Mutant Monsters Orange

It’s far past time I take a look at Mad Balls here on the site. Like a lot of kids in the 80s, I loved gross things — slime, Garbage Pail Kids, and of course Mad Balls. I’ve picked up various gross-out toys on and off over the years, and Mad Balls have always been a constant because they’re just freaking great.

When I got my most recent batch, it hit me: I’ve never covered them on Zone Base. What the heck? Time to fix that with a look at the new Mutant Monsters balls that have been popping up at Five Below and in Target’s Dollar Spot. The Mrs. grabbed me three of the six currently available… and I’ll absolutely need the other three. These are awesome.

Mutant Monsters are seemingly unlicensed knockoff Mad Balls, basically copying older official designs. And look, I don’t mean to come on too strong here, but… knockoff Mad Balls? Inject that straight into my veins.

They don’t have official names, so I’m going by what Five Below uses — just color descriptions. Weirdly, I kind of love how plain that is. From here on out, I’m just talking about each ball individually. Consider this your required preamble. Moving on.

Orange is one of the more unique Mutant Monsters, leaning closer to an original design. I say closer because it’s clearly playing off Alien with the facehugger-like creature latched onto its head. There was an official Mad Ball with that gag in one of the Horror Series lines, so it’s not totally new… but this version leans more into mutant/alien territory, with a green creature gripping a red head. You might think it has blonde hair in the pictures, but nope — those are exposed yellow brains. Yellow is an odd choice, but honestly? With the rest of the colors going on here, it works.

I’m also not sure why it’s called Orange when it skews more red, but hey, that’s knockoffs for you. The color isn’t even consistent — some spots are lighter, some darker. The monster itself has three angry, bloodshot eyes, and the sculpt reminds me of something you’d fight in classic Doom or Quake. Actually… anybody remember Bio-Freaks?

Orange is a really neat looking Mad Ball — or Sad Ball, as knockoffs are sometimes called. These seem to be more bouncy-ball style rather than the usual foam of the official ones, complete with a glossy finish that makes him look a little moist. Which is perfectly gross.

Halfway 2 Halloween~Tonight we Scream

fatsAlien Nation was a science fiction/crime drama hybrid that delt with lots of social themes. It was also pretty dang good. Of course we're here for Halloween and hey, this pretty good show had a Halloween episode! It's the spooky season as as the Newcomers are adapting to life on earth they're of course learning about our cultures and holidays. Halloween is pretty weird for people that don't celebrate it as is, but imagine being from another planet. It's a pretty big culture shock, not to mention dealing with jerks. Emily is looking forward to her first Halloween, but some of the kids are of course not to friendly towards somebody different. Did I mention the social themes? Yeah, they go pretty hard. The Francisco's are having an interesting spooky season.

It doesn't help that George is tracking a serial killer. Oh hey, a serial killer at Halloween! This episode hits all the major notes! The killer however is targeting Newcomers in a very specific way. In their old culture, there was Overseers and slaves. Now on Earth, they're all equals... but the former Overseers still think they're better than others... sound familiar? It gets pretty heavy. Well the killer is specifically targeting the former Overseers in the manner of a scary folk legend the Overseers would use to scare the slaves into obedience. Needless to say, this isn't your average show or Halloween special.

Originally Posted: 09/01/2023

Galactic Weekly Update- 7/8/24

It's Monday and a new week is beginning here on Planet Zone! Thanks everyone for returning after that long holiday break for more robots, monsters, and misadventure! I enjoyed my holiday, but dang, it went by too quick. There was family fun spent at my brother's house for a Fourth of July cook out and the Mrs and I took in a good bit of Halloween shopping Friday. Saturday and Sunday saw a lot of downtime resting at home while getting some work done for the Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem starting next month. I made a point to get some quality gaming in with my Switch and Super Pocket as well. 

