Warhammer Fantasy Goblins Update 1

D&D Miniatures - Another Demonweb Unboxing

Monsterpocalypse - Monster Booster

Heroscape

I just got some Heroscape for Christmas :). It is a less serious wargame, with a multi-genre slant. It is an easy game for beginners with some simple game mechanics, and is a good introductory wargame for non-gamer friends. I really like the terrain pieces and miniatures that came with the game. Some of which I'll be incorporating into other games I play.

SNOW!!! :)!!!

I wish everyone a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!!! :)!!!

Confrontation: The Age of the Rag'narok

The Clone Wars - Scenario Pack Still Pics

Monsterpocalypse

Black Friday 2008

Star Wars Miniatures - The Clone Wars

D&D Miniatures - Demonweb

Chaos Vindicator

So, I'm going multi-media now and trying out posting videos. I figured I might as well put some of this technology available to use. It looks like I definitely need a better camera though :(.

So I painted up another Warhammer 40,000 tank last weekend. This one is a Chaos Space Marine Vindicator. This is the old version of the kit and has many metal plates and parts. It was very difficult to put together due to the parts not fitting together very well. The newer kit is all plastic and looks much simpler to build. I might get one for my Dark Angels army :). Anyways, here's some still pics for those that can't view the video.

Digital Copy - Read the Fine Print.

Some months ago I bought the Family Guy: Blue Harvest DVD. It was the hilarious Star Wars spoof they did. This was a Fox DVD and was labeled as including a Digital Copy, which you can download to your computer and mobile devices. It was so cool :). It had several options. I was able to get a copy of the DVD through iTunes for my iPod and also download a WMV version for the computer, which I was also able to upload to my PSP. All of this was absolutely free and awesome. I thought this was how grand the future would be.

Then recently I bought the Warner Bros. DVD of the movie Mongol. On the package was labeled "Get a Digital Copy." Now based on my previous experience, I was overjoyed. I thought I'd have another movie for my mobile devices. So, I just tried to download this Warner Bros. branded "Digital Copy." Following the instructions I went to the WB website link, and it redirects me to a third party site I've never heard of, where to my surprise I'd have to pay $1.99 to download the "Digital Copy" :(. I had failed to read the very fine print on the packaging that said there were additional charges to get the "Digital Copy." I know $1.99 isn't really a lot of money for that convenience. But, after the freebie from the Family Guy DVD, it just seems lame to charge for the "digital copy." It seemed like such a cool reward and selling point for buying an official DVD. In any case, I'm going to be much more careful in reading the fine print on DVDs with "Digital Copy" labeled on them.

Hail to the Geek

I really get a kick out of this song :).



Hail to the Geek by Deaf Pedestrians

(Note: Extended Lyrics)

I got a Spiderman t-shirt
I got Converse that are rotting off my feet
I got a bad mustache
A reoccurring rash
And not a lot of cash
I spend it on my stash
Man it's good to be a geek

Well it's good to be a geek
It's good to be a creep
It's good to draw my pictures
That no one will ever see.
It's good to be a geek
It's good to be unknown
It's good I'm never waiting
Right beside the telephone
Cuz no one ever...

I play Dungeons and Dragons
I got a 13th level halfling fighter thief
Got seven hit die on my backstab
Sometimes you know it's good to be a geek.
It's good to be a geek
It's good to play the freak
It's good to comb my mullet once every other week
As far as I can see
It's good to play the Wii
Then stay up painting miniatures 'til 2 or 3
Cuz no one ever...

Someday I'll learn to play guitar
Start up a band and be a star
And when you wind up pumping gas
Just fill 'er up and kiss my a$$...

I'm addicted to star trek
I'm a Klingon speaking Federation freak
I find I'm more inclined
To spend the bulk of my time
On the starship Enterprise
Than talking to girls I meet

Well I never get the girl
But I like to be alone
Cuz I can always m@sterb@te when there's no one home
It's good to have a plan
It's good to be the man
It's good to download p0rn0 from a website in Japan
Cuz no one ever...

Someday I'll learn to play guitar
Start up a band and be a star
And when you wind up pumping gas
Just fill 'er up and kiss my a$$...

Ninth grade is when I got the swirlie
Tenth grade is when I got the indian burn
Four years of continuous wedgies
Wore nine pairs of briefs so they could all get a turn
Someday I'll buy a fancy condo
Someday I'll drive a car that's more than your house
Someday you'll kiss my a$$

It's good to make some noise
It's good to scream outloud
It's good to feel immortal
Like your last name is MacLeod
It's good to be a geek
Its good to be unseen
Its good to watch The Wrath of Khan on a plasma screen
It's good to be a geek
It's good to be the man
It's good to download p0rn0 from a website in japan
It's good to be a geek
It's good to be unknown
It's good I'm never waiting
Right beside the telephone
Cuz no one ever...

