Slurps it up!

Slime and Halloween go together like peanut butter and chocolate. One common slime toy you'll find is the rubber monster that can suck up and goosh out slime when squeezed. It's a simple gimmick that keeps returning for good reason, it's fun. Come Halloween, you'll be sure to see many a similar toy and even be tempted to pick one up. These Slurps look like a spooky good time... hey... what if you sat on one?

Smashing into a Horror House

Want to play with some scary toys this Halloween? Horror House by Zuru Smashers is here just in time for the spooky season. The Mrs and I picked up one of these recently and played with it after a thunderstorm left us without internet for a few hours. As you can see in the video above, you follow an included map and work your way through the coffin's contents. You'll assemble your monster while digging through all sorts of slime, floam, and kinetic sand. There's also assorted insects, stickers, and monster keshi to be found! It was a lot of fun and I want to try one of the mini sets as soon as my local Target stocks them. Frankly, I wish they sold just packs of the keshi as I'd love to just collect all those. Zuru Smashers have done that sort of thing before, so here's hoping.

Halfway 2 Halloween~ The Howling (Monster)

This is a unique one. The Howling Monster is one heck of a Halloween adjacent toy. You've got a ghoulish head full of slime (all good stuff) in which you put a plastic skull (awesome) inside of. The skull begins to howl and light up upon touching the slime. It's like a scary turducken perfect for the spooky season. Really though, it's the animation and overall production of this commercial that I'm loving. Even though Halloween hasn't been said once... it crossed your mind. I fully expect to see a Howling Monster in generic packaging at Walmart next to the monster eye ping pong balls.

Halfway 2 Halloween~ Oozing with Oozers

Oozers were toys by Irwin in the 80's/90's that were really special. Rubbery monsters you'd fill with slime that oozed (it's in the name) disgustingly from various orifices when you'd squeeze the toy. Simple and tons of fun. What made this take on a classic toy special was the characters. Spooky and scary monsters sculpted with a lot of charm brought a lot to the simple gimmick. When that slime would blurp from the eyes or mouths of those things... truly magnificent.

The Sliming Skull

I've spoken before about my love for The Slime Pit. Simply put, one of the coolest play sets ever made. At first glance, it just looks like a stone wall with a dragon's skull on top. Is it some sort of altar for magic rituals? However, you might find yourself lead there, a captive of The Evil horde! Hordak commands Modulok and Leech to put you in the device as a skeletal claw holds you tight. The skull tips forward as slime pours down coating every inch of your body. Your mind is no longer your own as you become a Slime Pit Zombie!

Mega Construx has finally gotten around to releasing a Slime Pit set for their brand of mini figures I so enjoy. It took awhile to get one, so imagine my surprise to find it in the pile of gifts from my wife Christmas morning. The Slime Pit is a Skeletor skull style set, normally restricted to recreating the accessories from classic MOTU. As the original play set was pretty small... it works pretty well. Included is enough blocks to recreate the Slime Pit within the inside of the color matching skull (including simulated slime!) and a translucent green He-Man as it's victim.

The included He-Man figure is along the same idea as the the Micro Action Figure I talked about last week. However, as a Mega Contrux mini figure, it's a much nicer toy. Heavily articulated and larger... it's kinda amazing just how nice these mini figures are. I've honestly have always been a little amazed by that. He-Man has his Power Sword here which can be stored on his armor. This armor originally gave him a force field... that doesn't seem to have helped. It's a really cool figure that's just a simple color swap... but effective. The set itself is pretty simple, but extremely awesome overall. It's hard not to like slime, yet alone a mind controlled slime zombie. The idea kinda sells itself.

A little Green with Evil

When I initially started talking about Micro Action Figures here, I intended to do group posts on various series. A Transformers post, a Masters of the Universe post, etc, ... and I totally failed to do that. So in attempt to talk about these cool little figures I like quite a bit, instead I'm just gonna talk about one at a time. Just to keep it simple. Today, we're going to talk about Slime Pit He-Man.

