Here we are again. The Halloween season is slowly coming to a close and that means once again I'm talking about The Halloween that Almost Wasn't/The Night Dracula Saved the World. It's my favorite Halloween special... I've said that each time. I said it because I meant it. When I was a kid, Halloween was this weird patchwork holiday. Spooky, creepy, scary... but also ratchet as hell sometimes. The Disney Channel, for example, a big company with lots of money and slick polish would fill October with tons of old specials like this.
It's got the production value of a school play, almost amateurish things happen on screen like when the Wolfman is standing in view before he's supposed to go through a door. The Mummy just falls on his ass a few times. But... it's funny as hell. Like, legitimately funny. There's a fun script and the actors are obviously having a great time. It's a good thing the special is easily watchable, because none would believe that this thing exists. Despite all that, it's so very Halloween at it's core. Pure Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem. Happy Halloween everybody.
As Pumpkin Spiced Mayhem comes to an end, it's time for a viewing of my all time favorite Halloween special. The Halloween that Almost Wasn't/The Night Dracula Saved the World is about Dracula and his fellow monsters trying to prevent the Witch from quitting her duties to fly over the moon at Halloween. It's hilarious and full of noticeable little goofs that make it even better. Happy Halloween everybody, thankfully Dracula saved it... and/or the world. Maybe both.
It was a dark and stormy night. A lone security guard patrols the medical university when he discovers the door to the morgue is open! Upon investigating he finds Decepticon Pretenders robbing the bodies of the dead! What could those dastardly fiends want with a bunch of corpses? They plan to make an army of un-dead soldiers, THE DESTROIDS ARE HERE! Part of the reason I love Masterforce so much is that it's complete departure from traditional Transformers story telling. While other series have strayed from the trail on occasion, Masterforce was the first to go it's own path. From the spooky depictions of the Decepticon Pretenders, to the Destroids, to an outright witch... Masterforce didn't mess around. Someone wanted to tell a scary story.
Christmas is over and we're entering the last week of the year 2020. This year felt like a horror movie, so here's hoping next year... won't. I've got a fun week of posts in store to last you the rest of the year! Thank you for continuing to read Zone Base and please share with friends!
I've been hearing it all year. Halloween is canceled. Yet here we are celebrating the spooky shit out of it. Pandemic be damned, we all flew over the moon and rang in the best season of the year.
It's not Halloween yet, at least not until we all watch my favorite Halloween Special of all time- The Halloween That Almost Wasn't! Seems a little more fitting this year huh? The video attached above is a pretty good copy of the VHS release (with alternate 'The Night Dracula Saved The World' title).
I'm not ashamed to admit I watch it throughout the year. Just like old Halloween commercials and a few other choice specials, it's some of my favorite things to watch. I love it so.
The season is winding down, I know. Soon I'll have to pack the pumpkins away and wait another year for... who am I kidding? Everyday is Halloween on Zone Base. They'll be spooky shit all year. It's even in the sites description. It's a site about robots AND monsters. Duh.
If you watch the video from my site, or later on TV, enjoy Dracula and the gang saving Halloween. They had to save it from a fed up Witch. We had to save it from a freaking pandemic. Admittedly he probably had an easier job.
Transformers the movie came out in 1986 and with it childhood trauma. The intention of replacing the older toys with the newer toys was carried out with inappropriate violence and onscreen death for what was intended to be a children's cartoon. Prowl didn't get shot and fall over dead. Prowl got shot and we watched his face in agony as life exited his body. Some scenes were originally planned to be even more violent. Which is kinda crazy.
It was awesome.
Probably the most traumatic part of the movie for children, however, was the death of Optimus Prime. In his epic fight to the end with Megatron, Optimus received some fatal wounds. This leads to Hot Rod later becoming Rodimus Prime and many crying children (that didn't give three shits about anybody else who died). So much that their parents complained to Hasbro about the cruel loss of their kid's hero. That's kinda remarkable as the guy had only been around for two years at this point and had that kind of an impact.
