RangerStop & Pop 2026

It had been far too long since I've attended a RangerStop and Pop. I attended the first one in 2019 (this is a sister convention to RangerStop in Florida FYI) and for one reason or another couldn't make to any others much to my own disappointment. My friend Brett, who is the organizer for ToyLanta recently took over RangerStop and Pop and invited me out to run a Transformers panel much like I do at ToyLanta. I was of course happy to do so and also excited for the chance to finally make my return to this con.

As I'm moving soon, I couldn't attend the entire show. There is much work to be done around my current home to get packed and ready. I came Sunday morning as the panel was at 12pm. Leaving around 10am, I assumed I'd have plenty of time as the drive was only an hour away. Thanks to various Atlanta road work (it's always under construction and nothing is ever completed) and slight trouble finding parking, I got to the show and registered with just 10 minutes until the panel. Thankfully they got me in and in the room with a few minutes to spare. Dusty was going to be joining me, but had some troubles and couldn't make it. Show guests and Transformers voice actors Greg Berger and Neil Kaplan joined me and we had a fun little panel with a revolving, but spirited crowd. 

Afterwards I enjoyed a few hours of the convention as it winded down. I handed out a ton of Zone Base stickers which were even more popular here than at ToyLanta and that was even more super flattering. I even had some pins the Mrs had made with her new pin machine to give out! It's hard to believe, but I actually ran out of both. I saw several of my stickers on phone cases, laptops, on costumes and badges. Even a few stuck randomly on arms... I'll never get used to that. 

I found myself on more than one occasion running into Austin St. John, the original MMPR Red Ranger, and found myself regular conversation with him. That was quite cool. I had one point gave him some Zone Base stickers and he scanned the QR code right there and checked out the site! That's extremely flattering, especially when he praised the look of it! Of course there was plenty of Ranger actors, Mortal Kombat actors, and voice actors present. RangerStop is the kind of convention that the guests are attendants as well, so at an minute you're bumping into them doing regular activities.

One table I found myself talking with was an independent tokusatsu production called 'Jammingers Overture ', which is a music themed series. Their first episode is available on YouTube and that's pretty damn neat. There was quite a bit of independent creators there as well as booths featuring hand made and 3D printed merchandise. Being an old school con nerd, this is the type of thing I love seeing at conventions and made a point to visit and buy some items from them. I got a great set of Pikachu and Eevee figurines for the Mrs as well as some Zelda 64 earrings for her. One booth had 3D printed Morphers that I kind of wish I'd gotten one of, but did buy a very cool Halloween Gengar figurine of from. Of course there was some sellers with toys and I picked up Gobots Blades and Spay-C in great condition for a steal. The RangerStop booth had some branded lanyards and I picked up one for future use.

RangerStop and Pop as usual had a tattoo artist doing work at the show as well as a live DJ performing all weekend keeping the show lively. Southern Fried Gaming Expo had a corner with some playable games set up and even had a weekend long competition that would have been fun to take part of. Speaking of the DJ, there's a dance party overnight at the show that I'm sure is a lot of fun. As the show was closing up, I said my goodbyes and headed home for a wonderful taco dinner and evening playing Pragmata. I've almost got the story mode completed, however a ton more game to play. I seriously love this game. It was awesome finally making my RangerStop and Pop return and look forward to attending more in the future and helping incorporate Transformers into the show. Thanks to Brett for including me in his shows and putting on such solid conversations.

Mission Start: Monday

Start battle protocol, initializing a new week. I hope everyone had a good weekend, mine was hectic. The Mrs and I are moving next month which means a lot of work and planning. Not to mention finding time for other activities. The Mrs had gotten some free boxes on Facebook, so Saturday afternoon we took a short trip to a neighboring town to retrieve them. It was quite a lot from a friendly guy who we made small talk with while breaking them down and loading them in our Corolla Cross. Also I partially disassembled the Mrs's vanity as she sold it with intent on getting a smaller one after we move. I remember assembling this one not long after we moved here 6 years ago. As usual, I stayed up late Saturday night with a TV for company. I watched Star Wars, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, and both Mr. Boogedy movies while assembling it. The father and daughter who bought it came early Sunday morning, also a friendly group of people. We packed a few box and made plans for our new home with some Halloween cartoons on for background noise. Sunday was also mother's day which included a spaghetti dinner by the Mrs at my mom's house with my older brother visiting.

