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!

Battle for Monday

Good morning Zone Base readers, thanks for coming back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a good weekend, mine was a little chaotic thanks to a family emergency, but thankfully not terrible. The Mrs and I did manage to get some shopping done where I picked up Transformers Studio Series Devastation Bumblebee and a Godzilla blind box. I pulled a clear red chase MechaGodzilla! We watched some of the new Stranger Things Tales from '85 animated series and I played plenty of Pragmata. Next weekend hopefully things will get back to normal. I didn't even get to work on any models Sunday (dammit). Oh well, a little chaos every now and then is to be expected. I've got a fun week in store for you all. Thank you so much for reading Zone Base. Please remember to share it with your friends and be excellent to each other! 

Bah Monday

Good Morning Zone Base readers and welcome back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! Christmas time is in full swing here on Planet Zone and there's plenty of Rock Lording around the Christmas tree going on! The weekend went by way to fast for my liking, but I can still say it was a pretty good and productive one. I hope you all had a great weekend as well, but let me tell you about mine. Saturday the Mrs and I did our weekly shopping. For whatever reason, the grocery order at our local stores has been terrible so we did that in person again. I'd love to get back on our normal routine, but these are things that are out of my hands. I've been saying for years now that our most local store needs new management, so hopefully this will lead to some improvements. It's so bad that stores in other towns are being affected negatively and I'm sure that's causing some uproar behind the scenes. Christmas just isn't the time for retail to drop the ball!

I got some Christmas shopping done and I'm feeling pretty positive about this holiday season. Normally it's a more stressful time, but this year has thankfully been a breeze. It's nice to just enjoy Christmas without the black cloud hanging over my head. Sunday, I finally got my yard decorated. I know it's still early in the month, but seeing as this task is usually done Thanksgiving weekend, it was really bothering me. I got started early and really feel like I did a great job. It's a lot of work, but you can really stand back and admire the prettiness of it all once done. We've got a pretty cozy theme with our decorations and I love it. 

Mom came over for Sunday dinner and the Mrs made an excellent spaghetti meal! It was pretty cold outside, so after spending most of the day stapling lights to my house as well as some car maintenance, the warm meal tasted extra great! We watched the second episode of Stranger Things season 5 with Mom who is very concerned about Dustin. Rewatching it after the initial binge watch on release is great. I'm definitely enjoying the chance to digest it fully before the new episodes. After she left, the Mrs and I watched Home Alone while she played a game and I started work on building a BeastDrive. I've got a big backlog and it's fun to spend a little time building a kit on the weekend. I probably could have finished it, but took my time. I was a little tired after the busy day. Maybe next weekend it'll get completed, there's no rush.

Being Christmas time, I didn't buy myself anything, but didn't come away empty handed! I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had won a Yolopark giveaway on Threads and am looking forward to receiving a randomly selected kit in the mail! It's been far too long since I've looked at Yolopark's products here on the site, and there's no way this won't be a future post! There was also a few fan events in Japan that I greatly enjoyed looking at pictures from. Most notably, a Diaclone meetup that featured some hand made items that looked so great! I found myself really liking the custom pilots created. It's really funny, while not a lot of pictures were taken at the event (a sign everyone was having a great time), plenty were taken afterwards at various convenience stores. It's impossible not to love toy pictures while someone is enjoying a quick snack! 

Well, I've got a fun week planned for you Zone Base readers. Thank you all for reading and supporting the site. I really appreciate it and am so humbled and honored to see so many people take time out of their day to read my posts. Please don't forget to share the site with your friends and be excellent to one another. It's time to do some household chores and take toy pictures for upcoming updates. The normal Monday morning for me, but I should really watch the new Earthspark movies on Paramount Plus. I'm really surprised they made additional content for the series and am looking forward to Hot Rod and Liege Maximo! Mutal High Fives everyone, let's get this week started!

Mega Monday

The holiday break is sadly over and it's time to start another work week, HOWEVER, it's also time to get back to the robots, monsters, and misadventure! I've got a fun week of content coming for your eyeballs this week, but first, let me tell you about this holiday break I had. It started Wednesday with a relaxing evening at home with the Mrs. We watched the new episodes of Stranger Things while making some dishes for Thanksgiving dinner. We'd watch an episode and make a dish. Watch an episode and make a dish. Things like pies and cranberry sauce that can be made ahead to save on the crunch time. The new episodes were great and I'm really marveling at how much the show has changed since it began. Rewatching it this past summer was a great idea.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and we started the day watching the big parade as we always do. I've been watching it my entire life and still love doing so. Though, in the future, I may start watching the alternative presentations. I really just want to watch the floats and balloons. While some of the musical productions are neat, I really don't care. I've discovered an alternate camera angle edition of the show on Peacock where I watch it and know of some other showings. Regardless, it was great seeing Spider-Man, Mario, Pac-Man, Pokémon, and Labubu making appearances. 

We spent a few hours at My Mother's house afterwards. My brother and his family came over and we all enjoyed dinner together. Of course with Christmas coming, there was a lot of opportunities to get ideas for gifts. The Mrs is an excellent gift giver, but you always need inspiration for the right ones! My brother is an outdoorsman and does a lot of livestreaming in relation. It's kind of funny seeing how his hobbies and mine are so vastly different... but use the same internet to interact with others. It also helps me figure out what to get him because I know nothing of the great outdoors. 

