Before Spirit or Party City, the best place to get your Halloween on was a small store. Halloween in the old days was tailor fit for a smaller store like a Woolworth or your local drugstore. Those old smock and mask costumes always looked at home in the middle of the store where seasonal items usually would reside. Places like Dollar General and CVS are still well regarded by those who bleed pumpkin spice.
They're almost a tradition for me. I'll make a point to pop in and out of them and check out the wares. Admittedly these days the luster isn't as bright as it was back then. What was once a wonderland of seasonal spooky shit these days is generally a few pumpkins with 'live, laugh, love' on them and maybe some dollar hockey masks. The bullshit ones with a circle shaped vent pattern on the mouth instead of holes. Lame.
Dang, it's Monday again. Guess it's time for another new week here on Planet Zone. Hope everyone had a great weekend as we near the Rise of Beast Summer! I had a pretty good weekend. We had a fun family pizza party at my Mom's house for mother's day. Speaking of mother's day, I helped our cats give the Mrs a surprise.
Saturday the Mrs and I did a little shopping. We had intended to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 3, but like Mario... time wasn't on our side. Friday we did pick her up the new Zelda game while Saturday I found some fun stuff. Got Super Powers Darkseid and the 1989 Batman from the Flash toyline. I don't care about the movie, except for him. Also grabbed some Star Wars discount figures and a gray Yoshi from the Jazwares Super Mario figures.
Later a stop by Target resulted in picking up the Buzzworthy Bumblebee Jungle Mission 3 pack on sale. Good weekend for fun stuff. Speaking of fun stuff, an impromptu stop by Pelicans Sunday resulted in me getting a Super Mario snowball from their Mario Bros movie flavors. It was a hot day and that was just the thing. I've got a fun week in store for you all. Thank you for reading Zone Base. If you like what I'm doing, please share posts with your friends! Or hey, follow our new Facebook page! There's a handy link in the right column links!
The new McFarlane toys version of Super Powers is pretty great. So far I've gotten Batman and Superman and plan to get more. The original line by Kenner was a lot of fun back in the day. I can't help but to want all the new ones with all the fond memories of these guys I have. I hope they make more, but I should focus on getting the ones out now. The new figures are little different, but still have the same charm of the old ones. They're currently Walmart exclusive, but I hope to one day find them at other stores. Just so I can one day walk into a grocery store to find a years old Green Lantern with yellowed packaging still on the shelves. Just like in the good old days.
It's a new week here on Planet Zone and with it a whole new week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! Does the place look different? Or does it look familiar? Well, the 'new' Zone Base look never quite sat right with me. So, no time better than to go back to the classic look than Halloween! Bio week was fun, but also gave me a little extra time to rework the site. It may look like it used to, but I made a few more improvements while at it. Hope you all like the return to the Zone Base of yesterday! We're halfway through Halloween already (somehow), but don't worry, there's still half a season of Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem to go! I've got a fun week of spooky shit to go along with the regular content that's sure to be a lot of fun! Make sure you share with your friends so they can wonder what's wrong with me too!
This I lucked out as far as toys go. Saturday brought this years Halloween Hot Wheels set and a bunch of Eternia Minis I'd been looking for. I only intended to get the Mrs some exclusive Squishmallows at that Kroger and walked away happily. Super Powers Superman and two Micro Galaxy Squadron blind boxes were bought at Walmart. While running out to get some cat food Sunday, the Mrs picked up Jhiaxus and Perceptor from Target. Overall a pretty good haul! Now that I finally found those blind boxes, I can let myself buy the full sized toys. Don't ask me why I set that rule for myself, I just did and it was a fun mission to partake.
Oh, the boxes wielded The Mandelorian with the speeder bike he had in episode 2. Guess it was a speeder bike kinda day, because the other box had a Biker Scout with a Speeder Bike. Super cool! I wasn't sure if I wanted to complete the new Super Powers line... but I just might. Two figures in and I'm super happy. Eternia Minis are allegedly ending and that makes me sad. Hopefully I'll find more like I did this weekend. I'd been looking for Perceptor and Jhiaxus, so its nice to finally have them. Specially an accurate Jhiaxus, I was ok with his other toys, but it's great to have the one I've wanted all this time. I've always really liked Perceptor, so it's only natural to want this figure. I get the Halloween Hot Wheels set every year and was happy to this year as well. It's a simple tradition, but a fun one.