I haven't done a weekly update in a few weeks. In that time Challenge of the Gobots has started airing on the new MeTV Toons channel and I've been happily enjoying watching it again. I've got some DVDs of the show, but seeing it aired on TV again is a real treat. Unfortunately the show airs at an inconvenient time as part of a late Saturday night/early Sunday morning 80's cartoon block. Fortunately the Frndly TV app has DVR. Challenge of the Gobots gets a raw deal, but really is a pretty good cartoon!

Toy wise, I picked up Cybertron Starscream and Vector Prime from Legacy United this past weekend. That and a TMNT Nano Metalfig vehicle set and a weird block figure set of aliens vs monsters. The weekend before saw Armorizers Nucleous and the Target Optimus Prime get delivered. Party Wallop should be here in the coming weeks. I had pre-ordered him a while back, so of course it's already showing at some retail locations. I hate pre-ordered lol. 

Well, time to get this week started. I've got some fun content planned for you all. Thank you so much for reading Zone Base. There's been a lot extra of you all lately and I really am thankful for the extra eyes my little site has been getting. Please don't forget to share the site with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Alien 1979

Deluxe Antronic Abomination (Battle Tribes X Godbeast)

Returning to our look at Battle Tribes Microman/Micronaut homage wave 32 is Antronic Abomination. Antronic Abomination is a collaboration between Battle Tribes and my main man The Godbeast. Using a combination of parts from Godbeast's Nemesis and a variety of Battle Tribes and Weaponeers of Monkaa parts, Antronic Abomination is a great update of Antron in Glyos form. Once again, Glyos makes a great medium for Microman/Micronaut updates thanks to the interchangeability. Thanks to that and all the extra parts, I was able to come up with some approximations of other Micronaut Aliens as well. It was a lot of fun coming up with the various freaky characters.

There was an extra set of combining part set available with this wave that would have allowed for more integration that I wish I would have bought, but still was able to get a lot done with what came with the figure. It's actually quite remarkable just how much the figure looks like Antron, I even had folks commenting on social media how they had to do a double take initially. It feels like the Aliens are often overlooked when anyone homages Micronauts... and that's fair. The line is so well know for the main guys that the other toys can get lost in the shuffle. Considering how long it's been since a new Microman or Micronauts line has been on shelves, homages feel like all there is for Micros in new toys.

The occasional Transformers or designer toy like this really help keep the memory of something great alive. Like I said, this is the 40th anniversary of Transformers and the 50th anniversary of Microman. It's a good time to appreciate the stepping stones that Bumblebee took to get where he is now. 

The Predator Holiday Special

20th Century Studios, 2018

Meego to a Halloween party

If you need somebody to play a fish out of water, Bronson Pinchot is your man. Meego was a short lived sitcom from 1997 about an alien from space living with a family on Earth. Well, isn't that wacky. As every television show should, Meego had an Halloween episode. The kids are having a Halloween party where Harriet the Spy needs to find the identity of her secret admirer. Did I mention aliens and 1997? You bet your ass there's a ton of Men in Black jokes.

Tonight we Scream

Alien Nation was a science fiction/crime drama hybrid that delt with lots of social themes. It was also pretty dang good. Of course we're here for Halloween and hey, this pretty good show had a Halloween episode! It's the spooky season as as the Newcomers are adapting to life on earth they're of course learning about our cultures and holidays. Halloween is pretty weird for people that don't celebrate it as is, but imagine being from another planet. It's a pretty big culture shock, not to mention dealing with jerks. Emily is looking forward to her first Halloween, but some of the kids are of course not to friendly towards somebody different. Did I mention the social themes? Yeah, they go pretty hard. The Francisco's are having an interesting spooky season.

It doesn't help that George is tracking a serial killer. Oh hey, a serial killer at Halloween! This episode hits all the major notes! The killer however is targeting Newcomers in a very specific way. In their old culture, there was Overseers and slaves. Now on Earth, they're all equals... but the former Overseers still think they're better than others... sound familiar? It gets pretty heavy. Well the killer is specifically targeting the former Overseers in the manner of a scary folk legend the Overseers would use to scare the slaves into obedience. Needless to say, this isn't your average show or Halloween special.