I got a bad mustache
A reoccurring rash
And not a lot of cash
I spend it on my stash
Man it's good to be a geek
You know I've gone in debt
To look like Boba Fett
I got my Holland set
Although it makes me sweat
Man it's good to be a geek!

Some Fun with ANIMOTO

So, I've been playing around with this ANIMOTO site, and am very impressed with the results. Basically ANIMOTO is a new way to make dynamic, slideshow videos set to music without any editing. Just upload your pics, pick a song from their list, and then the site mixes it up into a cool video. It amazes me actually. Unfortunately it only lets you make 30 second videos for free, about 12-15 pics. But you do get to make an unlimited amount. Longer videos you'll have to pay for. I believe $3 per video or $30 for a year's unlimited use. Not a bad deal, but for now I'll just play around with the free service.





Here are some videos I made of my Warhammer 40,000 collection. These are some of the models that I have built and painted :). It's really cool to see them this way :).

New York Anime Festival 2008

Well last weekend (Fri-Sun,) I spent at the New York Anime Festival :). Was a great time, though I do wonder about the anime and manga industry. Compared to last year, there were fewer industry booths, but a lot more, smaller, merch venders. Noticeably missing this year were ADV, TokyoPOP and Viz. Also absent this year was any sort of video or table-top gaming at the con.

The companies that were present, had a few interesting offerings. Bandai Entertainment will be bringing out the Gundam 00 anime. Their booth seemed to be the most popular with a lot of swag giveaways and lots of Haruhi and Lucky Star dance lines :). There was even a NYAF Lucky Star dance contest video that is hilarious :) Del Rey Manga was there promoting a Dean Koontz manga, In Odd We Trust. They will also be putting out The Genshiken Official Book soon. Yen Press was new to the show promoting their Haruhi and Soul Eater manga. They also had free copies of their Yen Plus magazine.

I only went to a few panels at the con. At the Gaia Online panel they announced that their ZOMG MMO will be out by the end of the year. Robin Sevakis of Anime News Nina fame had a panel on making comics with Photoshop. I also attended a panel on the history of Gekiga, which is a genre of mature, dramatic comics from japan. Where Manga literally translates to "Whimsical Pictures," Gekiga literally translates to "Dramatic Pictures." One series brought up in the panel was the Sanctuary manga, which the lecturer said was out of print and took him over a year to find the entire series. I happily thought in my head how I bought and read the entire series around the time they were released ages ago :).

I attended the mc chris concert on friday night at the convention. One thing that bothers me is that the con charged $10 extra for tickets to the concert. At every con I've ever been to, the concerts had always been free, even at last year's New York Anime Festival. Last year's Unicorn Table concert was awesome. This time around the extra ticket price had the effect of low interest among the con goers. Only about 1/3 of the seats were filled. The mc chris performance also had so many sound and lighting technical difficulties. It was a real disappointment, but mc chris's performance and comedy pulled the show together as best as possible.

I was not able to see the Rie Tanaka concert at the Masquerade event, which was free. The room they had it in was filled to capacity leaving many attendees to miss the event, another flub of the con organizers. I don't know how Reed Exhibitions could make these kinds of mistakes when they know from last year's con how popular these performances are. This year they did not provide adequate seating and space for most events.



So, what did I get at the con? Well, mostly manga. I needed to catch up on some series and there were many good deals on manga at the con. Pictured here is the stack that I got. I picked up some Negima, Genshiken, Welcome to the NHK, Megatokyo and others. I also got a Yotsuba Revoltech figure and the Yuki Nagato Figma figure :). Not pictured is the Final Fantasy VII Yuffie figure in the original costume and the Gundam: Char's Counter Attack DVD which I got.

Overall, the con was great, but with a few problems. The attendance is growing with enthusiastic crowds and cosplayers, but the con organizers and industry really slacked off this year and provided a less than stellar show. I don't know if it is due to the economy and lowered promotion budgets, but one thing is for sure, that the fans are willing to gather in great numbers and have fun even if they have to rely on themselves to party :).

Paint Table - Night Goblins

Looks like the painting table is getting a bit messy :). Working on several projects at once is probably not a good idea :). I've taken a bit of a break from the Warmachine Cryx and am going to work on my very first Warhammer Fantasy Battle army. I'm normally a Warhammer 40,000 player, which is the science fiction version of the game.



