Zybots (or Bibots depending on your geographical location) is a fun oddball robot line by Remco that was on shelves for a brief time in the 80's. They were mocked up using Gobots parts during their design phase leading to some very similar looking toys. They're rather neat little robots for the most part and as my desire to cover more vintage toys here on the site, Torque seemed like a good choice. I picked up Torque at ToyLanta last year from a booth I look forward to, but don't always see.
A nice hipster couple who doesn't have a table every year, but I'm always to happy to see when they do. Not only are they nice folks, but they have great stuff at great prices. Torque was just $4, but discounted as I bought a bunch of stuff. Not bad! He's in great condition too with tight joints and everything in pretty good shape. Just a little knick on one of the stickers and rust on the wheel pins. Which is an acceptable bit of wear and tear for a 40 year old figure.
Torque turns into an approximation of an 80's era Porsche, but looks like a Mazda RX-7 to me. It's a nice little car mode and looks pretty sharp. I like the blue. Transformation isn't difficult and about what you'd expect for a toy from his era. Fold up the knees and push those arms in. Both modes are pleasant with decent articulation in robot. Shoulders and knees move thanks to transformation. He looks tall thanks to those long thighs, but is about the same height as a regular Gobot. I actually thought he was a Gobot when first picking him up and later was pleasantly surprised when trying to figure out who I got.
I'd been meaning to get more Zybots and did completely so by accident! Like I said earlier, Zybots used Gobot parts during mock-up and it's very obvious here. It's super cool regardless and Torque looks great. Zybots are fun little line of robots that look like a certain group of toys and Torque is a great example of the bunch.
Hello Zone Base readers! Welcome back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine was pretty good itself. I can't say I did a lot, but enjoyed it all the same. The Mrs and I made a point to do our weekly shopping early Saturday morning to be home in time for the severe weather awaiting us that night. Like last weekend, I didn't buy myself anything toy related as my birthday and Toylanta are in 2 weeks. But did finally find a can of BBQ Doritos Minis. I vastly prefer the mini Doritos and really love the BBQ flavor. Now that they're available in the smaller size, I can indulge without worrying about eating too much. I love them, but still need to watch what I eat!
Saturday evening as the storms came in, I enjoyed some sushi the Mrs had ordered while I was sleeping. I had a wonderful meal of spicy yellow tail roll, sweet potato roll, and of course a cucumber roll. I normally get a spicy tuna roll, but think I'll be getting that yellow tail more often! It was so pleasant and this was my first time with a sweet potato roll. I'll definitely be getting it more. It had some tempura inside and went perfectly with the spicy yellow tail. Of course I enjoyed my cucumber roll, it's a favorite. I love cucumbers and you all know I love my spooky stuff. Nothing like a kappamaki roll to polish off a great meal! I had some rainbow sherbert for dessert and an overall wonder meal. The weather was not so great as spring is settling in and that means lots of storms in the American South. There was severe weather all evening including tornadoes. We made it out ok, but unfortunately others didn't. I wish the best for them and their families. After dinner, I rode out the storm with various ghost and robot videos in between playing Shredder's Revenge. That might just be my favorite TMNT game ever!
Sunday, the weather was much better and I went to the local Kroger to renew my license tag for the year at the Tag Renewal vending machine. Afterwards, I decided to check out the Pokémon machine to see if they had anything cool. Normally there's a line, but the store staff had blocked the machine with online order pick-up carts. Jerks! I'm always annoyed when staff are inconsiderate to customers. Thinking how many people are usually in line at that machine, I know there was several unhappy people that morning. I worked retail and fast food when I was younger and remember how these sort of things were often because of incompetence more than anything. That's a large portion of my annoyance towards these types of situations. I still remember getting in trouble for things like this by the manager whose idea it was in the first place! Oh well, hopefully others got to use the machine later.
I organized my toys some more (I've got quite a mess to get under control) and enjoyed a wonderful dinner the Mrs cooked. Mom came over and we enjoyed Sunday dinner while watching the first half of The Electric State. I look forward to finishing it as it's really good! We had salad, spaghetti, and some awesome lemon cupcakes! After Mom left, we watched some Leemax and other companies Halloween offerings preview videos. It was a great weekend and hopefully this will be a great week! Being Monday, of course I have some household chores to do and some toys to picture for upcoming posts. It's finally happening, I'll be finishing our look at Beast Alliance Transformers. Of course I'm 2 weeks ahead as usual, so please look forward to it shortly after Toylanta. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. I really do appreciate it! Don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives!
