Conjured

Summer is a Spooky Season.

That Possessed Doll

Every once and awhile I'm reminded of Annabelle. Not just because I enjoy the paranormal and scary stuff in general... but because I was terrified of her a a kid. I've talked about it before. Of course back then I didn't know her name. She was just the 'possessed Raggedy Ann doll' that kids talked about. Like Bloody Mary or the escaped serial killer on Halloween, she was a urban legend that scared us all. At the time, it wasn't uncommon to see a Raggedy Ann doll either. I strongly recall one sitting in a display at the local library and another owned by my cousin. Her popularity as a fictional character was waning by that then, but her presence was still there. Every sighting of one seemed evil. Is that the possessed one? Spring has had been a little extra spooky this year and as we near Walpurgis and Halfway to Halloween... it's a good time to remind those who may not be regular readers that it can get scary during the warmer months here on Planet Zone.

Inside The Museum

Summer is a Spooky Season.

The Conjuring Made Me Part 3

This weekend saw the release of 'The Conjuring: The Devil made me do it', which is officially the Conjuring part 3 and the 8th movie in the series. The 'true events' the movies are based upon would be the adventures of the real life Ed and Lorraine Warren. As a kid I was a big fan of so called real ghost stories books and The Warrens had quite a few. I still remember my friends and I being terrified of Raggedy Ann dolls thanks to the real life Annabelle in elementary school

By the way, I'm going to try and be as spoiler free as I can be. Though just in case, the rest of the post is after the jump. (Unless you're reading a direct linked page)

The Dark Pharaoh's Curse

I don't know if it's been noticeable, but I've got a really big toy back log. This isn't a problem, and if it is, it's a good problem to have. Because it gives me plenty of material to work with here. Speaking of here, today we're talking Machine Robo. You know, Gobots.

I have two boxes of Mugenbine I bought in 2019, Mugen Saga to be exact. Machine Robo Mugen Saga is a series of Mugenbine candy toys Bandai has been putting out the past few years. Dark Pharaoh here is the 'evil' version of Mugen Pharaoh and released with a new Arthur Paladin (I'll get to him later) in the same series. Mugenbine's gimmick is that every robot can combine with each other. The possible combinations are only limited to how many you have. It's pretty neat.

The specific team that makes up Dark Pharaoh is the Dark Five God Beasts. Individually: Dark Anubis, Dark Sphinx, Dark Ra, Dark Scorpion, and Dark Sobek. I'm pretty sure you've picked up on the that it's an Egyptian themed set. You may have also noticed it's dark. Dark Sphinx comes with a tiny pilot figure. The human pilot is a designation of a good guy as the robots without pilots were turned evil.

There's not much of a story to Mugenbine outside of a few blurbs of text and commercials (maybe a pack in manga). Mugen Pharaoh has a Buildroid so presumably he's a good guy... but this is Dark Pharaoh and dark versions are traditionally evil. Because of that and based on the teams individual forms, I've mentally classified the them as newer Devil Invader members. Because I like Monster GoBots and they pretty much fit the bill. Just look at how disapproving Lorraine Warren is towards Dark Pharaoh in the top picture. That's not just because I was watching spooky shit on Discovery+ either.

The set is pretty great and no matter how slick the combiner looks, the individual members still feel like old school GoBots. It's a nice balance between new and old. The combination isn't a simple affair, you literally have to completely dismantle the team and assemble it from all the parts. Not to mention, these are candy toys. Which are basically model kits that need to be individually assembled themselves. Opening up each members box, assembling, and then assembling Dark Pharaoh was almost an all night affair. It was a lot of fun and I've got three more teams waiting in their boxes. Good thing I've got Discovery+ and Doordash.

Maybe Dark Sphinx's pilot is a ghost. Ooh SpOoKy!

A Weekend Report Of 3 Days

A glorious three day weekend has passed and alas now I must resume my normal schedule. Much rest was had as well as much put off household work had been done. There's a lot of details about housework below, you've been warned. Details you probably do care about would include some shopping Saturday morning.