Afterwards,  the Mrs and I had our own Thanksgiving dinner Thursday evening. It was so good as she is an excellent cook. This may have been her best turkey yet! We spent the evening watching Most Extreme Elimination Challenge while I built Blokees and she played a game. It was time to rest as Black Friday neared. We initially planned to get up super early and stand in line at Target... but slept in instead. That turned out to have been a good idea as the gift bags Target gave out to the first 100 customers turned out to be a bust. They promised the moon and stars only to deliver a pile of turds. Oh well!

Friday was spent doing an amazing amount of Christmas shopping. Like, an amazing amount. According to my Galaxy Watch, I got nearly 10,000 steps in and I believe it! We started shopping in November, but took advantage of the sales to really get a lot of stuff. Today is the first of December and we're mostly done... though I've got the feeling we're going to still go nuts. We always spoil each other at Christmas and love getting our loved ones just the right things. While I focused on others, I did grab a few things for myself. Specifically some Mr Beast Labs Swarms.

I know alot of folks on social media take issue with him, I hardly have an idea who he is. However, his line of toys is really great. He partnered with Moose Toys whom have made a lot of fun stuff. Some I've even talked about here. Swarms are something I specifically like. Years prior, Moose Toys made Trash Pack and Grossery Gang. A series of awesome keshi with gross out designs I really enjoyed. Swarms are something of a spiritual successor to those with similar designs and some really cool monsters! I got a few packs happily as well as a neat 3D printed lizard figit toy from Five Below. Speaking of Five Below, they had a great series of troll dolls as classic movie monsters! I got Michael Myers! I was a big fan of trolls as a kid and feel a little of that love seeing these! So cool! Not to be left out, a Stranger Things blind pack. I got a Demogorgan in slime!

Saturday we went grocery shopping in person as holidays are a terrible time for grocery orders. Afterwards, we found ourselves checking out a different Target before enjoying a nice dinner at Outback Steakhouse. I got some more Swarms, actually there's a neat Target exclusive Christmas series. I think I've got the distribution figured out and just need two more packs to complete it. We actually discovered another newer brand of tiny toys while there that the Mrs fell in love with. Wigglitz is a delightful series of tiny 3D printed segmented animals that come on a variety of sculpts and colors. They're part figit toy and part collectible. She got several packs and Ginger the pink wolf accompanied us to dinner.

Saturday night we decorated the inside of our house for Christmas which included putting up our new tree! It's a big 7 and a half feet tall featuring pre-installed lights that can be controlled with a remote for a variety of functions. Man, living in the future sure is neat! Sunday I had planned to decorate the yard and house, but a rainy day changed those plans. Hopefully the weather will be better next week. Instead I did chores and built Blokees while watching more Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. You know, I watch old episodes of that regularly... but I think I got the entire series in over the break. Mom came over for Sunday dinner, we had Christmas tacos! We also showed Mom the first episode of the new Stranger Things season. We'll probably get an episode in each week up until the new batch of episodes at the end of the month. I'm not looking forward to it ending, but happy that it seems to be on a high note. 

Well, I've got some stuff to do. I actually wrote this while running errands and doing chores. Ironically I talked about Wigglitz while refilling the bird seed on our porch. We always keep some out there, but now that it's winter, we're keeping extra. There's not alot for them to eat while it's cold, so we try to help. Actually, let me get on a soap box for a second. You've probably seen a lot of self righteous assholes on social media telling you what to think and who to give money to (it's always something that benefits them magically). Just try to be a good person and help out when and how you can. If it feels right, it usually is and those dipshits are just out for clout anyway. Don't listen to redundant mother fuckers and if that includes me, then I understand. I don't make a dime off this site, so whatever. Zone Base is just a way for me to enjoy my hobbies with whomever wants to enjoy them with me. Thank you all for reading and supporting actual independent thought. We're getting back to normal this week after the break, but we're going to have one fun Christmas here on Planet Zone! Please don't forget to share with your friends, look after your loved ones, and take care of each other. Mutual High Fives everyone!

Monday Things

Beware Zone Base readers, Monday has came back. We'll have to band together and fight this menace together. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was for the most part, aside from a moment of sadness Saturday. The Mrs and I got out for a little weekly shopping Saturday morning. At Target I got the rest of the goodies for the Mrs's Halloween present and some other great stuff. We then went to Costco, but on the way stopped at Tim Hortons for their Halloween bucket full of Timbits! It's a great glow in the dark bucket decorated with cats full of donut holes that we're still working on. Man they're tasty!

We had lunch at Costco before getting our candy for Halloween. Costco has pallets of Halloween candy each year for amazing prices. We got over 11lbs for the kids this year with a little extra that we've already got. This weekend we'll get some other goodies as the Mrs likes to make some treat bags for the first few kids that'll come by. While passing my Mom's house (she lives a few blocks away) we sadly saw one of the stray kittens who have taken residence in the neighborhood whom had been ran over in the street. I got my shovel and we had a little funeral for the poor fellow in Mom's backyard. Rest in peace little one, I'm sorry you had that happen.