Aliens and Predators, Always Fighting

Both the Aliens and Predator movie franchises list really highly among my list of 'most awesome things ever'. However, I tend to distance myself from the movies released after the 90's for personal preferences. When it comes to Aliens, a lot of my exposure to them came from their use in video games... mostly unofficially. The Xenomorphs poped up in almost everything for awhile, or inspired creatures (it was totally them). To be fair, Aliens, Predator, and Terminator all had unlicensed appearances in a lot of video games during the 80's and 90's. So it's probably not a stretch to imagine how I'd appreciate a video game from the 90's that pit Aliens vs Predator in a setting that looked more like the unofficial efforts.

The games story is actually based on an early draft of the Aliens vs Predator comic book that would have tied into the movie. The game was intended to be out around the release of the movie... however things changed and the movie came out a decade later with another script. In this game, San Drad (translation error from San Dorado), California is overrun with Aliens. Major Dutch Schaefer (now a cyborg) and Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa of the US Colonial Marine Corps have been abandoned and are fighting the swarm alone. They are joined by two Predators (Hunter and Warrior) and take on the Aliens leading to facing off with the sinister Weyland-Yutani Corporation. It's a pretty fun story line that fits the game well... but admittedly might have been too far out for a movie (I would probably loved it).

Game play is a 3 player belt fighter with 4 different playable characters (mentioned above). Like other Capcom side scrolling beat 'em ups, it never gets boring thanks to interesting levels and constantly changing enemies. You'll go from fighting Aliens to Space Marines as the scenario changes to fit the story. There's even 'Infectoids', zombies created from face hugger host bodies. They make me think of Masterforce. Like other Alien games, I appreciate the alternating colors on Xenomorphs. It gives them a lot of character rather than just being black. It's a great game and a fun time, but there wasn't any home ports. A 32x version was planned, unfortunately not released. That's a shame, this would have been a great weekend rental.

Weekly Update 11/7/22

It's a new week in what feels like a new world here on Planet Zone! I know it's weird now that Halloween is over, but don't you worry, every day is Halloween on Zone Base! There's our weekly spooky Wednesday posts and random frights throughout the year keeping things scary even when Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem is over. I spent my weekend taking down all the decorations here at the homestead and preparing for Christmas. Good thing I like that holiday too. 

As far as toys go, I didn't buy a lot. It's getting close to the Christmas season and I tend to taper off my spending as it's not the time to think of myself. I did pick up Playmates Godzilla Ultima from the Singular Point cartoon. I was honestly surprised to find him as I wasn't aware that version was getting a new toy. It's a neat figure to own though, that's for sure. 

My mother randomly got me the Lanard Aliens Xenomorph Drone figure. There's been some new Predator figures by Lanard and I've been seeing the Aliens restocked as well. Cool, low cost action figures will be showing up more often at stores for the Christmas shopping season. Don't turn your nose at these there are some really good things among them.

I've got a fun week planned for you all. Thanks for continuing to read Zone Base. I am planning to stretch out my social networking for the site as the landscape looks to be shifting around. I'm still mulling around possibilities and kinda just waiting to see how things work out as well. However, it'll still be the same old place about robots and monsters. If you like what I do here, please share with your friends. It's all I ask!

Aliens (M.A.R.S. Heroes)

 

I'd been sitting on the fence over these weird little figures for several years now. Not sure exactly how long, but a quick Google search tells me they were first released in 2006. It was probably around 2016 when I first took note of them, about 10 years after they were first released. I'm familiar with the M.A.R.S. Converters line of inexpensive robot toys and occasionally see this 'Heroes' sub line at odd discount stores. There's Troopers, Megabots, some odd vehicles, and what we're looking at today, the Aliens. Mainly sold at discount stores in multi packs or the odd single figure, I always see them at Ross around Christmas. Which is where I finally pulled the trigger on this set. Stopping by our local store with the Mrs a few weeks ago led me to look for Zoids (they randomly show up there) and didn't want to leave empty handed. 

