Hagen no Zista? I hardly know you

One of the more pleasant discoveries while I was at Toylanta was that of a small gatcha/gashapon line of figures (and trading cards) by Bandai called Hagen no Zista. I knew nothing of this line before the convention and at the time of this writing still know very little. To be fair, the amount of this type of thing that completely escapes my attention is not uncommon. It's a much bigger thing than a single person can keep up. That being said, this is a cool little series that completely passed me by a few years ago and seems to be over... though I seem to be able to track down some of the stuff still. 

Hagen no Zista is a neat little line of robot mini figures with fun designs in mostly translucent plastic designed by Bandai. There's probably an accompanying fiction, but at this time I haven't learned of it. Knowing these kind of things, it's a typical good vs evil formula. There is some sort of card inside the boxed ones I bought, not sure if that's for a game or just a cool bio card (there seems to be associated trading cards). I generally appreciate when mini figures and keshi come with that sort of thing.

The blind boxed/gathca style figures are seemingly candy toys that regularly came with a chocolate. The ones I got had some apple gum inside that my wife convinced me to try. It was a pretty tasty apple flavored gum that I hope hadn't gone bad. I didn't get sick, so guess not. The Gashapon capsule I got seemed to be the same style of figure as the boxed on, just delivered differently. The figures are pleasant, articulated little robots in colorful translucent plastic. They have that Bandai look, but also look like they should have been from a video game. I could definitely see some of these in a LCD game like Digimon or an RPG.

The line has ended, sadly so because I'd love for these to still be readily available. That's the kicker when you discover something after it's over. There was an apparent successor named Robot Concerto. I can't tell if Robot Concerto is still going, but honestly, Bandai makes so many of this type of thing... there's always something else similar. The boxes for Robot Concerto look like Mobile Suit Gundam Ensemble boxes, so it's possible the team moved onto that. I'm partially stoked about Hagen no Zista as it's something that's clearly my type of thing. But also because, it's neat to discover something at a con. It's been a while since that's happened for me and I'm happy for it.

Hagen no Zista TV Magazine scans

Trick Or Treating With Michael Myers

While the bag of Chucky capsule toys was pretty great, the best of NECA's surprise offerings is the Halloween II bag. Not only because Michael Myers is better than Chucky, but also because they made a better set of treats. Literally the perfect bunch of prizes for Halloween. As it should. It's the name of the fucking movie.

This bag is specifically themed after Halloween II from 1981. Considering the 2018 film reset everything after the 1978 movie, it's nice to see the original sequel get some love. It may not be the most critically praised film of all time... but movies people actually like never are. 

As much as I love the original movie, it never quite feels like it takes place on Halloween. Despite a few looks at kids in costume, it could be on any day. They captured that feel of the spooky season much more in all the sequels and I've always really loved them for that. 

The capsules are orange and black again, but this time with the Halloween II logo molded on them. I can't tell you just how much I appreciate that. It's just a little thing, but they could have just did a sticker or nothing at all. Mold toolings are expensive, considering the two different capsule logos when they could have just been plain is impressive. Inside each capsule is an individually wrapped prize.

I got shoelaces, a lanyard, a magnet, an eraser, a pin, a keychain,a patch, and two mini masks. The masks and the patch are the most awesome. Most of the stuff has a general Halloween/Michael Myers theme. The eraser has the Halloween II logo, but the patch takes it a step further. It's the patch an employee of the Hadonfield Memorial Hospital would wear on their uniform. Super cool way to go a little more in depth of the bags theme. But the mini masks? Those are the absolute best part of the whole set.

There's Michael's mask perfectly recreated and the skull Silver Shamrock mask from part III. Despite the set being themed after part II, they threw in a little love for good old Season of the Witch. The little masks are REALLY great considering they're tiny plastic toys based on 40 year old movie props. 

The skull mask looks just like the Don Post mask used in part III. It's hollow, has eye holes, and even the little slit on the back that most masks have so you can fit it over your head. The Michael mask though was the best. The same real mask touches as the skull, but they NAILED they was it looks. 

