Get a Grip this Week

Oh crap, it's Monday. I could have used a little more weekend, but it's great to see all you Zone Base readers back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! We've got a fun week of content coming, but let me tell you about my weekend. Saturday, the Mrs and I did some weekly shopping and enjoyed a homemade pizza. Sunday, our local Spirit Halloween had it's grand opening! We took Mom and had fun looking around before more Stranger Things and Sunday dinner! This coming weekend is Labor Day weekend and I'm looking forward to the little break. 

As for toys, I got a few this weekend. Ordered the Sabertooth Tiger Zord and Cyberworld Chop-Shop which both should arrive today. We got some fun stuff at Spirit, but most related to this is a pack of Tiny Mights GhostFace series! I've been looking forward to getting some of these as Tiny Mights have been all over my Instagram... but never at any local stores. Their horror series have been slated to appear and I was worried about finding any. The GhostFace set is keshi based on the killer from Scream in a variety of colors and poses. It's a cool idea for a keshi series and I'm glad to seen Tiny Mights keeping little rubber guys alive! I ended Sunday building Blokees and spending some quality time with the Mrs.

It looks like you all are enjoying the Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem, August may be almost over, but we've still got two months of Halloween to celebrate! Well, I've got a busy day ahead of me. There's household chores to be done and site post pictures to take. It's amazing to see the site views continue to rise even without all the seo optimization! Thank you all for reading, and don't forget to share the site with your friends! Mutal High Fives everyone!

Thundertron [Star Raiders Collection Multipack]

Rounding out the Star Raiders multipack is Thundertron, the captain of the pirate crew. This version of Thundertron is a repaint of the Legacy United Thundertron I talked about a little while back with some new molded parts. While he may not look much different initially, the colors match his original toy much more as well as his new head sculpt is also much more like the original toys. In addition, he now has a hook in place of a right hand. This makes me wonder if he has history with Skullcruncher. Understandably some fans may choose this multipack over the single release or vice versa. The main draw for me personally was the other included robots as well intention to complete the Star Raider Collection as I have with the Toxitron and Velocitron Speedia 500 Collections prior. These are super fun sets of exclusive figures that excite me as a long time fan.

Nightstrike can sit on Thundertron's shoulder, that's neat.

Despite owning the prior Thundertron figure (and the original), this is still a fun version of him. I like his new head sculpt and hook hand. Like the other Thundertron figures, you can remove his right foot and store it on his sword as a more pronounced hilt. Personally I prefer both feet shown, but displayed the peg leg this time. It's really neat that Thundertron is a pirate and his beast mode is cool. His name being a combination of Thundercats and Voltron is fun. I do wish the Star Seekers/Star Raiders were a bigger deal in the world of Transformers. Their appearance in the Aligned novels is neat, but I'd love to see them in a cartoon. The Legacy version of Thundertron's lion mode is a Zoids crossover as he crashed onto Planet Zi in search of Armorizers. Judging by Calcitron in this multipack, he found at least one. Zoids will always have a special place in my heart. I have fond memories of assembling them on the kitchen table with my brother back when they were called Robostrux and grew up with them. This is a cool toy from a great set of Transformers. Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

Wind-Up the Week

Monday has risen from it's grave cursing us with another work week. Hopefully Zone Base can help chase away those responsibilities with another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was a bit of a blur. Thursday there was a hurricane that led to several trees falling in our backyard a little too close for comfort. We ended up staying at a hotel to ride out the storm. Everything was safe when we got back thankfully, but what a random mid-week adventure. I spent the weekend mostly around the house afterwards.

I stayed up all night Saturday assembling a new shoe rack for the Mrs and spent a good bit of time decorating the yard for Halloween Sunday. The inside of the house has been decorated since Labor Day, but we generally let it get closer to the holiday for the yard. A shopping trip lead to Terroar from MOTU and a Core Class Nemesis Prime. Both are figures I'd missed out on prior and happy to get. I also downloaded the Transformers DLC for Minecraft. It's pretty fun, but to be honest, I've been so focused on Astro Bot that playing anything else has taken a back seat for the time being. I'll put some time into it this week though. I really appreciate how similar it is to the G1 cartoon (within reason). It's been a long time since I've played Minecraft, so the controls are taking a little time to get familiar with again. 