The rest of Saturday was spent at home with dinner and TV... and a long nap. Sunday morning I made a quick trip to Publix for a few things and picked up some Halloween donuts. While out, I swung by TJ Max to get the Mrs a little suprise. She made us a great breakfast and deserved a little something nice. I enjoyed MeTv Toons Spooky Sunday while working on a new backdrop for toy pictures here on the site. Afterwards a nap was had before Mom came over and we ordered dinner from Longhorn Steakhouse. A great meal that was enjoyed while watching True Haunting on Netflix. 

After Mom left, I worked more on the Flame Toys Furai Model Rodimus kit I started last weekend while we watched Silver Bullet. I've almost got it completed... which I'll do next weekend. I've got quite a backlog of models, including some more Furai Model kits. I think I'll follow him with some Blokees as they're a little easier on my fingertips. I spent last night assembling his legs which had more tiny things than the arms had to work together. It's a pretty intricate kit that's looking pretty great. In some ways, I guess I'm still that kid putting Robostrux together on the kitchen table with my brother.

As for toys, yeah, I got a few this weekend. The Mrs and her friends took a trip to the northside of town for Labubu and other similar toys Friday and she brought back some surprises for me. Some ramune candy that I love and a fish wafer cookie. They're delicious and don't taste like fish. Some Transformers soda cans and a TF pencil sharpener as well as some Ultraman sticky notes. She also picked me up a Bandai blind box Gundam figure. The series is based on the Chinese zodiac, I got a delightful green snake one! Target had some Galaxy Version Blokees. I got almost the entire box (it was only missing one) and you can be sure to see those on the site in due time. They had several other Transformers I needed, but I had other things to get. I'll be sure to pick them up soon and of course Christmas is around the corner. I'm disappointed that current Transformers prices are so high. Voyager class is now 42-45 dollars each and that is ridiculous. I do hope things get worked out soon. Though I think lost sales will result in some of these pricing conditions to mysteriously vanish. Money talks and bullshit walks. 

I was sad to learn that Bam Magami's mother had recently passed. It's an honor to express my condolences and be in a position to speak with one of my favorite Transformers artists. Though I'm definitely sad for him. Let's keep him in our thoughts Zone Base readers. Well, it's time to get this week started. There's some household chores to be done and I've got the last of this years Halloween post pics to take. Being ahead is weird sometimes, because we've still got two weeks of Spooky Season to celebrate. This week's full of  pumpkin spiced robots, monsters,and misadventure! Please look forward to it! Thank you all for reading and  your support. Don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Monday: Judgement Day

It's time to start another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure here on Zone Base! Thank you all for returning and supporting the site. I hope everyone had a great weekend, I sure did. Saturday... I didn't do a damn thing and it was marvelous. The Mrs and I watched TV and enjoyed some pizza. Sunday we went out for a little shopping and visited our local Target. Most of their Halloween goods were in stock and it was a lot of fun taking it in. No new toys i  stock for me, but that doesn't mean it was a wasted trip. I had grabbed 2 more Power Rangers/Godzilla crossover blind bags and they turned out to be both of the series chase figures! I've grown really fond of this series and might finally read the comic. What were the chase figures? Well, just remember I tend to be about a week ahead on toy posts here on the site. Please look forward to more on them soon! 

I ordered a special BeastBox purchase with plans to make another this weekend. There's alot of cool stuff they have and I just can't get enough. What did I order? Well, hopefully those toys will be here soon enough for a post within the coming days. Speaking of upcoming posts, I've been trying to figure out how to properly talk about Cyberworld Scorponok. I've had him for a few weeks and frankly am not equipped to do big toys. It'll take some brain storming, but I really want to cover all of the Cyberworld toys here on the site. I really like them!

Sunday evening, Mom came over for dinner as usual. The Mrs made a wonderful lasagna dinner and let me just talk about her lasagna for a second. She makes it with ravioli and it is amazing. I'll be happily taking leftovers to work for the next few days. We finished our rewatch of Stranger Things and now am all caught up for the new season starting on Thanksgiving. I'm excited, but maybe a little sad to see it end. Speaking of ending, the newest and allegedly last Conjuring movie was released this weekend. We had planned to go see it, but decided to wait for streaming. Hopefully it'll be good, I hate to see it end as well. I spent the rest of the evening building Blokees Transformers and enjoying some gummy candy. Well, as usual, I should get my day started. There's some household chores and toy pictures for upcoming posts to take. Zone Base is about enjoying my hobbies with all of you and I really appreciate everyone reading. I also really appreciate the uptick of traffic latley and still only ask that you share the site with your friends. We've got 2 months of Halloween to go and tons of robots, monsters, and misadventure coming. Mutual High Fives everyone!

Upside-Down Glow Demogorgan [Stranger Things/Bandai]

Zombie Boy Will Byers was just heading home after playing some Dungeons & Dragons with his friends one night when he was kidnapped by the Demogorgan and taken to the Upside-Down. Stranger Things is one of my favorite TV shows and with it's final season drawing near, now feels like the perfect time to look at more of the various toys I've acquired since it premiered. You all know how much I love my sofubi and nobody does it better than Bandai.

This Demogorgan figure is part of a Stranger Things series from Bandai that came out a few years ago. It's 7" tall with excellent sculpting and paint with articulation in the shoulders. Did you take notice of the figures name? Yes, there was a regular and glow in the dark version... that's the one we're looking at right now! The glow is a specifically spooky blue color that I wish shown up better in my pictures (I tried) that really invokes the visage of those Upside-Down scenes. Bandai really nailed it with this figure. They normally do, but this time they went a step above. Hey... has anyone seen Barb?