Well, I've been painting away and have finally finished painting my first regiment of Night Goblins :). Goblins are way too small, and were quite difficult for me to paint. But, I think I'll get the hang of it and improve. After all, I've got about 100+ more goblins to paint :(.



Here are a couple of my Night Goblin Heroes. They will be commanding the army. The one on the left I'm thinking of naming Skrub and his pet squig I'll name Dub :). The figure on the right is a Night Goblin Shaman, which I'll probably name Skreech. Don't know if those names are taken anywhere, but at least now I have something to call them :).

Paint Table - The Start

Hey folks, it's been a long time since I've painted any minis. When I was living back home with the parents, I had everything all set up in the basement with a paint table and even a nice wargames table with terrain. Now, living in a small apartment, it's hard to have any space at all to do this kinda stuff. Well anyways, I've broken out the painting table once again, to get back into the swing of things.



This is a Cryx Nightwretch Bonejack. Recently the game Warmachine has gotten my interest. It's quite different from Warhammer, and I liked the models. So, I am starting a Cryx army :).

I am still a bit rusty at painting minis, but I hope to get back up to speed and hopefully learn a few new tricks. You can look forward to more "Paint Table" posts in the future :).

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

So, I was able to catch the new animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie last week. I didn't feel like spending the money to head into Manhattan. So, I decided to take a walk to the Kaufman UA theater in Astoria, despite childhood warnings never to go around that area. My parents had told me stories about how a friend of theirs was mugged and stabbed in the eye in that area. Whether the fear of walking around that area was irrational or not was questionable. I did have to walk through quite a desolate and crappy neighborhood to get there. The odd thing was that the theater itself was a nice, standard, suburban-style cineplex with an Uno's, Applebee's and a Panera Bread next to it. It reminded me of being back in the suburbs :).

So, How was The Clone Wars? Well it had a few problems. The first to stand out right away was there was no opening crawl of text. Instead we have this cheezy opening narration. The series is of course geared towards kids, but you figure they'd at least be able to read for a little bit at the opening of the cartoon.

The animation itself was nice, though not as smooth in some of the action scenes as I would have liked. But, somehow I think the stilted movements might have been intentional. The character style for me worked better in the previous 2-D Clone Wars animations than it does in 3-D. The battles were nice, but not as epic as I would have liked. They could have done a lot more. My main gripe was the canned animations of all the droid combatants. Also, I found it annoying for some of the ships and armor to be off-model from previous movies. Looking up things on Wookieepedia only brings the explanation/excuse of them being different ship and armor variants.

The story was a bit blah to me. I know this movie is just an introduction to an animated series coming this Fall. But, I would have liked a grander story focus for a feature film. The search for Jabba's son? Are they serious? I thought I would like the new character Ahsoka, but she ended up being a little too annoying at times.

All of this though is totally forgivable to me since I am such a total fan :). Just seeing another chapter of Star Wars on the big screen was enough to give me a grand, fun afternoon. Although, after dinner at the Panera, this lead to an after-movie walk to the Northern Blvd. Toys R Us and a Star Wars toy shopping spree :). Yes, I like to punish my wallet every now and again :).

Florida and Droids

Well, I'm back from Florida. Had a great trip and totally geeked out with my myriad of cousins. We ended up playing Dungeons & Dragons for three nights :). Games of Chez Geek and Super Munchkin were also played to unexpected results. Our normally non-geek cousin Darwin ended up winning both games. I attribute this to him growing a goatee and therefore it must have been an alternate universe version of him that had won the games :). Later, my cousin Darwin set up some poker and black jack games for us on two nights using casino chips. Was an awesome time, and I'll even miss the annoying though often amusing antics of my little cousin Ryan :).

While in Florida, my cousin Ernest showed us some very cool stores. I was able to add 5 new astromech droids to my collection :). Three were found in Wal-Mart as part of the new Droid Factory line. The coolest finds though were two Star Tours droids found at the Acme Superstore, an amazing collector's paradise. The place has the biggest selection of hard to find Star Wars, Star Trek, G.I. Joe and Transformers toys and collectibles I have ever seen. We also visited Cool Stuff Games and Rhubarb Games to pick up some D&D stuff. Of course we also ended up checking the local Barnes & Nobles and Borders for some manga browsing :).



Here's some pics of the droids I picked up. The three in front are R4-H5, R2-T0 and R4-F5. The two in the back are the Star Tours droids R3-D3 and R4-M9.





Here's a line up of some of the astromech droids I have. I have ten more that aren't shown because they are still in the display packaging.

Thanks again to all my cousins. It was a really fun time, and way too short. Hopefully I can visit again soon or maybe you all can visit me up here in NYC sometime :).