Weekly Update 9/14/26: It won't be over in five minutes

It's Monday again, Zone Base readers, and time for another week of robots, monsters, and misadventure! We're back from last week's holiday weekend and well into Halloween!

Transformers

While the Transformers world is currently rotating around the 40th anniversary showings of the 1986 Transformers movie, there's news of several fun tie-in products that look pretty damn cool. New blind-box ReAction figures by Super7, that way-cool 30" Optimus Prime by BigFig, various tumblers, and other neat items—the list goes on.

I plan to take in a viewing of the film myself. Like I've said too many times before, I was there opening weekend in 1986. You know what that makes me?

Old.

In other news, the newest Mattel Creations Hot Wheels Transformers collaboration was announced: Bumblebee! I've said time and time again that I'm convinced someone at Plex or Bandai is shadow-working on these Hot Wheels collaborations. The truth is, they're designed by Mattel and Hasbro/Takara Tomy.

The reason they have that Machine Robo feel is, like with Plex or Bandai, the designers are keeping the dimensions of the car and working around it instead of stretching things out to fit a robot.

Still, I see that Bumblebee and I envision an alternate reality where Transformers were sourced from Bandai toys and not Hasbro.

Humor me.

Godzilla / Tokusatsu

The trailer for Godzilla: Minus Zero is making waves and for good reason—it looks amazing! While the sequel looks to follow Minus One's story, it also looks like Ghidorah is joining in, making for an exciting movie. I love how Minus One was essentially a remake of the original Godzilla movie, with this new movie continuing the monsters down a familiar path.

The Dragonzord Kickstarter has been successfully funded and is heading into stretch goals that will include more goodies in the toy box. One of the goals was a White Ranger micro figure to be included alongside a Green Ranger, and that's where my mind checked out after it hit that goal.

So I guess I'm getting more stickers with my tiny Rangers?

I'm sadly adjusting to Zeztz ending while still hoping for a new episode. Damn, I really loved that show. However, Kamen Rider My-Th has begun airing, and I do enjoy it so far. It's such a radical departure from the show before it that I'm having a hard time letting go and... kinda refuse to.

Part of me sees Zeztz in the same light as shows like Neon Genesis Evangelion, where they stick with you long after they end. My-Th, however, is a pretty fun series so far, and I'm enjoying all the different animal-themed Riders in a slightly more... Victorian? flavored setting.

Ultraman Teo continues to be a fun ride, and I'm certainly enjoying Pucchi's involvement more now that he has been fighting alongside Teo. The show is pretty funny as well, and the kaiju look awesome.

I'm a few episodes behind on Omegahorn at this writing, but am still enjoying it more than I thought I would. I really hope Toei starts airing Project R.E.D. on their YouTube channel alongside Kamen Rider.

Weekend Report (as written on my phone Monday morning)

The weekend was pretty good if not over too fast. The Mrs. and I did some things around the house like enjoy dinner from Olive Garden and watch 1000lbs Sisters. I also started a new game of Gargoyle's Quest up while enjoying some ghost videos for some spooky fun. Sunday I finally put our patio furniture back together from the move. It's nice to have it all back after sitting unassembled since June. I started going through some boxes as part of organizing my storage space and slowly building myself a work area. Going through several boxes of older text books and magazines to donate to Goodwill I found several older fanzines and doujin work from my past. Of course those went in the keep boxes. It's going to take a few weekends to get the area in shape, but it'll be good to finally purge a lot of things that have been taking up space for far too long. Not my toys of course, but other assorted crap.

I didn't buy much, but what I bought this weekend was spacious! The Big Figs 30" Optimus Prime figure was ordered and should be here tomorrow and I picked up the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Re-Ignition Season 2 White Tigerzord! I've got to get that Thunder Megazord built! The Dragonzord Kickstarter will finish up this week as well, guess it's been a big ass robot toy kind of week. Well, thank you all for reading Zone Base. I've got to get my day started and get some things done. Please share the site with your friends and be excellent to each other!

Why is it always a pit?

It from the Pit is probably a lot of fun all year, but it definitely makes for some monster-movie-flavored fun with a cup of pumpkin-spiced latte.

While the game looks fun, the real star of this commercial is the animated segment, which makes me wish there was an ongoing story of adventurers facing off with that thing in the pit.

You know, just like quicksand, I seriously thought pits would be a bigger threat to my safety as a child. Never seen one.