We've got another month of the Halloween party to go and I hope everyone is having fun. I'm personally a little disappointed that it's almost over. I love this so much! Thank you all for celebrating Halloween with me! We're going to make this last month one for the record books and really blow the spooky season out! I have a fun week of content coming, please look forward to it. Thank you all for reading. Please share the site with your friends!

Monday is for the Birds

Monday has shown it's ugly face again signaling the end of the glorious weekend and beginning of another accused work week. Fortunately Zone Base is here to keep things fun with another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! This was a fun weekend where I grilled out hamburgers, played Doom 1+2, and watched paranormal tv! Takara announced a new Godzilla x Transformers collaboration as part of their Synergex series! I've been bubbling over with excitement ever since reading it. There's also a Zoids x Diaclone, Monster Hunter x Diaclone, and some awesome Spider-Man Zoids! So cool!

I got some new toys as well. There was plenty of Transformers One toys finally on shelves, so I grabbed the Quintesson Judge. I also got Studio Series 86 Bumblebee, Studio Series Gamer Edition Decepticon Soldier, and Earthspark One Step Changers Elita-1 and Skullcruncher! There's toys I passed on that I'll be getting soon as I wanted to not spend a ton of money all at once. Halloween stuff is starting to appear in some Walmart and Target store meaning Code Orange is over and the full spooky season is arriving. I got some Monster Cereal Gogurt! Target has quite a bit of neon in their Halloween selections and I am extremely excited for it. You guys know how much I love vintage Halloween and being a child of the 80's, that means bright eye searing colors! It's really turning out to be a Rob flavored fall y'all! 

Well, I've got some work to do. There's household chores, daily exercises, and I've got to record this month's episode of Transform Squadron! Please look forward to it, it's August and that means ghosts! Thank you so much for reading Zone Base, the site has really been growing thanks to your support. That's lead to some fun developments that will be showing up on the site soon, I'm so excited! Please don't forget to share the site with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Thundertron [Legacy United/Voyager Class]

Shimber me timbers and do something with rum, there be pirates attacking and booty afoot. Thundertron, the leader of the Star Seekers has received a glorious update in Legacy United! Not to be outdone, his crew will be making a showing later at Walmart stores. For now, let's take a look at his newest toy. Thundertron is a space pirate who transforms into a lion. If you've noticed that the lion is specifically robotic, that's because he scanned the alt mode while on Planet Zi. You know, the home of Zoids. Thundertron's name is a combination of Thundercats and Voltron, this guy is chock full of homages. Like the original, this is one cool toy.

Thundertron comes with a cutlass and features claws on his fists. His right leg can be converted to a peg leg by removing the foot. Said foot can attach to the cutlass for a more imposing looking sword as well give you a place to store it. I left the foot on in the pics because he kept falling over. That foot is a rear foot for the lion, so try not to lose yours. Speaking of the lion, transformation is fairly easy. There is a few points you'll have to get exactly right... which is just Transformers design these days. Specifically the robot mode arms fold up into the lion's neck and the exact positioning of them isn't immediately obvious. The way the rear legs unfold isn't tricky, but it took me a minute to unfold them correctly. They don't transform from robot legs to lion legs the way my brain told me they would after millions of Cheetors. The sword can store on the lions back pretty well and doesn't stand out. Thundertron's cool pirate coat folds into cool Zoid like armor in beast mode. It's a really cool design touch that I loved. In fact, I loved this whole toy. There's nothing I can find to complain about. Considering a repaint of him will come out during the Star Raiders collection later this year, that's a good thing. Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

Weekly Update- 5/13/24

Welcome back to Planet Zone for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! My weekend went by way too fast, but it was pretty great! We celebrated Mothers Day and enjoyed some weekend shopping. I managed to find Turtles of Greyskull Krang and Ram Man! Krang is a fun large sized mashup of TMNT Krang and Megator while Ram Man has been mutated into a humanoid ram! Of course some more Star Wars Doorables were purchased, I love those things! I still couldn't find anymore new Transformers, but ordered Shard. My need for Armorizers will not be denied! My TF Blokees order should be arriving soon as well. I think another order is due soon though, my excitement is through the roof! Look forward to one Block Rocking Summer!

