Robot Claw

Troll Pop

June 16th, 2020

This is a troll:

They’re toys that have been around for decades and are beloved by almost everyone especially my brother. While he’s never actually said anything about them, I know he adores troll toys.

Something else he loves is the K-Pop band Red Velvet, shown here:

You can imagine how excited he must have been when he heard that these two things he loved had combined into one! Yes my friends, Red Velvet were ‘in’ the recent Trolls film:

I don’t doubt Bernard threw caution to the wind and ran to the cinema to see this film but since I loathe trolls and am ambivalent toward Red Velvet I barely gave the movie a thought. However a particular piece of licensing did catch my eye, and that was these Oreos:

Green-cream Oreos with glitter and popping candy?!? This is what it means to live in the 21st century!

So many cookies with delicious sugary cream. Don’t you just want to try one? You can even enjoy them in four different designs:

What are they like? In a word: heavenly. The slightly chemical taste of the cream is completely overridden by the astonishing experience of the poprocks and the thought that even though it’s not visible you’re eating glitter as well:

During lockdown I religiously bought a pack of these every two weeks and we wolfed them down like starving beasts. Alas they are now gone from our stores, another victim of corona. They’ll never be forgotten.

If you happen to find a pack on shelves in your area don’t hesitate to buy them. These are by a very wide margin the best Oreos ever, and highly recommended 🙂

Posted in Family, Food, Movies, Music | 2 Comments »

Cannon Bull

June 13th, 2020

I bought the above in Japan in January. I vacillated on the purchase since luggage space was tight but I decided in the end to make it fit.

It’s a ZOID! But not a plastic model version; this is a toy version. You still assemble it, but it’s much easier and the pieces aren’t on runners. I’ve done one like this before, but they still make and sell new ones and this one seemed to be a new release.

Assembly was trivial, but I was surprised to see (since I apparently didn’t bother looking closely at the packaging) that it has a battery powered motor in it! I selected this kit for its appearance though, and think it looks quite nifty.

That’s the finished product. According to the ZOIDs wiki this is a medium sized ‘buffalo type’ weapons platform that has a mass of 50.4 tonnes and carries a 9-barreled missile pod for long range attacks!

And there he is attacking! He moves at a good clip and the barrels of his missile launchers click as they ‘fire’.

A fun little toy. Next time I’m in Japan I’ll be picking myself up another one of these I reckon…

Posted in Animals, Crafts, Miscellaneous, Models, Otaku, Toys | Comments Closed

Dice Dice Baby

June 11th, 2020

Around 1983, I got my first Dungeons & Dragons set. Inside, along with the rule books, were these six dice:

They have 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 20 sides, and all are used when playing D&D. Yes these are my exact dice: although the rule books are long gone I kept the dice and they eventually made their way to me here in the US (thanks B!). The dice weren’t inked and came with a crayon used to fill the depressions and make the numbers more visible. You can still see nearly 40-year-old crayon in my dice:

Interestingly the particular D&D set I got (the famous ‘Red Box’) was packaged with dice of many different colors so it’s not unusual that my 6-sided is a different color from the others. Some sets even came with pre-inked dice or (as a result of shortages) a coupon to send away for dice. I feel sorry for the kids that bought the box set and had to wait weeks for dice so they could play!

I recently learned that these original dice are somewhat collectible now, and although inferior to modern equivalents could fetch $50 or more online. I’ll never sell mine of course; they’re one of the oldest of my original possessions I still own.

Speaking of modern dice, here’s a set:

These are solid metal, precision made and (apparently) balanced to be truly random. I also suspect they could damage a hard surface (look at the sharp corners) so you’ll want a dice mat if you’re going to use ones like these. I bought these after buying AW a set for Xmas and thinking they were quite nifty. Since he actually plays D&D I assume he’ll use his more than I will mine 🙂

The last die in I’ll share today is this weird example:

It’s a 100-sided die! This is designed for rolling percentage values but is very impractical since it’s so spherical it takes forever to stop. I did some distribution tests a few months back and found the results to be comparable to the Excel random number generator and random numbers as given to me by about 50 of my students, so I assume this is a mostly random tool.

