Shitting Their Prime Pants

It feels like ancient history now, but then again, I suppose it was almost 20 years ago. At the time some major drama in the Transformers fan world went on that seemed larger than life. For outsiders- the Transformers fandom is more of a subculture than other fan bases. It's a little world of it's own that many members stay pretty wrapped up in. These days it's much larger and segmented, but it used to be much smaller and more tight knit. This particular event took place from 2003-2004, when things were starting to get a growth spurt. The internet was becoming more of a common thing and message boards for various interests were popping up all over. These were quickly taking the place of older online gathering spots, much to the dismay of some assholes.

There was one constant, BotCon. Prior to the last years, it was a smaller more personal affair back then. There were occasional attempts at other TF conventions and some TF programming at other shows, but BotCon was pretty much viewed as the only one. It was like our annual family picnic and a must go destination for many. Hasbro supported the show, but it wasn't officially official until around 2002.  I'm not going to go into the complete history of the con, but here it is of you're so inclined. In short, the brothers who founded it had a partnership with their friend Glen a few years into the cons life. This partnership ran the show for about 6 years. In 2003 they had a falling out and split up. Glen who owned the official license would go on to run the official fan club and con now named The Official Transformers Collectors Club/Convention (OTFCC for short). The brothers would run BotCon as an unofficial show in 2004. And within the fan community, a battle line in the sand was drawn. 

Transform Squadron 27 All I Want For Christmas Is Doom

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It’s Christmas at Zone Base! The lights are hung on the porch and now there’s just a tree in the living room. Rob talks about the way cool new Final Faction toy line before talking about his Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar. Then it’s random memories of Christmas music he hates and loves before spiraling into madness about a Burger King commercial. Merry Christmas!

Dracula Lives On Zone Base

It's another Monday morning on Planet Zone. Fortunately we're still in the spooky season and can enjoy Dracula while we get ready for another week. I've got some fun posts in mind for you all this week. 

Hope everyone has a good day! I've got to get dressed for early voting and a few errands. If only I could vote for Dracula.

 

*edit*- I had some car problems and wasn't able to vote or run my errands. Next week when I go vote, I hope I can still vote for Dracula. 

Weekend Report, Do You Copy

The weird thing about a normal weekend after a holiday one is completely obvious. It's shorter than the one you just had, so it just kinda vanishes on you. However it was still a pretty good weekend. Saturday morning after I got home, the wife and I headed out to check out a few things. I had two missions in mind. Find Shawn a Slitherfang and find myself Eternia Minis series 2. 

After a quick Wendy's breakfast in the Dollar Tree parking lot, the Mrs. and I went inside to discover all they had to offer us. We bought quite a bit of Halloween treat bag supplies. Let me clue you in to our Halloween plan. Two different buckets of treats for the kid to choose from. They can pick candy or toys. That way we can account for allergies or various issues with candy. Also, so the wife can spend her Sunday's putting together little treat bags. She loves that sort of thing. We're going to have the best house in town.

We then went to Target which had a halfway set up Halloween section. More treat bag goodies were bought as well as odd decorations. We'll wait a little closer to the date for candy. Because I will eat it. Upon approaching the Transformers area... no Slitherfang. A ton of Rung, but no Slitherfang. Dammit. Nothing else I needed either (or was allowed to get, Christmas). Oh well, off to Walmart!

Walmart had a lot more Halloween stuff stocked and we spent a lot of time looking through it all. Some more decorations were grabbed. They have a cool 18" blow mold that's the same sculpt as a mini one I got last year. I plan on grabbing him next weekend. My plan is to get a little at a time so I don't go home empty handed all spooky season. The blow mold is a recreation of a vintage one that I admired quite a bit as a child. I've been content to have the mini one, but there's no way I'll miss big one.

As far as Transformers go, Walmart had stuff I already have. Dammit. No Slitherfang. As for MOTU, they had a ton of Skeletor and 4 series 2 Eternia minis. All four were the same two guys, so I grabbed one of each. There was no new Star Wars I was allowed to buy (Christmas, yo) but they did have the new Playmates Final Wars Godzilla figure. I've been taking my time with the Godzilla vs Kong figures since the movie isn't' out for a few seasons and to be honest. Christmas. These are easy things to tell my Mom I don't have yet. Yes I'm 42, but for the rest of my family my interests are confusing. I try to make things easy for them. It's this or get random "do you have this" texts all December.

The Final Wars Godzilla I mentioned? It's part of the Godzilla/Kong line Playmates has been selling at Walmart which took the place of Bandai's line (it's a weird business deal or something). The Shin Godzilla they had in the assortment was swapped out with this new Final Wars figure that's surprisingly really good. It gives me vibes of older vinyl figures and yes, it's a normal vinyl. Not hard vinyl. Neat. We got other things while there, but you don't care about my socks. I hope you don't. Please don't.