NAILED IT. 

WITH A HAMMER.

For those who may not know and for those who just like hearing things they already know, I'll go over the history of the Michael Myers mask. When they were making the original movie, the crew had a hard time finding the perfect Halloween. Eventually they took a William Shatner mask, altered it a little and spray painted it white. Voila, scary boogie man mask. 

Nick Castle (The Last Starfighter Nick Castle) played Michael in the original movie (among others) and pretty much just shoved the mask in his back pocket when not wearing it. Afterwards, Debra Hill threw the thing under her bed after filming. There it stayed until the production of part II in which they used it again.

Now after years of being in a heavy smokers house and the rough handling during the first movie it was a little worse for wear. Not to mention, it fit differently on Dick Warlock. That's why it looks a little different in the movie. They captured the way it looks in part II perfectly.

A little more trivia, if you watch part 4, you'll notice a scene in the school where the mask looks weird. They gave Dick Warlock the mask after making part II and recreated it for part 4 with a few new William Shatner masks. Somebody grabbed a non altered one when they filmed that scene and the crew didn't care enough to fix the mistake. Hollywood magic.

 

Bag Of Chucky

I don't know who at Neca started reading Zone Base, but they made exactly the perfect thing. Upon first seeing the Chucky and Halloween capsule bags on Instagram I knew I had to have them. This lead to finding them just in time for Halloween! These bags contain 9 gashapon style capsules each containing a prize. I'm not certain if the prizes differ per bag, but everything indicates that each bag is the same.

Starting off with the Chucky bag and I have to say the attention to detail is great. The bag itself is in the style of a Good Guys package aside from the Chucky logo up top. A small touch maybe, but than appreciated one. This leads me to wonder if any later bag series will be themed to other Child's Play movies.

Tear the bag open and you get 9 capsules each with Chucky's logo molded onto the plastic. Another nice little touch.

 

Each capsule is orange and black leading me to believe these are a special release for the Halloween season. I don't recall seeing anywhere if they are or aren't. I'd think the Chucky balls would match his packing more if not. Each ball contains an individually wrapped prize matching the theme.

The bag contained one of each: shoe laces, lanyard, pin, eraser, magnet, key chain, iron-on patch, bracelet, and a Chucky pencil topper. Either directly featuring Chucky or based on Good Guy packaging. Honestly I really liked that. I've been required to wear lanyards at previous jobs and something cool but not completely obvious like this would have been great to use.

 

My favorite prize was the Chucky pencil topper. It's a dead on head sculpt of him that can slip right on top of your pencil or pen. I really like how it's based on his Good Guy toy more so than the scowling expression it takes on when he's not playing possum. 

While I could see where somebody would prefer that or even his more popular sewn up appearance from Bride of Chucky, following series could be based on other movies. I also prefer the original the most. Not because it's the first, but because it's a great story.  

I like the Good Guy theme overall. It's not completely obvious and makes the prizes a little more varied than just a bunch of Chucky logos. Of course there is a good balance of direct Chucky stuff as well. Neca could have went the easy route with what's basically a novelty item. Instead they put some thought and followed a general theme. The original Child's Play had that level extra thought and that's one of the things that helped make it a great movie. Remember the ending song they originally intended?

Random Transformer Memory

While packing this weekend, I decided to repack a good deal of my Transformers. Several had been in banker boxes and condensing the mass of them seemed like a great idea. Instead of 4 small size boxes, one big box. Not to mention, several were starting to come apart from various moves and such. While I was mostly just transferring ziploc freezer bags full of robots from one box to another, occasionally I'd take a second to look over the toys.

Memories of this Armada Optimus Prime, or that G2 Megatron pop up instantly when looking at the toy. That's pretty normal, but occasionally there's the 'oh yeah' toy like Heinrad or pink and purple bootleg Transmetal Optimus Primal that I haven't thought about often. Then there's the ones I forgot I owned all together, like various Spychanger repaints.