New Week 2000

Hello Zone Base readers! Welcome back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a great weekend, I sure did! I enjoyed a low key weekend with the Mrs, enjoyed her great cooking, watched Stranger Things with her and Mom, worked on more Halloween backdrops for toy pics here on the site, and played Donkey Kong Bananza! Once again my Walmart didn't have any new toys, but I ordered Cyberworld Bumblebee and Snarl! Bumblebee will be here later this week, but Snarl won't arrive until a little later. I have no clue why he's the harder of the initial batch of Cyberworld toys to get, but I happily got one for standard retail.

My most recent Blokees order came in Sunday and the Mrs and I had fun opening the boxes and checking the trading card to see who as inside! I've got 2 cases of Galaxy Version Defender kits to start work on soon. I'll probably order another soon as well, I really love the Defender type kits and feel like they're perfect for site content. In a conversation on Blokees Facebook page, another poster suggested they do Battle Beasts in the Defender range. What a great idea! Part of me majorly prefers things like Blokees and Yolopark kits these days to traditional Transformers toys. I spent years of my youth painting miniatures and building models and Zoids. I guess these just vibe with that part of my brain. 

Speaking of vibing with my brain, both SCCC and Wonderfest Summer was this weekend. I definitely enjoyed the new toy reveals at SDCC. Transformers, Masters of The Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Godzilla, and others made a great showing with tons of exciting new releases in store. While I appreciate that, I won't lie, it feels like another official reveal like these companies do all year. It's exciting, for sure, but what really gets my heart going is the pictures from Wonderfest. I spent hours this weekend looking them over and wishing I were there. 

Well, I've got a fun week in store for you all. This is the prelude before Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem starts next week! I'm so excited that I swapped the site over to fall colors last week! It's good to freshen things up occasionally and with the 100+ degree heat I'm having...  the cooler temperatures of fall feels forever away. It's about to get extra spooky around Planet Zone for the next 3 months and I'm excited! Well, thank you all for reading Zone Base. Your support means so very much to me. This isn't one of those corporate sites that just want your money and you all are real ones for just wanting to enjoy our hobbies. Please be sure to share the site with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Scrambled New Week

Hello Zone Base readers, thank you all for coming back for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a great weekend, mine sure felt like a holiday break. Saturday the Mrs and did our weekend shopping which included a visit to At Home to look at whatever new Halloween stuff they had stocked. There was quite a bit with room for more to come! It's quite exhilarating and even refreshing to see it out in the middle of summer. Here in the American South, it gets very hot in the summer. We'll be having 100 degree days from now until September, so a reminder that fall is coming is nice. We picked up a few items and a little more at TJ Max whom also starts early. We had a delivery from Target who begins their Halloween stocking online in summer. This would be our second shipment this summer and they're looking to have a great selection this year. The neon colors are returning alongside their trademark cozy offerings. Of course Lewis has more cool merchandise as well. We're fans of him in our household and can't get enough! 

We picked up Donkey Kong Bananza Saturday as well. What a great game. Action platformer games are my favorite video games to play and this is one for the record books. It's open world with a ton of collectibles to search for with a great setting and story. Add in tight controls and pure fun. It's just so much fun! You can literally spend hours not doing anything important and still feel satisfied with doing so! Walmart didn't have any new toys still, which is getting pretty frustrating. I have a few more Turtles of Grayskull figures to get and it'd be great to find new Transformers on shelves. I love Transformers One, but seeing the same stock for a year now is exhausting. Fortunately my Cyberworld order came in during the week and another Blokees order was made this weekend.

Cyberworld is providing to be a great line that's going to be fun to cover here on the site. While I talked about Grimlock in June, it's going to be great to show the main figures. So far I have Optimus Prime, Megatron, Skybite, and Galvatron. Bumblebee and Snarl have been tricky to find at the moment, though I'm sure will be easier in the coming days as stores stock the toys. They're online at some retailers for a much higher price than Walmart and Amazon. Of course sites with related ads won't tell you that! These figures are essentially sized up Legends/Legion class figures with the higher priced ones coming with large weapons. Simplicity being their nature, you shouldn't pay too much. Don't let the basics fool you though, they're a lot of fun. My look at them will start next week, remember, I'm generally a week or two ahead on scheduling content.

After some sleep Saturday afternoon, I woke up that evening (at that point I'd been awake for 24 hours) to enjoy some good food and TV with the Mrs. She made me french bread pizza which was great! It's worth nothing the entirety of my food Saturday was some sort of pizza breads. Lunch was pizza bites from Wetzel's Pretzels and a boba. Dinner later that evening was some delicious home made french bread pizza. The Mrs feel asleep on the couch, in which I enjoyed some videos on YouTube before the power suddenly shutting off. We had a blackout! Fortunately the Switch 2 had a full charge to entertain in portable mode untill the power came back on. Well that and a nice nap. When the power came back with some much appreciated air conditioning (it's still at least 80 degrees at night) the Mrs went back to sleep while I watched those videos. I spent most of the night enjoying the Retro Kids channel. His content includes assembling and customizing vintage models kits mostly with other fun stuff as well. I greatly enjoyed one with trip to a recent model show in Japan. It sure was cool seeing all that mecha! Between his content and Donkey Kong... somehow I didn't get any more sleep after that blackout nap. It was dawn before I knew it and the magic of a Saturday that felt like a weekend upon itself was over. 

