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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 »

Liger Zero!

Tuesday, July 8th, 2014

Over a month ago, I started building this:

It’s my first ‘ZOIDS’ model kit, and was easily the most expensive kit I have ever bought. I knew getting into it that this was no toy, and that assembly may prove challenging, but then I’ve made challenging kits before and looked forward to it.

Here’s what the contents looked like before I started putting it together:

That’s a lot of pieces! In total there were 28 sprues in 6 colours. Much like the advanced Gundam kits, some of the plastic was flexible (mostly used for joints) and the kit is designed to be assembled without glue. There are 13 pages of instructions with 77 unique steps, and the kit is assembled in 4 distinct sections (head, body, legs, tail).

I started with the head and immediately noted a problem: the instructions are printed quite small. My eyesight is changing, and I’m finding I don’t need my glasses anymore for near vision. However I’m stubborn and don’t want to take them off so I struggled with working on this since I found it quickly hurt my eyes. (Many of you now I know are saying “Why didn’t he just remove his glasses???“)

So construction was completed in many steps of perhaps 2 hours each, spread over an entire month. It was challenging, but a lot of fun.

First to be completed was the head:

The complexity of this kit is staggering. The head alone has 38 pieces in it, and 5 points of articulation. The mouth and cockpit open, and the jets on the side and frill on the top can be positioned. By the time I had finished this piece it was clear I was building a kit with an incredible level of detail.

The two tools you see above were indispensable. The cutters to remove pieces from the plastic, and the file to smooth them down. Such is the precision in this kit that even submillimeter bumps are significant. If you make a Zoid, be sure to have the right tools.

For a month or so my work table looked like this:

You can see by the above point I had also finished the body:

That’s not a rigid piece. It can bend and elongate, and all the joints are articulated as well. Many dozens of pieces went into it, including the smallest one in the entire kit:

That’s just absurd!

The legs took the most time of all the sections:

Each leg contains a whopping 78 pieces! They are even more articulated than the rest of the kit and there are significant differences between the front and rear legs. Compared to all this the tail was simple, and then it was time to put it all together:

Or, in a rather more dramatic pose:

Looks great doesn’t he? The finished kit is about 20 cm long and stands 12 cm at the shoulder. According to the instructions, the actual Liger Zero is a mighty 84 meters in length and weighs 85 tonnes!

Such is the engineering of this model that painting is hardly required, and in fact the instructions seem to mention it only as an afterthought (they give the paint codes for the plastic used, rather than show a repainted version). However the armor is detachable and Kotobukiya actually sells (not inexpensive!) armor upgrade kits if you want to convert your Liger Zero into Liger Zero Panzer (green, with a back-mounted cannon) or other variants. Fascinating.

My next kit will be another Musha Gundam that I purchased in Japan last year. It will be another time consuming and precise build that may wait until next Summer. After that, who knows?

Posted in Miscellaneous, Otaku, Toys | 2 Comments »

More Of The Same

Tuesday, July 1st, 2014

Yeah yeah, so I like trading cards. Old ones. Very old ones. Like these:

These cards came out in 1990 with the film. I paid $0.25 for this pack (and every other pack seen here today) at a local con a few weeks back. I don’t remember much about this film, but I do remember my brother saying “Woah that was tubular!” after we saw it so he must have loved it! Share the memories:

As a movie card set from that era it of course contained a piece of gum, which I had to try:

Let’s just say it hadn’t aged well 🙂

The next cards are from 1991:

Even thought BBC America plays this movie at least twice a day, and even though I’ve seen it many many times and even thought I know the lyrics for the Bryan Adams theme song by heart I’m going to pretend I know nothing at all about this film except what I’ve learned from the cards in this pack which means it must have been some sort of Christian Slater vehicle:

Let’s move on a couple of years to a beloved sequel:

Ah, the beloved Free Willy 2. Who can forget how moved we were when we saw this masterpiece of cellulose? As Bernard frequently says “Would have been the best film of ’95 if it wasn’t for Johnny Mnemonic!” But what about the card set?