Slime Pit He-Man is a basic repaint of the already released He-Man figure. However, it's a pretty interesting one. Obliviously He-Man is representing himself recently slimed via Slime Pit (it's in the name) and is now a mindless zombie under Hordak's control. To emphasize his slime coated physique, He-Man is cast in translucent green plastic. I don't know why being covered in mind controlling evil sludge would turn you translucent... but it looks awesome. Meanwhile He-Man's clothing and axe are opaque. The mixture of can see through and can't see through looks fantastic.

The pictures probably don't convey that this figure is TINY. At just around an inch tall, He-man had movable arms and waist with an axe that can be held. The original use of this mold had more accessories, but I guess inflation affected that as the cost is still around the same. They still come with a stand. I really like these little toys, but finding them can be a pain. Thankfully, the Mrs found me this one. Slime Pit He-Man is from the newest series of Master of the Universe micro figures and represents a deeper dive into the series than the expected characters. I do hope to find more as I like these little guys quite a bit. There's even a micro Castle Grayskull now. Slime Pit He-Man is a great example of a well done repaint. Just changing some simple colors turns something completely recognizable to something really novel.

There's gold in that Coffin

I've been a fan of Treasure X since discovering it a few years ago. Admittedly I haven't kept up with it as much as I'd like to, but have always appreciated what they're doing. The newest series however, wow, so awesome. Monster Gold follows the pattern of digging through a variety of clay and potions to find a figure and treasure. The figure is a hunter that got lost finding the treasure himself! I love that odd little fiction. This time the figures are various monsters and the treasures are wonderfully monstery as well. As usual there rarest treasure is a gold dipped piece, a spider in this series.

This past weekend the wife and I exchanged spooky gift bags. A tradition of ours during the Halloween season for a little extra fun. She put a mini monster and a monster coffin in mine with some other spooky treats. Treasure X is such a neat line, she usually includes some in most gifts for me. It's hard not to like... for me anyway. The mini monster is a basic sized figure in a small coffin. Inside the coffin is a spider-webbed bag full of floam intended to be the spider webs and eggs. diffing through the stuff finds various parts. Once freed from it's sticky tomb, you've got your hunter and treasure! I got Invisibling (pictured above) and the gold spider! First pull and I got the rare treasure! It's name is Bling Back Spider btw.

The monster coffin is a more involved affair. It's much larger and a lot more messy (check out the commercial below). First off you take the attached crowbar off the coffin lid to open everything up. Under is a spiderweb bag full of floam containing monster eyes and a bug. Also are two packets of potion and a suction cup.That's all sitting on a removable tray. The tray is sitting on a paper spider web layer. Mix the two packets of potion in a cup of water and pour it on the spider web paper. After a minute of fizzing and bubbling the monster inside the coffin RISES UP! I got Count Goldula, a blue rockabilly vampire. There's also a specimen jar containing a brain.

Remove the monster from his coffin, take the crowbar, and BASH HIS HEAD IN. No really, you straight up break his head open. Inside is... THE TREASURE! I got another Blingback Spider! Two rares in a row. Neat! Afterwards, the brain from the specimen jar goes inside the head now acting as a button to open the monsters jaws. The jar is now where the hard won treasure is to be displayed. That suction cup from earlier? It attaches to the lever inside the coffin to reuse for later rising from your tomb action. Those eyes? Stick them in the monsters head. What if you get multiples? The figures (both large and small) can exchange parts for new monster creation! It's encouraged in the pamphlet! Exclamation point! 

There's also an extra big lab set with even more to do, it's in the video below. Treasure X has a way of turning blind bag toys into a game and that's pretty fun. The new Monster Gold series is just the right thing for a Halloween party. I know with the pandemic lot's of folks are still nervous taking their kids out trick or treating, I can see a Monster Coffin set providing some spooky fun over some webcam Halloween parties. It's a combination of Mad Scientist and blind bag that I never saw coming. Man, what if they made...

Slimer wants my Spooky Snack

It's hard to eat healthy during a holiday known for it's sweet tooth. Just ask Slimer, he wants my little spooky snack. That's my new Fright Features Slimer BTW. We hung out all Sunday. He's more of a throwback to The Real Ghostbusters toys than the other new Fright Features toys by Hasbro. To me anyway. Slimer's known for floating, so there's a pool of slime dripping from his body that serves as a base. There's a button on his back that when pushed causes him to spring up arms in the air saying BOO! While doing so, his giant mouth opens super wide. So wide that you can see his back bone as his giant tongue rolls out. Slimer's Fright Feature means to scare the shit out of somebody... which it did when I showed my Mom. The action startled her. He's not always cute I guess. I know Fright Features is a movie tie in line, but I really hope it goes on for awhile. I love it.