We then headed to the neighboring town (it's maybe a 20 minute drive) and the Walmart and Target located there. That Walmart was completely Halloween stocked. It was great! We bought more shit. They also had a full shelf of He-Man and only He-Man. The MOTU Origins figures come one character per case. Stores tend to stock one case at a time. They also had an entire shelf display of series 2 Eternia Minis. I picked out the ones I needed and put what was left of the boxes content's on the shelf. I took that beautiful Snake Mountain display box home with me! I really should have done that with Castle Greyskull. The Transformers, GI JOE, and Star Wars? You guessed it, Christmas. 

Target was kinda a wet fart for Halloween stuff. This one always takes forever with any seasonal stuff other than Christmas. They did have this years Halloween cat scratch houses though. We get one for Halloween and Christmas every year. It won't last the entire season, the cats will destroy it. Target also had none Slitherfang. None. But they did have new Micromasters that I was allowed to buy.

I checked with Shawn to see if he was in need of those micro dudes and no, he was not. My quest for a smol robot snake continues. I will be victorious. Even if he already has one by the time I find another, he's getting it. We got some Subway and went home. They have a BOGO on subs BTW, was eating that shit until this morning. We ate our subs and watched some TV before I needed to take a nap, which turned into waking up around 8am Sunday morning. Dang. To be fair, I decided to take that nap at 8PM Saturday night. I has been up since 2:30PM Friday afternoon.

Sunday was filled with some household work, a visit from Mom which resulted in a massive Olive Garden take out order, and watching a lot of spooky shit. Between ghost videos and me taking a look at some more Halloween content (I make a point to watch it first, you can never be cautious enough yo). Today was full of errands and posting toy pics on Instagram. The same pics that will be used for future posts here. Happy fall y'all! 

A Weekend Report Of 3 Days

A glorious three day weekend has passed and alas now I must resume my normal schedule. Much rest was had as well as much put off household work had been done. There's a lot of details about housework below, you've been warned. Details you probably do care about would include some shopping Saturday morning.

We looked at what Halloween merchandise Target and Walmart had out. Normally they're fully stocked by Labor Day Weekend, but since last year it's been the weekend after. Weird considering At Home starts stocking Halloween in June, but I'm sure there's a reason. I'm sure it's stupid. Regardless, some stuff came home with us including some of the new Halloween Kinder Surprise Eggs. This years theme is these great little trick or treating mini figures. I'll be posting on those later this week.

I also grabbed a bag from the new Godzilla bag clip figures wave. This series is Heisei era themed and lucky me, I got the chase Mothra! I then finally found both Slitherfang and the last wave 2 Cyberverse Tiny Turbo Changer I needed. Thinking about it, I didn't open Slitherfang yet. I'd been really looking forward to him too, what the hell self?

Grabbed Origins Skeletor at Walmart as they had a pile of him and nobody else. I just hope I can find wave 2 of the MOTU Minis easily. I had all the Transformers they had, so I just didn't buy any Transformers at Walmart. My Vintage Blaster should be showing up next week, so there's that. They also had the glow in the dark Dino Strike balls, so I grabbed one. Got a pterodactyl with cool glow in the dark armor. 

The rest of Saturday was a mix of sleeping and watching ghost videos on YouTube. Ok, also watched some Trvl channel. Which is just ghost shows. I like ghost shows. Somewhere in the middle I ate some frozen chicken wings and fires, don't worry, I cooked them first. 

I'm totally at work right on my computer and the cleaning dude just farted. Nasty ass.

Sunday was a mixture of household chores. Both regular and long overdue ones. Several things we've put off since moving in and some just needed to be done. Got most of the put off stuff done, though there's a weekend of putting up curtains upstairs in my future. In between the work was a massive order of Red Lobster as the wife hadn't had it before and we had decided on ordering a ton of food for Sunday. It was a good idea. So many cheese biscuits.

After a long food coma induced nap, I assembled some matching bookshelves for the wife's hobby room. Afterwards I was a little worn out from sitting on the floor for a few hours. So I spent the rest of Sunday night playing my Turbografx 16 Mini. I kinda needed that. 

Early Monday morning was spent doing some organizing in my toy room before lunch lead to a long ass nap. I woke up and started the grill for some burgers and hot dogs. It was Labor Day, you kinda have to grill out. I'm usually looking for an excuse anyway. The said food was ate while watching more ghost videos and Halloween stuff. Which I also watched while doing house work. Some people's favorite thing to watch is Gilmore Girls, mine is ghost videos and old Halloween stuff. I'm exciting.

We got halfway through Trvl Channels special on Ed and Lorraine Warren before the need to go to bed hit. The wife works a normal persons schedule and I was somehow still sleepy. We'll finish it up next weekend and probably won't delete it from the DVR. We're both fans of the Warrens. I've grown up enjoying their stories and we both like the Conjuring movies. I'm not too concerned on the legitimacy of them or anything, I just really like the stories. BTW, have you seen Trvl Channel's Ghostober commercials for this year? They are awesome.