Not everything was work though. We got some shopping in which finally led to me finding some of the new Tiny Turbo Changers! Long time readers are no doubt aware just how much I loved these. While they're slightly repainted reissues of some of the Cyberverse molds, I'm glad to see them. I picked up 3 packs wanting to keep my spending down (moving is expensive). Of course I have the codes on my phone and picked out Hot Rod, Sky-Byte, and Soundwave. I plan to get the entire series, but in due time. These and other smaller purchases will be fun during the move. I did see some new MOTU movie toys while out. I definitely plan on getting some Chronicles (formerly Masterverse), the new Core line is likely going to be a focus and it looks fun! The Mrs got me a Happy Meal! The current promotion is a Stranger Things tie in with the current animated series that I'm enjoying with mini figures. I got the Vine Monster! Speaking of Happy Meals, those luky folks in Japan are getting an excellent new Changeables series that I'm very jealous of!

I also ordered a box of the new Transformers Blokees Defender Version series 07. I was going to wait for Blokees to stock it on their Amazon store, but sometimes that takes weeks and I'm too damn excited for it. Speaking of, the Mrs and I opened the case of Transformers Blokees Wheels series 2 that came in last week. As usual we took turns opening the blind boxes to see who came in it. One of each in the set with 1 chase taking the place of that characters toy. I got Radiant Roadbuster! I was excited for this as that's specifically the Cloud Roadbuster deco... meaning it's Superlink Roadbuster or Energon Ironhide to us in the States. I do hope to get a regular Roadbuster at some point though. I got some time playing Pragmata in, which I just love. I absolutely love this game. There was an announcement regarding the new Starfox game coming soon for Switch 2 that I'm excitied for. I'm not sure if I'll get it at release or wait a little as I'm not sure if I'll be ready to put Hugh and Diana to the side yet by then. Speaking of Starfox, I'd been planning to use this week's video for a few weeks making for some fun synergy with the timing, but would like to point out some trivia with those infamous puppets that I recently learned.

Takashi Yamazaki, director of Godzilla Minus One, worked on the puppets and commercial! That's so cool! I had a Starfox poster in my room through high school and college with them on it ( it's probably still around here somewhere). It's fun knowing that after all this time he was involved. Apparently Nintendo had plans for Starfox to have a Thunderbirds style TV show to be produced around the time. That would have been so cool! Speaking of cool, this coming weekend I'll be at Rangerstop in Atlanta hosting the Transformers panel with my pal Dusty. That's right, we're working Transformers into Rangerstop! Brett, owner and operator of Toylanta asked if I could help make Transformers part of the show and I'm too happy for the chance. The panel will be Sunday at 12pm, I hope to see some of you there! With the move I'll only be there Sunday, but as this continues to grow, be sure to see me as a permanent fixture! I'll be running off more Zone Base stickers, be sure to get one!

Well, time to get this week started. I've got some work to do around the house and pictures to take for upcoming posts. Life is getting extra busy for the next few weeks, but you can be sure I'll still be bringing plenty of content for your eyeballs! Thank you for reading. Please share the site with your friends and be excellent to each other!

Gimme Monday... no wait... don't

Good morning Zone Base readers and welcome back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I've got a fun week ahead, but before that, let's talk about the past weekend. I hope yours was well, mine was busy. After a visit to Walmart with the Mrs and enjoying some pizza while watching Five Nights at Freddy's 2, I got to work assembling a new pantry for her. Our old one was a basic cabinet bought after we moved in and now that we've decided to stay for a little longer, it's time to upgrade some of our stuff. 

The new pantry is very nice, but with nice comes a lot of work taking 7 hours. I took an break around 3am to enjoy some Fruit Riot and wacth the TFCON West cosplay contest on YouTube with the Mrs before finally finishing the new pantry. It's in place and she's happy which in turn makes all the work worth it. Sunday, I slept in. After waking and enjoying some breakfast, I disassembled the old pantry and threw it away. Apparently we did it just in time as I was discovering all sorts of structural damage while doing so. Good grief. After a few more tasks, I started work on building some Blokees kits before dinner.