I hope everyone enjoyed Halfway to Halloween. It may be over until Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem runs wild starting in August, but Code Orange this summer is getting an earlier start! At Home has been advertising that they'll start stocking Halloween sooner than ever this year! Other stores such as Joanne's is getting an early start as well. Spooky Spring is turning into Spooky Summer as the Great Pumpkin rears his mighty head! Thanks for reading Zone Base. I've got a fun week in store for you all. As always, please share the site with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

War of the New Week

Monday has reared it's ugly head again signaling the beginning of another new week. Fortunately you've got Zone Base to get you through it. Hope you're enjoying this year's Halloween party so far. We've got 3 months of Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem to go and we're already off to a good start. 

I spent this weekend on and off sleeping and doing odd tasks. I had intentions to start assembling furniture for home office space for the Mrs, however those plans got moved to next weekend. We did get some shopping done that unfortunately didn't bring anymore Toxitron Collection Transformers home. That's going to be a big thing for the next few months untill I complete the set. I did score Nemesis Leo Prime. So that's something. There's some new Buzzworthy Bumblebee stuff available that I held off of until going to Walmart. I think next weekend Target will have to come after Walmart for when there's no new Toxitron in stock.

I finally grabbed a new figure from the new TMNT movie, Michelangelo! I plan to get all 4 core turtles and probably Splinter. Though doing that a figure at a time each week. It's fun doing it this way, trust me. I found myself in and out of little sleep comas all weekend as I was very tired.  However while awake I found myself watching lots of the Transformers channel on Roku. It's a newer version of the Pluto TV version that seems to be the same, but shows entire seasons or series on the weekends. The Pluto TV TMNT channel has begun showing the classic show as well.

Streaming TV has slowly outdone the convention video room, but online watch parties are a lot more accessible. I did find myself looking at a lot of old Bandai Spiral Zone art. I absolutely love Bandai and wish I was more into Spiral Zone. Of course the cartoon is on YouTube incase I ever put in some watch time. However that old art from Bandai's version of it is just wonderful.

Well, I should finish my breakfast and get the day going. I'm having a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats with some yogurt. Hoping that helps with the upset stomach I've woken up with today (ugh). I hope everyone has a great week, there's some fun stuff planned this week here on Planet Zone. Thank you all for reading and please share with your friends!

Transform Squadron 42- Con Leche

LISTEN NOW!

This month, as Rob prepares for Toylanta, he talks about various convention experiences.

Z Knights

Weekly Update 9/26/22

Thanks for coming back for another week on Planet Zone! It's the last week of September meaning we've got one more month of Halloween fun! Since it'll actually be October, it's gonna be extra spooky! I had a fun weekend that I wish wasn't over already. The Mrs picked up Legacy  Tarrantulas for me Friday night on a Target run for cat food. Saturday while picking up our grocery order I finally found Studio Series Spike. I love a good Core Class toy. We spent most of the weekend at home, but Sunday we stepped out for a Squishmallow event at Five Below and I grabbed Gorthion from the Bakugan Mystic Pack set they sell there. I neek to research some of the molds they use there as I think some of those versions need to come home with me! I've got a fun week planned for you Zone Base readers. Thanks so much for continuing to support the site. As usual, I don't ask anything from you. No ads, no begging, and no capitalizing. All I ask is that you share with your friends. It's fun that way!

Weekly Update 8/22/22

It's a little late, but it's also the start of a new week here on Planet Zone! The weekend went by faster than I'd have liked, but I still had some fun! I enjoyed some early Halloween stock at various stores and took the Mrs hunting various Krogers for Squishmallows. During the outing I picked up Scourge, Clamp Down, and Road Rocket from the Velocitron Speedia 500 collection at a Walmart. Also picked up Authentics Arcee and a Bakugan Cubbo at Five Below during their Squishmallows event this weekend. A trip to the Dollar Tree resulted in several Final Faction accessory packs I've been needing. Not a bad weekend for toys!

I intended to work on some models, but an impromptu lunch with family killed some of that time. Oh well. I was planning to record this months episode of Transform Squadron today, but things happened. Don't worry, it's still coming! Just sometime soon instead of just coming soon. I almost forgot to mention. The Mrs suprised me Friday morning with a Red Cog and some snacks. I wasn't aware they made jumbo Red Vines. They do! They're just like regular Red Vines... BUT JUMBO! I've got a fun week in store for you all. Hope you like Gameboy games! Thanks for reading Zone Base, I really appreciate it. If you life what I'm doing, please share with your friends. It's all I ask!