Tuesday was my Monday and I spent it as I normally do a Monday. Odd chores, watching TV, and napping before work. I recorded this month's Transform Squadron and hope to have it posted soon. Just waiting for it to go up on the network. I spent a lot of time with those Kinder Surprise Egg toys, which is probably why I didn't play with Slitherfang. Holiday breaks have a way of throwing everything off.

Seacon Saga 2: The Beginning

This morning I found some time to play with my new rainbow colored Seacon set and man, what a time I had. Like I said yesterday, it's a downsized set. Meaning, it's much smaller than the original toys. 

Whenever these knock off toy companies make a Transformers set, they tend to get creative. There's molded over parts, sometimes new parts made to compensate for deteriorating molds. Or in these downsized sets, they seemingly have to re-engineer some of the parts a little. 

The Seacons were a Scramble City style combiner team, meaning any of the limbs would work as any limb. That wasn't the case here, or from what I could tell after a lot of fiddling. Not to mention, the neat 6th member could be a gun wasn't universal either. Which didn't matter as Piranacon doesn't have fists to hold it with. I opted to keep Tentakil out of the combiner since I just love his weird sea monster mode so much. Thanks to ample peg holes and guns, you can fashion a blaster type hand easily. Honestly in combined mode, I really like this toy. The wacky colors look sharp and the sculpt looks really good in a smaller size. 

Going back to the individual team members, the sea monster modes look really great. Snaptrap is as small as the limb bots, which is funny as the smaller size makes for good proportions when combined. They're really good copies of the original toys as well.

In robot mode, some of that knockoff toy new part magic comes in. Leg/mid-sections are serviceable, but are clearly where the company has had to get a little creative. It's still a really nice looking set. While a few parts were omitted and not all the accessories are there, they've all got weapons. Aside from scale and color, they're pretty close approximations of the team. 

The quality is always in question with knock off toys. Sometimes it's a near perfect replica, sometimes it's kinda ok. Sometimes it's apparently made from old soap and turns into powder instantly. For the most part these guys were pretty good. Some of the joints are really loose, while one of Snaptrap's legs was impossible to move. I'm no stranger to knock off toys and some of my old tricks came into making a more stable set.

I absolutely love the Piranacon this set makes. That smaller Snaptrap makes for a different looking torso and the proportions are absolutely wonderful. Normally with Scramble City style combiners, you have a big body with stumpy limbs. Everything is more evened out here and it makes for a better looking robot. I can't help to look at other combiners and imagine them with similar builds.

It was a total surprise when Shawn sent me this and made for an interesting week. I'm pretty grateful for it. I've got a ton of toys, but the ones with stories I really appreciate. Shawn's an awesome friend as is, but dude gets me. He saw some weird shit and knew I would not only like it, but would turn into a week of site content.

Seacon Saga Part 1

Ever have a story that takes two different posts on two different days on your fan blog? Me too! This particular one of those instances began Monday afternoon when Shawn messaged me. He asked if I had checked my mail since Saturday and said maybe I should. 

Before I go any farther, let me explain. I live in a town home neighborhood. The mailboxes are similar to an apartment set up, with them being at the front. Little mailboxes and storage lockers for packages, though usually those are left on door steps. 

So when Shawn says something is waiting for me in a storage locker. I check and... nope. I let him know, he double checks tracking and same info. So, I used the little tracking tool on the Post Office website to let them know something went wrong. I get a generic 'looking into it email' back and when the mailbox was checked, there was a key for a storage locker. Ok, no problem, whoever did the Saturday run must have forgot. Inside the storage locker was... wait for it... another key. The hell?

This key however is not like the other... because it doesn't work on any of the lockers. I get to work and reply to the email. This morning, I call the Post Office and... the manager who wrote me the reply had went on vacation. I think this is actually a Rascal Flats song, your Mom loves them. BTW, ever notice the singer of those dudes looks like the guy who played Duke on old GI JOE commercials? 

Now you and your Mom have something in common. You can talk about how knowing is half the battle and that life is a highway. Speaking of talking with Mom, tell her the Star Brigade toys in that commercial had Action Master Shockwave's art used to represent Hawk. Also tell her that I need her dog to stop shitting in my yard.

So my wife suggests I ask to speak to a manager and I get the supervisor! Who then calls the employee who handles my neighborhood (and usually leaves packages at the door), who then says which box my package is in. Great, because I don't have a key that first and ... know what I'll just check again... still didn't work. So the supervisor has the employee to bring it to my door (as they normally freaking do) when they come. Which they do... without knocking and I have this key that I have no clue what to do with. Guess I'll mail it back?

