Mothra [Monster Egg Series Godzilla]

I love kaiju and transforming egg toys and by God, Bandai makes the best of both worlds. Hailing from the Monster Egg Series Godzilla toys the Mrs. gave me at Christmas is this super rad. Mothra usually appears in either larva or adult form, so this toy features both! That was a super neat surprise when I opened up Mothra's package. The larva actually combines with the moth's underside and the egg shells form around the two creating a neat egg. The same egg shells are Mothra's wings and the entire thing is super cool and creative. Admittedly, I'm not a great photographer, so Bandai's site offers some better looks at the toy. I mean damn, I have her sitting on the lid from a Yankee Candle. A lesser company would have just made a moth that transformed into an egg, but Bandai is just the best. Just the best. I like the toy, btw.

Mothra, o Mothra
Through thy magical life energy
Accept the prayers of thy humble servants
Arise and
Show us your magic power

King Ghidorah [Monster Egg Series Godzilla]

Look gang, it's known that I love some transforming egg toys. It's also been far too long since I've talked about them on this site. The Mrs., understanding my love for kaiju and knowing I'd find them neat, got me the new entire set of Bandai Godzilla Monster Egg Series that was available at Target for Christmas. These four monster eggs were exciting to find inside my stocking and absolutely something I'd talk about here on Zone Base. We're starting at zero, Monster Zero that is, King Ghidorah! Ghidorah looks straight out of the classic era (though could represent his 90's appearances) in his trademark gold colors. Transforming to an egg makes for some visual distinction that wouldn't be in a regular toy. His body is more round, wings are smaller and shell shaped.

It's to be expected with these egg toys, but probably a good idea to explain. Ghidorah's legs, tail, wings, and neck can articulate thanks to the transformation. There's additional swivels in each neck so heads can look in separate directions. Speaking of, each head has a slightly different sculpt. Egg toys tend to be simplistic, so the extra detail is appreciated. Transformation is easy. A chest panel opens up to allow the heads/neck to be folded away, the legs rotate up into position while everything else basically just closes. Egg mode is a simple egg shape that can neatly stand on it's own. The monsters details are visible and make for a strangely ornate egg. It's been way to long since I spent time with transforming eggs and the joy and excitement that comes with these new toys is exfiltrating. The Mrs. really got me something great and Bandai is the best at this sort of thing. Totally eggcellent.

Hidden Hatchers wave 1 (Fierce Changers)

Fierce Changers is a fun new series of Jurassic World toys that features transforming dinosaur toys. There's a variety of size classes coming, but today we'll be looking at the initial batch of the Hidden Hatchers variety. Hidden Hatchers are a smaller set of figure that transform into eggs. Simple, yet fun little toys that obviously appeal to the egg bot fan in me. In this initial batch, we have Blue (a velociraptor), Tyrannosaurus Rex, Indominus Rex, and Dilophosaurus. The four seem to all share engineering and parts aside from their heads. It doesn't take away from the the little dinos and I had a lot of fun with the silly little things. It's hard not to enjoy the cute sculpts and stomp them around. Transformation to egg form is pretty easy, though in some instances I had to get the head positioned just right to make it work. The Indominus Rex was the biggest trouble maker in that instance. Egg mode isn't as smooth as a Tamagoras, but serviceable. Fierce Changers looks to be a fun new little series of Jurassic World toys. There's figures that change from one dino to another, and even a large T-Rex that converts into the classic Jurassic Park Jeep. I'm looking forward to getting more of these adorable little terrors. Good job Mattel.

Spherically Scary

Nothing says the spooky season like a bat and a black cat. It's funny that fate provided that Halloween appropriate Bakugan toys would be at my local Walmart. Guess even the universe is in the spirit. Wrath, the feline of the pair is normally a white colored character. Bakugan doesn't shy away from multiple color variants of their toys, so the magic of Halloween was working overtime for this coincidence. Griswing, (the bat) the same.

All things considered, I'm taking this find as the work of The Great Pumpkin.