So of course Hasbro brought him back. Then killed him and brought him back. Then killed him and brought him back. You no, it's no wonder Optimus is so ready for self sacrifice. He even knows he'll be back. Fuck those other guys though. Except Brawn.
Over the years there's been a few toys that represented Optimus as he lay dead in that pivotal scene. Most recently the Generations Selects exclusive version of the excellent Earthrise Leader Class Optimus Prime toy. It's officially titled 'Alternate Universe Optimus Prime'. Which is a nice way of saying 'he in robot heaven'. It's a wonderfully gray scale interpretation of the toy complete with a new beat up head sculpt.
I'm fortunate to have the great friend in Shawn that I have as today I got one of these awesome toys by way of housewarming gift from him. He said it's the perfect mascot for Zone Base and he's not wrong. Somewhere between all my sneaking Halloween in throughout the year and giant robot talk... a Zombie Optimus Prime kinda fits. Prime spooky shit.
G.I. Joe is the code name for America's daring, highly trained, special mission force. Its purpose: To defend human freedom against Cobra, a ruthless, terrorist organization who apparently has a ton of monsters just laying around. To be honest, I'm kinda at a loss at just how Cobra looses all the time. Even without monsters they have ninjas, punk rock pirates who's leader could just morph into other people. Some weirdo in a metal mask, a guy with a robot arm, a freaking mad scientist, a bootleg Dr. Strange, robot soldiers... and that's before you get to the secret city of snake people and the second (and better) leader who was a damn Frankenstein Monster with a portion of his parts coming from Dracula himself!
At some point Cobra decided to outright just start using monsters, because why the fuck not? The hell with those twins, we've got Mega Monsters! GI JOE had to make another special team called the MEGA MARINES to drive up in their Monster Blaster A.P.C to shoot a big ass rocket with. But not to be outdone, when Cobra took their antics to space, GI JOE had to utilize space robots. The Manimals would have come in around then, but something happened and they didn't see the light of day until the early 2000's. What are the Manimals you ask?
Freaking mutating solders that's what. I was lucky enough to score a couple on clearance at Kay Bee Toys and let me tell you, Manimals were freaking amazing. In case the Mega Monsters, snake people, and drug dealers weren't enough... mutant soldiers that changed into terrifying monsters should do the trick. With toys like Manimals, there's no rational reason for GI JOE not to still be on shelves. In the immortal words of Ronnie James Dio, it's always a mystery.
What if mutating soldiers and giant monsters STILL aren't enough? Well, just pull out the zombies I guess. Both Cobra and GI JOE have Eco Warriors teams. Utilizing things like toxic waste for evil, Cobra's cool Toxo-Vipers are awesome enough on their own. Packing chemical sprayers and a shotgun... I just can't love these neon colored warriors enough. But you can't just go around squirting toxic sludge around and despite all the amazing stuff Cobra has, they have terrible quality control. Toxo-Vipers suits will eventually leak and create a new soldier called the Toxo-Zombie. I'm not kidding, they literally just call workplace accidents a new type of soldier. Somehow these new zombie soldiers were trusted with more chemical sprayers. At this point why the hell not?
At some point Cobra decided accidental zombies weren't enough and developed Zombie-Vipers. According to the bio-card on the back, Compound Z is a chemical that just turns Vipers into zombies. Zombie (a monster known for dragging it's limps) soldiers with big tentacles hanging off their arms. After ten years of The Walking Dead and people dispatching zombies with sticks, starting to understand how the Joes keep winning.
It's the big day! OR IS IT? Guys, I'm not joking around anymore. Unless somebody can convince the Witch to fly over the moon tonight... Halloween is OVER!!!!
Let's just hope Dracula and the gang can save Halloween!
Dang... is the Mummy ok? He fell like a million times.
Every Halloween season, Takis puts out their amazingly tasty Zombie Nitro chips and I'm sure to grab a few bags during the season. I'm sure nothing that spicy and green can be good for your insides, but here I am... eating some right now.