[DEMON DART Legend]Despite being a veteran of the Cavalry Army, Demon Dart is troubled by his rookies face. Although the corp disbanded ages ago, he still keeps some of those old fashioned habit, and never adopt the noise suppressor is one of them.
I do love a beetle. Well, maybe not in real life... but absolutely as a toy. Demon Dart, who we're looking at today, is a really neat robot beetle. Something about the boxiness of a robot toy really works great with bugs. Demon Dart really pulls off the insect robot look really well in his cool red and black colors. It's a simple color set, but just looks so striking on his design and make me think of the EVA-02. BeastBox toys always look cool, but there's something extra special about this one. One really neat feature of Devil Dart is his flight mode. Not only do the wings open up, but a set of jet wings unfold from underneath. After the little nosecone is in place, you've got a cool a flying beetle ready for battle. The flight mode reminds me of the vehicle modes in Beast Wars Transmetals. They weren't much more than a few parts that folded out of the beast mode, but it made for a fun design. I'm reminded of Transmetal Waspinator's vehicle mode in particular.
You'd think going from the beetle to a box would be tricky, but transformation very easy. It's an involved transformation to be sure... but everything just works without any hassle. Devil Dart is a pleasure to change from one mode to another. Box mode is nice and compact. It really does just fold up cleanly without any kibble in any mode. That's some really impressive engineering. Box modes slides easily into the Box Charger without any fuss with plenty of room to store his little missiles. Demon Dart is such a cool toy. He's simple to transform, but not a basic toy. Those six legs articulate in a pretty wide range of movement. You can open the beetle wings without unfolding the jet wings as well if you choose. Despite looking like a nightmare of you found one in your kitchen, this is a pleasant little bug bot. Just a pleasure all around. I love it.
[Radioheadar Legend] The mainstay underground DJ in steel city, Radioheadar’s voice can be heard nightly broadcasting thru a secret criminal channel. Occasionally he would also interview infamous characters such as Acidghost & Lithiumon.
It's been far too long since I've talked about BeastBox here on the site and there's no better time than Halloween to take a look at Radioheadar. Radioheadar is a bat, who transforms into a box like other Beastbox toys. Unlike many other Beastbox toys, he also changes into an aircraft. That's right, we have a triple changer! Right off the bat (pun intended) I will fully admit to not taking the best pictures of this guy. His wingspan was actually bigger than my spooky backdrop! I'll like to his Amazon page for a full idea of his size and a better look at his modes. It's not an affiliate link, so don't worry about buying directly from it if you want one. This is one cool bat mech with incredibly articulated wings. He can be put into flying poses or perched. There's an included clip to allow Radioheadar to hang upside down from a perch as well. I understand there's a special version available that comes with a perch if you don't have one.
It's not just his massive wings that are articulated, his ears, mouth, and little bat legs feature movement. This is a neat toy. All that articulation does mean a more involved transformation, which I did have some trouble with. Honestly, I had a hard time following the instructions. Often I tend to just look at a picture and figure everything out on my own. This was one of those times I needed to take a look at the manual and still had a hard time. I'm not sure if I just wasn't comprehending it or Radioheadar was giving me a hard time. Going into box mode was no problem, it was the aircraft I struggled with. After a while I got him into the mode, though I probably did something wrong. If this was a post in a fan group, I'd put a laughing emoji after that statement. If a little frustration in transformation is the only complaint I have (and it could have just been me), then you've got a pretty good toy. I've yet to have a bad experience with a Beastbox (I've got quite a few of them) and that's amazing. They're great robot toys that manage to be extremely imaginative and fun. What's not to love about that?
One of the more pleasant discoveries while I was at Toylanta was that of a small gatcha/gashapon line of figures (and trading cards) by Bandai called Hagen no Zista. I knew nothing of this line before the convention and at the time of this writing still know very little. To be fair, the amount of this type of thing that completely escapes my attention is not uncommon. It's a much bigger thing than a single person can keep up. That being said, this is a cool little series that completely passed me by a few years ago and seems to be over... though I seem to be able to track down some of the stuff still.