These two are from the Evolutions sub-line and are of the basic all plastic variety. While I do tend to favor the True Metal versions, that doesn't take anything away from these guys. As you can see in the picture above, they're seemingly simple. The chunkiness is something I like and part of the overall charm of these guys. Readers know I'm a fan of egg bot style transforming toys and that older school robot toy chonk as well. I wish they had chromed weapons to really top it all off.

I said above that they're seemingly simple. Seemingly being the key term as Bakugan mostly self transform. The 'marbles' are rolled out onto the cards and tiled tokens as the game is played. Magnets in those tiles trigger the auto transformation springing Bakugan to life. The more complex toys require a little extra fiddling to unfold out other parts, but that's generally the gist of it. You, however, have to fold it back into place yourself. That's where the seemingly simple comes into play. Some pop right into place, while others have to be done in exact order. Both of these guys are in the exact order club. It's not super difficult, but I can see it being frustrating on a bad day. Considering the spooky flavor these two bring to the table, it's kinda fitting.

Bakugan Omelets

 

Lately I've been wishing egg-bots were more common these days. It seems like they're a lost form of transforming toy. To be honest, I wish more were available. They're neat. Then out of the blue, one weekend my mom comes over for dinner and as usual brings us stuff she bought in the clearance aisle. This time, a Bakugan toy. I've checked them out before and have gotten a few from Happy Meals. They're neat, but I have no clue why not much attention was paid to them before getting this random gift from my mother. First off, here was a dang egg-bot. The thing I'd been wanting had been right in front of my face the entire time on the toy aisle. 

The second thing was, it was pretty neat. I'd thought so in the past, but like I said, hadn't paid them much attention. Pegatrix (the one I was gifted) was a little Pegasus that neatly folded up into a little ball. Not exactly an egg like Tamagoras, but a ball like ones made by Takara. It was neatly robotic and in some pretty cool colors. I then and there decided to pick up some more, and so far I've been happy that I did. In the Bakugan Evolution line is the Platinum Series, which has die-cast construction! The toys have spring loaded transformations. This works into the card game that I don't know how to play, but am keeping my included cards in case I decide to learn. It is pretty satisfying to drop the ball on a table and have it pop into it's little animal form. 

This randomly gifted Pegatrix has opened up a new rabbit hole for me. With Bakugan I have readily available egg-bots that are pretty dang neat. Prices vary for various releases, but they're pretty affordable. So far I've spent five to ten dollars on the ones I've gotten. There's more deluxe packages with various accessories, multi-packs, or larger sometimes even combining figures. The Mrs was a fast fan of the Cubbo figures. I'm fond of them as well, they're adorable. It's funny, these little toys have been right in front of my face for some time now. I guess all it took was that random gift for me to do more than look at them occasionally in the stores.

Meteorbs and Tamagoras aren't just words that drive autocorrect crazy

I've briefly talked about Meteorbs here before... and dammit I'm gonna again. A cool and overlooked addition to Masters of the Universe, Meteorbs were comets that transformed into little robot and animal dudes to fight with or against He-man. Transforming comets were a thing on Eternia, so why not?

The toys were made from Bandai's Tamagora line of egg based robots. If you're into transforming toys, chances are you've come across your share of toys that transform into eggs. Bandai pretty much makes the best ones as evident in the more recent Hatch 'N Heroes toys.

Tamagora and other egg robot toys are often bootlegged, so if you can't find original versions of the toys, chances are a knock off is sitting on the rack at an odd discount store or gift shop.

 

While they may not be for everybody it's hard to deny their charm. Simple fun little toys full of charm. Even Takara got into the egg game in Microman. Those molds got used later in Transformers Beast Wars and Kiss...*shudder*.

While I'm not very wordy on how great egg robot toys are here, I think that's because it's a pretty simple concept. Egg turns into something, simple fun toy, neat. Though I absolutely have to show you this Tamagora commercial featuring the batch that got made into Meteorbs.

We are all a little better for seeing that. Even if just for the little peep peep at the end looking at the toy wondering if it's food. The toys are commonly found in gashapon machines and oddball (egg?) stores. Like I said, if you're into transforming robot toys, chances are you have a few or at least came across some. Honestly, I'd love for Bandai to sell these here in America.