I'd Buy That Slime Toy For A Dollar

 

Dollar store toys can be an odd thing. Some items seemingly get reused in various discount lines. The Neba Neba Vacuum toys, I think fall into that category. I swear I have that skull. Neba Neba Vacuum is a simple slime toy (neba neba means sticky) that's been recently found at Daiso stores in Japan. I'd been recently seeing it pop up in my views and not to long ago one of my favorite YouTubers covered them (that's the picture above's source). 

They're little weirdo characters with included slime. By squeezing the toy, you can either suck up or squirt out the slime. It's not a totally new thing, but silly fun to play around with. As you can see the assortment ranges from spooky to silly and gross. Of course my attention is on the spooky ones. I swear I've got the skull one from another discount slime line. Honestly it's the box art that's got my attention so much. Just look at it, it's majestic! I'd love a sticker set of these guys. The spooky guys are just right to pair with your Ghostbusters or other figures that might find themselves in such a predicament. I'm thinking the perfect pairing for Battle Tribes action.

By the Power Of Grayskull, I HAVE A DOLLAR

I thought it I didn't need to haunt the Dollar Tree for a little while, until I saw these He-Man mini figures. These small pvc figurines of classic MOTU characters will be impossible to resist like those Nacho Trays. They look decently sculpted for such small figures and have little bases to stand on. I kinda hope they make more, which to be fair I always want more characters as mini figures. For additional fun, pair these little guys up with the spooky trees and such that will be out for Halloween soon. You could recreate all those classic MOTU posters for just a few dollars! And while you're there, grab one of those Nacho Trays. It's quite the tasty treat, which you'll need building your little scene from Dollar Tree Halloween decorations and MOTU figures. Did I mention they sell slime?

Mini-Puft Figure Mania

Because Ghostbusters: Afterlife dropped an awesome bomb on the world, it was revealed that Hasbro would be selling new blind packed mini figures of the new Mini-Pufts this fall! They'll be blind packed in containers of Stay Puft marshmallow cream (trying making a fluffernutter with this goo). The little guys will be hidden inside the 'goopy marshmallow-like compound'.

Hopefully the 'compound' won't be as sticky as the ectoplasm in the slime tubes from 2019. Combining these with the new Ecto-Plasm and Ecto-Plasm Ghost Gushers and I've got a lot of slime to dig through soon. I'm not complaining though, it's gonna be great! Hope I don't get any on the carpet.

Dropping Bombs On Ghosts

One thing I can never love enough about The Real Ghostbusters is just how insane things got. It's a far fetched idea to begin with. A group of guys who shoot lasers at ghosts. As a service, it's a solid idea. Your house is haunted? Call an exterminator. As the line went on though, lasers just weren't enough.

In the above commercial we're treated to Ray and Louis busting ghosts at the Statue of Liberty. Not only does it advertise the cool color changing Slimed Heroes figures, but also the Ecto-Bomber. Which is literally an early 20th century bomber plane outfitted to fight ghosts. How in the hell did they even get that?

The Ghostbusters outright bombed ghosts to bust them. Let's think of the implications of that one. In the commercial alone, Nasty Neck is terrorizing Ray on Liberty Island when the Ecto-Bomber drops a bomb from the sky...

It's safe to assume sometimes the Ghostbusters generated future business.

Pretenders Monsters Are Too Yucky!

Between the various monsters of the post movie toys, The Pretenders, and a few un-produced concepts, somebody at Hasbro/Takara clearly was taking cues from the spookier side of things. It's not just Transformers either. Masters of the Universe introduced the Evil Horde, who took the army of Halloween decorations concept of He-Man's villains to new levels. Hasbro had the Inhumanoids, Tonka had the Supernaturals, Kenner had Ghostbusters, and Mattel introduced Mad Scientist. Movies like The Monster Squad and Teen Wolf were popular among kids. There's a bunch of other examples, but I think you get the my point. Clearly, I wasn't the only kid in the late 80's into monsters.