So what was in the box? A red foil zip-lock type bag with a label that you can zoom in and read. Or if your the type to figure out the title of my posts normally have something to do with the subject, you may have already guessed.

Indeed inside was something amazing, a scaled down set of Seacons in the most pleasant rainbow colored pattern one would never expect. It's a worn out meme to label anything with crazy colors 'G2', but a G2 set of Seacons probably would have looked like this had one been made. That or some random European version of the molds like Rescue Force.

The toys themselves? They're fantastic! Big thanks to Shawn for thinking to send me this rad set. I'll talking about the actual toys tomorrow in the action packed conclusion to this post. Spoiler warning, it won't be that action packed. This is just a blog.

This Daggum Weekend Past

It's Monday already, dammit. I got off Saturday morning and went with the wife to Bed Bath & Body Works and Yankee Candle. Saturday was the launch day for Yankee Candle's Halloween collection and her usual tradition is to hit that and BB&W for a spooky shopping spree. BB&W put their stuff out a few weeks ago, but she held off as she likes to do them together.

We got to the shopping center early and went to BB&W first since Yankee Candle wasn't open and the line hadn't formed yet. I held a shopping bag as she filled it up with random pumpkin and ghost scented candles. Afterwards she got int the now forming line at Yankee Candle while I put two heavy bags that smelled like fall into the car. We stood there for about 3 minutes before the store opened as a Space Mountain sized line formed behind us.

Apparently there was a slight bit of candle drama as this years figurine theme was a haunted hospital and you know that whole pandemic. Of course the stuff was in production before the crap hit the fan, so it's not like it was intentional. You know, a Plague Doctor has been a very popular costume for a few years now. Wonder how well that's going to go over this year?

Also folks were complaining about stuff selling out online already, which we found out that ordering from the store comes from a different stock, so I guess now we know. Just remember, when somebody gives you trouble for collecting toys, they probably rioted over fancy candles and a football game.

We stopped by Walmart after to pick up a few things needed outside of the grocery order. Like a toaster. I was happy to see Masters of the WWE Universe figures and grabbed an Undertaker. Also picked up a Star Wars Mission Fleet Clone Trooper and Ghostbusters Hot Wheel. They had reissue Blaster, but I've got one on order, so I left them for others. Also have a Godbeast order on the way, really looking forward to it. This wave's theme is reverse Scarabite and I love how the Scarabite colors look in reverse. Can't wait for it to get here.

Come to think about it, I haven't assembled the last few Glyos drops yet. That move really threw me out of whack. Hopefully I can put some micro console time in this weekend. It's a holiday weekend, meaning this will be the longest week in history. I specifically want to play Bonk.

The wife did some in house Halloween decorating Saturday night while watching 'Over the Garden Wall', another tradition of hers. I picked up boxes. We have a lot of Halloween decorations. We'll finish that next weekend as some other household things we've been putting off since moving. Plans were to do that Sunday, but that became watching a mix of watching TV and Bill and Ted 3 while waiting for a pot roast to cook.

I usually don't talk about Monday on these weekend posts, but, there was a Friday the 13th marathon on all day. I'd enjoy that more if not for the migraine I woke up with. I was in and out of sleep all day periodically waking up at random parts in movies. You guys won't believe it, they only played part 5 once. Well, at least before I went to work anyway.

Of Cobra Commander And Positive Dental Habits

The commercial above has nothing to do with this story, but I thought it would be a good way to showcase some of the cool GIJOE toys in India. I'm taking a little time to lament a pretty cool toy score I passed on a while back. For the longest time in summer, there was a monthly antique sale that would be held near Atlanta. I usually went, it was a pretty good time. A small admission price to enter a city of vendor booths and food trucks. The sale was a mix of actual antiques, folksy hand crafted things (furniture, food, art), and a surprising amount of toys. This is a longer post, so I'm gonna use a break here. Walls of text are just the worst.

This Weekend In Report

This weekend was a pretty laid back weekend. Not a super lot to report on, but felt like a lot was accomplished. One big thing on our to do list after moving in was to get an air conditioner for upstairs. A month and a half after moving in, we finally crossed that off. After I came in from work Saturday morning we headed out and got one after a little shopping around. Thankfully our upstairs now is a lot cooler than it has been. We live in a pretty hot state and there's about two more months of heat until things cool down.

Walmart came up empty handed on toys I was hoping to find. I need Winston and Stanz to complete my Real Ghostbusters vintage line and despite having them plentifully in stock for the past few weeks, not so much when I came calling. They had plenty of the Plasma series which I plan to complete once I finish the vintage line. Which if they don't restock anymore soon, might be sooner than I planned.

They were sold out of G.I.JOE, which I was happy to see. I still haven't gotten any, but I will. No Master of the Universe in sight. Neither Origins or WWE. Origins is new, so I understand, but the WWE line is frustrating. I've only seen the first wave ever and the rest just never show up and sell out instantly online. I'd be more patient if I didn't see folks posting their hauls of everything the store had posts in MOTU groups.

