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At Last! The Annual List Of What My Brother Will Buy Me For Christmas!

Thursday, October 30th, 2014

The other week I got this text from a certain brother-of-mine:

I was astounded. In previous years I had produced such lists, but little did I know that they had worked their way into the tapestry of my brothers christmas-shopping life (so to speak).

He went on to say “money is no object“ and “the more obscure and difficult to find, the better“. Sadly I forgot to screenshot those bits.

So Bernard, as requested…

Books Category

The ZX Spectrum Book (Andrew Rollins)

A few years back Bernard got me ‘The Commodore 64 Book‘ which was just fab. I quickly snapped up the followup (‘The 8-bit Book‘) but have been tragically unable to acquire the first book from this small publisher. This is perhaps not surprising, since it was published over five years ago in small quantities and is long out of print. I don’t know exactly where he’s going to find it, but when I open this beauty on Christmas day I’ll be a happy reader indeed!

The World Of The Dark Crystal (Brian Froud)

Given there is now a sequel to the film coming, I believe Christmas 2014 would be the perfect time for my brother to put on his sleuth’s hat and solve an outstanding mystery. You see I don’t just want any copy of this book, I want my copy. Truth is, as a youngling sprout, I purchased myself a copy of this lovely tome from Angus & Robertson Charlestown Square. This would have been back in ’82, when the film came out. It was a mildly expensive book, and I had to utilize lay-by to get it! And oh how I loved it! It was one of my most treasured possessions, ‘my precious’ if you will. And then some soulless inhuman thief nicked it :<

As I hinted, the mystery of who stole my book is as yet unsolved. The only lead I’ve had these 32 long years is this photo taken by a security camera:

I’m hoping, in the spirit of Christmas, Bernard may finally discover the identity of the thief and return to me my beloved tome…

Trial Of Champions (Ian Livingstone)

Of course I own this book. Multiple copies in fact. But I don’t own the version shown, which is the US imprint. It was the last FF book released in the US during the initial series, and I have all the others. But not this one. And I have looked, oh how have I looked! The problem is sellers very, very rarely (ie. never) bother to specify the imprint when they sell this book online. And given there was probably 80 quadrillion copies of the UK version printed to every US copy, taking a chance is a fool’s errand. I consider myself one of the world’s foremost ‘online searchers for and buyers of’ gamebooks, and boast a bookshelf of more than four hundred. And yet I’ve never seen this one. I look forward to that changing this Christmas day.

DVD Section

It Couldn’t Happen Here (1988)

Otherwise known as ‘The Pet Shop Boys film’. I saw this a few years after it came out, probably at the Enmore theatre, probably with a lass named Caraid who I forget everything about except her unusual name. I think she looked like Karen Gillan though, and her mum gave me a beer once within 30 seconds of visiting her house. Weird. Anyway I want to see this film again, which means I want it on DVD. This is a tall order, since it’s never been released on DVD. Which limits my options to two: VHS or Laserdisc. The first option is of course absurd, but the second is a possibility since I own a working LD player. Maybe. So that’s the hard part out of the way, now all I need is the disc, in NTSC format of course. I’ve made your work easy Bernard 🙂

Adam Adamant Lives! (1966)

I’ve never seen this show since it never screen outside of England and I’m not an Englishman. Firstly, the BBC trashed a bunch of episodes so it doesn’t even exist in it’s entirety. Secondly, it’s never been released on anything outside of England. And lastly the DVD set (containing the 17 existing episodes) is long out of print. All these considerations aside, given that this show inspired Doctor Who and The Avengers (and some of Kim Newman’s characters) I obviously need to see it. And I shall, when Bernard gives me the Region 2 box set loaded with extras for Christmas.

Toy Section

Dark Horn ‘Harry Special’ (HM Zoid Kit)

There’s a lot of beautiful things in this world, and then there’s the limited ‘Harry Special’ variant HM Zoid Dark Horn kit. I mean look at that! Could there even exist a better looking model kit? Of course not, and I therefore must own it. Bernard will undoubtedly agree, and I’m just going to be ebullient when he gives it to me for Christm–

Oh to hell with it! This guy’s so pretty I just can’t goddamn wait until Christmas! Hang on a second, while I go buy it…

Ok, taken care of. It’s now mine, all mine. And in case you don’t believe me, let Emi prove it to you:

OMG the box is bigger than Emi! Sorry Bernard. Guess I ruined that as a potential gift 😉

L.E.D. Mirage V3: Inferno Napalm (FSS 1:100 kit)

