into my Gamestation Go and played my Switch 2 as well. My Blokees Wheels came in during the week and I built 3 as well as 4 Defender Version kits. Wheels are very interesting, more so than I thought they'd be going in. I'm going to enjoy this line. Wonderfest Winter took place this weekend and I've been appreciative of pictures from the event. There's going to be a lot of time spent perusing them.

The new Voltron movie finally got announced to be released this year on Amazon Prime Video later this year. Hasbro will be handling the toys and with Toy Fair around the corner, it looks exciting! Speaking of, Armored Cyber Changer Arachnid got leaked this weekend. She looks great and I hope more reveals will come from Toy Fair. Speaking of shows that I'm looking forward to images from, All Hail Cybertron will be taking place in March. An all Transformers doujin event looks to be amazing and I wish I could go! Hopefully plenty of pictures will find their way online. Well, I've got some chores and exercise to do. I hope everyone has a great week, there's a bunch of fun posts coming your way here on the site. Thank you for reading Zone Base. Please remember to share the site with your friends and be excellent to each other!

More Violence, More Action, More Monday!

Monday again, yeah... dammit. Like you, I wish it was still the weekend. I guess we'll just have to get through the work week with more robots, monsters, and misadventure! My weekend was pretty good. Some weekly shopping and good food. The Mrs and I decided to re-watch all of Stranger Things so we'll be caught up when the new season premieres later this year. So far we're 2 episodes down and it's just as good again! 

As for toys, my stores were pretty limited. They're due for a restock. The Mrs did grab me some gacha while out at Target Friday. 4 of the new 5 Surprise Transformers balls and a Voltron bag figure. Voltron was him forming the blazing sword (woo). The TF's were 1 Megatron in robot mode, 1 Wheeljack in vehicle mode, and 2 Starscreams in vehicle mode. These new 5 Surprise Transformers are pretty neat, but they sure are stretching the '5'. You get the character and a weapon. A trading card, a sticker, and a bag of kinetic sand. I guess that's 5 things? I also ordered the Swapticons Jungle Mission 5 pack. It's never showed up at my local stores and I didn't want to miss out. With new Swapticons images getting leaked, my excitement for the little bots was revived. The line is getting even more fun toys that I'm looking forward to. There's a Clench!

I've got a fun week in store for you all. We'll be looking at the new Mega MechaBeast toys from 52toys BeastBox! Of course another Transformers Blokees will be making an appearance. Halloween is around the corner and I'm gearing up for another spooky season on Zone Base. Code Orange is starting to ring out as some stores are starting to stock their early wares. New items from Target have arrived at my house and we're keeping an eye on our local At Home. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. Don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives for all!

It's Monday Worldwide

Hello Zone Base readers and thank you for returning for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope you all had a great weekend... mine was over much too fast! Thanks for nothing Daylight Savings Time. We have to adjust our schedules and loose an hour to save electricity all while the lights are on in our workplace regardless! I enjoyed weekly shopping with the Mrs where we made plans for various things to purchase for the house. Sunday was a rainy day filled with cleaning and laundry in between cursing daylight savings time (I seriously hate it). 

I played some video games and watched a lot of paranormal tv and Mystery Science Theater 3000. Speaking of video games, the new Evercade update includes a neat game of the month feature. Each month they'll highlight a game from one of their releases that's free to play for the month without needing the cartridge. That's pretty great, the first is Midnight Resistance! It's the Genesis version, which is great as it's much more playable on a console that emulation of the arcade version. I actually have the arcade version on a micro console. The original arcade game usues a rotating joy stick to aim which just doesn't translate well. You either push one button or another to rotate your aim all while getting slaughtered by enemies. The console version resolves this issue with an auto fire that can be locked in a direction. That works so much better!

As for toys, well I didn't get much this weekend. Stores are still a little barren around here and with my birthday and Toylanta around the corner. I just didn't feel like buying anything. I picked up another Hot Wheel Transformer, this one obviously intended to be a dune buggy variation of Bumblebee and the Voltron Bitty Bop. It comes with a cool Shiro Bitty Pop to pilot it. Such a neat little gimmick. There's a Hulkbuster one out that I'm not interested in, so I may be done with them for the time being. I think there's a Baymax out, that's a must get.

You know something Zone Base readers, I'm watching the 2007 Transformers movie while writing this. It's randomly on the Miramax Channel on Prime Video and... dang. It's pretty fun. I know the live action movies (especially the Michael Bay ones) get a lot of derision... but they were huge and changed everything ever since. I still remember attending the BotCon 2007 early showing and watching it for the first time with some friends. While my opinions vary with the various sequels,  I still like the movie universe setting. One thing that's sticking out in my mind is all the criticism that there's hardly any Transformers in the movie, yet here I am watching it and they're all over this thing. It's a lot of fun. 