There was plenty of Siege Transformers. I still need to get Megatron and Sideswipe, but considering the mountain... I'm going to play clearance lottery. The Ultra Magnus magically went to clearance after I bought one, so I'm gonna play the odds here. They did have candy corn though! Got a bag of mellowcreme pumpkins to eventually eat. Also some Super Mario figurines I haven't seen yet were grabbed. After some Culver's and sleep I stayed up all night assembling my wife's new vanity which got Fed Ex'd during the week. I watched Headless Horseman, Mr. Boogedy, and Bride of Mr. Boogedy during the course of this. Disney Plus rules.

Sunday after waking from my all night furniture jam coma, I took the wife's jewelry to the jewelers for their warranty inspection. We stopped by Dollar Tree and Target on the way home. Dollar Tree had begun putting out there Halloween stuff! Not a ton, but a pretty good bit for late July. Target usually has a great Halloween selection, but it's still a little early for them.

They did however have that Repugnus Cyberverse set I spoke of last week and a few Tiny Turbo Changers. I was able to pick out Jazz and Sideswipe from the repeats of wave 1. They also had the new Star Wars Mission Fleet figures. I literally just learned about these the night before while checking Instagram and was surprised to find them already. I'll post about them here later this week but grabbed Boba Fett while there. I plan to get them all, but after buying an air conditioner the day before... I kinda didn't feel like spending much more. This is where I'd type lol in a text.

For those not in the know, Mission Fleet is a new Star Wars line with mini figures of characters which attachable back packs based on their related vehicles. Boba Fett, for example, has a jet pack based on the Slave-1. The figures are a bit stylized which adds to their charm. They have accesories and give me strong Microman/Micronaut vibes. Dig it.

The rest of Sunday was spent doing some room organizing and eating a BBQ dinner that we smelt all day cooking in the crock pot. Another weekend or two and my room might finally be serviceable for my purposes and not just some boxes that I took out of the garage. I normally don't mention Mondays here on these posts, but our order from a decor distributor came with some Halloween blow molds we missed last year. In it was a combiner number robots set the wife added in with the order and I already love them. I look forward to building the somewhat amazing looking combiner with them soon!

What I done did this dang weekend

After getting home from work Saturday morning, the wife and I paid At Home a visit to see where they were on Halloween stock after putting away the grocery delivery. They've added a new display and more stock since our last visit and I was glad to see the return of the skeleton octopus. I wanted one last year and never bought it. We grabbed some candles that were very similar to older Halloween candles from both out childhoods. Not the exact same molds, but pretty dang similar. Aparently Tuesday Morning has begun stocking their Halloween wares, so I see a visit to our local one is in order soon.

After that was a trip to Home Depot for a few more yard things and a visit to Walmart for the handful of things we needed outside of our grocery order. I dig the convenience of having groceries delivered, but I like to pick out my own Ready-Pac salads. I grabbed The Real Ghostbusters Egon while there. Eventually I'll get Netflix Sideswipe and Megatron, but considering the hundreds of them there, No rush.

Picked up some Panda Express and headed home. After a nap I assembled our new patio furniture outside on said patio while listening to the crickets and the radio. It was pretty nice outside of the nearly 100 degree weather. Summer in Georgia, it's just as hot at night. Hooray baby powder!

I organized my new room for a few hours and consolidated a few boxes for better storage. While organizing some DVD's and Godzilla toys on a shelf I listed to Unsolved Mysteries. The old one on Pluto, I've still got to watch the new one. Seeing as I finally just started Tiger King... it might be a minute.

Sunday we cooked out and my mom came over. Though it was so hot, I probably didn't need to use any charcoal to cook the food. After mom left I initially planned to work on my room some more, but ended up playing some of my At Home Blasts in the living room while the wife played her Switch. Oddly enough about the Blast consoles, the audio doesn't always work depending on TV model.

Our living room TV, nope. I played some NES Star Wars and a bunch of Atari games. Secret Quest is still a lot better than you think it would be. Seaquest is still super fun. NES Star Wars is a lot harder than I remember, fun, but not a casual game. We ended the weekend watching ghost videos before the sandman entered. Brought dreams or something. Weekends are pretty great, sleep is awesome.

Kaiju Con.Line Report

I normally do a weekend report post on Mondays, but seeing as I did a virtual convention this weekend... I thought I'd just do a con report. Though some of what I did will be peppered throughout the report as... it's a weekend report post in a way.

To explain Kaiju Con.Line, it was a free virtual kaiju convention organized by Kyle of Kaijucast. There was no G-Fest this year because of covid-19, so Kyle organized a bunch of live streaming panels, and other online activities under the banner of Kaiju Con.Line to give fans of rubber suited monsters something to do this weekend in place of the annual gathering.