The Mrs made some excellent beef noodle and mashed potatoes. Mom came over and we watched Japanese camper van videos, a recent addiction of mine. I'm not an outdoorsman like my brother, but these are fascinating. Admittedly because I like the gadgets, but still. After dinner I finished the kits while watching paranormal videos with the Mrs. Went went to bed with her falling asleep before me. I watched the newest episode of Kamen Rider Zeztz which was very good as usual and also a little relieving. I was pretty concerned about the ongoing plot (no spoilers). I also updated my Evercade EXP-R as they finally resumed the Highlight of the Month program after a lengthy absence.

This months game is Biomenace Remastered, which as the name suggests is a remastered version of the game Biomenace. Biomenace is a old PC game I'd frankly never heard of before and was admittedly not excited about going in. I was pleasantly surprised to really like it and enjoy the first few levels I got in before calling it a night. I plan to play it a lot more before the Highlight resets next month. However next weekend Pragmata comes out and that's going to take up a lot of gaming time for the next few weeks.

As for toys I got this weekend, boy did I get a good haul. Walmart had a nice selection of Blokees. I got Transformers One related kits. From Galaxy Version series 7 wave 2, I got 2 blind boxes which resulted in Orion Pax (miner) and Soundwave! I also got a Classic Class Shockwave that I look forward to building. Last week I was happy to see that Walmart was now carrying Blokees Marvel kits, but this week noticed they also started carrying Jurrasic World Blokees! I grabbed a blind box egg which turned out to be the Indominus Rex!

Not all were models, Walmart finally had Masters of The Universe Mighty Masters! A new line of pleasantly vintage mini figures that I've been chomping at the bit for. I grabbed He-Man and Skeletor. Man-at-Arms and Beastman are left to find to complete the series, hopefully leading to more waves. Last, but not least is my first experimentation with Armorsaurs. Armorsaurs is a new figure line with a show on Disney +. It's a western adaption of the South Korean show Armored Saurus in the vein of Power Rangers. I haven't watched the show yet, but the toys have been a popular subject in Microfans latley. Considering the new Microman and Micronauts toys out, it's worth noting that something adjacent would gather so much attention.

Armorsaurs features armored heroes with dinosaur themed powers and mecha. The figures have snap on armor as well as dinosaurs available to use them with. The smaller dinos are mecha that the figures can ride that convert from dino to vehicles. There's larger armored dinosaurs also for the figures to ride as well. Right now I'm keeping it small as I dip my toes into the pool. I picked up Liam, who is the series Red Ranger equivalent.

I also got some chrome sticker paper to accompany the colored sheets I've been using for Zone Base stickers. They look cool and I can't wait to print off a batch. I'll be attending Rangerstop this May, so be sure to get one if you're there. Brett, the organizer of Toylanta has taken it over and invited myself to operate Transformers content there! It's been way too long since I've attended Rangerstop and helped it grow is something I'm excited to do!

Well, it's time to get this week started. I've got some site pics to take and stuff around the house to do before work this evening. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. Last Friday was the 10th anniversary of the sites first post and I'm really proud of it. It's super neat to watch it grow over the past decade and very flattering to see all of you come out and support it. Thank you so much. Please share the site with your friends and be excellent to each other.

Transform Squadron 14 Trick X Treat

Listen Here

On this glorious October edition of the show, Rob talks Halloween duh. Actually he briefly talks Rangerstop Atlanta 2020, Transformers Earthrise, and new Bandai Godzilla toys and then talks Halloween!

Rangerstop Atlanta 2020 Announced!

Woo! I was just wondering when next years show would be! Looking forward to June already!

Beast Morphers first season recap

The new episodes of Beast Morphers are set to debut this coming weekend and I'm certainly looking forward to them. They've already begun airing in other countries, but as usual, I'm content to wait for them to come on my local channels so I can watch them from my DVR. With Rangerstop Orlando around the corner, I can't help but to hope Rangerstop Atlanta 2020 is announced soon. I sure had fun this past summer and would like to do that again!

Bootleg Robots from Parts Unknown

I'm mentally gearing up for Rangerstop this weekend. This morning before I went to sleep, I looked at various keshi and other mini figures and made a mental shopping list. Sure, I hope to score to score a SPD Megazord to make up for that one I never got around to buying or another few particular items, but smaller figures are a focal point for this show.

