Monday RX- Requiem

Good morning Zone Base readers, it's Monday and time again to start another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! This weekend wasn't a very busy one. The Mrs and I did a little shopping at Five Below and Walmart, but mostly did some cleaning around the house. That included getting back to work on organizing my toy room, which is a much delayed project. The Mrs had gotten Pokopia, so I didn't play any Resident Evil Requiem so she could enjoy it on our Switch 2. That gave me a chance to get back into my campaign on Doom the Dark Ages, which I've been meaning to do. I've been on a level that I don't enjoy and making myself work through it begrudgingly. She made an excellent Chicken Alfredo dinner Sunday and I finally got started building the Zoids Command Wolf model I got a few weeks ago. These Realize Models are fairly involved, so I think it'll get finished next weekend.

For toys, I didn't get many. My birthday and Toylanta are around the corner, so I've been holding off a little on purchases for myself. I did get a bunch of Madballs at Five Below. Finding a Mutant Monster Ball I've been hunting for as well as apparently Five Below is selling mini Madballs for $1 each now. I picked up one of each they had available happily. Walmart thankfully is stocking Blokees Transformers Galaxy Version 08 in their Easter Basket toy displays. I picked up two and got the chase Optimus Prime (yay!) and Insecticon Shrapnel! Great pulls on two kits I'm very excited for. Shrapnel will join the Kickback from a prior series I got last year, now just to get Bombshell! These Galaxy Version Insecticons come with a mini insect mode Insecticon as well... I'm looking forward to Bombshell and one hell of a post here afterwards!

Well, it's time to get this week started. As usual I've got some stuff to do around the house and pictures to take for the site. We've got another fun week in store full of robots, monsters,and misadventure coming for your eyeballs. Thank you for reading and supporting the site. Please share it with your friends and be excellent to each other. 

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.

Transform Squadron 15- Ugly Friend

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This month Rob discusses Godzilla turning 65, Madballs at Sonic restaurants, Transformers bag clip figures at Dollar Tree, and Botbots. Clearly life-changing material.

The cool costumes of 1986 and every thang

The crew of WDEF 12 news sure have a problem with kids not dressing as monsters. Children dressing as their favorite cartoon characters are a cause for concern, so much that mask example lady made a point to do an expose on the issue. I guess they weren't concerned with Libya. Though look around that store during the time, even if the employees have some questionable costumes on... looking at you green wig lady. Not cool, but that wall of Madballs is. But we can all agree that the kid at :50 rules.

"They got blood running down their face and every thang"