It's Monday and you know what that means, it's a new week here on Planet Zone! This weekend flew by a lot faster than I'd liked, but that just means... well... I'd have liked the weekend to have lasted longer. Can't really put a positive spin on it, but I've still got a fun week ahead for you Zone Base readers! I did pick up the reissue Beast Wars Terrorsaur and Batman from the new Super Powers line. Really excited about it returning, that was a line I always loved.
I hoped to grab that Transformers Rarites special comic, but could not find it. Poop. It wasn't really that eventful of a weekend, I spent a lot of it wishing I was at Power-Con. One day. I did play a lot of games and watch a bunch of paranormal TV. So, still had a good time. I hope you all enjoyed the first week of Halloween here on the site. We've got a lot of spooky fun coming over the season. Thank you all for celebrating it with me and supporting the site. Don't forget to share with your friends! I've got another dentist appointment today, so I'm trying my best to be upbeat. I uh... don't like the dentist.
It's been 30 years and I'm still not over Batmania. To this day, it's still my favorite era of Batman. One of the best flavors of it's time was the 8 and 16 bit video games. I love a good action platformer and they certainly were. The doom and gloom of the Tim Burton movies matched up with the game play to create something special. I still enjoy going through the motions and playing them. Jump, punch, and throw a dirk at one of Joker's gang.
One particularly I enjoy about Transformers is the trivial associations. Due to the nature of it's creation and history, Transformers as a brand has formed quite the iceberg so to speak. Even the official mainstream stuff is in murky waters making it more of a lost continent than iceberg. One such dark corner is MEGO. It's pretty common knowledge to most fans that Microman was one of the toy lines used to initially create Transformers. It's also fairly well known that MEGO drew from that same well to create Micronauts. What may not be as well known is what else MEGO did from there.
Companies often reuse existing resources. While it may rub some the wrong way, it's just smart business. It's not much different than you using the same bottle of Tylenol for a different problem than you first bought it for. Things like toy molds are very expensive and usually easy to use again. MEGO for awhile was a pretty popular toy brand before they went into a downward spiral. Aside from Micronauts, their Pocket Super Heroes sold well.
Pocket Super Heroes was a 3 3/4 action figure line featuring Marvel and DC characters. The line was popular, but eventually sales slowed. Micronauts had also waned in popularity leading to extra resources left over. Often through their Lion Rock label, MEGO released various vehicles for use with the Pocket Super Heroes using several Micronauts molds. Ampzilla became Ampzilla for example. Pocket Super Heroes wasn't the only recipient of these molds. MEGO's Buck Rogers line featured the Star Searcher, made from the Micronauts Star Defender. Which itself was the Microman Surveyor 3 originally.
I'd been recently playing 8 and 16 bit Batman games (some of my all time favorites) and somehow ended up in a YouTube rabbit hole. Which lead me to this, the Japanese intro and outro to their incarnation of the classic cartoon. I've always thought Japanese intros were better and this so much better than the one we got. Admittedly it's the music that's selling me. That's a great intro song... and outro as well. I've been trying to find it on Spotify to no avail. There's like a million different Batman songs. However, I did manage to find it on YouTube as copied from a record. Both Songs! That's a Bat Start!
Gang, it's the second week of August. I don't want to rush you or anything, but we've really got to get working on our Halloween costumes. I'm thinking of being Darth Vader. I wore that Spider-Man costume in the first grade, so it'd be pretty awkward to wear it again. I'm pretty sure that werewolf at the mall would find me again if I wore it twice. Mom's probably not going to threaten to whoop his ass again. We;; she might. Speaking of danger, I think Mickey is in it. He just started to eat that Sugar Daddy without our parents checking it first. There could be a razor blade in it. After all, the devil gave us all this candy.
Before Spirit or Party City, the best place to get your Halloween on was a small store. Halloween in the old days was tailor fit for a smaller store like a Woolworth or your local drugstore. Those old smock and mask costumes always looked at home in the middle of the store where seasonal items usually would reside. Places like Dollar General and CVS are still well regarded by those who bleed pumpkin spice.