Well, I've got a busy week ahead of me. I'm enjoying a brief break between the medical procedures I've been driving My Mom to the past few weeks. Hopefully I'll be able to get a new Transform Squadron recorded and out soon. In the meantime I've got some toys to take pictures of for upcoming posts. I plan on getting back to the Beast Alliance Transformers from Rise of the Beasts and finishing my look at that series. The upcoming Transformers Wild King has my interest and it feels like the perfect time to finish those toys on the site. I also want to cover more BeastBox and vintage Gobots. There's a good 2 week lead time on posts, so stay tuned to see what's next. Thank you all for reading. Zone Base is just some small silly site, but seeing all of you come out each week is really amazing. Thank you all. Please share the site with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Let's Look At This Kmart Sales Paper

Halfway to Halloween, Walpurgisnacht, or just another day here at Zone Base. However you word it, Halloween is on folks minds even in the spring. We love it spooky and today seemed like a good day for it. Kmart used to be a pretty great place to shop before whatever the hell happened. That place went downhill and died messily in front of us all. During it's glory days people often got their Halloween costumes at Kmart. Now they often get them at Spirit, which may be located in your towns old Kmart.

You may have noticed the sweet collection of Ben Cooper/Collegeville style costumes up top. There's Heat Seeker, Megatron, She-Ra, He-Man, and Bumblelion. I just noticed She-Ra is wearing Catra's costume. The rubber mask selection is great too. Fantastic Faces brand with real hair and some with blinking lights. Just right to earn some of that candy being sold for some amazingly low prices.

Adding to the great selection, check out the 'boxed play sets'. The picture shows Voltron, Hordak, and the Autobot Dress Up Set. It may seem like a cheap trick by putting role play toys with the costumes. It also was one of the best ways to get an accessory to your costume that wasn't available. Next to the play sets is probably the most important thing you'll need when trick or treating. Flashlights.

We've all learned that wearing a costume and walking on the streets on the one night a year when people are expected to be out at night makes you completely invisible to cars. There will be broken Michelob bottles everywhere that you won't see without the aid of the flashlight. It's always Michelob. After Halloween, your Mom will keep the flashlight by her bed. It's just in time too, the one from last year's batteries were starting to die. 

Next is something very special to me. Make-up kits. I freaking love them. There's also additional costume accessories like a witch hat, and generic costumes. But most importantly is that 41" reversible cape. It has a collar, the Dracula cardboard head hanger, and it's a piece of crap. A pretty cheap plastic cape with a badly sewn on collar that will probably fall off before November 1st. Despite how crappy it is, I love it and will fucking kill over it. Admittedly it's mostly due to the cardboard Dracula hanger.

There's also the obligatory candles for your jack o' lanterns or to make the living room table look spooky. It really makes the Tombstone pizza while trick or treating the neighborhood kids that you normally hate special. You're probably also going to catch that paper ghost on fire with them. Speaking of the living room table, that's where that glass pumpkin will go. You'll realize in February that it's still there.

ToyLanta 2021

After last years covid-19 induced cancellation, ToyLanta returns for 2021 in a new location! I'm really looking forward to the great toy show and have been preparing myself for it for awhile now. I've got my backpack ready with an ample supply of sanitizer and face masks. This year will be a different kind of con for me. Instead of staying all weekend like normally, I'll be going for just a few hours each day. Not that I don't want to do the whole weekend. Even with the covid numbers dropping as much as they have, we're not out of the woods yet. I'm just trying to be as safe as I can. Hopefully next year I'll be able to do the whole weekend, I'm just thankful to have this experience this year even as limited as it'll be for my own safety.

If you're coming to the show, the annual Transformers panel hosted by Dusty and myself is on Sunday at 2PM. Normally we do this on Saturday, but I don't make the schedule. If any of you are there, feel free to say hi! I'll be periodically updating my Instagram from the con over the weekend. Keep checking for new pictures from the show. Or hey, maybe give me a follow so it'll be on your feed. I tend to post multiple pictures in a post, so be prepared to swipe through a lot.

FRIDAY: After an interesting backroads ride to the new location that included crossing the local haunted bridge, I arrived at the con around 7pm.  While getting my badge Buddy walked up to say hi. He then took myself and another dude (sorry I forgot your name dude) down to the Goo-Con showcase room. The room will be having all sorts of demonstrations on customizing and other toy related creations. I really liked the custom molded figure heads that go with a dying resin demonstration. It was neat.