SG Optimus Prime [Wheels CT02]

@robfromzonebase SG Optimus Prime [Transformers Blokees Wheels CT02] He comes with smoke stacks or a spoiler for the truck cab. #zonebase #transformers #blokees #blokeestransformers #shatteredglass ♬ Song 3 - BABYMETAL & Slaughter To Prevail

I've been meaning to assemble the newest Blokees Wheels CT kit for a few weeks now. For one reason or another, the more involved kits have been getting pushed to the side. Well, now that a little more time is finally loosening up, I'm slowly getting some of that precious hobby time back. I found myself adding CT02 to my Sunday build schedule instead of just sticking with quick-build kits.

CT02 is the Shattered Glass version of the standard Optimus Prime truck and trailer set, which was CT01. Obviously, it's a straight repaint, but that's kind of what's fun about this kit.

Evil versions of Optimus Prime are nothing new. There's Black Convoy or Nemesis Prime, Scourge from Robots in Disguise 2001, or even Clone Convoy and Gilthor, who go all the way back to the '80s. Evil versions of the hero are a pretty well-worn trope. The same goes for mirror universes. Almost every fictional universe has one.

One of the things that makes Shattered Glass stand out, however, is the alternate colors the characters received, and they are pretty fabulous. Optimus is a wonderful combination of black and purple, which any goth kid can tell you looks fabulous.

Now, to be fair, Optimus's trailer was black in G2. And that's part of what's fun about these color schemes. A lot of them are based on prior decos. For example, SG Starscream resembles the traditional Skyfire/Jetfire colors.

Optimus fortunately has an alt mode that looks great in almost any color, but purple really works for him. You don't see many purple tractor-trailers on the road, so it feels a little alien. Not to mention, the original Shattered Glass Optimus used the 2006 Classics Optimus Prime toy as its base, which was a slightly sleeker take on the classic cab-over-engine design of G1 Optimus.

The standard Blokees Wheels version of Optimus tends to be more in line with that 2006 toy, while the CT01 truck and trailer set allows for a more traditional-looking truck, with the spoiler being optional. The same is true with this version, though I went with the spoiler on my build because I honestly really like that Classics toy. In purple, paired with the black trailer, it just looks fabulous.

A nice difference between SG Optimus and your standard Prime is the placement of his Autobot symbols and other graphics. In late G1, through G2, and even into Machine Wars, you'd see things like enormous symbols on alt modes, various logos like "AUTOBOTS," symbols on windshields, and random sayings like "BIG STICK."

Various bits that, honestly, you'd see on cars around that same time frame.

I still remember a kid in high school with a white truck featuring matching purple splashes down the sides and the words "SPLASH AT YA!" across the windshield.

Which somehow was cooler than my beat-up Escort with mismatched fenders and band stickers.

Even though Shattered Glass isn't specifically G2, some of these decos have that same non-traditional energy, and these little wild touches really add to the overall look.

One thing I found very fun with CT01 was the ability to connect the Combat Deck robot to Roller. However, while I thought that was neat, I wasn't as inspired to do it because traditional G1 Optimus Prime didn't really use them that way.

HOWEVER, it's definitely something I could see Shattered Glass Optimus Prime doing.

Regular Optimus would send Roller to help find kids trapped in a mine. This Prime would send Roller to cave it in on them.

Not to mention, sending the Combat Deck robot on a mission just sounds so rad, doesn't it? Normally, it just sits around inside the trailer. I imagine it'd like something to do, and being paired up with Roller on little missions is just the way to get it out of the trailer and make it feel more productive.

I'd also like to think the two wouldn't get along.

Just the Worst

Before Harry Potter, "The Worst Witch" offered magic users a school to learn spells. I knew it as a special that would air every October on cable pretty often—HBO, Disney Channel, maybe TBS… it was on practically all month, and it was fun as crap while it was at it.

The special features the titular worst witch, Mildred Hubble, being an underdog at Witch School. Halloween comes, and the Grand Wizard is coming to visit for the holiday celebrations, and all hell breaks loose.

He performs probably one of the worst songs ever, sounding like he was making it up on the spot, all while in a montage straight out of a NyQuil-induced nightmare.

In the end, Mildred comes out on top and is rewarded with questionable time with the Grand Wizard as a prize. Mildred… maybe consider a career in HVAC repair instead?