My first introduction to Rangers was late night viewings of Dynaman on USA. Here was this cool show that was like a combination of Voltron, Godzilla, and video games that was funny as hell. It didn't take me too long to notice the gumball machine toys I would get from the grocery store and other cheap rack toy robots and monsters looked familiar. I was a kid, I didn't know what a bootleg was, but I knew those cool figures in the gumball machines looked like some of these guys. Years later, Power Rangers started up and these guys looked like Dynaman! 

Around a year ago I talked about bootleg toys from gumball machines, thanks to those gumball machines and random cheap toy purchases I developed an affinity for smaller figures when it comes to Power Rangers. It wasn't until a little later when I started using the internet to get a full understanding of what these various toys were knock offs of. I had learned what Super Sentai was not long after Power Rangers came out thanks to an extremely informative TV Guide article (that's why they look like Dynaman!) already.

Unlike Transformers where I seemingly buy everything (with especial love for the little bots), I mainly buy smaller Power Ranger toys (outside of the occasional regular toy). That stems from my initial enjoyment of Power Rangers that came from little toys. Even when PR started up and other shows like it came around, I'd gear towards smaller toys of the characters. I'm literally chomping at the bit for the new Fisher Price Ranger toys and have the best time with Micro Morphers right now. Holy crap the level of anticipation for those blind bag Fisher Price Rangers I have is absolutely absurd. That absurdity is thanks to little toys of dubious legality in front of Kroger.

Transform Squadron 10 Apex Unit

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Rob talks Godzilla, Microman, Five Points Festival, Rangerstop and Transformers keshi in this June 2019 edition of the show.

Dora Circe

In anticipation of Rangerstop next month, I've been watching Zyuranger episodes lately to curb the excitement. Admittedly I watch enough Rangers as is, but that's my alibi and I'm sticking with it. Earlier today I watched the episode "Terror! Eaten in an Instant" which starred Dora Circe as the monster of the week. The MMPR Pudgy Pig is based on Dora Circe (in case you thought he looked familiar) and the characters are pretty similar (maybe not as much in the case of the second Pudgy Pig). The episode is one of the more silly adventures of Zyuranger featuring a grocery store owning family of who loves to eat together. Bandora was bitter as she was trying to loose weight and saw the family leading her to sick the monster on them.

Dora Circe, despite outward appearances, moves so fast that's he's practically invisible. This leads to some funny bits where the family thinks their food is being stolen by one another and starts fighting. The monster then goes on to eat all the food in their store before moving onto the rest of the town. Before long the entire town is fighting among each other (you get grumpy when you're hungry) and the Zyurangers discover the pig monster causing all the problems.

Initially they confront Dora Circe, whom during the fight eat's their weapons and gains the upper hand before Gnome intervenes and takes the Rangers with him to his home. It's there that the Rangers have to pass a test so that Gnome will give them a herb that will help them defeat the monster. Of course it's a food themed test and the Rangers have to eat an insane amount of food. After Boi is able to eat a carrot (apparently he hates carrots) they are given the herb.

The Zyurangers trick Dora Circe into eating the herb causing him to vomit everything he's eaten (including their weapons) out. The weakened monster is promptly destroyed with the Howling Cannon and the town gets back to normal. Like I said, it's a silly episode. Despite the comedic nature, it goes into the more fantasy elements of Zyuranger that I like so much. The MMPR episode that uses the footage from this episode isn't too different, but enough to be distinct and have a separate plot. I do like MMPR better as I've been watching it for 25 years and have an attachment, but I do think Zyuranger is a better show. Episodes like this are part of the reason why.

Zyuranger is every heavy metal album cover

Rangerstop Atlanta isn't too far away, I just might be excited.

Transform Squadron 006 -Great Value BotCon 2019

Transform Squadron 006- Great Value BotCon 2019

Rob discusses Rangerstop Atlanta and the 2019 Walmart Transformers G1 reissues that are known so far while speculating future releases!

Shampoo- Trouble

The announcement of Rangerstop Atlanta has got me all sorts of excited for the show this summer. Between Beast Morphers starting up soon and the con, it's going to be a fun year. I was talking to my wife about it this morning on the way home from work and it got me thinking about the last time we watched the MMPR movie. She remarked about the song 'Trouble' from the movie was a huge hit in her town, only to be played briefly in the movie leading her to her dad's annoyance after hearing the song non-stop for a few weeks. Looking back at the video... know how you don't really consider your teenage years to be THAT dated. Man... I'm old.

Rangerstop Atlanta!

Well, I wasn't expecting this!