In the mid 1980s an inventor patented a unique type of 100-sided die with an internal braking mechanism he called the Zocchihedron. You can still buy them today but they’re quite expensive so I went with this cheaper, solid example. My guess is if you really have a use for a 100-sided die go for the patented one and save yourself time on every roll 🙂

Do you need any dice rolled? Leave a comment and tell me which one and I’ll tell you what you got…

Posted in Games, History, Miscellaneous, Otaku, Toys | Comments Closed

Eats A Pizza

June 5th, 2020

Time for some more lockdown cooking! I’m guessing most of you tried the meat boats and loved them so now you can follow up with my new creation: The Golden Slice

Start with a pizza base. You can make it yourself or buy one, but make sure it’s not too big, not crispy and not too thick. I use small Boboli brand bases, about my handspan in diameter. Even that’s too big though, so I cut them in half!

Next cover it with a tiny amount of pizza sauce. You’ll want the blandest sauce you can find (no garlic or herbs!) and you want to put so little on that you can barely taste it in the finished product. In other words, just a misting of sauce: I probably put a bit too much on in the above photo.

Next lightly sprinkle it with cheese. I use a packaged ‘pizza blend’, but you can adapt to your taste. As with the sauce less is more: you’ll want to have maybe a 75% density, single layer of cheese.

The ‘magic ingredient’ is Canadian bacon! This is a rare type of ‘bacon’ that is (secretly) ham from Canada. It’s probably unique to where we live since we’re so close to Canada so if you can’t find it you can just use normal ham. Whatever you use, cut it into tiny bits.

The second ‘magic ingredient’ is crushed (not sliced) pineapple! Delicately arrange it on the cheese so it’s more or less uniform. Again less is more, but don’t worry too much about going overboard since fruit is good for you.

After the pineapple you put the Canadian bacon on, again trying for uniform coverage. There’s a lot of fine tuning in this last step: you want it to look as delicious as it will taste! The above shot is the finished product…

And here it is after 9 minutes at 450 F. Doesn’t it look fantastic?! Here’s a better shot with a food filter:

So original! So golden! So scrumptious! I think this may be my culinary masterpiece, even surpassing my spaghetti!

Why not try it yourself and let me know how it turns out 🙂

Posted in Miscellaneous | Comments Closed

Turn Off The Dark?

June 3rd, 2020

I think there’s a good chance we won’t go to the cinema at all this year, and if so that will probably be the first time this has happened since before I can remember.

Due to coronavirus our cinemas are closed and won’t be opening any time soon. Even were they to open there’s no movies of note being released for a few more months. And now we’re hearing that America (and the world’s) largest chain is bleeding cash and says there’s significant doubt it can remain in business.

Could the age-old experience of ‘going to the movies’ be another of the countless victims of coronavirus?

I always loved going to the cinema. Every time was an event as a child, and once I started earning my own (paper run) money a good deal of it went into seeing movies. In high school a girl I knew worked at Tower Cinemas and gave me free tickets which meant that one year (1988?) I saw almost every movie released. And then when the cinema opened in Charlestown within walking distance of our house (with a massive arcade next door!) I went and saw everything they screened that I was remotely interested in. Good times; good memories.

Kristin and I have seen countless movies at cinemas over the years, but in the last 5-10 years our frequency had notably decreased as we discovered and grew to love the drive in. Now we only go to see big ‘event’ films at cinemas – which seem to be only Star Wars or Marvel films these days.

Many films I once would have gone and seen at the cinema without hesitation now wait until we can stream them or buy on DVD (yes I still buy DVDs). It’s often more comfortable watching at home anyway: we have a massive TV, comfy recliners, cats in our laps and we don’t have to worry about the now-too-common sight of someone using a cellphone during the film!

The romance and attraction of the cinema seems to be generational as well: my students rarely go and seem quite content to watch new releases online. If cinemas close forever, maybe they’ll be missed only as much as the average person misses CDs?

Of course there’s still the drive-in, which I consider quite different from going to the cinema. Ours is open right now, but it’s showing older films that are already available streaming and the list of rules and restrictions is daunting enough that we haven’t seriously considered going. But in the months ahead if studios release some of the event films we may see them at the drive-in, assuming it remains open.

Unlike other corona effects – the lack of travel in particular – a ‘gap year’ (or two…) away from cinemas doesn’t particularly bother me. And even though I don’t wan’t cinemas to close completely, I don’t think I’ll be too bothered if they do.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Movies | 1 Comment »