We looked at what Halloween merchandise Target and Walmart had out. Normally they're fully stocked by Labor Day Weekend, but since last year it's been the weekend after. Weird considering At Home starts stocking Halloween in June, but I'm sure there's a reason. I'm sure it's stupid. Regardless, some stuff came home with us including some of the new Halloween Kinder Surprise Eggs. This years theme is these great little trick or treating mini figures. I'll be posting on those later this week.

I also grabbed a bag from the new Godzilla bag clip figures wave. This series is Heisei era themed and lucky me, I got the chase Mothra! I then finally found both Slitherfang and the last wave 2 Cyberverse Tiny Turbo Changer I needed. Thinking about it, I didn't open Slitherfang yet. I'd been really looking forward to him too, what the hell self?

Grabbed Origins Skeletor at Walmart as they had a pile of him and nobody else. I just hope I can find wave 2 of the MOTU Minis easily. I had all the Transformers they had, so I just didn't buy any Transformers at Walmart. My Vintage Blaster should be showing up next week, so there's that. They also had the glow in the dark Dino Strike balls, so I grabbed one. Got a pterodactyl with cool glow in the dark armor. 

The rest of Saturday was a mix of sleeping and watching ghost videos on YouTube. Ok, also watched some Trvl channel. Which is just ghost shows. I like ghost shows. Somewhere in the middle I ate some frozen chicken wings and fires, don't worry, I cooked them first. 

I'm totally at work right on my computer and the cleaning dude just farted. Nasty ass.

Sunday was a mixture of household chores. Both regular and long overdue ones. Several things we've put off since moving in and some just needed to be done. Got most of the put off stuff done, though there's a weekend of putting up curtains upstairs in my future. In between the work was a massive order of Red Lobster as the wife hadn't had it before and we had decided on ordering a ton of food for Sunday. It was a good idea. So many cheese biscuits.

After a long food coma induced nap, I assembled some matching bookshelves for the wife's hobby room. Afterwards I was a little worn out from sitting on the floor for a few hours. So I spent the rest of Sunday night playing my Turbografx 16 Mini. I kinda needed that. 

Early Monday morning was spent doing some organizing in my toy room before lunch lead to a long ass nap. I woke up and started the grill for some burgers and hot dogs. It was Labor Day, you kinda have to grill out. I'm usually looking for an excuse anyway. The said food was ate while watching more ghost videos and Halloween stuff. Which I also watched while doing house work. Some people's favorite thing to watch is Gilmore Girls, mine is ghost videos and old Halloween stuff. I'm exciting.

We got halfway through Trvl Channels special on Ed and Lorraine Warren before the need to go to bed hit. The wife works a normal persons schedule and I was somehow still sleepy. We'll finish it up next weekend and probably won't delete it from the DVR. We're both fans of the Warrens. I've grown up enjoying their stories and we both like the Conjuring movies. I'm not too concerned on the legitimacy of them or anything, I just really like the stories. BTW, have you seen Trvl Channel's Ghostober commercials for this year? They are awesome.

Tuesday was my Monday and I spent it as I normally do a Monday. Odd chores, watching TV, and napping before work. I recorded this month's Transform Squadron and hope to have it posted soon. Just waiting for it to go up on the network. I spent a lot of time with those Kinder Surprise Egg toys, which is probably why I didn't play with Slitherfang. Holiday breaks have a way of throwing everything off.

The Conjuring Halloween Special

I've got something to admit, I was terrified of Raggedy Ann as a child. While The Conjuring movies are great, most people don't know those "true stories" they're based on happened somewhat recently.

Thanks to The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror, paranormal and occult stuff was pretty much all over the place during my childhood. Add in 80's Satanic Panic and you've got the recipe for much needed therapy. One popular ghost story was the possessed Raggedy Ann doll.

I'm of course talking about the real life Annabelle, which was an object of terror to a generation of children. It doesn't help that Raggedy Anne dolls were still everywhere at the time and someone gave her a Halloween Special. It's about the doll bringing a lonely pumpkin and child together. You read that right.