Hagen no Zista is a neat little line of robot mini figures with fun designs in mostly translucent plastic designed by Bandai. There's probably an accompanying fiction, but at this time I haven't learned of it. Knowing these kind of things, it's a typical good vs evil formula. There is some sort of card inside the boxed ones I bought, not sure if that's for a game or just a cool bio card (there seems to be associated trading cards). I generally appreciate when mini figures and keshi come with that sort of thing.The blind boxed/gathca style figures are seemingly candy toys that regularly came with a chocolate. The ones I got had some apple gum inside that my wife convinced me to try. It was a pretty tasty apple flavored gum that I hope hadn't gone bad. I didn't get sick, so guess not. The Gashapon capsule I got seemed to be the same style of figure as the boxed on, just delivered differently. The figures are pleasant, articulated little robots in colorful translucent plastic. They have that Bandai look, but also look like they should have been from a video game. I could definitely see some of these in a LCD game like Digimon or an RPG.
The line has ended, sadly so because I'd love for these to still be readily available. That's the kicker when you discover something after it's over. There was an apparent successor named Robot Concerto. I can't tell if Robot Concerto is still going, but honestly, Bandai makes so many of this type of thing... there's always something else similar. The boxes for Robot Concerto look like Mobile Suit Gundam Ensemble boxes, so it's possible the team moved onto that. I'm partially stoked about Hagen no Zista as it's something that's clearly my type of thing. But also because, it's neat to discover something at a con. It's been a while since that's happened for me and I'm happy for it.
Horror of the deep, 52TOYS BeastBox Series OLDONE BB-44！Slumbering deep under the ocean, no one will believe a box as ancient as the OLDONE exists. Once awaken, his CPU programming will unleash tentacles upon unsuspecting ships and drag them all to a watery grave...
No better time than Friday the 13th to take a look at OldOne. OldOne is a BeastBox figure by 52Toys. Really cool designer toys that turn from beast mode to box mode (there is some some modes as well). It's really satisfying to see something like a robotic dinosaur convert into a pleasant little box as well as a return to the old school transforming robot toy shapes.
OldOne is a really well done robotic Kraken with a Lovecraft name. Nothing like a legendary sea monster that could possibly be from beyond our scope of reality. The robotic design add some really cool looks as well. Despite the 'beast' in the name, don't think Beast Wars. Think Zoids. They're very similar to Zoids in visual presentation and frankly they just look fucking awesome. A squid is probably the last thing you'd think of when the idea of transforming into a box... and OldOne is a little tricky getting there. All those tentacles fold up exactly right and mostly fit into his head while doing so. Thankfully, they're heartily articulated. They can bend all over the place in a million different ways. It's super satisfying to do so. I've said satisfying twice, because that's the best word for it.
I had been eyeing these Beastbox toys by 52Toys for awhile now and have no reason or excuse for why I haven't bought one before. I thought they were neat but just didn't get any. My wife bought me Oldone after discovering them on Amazon and asked me about them. I was instantly hooked and used some Amazon gift cards to buy a few... and I'll be getting more in the future. These are great. Apparently, there's a bonus brain module for OldOne that sometimes comes with the toy. I'm not sure what the occasion for getting one is, mine didn't include it. It looks like one can be acquired separately. I'm really happy with Beastbox and can foresee a lot more of them in my future.
I've been wanting to talk about Buggyman for awhile now. Buggyman is a Gobot that doesn't get included often when the subject of Gobots comes up. He's not one of the main characters, so that's understandable. Gobot's have a lot of different toys and were released under a bunch of different lines. I don't know everything about them... nobody really does. The best you can do use use the references available. However, back to Buggyman. He's a pretty charming little guy. Pretty much what I think of when thinking of Gobots. He's got the signature look. This is the second version of Buggyman in Gobots, the first is in blue. I actually tried to go over the variations in a recent TikTok I made on this toy. Let's watch that real quick.
Honestly I'd make more videos more often, but spare time is a fleeting thing. I don't think I'm writing this posts intention to talk about Buggyman in the same way you'd talk about a toy in a review. I don't think I do reviews... I mean... it's a purely subjective subject. What's my qualifications, or anyone else's to decide if a toy is good or not? I really just want to talk about Gobots and Buggyman is going to be my example for today. Ya'll dig? I'm going to put pictures of Buggyman in for the people who don't read and just skim over the pics. They'll never know. The actual post will just be our thing. Post readers club... somebody make a hand sign and we'll all do it.