Buddy went to find some food and I explored a little. One thing I learned fast was to switch from a cloth mask to a paper mask. I get hot fast and thought I was going to pass out for a second. Toylanta's new home features a much larger con space. So I didn't have time to check out the entirety of the dealers room preview before it closed for the Lobby Swap Party. I did price a few Rocklords though as that's my focal point this year. I've been kicking myself for not picking them up at the last show and don't plan on making that mistake again. Tomorrow I'm bringing plenty cash and buying some rock robits dammit. There was a surprising amount of M.A.S.K and Dino Riders. Good prices too.

One dealer did have some hand knitted Star Wars characters and I grabbed the last Grogu for the Mrs. The Lobby Swap Party was as usual a hodgepodge of folks with random stuff for sale/trade. I was very surprised to see a good amount of Starcom stuff. I ran into a guy with a boxed Mighty Max Skull Mountain. We chatted for awhile and admired the art on said box. Good times.

Another guy had a decent amount of Transformers and Super Sentai. I was interested in a Cohrada vs Saberback set. He wanted 30 for it, not bad, but passed. I already have them. *shrug* With Kingdom making beast modes cool again, I hope someone younger gets to have the same fun I did all those years ago with them. That's the best kind of joy, a mixture of discovery and amazement.

There was a good number of Shogun Warriors around, leading to a lot of accidental fist misfires. Just awesome anarchy of the most random kind. I ran into Jimmy and his wife. Talked with them a bit before heading home. For some reason the drive took FOREVER, but thankfully the Mrs had pizza and buffalo wings waiting. I was starving.

SATURDAY: The Mrs came with me today to the show. We got there just before 1pm and man there was a lot more people there today than Friday. After looking around I soon discovered most of the Rock Lords I had priced were already gone.

Dammit.

One guy did have 2 Granites though, so at least I got one Rock Lord this time. If I see anymore tomorrow they're coming home with me. Dammit. I was seeing a good bit of Gobots in questionable shape. Sunday's bringing of 'everything must go' may have them priced well enough to buy. There was a fairly priced Diaclone Multiforce that just may find itself my property as well. Almost bought a Creepy for $20 before I noticed the one missing claw. There was a random Deathsaurus missing partners and weapons on a booth that I was happy to see there.

There was a Lego guy with tons of custom mini figures in one dealers room. Got the Mrs some Mandolorian and some great Master of the Universe figures. He had a movie He-Man left that I may end up getting as well.  It had an extra big sword as it should.

The Kaiju Attack table had a good selection as usual and I got some vintage sofubi Ultraman monsters. Probably getting more tomorrow. Ended up in some conversation with him as well. That guy has been at the show the past few years and I'm glad to see him each time. There was a good bit of tokusatsu toys around the tables this year. Not just stuff that's popular in America either.

I almost bought a Cassetteman before realizing it was a bootleg and the dealer was non-the wiser. Shame, but I felt it best not to inform the guy. Didn't want to risk the potential argument. One guy tried to sell me some rather poor shape Battle Beasts for $20 each. I guess he liked extra nope on his hell no burger. I visited the creators room and watched Buddy give a lesson on air brushing. Considering he's been a successful artist for a really long time, that's something special. Hopefully those hoping to learn took notes.

We left close to 5 and headed home. The drive home was much better than last night even with a stop at Circle K. Taco Mac was Doordashed soon after getting home.  It was really good. I've never had a taco from there.

SUNDAY: I got to the con around 12PM for the last day of the show. My panel was at 2, so I had a little time to look around. Ran into Marten and chatted with him for a few minutes before heading into the con area. After a quick stop in the restroom to put some eye drops in (allergy season) I ventured into the dealers room and laid eyes on a glass box I didn't see before.

Inside it was various robot figures and a very familiar blue and gray bot. The robots tag said 'unknown Japanese Transformer $5'. I realized it was a Convertors SDF-1 and bought it. A tour around the room led me to the booth that had the Granite I bought Saturday.

It was Sunday, so folks were making deals. I eyed the robots and just couldn't pull the trigger on any. They had a Scorp in great shape for $20. I decided to think on it and soon found myself at a booth looking at bagged figures pinned to a corkboard. I picked out a Loco for pretty cheap in seemingly great condition and then noticed a Scorp in another bag also looking pretty good for $8. I took them over to the dealer and they cut me a deal without even asking. $15 total mofo.

I headed downstairs as it was closer to 2PM at this point and that's where the panel room was. Looking around the downstairs dealers rooms landed me back at the Lego table where I found another Grogu mini figure for the Mrs. She stayed home today and I wanted to get her something.