Check out the attached commercials above and the print ad below for the Pretender Monsters. Hasbro's clearly selling the monster shells above the robots. The very top commercial is the Italian ad. Notice how they're selling the Monster aspect super hard with slime oozing off the already gross rubbery skin. Then you get the awesome monster hands ripping apart Scowl's shell to show the Transformer robot who also turns into a monster inside. I particularly love the scary Monsters logo at the end of the ad. I swear they were copying Mad Scientist ads a little here, and good on them.

The second ad is the American one and it's not very different, though the monsters are presented without slime, monster hands, and scary logo. Not sure why, they made for a better commercial and Hasbro was clearly selling the monster aspect. Both have that great original animation with Pretender Starscream (sans shell) lowering them into the vats of goo to create these new Monster Pretenders. I truly love the original animation made for Transformers toys around this era. Not only because the show was in reruns at this time, but it's pretty great looking. Maybe Hasbro was trying to not looks so much like Mad Scientist here, even though the shells do match up design wise.

I really wish the Monsters would make a comeback. A cool team of Monsters that made for a great combiner, whats not to love? Considering the amount of slime, monsters, and generally gross toys out on shelves you'd figure Hasbro would jump on the bandwagon again with new versions. I'd figure anyway. Mostly because I want that to happen. So very badly.

Ghost Busting Boxes Of Slime

I've been singing the song of Playmobil Ghostbusters for so long... I was going somewhere with that, uh... like a long time. Anyway, I'm a fan of Playmobil Ghostbusters. I had assumed that the line was getting phased out as Hasbro has the license now, they're seemingly replacing it with Scooby Doo (swapping out spooky lines), and most of the stuff has been on clearance (got the Ecto-1 for 22$).

However buried under all those click bait tweets you're probably still reading again for the millionth time was a little nugget. A morsel. A... *ahem* another Playmobil Ghostbusters item. Under a new play set pattern Playmobil is seemingly producing of small unfold-able locations is the Ghostbusters Play Box. A smaller, more compact version of the firehouse that looks pretty neat.

Judging by the camera, I'm assuming the Playbox's is intended to be a filming set. Which works as you've got some pretty choice locals. The containment unit, Janine's desk, and the put all your shit here wall. Peter Venkman and Slimer figures are pictured, so I assume they're included. It looks like you get a fair bit of accessories too. I could see this coming in handy as a backdrop for Instagram pictures. I wonder how it would scale with other figures? A Real Ghostbuster/Fright Features figure is just  little bigger than a Playmobil. I could see it working.

Another bit that escaped my attention was these cool new slime tubes with mystery figure. Similar to the ectoplasm tubes I was buying late last year (I've literally got a case still), you get a tube of slime with a randomly assorted mini figure hidden within. There's four different ghost figures assorted in four different colors. I don't know what the ghosts are yet, and I'm hoping they're randoms ghouls.

Not that I'd have a problem with a little Slimer, but I'd like some extra variety if I had a a choice. With the Real Ghostbusters figures coming I have high hopes for more of the random mini ghosts they'd come with. Something to pair with your new toys would be the perfect thing to go in these tubes. But if it's another Slimer, I'm not going to complain. If that last sentence were a text message, I'd type LOL and put an emoticon with it. The laughing one, maybe with tears coming out of it's eyes.

Not Yet Fair

Toy Fair is this weekend. Which pretty much means an insane amount of toy news is going to be spewing out from every seam. Early looks and leaks from the days leading up help some, but there's just going to be a ton of news over the weekend. It's fun... and a little overwhelming. Like always, I plan to give my thoughts on some of the stuff. Thing is, this is a fan blog, not a news site. I'm enjoying the things I like with you here. We're enjoying things together. Not to mention, I generally don't post a lot over the weekend. So I figured it'd be a good idea to post my early thoughts here from those early leaks and leaks and follow up Monday with post con thoughts. Cool?

GIJOE Classified is actually happening. A new line in the partnership between Jazzwares and Hasbro is giving us new high quality 6" figures of classic characters. I am stoked. I love GIJOE and am really glad to see it come back. Jazzwares is on a roll lately, their Fortnight figures have been really impressive and they've even got a collector line for AEW Wrestling coming as well. I'm all up for getting these guys at my local stores and just ecstatic over them in general.