I said Buggyman (damn, that's a fun name) was what I thought when thinking of Gobots. That means a few things. First... look at that face. That's the quintessential Gobot face. It's similar to several others across all the Machine Robo/Gobot robots. That goes for that box around his head as well. Despite what Buggyman turns into (a dune buggy, it's in his name), he absolutely looks like a standard issue Gobot. All the design bullet points are met. You may second guess an oddball robot here or there, but this is definitely a Gobot on sight. Also a great example of why Gobots are so fun. The wonderful die-cast, that traditional Bandai look, those rubber tires. For what was intended to be an inexpensive toy, Buggyman is pretty high quality.
Then there's the influence, intended or not. I loved Mini-Cons when they were first released. Still do. Not only did they remind me of Micromasters... but they also reminded me of Gobots. Take Ironhide for example... it's almost a tiny recreation of Buggyman. All those random alt modes and the mixture of unique and traditional robot modes. They were almost a Machine Robo line nestled in a Transformers line. Ironically the two brands were heated competitors at the time with robot fans winning in the end.
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.
I feel like I've been championing the Playmates Godzilla toys since they've been released. To be fair, I was initially critical like others. Some of those early photos weren't promising. I acknowledged the lines faults and have watched it improve as time went along. That's how toy lines work, the initial figures are usually a little rough and things get smoother out as the team finds it's groove. This is the Giant sized MechaGodzilla from their Godzilla vs Kong line. It was one of the Christmas gifts from the Mrs. and I'm quite fond of it.
While Kiryu is my favorite version of MechaGodzilla, this newer Monsterverse version sure is neat. I like how it looks like a robot skeleton. Kiryu is made from skeletal remains of the original Godzilla who's ghost is in there, while this Mechagodzilla is initially controlled by the skull of Ghidorah before being possessed by Ghidorah's consciousness. Mechagodzilla's can be pretty spooky. Good.
This is the giant version of Mechagodzilla. It stands 11" tall, while the standard one is 6". I wished I would have measured it from nose to tail, because that seems a little longer. Like most kaiju toys, he doesn't have a lot of articulation. Head, shoulders, legs, hands, feet, and some tail swivel. Most is pretty standard stuff for a sofubi or these sofubi inspired action figures. The hands though are pretty neat, they swivel at the wrists as well as open and close. This allows him to pick up a bus and throw it back down as well.
The He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special is a very odd cartoon. Two earth children find themselves on Eternia and have an adventure. It's really a series of sub-plots strung together to make a short 40 minute little movie. One of the more interesting adventures is when the Monstroids get involved. In the MOTU toy line, Monstroid is a large robot monster that's part of The Evil Horde. In the grand tradition of Filmation taking liberties with the source material, instead there's a group of transforming robots called The Monstroids. Though they did later on appear as member of the Horde in a later She-Ra episode.
Clearly both a take on the popular transforming robot toys at the time (obviously Transformers, but there was a few other lines as well) and maybe a little dig at the competition (we've got to stop those evil transforming robots) before the Meteorbs were introduced. I've mentioned before how much I love the bat shit crazy nature of the line in general. A random group of transforming robots showing up in a Christmas special only to be thwarted by another group of robots is a prime example of that.
I'm not very well versed in Hot Wheels. Occasionally I'll see a neat one and grab it, and usually grab the Halloween/Christmas sets they put out each year. Ever since becoming more familiar with Zombot, I make a point to keep an eye out for them. You can imagine my surprise to stumble upon a new one randomly. When I
say new, I mean a brand new sculpt. Instead of a gun, the robot is
holding a tablet computer. I guess with decades of soldiers, ones with
other tasks makes sense
This year one of the Hot Wheels collections is a Mattel games series. There's a blue and red Zombot to represent Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. I found the red version at Kroger after my second vaccination shot. It's always good to see a new version, and a new sculpt is pretty great too. I wonder how many people pass Hot Wheels and notice of the robot car that's an action figure?
Dynowarz: Destruction of Spondylus is a game by Bandai for the NES from 1990. Back then I loved it. I haven't played it in 30 years, I don't know if I'd love it now. But I still think it's pretty awesome. You play as Professor Proteus and the Cyborasaurus. Levels swap between Proteus running and jumping and shooting and piloting Cyborasaurus. Who then runs, jumps, and shoots things. Cyborasaurus is a Robosaur and you'll spend his levels fighting other Robosaurs. If you're keeping score, that's a space dude driving a robot dinosaur fighting bad guys who also have robot dinosaurs. What's not to love?