The same guy also was selling emulation portable systems and I got a Gameboy looking device prelaoded with a lot of NES games. Mixed in with the selection was a bunch of unlicensed games. Hello bootleg Mario games! I then ventured over to the retro gaming room and played some Collecovision before chatting it up with the guy who ran the room.  A quick run to the restroom and I went to the panel room to get ready.

I figured the panel would be a ghost town since it was on Sunday and with the pandemic attendance was weird this year. Good number of people, not many as usual, and not as many guests either. Totally understandable. Generally my panel is on Saturday when the bulk of the folks are there, Sunday is a short day with most people heading out.

I was surprised to see a small group of people come in, including some teens who happily had just bought some Cybertron toys. We had a great conversation and the time just flew by.  Before I knew it the panel was over and I decided to take one more walk around before heading home.

Everything was closing and I took a minute to watch the dealers pack up. It's a nice way to mentally end the convention I guess.  Headed home to a home cooked pot roast dinner. It had been a chilly weekend, so that was the perfect meal.

Of Cobra Commander And Positive Dental Habits

The commercial above has nothing to do with this story, but I thought it would be a good way to showcase some of the cool GIJOE toys in India. I'm taking a little time to lament a pretty cool toy score I passed on a while back. For the longest time in summer, there was a monthly antique sale that would be held near Atlanta. I usually went, it was a pretty good time. A small admission price to enter a city of vendor booths and food trucks. The sale was a mix of actual antiques, folksy hand crafted things (furniture, food, art), and a surprising amount of toys. This is a longer post, so I'm gonna use a break here. Walls of text are just the worst.

Tune in to the Power Hour

Bootleg Robots from Parts Unknown

I'm mentally gearing up for Rangerstop this weekend. This morning before I went to sleep, I looked at various keshi and other mini figures and made a mental shopping list. Sure, I hope to score to score a SPD Megazord to make up for that one I never got around to buying or another few particular items, but smaller figures are a focal point for this show.

My first introduction to Rangers was late night viewings of Dynaman on USA. Here was this cool show that was like a combination of Voltron, Godzilla, and video games that was funny as hell. It didn't take me too long to notice the gumball machine toys I would get from the grocery store and other cheap rack toy robots and monsters looked familiar. I was a kid, I didn't know what a bootleg was, but I knew those cool figures in the gumball machines looked like some of these guys. Years later, Power Rangers started up and these guys looked like Dynaman! 

Around a year ago I talked about bootleg toys from gumball machines, thanks to those gumball machines and random cheap toy purchases I developed an affinity for smaller figures when it comes to Power Rangers. It wasn't until a little later when I started using the internet to get a full understanding of what these various toys were knock offs of. I had learned what Super Sentai was not long after Power Rangers came out thanks to an extremely informative TV Guide article (that's why they look like Dynaman!) already.

Unlike Transformers where I seemingly buy everything (with especial love for the little bots), I mainly buy smaller Power Ranger toys (outside of the occasional regular toy). That stems from my initial enjoyment of Power Rangers that came from little toys. Even when PR started up and other shows like it came around, I'd gear towards smaller toys of the characters. I'm literally chomping at the bit for the new Fisher Price Ranger toys and have the best time with Micro Morphers right now. Holy crap the level of anticipation for those blind bag Fisher Price Rangers I have is absolutely absurd. That absurdity is thanks to little toys of dubious legality in front of Kroger.

Voltron Legendary Defender

The final season of Voltron Legendary Defender premiered this weekend on Netflix. I watched it sporadically during the weekend, finishing up this morning as I was wrapping some Christmas presents. I'm certainly sad to see this show go. Not only was it the best damn robot show on tv, but it was just a damn good show. I appreciated the drama and comedy that fleshed out the characters and situation that made the show more than it could have been. Not to mention as a lifelong Voltron fan, it was great to see the series get a solid cartoon that not only looked cool, but also delivered on substance.

I enjoyed buying the toys that Playmates made for the short time they were out and hope to see some of the designs from the show make it into toy form at some point, even if unofficially. Between the various Robeasts, mecha piloted by big bads (would those be Robeasts too?), and the various Voltron formations (not to mention the Atlas). There was some great robots on display.

It's been a fun ride, the past few years with Lion Force. If this is Voltron's last show (for awhile or ever) then I'm glad it was such a good show. The previous entries never felt right to me, while this was wonderful. I hope if we see Voltron again, be it lions or vehicles, or even Gladiator, it's just as good if not better than Legendary Defender.

Voltron season 8 trailer

The best damn robot show on TV's last season debuts on December 14.

I'm going to miss it when it's over.

