A new week has raised its head, Zone Base readers, but not just any week. It's Halloweek! That's right, Halloween is this Saturday, meaning we've got one spooky week in store for us. Whether you're in school or in the working world, there's bound to be pumpkins and candy all over the damn place. Come Friday, many of you will likely have some sort of costume contest at your workplace, or at the very least one of those seasonal T-shirts that declares that this is, in fact, your Halloween costume.
All leading up to the main event: Halloween Saturday!
Of course, that means the decorations will be coming down soon around here, as we'll return to the regular, non-red-moon-affected Zone Base... which, to be fair, really isn't that different. I mean, that cursed tape has been playing on loop in the VCR since 2016.
For whatever reason, the embedded TikTok videos stopped working on the site over the weekend. I assumed it would clear itself up, but for whatever reason it's still not working. I've went back and edited last week's posts and updated the ones scheduled for this week to have pictures. From now on, site posts will have pics like they used to with a link to the video. Until the embeds start working again, I guess there's just a bunch of posts in the backlog with dead videos. Sorry guys, it's annoying for me too.
Transformers
Some recent leaks of upcoming Generations toys have me pretty excited. The direction of Studio Series figures being faithful to their source material while Generations offers more imaginative takes on the characters looks promising. I'm absolutely ecstatic for that Commander Class Thunderwing, but admittedly, I'm not happy at all about the upcoming price hikes.
I've got the feeling purchases will be slower, with more stuff being picked up on sale or when it shows up at liquidation stores. I can't think of a time when price gouging was a good thing.
Fight back.
Blokees
The long-anticipated Defender Version Volcanicus combiner was shown off at the recent China Toy Expo, much to my happiness. You all know just how much I love the Defender Version scale, and the combiners have been great! I mean... I kinda forgot about the Generations Bruticus, but absolutely pounced on the Bruticus Blokees kit when it was finally available.
Recent Defender Version cases have been including Dinobots in alt mode, leading to speculation (and teases) about Volcanicus. Knowing he'll be real and in my hands soon is super exhilarating. Longtime readers know I love my Dinosaur Squadron Beast Lord Volcanicus, so much so that I made up an unnecessarily long super robot name for no reason. Speaking of, Defender Version 09- Power of the Primes has been leaked and I am STOKED!
Also shown off were new Wheels and Galaxy Version previews. More IDW-inspired robot modes for Galaxy Version is definitely a good idea, as it seems to be the perfect size for that era.
More Wheels? Yes, please! A CT Ultra Magnus kit was shown off, something I'm definitely looking forward to, along with previews of CO5, which so far has included traditional G1 Optimus Prime and a space shuttle mode Sky Lynx. You guys know how much I'm enjoying Wheels, so these will definitely be pure dopamine.
Yolopark
Yolopark showed off their upcoming Mini Wave 4 at the China Toy Expo as well, and it looks great! Wheeljack, robot mode Grimlock, and Sideswipe are just a few of the classic cast members showing up in this size class.
I still haven't gotten Wave 3, and I'm admittedly still butthurt over the lack of customer service for the errors on that Wave 2 case I got at the beginning of the year. And yeah, I'm pretty burned over them ghosting me on that giveaway I won on Threads at the beginning of the year, too.
I love the kits, just not terribly fond of the company currently.
I'm still hoping to find some of their kits that have allegedly been showing up at Ross stores, though mine seemingly haven't gotten any.
Dammit.
Power Rangers
Images of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Re-Ignition Season 3 toys have made their way onto the internet, and with them comes the next combinable Megazord! I loved the Ninja Zords, so I'm definitely excited to get that big-ass monstrosity!
The Weekend
I had one great weekend, Zone Base readers. As the beginning of Halloweek, we had all sorts of spooky fun!
While doing our weekly shopping Saturday, the Mrs and I got Halloween donuts from Dunkin' Donuts. We normally get our donuts from Donut Worry and had already gotten a Halloween dozen from them earlier in the season, but we wanted to grab some Dunkin' as well.
For dinner Saturday night, we ordered the Halloween pizza from Papa Johns (an annual tradition of ours)!
I headed out Sunday morning to stop by CVS to hopefully score one last bag of candy corn for the season, as it's been gone from all my local stores for the past week. I was unsuccessful, but I did get a bag of Mellowcreme Pumpkins, so it wasn't a total waste. I actually hadn't gotten any of those Pumpkins this year, as the new Mellowcreme Graveyards took most of my attention in that department and might have been my favorite candy of this spooky season.
CVS was just a side mission, however, as the main quest was to Starbucks to get a Black Cat Frappuccino for the Mrs and myself. We love Starbucks, as I've made clear before, so it's obvious we'd get their annual Halloween drink. As the name suggests, it's themed after a black cat this year (complete with chocolate cat ears!), meaning it's a black drink with whipped cream topping. The flavor was chocolate cake, which the Mrs loved, but for someone who normally drinks zero-sugar drinks (I even pace myself on candy, seriously), that was super sweet.
Like, wow. Diabetes in a cup.
As a Halloweek treat, Mom surprised us with lunch at Outback Steakhouse! We'd eaten there the week prior, and both the Mrs and Mom loved their Halloween drink, so another one was in store for them. Me, I had a Coke Zero, but kept the toy spider that came with the Halloween drink (I don't drink either)... something we may have a small army of at the moment.
Afterwards, Mom stayed at our house and watched Halloween specials with us as we carved our pumpkins! Later for dinner, I enjoyed some of the pot roast the Mrs had made in the crock pot, and I'm looking forward to eating the leftovers later!
As for toys, I got a few. Christmas is coming, so my weekly purchases for myself are slowing down naturally, but I still grabbed a few small things.
I got a Transformers Big Headz blind box and pulled Barricade! I like these quite a bit and plan to get more. They come with a collector's card and sticker!
I also picked up a Blokees Galaxy Version blind box from the Light Our Darkest Hour series. I got Bombshell, whom I already have, but I definitely don't mind extra Insecticons! Something tells me that one's getting customized into a Waruder soon, though.
It's me. I'm telling myself that.
I also picked up the Red Dragon Thunderzord from MMPR Re-Ignition, as I really need to get to work completing the Thunder Megazord.
I'm currently enjoying Halloween cartoons as I write this from my laptop in the living room (a rare non-cell-phone Monday post!). I started the morning with a few episodes of The Real Ghostbusters before moving to the Forever Kids station on Pluto TV, which was showing the old Teen Wolf cartoon. Now they're showing Sabrina the Witch, so I'm watching Casper on Kartoon Channel.
It's Halloweek, so spooky shit is in order until it all ends this weekend!