Weekly Update 8/15/22

You may hate Mondays, but hopefully you won't hate the start of a new week on Planet Zone! This weekend went by fast, but I managed to have a good bit of fun. Saturday shopping resulted in myself finding the new Optimus Primal from the newer Rescue Bots style Transformers toys. I've been wanting to get that guy. Super Impulse has apparently started putting the Micro Action Figures I so enjoy in blind packs with miniture comic reprints. The comics are full sized issues at a micro size, they even come with magnifying glasses to read them with. I got Snake Eyes, Bumblebee, and Starscream in the three bought. They're the same price as the normal carded versions too! I've been trying to get the new ones of these, so that was a nice surprise. 

I'd lucked up and found the new Toho series Shin Godzilla by Playmates. Been really hankering for new ones of these as well. Hopefully I can score the rest of the new figures soon. Target had Motormaster, but I held off for now. I'm trying to keep my toy budget under a certain number for now and he can be ordered later. Wonder if I can order Siege Jetfire? Missed out on that one. The Mrs wants me to make a Christmas list after all. A stop by At Home resulted in my early Halloween tradition of a $1 plastic skeleton and a skeleton dragon. Not sure how many more skeleton animals I'll get this season, but sure to get a few more. They pair so well with Battle Tribes and MOTU. 

Saturday night, the Mrs and I took a late night road trip to a Loves Truck stop. There's an exclusive Squishmallow there and it was a great night drive to find one. We didn't find the toy, but I do love a late night drive down a rural back road. We're planning to go to another next weekend, but I do see a Five Below event is next weekend. Guess we'll see. We also got new Crocs. The Mrs had been wanting a new pair and I'm not going to pretend I didn't mind a new pair either. We got some Jibbitz and ordered a few more. We plan to buy 2 each every weekend. Jibbitz are cheap, but the shipping can add up fast!

Sunday, well I slept in and laid around a lot. Obon and Hungry Ghost Festival was this weekend. I stayed up pretty late enjoying paranormal television and that late night drive (listening to ghost stories the entire time) meant for a sleepy Sunday. 60+ hour work weeks can be hard as well. I did manage to assemble 2 Zoids and get started on a Demon Slayer model by Bandai though. I'd do more today, but I got the feeling some video games and napping before work tonight is more on the schedule. The weather is starting to change and that always makes me super sleepy. Here in my homestate, it's very hot during the day and pretty cool at night in August. That makes for a sleepy Rob. 

I've got a fun week planned for you readers. I hope everyone is enjoying Halloween so far. We've got quite a bit of it left, but not quite enough for my liking. I'm looking forward to some dollar store trips this weekend to really enjoy the season. The cool decor is great, but my jam is really those plastic fangs y'all. Thanks everyone for reading Zone Base. It's super awesome of you to support the site. If you could share with your friends that'd be amazing. There's no ads or begging. I just hope others enjoy my nonsense.

Update from Planet Zone 4/4

 

Greetings citizens of Planet Zone, there's some schedule changes on the base you should know about. Weekly Halloween is not a Wednesday thing. Why? Well, I thought it'd be good to get back to doing the weekend update posts. However I thought I'd make it a general update and having the spooky stuff DEAD center of the week. Hope everyone likes the return of Transform Squadron, I've been getting a lot of positive feedback and there's a new episode coming soon. I also hope you all have been enjoying the extra BIOS posted. I've been a little busy lately and frankly those sometimes fill a gap when I'm brain dead. I enjoy posting them anyway, but there's usually a good reason why there may be more than one a week.

I mentioned spooky stuff up above. Everyday is Halloween on Zone Base, but as spring approaches, we're quickly approaching the Spooky Summer which leads into the 3 month Halloween party. I've decided to handle Spooky Summer differently this year. It'll still be spooky and scary, just different. I wanted to mix it up a bit and make it a little more different than the all out pumpkin spice assault. It's the beginning of April as a write this. You can expect something spooky towards the end of the month, a mini Halloween party to welcome in Walpurgis Night. I've been wanting to work it into the site for some time now and now is the time! 

