Sky-Byte [Cyberworld/Cyber Changers]

One of the most exciting figures in the first wave of Cyber Changers is Sky-Byte. Sky-Byte has been a fan favorite character since his introduction in Transformers Car Robots/ Transformers Robots in Disguise. He's a lovable bad guy who writes haiku's and sings little songs whilst getting into mischief. While he hasn't appeared yet in the Cyberworld cartoon (as of this writing), one can only hope this incarnation will retain some of the originals charm.

Seeing as his alt mode is a reference to the episode 'Skid Z's Choice', one can only hope we'll have some poetry being recited while he's participating in some weird challenge. In the episode mentioned, Sky-Byte participates in a race by giving himself car parts. That leaves us with a silly shark car that this new toy transforms into. In robot mode Sky-Byte is the standard Cyberworld figure we discussed earlier this week with Optimus Prime. However, despite that uniformity... he's different. Turning into a sharkcar means his robot mode is pretty beastly. He's normally a Predacon and a bit of a Beast Wars remnant. His original toy, like the majority of the Predacons in Robots in Disguise, was a repaint of a prior Beast Wars toy.

Those beasty designs stuck with all his other incarnations since then. Thanks to the Cyberworld style, there's a Machine Robo flavor to this toy. It's probably unintentional, and maybe just my own take... but he feels like a Devil Invader in so many ways. It's cool. One thing I didn't mention in the Optimus post, these bots have a standard 5mm hole in their hands for holding weapons. Obviously that's great for the Armored Cyber Changers, but give me the hope that something like BattleMasters is on the way. After all, why do bots that don't include weapons have to possibility of holding them? They're unified in design for a reason. Sky-Byte's left hand is his signature claw made from the sharks rear fin. Be careful, this is a separate piece that you have to plug in, it can get lost by accident.

Transformation to sharkcar... damn I love saying that. Sharkcar, sharkcar, sharkcar. *ahem* Transformation to sharkcar (sqweee!) is pretty simple and makes me compare him to a Gobot again. The way he folds in half is very similar to many of those Machine Robo transformation schemes. Not to mention, something like a sharkcar (yay) is so Monster Gobot. Sharkcar (teehee) is a pleasantly satisfying mode. The wheels are nicely large, so you feel like he could easily roll over most obstacles. It's just the right size for such a toy too, just big enough to hold and push around your desk.

Really, this is a great example of how fun Cyberworld looks to be. A solid little Transformers toy that so full of fun that the limited articulation and paint aps are hardly noticeable. Sky-Byte fortunately doesn't have as much of the visible hollowness as Optimus did. It's there, but easy to ignore. I forgot to mention, his claw can be mounted on the sharks head in vehicle mode. Why? I don't know, but there sure is another 5mm port there than could hold a Battlemaster. Maybe something like that is on the way. I keep saying fun in reference to Transformers Cyberworld and Sky-Byte is an ambassador of the brand in that context. He's the greatest shark in town after all.

Yeongdeok

Summer is a Spooky Season.

But now it is time for The Spooky Season.

Optimus Prime [Cyberworld/Cyber Changers]

 

Being the main character of Transformers, you knew there'd be an Optimus Prime toy or two hundred in Cyberworld. Today we'll be looking at his Cyber Changer wave 1 figure. Cyber Changers are the basic figures from Transformers Cyberworld. They're the standard size for the line, with Armored Cyber Changers being the next up with larger bots (like Grimlock) coming in at random. Armored Cyber Changers are the same as regular Cyber Changers, but come with a large accessory.

Cyberworld Transformers have a unifying size to make them all compatible with the larger figures whom they can interact with. Think of them like Micronauts/Microman, GIJOE, Transformers Cyberverse (2011). It's pretty neat. The figures are 4" tall and feature basic articulation standard. Shoulders, legs, hips, knees. Heads look to be variable depending on the design. I've been comparing them to up sized Legend/Legion class toys, but those didn't have a universal compatibility like these.

They're a lower priced line than Generations or any of the other collector focused lines, so they're not going to be as fancy as a Masterpiece. However, for a cheap little bot they're pretty neat. What's so neat about them (other than small and inexpensive toy) is they feature some really creative designs. Optimus, for example, has had a million different toys... and this basic little guy manages to be unique. I mean, look at him... there's no mistaking this is Optimus Prime, and yet he's still unique looking. In robot mode, Optimus is big and strong looking with a newer take on his classic look.

Despite being a smaller toy, he has a satisfying amount of chonk that just looks right. Optimus is often designed as muscle bound, but it's pretty well established here. This Optimus will slap the shit outta Megatron, sending him running home crying to his Mega Mamma. Dad isn't going to do anything either, I mean.. you see that guy? He's swole AF. Transformation to truck mode is simple (it's a vibe) and a little different that you'd expect. His arms form the under chassis of the truck instead of the back of the cab. This leads to his smokestacks forming front mounted guns similar to his Transformers One design.

One thing that really stood out to was that his head fits much lower into the cab than I'm used too. The plate behind his head is actually the trucks front grill. I found that neat, and considering how rare it is that I find transformations anything more than utilitarian... that's saying something. I find the truck pretty cool looking and once again a unique take on his classic design.