If I ever met anyone that claimed that any other kit was better looking than this, I’d start by punching them, and I’d end by never being their friend. We all know that Five Star Stories mech’s are stupidly pretty and the jewel-in-the-crown of FSS model kits is unquestionably this one. Sure it costs more than almost every piece of furniture in my house, is supposedly extremely difficult to assemble and when you do takes hundreds of hours, but gosh it’s pretty. Even prettier, I suspect, than Caraid, the girl I saw a movie with 25 years ago and have forgotten about. Oh and Bernard, when you budget for this guy, be sure to add on another $50 or so for the sizeable cost of shipping the collossal box all the way across the USA 😉

Game Section

The Sacred Armor of Antiriad (C64, 1986)

I’m a canny beast. Much like Steven Moffat (aka. the favourite scribe of my illustrious friend Adam ‘The Bold’ W), I like winding secrets into the story of my life. I bet none of you knew back when I penned this that I was in fact laying the groundwork for this very post? That blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to this game was none other than a deliberate mention to plant the thought into my brother’s mind that “Hey, that’d be a good gift to get him for Christmas!” This game was never that great, but it has a lot of nostalgia factor, and I’d like to give it a whirl again one day. Now before you say it, I’ll quote my prestigious friend Florence ‘The Bear’ L: “Emulation, shmemulation!” She knows, as I do, that emulation is for fakers, and I must play the original C64 version. This introduces a… wrinkle into the equation though, for even if my bellowing brother Bernard ‘The Brave’ S gets me this game he’s going to have to get me something to play it on. It’s good thing therefore that this list also contains…

Commodore SX-64 (1984)

Let’s for a moment consider that there even exists a world in which my brother find a US version of one of these portable C64’s in working order and for sale. That alone would be surprising, given the fact they are 30 years old and contain circuitry that has almost certainly worn out after so long (not to mention the screens are infamous for burn-in). But if that happens, we must also consider the chance he would somehow manage to acquire it and not keep it for himself. I would imagine that chance to be miniscule, especially since in good working order this would cost more than that LED Mirage kit mentioned above. These reasons are why this would (no doubt) be a truly heartfelt and appreciated gift. Doubly so when he sends me hundreds of games with it 🙂

Gold Cliff (1988)

Last year I asked for the Zelda Game & Watch, but Santa ignored me. This year I’ll scale down my desire slightly to the even rarer penultimate dual-screen release: Gold Cliff. I saw one of these boxed, in Japan, for almost a thousand dollars. Naturally I’d want a boxed version, so it’s a good thing my brother made that quip about money not being a problem isn’t it? 😉

Miscellaneous Section

Now I’m no fool. I fully realize some of the above are hard to find. And therefore I’ll finish with a brief list of other items that would be wonderful to find under the tree. This list may not contain as much detail as the above, but I can’t do all the work for you now can I?

– t-shirts (large size, preferably with Ultraman on them)
– 4711 soap
– Any other FSS model kit
– A Stonehenge papercraft model kit
– “How to Master The Video Games” (sadly stolen in the same heist that nabbed the Dark Crystal book…)
– Any game & watch that isn’t ‘Turtle Bridge’, ‘Donkey Kong Jr’ or ‘Ball’
– trading cards, preferably sealed packs (of anything non-sport)
– Anything on old lists I don’t have yet (esp. the John Pertwee album of bawdy songs!)

And there we go! Happy hunting 🙂

Posted in Blog, Books & Comics, Family, Gamebooks, Games, Miscellaneous, Movies, MTG, Otaku, Tech, The Unknown, Time, Toys, TV | 2 Comments »

Khans of Tarkir Prerelease Report

Sunday, September 21st, 2014

I went to another Magic prerelease yesterday, for the new set Khans of Tarkir. I don’t think I’ve ever gone into one of these less prepared: I didn’t even know the correct name of the set until 3 days before, when I signed up. I had no idea what cards were in it, or what sort of deck I would play!

Only 24 players turned up, which is the lowest I’ve seen at a prerelease in some time. The veterans (am I one?) explained to me that interest in the set seems low compared to previous blocks, and that there wasn’t a high number of ‘money cards’ available. I didn’t care about any of this; I just liked the smaller number of players translating into a higher win chance. As it turned out the event would be five rounds with no playoff, and prizes would be awarded to the top 8. An approximately 1/3rd chance of winning gave me a bit of hope!