This weekend was a mix of chilling at home and chilling at home. There was a Facts of Life marathon on GAC Family. I'm sure you can understand. Lots of Kirby was played as well. Cooked out for the first time this year. Sure was nice to get the grill going. A quick outing Saturday evening for a few things lead to finding Legacy Arcee. That was unexpected, still can't find a Studio Series Soundwave though. Also grabbed some more Million Warriors, a Dino Strike ball, a retro Dino Megazord, and finally a Batman from the new movie (I'm waiting for it to hit HBO Max). As with the never-ending quest for Soundwave, Inwas also hoping to find Buzzworthy Bumblebee Silverstreak. Oh well. I've got a fun week in mind for you all. There's a new episode of Transform Squadron in the works soon. Thanks for reading Zone Base and please share with your friends!

Flashfist Has Modern Solutions

Flashfist has always been one of the bots I think of whenever Starriors comes to mind. He's not one of the marquee characters for some reason. Flashfist comes from the last wave of toys before the line ended. Just like other toy lines, it's the later figures that come out the best. I really like his mix of yellow and brown colors.

With his bulky build and maser gun hand, you'd think Flashfist is a big tank type. Instead, the big guy is a walking rechargeable battery. When the Destructors attack, Flashfist absorbs the energy and fires it back. Considering the Starriors are fighting on a post apocalyptic wasteland... that's a pretty green solution to fighting robot war.

How About A Refreshing Slice?

As someone who loves robots and monsters, Slice is the best Starrior. A robot skeleton with a spinning axe and sickle combination 100% intended to give the Protectors nightmares. I've always really appreciated Slice's specifically robotic skeleton design.

The cables, pipes, and hydraulics form the spooky when paired with his skull head. The red and purple really pulls it all together nicely. It's a mix of 80's super robot and spooky scary that makes for a unique looking toy. There's been other robotic skeletons, but Slice is a cut above the rest. Than pun just made this post better. We all know it.

Starriors Armored Battle Station Commercial

This morning I bought some gas and myself a nice hot cup of pecan flavored coffee. What does that have to do with Starriors? Nothing. But while I was driving home and enjoying that coffee I found myself lost in thought over Zoids. This went to memories of Starriors and wondering if it would work in current times. I think if the toys were a smaller scale they would. Of course it's just me agreeing with myself about things I like. I don't claim to know everything, that's just ludicrous. Just while hearing that local gas station commercial and realizing I had coffee in my beard I couldn't help myself. Sometimes memories come as they do and thoughts go the way they go.

It's hard to not admire the Armored Battle Station though, just look how nice looking it is. That great robotic cobra headed, pyramid inspired fortress looks wonderful. I've always fancied an evil version of it with robotic mummies and scarabs. Wouldn't that be cool?

Transform Squadron episode 3

Transform Squadron Episode 3

In this November 2018 edition of Transform Squadron: Rob talks up Gridman and upcoming Hasbro Zoids and Micronauts lines before looking back at the Walmart Dinobots.

Zoids Liger Zero (basic action figure version)

mew

When one talks about Zoids, they usually focus on the model kits. Which isn't surprising considering it's the focal point of the series and well... they're awesome. Though if you look just below the surface, you'll find a slew of excellent toys other than the model kits. I've always enjoyed the pvc's and action figure versions of the Zoids as they offer an alternative to the big bulky unit. Sure, I've got my Iron Kong... but it's a beast (no pun intended, but I'm gonna own it anyway) to fiddle with. While my action figure and pvc's are great to just goof around with casually. BTW, if you haven't noticed as a reader yet, I'm trying to put more focus on my own toys past the occasional review post. It's a work in progress, so work with me while I get the process streamlined (I'm trying to improve my pictures). Since this is the first one of these type posts on Zoids, I thought no body better to start off with than Liger Zero!

Zoids Blox promo

The other day I was wondering what all crazy knock off toys will be at discount stores for the Christmas season. Last year M.A.R.S. Converters had a VERY Zoids looking batch of robot dinosaurs haunting my local Family Dollar next to their better looking robots. Of course Zoids Wild started up in June this year and Hasbro is planning to bring that to the US sometime soon-ish (there's not much info other than Hasbro is licensing it at the moment). I'm really looking forward to that. I love Zoids, but they can be prohibitively expensive making the US versions the best option in most cases. I think the last version of Zoids available here was the Hasbro version of Zoids Blox which I thought was very neat. There was some small remote control Zoids Tomy released here under another banner to avoid legalities shortly after it was dying here. But that was around 2004-2005? So it's been awhile. I guess a little longer for Zoids Wild toys to debut here isn't much of a hassle. Just I wish it was now instead of later.

If I see those fake ones at Family Dollar again, I might just grab some.

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.