There is a ton of new Transformers coming this year. I've already talked about Earthrise, but more of it keeps pouring out as well as Cyberverse, BotBots, and Studio Series. As the owner of a site named after a Micromaster Base, I don't have to tell you how thrilled I am for even more Micromasters in Earthrise. I probably already have and probably will a million more times. The fact that most of the larger bots have a base mode and the Battlemasters have a third mode which is a base connector piece is just... Know when something you like is made even better? That, that's what's going on here. I like that. A whole freaking lot.

Masters Of The Universe has all sorts of cool stuff coming this year. This sneak peak image of the upcoming MOTU Orgins Sky Sled with Prince Adam is great. It's nice to see all the He-Man love from Mattel recently and I hope they keep it up.

The new Ghostbusters toys from Hasbro look amazing. Among all the cool stuff on the way, what I'm really excited for is the Fright Features figures and the Ghost Gushers toys. The Fright Features figures are modern day The Real Ghostbusters figures (speaking of) and there's not one thing I don't love about that. The Ghost Gushers are outright Maba Zombie style toys of classic Ghostbusters ghouls and I'm completely amazed at them for existing. Ghostbusters and slime go hand in hand, but this is legit awesome. I can't wait for the Maba tag to explode on Instagram this summer when these are released.

That's it for now. Like I said, I'll have a follow up post likely Monday with my post show thoughts. Also like I said, the glut of news can be overwhelming and I might miss a few things between the more shared news posts. It's a good thing I'm going to have a somewhat busy weekend, so I can spend time looking through news later after the end of reporting and not try to keep up with it as it seeps out. Good thing I don't pretend to be a reporter, I don't see how those who do can keep up with it all. It's exciting though, a lot of the stuff I really like is getting stuff I really like this year. Who could complain about that? Well, buttholes I guess...

Fear the Mad Scientist

One of the coolest toys of the late 80's was Mad Scientist by Mattel. Everybody loves slime and incorporating it with monsters was perfect. The Monster Lab was one of the most popular sets. Essentially you'd take a plastic skeleton, cover it in flesh, and create your monster. Then you murder it by dropping it in a vat of chemicals that melted the creature before your eyes. You gave the monster life and then took it away in morbid fashion. That is fantastic.

Just take a look at the Japanese version of The Monster Lab's packaging. I'm a fan of Japanese logos, kanji, and Asian horror as is. The straight J-Horror visuals of the box are just wonderful to me. In Japan the line was called 'The Laboratory of Mad Dr. Fear'. It's pretty hard not to love that. Unless you're some sort of monster, and we kill those horribly in this laboratory. Suddenly that names pretty amazing huh?

Another popular set was the Alien Dissection kit. If the commercial above doesn't clue you in to it's amazing nature, let me explain. You have an alien filled with internal organs and slime. Then you rip it out. That's it. The play feature of Mad Scientist was torturing monsters to death in violent and horrible ways. Dammit that's awesome. There was other play sets of varying horror and grossness. Though the last of the line was only released in Japan and worth taking note here. It's pretty great.

Ma-Ba Zombies were a sub-line that followed the initial play sets with tiny rubber freaks and monsters. The figures were hollow with the intention that you'd fill it with slime. Squeeze the monster and watch it ooze out. Pretty simple, but simple usually works the best. There were a few series of these on their own outside of the main line. Mad Scientist was a collaboration between Mattel and Bandai that often gets swept under the rug in most peoples memories. I suppose a toy line of gross monsters that you effective murder violently would be a touch too much for the more lame members of society. I do see various homages to the monsters (mostly the alien from the dissection kit) in the occasional designer toy though. I'm pretty jealous of those lucky kids of the late 80's in Japan. I'd love to have had Ma-Ba zombies.

The Slime Pit

Slime is great. It's like a giant booger that you willingly buy and when used by Hordak a torture device that creates mindless zombies! I buy a lot of slime. Little dollar cans here and there in weird colors. For my wife, even more. Random types in random varieties with all sorts of stuff mixed in them. We have a slime loving household and we're damn well proud to call it home. This weekend while she looked at expensive slime (there's a boutique market) online I pondered about making a new version of the classic Slime Pit for my newer Master of the Universe mini figures.