I've been seeing others in Microman groups talk pretty big about these little weirdos and have been pretty tempted to grab a set. I'm so glad I did as these are some great little Microman/Micronaut -esque figures. Considering I paid about 5$ (after Christmas clearance) for the multi pack of three, they were a steal. I'm often blown away by the quality of some discount toy lines (Final Faction, The Corps) and despite the age of the molds, they were pretty decent quality. The packaging encourages mixing the various parts to come up with your own custom figures. Obviously I didn't do that in the picture aside from the shoulder mounted weapons. 

While they look to be the same toy mold castes in different colors, the blue arms have big claws, while the green body has a different head dome. In some great bright translucent colors with ample metallic paint and different weapons. Two green pistols, a slightly larger orange gun, and a blue melee weapon that's not showing up well in the picture. Also the before mentioned shoulder weapons. Thanks to all the various connection points being ball joints, there is quite a bit of articulation. I haven't gotten the other M.A.R.S. Heroes, but am pretty tempted now. It was a fun Saturday night spent eating sushi and playing with my new off brand Alien Invaders. If you happen upon a set, they're well worth picking up. I strongly recommend some spicy tuna rolls and paranormal TV to go along with them. 

Tales From Medical Hell Prt.2- The Not Much Quickerning

 

Another day of hospital life is winding it's way down. Fortunately being in my own room is a much more pleasant experience. Things look good and hopefully I won't require any surgery. I've spent the day on a medicinal trial and error course. This meant lots of napping between viewings of Aliens and Captain America. Not to mention hours of COPS and Golden Girls reruns.

The wife brought my recent purchase of the Netflix Optimus Primal and Rattrap 2 pack. At some point it's getting opened up and checked out. I don't know if it's genuine or just Stockholm syndrome, but the low sodium food was pretty good today. If this was a text message I'd use the shrugging guy emoji.

Walton Vs Predator

Lanard has been really knocking it out of the park in recent years. I've been speaking nothing good of them here for a reason. Lanard has always made low priced toys, most notably their 'The Corps!' line which can be a lot of fun. However since 2017, they've been doing more licensed lines in addition to some really far out cool original ideas. 

Last year their 90's flavored Aliens line captured a lot of attention which lead to a more premium collectors aimed Aliens figure series. This year they've followed that up with The Predator and I'm pretty happy that they did. So far the line consists of a large 12" figure ($20) and three smaller 7" figures ($10 each). Like other Lanard toys here in the states, they're a Walmart exclusive.It's hard to complain about going into your local Walmart and finding cool toys like these for not a lot of money.

The figures a super nice with lots of accessories and plentiful articulation. They're well sculpted and have a lot of paint detail. The three 7" figures are each based off a different Predator from the different movies with very distinct differences. The masks on the 7" figures are not removable, but is on the 12" toy. The 12" toy also has a few extra play features like a light up laser for his shoulder mounted cannon as well as opening mouth. The mask thing is obviously a result of the lower prices as is the more sparse paint details on each figures backside. It's not super concerning to myself, though I'm sure some in the more premium figure crowd isn't going to like that. Personally, a great Predator figure for $10 is pretty awesome.

Bios: Predacon

Birthplace: The Badlands, Planet Trilenium

Primary Specialty: Alien Tracking

Secondary Specialty: Arm Wrestler

A vicious Lunartix alien, PREDACON makes his living by capturing criminals and selling them back to the Galactic Authorities. If the authorities reject the criminals, Predacon imprisons them in his private alien zoo. This four-armed monster is loyal only to his tribal clan on planet Trilenium, and he's proud to wear its ancestral medallion on his chest plate, along with Lunartix hieroglyphics that are etched into his arm guards.

SPC. Shift

With Shift we're coming to an end of our weekly look at Final Faction toys until some new stuff comes out. Allegedly the vehicles are due sometime in the summer with the next batch of figures by fall. So you can be sure that I'll be talking about them when the time comes. For now, let's look at Shift, the ninja of Alpha Team 1. 