Unfortunately there's not much info on the game out there. It wasn't a big hit. Most sites that bother to talk about it are basic reference sites or much bigger sites than this making fun of a weird old game. Part of me wants to believe it was part of a bigger series or was planned to be. I tried looking up a Japanese or other versions just to see what else there was and... nothing. It just feels like it was bigger than it was, like there's more to it. Guess not. At least I can remember it fondly.
Roboto is a member of the Heroic Warriors who just happens to be a robot. In most fictional cases Roboto was made by Man At Arms. However in the original cartoon he hailed from a planet named... wait for it... Robotica and crashed landed on Eternia. Where he was then repaired by Man At Arms. This may account for the weapon arm gimmick.The man has a thing for arms after all.
Roboto is pretty freaking awesome. He's got the weapon changing arm gimmick giving him an axe, laser gun, or claw. Regardless of the fight, he has just the tool to whoop that ass! Roboto also has a clear chest which displays his robotic innards consisting of several gears and a heart. Twisting the figure at the hip makes the gears turn and the heart raise and lower. But wait, there's more! Roboto's robot mouth also opens and closes when this is done.
What's not to love about everything I just described?
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!
Nothing says an awesome way to close out the summer like a pizza party! As July comes to an end, even though August is generally the hottest month of summer, kids start heading back to school (normally) and you kind of just stop thinking it's summer. The next few weeks are for getting those last road trips in and cook outs out because after Labor Day, it's all over! While nothing beats a birthday party during the school year, we've all been to at least one amazing summer party at Showbiz Pizza or Chuck E Cheese!
And no matter how old you are, you were unnerved by the animatronics. Staring at you with their cold dead eyes that watched you the entire time you ate. Making you wish you never came.
These day's I can't even get a milkshake from McDonald's, let alone more than one ketchup packet for my large order of fries. I don't know what's going on over there... but I hardly go any more. Though back in the day it was a pretty awesome place. It's be pretty great to get a new set of Commandrons from Mc'D's... yeah, among other things.
Transforming robot toys are generally pretty popular, but not every transforming robot line is popular. Just like other 'sure thing' products, sometimes they'll be a transforming robot line that just doesn't take off. Playmates launched R.E.V.s (Radically Engineered Vehicles) in 2006, and by all accounts, it wasn't a bad idea. Seemingly combining Stickfa's, Microman, and Transformers gimmicks into a pretty neat toy line.
I'd like to say R.E.V.s stuck around for a year, but in all honesty, I don't really remember seeing them for more than a few months. There's not a whole lot about them online either. I've got the green motorcycle guy, and can't remember his name or find it either. Aside from very few pics and videos, it's like it got Mandela Effected out of reality.
In retrospect, I wish I'd bought some more of the toys. My focus was on other things and they slipped through the cracks of my attention. I do remember thinking the one I did buy was neat, it's a cool toy. The guy can ride his motorcycle or merge with the parts. That's a pretty solid robot based toy and by all means should have sold better. Maybe on the other side of that Mandela Effect, it's enjoying a long running sucess.
Buddy L was formed by a pressed steel company after the owner started making toy cars for his son from the steel scraps. I'm not making that up. I felt like pointing that out as the company is mostly known for toy cars like Tonka. Also like Tonka, Buddy L dipped their toes into the robot toy scene of the 80's. Though unlike others during the time, from what I can tell, Buddy L made their own robot toys instead of licensing molds.
Their transforming robots ran the gamut from vehicles to dinosaurs and insects. The most well known would be Robo Tron with it's pull back engines. The toys have been knocked off to hell and back, so chances are you've seen some incarnation of them at some point. They're the robot worlds version of that redneck family member that just shows up at funerals. Who's kid is that?
Charger Tron is amazing though. Combining the toy car launcher gimmick with robot toy, Charger Tron manages to be the cool guy at the gas station you wished you were friends with. The base would be your standard fair launching station complete with spring loaded winding mechanism. However, it's also a robot! The launching car is a sci fi coupe that looks pretty dang cool. Straight out of post movie Cybertron even. As the car rolls from it's launching base, it flips open into it's robot mode.
It's a simple gimmick based toy enhanced with transforming robot parts. The robots are pretty basic, and that's where the charm lies. I could easily see these guys grace the cabinet art in an arcade. The commercial, while basically selling the toys gimmick, does so with the most amazing music to grace a robot toy commercial. It's a shame that it's not more well known. A damn shame.