It was pretty nuts as there was not only the various live stream panels, there was watch parties all over the place. Either affiliated or other groups running their own thing. Not to mention Tsuburaya ran an Ultraman stream and Shout Factory ran a Kamen Rider stream all weekend. There were a million discord chats and various online vendor rooms to buy from dealers in name of the weekend. I've got a t-shirt for the event on the way from the official store, because I needed to support this. It's great when fans come together to do something positive.

As I've said a million times before, traveling to conventions is getting harder for me to pull off. A state or two over is one thing, across the country... dude. So I've been wanting something like this for awhile. That way I can participate while still handling my home and work life. This literally was a breeze. I've mentioned before that I work at night. Because I do. So when I got off work Saturday morning, I had some things to do. While shopping at these stores I would pop in and check in on con stuff. I've went to stores during a con before, but I've never bought mulch while at a con before.

During these errands I picked up some of the Bandai Godzilla 65th anniversary sofubi boxed figures I've been needing. I just need Anguirus and Hedorah to complete the set! Target and Walmart had no new Earthrise sadly, but in time I assume. I did score some face mask adjusters at Staples though. I've got a big old head and in the new normal of wearing these things, sometimes they are just a touch too small. It's nice to not have sore ears. I need to pick up the Playmates Space Godzilla. I've got all of the Playmates Godzilla figures except him and I might as well complete the set. I mean, duh.

I spent the rest of Saturday with the cons panels playing while I did various things. Eating pizza? Right in front of a panel. Putting together newly bought furniture? Right in front of a panel. I'd pop in and out of panels and watch parties also. That was something really cool. In my living room, I'd just watch the panels on TV. Up in my room, I had it running on my tablet fully taking advantage of picture in picture video screens. Muting subtitled videos to listen to the audio from live streams. That was neat.

Later on in the night, I'd watch the replays from panels I missed while running errands and when I took a nap. Finally around 3am I went to sleep as dude... tired. Sunday we worked on our yard, same thing. Break time, pop in on phone. When we got done, same thing. Either watch a missed panel or a stream. Though I only did one at a time. I was a little worn out from putting mulch out in the hot sun.

I need to go back and watch the rest of that Western monsters in Japanese fiction panel, it was pretty interesting. Unfortunately I wasn't able to pay the stream as much attention as I wanted to. Fortunately, it's available to view. I can dig this kind of convenience, it's easier to dig than some of those old branches out from under those bushes were.

Some of my favorite content was the show was in the opening ceremonies panel. There was a good 15 minutes of pre-recorded video messages from various actors and directors from various Godzilla, Ultraman, and other productions. They were generally messages of encouragement regarding the pandemic and pretty cool to watch. That western monsters panel I mentioned earlier and the Yokai War panel from Saturday I'd like to go back and watch in their entirety. Which I will.

The Kaijucast Reunion stream was pretty great as it pretty much went from kaiju discussion into trivia to musicians performing classic monster themes. Really neat. Daikaiju TV had a steady stream of watch parties going all weekend that was super fun to pop into and out of. If I was a better discord user, there were plenty of related chats going, but sadly I'm pretty bad at Discord. Though between the live streams and watch parties, I had plenty of live chat available.

In all, my first virtual con experience was a good one. There's others going on this summer and I'm pretty interested in doing more. While nothing beats the in person aspect of a con with other fans, this wasn't bad! I could see myself playing one of my micro consoles with my tablet nearby with a stream going. It was great to indulge myself in Godzilla and company with other fans in the company of my own home. Totally would do again.

I Did Stuff This Weekend

This weekend was a holiday weekend. Well, the holiday was on Saturday. So I had Friday off in observance. It was nice to get some rest after such a hectic and busy month. Between cooking out Saturday on our back patio and enjoying stretching out on our new living room set, we also got some stuff done around the house. We made a visit to At Home and Joann's to see what Halloween stock they had. Joann's just had some cloth (which some was purchased), but At Home had really added much more since last weekend. My Instagram has pics if you're so inclined to check them out.

Saturday night I began work on my new toy room, which mainly meant repairing my old shelves and doing some organizing. Next weekend I'll start working which toys will go on said shelves and rearranging the mass of storage totes I have in our garage. There's a few thousand Transformers in those totes and it's a considerable effort to try and keep some semblance of organization. That's not including kaiju, keshi, mini figures and other toys. So I've got a bit of work ahead of me.

I did get together my little micro console set up. I plan to spend a good bit of time parked in front of that set up, so considerable effort was made to get it just right. I'll probably readjust it a billion times, but I've got a start. Various pictures were hung with help of the wife for second opinions on placement. I'm trying to keep it reasonably nice looking in there and not just a pile of toys and video games. So taking some extra time and getting second opinions are definitely appreciated.