Sunday was spent with a wonderful breakfast made by the Mrs, more Donkey Kong, a nap around noon, and several episodes of Stranger Things with Mom ordering us dinner! I had some wonderful sushi and ice cream as we enjoyed the first half of season 3. Our rewatch of the series is chugging along and Mom is hooked even more than I realized. She literally called me after getting back home that evening to ask me about it! I then spent some time working on spooky backdrops for this years Halloween time content and... more Donkey Kong. It's really that good!

Well, I've got a fun week in store for you! Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem starts in 2 weeks and I've got my hands full getting everything in place. For those who haven't experienced a Zone Base Halloween yet, it's a mixture of Halloween and regular content with a little extra spooky flair! It's a ton of fun, a ton of posts, and a ton of Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem for 3 months. It's our Superbowl, our Wrestlemania, our big event of the year... without one cent asked from you readers. Zone Base is about having fun with our hobbies from the bottom of our heart, not your wallets. All I ask is that you share the site with your friends. Well, I'm going to enjoy the rest of this strawberry acai refresher before getting to work on some household chores. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. We have fun here and that we includes each and every one of you. Mutual High Fives everyone!

New Week Loading

A new week has started here on Zone Base and that means more robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope everyone had a great weekend, I sure did! The Mrs and I did some weekly shopping which unfortunately did not result in any new toys, but I've got some Cyberworld toys ordered that we'll be talking about soon. Sunday, I did some toy room organizing and we enjoyed homemade pizza with Mom while watching more Stranger Things. We've rewatched all of Season 2 now and still chugging through. We tend to get 2-3 episodes in every Sunday, so I expect to be finished by the end of August. It's been a fun rewatch and Mom is hooked. Next weekend we're starting Season 3 (my favorite season) and I think some sushi is in order!

Now let's talk robots! Transformers Cyberworld premiered this weekend on YouTube and I really liked it. They're short episodes like Cyberverse was and have the same fun spirit. Long time readers may remember how much I enjoyed Cyberverse, so I'm hoping this will follow suit. The setting finds Optimus and company on a mysterious world that has them pitted against each other in games. The dialog is funny and it looks like a solid story is building to support the adventure. I'm here for it! As I told Chris online, it's premise is similar to a storyline I came up with for Machine Wars when I was younger, so it's exciting to see something similar as a cartoon. This isn't the first time something I've imagined for Transformers has become a reality, but it's neat everytime it's happened. Hooray for tulpas! I'll be talking about the toys soon. 

In other robot news, 52toys announced Sacred Firepower this weekend and I can't wait to get one. I've been patiently waiting for them to stock Sacred Robo on their US Amazon shop and now have another to wait for! Hopefully I'll be able to get the special versions that come with keshi pilots as they add a lot of fun. Both of these Robo toys are compatible with each other and you can swap parts to create something new. 52toys also showed off their new base units and they look great. Not only are they perfect for BeastBox toys, but inchman enthusiasts are loving them too. Playmates has been showing off their new Power Rangers toys and I'm looking forward to building that Megazord! It looks to be of a similar build to their Voltron line from years ago. I think the same design team possibly worked on it and that has me excited. Long time readers may also remember how much I enjoyed those. Here's hoping they do a Metal Force version as well!

Summerween is in full effect as more and more of my stores are stocking early Halloween fun. Even Five Below is sneaking out a little spooky season fun in summertime. Summer is fun, but having a little Halloween infused is better! The Mrs picked up some great spooky stuff Friday and while checking out the Summerween stuff at Walmart, I grabbed some multicolored skeletons. I always grab a few cheap skeletons each year and the bright colors are great! Dokuro Time Travelers?

Tfcon Canada and G-Fest took place this weekend and I couldn't attend, but greatly enjoyed what I could see online. Both looked like good times and teased some great items on the way. Wonderfest Summer will be soon and I definitely look forward to the pictures from that! I've seen some great previews of SplatterHouse figures and man I wish I could go! Well, I've got a great week in store for you all Zone Base readers. Thank you for supporting the site, I really appreciate it. I hope everyone has a great week and ask that you share the site with your friends. Mutual High Fives everyone!

Monday Rises

Holy Start of the week Zone Base readers! It's Monday again and time for more robots, monsters, and misadventure! I hope you all had a great weekend, I sure did! I actually had a long weekend as Friday was the 4th of July and led to a 3 day weekend and a much needed break. I've enjoyed the 4th of July since childhood as it's always meant a cook out and shooting fireworks. Summer may be miserably hot here in the American South, but there's still fun to be had. We had a family cook out at my Mother's house. It was good to spend some time with my brother and shoot fireworks with him after some great food. On the way back home that evening, my entire neighborhood was in the streets shooting fireworks as well. It's fun anarchy that I love taking place in.