Rubbish! Dreadful! Even at $0.05/card I feel ripped off. I pity the suckers who bought these 19 years ago for full price 🙂

And then we get to an unlikely card set: Young Indiana Jones trading cards (from 1993). The only comment I’ll make about the bulk of the cards in the pack I opened was that they would have been more useful had they been printed on tissue and therefore usable as toilet paper. However…the pack included this gem:

Yes my friends, 3D! See for yourself by squinting at this clever stereoscope I assembled using forbidden technology:

Lots of trash in this post so far, but as I often do I saved the best for last. So here we go:

Omg! Even now I can remember my brothers words as we exited the cinema back in ’83! He said “Those scenes of Richard Pryor using the computer were so cool! I’m going to become a programmer.” And thus the legend was born. Again, share some memories:

Some of those cards are just iconic now. Look at the sticker in the bottom right!! Surely that’s the best sticker ever made???

And what of the gum in this pack, which had matured for no less than 31 years. Is there anyone with nerves of steel enough to eat it?

Let’s just say it was hard to keep it on my tongue for the one second it took to take the photo 🙂

Posted in Art, Movies, Otaku, Time | 1 Comment »

The Tale of Mycroft and Stocking

Wednesday, June 25th, 2014

Have you heard of Avalon Island? If not, then you’re missing out because a diverse group of citizens is really making it an interesting place to live.

That’s the latest census shot. Take a close look at the front row. There are some familiar faces there! There’s a dude that looks like me, a girl that looks like KLS, and people that look like Adam, Bernard and Florence. Very weird place, Avalon is. You’ll also note a diverse range of other citizens including Einstein, David Bowie, Ali G and even Admiral Ackbar. What an island!!

The islanders have many talents, and I’m particularly interested in their musical abilities. It didn’t take long for instance for Florry and Severus Snape (who must have moved here from Hogwarts) to form a band and start recording techno music. I present the first single by ‘Dark Artists’ named Operation Robodachi:

Now that’s talent! And not only can Florry sing, but she’s also a yoga savant!

But let’s get to the matter at hand, which is a chronologue of a recent ultra-dramatic event that occured on Avalon.

Meet Stocking (of Panty & Stocking fame), here shown in one of her daily jobs as a newsreader:

Cute isn’t she? Anyway she came to me and said she had a mad crush on Mycroft (the guy that looks like Adam). I was not surprised by this, since I had already seen the latest poll of all the girls on the island:

Woah, there’s something about those top three guys that just get the female hearts fluttering! I wonder what it could be?

Anyway, I told Stocking to go for it. “Be cute”, I said, “and confess to Mycroft on the beach!”. And she did…

He was silent for a moment… and then he said…

OMG!!! He spurned her! Or, in her own words:

Poor stocking.

So what happened? Why was such a cute girl rejected by the islands most eligible bachelor? Well the answer is quite simply really. Mycroft has no time for love, since he has sold his soul to rock-and-roll. Behold, the debut single of the new Avalon metal trio The Three Kings:

OMG what talent! Could pop princess Florry have competition for the Avalon charts? And what does she think of the Mycroft x Stocking drama? When asked, her only response was:

Posted in Art, Games, Miscellaneous, Music, Otaku | 1 Comment »

Pinball Wizards

Monday, June 9th, 2014

A few years back we visited the video game exhibit at the Strong museum here in Rochester. Last year they added a large pinball collection to the museum, and many are on display and playable. This morning we went to check it out.

That’s a crazy Atari pinball from 1979 that uses actual pool balls for balls. It was very noisy! This was just one of dozens of pinballs on display, all of which we played.

The games were arranged chronologically, from very early mechanical games all the way up to a Star Trek game from last year. They also had a display of historical documents and prototype pieces.

It’s very cool, and the games are still fun to play. Highly recommended.

Needless to say we also had to visit the arcade in which arcade games from the museum collection are playable. Right now they have a seasonal display showcasing some very rare machines.