Over the course of the weekend I got a few toys. I picked up Destroyah from Playmates Godzilla and Kong line. A Treasure X Alien Egg from Five Below, and a Scout Class Cyberverse Ratchet while waiting for my order at a Rose's near Little Caesars. I eyed a Netflix Sideswipe and Megatron at Walmart and I most assuredly need to pick those guys up soon. I just like Sideswipe, always have, always will. So a new toy of him is something I'll eventually pick up. I like Siege Megatron, but really it's the Battlemasters that's pulling the trigger there. I kinda want the new Seeker for the same reasons, but Megatron's included are just much more interesting.

What Did I Do This Weekend?

Remember when I did these weekend report posts for a little while there? Yeah, me too. We've been moving, so a whole lot of that actually. Well, that's not true, we moved last weekend. This weekend we went back and cleaned up the old place, and by clean I mean take all the trash that needed to be thrown away to the dumpster and spackle a few nail holes in the wall. We had cleaners come out today, because so damn tired. Next weekend we're going to do a last minute go overs before turning the keys back in and finally being done. Scored some of those new dill pickle Doritos and some 4th of July Mtn Dew while doing so. I love limited edition gas station snacks.

It's not all gross moving stuff though. We got our new living room furniture in Saturday and broke it in by door dashing some Red Robin for a celebratory meal. My old recliner is in my new man cave and now I have a nice new chair with a big ass ottoman as to not worry about cars underneath anymore. I totally feel asleep in it sometime Saturday night watching Jurassic Park 3. Now we just have to finish organizing and unpacking over the next couple of weeks. Moving sucks, but our new place sure doesn't.

Now onto the fun stuff. I used italics.

As summer sets in, some stores start stocking Halloween stuff in June. Usually it's the craft stores that start this early to supply people for upcoming projects. Last year the some of the decorative stuff started in June too, and I'm glad to say this has continued to this year. It really gives somebody like me a lifeline.

The dang site is a Halloween blog also and I should really address that more obviously. At Home stores are really the best about this as they pull out the good stuff and steadily bring out more all through summer. We judge by Instagram posts when stores start stocking and since others started we figures ours would have too.

However ours was a little behind, I guess the pandemic might have came into play a little. They did have the area cleared out and the black pegboard up with planograms taped up though. So stuff will be up soon and we'll be back next weekend to check it out... and probably every weekend for the next few months. Don't look at me like that.

Then stopped by Target to pick up  'The last of us 2' and while there I finally found an Earthrise Cliffjumper, Soundbarrier, and Smashdown. Still no new Micromasters sadly. Kind of wonder if those last ones from Siege will pop up at Ross type stores come Christmas. Hope so. I didn't find Smashdown in Siege, so it's nice to finally get the mold. Before we moved I got Ironworks and Wheeljack. I don't know what box they're in.

When I get myself more situated, I plan to do posts on all of them. Just uh... gimme a minute. Also, I need to find those two. Speaking of those two, I also got a Slimer from the Real Ghostbusters vintage line to post about too as well as a Venkman last weekend. The wife picked me up a Plasma series Stanz the day before we moved. I plan to post on him too.

While at Target I also scored the large Mechagodzilla Bandai Creations sofubi I've been wanting for a while now. I probably could have ordered him, but had been hoping to find him at a store. The Target also had some of the smaller boxed Bandai sofubi series, so I'll probably try to complete the line here soon. There's a nearby Walgreens that stocks them as well, so I see that coming together nicely. Walmart had a few more Real Ghostbusters I'll need to grab, but will in time. I did grab the Mega Construx MOTU He-Man vs Beastman two pack. I'd been looking for that. They're the same toys are prior released, but slightly different decos.

That's a lot of things to talk about posting about soon, but like I said gimme a minute. My house is a pile of boxes currently. I'd also tell you about the household stuff, but I'm sure my new bathmats and soap are stretching to misadventures portion of the site a bit. Man... I've got such a DVR backlog to catch up on. Like it's ridiculous.

Programming Note- Moving Day

I mentioned last week about my moving taking up a lot of my time and just wanted to put out a reminder of that. I know readers are used to a certain amount of posting a week and just don't want to leave you all hanging. Posting will resume to it's regular volume soon, pinky swear. Today is my moving day, and I'm pretty stoked to be moving into my new home.

I totally scheduled Friday Night Frights still though. Priorities.

Programming Note- Moving

I've mentioned a few times that I'm moving, because I am. Moving day is actually next week, which means I'm currently in crunch time getting everything together. Between packing and organizing everything while working my normal 60+ hour work week, things are taking a bit of a toll on me. Not to mention covid-19 has thrown a few curve balls into the process *sigh*.