Saturday the Mrs and I did some weekly shopping which included a trip to the jewelry store to get her jewelry inspected as needed every 6 months for their lifetime warranty. While there, the Mrs did some shopping and I suprised her with a new piece from the jewelry store. It was our wedding anniversary week and I wanted to get her something special. I didn't find any new toys while out Saturday, but an early trip to Target Friday morning did result in some great deals! I got Studio Series B-127 finally, but on clearance for $12! Ironically that's what he would have cost in 2012! I also finally picked up the Grizzlor and Hordak 2 pack on clearance for $14! This is a cool MOTU Origins set based on concept art that looks quite different than the characters we're used to. I thankfully also found Megatronus from Age of the Primes. Unfortunately he was full priced... which is a little higher at Target now. 

Target also had a newer blind box Godzilla series featuring well sculpted mini figures of Godzilla and company in capsules that resembles buildings. It's a Bandai product, so you know it's quality! The chase figure is a glow in the dark Godzilla, so that gives me an excuse to buy more! I had gotten a Showa MechaGodzilla in mine and he needs someone to battle! While Walmart didn't have much of anything (other than leftover TF One stock), I'm anticipating Cyberworld to show up soon. It starting to appear in stores and the show debuts July 12th. I'm very excited for this series and can't wait to cover them here. It's a combination of Transformers legend/ legion class (in a bigger size) with the play patterns found in Microman and Action Masters. Super fun! 

The rest of the weekend was spent at home enjoying some rest and relaxation. The Mrs and I opened some Blokees that came in during the week, played Mario Kart World, and enjoyed a spaghetti dinner Sunday night. Mom came as usual and our rewatch of Stranger Things is going well. We're 3/4ths into season 2 and Mom is hooked! She literally can't wait to see it each week, while I'm happily enjoying one of my favorite shows. It'll be good to see the new season... and a little sad as it's the finale. Oh well, reportedly an animated series in the vein of The Real Ghostbusters is in production. I hope it's good.

That leads us to spooky season talk. Halloween is around the corner and Code Orange is not only in effect, but has developed into a new form this year. In  addition to Code Orange, many of us have used the term Summerween to describe the early Halloween shopping that takes place in summer. Well, apparently companies have taken that to heart and have made Summerween an offical mini celebration! All sorts of summer themed spooky fun is available with jack o' lanterns carved from fruit, ghosts wearing sunglasses, festive summer colored skulls, and more! It's super fun and another chapter to the spooky season that's became part of summer in addition to fall. Here at Zone Base, I take credit for that partially as our official Halloween Party starts in August, which is the hottest month of summer. While this corresponds with Obon, Hungry Ghost festival, and the spooky summer activities throughout the word- I also can't wait for my favorite time of the year!

Thankfully with Code Orange and now Summerween, it's the perfect time for Zone Base's annual Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem to run wild. We've got one hell of a Halloween in store this year. I've got a bunch of cool Halloween posts to place in between regular content (which also will be extra spooky) for the entire 3 months of Zone Base Halloween. I hope you all enjoy it as I love doing it! Well, that's still a little off, but we've got an awesome July in store! Thank you all for reading Zone Base. I've got a fun week in mind for you all. Please don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

Monday Burst

It's the start of an new week of robots, monsters, and misadventure here on Zone Base. I hope you all had a great weekend, mine was pretty good... and went by way too fast. The Mrs and I did our weekend shopping and even checked out some early Halloween stock in our local At Home and Cracker Barrel. We got some great spooky stuff and had a lot of fun. 

Ealier in the week my Godzilla Megatron came in and I didn't expect my happiness to be that high. I knew I had it on the way and that it was real. But actually holding it in my hand... wow. I'm not sure when the MechaGodzilla Optimus Prime will ship, I guess it's coming later as it doesn't look like anyone has gotten theirs yet either. Speaking of Godzilla, the Mrs picked me up some fun Godzilla stuff while on a shopping trip with her friend. She got me a bag full of Godzilla blind boxes and bags along with some Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Stranger Things, and Shin-Chan stuff. That was super nice of her while they were in Popmart heaven.

My local stores are still pretty barren. I've still not gotten the rest of the Turtles of Grayskull figures and that's causing me some distress. I really want to complete the line and feel so close to my goal. Not to mention,  not a single new Transformer in some time. I haven't gotten the Studio Series B-127 yet... and that's all they seem to have other than leftover TF One stock. It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't anticipating Cyberworld so much. I really can't wait to get my hands on those! Considering the show is premiering July 12th, I'm hoping they'll be on shelves soon. I did order a case of Blokees. I sure do love them... I just wish they were easier to get!

July the 4th is Friday and I'm gearing up for the holiday weekend. It's going to be a short work week and probably a hard one too. I'm looking forward to the break though and getting some rest. Well, we've got a fun holiday week in store for you all. Thank you for reading Zone Base. I really appreciate your support and just ask that you share the site with your friends. Mutual High Fives everyone, let's get this Monday started!

Monday Darkness

The evil of Monday is upon us Zone Base readers. Brace yourself for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure to protect yourself! My weekend was pretty good! Saturday the Mrs and I attended the grand opening of our new Daiso store. It was a fun experience, though the long lines were a bit tedious. We got a good bit of fun stuff and plan to come back often. Local stores were pretty barren on the new toy front, fortunately my Transformers Godzilla Megatron pre-order shipped. For some reason the MechaGodzilla Optimus Prime hasn't yet, which I find really odd. I did pick up a Universal Monsters ReAction blind box and got The Wolfman! Hooray!