I soon learned KoT was a multicoloured set, with five different clans each of three colours. We were all able to choose a box specific to a single clan, which included 5 boosters, a special pack containing cards of only the colours of the clan and other goodies (a pin, sticker, die etc.). I chose the white/black/green clan called Abzan. My choice was based on a few factors:
1) No one had chosen it when it was my turn
2) I didn’t want to play blue
3) I did want to play white

As it turns out I got a middling bunch of cards, with few rares on-colour. I assembled a 40 card white/black deck that contained only the following two rares:

My first opponent was only 9 years old. He was one of a sizeable crowd of very young players who all seemed to know each other and were factioned by their parents. I’d say about a third of the players in total were about his age. I beat him with ease (2-0), which was unsurprising since his deck was terrible and he (clearly a beginner) was overly protective of his monsters. After the win, I spent the rest of the first round helping him improve his deck and going over a few tips that would hopefully help him do better in the following rounds.

While I was pleased with the win, since my opponent had been almost no challenge I still had no idea if my deck was any good!

I beat my next two opponents 2-0 as well. I was starting to realise my deck, while lacking in ‘bombs’, was focused enough to win more often than lose. In particular, I had 7 removal spells and 7 flyers, and two of them (the rares above) were good enough that if I got them off I almost always won. Despite playing Abzan I had almost zero ‘outlast’ cards (one of the new mechanics of the set) and of course no green. It was a weird deck.

After the third round I was in the top 4! In fact there were only 4 people undefeated at that point and I was matched against one of them in round four. To my amusement he played a deck very similar to mine but better in every way, and beat me handily. Although to be honest he was an extremely skilled player and simply outplayed me, and I feel he may have won even had we swapped decks. Afterwards he told me stories of pro-tours he had played in, showed me some extremely rare cards in his collection (prize cards for winning tournaments mostly) and even this striking alter:

He would end up winning the tournament, and he deserved it!

So after four rounds I was 3-1. In my last round I was pitted against the only other guy at 3-1 and beat him handily. I had played only ten games in the tourney, and won 8 of them. My only defeats were to the overall winner! This put me in third place overall, for which I obtained a prize of six boosters. Hooray! I also won a deck box as a door prize. It was a good haul 🙂

While I enjoyed playing, and was happy for the win, I have to say I can understand the (apparent) lack of enthusiasm for the set as a whole. The cards are complex, interactions are common and this is far from a beginners set. Games tended to be long and involved, and as a player it was often irritating not being able to predict the board even as far away as your opponents turn. I’m not sure I’d want to play in a limited environment with these cards.

Posted in Games, Miscellaneous, MTG | 1 Comment »

Magic 2015

Saturday, July 12th, 2014

Today, for the first time in about 18 months, I went to a Magic prerelease event. It was for the new core set, Magic 2015.

I was surprised to see that turnout was relatively low compared to the last event I attended: only 22 people turned up. I was the oldest in the room, and there were no familiar faces from the events I attended a couple of years back. I also seemed like the only person that was there on my own…

We had to choose a colour and were given a box with a booster of that colour (including a promo) as well as five more boosters and a few other goodies. Here is the box contents:

I chose white but amusingly ended up with more red and blue cards than white. I stubbornly committed to white anyway, and out together a 40 card white/black deck containing:
– 14 creatures (11 white, 3 black, 2 artifact)
– 10 spells (8 white enchantments, 2 black removal)
– 16 lands (9 white, 2 black)

I didn’t have a lot of confidence in the deck, but had a “what the hell” attitude and went with it.

My expectations were realized as I faced my first two opponents, both of which utterly defeated me 0-2. My deck seemed very weak, particularly against evasion, and my ‘bombs’ were hiding in the bottom. After 2 rounds, I was dead last of 22 players!

But then things started to look up, mostly because these three finally made an appearance:

My third opponent (a sweet girl who’d only been playing a few months) was destroyed by the mythic creature above, and I ended up handily beating her 2-0. It seems my luck had turned, since I then easily defeated opponents 4 and 5 2-0 as well. Every time I cast Soul of New Phyrexia I won the game. That ‘make permanents indestructible’ ability is crazy!

After five rounds I had 9 points total, but missed out on top 8 (and therefore a prize) by a mere point. Not a bad showing considering how badly i lost the first two rounds!

Magic 2015 seems like a fun set, and it was fun to see the cards interact. However I left with mixed feelings about the event itself. It was fun to make the deck and see how it turned out, but the truth is I don’t have as much fun at the prereleases as I used to back when I went with SFL. For me, magic is more fun when you’re playing with friends, and it may be a while before I attend another prerelease.

Posted in Games, MTG, Otaku | 2 Comments »

Oh, Oh, Oh It’s Magic!

Sunday, May 4th, 2014

It’s been a while since an MTG post, so it’s time to give my reviews of two recent releases.