Shift comes with a set of swords that she can technically hold, but are molded together to mount on her back. I have seen folks trim them away to function as handheld swords. However if you've got the Covert Ops accessory set, there's plenty of appropriate to her character weaponry so that you can keep those swords as a backpack. Shift fills the role of ninja type warrior while adding a little variety to Alpha Team 1.

In Space, No One Will Hear You Hate Mondays

It's Monday and the start of a new week here on Planet Zone! There's an all new episode of Not as Brightly Lit for your earholes to enjoy. Easter was this past weekend and I had a good time with my family. The Mrs. even made me a super cool basket with all sorts of blind bag fun and even a Tiger Electronics Transformers LCD game! It's gonna be a weird week. I've got an appointment for my first covid-19 vaccination Tuesday and frankly I'm a little uneasy. I'm a lot of things and uncomfortable with injections is one of them. Oh well, at least I'll get my part in herd immunity out of it. Outside of trying to escape a global pandemic, I've got a fun week of content coming this week! Thanks for reading and as always, please share with your friends!

Augmented Combat Rescue Mech A.C.R.M

The coolest member of Alpha Team 1 is the A.C.R.M. Piloted by a disabled 15 year old kid named Boyd via virtual reality, the mech unit is a heavy hitter. The Air Assault weapons pack completes the figure adding wings, boosters, and gun pods. It's pretty hard not to look at this figure and be impressed. Especially as it only costs $1. A.C.R.M has been a pretty popular toy for customizers as well. I've seen everything from alternate colors to takes on other characters with the figure as the base. 

Like all of Final Faction, this is a 3 3/4 figure with 5 points of articulation. Similar to the Synthoid, it's a much more chunky toy and looks bigger in pictures. Also like the Synthoid, it's one of the more impressive figures in the line. At Toylanta, I was showing Buddy the figures and the two definitely blew him away. I don't want to oversell the toy, but it really does feel like a much more expensive than it is.

Hive Class Drone

The Kharn Drone Class is a basic grunt used for combat and labor operations. Not highly intelligent, but able to accomplish mission tasks.

As their name would imply, the Drone is the basic soldier of the Kharn army. I do like how so far all the Kharn is army builders. Just droves of attacking aliens that can be equipped differently with various accessory sets. The design of these guys is a cross between a Xenomorph and something out of Quake. That mixture of 80's and 90's aesthetics in Final Faction is a big part of what makes it such a fun little line. Like the other Kharn soldiers, I wish the Drone was available in a variety of colors. I could see a 'fire' or 'ice' version of this figure with corresponding included weapons.

SGT. Steel

Continuing our weekly exploration of Dollar Tree's Final Faction toys brings us to SGT. Steel. Steel is a pretty cool dude as his sunglasses would imply. If the big wings on his back didn't clue you in, he's the jet pack flyer guy of Alpha Team 1. So far the members I've shown you have been heavy duty ground soldiers, so the variety is much appreciated. 

He's pretty much the Final Faction version of Red Falcon and that's pretty great. If you want to deck him out with accessories, I'd say the Air Assault and Covert Arms packs would suit him fine. Unfortunately Steel is the only Final Faction toy I've gotten that's had any QC issues. Mine wasn't screwed together well leading to a loose head. Fortunately all it takes to fix this is one of those tiny screw drivers they also sell at the Dollar Tree.

Hive Class Brute

The Kharn Brute Class specializes in power and destruction. They have very low intelligence and are controlled by a commander. Their skin is nearly impenetrable and it’s hard to take them down.

The Brute is a Kharn troop that resembles a demon straight from hell. These are the big bruisers that are usually carrying some heavy firepower into the battle and are twice as hard to kill the regular soldier. You know the type.

The figure comes with a big alien gun that looks like it would be more than enough in a fight. However the Quake Arms and Shock Arms accessory packs provide extra firepower to do some serious damage. It's really surprising to get such a cool figure for just a dollar. Let alone a completely cool line for a dollar each.