There won't be an episode of the podcast this month, and for the next week, posts may be a little spotty. I'll still be posting, but it'll be a little lighter than you all are used too. I just wanted to put it out there in case anyone notices the lighter volume of my nonsense here for a little bit. It won't be long before things get back to normal.

I appreciate each and every one of you for continuing to read and support my weird site about robots and monsters. If you like what I do, thanks! All I ask is for you to share and show a friend.

What The WWF

These day's I'm mainly an AEW fan, but back in the day I would switch the channel between WWF and WCW basking in the glory of both companies. The wrestling video games during that time were pretty great as well. I vastly preferred WWF Superstars and WWF WrestleFest in the arcades, but they were long gone by the time WWF Wrestlemania hit my local arcades in 1995. When the home console versions came out, my Genesis found itself occupied with the likes of Lex Luger and The Undertaker. It was a good time. Something I was able to do at home that I couldn't at the arcade was beat the game... and that's what we're here for today. Brace yourselves.

Wear A M.A.S.K, Drive A Truck

M.A.S.K was a really cool toy line featuring transforming vehicles by Kenner. I've talked about it before and you've probably had your own share of fun with it. This commercial with live action actors just jives with me right now. Probably because I've been putting on my face mask often. It's a triviality of the current situation, but man. I feel like I'm gearing up for action when I get up from my desk and go to the break room for some coffee. It's a little chilly today, so a little while ago I put on my hoodie and mask when I needed to leave my office for something. Had to gear up, naw meen brah? If the mask didn't cause my glasses to fog up I'd wear it driving home.

Our Friend Power 5 (1989)

I've been a lot busier in the past few days than I'd like to be. Times like these call for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles piloting Courageous the Gobot in another Korean movie of dubious legalities.

Heck Yeah Memorial Day Weekend!

Sadly I cannot get these anymore

Memorial Day Weekend is finally here and boy are my arms tired. Because I work a hella lot and haven't really had much of a break this year. So, of course I'm heavily looking forward to Memorial Day, but really I do every year. Even though as an adult, summer doesn't quite mean as much to me as it did when I was a kid, I still look forward to all the fun it has to offer. Memorial Day pretty much was the kick off to summer break, which is the reason why stores around here sell fireworks for Memorial Day. Because it's time to have a ton of fun ya'll.

I know it's technically still spring, but I live in Georgia and it's already 90 degrees outside. The heat sucks, but is part of the overall fun. This weekend first thing I have planned is... well I got to buy some tires. So... you know... that's not really fun... but after that, heck yeah. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon releases this weekend and I've already got my joy cons charging in anticipation of some monster fighting fun. See, I've always joked that I start mentally doing Halloween in spring and a big part of that is summer has always been my prelude into Halloween. Christmas in July, Halloween in May.

When I was a kid, I usually spent my summer breaks watching tons of horror either on VHS from the local video store or on TV as most channels seemed to play the crap out of 80's slashers during summer break. I just automatically associate the season with horror and it leads directly into the horror holiday. Worked into that is 80's metal. I genuinely love 80's metal as is, but it's also something I closely associate with horror and Halloween. Not only is the genre used a lot in soundtracks, but the imagery is pretty much Halloween decorations. It just goes together. Needless to say my horror movie viewing and 80's metal listening goes up during summer. I've literally been listening to Slippery When Wet non stop while at work.

I also spent most summer nights playing games all night long, and even though as an adult the only thing keeping me from doing that is adult responsibilities, mentally, summertime is gaming nirvana. So, I don't have to explain anymore why a spiritual Castlevania sequel is 100% what I want to play all weekend. Know what else? I love popsicles. Summer is obvious high time for the treat and I'm probably going to eat more than I really should this weekend. I'm just having a hard time picking out what kind to add to my grocery order.

I'll be seeing Solo: A Star Wars Story Sunday. I've already got my tickets and am really looking forward to it. A new Star Wars each year is still amazing to me and even though I have to adjust to summer releases as opposed to the Christmas time releases of the past few years, it's still a high point for me. The wife is planning on cooking some BBQ to have ready for when I get home, so man, talk about the perfect day!

Speaking of the wife, we plan to do some shopping over the weekend and I'm really hopping to find a TF5 Hot Rod at Ross. He never showed at any of my Walmarts, and even though I managed to get both legions of him (thanks Shawn!) I also really wanted his deluxe toy. According to folks, he's been showing up at Ross lately, and even though I was just there last weekend, I'm sure I'll have no problem talking the wife into stopping by in hopes of scoring him. Sure, he's far from traditional Hot Rod, but I'm a big Hot Rod/Rodimus fan and like snatching his toys up when possible. Not to mention, I like the design. I like Transformer movie toys. I like Transformers. All of them.

So, needing a much needed break this weekend loaded with fun and quality time at home, I'm most ready to do this. It's a holiday weekend to kick off a summer full of robots, monsters, and misadventure. Which, is what the site is all about y'all.