I think the funniest is all the candy toys, capsule toys, and sofubi from Beast Wars I'd come across. They were plentiful during beast era and even more so for a few years after. I remember those old BotCons racking up on them for not a lot of money. I bought a display pack of BW II Kabaya kits once for 5$ and then had my friend hold my Pepsi Blue while making the pack fit in my backpack.

I was already explaining what they were to him and then had to explain what Pepsi Blue was. Of course by that point the soda had done turned warm and when he took the sip I offered it tasted horrible. I don't know what happened to that guy. We were friends for a while before he seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. I wonder if he still doesn't trust my opinion of beverages?

Cheap Super Heroes

I've mentioned before my love for capsule toy machines. Probably one of the reasons I love blind bag toys so much and wish I had access to the gashapon haven that exists in Asian countries. As a kid and even now I can't pass one by without checking out what they have inside. Sometimes it's just those crappy rings (pass) and sometimes it's gold (dammit, I need quarters!). Before I go any further, this is one of those posts where all the images came from screen shooting Google image search results from shady auction sites. Bootleg Voltron figures sold in gumball machines don't exactly always pop up on Amazon, gnaw meen brah?

I didn't know what a keshi or a bootleg was when I was 8. But I did know these neat little rubber monsters and super heroes I'd get from the machines at the grocery store looked like Godzilla and guys from video games. Later in life when learning more about such things... turns out they were from Godzilla type productions and video games originally. Or hey, when my childhood arcade got prize redemption counters. That little bucket of colorful dudes have tiny Masters of the Universe mixed in with the dinosaurs. Luckily those always were the cheapest options, so a few dollars worth of skeeball really paid off. Or man, these little robot model kits in the Kroger machines look like the guys from Robotech. Some reason that one Kroger had those model kits on lock down.

One of the more odd outlets for these toys was party supplies. Thanks to curiosity getting the best of me on a faithful trip to the store, I noticed the party supply section had more than just balloons and birthday candles. Baggies of cheap toys intended for goodie bags usually contain those crappy race cars and planes with the wheels that fall off. Or those stupid little games where you have to make the ball bearings fit into the clowns eyes by rolling them around. But sometimes... dude are those Madballs?

Next thing I knew I had a bag full of tiny rubber Madball rip offs for a dollar. This is still a common occurrence. Next time your around a party supply section or store (the more ratchet the store, the better) check those out. Usually it's just crappy kazoos, but on occasion you'll find M.U.S.C.L.E rip offs or whatever. One time I saw some Street Fighter figures. They were from a gashapon series originally, bootlegged in weird plastic that kinda smelled like fish. That's the gambit you run with el cheapo bootleg toys. They're usually pretty sketchy and might be made in a facility next to bathtub meth. So uh... be careful mang.

Dark of The Capsule Machine

Epoch makes some really great capsule/gashapon toys. Their Dareore Dark Side line is particularly neat to me. A line of skeleton robot guys with various series of accessory toys. The machine skull series seen above is really drawn my interest. In the vein of more recent 'head' capsule toys, the head itself is the capsule dispensed from the machine and the various parts are inside the shrink wrapped head. Once assembled, you get one of six (two mystery versions) types of piloted units. I was first made aware of these cool walkers in Microman groups as they're a good fit for your micros. Though the Dareore figures they're intended for are a perfect match.

Cool articulated little robotic skeletons. Man, I dig that chest armor so much. The multiple colors and weapons are wonderful. I love it when sci fi is blended with gothic horror. Love it. Just for good measure, check out the Magic Furniture set. They just need a spooky space castle now. It even has an exclusive body type in that batch.

Damn, that's awesome. I've often wished I had access to gashapon machines like they do in Japan and other countries. Occasionally a random comic shop will have one or two, but the best I can hope for is that the gumball machines in front of the grocery store has something cool in it. I watch a lot of videos of people hitting up the machines and while I'm extremely jealous, I'm also in extreme awe. There's stores full of just the machines and often even with rent-able lockers to display the toys you're willing to trade and lists of what you're looking for. If I had those stores here... man. You could be sure it would be a big topic here on the site. I'd probably make a big deal of it. I'd have at least 3 more followers on Instagram.