Of course there's no ignoring the hollow parts exposing a simple toys limitations. A toy like this is going to have visible hollow parts and they are out in plain view in truck mode. There's possibly a trailer version coming that would hide a lot of it, but for now it is what it is.Maybe you can stick some candy in the back, make the most of it. Regardless this is a pretty neat little figure for now a lot of money (I paid $9 at Walmart). Robot mode is pretty good, but the truck mode exposes the limitations due to budget constraints. The hollowness is unavoidable and that grill could use a little paint. Still, I like it. Mostly for the robot mode, that's pretty neat looking.

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!

Tigerhawk [Legacy United/Leader Class]

My love for Beast Wars is probably pretty well known. Earlier today (as I'm writing this), I was watching Beast Wars on the Transformers channel as I often do. It inspired me to talk about today's toy that I haven't covered on the site yet. This Legacy version Tigerhawk was a Christmas gift from the Mrs. last year and a most welcome one at that. The original is one of my 'best of all time' Transformers and something I hold in high regard.

Tigerhawk was created when the Vok merged Tigatron and Airrazor together creating a singular being. With that in mind, the designers used the more recent Kingdom  Tigatron and Airrazor molds for parts to use on this toy. That was both a fun bit of synergy and a good way to keep costs down. This time around, Tigerhawk is very show accurate in a way I wasn't prepared to appreciate.

Original Beast Wars Transformers were pretty thick and chunky as was pretty standard for robot toys at the time. Of course those looks were often streamlined on TV, and it was just something I was used too. This new Tigerhawk has the show models look down really well, and it's impressive. Of course I'm accustomed to the chonk, so it's weirdly different... but I'm very happy that the show model is so right on. I like having my original toys and show models represented well. There's no beating that original toy to me, so the new figure being the show model is a perfect solution!

They even nailed the proper purples and copper Mainframe used. In robot mode, he looks great and is nicely articulated. The feather missiles no longer fire, but can be held in hand. The same is of those wing mounted cannons. The chain gun ends are still present, but they flip around manually to reveal static cannons. Those cannons can be removed and held as well. They even combine to form a larger gun! The wrist mounted blaster is now an removable piece that can be placed elsewhere also. Tigerhawk was always heavily armed, but feels even more so now.

Transformation is similar to the original, but has it's differences. I had a little difficulty getting the chest to close correctly. It fits around the cockpit a certain way and it's all got to be in place just right to work. After a little finagling, it finally worked. The wings have a wide range of movement and can fold forward in attack mode as the original. Being show accurate, the battle mode helmet is gone as is the hidden tank mode. The cockpit is on Tigerhawk's robot shoulder, but hidden in beast mode like in the show.

Cockpit?

Yes, Tigerhawk originally was one of the Beast Wars toys designed with a Spark Figure cockpit. The gimmick was dropped, but those cockpits remained on the figures. Here it's just for show, but I'm glad it's there. This is a really cool toy and a great update of a classic. I'm very appreciative of it's show model accuracy and enjoy the differences from the original. That original may be an all time classic, but chasing down those missiles when accidentally fired was a nightmare. Like the original, this feels like something special I own. It's not just a toy, but a representation of a cherished character from a special time in my life.

Conjured

Summer is a Spooky Season.

Soundwave [Studio Series/Deluxe Class]

Prior to the Bumblebee movie, Dark of the Moon was my favorite of the Transformers live action movies. So various Studio Series releases of the characters from that film tend to catch my eye. The Mrs. probably didn't know that when she picked up this Soundwave for me as a Christmas gift last year. It was originally released in 2019 with a Target Exclusive reissue last year.

I had completely missed out on it's initial release and the universe just made it happen. Neat! Soundwave was pretty cool looking in all his movie appearances, but his DOTM look was really slick. He changes into a licensed Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, which is a really expensive car. According to Google, in 2011 (when the movie was released) it cost from $169,800 to $275,000. I hope nobody scratched it during filming. 

Yikes.

This is a very well done representation of Soundwave from DOTM, looking like he just walked off the screen and very sleek. He comes with a tiny Laserbeak whom can perch on his arm or top of the car. In robot mode, Soundwave is very articulated and can be put into all sorts of poses. Like all the Bay era film designs, there are a lot of sharp points and edges. These are present... but cast in a softer plastic for safety reasons. He is very well sculpted and there is a lot of detail. More than you'd expect for a standard retail figure. I guess Mercedes had requirements for their licensees.

Transformation is the standard car mode layout you can expect, but man it is a tight fit. There's hardly any wiggle room getting everything into place and that can be frustrating. You might notice in the pics mine doesn't look completely connected in car mode. That's because it isn't, I have no clue what black magic it takes to get everything to align properly, but I gave up after taking too long trying to get everything into place. His robot mode hips are between the forearms in car mode and that tight fit meant something was clearly off just a touch right there and I could not figure it out. Even with some gaps in the panels, that is one sleek looking vehicle. Thanks to various pictures online, I don't have to imagine just how sleeker it is without those hips causing a problem. Despite the frustration, I really enjoy this figure. Studio Series is supposed to be the higher quality representation of the on screen characters and it's shows here.

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!