Ever since Godzilla vs Kong came out in 2021, Doug has been in the hearts of many a kaiju fan. Don't ask me how this cute little guy who makes the briefest of appearances managed to become so beloved... but I had to have one too. Fortunately the little guy reappeared in the follow up Godzilla x Kong : The New Empire. Playmates released a toy of the lovable little guy in a 2 pack with Suko... that little shit you wanted Kong to punt into lava for 3/4ths of the movie. I've been speaking highly of Playmates kaiju figures and they did a great job with this two pack. Suko is pleasantly articulated for such a little guy and Doug has the movement you'd expect from a toy his shape. For $10 these are a great value. There's even a rock for Suko to throw. I do wish Doug had brighter paint apps... but it's pretty true to form. Playmates has seemingly shifted from GxK to Monsterverse as a whole and I'll be getting into some of those here eventually. With Bandai sofubi making a return to US shelves I don't know if Playmate's kaiju run is over, or if they're strictly Monsterverse now. Either way, what they've been churning out is solid toys. Playmates always makes good stuff and I'm really looking forward to their upcoming Power Rangers figures.
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Chinese Dragon MB-14 [MEGABOX]
2024 isn't just the 40th anniversary of the Transformers or 50th anniversary of Microman and Hello Kitty. It's also the Year of the Wood Dragon! To celebrate, we're taking a look at Megabox Chinese Dragon MB-14. Megabox is a companion line to Beastbox that has featured licensed characters or in this case, characters from East Asian mythology. Chinese Dragon is exactly as his name implies, a traditional Chinese Dragon. I'm saying 'he', but no gender has been implied to my knowledge. Chinese Dragon is a really ornate looking toy. The green and gold colored plastic really compliment each other as does the translucent orange bits. This is a really pretty figure. Chinese Dragon is also very long, with plentiful articulation allowing for cool flying poses. I get the mental picture of Mythical Qi Beast RyuseiOh/Red Dragon Thunderzord flying into action. His legs also are articulated and the mouth can open.
Transformation into box mode is a little involved to say the least. It's pretty hard to imagine Chinese Dragon's serpentine shape forming a square... but it really can. This involves a lot of folding and splitting the tail right down the middle. I'm used to the BeastBox's folding into boxes with obvious corner points forming pretty quickly during the transformation process. With Chinese Dragon, you actually form him at an angle. It took me a second to realize I had made the box after I had formed the corners together. Once finished he fits into his Box Charger for storage. Speaking of, the Box Charger is a nice green color that really pops. This really is a very good looking toy. I've been enjoying BeastBox quite a bit and a part of that is based on the creativity each toy has. It's hard to imagine a shape like Chinese Dragon's turning into a box... let alone something angular. Once you've done it, it takes a moment to let it sink in. That's really cool.
Monday, November 4, 2024
New Week, New Future
Monday has happened again. Of course that means a new week of robots, monsters, and misadventure is starting here on Zone Base! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was busy with lots of house work to be done. Halloween is sadly over, meaning lots of decorations had to be put away. Not to mention a good household cleaning. Some shopping did happen and I brought home some fun stuff. Target had the new Bandai Godzilla Monster Series 5" figures just in time for Godzilla Day this weekend. I picked up the Godzilla 1954 figure and the Skeleton Godzilla 1954 ReAction figure. I felt that was a solid way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the original movies release. Unfortunately Target didn't have any Transformers I needed, but did have a Turtles of Grayskull April O'Neil. I got her, leaving me just needing Man-at-Arms to have the line complete until the newest wave releases.
A later trip to Walmart also resulted in no new Transformers. I still need to find the remaining Star Raiders and the new Legacy/Studio Series figures as well. In due time I suppose. I did pick up a Culturefly Meltz Transformer toy and got Shockwave! These are neat little blind bags that are the characters represented as ice cream bars. Neat! I was hoping to find Blokees now that Walmart is carrying them, but no such luck. I guess it just wasn't in the cards this weekend. Of course I also played some Astro Bot (still avoiding completing it) and got some Transformers Minecraft levels completed. It's fun, but it's becoming clear that I need to remap some controls. Speaking of games, the new Nintendo Music app is on mobile and a lot of fun! You need a Switch Online account to use it (which I have), so thankfully there's no ads. It's great digging into various game soundtracks without the same commercials every few songs like on Spotify. Well, time to get my day started. I've got a few chores to do and pictures for upcoming posts to take. Halloween may be over, but Zone Base is still here. Thank you all for reading, please don't forget to share with your friends!