It couldn't be too hard I recon (famous last words) and something I'd love to have. Though I want to make a smallish castle for my fantasy figures to display on. An included Slime Pit would be perfect and probably make for something great. Dang, now I have to find the appropriate Halloween decorations to craft this from.

Manglors

Manglors were one of those weird toys that came along at what was seemingly the right time with Master of the Universe and other fantasy toys making big bucks at stores, but somehow fell by the wayside. Maybe it's my anticipation of new stuff in the Godbeast store tomorrow that's got me thinking about cool monster toys. Slime based toys seem to be all the rage with kids right now (thankfully, I love slime and am glad to see it in the spotlight again) and can't help but to think Manglors would be a hit right now.

Whenever Manglors come up, the subject of the 'pull apart' feature comes up and how it never really worked so well as the gooey substance dried up or didn't stick together well. That's probably one of the pitfalls that made Manglors a hard sell back in the day. But I'm sure if packaged a as cheap toy like slime, folks would be more patient with a toy that's not going to last long. Another thing that occurred to me was what if instead of toys, Manglors got a new life as gummy candy? I can't count how many times I've ripped apart a gummy and stuck it together with other gummy candy. A bear headed snake, that's magic and I still do it. Who wouldn't like a gummy devil or dragon?

What the heck did I do this weekend?

This weekend was pretty chill. The wife and I did our weekly shopping Saturday morning when I got home from work, leaving the rest of the weekend relaxing around the house. We stopped by Target to look at all the cool Halloween stuff they'd put out since last weekend. On the Transformers front they still hadn't stocked the last wave of Primemasters or Optimal Optimus. They did have Shadow Striker and Grimlock from Cyberverse in the larger $20 scale. I plan to get those, just didn't right then. I've got a few items coming from online purchases and I really don't like to spend too much at a time. Most notably from my online purchases coming is the bucket of monsters pictured above. I don't know what type of toy you technically call a green army man, but toys along that type are something I'm very fond of and jump on the more random assortments. In the past I've gotten great selections of robots, ninjas, zombies, skeletons, pirates, and all sorts of wacky designs. This set is really amazing. It's a large tube full of various monsters like Frankenstein, the Wolfman, Godzilla, and all sorts of cool monsters. It's coming Friday and honestly I'm having a hard time waiting. We also picked up out Walmart grocery order as well as a trip inside to peak the Halloween stuff. A nice supper from Zaxby's and a great weekend at home.

Some stuff did come to my attention over the weekend. Just as I completed the first wave of scouts from Cyberverse there's been reports of wave 2. Now, there's just 3 figures I need from this set as I already have Bumblebee. I'm looking forward to the cool recolors of the Starscream mold for Windblade and Slipstream, though I'm a little hesitant to fiddle with them. My Starscream's wings kept popping off and his left arm was pretty loose. I'm hoping I don't have that same issue with these two jets here. The QC issue was a bit of a bummer for me as I've mentioned it's the recolors that make little toys like this fun and I'm betting the jet mold is going to get the most mileage. I really don't want to have the same issue with a million jets.

Pictures of the upcoming Battlemasters in packaging went about the internet this weekend and man do they look great. The package art with the neat SIEGE logo makes it looks like a game for the SEGA Genesis. Just super sharp packaging. Despite the negativity floating around online around Siege (I just don't get it), I'm really looking forward to it. This looks like a great time.

Mega Construx has been showing off their new Breakout Beasts blind package line and I think they look swell. Little monsters and dragons in an egg with slime... what's not to love? I'll be sure to jump on these when I find them.

Friday I finally figured out what Instagram TV is despite it being as thing for a few months now. Despite being a regular user of Instagram, that one just passed me by. It's pretty neat and I plan on using it semi-regularly. I had tried on doing some sort of vlogs using YouTube but I just can't put into words what went wrong there. For some reason Instagram TV makes more sense in my head, so be sure to check out my Instagram page for updates (links are in the about section... mobile users, click the full web version down at the bottom of this page for the links) and go ahead and follow me as I posts regularly there. I don't know if I want to call it my photo blog, but it sure is something.