Sunday was a day full of household work and Super Mario Kart World. For dinner Mom ordered Olive Garden and we watched more Stranger Things. Our rewatch of the series is going well and we've completed season 1 last night. It's Mom's first time with the show and she's hooked! Mom surprised me with a Studio Series Leader Class Shockwave from Dark of the Moon! He's a really nice looking figure and a really great surprise. Well, it's time to get the week started. I've got some chores to do and content to get started on. I've been hard at work preparing for this years Halloween content. I know I say this every year, but this year's going to be great! This year has felt like a return to form for the site and I think our annual Halloween party is going to represent that. Thank you all for reading. Please don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives everyone!

More Violence, More Action, More Monday!

Monday again, yeah... dammit. Like you, I wish it was still the weekend. I guess we'll just have to get through the work week with more robots, monsters, and misadventure! My weekend was pretty good. Some weekly shopping and good food. The Mrs and I decided to re-watch all of Stranger Things so we'll be caught up when the new season premieres later this year. So far we're 2 episodes down and it's just as good again! 

As for toys, my stores were pretty limited. They're due for a restock. The Mrs did grab me some gacha while out at Target Friday. 4 of the new 5 Surprise Transformers balls and a Voltron bag figure. Voltron was him forming the blazing sword (woo). The TF's were 1 Megatron in robot mode, 1 Wheeljack in vehicle mode, and 2 Starscreams in vehicle mode. These new 5 Surprise Transformers are pretty neat, but they sure are stretching the '5'. You get the character and a weapon. A trading card, a sticker, and a bag of kinetic sand. I guess that's 5 things? I also ordered the Swapticons Jungle Mission 5 pack. It's never showed up at my local stores and I didn't want to miss out. With new Swapticons images getting leaked, my excitement for the little bots was revived. The line is getting even more fun toys that I'm looking forward to. There's a Clench!

I've got a fun week in store for you all. We'll be looking at the new Mega MechaBeast toys from 52toys BeastBox! Of course another Transformers Blokees will be making an appearance. Halloween is around the corner and I'm gearing up for another spooky season on Zone Base. Code Orange is starting to ring out as some stores are starting to stock their early wares. New items from Target have arrived at my house and we're keeping an eye on our local At Home. Thank you all for reading Zone Base. Don't forget to share with your friends and Mutual High Fives for all!

Code Red [Strangers Things x Transformers]

When Code Red was announced last year, I was quick to pre-order one. Stranger Things is one of my favorite TV shows and a collaboration with Transformers is just a fun idea. Of course he's perfect for Halloweek. Code Red is a unique toy as usually these types of Transformers reuses the engineering from a prior release. I think he uses Studio Series 86 Ironhide's engineering, but he feels completely different. If it is based on that toy, the remolding is so extensive that it practically feels like a brand new design. When he was announced, there was confusion as to why his name was Code Red. In season 2 Dustin often calls the guys over their radios claiming they have a 'Code Red'. I don't know if you can see it well in my pictures, but Code Red is wearing Dustin's headset. It's a fun bit of synergy between the show and the toy. Dustin's my favorite character from the show, so I probably enjoyed it a little more because of that.

Dustin isn't the only character referenced here. It's pretty obvious that Code Red transforms into Argyle's Surfer Boy Pizza delivery van. The van is a licensed VW  Vanagon that's pretty small considering the larger robot it's from from. Transformation is pretty easy and I didn't fumble with any part clearances. Everything just worked fine. Robot mode is fairly well articulated and features some great accessories. Most notably is the Surfer Boy Pizza sign converts into a shoulder cannon. There's a pizza box and flame effect that compliments this pretty well. Then he has an axe and spiked baseball bat similar to Joyce and Steve's weapons. Hopefully any Demogorgon isn't big enough for him to need them... but the Mindflayer was pretty big in season 3. All the weapons store in vehicle mode. In addition to the show's homages on the toy, there's quite a bit in the Surfer Boy Pizza box that Code Red comes with. Too many to mention here, but they're very clever. That's probably the best descriptor for this toy, it's clever. There's a lot of fan love in this crossovers figure. 

Stranger Things x Transformers

Let's have a Spirited Week!

Another Monday has come to ruin the fun we were having all weekend. However Zone Base is here to help make your week a little bit more awesome. This weekend was spent with the Mrs watching paranormal videos and old Halloween specials. A little shopping resulted in some fun toys. A trip to Ollie's brought Bug-Eye Ghost and Fearsome Flush home for pretty cheap. Now if I could just find that Ecto-1, the vintage collection would be complete! I'm pretty close on the Fright Features figures from Afterlife, so hopefully Ollie's will eventually come through. 

A trip to Walmart finally brought me Legacy Inferno! The original is one my my favorite Predacon toys, so this update was much desired. Now if I can ever find Transmetal 2 Megatron or the new Armada updates. When they update favorites, I can't say no. The back to school section is always fun. A few weeks ago, I got some cool Star Wars stationary. Saturday I found a Stranger Things notepad with some way cool Demogorgon and Hellfire Club art. It looks like the old occult books I checked out from the library back in the day. 

There was also time spent doing household chores and much playing of AEW Fight Forever on our PS5. Currently I'm eating breakfast and drinking some iced coffee. It's a rainy day, but it's Ultraman Day! So there will be plenty of Ultraman watched on Tokushoutsu before work tonight. I've got a fun week planned for all you readers. Thank you so much for reading Zone Base and supporting my nonsense. Please share posts with your friends and check me out on Threads!