Vehicle Voltron commercial

It's really hard to deny just how good looking of a toy Vehicle Voltron/Diarugger is. Just a crazy mix of random vehicles assembling into one big ass mighty robot. For no particular reason I've always been drawn to his feet. Something about those trucks forming roller skates for a giant robot wielding a sword tells me he's going to win the hokey pokey. I remember a few years ago when Hasbro held a fan vote for a Combiner Wars set, Vehicle Voltron was the inspiration for all of my votes. I just liked the variety. A team of similarly themed vehicles makes sense for a combiner team, but...

Look, it's almost Thanksgiving and I was about to make a Planes, Trains, and Automobiles joke.

Repost- Transform Squadron episode 1

For the Weekend Crowd:

Transform Squadron episode 1

After some introductions, Rob talks about the Dollar Tree Robots toy line! He then talks the Power Rangers 25th anniversary episode, the upcoming conclusion of Voltron Legendary Defender, and thoughts on new Transformers stuff! Robots/Monsters/Misadventure

Transform Squadron ep 1

Transform Squadron episode 1

From the files of Teletran 1, 2, 3, and more comes Transform Squadron: the podcast component of www.zonebase.org! Rob, something something awesome brings you a new podcast from the same train of thought!

This episode- After some introductions, Rob talks about the Dollar Tree Robots toy line! He then talks the Power Rangers 25th anniversary episode, the upcoming conclusion of Voltron Legendary Defender, and thoughts on new Transformers stuff! Robots/Monsters/Misadventure 

Voltron season 7 reminder

 

Friendly reminder, Voltron season 7 hits Netflix August 10th... THIS FRIDAY!

Voltron season 7 trailer

The best damn robot show on TV returns August 10th!

Ready to pounce on season 6

Voltron season 6 hits this weekend on Netflix and it's cat crazy time at Zone Base in anticipation. I think I've settled on what pair of basketball short/t shirt combination to wear while I form the recliner and binge the new season of the best damn robot show going. Ideally, this will be a good time to test out that Little Caesars app for an Extra Most Bestest of ideal combination.

Form ice cold Pepsi!

Voltron season 6 trailer

It must be robot trailer day, as we get a preview of the best damn robot show on TVs new season later this month.

Voltron could use some defending

Like some of you, I have noticed Voltron toys disappearing from shelves of my local stores. I wasn't sure why as the line seemed to have been selling well and the new product on display at Toyfair was full of promise. So last week, the upcoming Hyper Phase Voltron was shown as an upcoming San Diego Comic Con exclusive in a box set. I didn't think twice as the MEtal Defender set last year was sold at SDCC before retail. Then as more folks started wondering about the upcoming Paladin figures, one reached out and got the following email.

Well, that was a disappointment for the people who were looking forward to building the cast of characters. Many started speculating that the line was outright cancelled, while many said the clearance was just to clear out room for the summer movie toys. Not to mention, the email doesn't say the line is cancelled, just that plans have changed. So a little heartbroken that I may not be able to get any more Voltron toys, I sent Playmates an email myself, asking for some clear information.

So basically, if that SDCC set sells well, they'll look into getting the individual lions out. It really looks like they are trying to get products in stores, and I really hope they do. Like I said, Voltron toys seemed to be selling pretty well around here, and I live in the rural outskirts of a major American city, so it's not the worst gauge to go by.

Little Things

Oh potatoes, and molasses

One thing I always appreciate in robot cartoons is that bit of life given to the bots in the animation. That sounds stupid, but bear with me. Be it Transformers, Voltron, Zoids, whatever, that little shifting around. Those little bits of personality that are extremely pronounced. In the live action movies, Bumblebee has a distinct personality in his movements. He's based on Marty McFly in that. Watch a clip or two and a clip of two of Back to the Future. See? The lions in Voltron don't just move like cats, they behave like cats. Look at that picture of the Red Lion up thar. In a cheaper show, he would just be jumping. But this is a quality cartoon, he's arched, his head is bowed, tail even curved. He looks like my cat pouncing on a toy.

Personality matters.

DX Golion commercial

I'm pretty pumped for the new season of Voltron this weekend. Been mentally preparing myself for the new developments and fantastic battles. Currently, it's Wednesday morning (I work overnight) and it won't be until Saturday evening until I get to settle down and binge the new season. I've been forming (the head!) a strategy. Food (thinking an italian sub from Publix), drinks (maybe some Ginger Ale), what t shirt/basketball shorts combo to wear (maximum comfort is the goal). I've even debated on a small Voltron shrine to sit around myself. Of courser the cats wouldn't leave the swords alone, so perhaps I'll skip that.