The Inhumanoids Were Pretty Fucked Up

I've mentioned the satanic panic of the 80's and 90's here before (and probably will again). As if being a kid was scary enough, go ahead and add in most adults telling you the devil was literally everywhere. Yeah, great. Looking back as an adult, it was all pretty silly in retrospect. Though in some cases I can kinda see where they were coming from. The Inhumanoids by Hasbro... yeah... they kinda had a point. 

The toy line was mostly composed of nightmarish monsters. The requisite cartoon? Pure hell on Earth animated by Sunbow. It's almost as if the creators watched The Evil Dead and asked "what of Ash had awesome armor?". In theory (I accidentally spelled that thewory and I'm not sure that was wrong in this case), it's all perfect for toys and a cartoon. Good guys in super cool armor with super cool weapons and vehicles fighting monsters. Throw in the fact that some monsters are there to help the good guys and everything sounds perfect. 

Somewhere along the line, somebody decided kids didn't shit their pants often enough.

Friday Night Frights- Egyptian Melodies

It's Friday Night and you know what that means... actually right now it means I'm laying exhausted in my new home after moving all day (hooray for scheduled posts!), but to you it means some spooky shit here on the base! Disney is known for it's lighthearted family fun... but also for dark subject matter. For every happy ending, there was a death or two along the way. It's not just for dramatic storytelling either, sometimes they just like to make something scary for the hell of it.

Bravo Disney!

Here we have Egyptian Melodies from 1931 staring a cute little spider as he explores a pyramid. Know what a pyramid is? A big fancy ass crypt full of mummies and curses!

The Evil Ass Horde

Despite his often displayed smile, He-Man had it pretty rough. At any moment he'd have to defend Eternia against Skeletor and his walking Halloween decoration army. Fortunately for He-Man they're pretty incompetent. The Evil horde though, not so much. The Halloween decoration comparison is one I usually make when talking about He-Man, and it's a pretty fair description. The satanic panic of the 80's and 90's often used Masters of the Universe as a talking point and it's not hard to see where they're coming from. Skull faced wizards and castles make for common scary stuff. Hordak and his crew turned the spooky shit up to 11.

From out of backward played heavy metal incantations to Eternia, The Evil Horde looked like walking nightmares available for sale at Walmart intended for children to play with. Walking nightmares for sale at Walmart intended for children to play with that live in a haunted cave. If the inspiration for Skeletor came from a prop in a haunted house, Hordak must have been inspired by a college ouija board session that went wrong.

One thing I've always admired about The Evil Horde is the bat symbol. Just this great symbol of unification among the members that not only signifies their allegiance, but looks cool as hell. There's also the gargoyle head crossbow that nearly every member comes with. I certainly appreciate the uniformity the group posses. As much variety each member brings, they all still rock the symbol and pack that crossbow. Even walking nightmares appreciate team solidarity.

The Power To Go On Tour

As an avid subscriber of Masters of the Universe magazine, I don't have to tell you I was sold instantly on the Power Tour. Though being in the third grade... I didn't get to make these types of decisions on my own. BBBBuuuuttttttttt the thing is pretty much all over the internet and I could watch it if I want to. Looking back, it might have been a good idea not to go as holy crap did Skeletor have his own haunted house at the show or something? I've made my joke about He-Man's villains being a bunch of Halloween decorations before, but holy shit ALL of the villains look straight our of a Spirit Halloween clearance sale. I'd like to point out that each time I typed Power Tour while writing this, I accidentally typed Pour Tour. Because Orko looked drunk.

Witch on the side of the road

See, the messed up thing about this one is... I've mentioned I live in the rural outskirts right? I'm often driving down roads that look just like that...

Is that the Baba Yaga? 

Hello, we're The Halloween Horrorcons

You know how in late August stores start putting the back to school stuff on clearance and the Halloween stuff starts trickling in? That's pretty much what just happened to Zone Base. We're entering Halloween season and I'm pumped. It's my favorite time of year and this is something I've been wanting to do since launching the site in April.

So, while I'm pretty much going to write the same kind of posts, the weekly spotlight is going to highlight the more in season characters from here until Halloweens over. I'm sure I'll also write some more posts that are in the spirit, but they'll be regular posts as well. But hey, what's a Halloween Horrorcon?

Leatherhide 

In 2003, during the heyday of the Transformers Universe line (when it was a repaint line, before it was used for classics, not the game, it's confusing, I know) there was plans for a Walmart Halloween toy exclusive set called the Halloween Horrorcons.

Blackarachnia 

They were Beast Wars molds in Halloween-ish colors in two 2 packs. I really wanted them as well...duh, it's a combination of some of my favorite things. Unfortunately it was cancelled, which shouldn't be too surprising as Walmart had a lot of planned Universe exclusives, and a few were dropped for various poopy reasons.

Waspinator, this one actually got homaged in a BotCon set.

I've always wished they would have happened and become an annual thing. Sometimes I see a kinda spooky or outright monstery TF toy and picture them as one of the Halloween Horrorcons. That's the kind of thing us cool kids do.

Nightprowler 

So I guess that's kind of what I'm doing with the Spooky Spotlight posts, I'm assembling lost potential. I'm assembling Halloween Horrorcons that never were or to be. So from now, until the end of the season, every Wednesday morning, there's going to be a Spooky Spotlight. Highlighting the oooooky and spoooky and creeeeepy and... uh scary robots.

It's what us cool kids do.