Weekly Update- 11/14/22

Hope everyone is ready for a new week on Planet Zone! This weekend was pretty laid back. We did some shopping and started decorating the house for Christmas. That'll be finished next weekend, but we got a good start. This is going to be a pretty busy week for me as it'll be pretty much a straight shot from tonight untill Wednesday morning at work. Aside from Saturday, I'll be working all week untill getting off for the Thanksgiving break. Not looking forward to that, but hopefully you all will enjoy the upcoming episode of Transform Squadron!

As far as toys go- Five Below resulted in a Bakugan Gorthion, a Stanger Things blind bag Demogorgon, and Mario from a Super Mario Bros. blind bag. A stop by Ross resulted in some more Bakugan whose names I can't remember at the time. The Flash and Batman who Laughs from Super Powers was bought at Walmart. Unfortunately no Transformers I didn't already have were found. Goes that way sometimes. I've got a fun week in store for you all. Thanks for reading Zone Base and please share with your friends!

Running up that Who Hill

As much as I love Stranger Things, Vecna stole a beat or two from the Grinch in this classic Halloween cartoon. I still remember watching it on Disney Channel back in the days that Stranger Things is set in reeling in the nightmare that the Grinch brought with him. Though, as an adult, I'm not scared anymore. While I love the cartoon... it's hard to look past the fact that Euchariah has to take a shit the entire special.

In fact... it's a stinky smell that sets off everything. That 'sour-sweet wind' that gets the Gree-Grumps and Hakken-Krakks going. I mean... it must be Halloween, something stinks and those things are yelling. So everyone goes inside and it isn't until Euchariah has to take a shit and gets blown away by that smelly wind on the way to the outhouse. It must really smell bad, because you can hear the Grinch throw up at one point.

Euchariah (a Who whom needs to poop) foils the Grinch's plans by subjecting himself to all sorts of nightmare within the paraphernalia wagon (while having to shit). This is exactly what Max (from Stranger Things, not the dog) did in season 4. Presumably not while holding a deuce. Or maybe... but who could blame her?

I bet the sour-sweet wind was just the Grinch holding his ass open in front of a fan

Weekly Update 7/11/22

 

This weekend sure did go by faster than I'd liked. Oh well, but that doesn't mean we're not going to have a great week Zone Base readers! Over the weekend my routine trip to At Home resulted in some Halloween fun! They had plan-o-grams taped up! The spooky stuff will be arriving soon. I spied a little stock on the feader shelves! They did have some decorative pumpkin candles and I totally grabbed one!

A stop by Cracker Barrel for some exclusive Squishmallows for the Mrs resulted in another bit of early Halloween fun. They had quite a bit available and we left with a cool vintage black cat sign. They also had a pack of dinosaur egg bots that I plan to get later. There's quite a bit I'm looking for now, so I'm being a little frugal. 

Walmart has Sandstorm and Buzzsaw! They also had Nightprowler, but I'd already gotten that pre order in. The other pre orders were canceled and they were bought on sight. I'm not a fan of all these pre orders as is, but when they keep moving the shipping dates back, I like them even less. Walmart also had Fright Features Lucky! She was bought on site as well. None of the other Ghostbusters toys were there, but I'll take what I can get. There's a lot I'm looking for, so what I found was exciting. 

The Mrs and I fell asleep in the living room after some dinner. This resulted in me waking up super early Sunday. Sunday was Ultraman Day and the time allowed me to put in some extra viewing of episodes. Tokushoutsu was doing an all day marathon and getting in some episodes of Ultra Q was a real treat! We had to stop by Five Below before getting groceries as our order had issues resulting in cancelation. It's convenient to order groceries, but occasionally annoying. 

Five Below lately has been having volumes of the Attack on Titan manga and the newest was available. I also picked up a cool Power Rangers building block set. The Rangers with their motorcycles are available and I grabbed Green Ranger! I'll likely get the Red one later. Got some stuff for podcasting and just stuff we needed. 

We intended to do a bunch of house work, but some of that will have to wait until later. Tacos were eaten and Code Orange videos were watched. Plans to order the Nintendo sundaes from Cold Stone Creamery were made, but canceled as delivery orders were expected to take way too long. I almost forgot to mention the cool office stuff I got at Walmart Saturday. A new Trapper Keeper and some notebooks were bought including a Marvel Mech Strike Monster Hunters one! I wasn't expecting to find that but was so happy to have that opportunity!

I've been making TikTok and Reels on Mondays the past few weeks. The Reels are much more popular, but it's flattering that they all get viewers. I don't think I'll be doing any today as I'm pretty wiped out. I stayed up too late watching Ultraman and playing Castlevania Legends on my Family Pocket. It's not the highest regarded Castlevania game, but I can have fun with it still. Today also is the one year anniversary of getting sick last year. I'm doing much better now, but can't help but to look back on how everything changed that day. I've got some errands to run, which is much better than what I was doing last year today. 

I've got a fun week planned for you all. I hope everyone has been enjoying the Spooky Summer posts. I made a change to them this year and it's been fun to make. Though, Halloween is just around the corner and I've been culling some really fun stuff for pumpkin spiced mayhem! Thank you for continuing to support Zone Base. It really does mean a lot that you all continue to do so. Please don't forget to share with your friends!