The first is Commander 2013, which was released back in November of last year:

This product remains a bit controversial since one of the five decks (Mind Sieze) was – and remains – much more difficult to find than the other four. Despite herculean attempts I never saw it in any store myself, and ended up paying probably too much to get it at a convention. Wizards would eventually reprint the series with a disproportionate amount of Mind Sieze decks and yet it still remains hard to find. This is all (as is usually the case in these products) due to one single card in this deck only being in great demand for players of legacy MTG. This is the card:

Dedicated MTG players buy four copies of the Mind Sieze deck just to get four copies of this card for their decks, making it much harder to find for everyone 🙂

At any rate I eventually got all four, and over several weeks played 20 games in total, matching each deck against the others. Here’s the score breakdown:

Evasive Maneuvers (W/U/G): 3 wins, 1 loss
Eternal Bargain (W/U/B): 3 wins, 1 loss
Power Hungry (B/R/G): 3 wins, 1 loss
Nature Of The Beast (W/R/G): 1 win, 3 losses
Mind Sieze (U/B/R): 0 wins, 4 losses

In essence, it was a tie since EM beat EB beat PH beat EM! Three of the decks seem well matched with the other two being poor competition. Mind Sieze in particular failed to deliver, but my feeling playing it was that it was much better suited to multi play than 1 vs 1 (as is natural for a Commander deck).

In terms of individual decks, I like Eternal Bargain the most. The commander in particular is fun to play, and makes me want to build a lifegain deck around him (shame he isn’t W/G/B instead though). Most of the time, this deck won a game with massive amounts of health remaining.

I’ll soon split the decks up picking out individual cards for self-designed decks and absorbing them into my larger collection. At $30 each for 100 cards, these are well worth it and every bit as good as the first commander series in my opinion.

The second new product I have recently played is the new duel deck: Jace vs Vraska

I really enjoyed the last duel deck, and thought they were the best matched yet in the series. Sadly, this one takes a step back in playability.

Of the five games I played, Jace won all five and usually won them quite handily. His mono-blue deck is a weird mix of cards, dipping its fingers in many pots (illusions, counters, mill) without seeming to commit to any. It takes only a moment to look at the decklist and theorize ways to improve it, and yet ill-focused as it is it had no trouble shutting down Vraska in every game. Her deck has a green/black removal focus, with most spells and creatures dedicated to killing other creatures or removing life. While on paper her deck seems more cohesive than Jaces (and therefore I assumed it would win more often), in practice – at least in the five games I played – it was always just a bit too slow to get the upper hand. Jace’s illusions in particular were extremely effective once on the board, and one thing I took away from this duel deck was the potential of an all-illusion deck.

So a shutout in terms of gameplay, with Jace winning every time. Even with his (new) bad art, he’s still a badass 😉

Posted in Games, MTG, Otaku | 1 Comment »

Heroes vs Monsters review

Monday, September 16th, 2013

Last week I got the latest Magic duel deck, called Heroes vs Monsters:

According to what I read online, duel decks not based around Planeswalkers don’t sell as well, so this one needs to get by on strong deck design and perhaps the fact that it contains preview cards for the upcoming Theros set like this one:

My experience is that this set nails the design, and the two decks are better matched than in any other duel deck I have played. In fact, in 6 games played, the scores were evenly matched with 3 wins apiece.

The first of the two decks is mostly white with a splash of red. It is heavy on creatures, with a slight enchantment theme. As with most duel decks, some of the included cards are not what I would choose, and were I to tweak the deck I would start by making more of the creatures below 3 CMC to better enable the Sun Titan that is one of the big-hitters of the deck.

The second deck is a red/green big creature based deck with a token theme. The hydra up top is one of the biggest (and best) cards in the set, but victory with this deck was often too fast for such a card to be relevant.

In the many games I played the pattern seemed to be if red/green didn’t win in the first 5-8 turns, then white/red would be the victor. In all six games I only cast the hydra once (and immediately shut it down with Bonds of Faith) and never cast Sun Titan. Red/green often won on the backs of such cards as Blood Ogre and Volt Charge, and white/red via cards such as Freewind Equenaut and Bonds of Faith (which I always cast on an opponents non-human creature).

I very much enjoyed playing these two decks. As with others, they help give an appreciation for cards I may otherwise have overlooked. In addition, there are some very good cards in here ‘for the collection’. I think overall the product may have benefitted from slightly slower decks (or at least a longer mana curve for each) but overall this product gets two thumbs up 🙂

Posted in Games, MTG, Otaku | Comments Closed

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