They're almost a tradition for me. I'll make a point to pop in and out of them and check out the wares. Admittedly these days the luster isn't as bright as it was back then. What was once a wonderland of seasonal spooky shit these days is generally a few pumpkins with 'live, laugh, love' on them and maybe some dollar hockey masks. The bullshit ones with a circle shaped vent pattern on the mouth instead of holes. Lame.
I was already looking forward to Toylanta as is, but earlier today they announced that Marty Abrams would be at the show this year! Though Marty won't be alone, also with him will be Joel Rosenweig and Dr. Mego! Basically Mego will be at the show and even have stuff for sale! Last year's Kenner design team panel was a big highlight for me and the cool stories bound to come from these guy's has to be great. I really want some insight on the process of bringing Microman over as Micronauts as well the Mad Monster line. This is just great news all around.
I love running errands. Not all the time kind you, but every so often I'll find myself needing to run a few on a Monday morning and I really make the most of it. With my work schedule I really don't stop by any store aside from a gas station until the the weekend. So those occasional Monday morning runs really can feel like an adventure. A pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt. Maybe a hoodie (weather depending) and my drawstring backpack and I'm off. Maybe I have to go to the post office and drop off a load at the Goodwill. Perhaps grab a few things we forgot to over the weekend or do a few things there wasn't any other time to do. Life is random.
While out I usually make a point to drop by local Family Dollar/Dollar General stores. Monday mornings are probably the best time to peruse their various discount wares. I've never made my love of discount store toys a secret here and usually those errand runs are the best time to partake in checking those out. The stores are usually not very packed and aside from the occasional weird look from the random disgruntled senior citizen (one flipped me off in the parking lot when I was looking for Transformers Authentics... I have no clue why), I can usually enjoy my visit in a pretty low key manner. Earlier today I was alerted to images of the new value channel Power Rangers figures from Hasbro.
I've been eyeing the similar Marvel, Star Wars, and DC figures at these stores with a lot of temptation. I did buy some of the RID 2015 from a few years back and they're very pleasant basic figures. The initial batch seems to be Beast Morphers flavored and I wonder if other Ranger teams will follow. Or wondering as the initial batch is the original three Rangers from the show if the others as well as the villains will make an appearance. I'd sure like a Blaze in this form factor (love that design).
They're super cool looking and probably the dipping point to get me buying more of these type figures. They're generally pretty low priced, so I can see myself buying one or two on a random trip out. Then one day realizing I've gotten them all somehow.
The AWESOME DC Primal Age figures by Funko are hitting stores as we speak and it's pretty hard not to love the barbarian take on the classic heroes. Taking a cue from Funko's Savage World figures, Primal Age ups the ante by going in whole hog with the DC comics characters and turning things up to 11. I've been really appreciating the design aesthetics going into the figures. Not just simply making the figures buff and look kinda/sorta He-Man, but really taking time to design the classic characters into the theme. Masters of the Universe has that perfect fantasy recipe. Mixing swords and sorcery with sci fi flair and just that right amount of kitsch. Funko teaming up with He-Man's parent company (Mattel) has recreated that wonderfully and I hope this keeps being great.
When it comes down to favorite versions of Batman, hands down mine's the Tim Burton movies. Always has been, always will. For me, Batman movies usually overdoes the dark and gritty or goes overboard with the whiz bang. The 1989 Batman was on even level with those things and just plain fun to boot. The assorted merchandise that came with it was part of the fun too. For a while that Batman logo on glossy black was everywhere and who couldn't love that? Though, even though it's hard to find evidence of now, the neon colors on black of Batman Returns merchandise are far superior in my opinion. It's hard not to love a bright orange line art of the Batmobile on a black t-shirt with technical specifications. Damn near impossible to be exact.
Thinking of the toy line that came with the 1989 movie by Toy Biz before they made Marvel figures, not only am I filled with just great thoughts of how good Toy Biz figures were before they started doing Marvel Legends (the Legends get all the focus), but also my discovery of the line. We regularly got catalogs from Warner Brothers filled with merchandises tied into the studios various movies and tv shows modeled by the stars of said shows and movies. One fateful late spring afternoon the newest edition of said catalog came and it was majorly Batman themed stuff. Almost nothing but Batman stuff including the toys that could be ordered before they were in stores! I think I read that catalog cover to cover a million times.
