Time for yet another Lego kit! This one was a birthday gift, and I built it over several days this past week.
Here’s the content of the box:
You can tell how big the finished product is from the size of the tire.
The kit contains numerous intricate gear systems connected to several different moving parts. Of particular note are the actuators used to raise and lower both digging arms:
It’s a complex build that took many hours over three days. It was particularly interesting seeing all the gears and systems piecing together in seemingly random order:
Luckily I had assistance for most of the build…
Here’s the finished product:
Everything about this set was fun. If you like Lego technic at all, this set is highly recommended.
Once again, this kit was a gift from my brother. I have the same high praise for the design, the instructions and the quality of the pieces. Even better: this guy was easier to assemble than the mantis!
While there were many pieces, some of which required bending, everything went together with ease.
Doesn’t he look like a water scorpion without his tail?
He took me about an hour to assemble, using just the tool in the box and (once only) a pair of tweezers. Here he is complete:
And here’s the fated battle that everyone knew would happen one day…
Well now this is interesting. The latest iteration of Wizards annual Magic The Gathering (computer games) Duel Of The Planeswalkers was recently released and in addition to the old formats (PC, PS3, XBOX) it also came out for the iPad. I’d bought and enjoyed the previous versions on the PS3, but couldn’t resist going for the iPad version this time around. And, after playing for a couple of hours, I’m glad I did!
The game follows the same format as previous iterations: you use premade decks to defeat a variety of opponents in various game modes (including, new to this version, Planechase). As you win you unlock additional cards you can add to the various decks, so some deck building is included. There are a lot of decks and opponents, and it would take a very long time to unlock all the available cards.
Gameplay is intuitive, smooth and faster than it used to be on the PS3. This is a significant upside, since it was the one issue that used to bug me. Importantly, the ability to control the game using touch and swipes is natural and makes me feel more like I’m actually playing with the cards. In other words this is the best version of Duel of the Planeswalkers yet, but playing it on an iPad makes the experience even better.
The graphics are very, very nice! The screenshots in this blog have been scaled down from the actual resolution, but everything is in high resolution with nifty effects and great looking art. The game includes cards from all legal sets up to 2013, which means you’ll be using cards that haven’t been released yet (like the guy in the shot above).
Buying the game – which costs US$9.99 – also gives you a code that can be redeemed at a game store for a promotional booster pack that apparently contains a mythic rare. This is nice
Suffice to say I’m very pleased with the game so far. $10 may seem like a lot to pay for an iPad game, but for me this is a no brainer if you like magic. If you’re not sure, the download is actually free and you can demo the game before having to shell out for the full unlock.
Over the years both VFD games and Game & Watches have featured several times on this blog. I have a nostalgic fascination for both types of handheld game since both were an important element of my early gaming years.
Since I have often joked about BS seeking out and buying me a VFD game, and have many times bored KLS with stories of long-lost Game & Watches, you can imagine my surprise – no, astonishment – when on a recent trip to Rochester, a long-forgotten box of stuff from KLS’s childhood was unearthed and yielded one of each. And now I proudly present the latest two additions to my collection of Legendary Items:
Caveman
As found, the game was dirty (even a bit sticky) and hadn’t been used in aeons. This is the 1983 Tandy version of a game manufactured by Tomy Japan in 1982, and was amongst the first wave of VFD games ever made (this predated Scramble). Over the years I’ve read quite a bit about these things (I even have a book on handhelds…) and knowing that the VFD displays are unreliable I had great concern that this guy wouldn’t work. So I started by cleaning it:
Then plugging in a 6V AC power supply. No luck – nothing happened. Unlike seemingly everything manufactured these days, these games use ‘C’ batteries, and we had none in the house. So a trip to the store later, I trepidatously put the batteries in and…
It worked!
The display, sound, controls. Everything works perfectly. I was elated!
This game seems to be quite rare today, possibly for reasons stated above. A brief search online found virtually none for sale, with the exception of one boxed example on ebay for $150. I’m going to treasure mine
Mario’s Cement Factory
Of the two, this one gave me the biggest start when I saw it. Nintendo manufactured 59 different Game & Watch games between 1980 and 1990 and four of them were also made in a special colour ‘tabletop’ model. Only two of those four were ever sold outside of Japan, and Mario’s Cement Factory was the rarest of the two. It’s always been floating around somewhere in my brain as an ‘item I’d love to have’ because many, many years ago I saw a few of these being sold at clearance at a K-Mart in Australia and I never bought one (shades of the story behind this, wouldn’t you say?).
At any rate I now had my own Mario’s Cement Factory! But it was very dirty, especially the screen and the LCD panel. But I had high hopes for this guy, since the solid-state technology in Game & Watches is very robust (they can survive going through washing machines, for instance) and the mirror and panels in this example were intact. So once again, I sat down and gave it a careful and thorough cleaning!
The technology is simple but clever. You play by looking at the reflection in a mirror of an LCD mounted (in reverse) just under the white transparent plastic panel on the top. Light passes through this panel (and through the LCD) and is reflected off the mirror. Images are formed via the LCD blocking light and a plastic coloured film which makes the LCD itself appear coloured. Back in 1983 when this game out the technology seemed magical, since every other Game & Watch was black and white. Even today it is a very impressive bit of trickery created by Nintendo many years before actual colour LCDs became a reality.
Oh, and it works! Here’s a shot of the full LCD panel after I put the batteries in:
Click on it and have a look at it in high resolution. You can see the ‘bleeding’ of the colour at the edges of the film, which would be due mostly to optical (refractive) events. They are tiny enough to not be visible when solid lines separate the elements (such as the concrete tanks) but easily visible on the Mario ‘sprites’. I wonder if the 11-year-old me would have noticed this if I got this back in 1983?
Here’s a video of the gameplay:
And a photo:
This is a real treasure! It cleaned up beautifully, is in near-mint condition, and works perfectly. It will occupy a place of great pride in my collection! Since I knew these were pretty rare (one source I checked estimated only about 30k were made for export) I checked the prices online. I couldn’t find any boxed examples, but there are a few on ebay that seem to be in worse shape than mine going for $130+. The Game & Watch name really helps, but it’s amazing how these things have gained value isn’t it?
I feel as if I have out-legendaried any other possible additions to my collection in obtaining these two. Could this be the last ever ‘legendary item’ post? Time will tell
About 6 months ago I posted about iOS game Book Of Heroes (search for and read the post if you forget). The game is great, and free, and a few significant changes have occurred since my last post.
Firstly, an Android version has been released. This means if you’re one of those people you can still play!
Secondly, guilds have been added to the game! I’ve created one, but I need members.
So – and I am serious here – I’d like each of you to download the game, create a character, and join my guild. I’m quite sure most of you reading this would enjoy the game, and since it’s free why not give it a try?
Once you’re online, add me as a friend by going to the inn and entering my friend code: 962061411
And when you get to level 4, apply to join my guild, which is called Atomic. Once we have 10 members, we can start raiding
